I’ve always been a bit of a late bloomer – even the slang term used in the title of this post is probably already out of date. But things are cyclical. Just look at how leg warmers have made a comeback!

nr(*%^*(&hg#gae!ri

Oh excuse me, I just had a minor spasm at that memory. I’ll shake it off…

A few weeks ago in class, we were discussing the story “A&P” by John Updike. The climax of the story involves the teenaged main character, Sammy, making a grand gesture to defend the honor of three girls in bikinis. The problems was, they had already left before they could witness Sammy’s largess and presumably shower gratitude and adoration over him. Instead, he is left in an empty parking lot.

At this point, a student said, “Sammy just got deaded!” My reaction? Continue reading →