“This is not a democracy, it’s an enlightened dictatorship.”

Those are the words of my new mathematics teacher. His name is Dr. Larry Lions. I call him Bob. He was discussing his rights as a professor, when this one-lined truth occurred, and I nearly laughed out loud. It’s true, is it not? Students are constantly under the ruling of their teachers, no matter how old they may be (the students, not the teachers. Though I’m not so sure some of them weren’t living with the dinosaurs), until they are out of school altogether.

My math teacher’s also a nerd–he wears a pocket protector. I think we’ll get along.

Then, in Western Civilizations class, I learned that:

1) The Native Americans were originally called Indians because Christopher Columbus thought he was in India.

2) Samurai’s were paid with rice instead of money. (I’d like to see that today. “Hey, yo, I don’t have any money, so here’s some rice!” …Glare…)

and 3) The Taj Mahal is, in fact, the tomb of an old Shah’s favorite wife.

Whaaat???

Maybe I’m just the last to know everything and that’s one of the reasons I’m average, but I thought that last one was weird. Everyone goes to the Taj Mahal and they’re all like: “This is soooo pretty!” When really it’s like: “YOU’RE STANDING ON A MARKER OF DEATH!!!”

That’s some disturbing crap right there,

Mel