what’s your excuse?
I was trying to post a comment on someone’s blog just now and got an error message due to “high network traffic or heavy usage of Blogger.”
The error message took me back 12 years to a professor I had in college whose name was Ed. (All faculty were addressed by their first names). Ed is one of the most chipper morning people I have ever met. I was a night owl, but I didn’t mind mornings — which was a good thing, because if I had hated mornings, I might have hated Ed too. Three days a week, he would walk into our Principles of Management class a few minutes before 8:00 with a huge smile and an over-enthusiastic “GOOD MORNING!” Ed had been awake much longer than the rest of us, not only because he couldn’t get away with rolling out of bed and going to class, but because he Got Up Early to Use The Internet.
That’s right, folks. He started his morning with Netscape and the screechy sound of dial-up before the information superhighway became congested with traffic from timezones to the west. (Remember that little comet that crossed the Netscape horizon while waiting for webpages to load?)
The following year, Ed taught my Quantitative Decision Making class — affectionately known as Quant. It was memorable not only because it was my favorite class in college (I’m serious!), but because that’s where my favorite Ed story took place. I’m probably the only person in the class who still remembers this, but one day as he was handing back our homework assignments, we noticed that some of them were rather wrinkled and even torn.
His explanation? “My dog ate your homework.”
Bone said,
Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Oh, that is classic.
Netscape! I remember the wheel of a ship icon. Ah, memories.
r8chel said,
Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Bone: Right… Netscape Navigator. Also, you were the oh-so-popular person whose blog I was trying to comment on, so you were the indirect impetus for this post.
Kimmie said,
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I had a prof in college who greeted us every Monday morning at 8am with a “Happy Monday morning, Folks!” He did the same on Wednesday and Friday (only he’d say “Happy Wednesday morning, Folks, etc). Some mornings, it was downright painful.
r8chel said,
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Kimmie: So that isn’t how you greet Jon and Conner each morning?