Today there was a pepfest, and this kid dressed up like Meatloaf and writhed around on the floor to “I Would Do Anything for Love.” Then, he exited the stage on a razor scooter.

That, my friends, is called entertainment.

Afterwards, I went back to my classroom and tried to teach about Odysseus and Calypso in Book V of Homer’s masterpiece. It was hard to start because Billy, one of my usual suspects, was singing his own version of the Meatloaf classic: “I would do anything thing for Ms. W., but I won’t do FridayFreeWrite.”

Then some students questioned O’s love for Penelope, since he’d been "losing himself in love" with the goddess every night.

“No one would’ve expected Odysseus to remain faithful to Penelope,” I explained. “All the Trojan War heroes had concubines during the fighting. Plus, he’s been away from home for seventeen years.”

“Ms. W.,” interrupted Billy, “I just want you to know that if I were Odysseus and you were Penelope, I would totally wait twenty years.”

Oh-kay.

After class, my teaching pal Rachel and I compared notes. She’d been discussing Odysseus’s first day in Phaeacia, when the princess and her maids are bathing in the water together and anointing each other with oil.

“Um,” broke in one of her male pubescents, “I think I had a dream like that once.”

I have to admit it’s nice to know it’s not just me.