Day 2: Brilliance, Food porn, & class, including smart ass comments & students "earning" D's

Where to begin, gentle Reader?  It was another big day.

But let's start with a thing that might not be said much of anywhere else: tonight M, J & I agreed that we saw an absolutely brilliant new play.  The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard, who is very flippin' famous already, was all that last night's play wasn't: it was thought-provoking (the hard problem of the title is how to define and study consciousness among neuroscientists), it was funny (the billionaire asks the young scientist if she has any money and she responds "how much do you need?"), and it was brilliantly designed and acted.   It ends tomorrow after a short run.  There were only 3 tickets left when we bought them last week.  It will be the best thing we see this season in London.  And, yes, somehow, I guess it's called both art and genius, Stoppard makes the discussion of the mind-body separation interesting -- because the characters espousing the ideas are.  Unlike last night (he says again).

Then there's the food porn.  We decided we'd eat at Jamie Oliver's relatively new restaurant next to St. Paul's, Barbecoa.  Here's the Devil's cornbread "app-i-teaser":

And the pork chop...yes, that's a big pork rind on top.

It was excellent.

We also had class today.  Remember, I told you 11 students would be good for material.  So, here goes --

Out of nowhere, or maybe not, in the midst of class one student says "Dr. S, I thought you were only 50."  He's still beaming with pride from this.  So, I asked, "who do you think is older?" and was told that I was.  (FYI: I'm not!)  When asked how old they thought I was, they said "78."  Mrs. H says that's how to earn a D. :)

Over lunch, the student sitting next to MS said, apropos to who knows what, "runaway, runaway."  MS says, "Oh, Monty Python."  She says, "What?"  He says, you know, like the scene in the Holy Grail.  She says who?  Before we can explain she says, "they're running from a snake?"  Straight person me says "no, a rabbit," which MS thinks is as funny as the snake-python line.  :)  No, Virginia. the current generation is NOT soaked in Monty Python.  Dammit! (I am now out of a whole series of pop culture references)

And, one more, when discussing, briefly, Marlowe's Jew of Malta (showing but we aren't seeing at Stratford), MS says that the Jew of the title is aptly named Barabas.  I innocently (cough cough) ask, "why? who's he?" and he starts to mock me and then hears the room ask, yes, who's he?  They didn't know.  MS gave the Bible lesson, with appropriate Jesus Christ Superstar reference.  Another thing you can't count on them knowing -- the Bible.

And, finally, the daily "jewel."  Remember, dear Reader, that J took her class this morning to the Freud Museum (where someone actually bought Freudian slippers...no, I'm not making it up).  Many jokes were made over lunch and in class and I guess from the story the guide was a true believer, including tidbits like Freud not being a coke addict, he was just experimenting, and he was not an atheist but only "a godless Jew."

So, with that in mind, and the "you're 78" reference, as we leave the flat for dinner we are discussing MS's looking more youthful and his (almost) full head of hair.  I keep telling him he might lose it yet and he's denying it.  J says "you have follicle envy."  Ouch.

On that note, we go to Wednesday, with class, shopping (I don't know where J's going but she's psyching [yes, I did that] them up), and then the Jack the Ripper Walk tomorrow evening.  Bon unit. #