Like maybe they'd take the garbage out or mow my lawn, I don't know. It was peculiar but friendly.

They probably would have if you'd asked them. Well, maybe not mow the lawn, since that might take a long time, but I'm just about positive that they would have taken out the garbage if you'd asked them to.

it wasn't her answers that deserved a higher grade, it was her.

One of my students asked me once to increase her final grade in a class. Her reason was that she got married during the semester, and therefore didn't get to do part of the work and didn't manage to get the grade that she thought she deserved in the class. The only difference between her and the student you describe is that she was polite in the 15 minutes of attempting to convince me.

Oh, and I once had a student in a class I TAed who got a question wrong in a graded exercise. He came to talk to me and explained that he misunderstood the question. Then he demanded that I check his answer based on the question he actually answered, not the question we had asked (which everybody else understood). And he could not possibly understand why I refused.

asking "Is there anything else we can do for you?"

Do you have the Chabad people trying to convince the men to wear tefillin or the like? It's like that, only in reverse, in a way?

Which sorta fits, considering they represent different religions.

Dang bon! I hope your trip gets better ita!

I got to hang out with one of my nearest and dearest who I never see because of his work/travel stuff. He's moving to Sydney in January, which makes me sad, but hey! free place to stay in Sydney!

In other good news. My sister remains awesome for the 4th year in a row! [link] She's won best actress again.

Then he demanded that I check his answer based on the question he actually answered, not the question we had asked

Oh, I've had a ton of those. Also people who ask for credit when, say, problem 6 was assigned and they accidentally did problem 8 instead, but they did get problem 8 right. I have 70 papers to grade, with about 9 problems on each paper. I so don't have time to check to see if people did other problems correctly.

I had a woman ask me today if I could "help her just a little" in passing her citizenship exam. Which is really dumb because the entire thing is recorded. It always make me angry because a) I wouldn't cheat period but also b) I can't imagine putting myself at risk like that.

She wasn't asking you to cheat, just help a little! @@

He came to talk to me and explained that he misunderstood the question. Then he demanded that I check his answer based on the question he actually answered, not the question we had asked (which everybody else understood). And he could not possibly understand why I refused.

Oh, man, I think I've been that student. Only not with the demanding, so much. You put all that work in, and you do the work right, and you get nothing! Okay, obviously it's your own fault, but I remember the feeling. It just seems so stupidly unfair -- not so much of the teacher, but of, like, the universe. I did argue about a science test in 7th grade because I'd answered a question based on a caption I'd misunderstood. But my interpretation was otherwise totally valid!

Joe had a cadet last year who asked, "What can I do to pass this test?" after he had already failed the test. This happened out in Washington. The cadet got thrown out of the program for cheating. But not before there was a long discussion about cultural norms (because the cadet was from PR) and cheating.

It always makes me wonder - to me it's clearly cheating and I"m offended by the request for "a little help", but some of the PR officers Joe works with think that "a little help" is not unethical. Which I don't get because it seems so black and white to me.

You know, I've been thinking about the stuff in here about people's feelings of entitlement, watching people on the bus, etc. I think some of it is a resistance to growing up - people react like little Naddy in Fay's story. He has the excuse of being very young, but I see people who seem to think that because they want something it should be given to them. And it's not just students, it's supposedly adult people. As an example, there are signs all over the Metro saying that eating and drinking are prohibited - but people get on with food and drink (heaven forbid they should go without water for 15 minutes!) and frequently leave a mess for someone else to clean up.

The students at - Georgetown, I think it is - are all up in arms because of new rules to cut back on the amount of drinking. The latest "outrage" is that they've instituted a $200 fine for anyone who throws up on the bus. (This is a shuttle to another college and, late at night, there's only one bus and if someone gets sick, the driver has to stop, get everyone off, call for alternate transportation, then either clean up the bus or get it to the garage to be cleaned.)

People I've seen at work believe they shouldn't be called upon to work longer hours than they find convenient, they shouldn't be held responsible for anything they do wrong, they shouldn't have to do anything they find difficult or just tedious.

Not to mention the people who get offended if asked to dress like a grown-up - a t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops do NOT constitute business attire, even business casual.

(yes, I'm grumpy today)

The headline is the best part: Dog Saves Family From Fire Blamed on Cat

Cote said the fire marshal investigator believes the blaze was started when Princess, the family cat, tipped over a kerosene lantern. Cote says he and his pets escaped safely, but he says Princess did get her tail singed by the flames.

So they left a cat alone in a room with a burning thing?