Calvin and I frequently go grocery shopping together - most of the time, actually. It’s quite nice, because the time most people spend plucking various mundane items off of shelves and tossing them into their carts, we can have lovely conversations with each other. Well, Tuesday night, here we are, finishing up our grocery list in the freezer aisle, and I’m staring aimlessly into the frozen dinners chatting about some odd topic that escapes my mind now , when suddenly, I turn to Calvin and say quite loudly and happily, “He’ll think you’re such a pagan!” Except, to my great astonishment, Calvin is no longer standing next to me! Instead, there is a short, balding old man with tufts of brownish greying hair, with a quite bewildered look on his face, and he’s staring straight at me! So here we are, the balding old man and I, staring at each other, and I, not knowing what else to do, burst out laughing, and say (naturally!), “Well not you, of course!”

The old man stares at me for a moment, cracks a wide grin, and stumbles off in the opposite direction muttering something under his breath. So of course I dash off to find Calvin, relate the whole event to him, and scold him for disappearing under my nose. After all, it’s dangerous! With the content of our conversations, who knows what might come out of my mouth to some poor unsuspecting stranger!?

Today I discovered while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark that Indiana Jones received his Ph.D from the University of Chicago! Can you believe it? That makes two of my favorite fictional characters who studied at the University of Chicago: first Daniel Jackson of Stargate fame, and now Indiana Jones! Unbelievable. Well now I just have to go there.

That’s just great, if I have to tell them why I want to study for my doctoral work at their school, I can tell them, “Well, I’m just following in the footsteps of my heroes, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and Dr. Indiana Jones….”

I’m sure they’ll be very impressed.