Friday Five

Three out of four of our kids are currently in college, so we often discuss the strange/odd/sad things that happen in a class. Here are five of the oddest things that have happened in classes. If you have any to add, we'd love to hear them. 

1. During a final exam, the guy seated next to me began biting small chunks out of his skin. Seriously. He left divots in his forearm. He also tried to cheat from my exam, so I ended up draping my body over my exam.

2. Once in a lecture, my husband leaned over to his friend (who was always doing other work in class) and said, “Hey, the prof asked you a question.” So his friend all of a sudden began talking randomly during the middle of the prof’s lecture.

3. In Ariel’s math exams, students have been known to wall the halls doing deep breathing or chugging Peptobismal.

4. My husband has amazing eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. When he was in grade school, he used to catch a fly and then take a long strand of hair (donated by the girl in front of him) and tie the hair around the fly. Then he’d tape the hair onto his desk. The fly would buzz around in circles.

5. One of the oddest class stories happened at MIT with Prof August Witt. Apparently, a fencer dressed in black and carrying a saber interrupted his lecture and announced, "August Witt! For too many years you have bored the freshman with your talk of molecules and elements, and I have come to put a stop to it! Defend yourself!" At that point, a fencer dressed all in white entered and prepared to defend Prof Witt. Then, Witt announced that he’d defend himself. It turns out that Witt was the three time National Fencing Champion of Austria. You can read the full story here. 

Hail the Almost-Conquering Hero

On Saturday, Luke went to the regional US Fencing Association tournament in Atlanta. (Luke and two of his friends run a fencing school for kids who are elementary age through high school.) While Luke participated in a few tournaments when he was in high school, he’s never fenced in any USFA tournaments because most are on Sunday and involve substantial driving.

Anyway, we wished him a good time and went about our Saturday routine. In the afternoon, Luke called and said, “Hey, Mom, guess who’s going to the semi-finals?”

I said, “Wow, that’s great. We’ll be praying for you.” I thought, “Huh, that was lucky.”

Later I got another call, “Hey, Mom, I’m going to the finals!”

I was in shock. The finals?!

I asked Ariel, “Did you know that Luke was this good of a fencer?”

Ariel said, “No.”

Luke lost the final, but he took second place! (If he had won, he'd be a nationally ranked fencer. Or if two more fencers had shown up, the event would have been big enough that Luke's second place finish would have given him national ranking.) Anyway, we're very excited for him. I’d post a picture of him in his fencing gear with his medal, but he’s already at UTC this morning, keeping students from hurting themselves or blowing things up in the chem lab where Luke has a summer job as a TA.

Here's a picture of his medal.

Thrust, Parry, Riposte

I spent the morning at the Tennessee High School Foil Championship. (They even had a team from as far away as Memphis.) Luke and several other members of the Knights of Tiftonia participated in the event.

If you’ve never been to a fencing match, it’s a very cool thing. The fencers must salute each other at the beginning of each match and after every point (the person who lost the point must salute first). This was an electric match (non-electric foil is called “dry”) so the participants are “wired.” Their swords have a current running through them and when the sword tip makes contact with another fencer’s lamé (a silvery metal overshirt), then the lights and buzzers start.

The matches can be quiet or loud. (Once one of our fencers fenced someone who made quacking noises—but that is the exception rather than the rule).

Anyway, here’s a summary of one of the play-by-plays:

“Thrust, parry, riposte, counterattack (white light blinks on buzzer buzzes).” No point. The hit was “off target.”

“Thrust, parry, riposte, counterattack, more attacks.” (Green light and white light blink on and buzzer sounds). No point. Why? A point doesn’t count if the other fencer has right-of-way and also made contact, even if it was “off target.” Foil fencing (as opposed to saber fencing) is very gentlemanly. Of course, historically I don’t think they cared who had right-of-way as long as you wounded/maimed/killed your adversary.

“Thrust, parry riposte, counterattack, parry, riposte, etc., etc.” (Red light goes off). Point scored. This time the red player made contact and had right-of-way. Yeah for the red light fencer!

Here's a picture of Luke looking quite dashing in his fencing gear.

Here Luke is on the left. (He's wearing the striped socks--it's hard to tell them apart once their masks are on.) Notice Luke's sword is in his opponent's guts. Point for Luke!!