TYPO
Last night I was TYPO'd by four of my students: with cash in their pockets from the Dean, students can Take (Your) Professor Out to dinner at a limited number of dining establishments close to campus. They are alloted $14 a head, no tipping over 15%.
Dining with four 21-year-old students at Panda East was a casual but raucous affair. They would not let me speak in Spanish -- this was decided before I arrived -- and they at times seemed to forget that I was there, spinning tales about stealing mascots and boozing it up with other faculty. Alternately, they were on their best behavior, asking me why I decided to become a Spanish professor and about my dissertation, and offering their thoughts on Brazilian movies and the experiences of studying abroad.
I learned many things: "baller" is apparently a new term for "cool" (as in 'That Prof. so-and-so is a real baller; he took his students to a bar at 2 in the afternoon!"); Smith and Mt. Holyoke girls are really smart, and being the only guy in a 40-woman course on Sexual Revolutions is tricky; one of my colleagues wrote a "spicy" autobiography, while another dated Bill Clinton (and also wrote a spicy autobiography); and don't count on undergrads to budget enough for a tip when they take you out for dinner.
Still, despite having to kick in $10, it was really sweet of them, and I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, it will be an investment in my future cult of personality on campus.
Professor SJB: a baller, too?
Dining with four 21-year-old students at Panda East was a casual but raucous affair. They would not let me speak in Spanish -- this was decided before I arrived -- and they at times seemed to forget that I was there, spinning tales about stealing mascots and boozing it up with other faculty. Alternately, they were on their best behavior, asking me why I decided to become a Spanish professor and about my dissertation, and offering their thoughts on Brazilian movies and the experiences of studying abroad.
I learned many things: "baller" is apparently a new term for "cool" (as in 'That Prof. so-and-so is a real baller; he took his students to a bar at 2 in the afternoon!"); Smith and Mt. Holyoke girls are really smart, and being the only guy in a 40-woman course on Sexual Revolutions is tricky; one of my colleagues wrote a "spicy" autobiography, while another dated Bill Clinton (and also wrote a spicy autobiography); and don't count on undergrads to budget enough for a tip when they take you out for dinner.
Still, despite having to kick in $10, it was really sweet of them, and I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, it will be an investment in my future cult of personality on campus.
Professor SJB: a baller, too?
Labels: Profa
posted by SJB at 6:29 PM
8 Comments:
That's so cool that your students picked you to take out! I wanted to point out that baller is most definitely not a new term (been around for years), but more importantly that it is more nuanced than "cool". I'm guessing the idea is that that profe was a baller because he took them out and paid for their drinks. Baller means one who lives large, one who knows how to roll. Before I thought baller was derived from he who has some serious cojones, an all around badass, but my students informed me last year that baller comes from basketball player, since they have a lot of money and spend it. So like, if you told me you are dressing up in a fabulous holloween costume, and I reponded that you were a baller, that wouldn't make sense unless you are dressing as a pimp or Diddy or an actual basketball player. In contrast, when James bought a flat screen t.v. two days ago (an off brand from Costco that he's gonna return since the color is crap and the mouths don't move with the sound), I could have replied, "Aren't you the baller." So since your students treated you, you are not in this circumstance a baller, unless the term is used ironically with regard to your pitching in $10. The fact that you bought a new car would make you a baller to your students if it were an Escalade and not a Hybrid.
Building on what anonymous said, my advice to you if you want to be a baller, a shot-caller or perhaps even a brawler, is that it is all about the Benjamins.
Though for an alternate point of view you might want to check out this point-counterpoint.
Wow. I had no idea. I consider myself schooled.
So great! You are mad dope. That's really nice that they do that at Amherst. I know EXACTLY who that anonymous comment is from! I didn't even have to read more than 3 sentences in...I love you miss NAonymous. And you too, dope profa.
Oh, man, I'm really slow today...
Welcome to your first comment on the SJBlog NAonymous!
I wish I was little bit taller/
I wish I was a baller/
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her/
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat/
and a '64 Impala
But, alas, like me, you're Too $hort.
I think I'm going to start calling you dope profa.
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