Acephalous

This must be the world's way of telling me it's time to rejoin it.

They made this just for me, put it on in Los Angeles and everything, yet somehow I missed it:

Via Scott McCloud. 

That's right: The Doctor as Batman via Scott McCloud. 

And I missed it. 

This is why, in an ideal world, they provide teachers with three month's paid vacation.

A STUDENT who disappeared in Week Four appears during the office hours SEK is holding in Week Ten.

STUDENT: Hi Scott!

SEK: Do I know you?

STUDENT: I'm from your afternoon class!

SEK: I know everyone in my afternoon class.

STUDENT: I may not have been there in a while.

SEK: Define "while"?

STUDENT: Some stuff that happened.  Also things.

SEK: How many classes did stuff and things cause you to miss?

STUDENT: I was there for that class about how cameras work.

SEK: Which one?

STUDENT: The directors'?

SEK: Which one's?

STUDENT: Camera?

SEK: Is that a quesiton?

SEK can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord, he only wishes he couldn't.  It's just that some complaints are as inevitable as Phil Collins bringing bombast to fanfare, and this particular complaint most certainly pulls a pure Phil Collins.

STUDENT: I don't know.  I'm confused.

SEK: As am I.  Who are you again?

STUDENT: I'm in your afternoon class!

SEK: Then why don't I know you?

STUDENT: Because some stuff and things happened and I stopped attending in Week Four.

SEK: I'm sorry you had to go through stuff and things.  Life is tough.  What can I help you with now?

STUDENT: What do I need to do to pass the class?

SEK: Which one?

STUDENT: Yours.

SEK: The one you didn't attend?

STUDENT: But I have a draft of my Rhetorical Analysis that I wrote to make it up to you.

SEK: Make it up to me?  This isn't about you making it up to me.  It's about—

STUDENT: Can you at least take a look at my draft?

STUDENT hands SEK a draft of her "Rhetorical Analysis."  As he thought, it was a "Rhetorical Analysis" as performed by someone who had no idea what a rhetorical analysis is.

SEK: This isn't a rhetorical analysis.

STUDENT: It's about a horror movie.

SEK: That wasn't really the focus of the class.

STUDENT: It was called a horror class.

SEK: The emphasis was on the creation of suspense.

STUDENT: Saw II was suspenseful.

SEK: Suspenseful torture porn, which if you were paying attention during the few classes you actually attended, you'd have remembered that that's a genre I repeatedly specified we'd be avoiding.

STUDENT: But I heard you talking about it so it still meets your requirements.

SEK: No, it doesn't.

STUDENT: Yes, it does.

SEK: How?

STUDENT: I analyze the effect of a horror film.

SEK: One I explicitly banned.

STUDENT: That was the assignment.

SEK: That was not the assignment.

STUDENT: But it was!

SEK: Then how come no one else in this class produced a similar document?

STUDENT: You'd have to ask them.

SEK: But they're not here now, so I'm asking you: how did twenty-four students aim their arrows at the same side of the same barn and strike it (with varying degrees of thump and wobble)?

STUDENT: Some teachers don't push 'em hard enough.  Who has 'em aiming at barns and all when they could be shooting at aliens and shit?

SEK: Just so I have this straight: in Week Four you decided to up the rhetorical ante by chasing aliens and what you captured were the barely legible fears of a child forced to rewatch SAW II until someone produced an essay you deemded "college enough" to turn in.  Am I missing something here?

STUDENT: But is there still something I could to do pass the cl—

SEK: No.

STUDENT: But what if I—

SEK: No.

STUDENT: I have a friend—

SEK: You're going to need one—

STUDENT: And she said when you do this two quarters in a row they have to pass you.  She said I'm on "Bemusement Leave" now and can only—

SEK: You're on "Bemusement Leave"?  I suggest you take it.  Now.

CAR vs. OFFICE HOURS, ROUND ONE

SEK is driving CAR up a dangerous hill you no doubt remember at a rate of 70 miles per hour.  He is on his way to office hours.

CAR: YAAAAAAWN!

All of the electricity in CAR disappears and now SEK and SLEEPING CAR are coasting uphill at the speed of impending panic.  SEK depresses the gas pedal and wakes CAR up.

CAR: Did you say something?

SEK: What was that back there?

CAR: What was what back where?

SEK: That yawn and—

CAR: You mean CAR's micronap?  CAR does that now.  Micronaps are cool.

SEK: Micronaps are not co—

CAR: YAAAAAAWN!

All of the electricity in CAR vanishes again and again SEK and SLEEPING CAR are coasting uphill at the speed of impending panic.  SEK depresses the gas pedal and wakes CAR up.  Again.

SEK: You did it again!

CAR: Did what?

SEK: Fell asleep!

CAR: Did not!

SEK: One more word from you and I'm pulling you over!

CAR: But—

SEK: Enough!

SEK pulls CAR over and looks at it sternly.  After a few minutes, SEK reenters CAR and looks at its lying dashboard with a crooked eye.

CAR: You know you're gonna be late for office hours.

SEK: I know that.  Shut up.

CAR: Those kids are gonna think you let them down.

SEK: I KNOW.

CAR: Go ahead.  Turn CAR on.

SEK: I'm not turning you on.

CAR: Just slip your key in CAR's ignition and—

SEK: SHUT UP.

 CAR: You know you wan—

SEK caves to CAR's inappropriately expressed demands and carefully drives to campus.  Once there, he locates a mechanic who can set CAR straight and informs his students that office hours will be delayed until 2 p.m.  It is now 2:30 p.m. and SEK is talking with a MECHANIC.

SEK: I thought you said CAR would be ready by 2 p.m.

MECHANIC: CAR?  No, CAR needed a part, so I had it towed to Riverside.

In the background, unseen by SEK, CAR moves across the stage from right-to-left, emphatically waving goodbye to everbody. 

SEK: You towed CAR to Riverside?

MECHANIC: We thought it'd be more convenient for you, since you live in Corona.

SEK: How am I supposed to get back to class?

MECHANIC: We can call you a cab.

SEK: And what about after class?

MECHANIC: Just get your wife to pick you up.

SEK: But CAR is our only car.

MECHANIC: CAR is your only car?

SEK: CAR is.

MECHANIC: You want I should tow CAR back now?

SEK: Very much so, thank you.

In the background, unseen by SEK, CAR moves across the stage from left-to-right, emphatically waving hello to everybody.

MECHANIC: Here CAR is, good as exactly the same!  Try not to drive CAR up steep incline between now and tomorrow when part from Riverside arrive.

CAR: (to SEK) CAR was gonna go on a field trip!

SEK: Your services were needed elsewhere.

CAR: (despondently) Back to campus then, are we?

SEK shoots CAR a wilting look, and CAR deflates as best as 3 tons of metal can.  SEK returns to office hours late, commits to making up the three lost hours by staying an hour late on Wednesday and Thursday and coming in an hour early on Thursday.  SEK's not sure how CAR will feel about getting to campus at 9 a.m. on Thursday without employing the toll roads, but from the steely look on his face, it seems he really doesn't consider CAR's feelings to be relevant at the moment.