At the writing lab where I work, we are preparing worksheets that spotlight a particular part of speech, punctuation mark, or common problem. (I wrote on adjectives and adverbs. It was as boring as you might imagine.) Before I started to prepare my handout, I took a survey of the existing worksheets, sitting down with one to study so that mine might be comparable.
“What are you doing?” a coworker asked me.
“Learning about colons,” I answered. Then, before I could help myself, I heard myself saying, “Because, you know, everyone’s got one.”
::edit
Today was even worse. I spaced out during my lesson on Henry V, and said, “This really establishes a strong comparison between King Henry and… You know, the guy that Prince Hal defeats in that other play. The What’s-His-Face.”
And a student, bless her, said, “Hotspur?”
“Right, Hotspur. ‘What’s-His-Face’ is just a technical term that TAs use in lectures.”
At least they laughed.
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