Communist anti-capitalism

from a student paper:

"The Soviets . . . tried to build authoritarian rule based on the principle that they were protecting these post war countries from the imminent threat of capitalism. Their purge trials would weed out the traders and execute them."

Well, that's one way to solve an economic problem, I guess.

"Old Europe"?

from a student paper:

"Anti-Judaism, which reached its height in Middle-Aged European countries, was firmly based in religious belief."

Virginia Shag: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of the Flying Nun

Student in class discussion about the teaching of history:

"The only thing most people know about Thomas Jefferson nowadays is that he wrote the Declaration of Independence and had an affair with Sally Fields [sic]."

This is evidently how we are punished: it will now be difficult to get this rather disturbing image out of my head.

I Think I'll Open a Feudal Restaurant

Student confusion regarding concepts and spelling is common and should generally be treated with a certain amount of charity, but some errors are just classics, the more so when they come in pairs:

"these terms of identity were the synthesis of modernity--pre-dating notions of identity as a surf, as a burger, as a communal member"

I'm thinking of opening a theme restaurant on the feudal era (or, as students sometimes call it: "the futile era"). "Surf and burger" would be perfect for the luncheon and pub menu: I imagine something like a lobster roll and quarter-pounder combo. (I'm not sure I want to think about the "communal member.")

Announcing: Student Paper Follies (SPF 100)

"The Church had to burn him at the steak."

Sounds like a good meal wasted.