--Alanis

As you might imagine, I was a bit concerned about the public reaction to the article I reprinted in yesterday's entry. I suspected it might finally get me my first piece of hate mail, if not a lynch mob. But 'twas not to be. In fact, due to a SNAFU, the paper didn't get distributed at all that week. We ended up reprinting a few sections of the issue in question the following week, in which the Op/Ed section was not included. So almost nobody saw the column in question. Perhaps it's just as well.

Anyway. The reruns continue, but not from my column in the college paper. Back in my first semester in college (Spring 1997), I took English 150: Introduction to Literary Study, a class which remains my favorite of all time. Interesting subject material, incredible professor, and the best class dynamic I've ever experienced.

Each of us students was required to give a class presentation sometime during the semester. Partway through the semester (starting on April Fools' Day, appropriately enough), I began turning my classmates' presentations into songs, and handing out the results as The English 150 Song Book.

I present a modest example here. Although this was the second installment handed out, it was actually the one that started the whole thing. One of my classmates gave a presentation on "Romanticism, Byron, and Jane Eyre," and every time she said the word "Byronic," a particular mental association went off in my mind. I had to write this song just to get it out of my system. And into everybody else's.