It Pays to Make Your Teacher Chuckle

There was a time in my life when I almost lost all interest in all things musical.

It's hard to believe now, seeing as how 87% of my personal memory bank consists of the melody and lyric of 70's singer-songwriters, 60's folk-rock groups, and the entire catalog of TV's greatest theme songs.

"What is it that almost turned you off of music?" you may ask.

Well...go ahead...ask.

"What is it that almost turned you off of music?!!?"

The answer is a single college class: Music Appreciation.

Oh yes, dear reader, I understand the definition of irony.

What I didn't understand at the time, though, was why I needed to memorize dates and terminology in order to demonstrate my appreciation of music.

I did experience one brief, shining moment of glory in the class, though.

Part of the final exam was a list of musical terms that we were expected to define. No multiple guesswork, either, babycakes; we were expected to put pen to paper and write down the definitions however our brains spewed them forth.

I did okay for a while.

pianissimo - softly
forte - hardly

But then, in an apparent attempt to keep things interesting, the prof included the word manicotti on the list.

Now...this was the mid-70s. I was a rural Midwestern college freshman. My knowledge of musical terms was abysmal and my familiarity with Italian food ended with spaghetti, pizza, and sausage...and come to think of it, I probably was only conversant in Polish sausage.

What I'm saying is that I had absolutely no idea what the word manicotti meant.

And so, I turned on my parallel thinking and punted. I picked up my pen and wrote "manicotti  -  What male members of the Italian army sleep on."

You may think that's the stupidest thing you've ever heard, but the professor gave me half a credit point for it!

#TrueStory