To Like, or not to Like?

This is something that took place in my Rhetoric and Composition class back on Monday:

After we turned in our first essays, our professor--I'll be refering to him as "Prof. D" from here on out--pointed out that we still had lots of time left in class (mind you, he's extremely sarcastic in a funny sense, so needless to say we were amused XD). Prof. D told us then that, to pass the time until he had to release us, we had to tell the class what our favorite food is and, in detail, describe it.

Some of the people that talked had some pretty decent descriptions at their disposal. (Especially the last one who out-shined us all in his description of this seafood dish he makes himself, which took up a minimum of ten minutes.) Others, although hilarious to listen to, barely had enough to cover three minutes worth of material.

As for myself? Well, I started off by telling them "Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot of different types of food..." (Sadly enough, and I might have to turn in my Otaku badge for this, pocky was not one of the first things that came to mind when I was called. )I then proceded to tell them about my obsession over Cajin boils. Simply put: I LOVE MUDBUGS!! Given the chance, I could probably eat my own weight in them! What I adore about mudbugs in Cajin boils is the rich flavor in those little morsals. When cooked right they'll taste almost like crab (not the artificial variety), but will be much firmer in texture and have more juice in them. Depending on what seasoning you put in (and when) they'll either have that harsh zing lemons possess or that stinging sensation from pepper. (The ones I prefer are a fine balance of in-between that spread in your mouth and have you licking your fingers for hours trying to obtain more, regardless of the plesant-yet-kind-of-fishy aftertaste.)

Anyway, after everyone was done Prof. D told us the real reason why he had us talk about good food around lunch-time (as he noted sometime in the middle of this) to begin with. In truth, not only was this an exercise to expand our usage of detail in our writing, it was also a way for us to identify how many times we used the word "like" in our descriptions without realizing it. (While we were talking, Prof. D actually took tally marks on how many times we did.) He told us that, unbeknownst to many of us in America, the word "like" tends to be way over-used to describe things in our speech, thereby affecting our writing in a seriously bad manner. (Mind you, this issue started up back in the 1990's, but it's gotten worse in today's time.)

In almost the same fashon as before, he called us down the rows to tell us our "score". At first the average was about five until, that is, he got to the guy second to last in the first row; his grand total was seventeen. Before he even got past the third word his protest he used the word "like" (producing even more laughter then there already was in the room). About two rows down a girl sitting close to me managed to beat this number by one point--to her dismay and his delight, I might add. (By the way, in during my presentation in class I only managed to use this word twice. :g_smile) The Summa Cum Laude of all the users of the word "like" (both past and present, apparently) in the room was this guy sitting in the row next to me who left us all in the dust by using it (*drum-roll*) thirty-three times. (He was going to protest like the first guy, but he ended up stopping almost immediatly because he kept true to his title by using the word "like" first. We were released from class sometime after that.)

Please note: I didn't write this with any intention of insulting anyone. My only real reason for writing this is was to try and share my amusing time in class. Hoped you enjoyed!

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