101

My friends had an idea of starting a "101" series where we could share our talents and interests with each other. I think Tink may have started the trend with a Sailing 101 - which I missed, but I hope there's a make-up class - and tonight was Ninja 101 with "The Bosom of Death" herself, R.K. Banane will be teaching us Mah Jongg, and B.P. will lead us in a tap dancing class. Looks like J.N. is going to paint with us - oranges, not lemons, 'cuz apparently lemons are hard. Orange and blue contrast more readily than yellow and purple, for those wondering. Oh, and C.P. promised us a Pub Crawl 101 at Tink's housewarming party.

I'm feeling sort of like Bobby Brady in "The Winner" - episode 46, season 2. Bobby's disappointed in himself because he's the only Brady who has never won a trophy. I'm not sure how to translate my interests and specialties into a class. TV Trivia 101 - "You'll need to watch a lot. It's probably easiest to start with TV Land. Get your Brady trivia down first, then learn the theme songs to every other show - don't bother with arcane stuff like 'Car 54, Where Are You?' - it rarely comes up and chances are no one else will know about it either." I'm not really sure how I could do Singing 101, either. I don't have lots of warm-up exercises I use, or a way to describe how to harmonize, or tips for performing. "You should sing some scales and stuff, try to sing a different part than the other singer, and have one or several glasses of red wine before you go on-stage."

That being said, we did throw around some other possible ideas at dinner tonight. I'm reluctant to do something people already KNOW how to do, like cooking, but could do Enchiladas 101. This would, of course, mean parting with the secret family recipe. Mnemonics 101, which would be different memorizing tricks. My friends brought up Teaching 101 - and my initial reaction was "Yikes! So broad!" But the more I think about it - well, still kinda tough. I guess this one would depend on how I approached it. Classroom / group management? Parts of a lesson plan? Organizational tips?