Ode to Professor Higgs

Astronomy is always fairly entertaining. You shouldn't expect anything less from a night class if the professor actually wants you to stay conscious. Professor Higgs is fairly dry and he knows it. But lets be honest he thinks he is rather hilarious and enjoys his jokes more than the class, and the fact that he thinks his jokes are funny makes me laugh. I'm fairly convinced he really has gone crazy, granted he is rather elderly.

So many of his shenanigans just really make me laugh every time I think of them. These are the 3 that dominate the top of my list. . .

He's really good at doing demonstrations. Unfortunately we only have them once in a while. We usually are faced with a dull lecture (him talking while drawing exceptionally small on the blackboard) or a video from the 70's. One particular Tuesday we were lucky enough to be roped into 2 hrs of video of ... well I couldn't tell you, I didn't pay attention. The events went a little like this.... he puts the video in (vhs mind you - we're talking old school) turns out all the lights in the lecture hall, in which there are no windows so it usually ends up looking something like a black hole or my dorm room, whichever you prefer. This is also a problem if you wish to use your laptop, cell phone, or any other device that glows. He then proceeds to take his seat in the front row and watch the movie intently, or at least this is how it usually goes, except for this class period. He sat in the front row and I noticed him bobbing, you know the head bob, the one you see guys do at church when they're trying to stay awake but nowhere near succeeding in their attempt. Well soon this turned into full on zonked out, chin completely to chest. He was out like a light. He proceeded to sleep the entire class period. Oh, if I had a penny for every person that walked out of that class! He somehow managed to wake up right when class was supposed to end. How he did this I'll never know but it was quite the sight to see the professor sleep through class. Tuition dollars at work.

Towards the beginning of the semester he was trying to explain a concept. He talks in such a way that makes it troublesome to distinguish. This made some of my fellow classmates question Higgs. In his mind it made perfect sense to illustrate the said concept on the brick wall with colored chalk. He drew on the freakin' wall!!! I was dying the whole time this was occurring. Do we not have chalkboards for a reason people? To this day the drawing is still on the wall and every Tuesday and Thursday I get to admire his attempt at artwork. I'm pretty sure if you asked me I couldn't tell you what he was teaching that day or what the drawing is about, but I'll never forget the fact he drew on the wall with a chalkboard less than 10 ft away.

The latest and greatest happened just last night. I took other homework to do during his class because I figured it would kill two birds with one stone, or two pigs with one bird if you play angry birds. Anyways, I got to class really early and I started working on my other homework. In the mean time Sir had set up 5 tables of demos. It got me excited because generally these are pretty intense and keep my attention. Well I enjoyed them all but the best was when he got a plastic ball (the ones you would find in a ball pit) and he soaked it in liquid nitrogen. I didn't know what the heck he was trying to achieve but when the ball was done soaking he took it out tossed it in his hands a couple times and legit pitches it towards the brick wall (the same one he drew on) well it exploded into about a billion little plastic pieces and it was way loud. The whole situation was just funny but I think what made it even better was seeing this old guy chuck a ball as hard as he could, he really did throw it like a baseball pitcher. It was a pretty cool demonstration. The best part was after it was all over and we all gasped, he grabs the second ball and says, "That was fun! Let's do it again!"

So there you have it.......... the ode to Professor Higgs.