"Highbrows. Intellectuals. You're always trying to find hidden meanings in things. Why? A cigarette is a cigarette. A piece of silk is a piece of silk. Why not leave it at that?"

"When they're represented they acquire additional meanings," said Robyn. "Signs are never innocent. Semiotics teaches us that."

"Semi-what?"

"Semiotics. The study of signs."

"It teaches us to have dirty minds, if you ask me."

-- David Lodge, Nice Work (the bit that I always assign in the first few weeks of freshman comp)

"Maybe I just have a dirty mind," said one of the students this morning, "but..."

"It's ALWAYS useful to look at advertisements with a dirty mind," I said. I should have added that it would also be a great asset if she wanted to major in English, but I thought it better not to blow their minds all at once.

We also talked about why ads for men's and women's clothing generally feature half-naked women, though come to think of it, I'm not sure I know the answer to that one myself.

All in all, a pretty good class, even though I didn't get to show any YouTube clips after all. (Note to self: never ever put yourself in a position where you depend on technology. You will regret it.) And I've learned that I can just walk into somebody else's class and teach, without getting butterflies in the stomach or wanting to disappear. When did that happen? I think it has something to do with the job market -- after you've been through the Dreaded Teaching Demo four or five times, you pretty much get inured to everything else.