Messing with People

For this post to make sense, you have to know that I share very little personal information with my students. I'm willing to chat about movies, TV, books, or whatever, but they don't know my son has Down Syndrome, they don't know I'm Mormon (well, most of them don't), and they don't know about my struggles on the job market. I don't think any of that is their business. We're friendly with each other, but they aren't my friends, and I'm not theirs. That's what makes this story fun.

Yesterday, my students asked how my Thanksgiving break had gone. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I said, "Well, my wife asked for a divorce, so what do you think?" The look of shock and horror on their faces was priceless. I love to mess with people (I enjoy asking people, "Are you calling me fat?" to see their reaction), and this was a good one. After about five seconds of totally hilarious awkwardness, I told them the truth. "I'm messing with you. I had a great weekend." Their sighs of relief were audible across the room.

For the record--my marital bliss has seldom been higher. I love my wife, and I love my children. But I couldn't resist making the joke.

New Goal

I'm going to post every day. It might just be a funny picture or video, but I'll put something up every day for a while. It helps get the creative juices going.

Turtar Is Back!

OK, I know what you're thinking: why haven't you posted in over a year and a half Turtar? Well, I've been busy. That's why. Now I'm back. I think the key to all of this is that I realized that I don't really have that much to share with you. Especially since "you" is "no one," because I'm pretty sure no one reads my blog. That's fine. I've got a plan to win new followers. Well, it's not really a plan so much as the fact that I'm going to start writing again. I have a book to get written, and sometimes it helps me to write completely random thoughts in this space. Then my academic writing comes more naturally.

All I have to tell you right now is that yesterday Plainbellied said something funny. We were listening to Christmas music on the way to church, and Ella Fitzgerald started to sing "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Plainbellied said, "I have a problem with that song. Why does the song begin by asking if we've heard the story of Rudolph with the words 'do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?' If he's so famous, why do they have to ask us that?" So it put me on a quest to find out if the song introduced the legend of Rudolph, or if the story pre-dated the song. It turns out that the story of Rudolph was created for Montgomery Ward department stores in 1939 as part of an advertising campaign. The song was recorded in 1949. So there you have it: Rudolph is a fake.

I could tell you other funny things Plainbellied said in the conversation, but then I'd have to shoot you in the face.