11/05/24
September 24, 2004
Cream Puff Classes: Underwater Fire Prevention, Art & Science of Beer, The Cheerleader in American Society...
sounds 'bout as demanding as any other class I aced while attending stoned.
posted by garfield at 09:10 AM on September 24, 2004
i was an athlete in college and took basket weaving.
posted by goddam at 09:16 AM on September 24, 2004
I don't remember taking any real fluff courses in college, but I do remember taking organic chemistry and being in the "jock lab" (the only one that wasn't scheduled during practices). Picture a two-hour chemistry lab starting at 7 pm, full of crewbies who've been up since 4:30. We had some truly amazing lab accidents; it's a wonder nobody was killed or permanently injured.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:15 AM on September 24, 2004
"Puppy Petting" at the Univ of Wisconsin.... I can't recall the real name of the class, but basically was about raising pets and farm animals. Full of jocks and Jewish-American-Princesses. Worth 3 Biology credits. Also had "Clap for Credit". Real name: Music Appreciation. Friday afternoon at 2 PM. Listen to live music of varying types, take a 5 question "quiz" about the artist at the end of the hour. Clap.
posted by brewdudepa at 11:41 AM on September 24, 2004
i was an athlete in college and took basket weaving. Yeah, but you're a girl! My favorite (USC, go Trojans!) was electronic music, in which we noodled around with a bunch of synthesizers (this was 1981/2 so they were very primitive, like one note at a time not even chords) and to pass all that I had to do was turn in a tape of an original composition. Least favorite: Poetry (writing), taken in the Spring semester of my senior year, because, although I did all the assigned writing and participated in class disucssions, the professor didn't like me and gave me an F! Can you believe that? I had to take another class in the Summer session to get my freaking diploma. What an a55hole that guy was.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:51 AM on September 24, 2004
Geology 101. They called it Rocks for Jocks.
posted by worldcup2002 at 12:15 PM on September 24, 2004
I took my fluff course ('history of socialism and communism') with Elton Brand, Shane Battier, and Will Avery. Was a fun course; the trick was that the final exam allowed you to chose the material- pick any two books off a list of about 40, tell the prof which two you chose, and he writes custom essay questions for you. Your options on the list went from Das Kapital (if you were serious) to Animal Farm (if you weren't.) I chose the higher end, but I'm not sure who else did- probably less than five kids in the class weren't on scholarship. Rocks for Jocks was also offered, as was Intro to Jazz. But I heard that the year after I graduated they cut intro to jazz from 150 people to 30 and made it Serious. A shame, really ;)
posted by tieguy at 01:35 PM on September 24, 2004
Yeah, but you're a girl! hey, what does that have to do with anything? cause i'm a girl i'm supposed to like making baskets? i couldn't get the hang of basket weaving. i could just make the bases. so i weaved in some color, called them trivets, and got an A. i took crocheting as well but i got a C. my walt whitman class taught by this guy was by far the easiest. all you basically had to do was show up to get an A. i missed a few classes due to soccer games and i just had to write a poem a la whitman explaining why i was missing class.
posted by goddam at 01:43 PM on September 24, 2004
Goddam: I went to RIT for grad school. All business, though. Can't remember much fluff.
posted by sixpacker at 02:38 PM on September 24, 2004
i was in the school of art & design, so we had access to all the fluff like ceramics, woodworking, quilt making, etc.
posted by goddam at 02:52 PM on September 24, 2004
I took Astronomy 101 as an elective in third year. Which really isn't that much of a creampuff course until you realize that I have a physics degree.
posted by sauril at 02:54 PM on September 24, 2004
Showoff.
posted by chicobangs at 03:09 PM on September 24, 2004
goddam - I minored in art in undergrad, so I think I know what you mean. Chiseling soapstone and drawing nudes didn't require much mental strain. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
posted by sixpacker at 03:24 PM on September 24, 2004
I took recreation 100 as the intersession class between Christmas and New Year's. We got to play lazer tag at the mall, paintball and barn-swinging at a nearby farm, board games, rollerskating, etc. It was awesome.
posted by sirdavidalot at 03:40 PM on September 24, 2004
I wonder what it would be like to teach a cream puff course?
posted by smithers at 08:47 PM on September 24, 2004
Chiseling soapstone and drawing nudes didn't require much mental strain. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Drawing nudes does take mental strain! To actually do a decent drawing while you're ... erm ... appreciating a really good-looking model. Or recoiling from a really really really uuuuuuugly one. (Oh, I've been there. Several times. PTSD.)
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:11 PM on September 24, 2004
Granted, there is some straining going on, but it's not so much mental as it is physical.
posted by sixpacker at 07:00 AM on September 27, 2004
My alma mater (WCSU) used to offer frisbee, a 3 credit PE course. How demanding is it to throw a disc around with your buddies a couple of times a week?