Howdy.

I'm in Wuppertal, Germany now. This is intended to be my home for a goodish while. I'll be posting on my transition from tourist-visa holder to resident alien (with a right to work and, fingers crossed, a job) soon.

I will also post some things that have been on my mind regarding politics in the good ole US of A and other things.

But first: I've been going through my things, trying to get my nest all nesty, and ran across my list of funny things students have written for me and for friends o' me.

You have, perhaps, seen emails containing funny/sad student answers and wondered if they could possibly be real. I can assure you that what you are about to read is REAL. I'm keeping it real. What? Streetstile.

I am Greg McDonald and I approved this message.

[from my students at Tec de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara, 2003/4]

Since World War 2 was over, nothing happened aganst Jew's life, again.

The Aztecs got diseases because the Spanish never took baths.


[ from my students at West Virginia University, Morgantown, 1998-2002]

The priests [of Mesopotamia] could speak in a language of tongue.

Rome became a great empire over thousands of years, but its decline only took hundreds of years, which composed no specific reasons.

Afrer Rome fell, the Christian church became more powerful. Which I guess is only inedible, since the Romans believed in many gods.

Octavian used political genus to arouse the ruling class.

At the Battle of Hastings: William has stirrups on his horse, which are unheard of at the time. Because of this he loses “the Bastard” and becomes “the Conqueror”.

[re: Christianity and Islam] Both religions believed in untidiness, one with Christ, one with Allah.

The main reason Christianity made such an impact was that it went through the Christian church.

Martin Luther decided that being a Protestant was not right for him anymore. He switched over to being a devoted Christian man.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth is sometimes called “Elizabeth’s Period”.

The Black Plague whipped out 1/2 of Europe.

Islam is a middle eastern country.

The Vikings [were] the first known people. They wore helmets.

The Eastern Church allowed marriage between priests, while the Western Church frowned upon such activity.

Muhammed . . . took Mecca by force, contrasting shapely with the emergence of Christianity.

The ultimate motivation behind European exploitation basically consisted of the same idea but there were many different reasons behind each one.

Early Christians were forced to keep their new religious beliefs a secret because the worship of Christianity was illegal by law.

Another threat to Christianity spreading was that Catholicism was introduced.

[Queen Elizabeth I was an] English monarch for nearly two centuries. She made Raleigh a sir.

America in the 1930s was a very hard place to live.

At the end of the [30 Years W]ar the people were allowed to follow Christianity.

[because of the 30 Years War] Prussia emerged from this war as the most powerful country in Germany, while France emerged as the most powerful country in England. They both beat Spain.

Jim Crow laws were established by erect white southerners.

The impact of “discovery” and colonization on Native Americans was gastronomically huge.

[slave codes were] secret codes slaves used to talk to each other when their masters were around.

[the Cotton Gin was an] alcoholic beverage the slaves made themselves, demonstrating their triumph over adversity.


[from a friend’s students at West Virginia University]

The End of a Thing that Might Have Happen [an essay title]

The Indians then showed da Verenzanno’s men what they thought of them by mooning them from shore.

For the most part Indians stood unchanging.

In 1492 when Columbus sailed to India he did not see the impact it would have on the world.

[American Indians] exploited themselves completely before realizing what was going on to them.

[American Indians] hung the axes and the hoes that the colonists gave them from their breast ornaments, not realizing their actual use.

As colonists worked to break down the Indian populations, they soon executed the gatherings.

[American Indians] were here at the beginning and spread throughout colonial America.

Following the French and Indian War the American Revolution virtually dismounted any freedom [Indians] had left in the Americas.

The Indians fought for their independence and loss of land.

The Indians were peaceful and trusting creatures of nature, enabling compassion to surround their hearts.

As time went by the Europeans attempted to help the Natives to build an immunity toward some diseases. One attempt at this came during the 1960s when the British at Fort Pitt gave blankets from the smallpox hospital to the Delaware Indians.

Spanish explorations and hostile accusations of Native American land in the southwest was very nasty.

To the Native Americans, America WAS their world and the European expansion onto their land was not a matter of E.T. just asking to barrow the phone. It was more like the creature in the movie “Aliens” which beat the stew out of Sigourney Weaver.

Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independants [an essay title]

It was well known that Jefferson had a potent pen.


[from a friend’s student at Oklahoma State University]

The fulfillment that comes with reading one of the Great Books is indeed fulfilling because it would not be a Great Book if it was not.


IF YOU'VE GOT REAL AND FUNNY THINGS OF YOUR OWN, PLEASE COMMENT TO THAT EFFECT.