Classroom tidbits: 2 pretentious phrases.

I had done a lot of talking about comparisons with the students in my writing class, since their next 2 papers involved comparisons.

For a big part of my one lesson plan, I discussed focusing on a "tertium quid" ("a third something") as a way to make an interesting comparison.

In one section, I was like, "Yes it's pretentious, but can anyone guess what it means?".

"Um, third, something," one freshman was like.

"Exactly right!", I was like, "a third something."

Then, she was like, "What?!", and I did a whole routine about how this was like situation comedy, and she lucked into the right answer and everyone else was whispering behind their hands how smart she was.

In another section, one kid recognized the word "third" from Spanish, and the whole rest of the section, instead of saying "tertium quid", I said "el tertio que".

Also, when I used the word "sublimated hostility" when discussing a text and someone went "ahhhhh", I paused and repeated myself more gravely and was like, "sublimated hostility", and then I wrote in big letters on the board -

SUBLIMATED HOSTILITY 

- and finally I pointed to the phrase very seriously and was like, "That's why you go to college."