Andre Jute
September 13th 06, 06:22 PM
The assistant professsor in charge of the KRAP unit of the Anthropology
Department at Oakland Community College is absent on maternity leave
and the students working in the unit are incoherent, so I spoke to the
head of the department.
"The unfortunate acronym stands for Krueger Reverse Anglo Pidgin," she
told me. "Arnold Krueger was a student in our Rude Mechanics Faculty a
long, long, long time ago."
"I know," I said. "He's still alive and--"
"Jesus!" she said. "He must be a million years old."
"And a million times more incomprehensible," I said. "How many students
in the unit?"
"Thirty-three."
"That many! How does Krueger's abuse of the language justify so much
interest?"
"It's an easy quarter-credit."
"You're too sweet to be so cynical."
She laughed. "Seriously. The KRAP students just make up any old stupid
saying and then have the computers search for it. Lo and behold, the
computers discover that Arny Krueger said it one time or another."
"Gee. And for that they get a whole quarter-credit?"
"Easy-peasy. We don't want to reinforce failure. We graduated Arny
Krueger, didn't we? We guide the dumbest of the dumbos towards KRAP
studies."
"So what is the other three-quarter credit for?"
"Plugging together computer boards."
_______
Copyright 2006 Andre Jute
Department at Oakland Community College is absent on maternity leave
and the students working in the unit are incoherent, so I spoke to the
head of the department.
"The unfortunate acronym stands for Krueger Reverse Anglo Pidgin," she
told me. "Arnold Krueger was a student in our Rude Mechanics Faculty a
long, long, long time ago."
"I know," I said. "He's still alive and--"
"Jesus!" she said. "He must be a million years old."
"And a million times more incomprehensible," I said. "How many students
in the unit?"
"Thirty-three."
"That many! How does Krueger's abuse of the language justify so much
interest?"
"It's an easy quarter-credit."
"You're too sweet to be so cynical."
She laughed. "Seriously. The KRAP students just make up any old stupid
saying and then have the computers search for it. Lo and behold, the
computers discover that Arny Krueger said it one time or another."
"Gee. And for that they get a whole quarter-credit?"
"Easy-peasy. We don't want to reinforce failure. We graduated Arny
Krueger, didn't we? We guide the dumbest of the dumbos towards KRAP
studies."
"So what is the other three-quarter credit for?"
"Plugging together computer boards."
_______
Copyright 2006 Andre Jute