"mastigophora... comeinandeat!"

skip and i often talk about teachers we've had throughout our lives. we both have a couple of favorites that stand out. (one of his was ms. lopez, because she was hot. i was never so shallow. unless of course, you count mr. aussant, my anatomy teacher in 11th grade, who was hot.)

anyway. the fact that i remember what a mastigophora is, or can readily explain molecular movement of solids, liquids and gasses as related to high schoolers dancing, or that i developed an appreciation for percy sledge, can all be attributed to mr. duluk. biology, 10th grade. the fact that i was more interested in mitochondria than staring at jason mikulis for an hour is big kudos on his part. at the end of the semester, mr. duluk gave out awards to the students in his class. i won the "kicked out of class" award. every time he had a sub, i got kicked out of class. honestly, why would i want to sit through biology with anyone other than mr. duluk?

he had some sort of crazy camaraderie with the other science teachers. they would randomly break into song and dance, interrupt each others' classes, all the while making golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum seem like a normal part of a teenager's vocabulary. i have actually answered questions correctly on jeopardy with facts i learned in mr. duluk's class. unfortunately, that's the extent of practical application of my biology knowledge, but nonetheless...

i take that back. in teaching 2nd grade, we cover a few of the basics, and i find myself getting excited when the topic comes up. i can also help mika with some homework. and as most of you know, i like to act like i know it all, so the ability to quickly throw out biological terms and their meanings bodes well with me. and who knows, maybe one day i'll make it onto jeopardy, and my video daily double will be a clip of cells dividing, which i will correctly identify as "mitosis", using words like "cytoplasm" and "metaphase". i'll be sure to cut mr. duluk in on a chunk of my winnings, so he can buy himself a new pair of blues brothers sunglasses.

ps some of you have asked for some clarification on the title. to help us remember the term "mastigophora", he would yell the word towards the window, like he was calling his kid, and tell him it was time to come home, or time for supper. his famous line was come in and eat. it was hilarious, but probably only if you were there to witness it.