Redemption or I, Horshack

It's weird how, because of the seventies nostalgia oversaturation of the mid-nineties, that you can make pop cultural references you and your age group weren't really part of, per se, but are overly familiar with, by reference. Welcome Back Kotter is one of those for me. It's original run was slightly before my time, and its re-emergence on Nick at Nite was after I'd pretty much sworn off that channel. Yet, I know all the jokes about Gabe Kaplan and Battle of the Network Stars, I know "Signed, Epstein's mother," and I know "ooo, ooo, ooo" while raising your hand.

Last year, the year of "are you kids sure you really wanna be lawyers? OK, we'll try to scare you by calling on you in class," I used to grit my teeth in fear everytime I went to a law school class. And when I did get called on, the pit of my stomach dropped out as I braced myself for the barrage of questions.

"Which court decided this case?"
"Is that a trial court or appellate?"
"In what year was the case decided?"
"What are the facts of the case?"
etc. etc. etc.

This year, the trend has been more voluntary responses, and, in response to this, I've reverted to raising my hand like a geek all the frickin' time. My Jurisprudence class is especially like this. I've raised my hand so much, he rarely calls on me, unless no one else seems to know the answer.

My Banking Law class still employs the Socratic Method somewhat. Our professor will pick a student at random and grill him or her almost the entire hour. A few weeks ago I was called on, and I managed to make it through OK. Then, a week ago (Monday, Oct. 12th), he called on me and I bombed. I bombed hard. I couldn't remember what moral hazard was, but, instead of just moving on, and saying I didn't know, I drug out my non-answer, trying vainly to remember. It was so embarassing, then, that I went home and ruminated about it.

This week, we had an assignment about calculating different kinds of capital ratios, and my strong need to redeem myself for the ol' moral hazard, coupled with my strong opinion that I got the right answers, propelled my right hand skyward.

"Ooo ooo ooo."

I didn't get the problem right, by the way, but was able to make quick adjustments on the fly to give the appearance of a correct answer.