Ad hoc

I just met with a student who wants to "ad-hoc" my fall class, which apparently means doing more work and getting honors credit for it. I don't know what I think about an honors program that teaches students that "ad hoc" is a verb. I feel like kids these days have enough problems without introducing that kind of confusion. (It kind of reminds me of when my boss at the Atlantic was consulted by the American Heritage Dictionary on the issue of whether it is acceptable, despite the redundancy, to use "the" with "hoi polloi"--he said no--the whole situation of which, for some reason, kind of blew my mind.)

Also, in today's moment of bad form, when he turned his computer to me to show me the ad hoc requirements, I saw that he had been googling me (a totally useless enterprise, of course, given my name--maybe he found my double's Pulitzer prize!--but still).

I really don't like the last day of classes, which is today. Last quarter I had an actual panic attack while attempting to sum up everything they had learned. Today before we do evaluations, I am bribing the students with brownies and making them recite their favorite poems from the quarter. Then I'm hopping on the red-eye.