5

 Monday, day number six of the Great Countdown, started out fine but then ended in a discouraging fashion. Both of my COR 303 classes did a nice job on the morning's assignment. I gave them three anonymous accounts of the birth of Jesus, #1 (from Mathew), #2 (from Luke), and #3 (from Surah Mary in the Qur'an). It's one of my favorite mad Scudder assignments. It makes them address the notion of what constitutes a religious/sacred text, and what would be the challenges in treating it like a historical text. Later, my COR 204 section of Images of Fascism was depressing. We had a great section from Snyder's book, and then followed it up by watching Jafar Panahi's wonderful film The Circle. Half of the students were on their phones or laptops during the movies, not taking notes, but playing games. If a class dealing with Fascism tied to a class on Iran - at this specific moment in time - doesn't grab your attention, you really shouldn't be in college. It's hard to imagine that this generation is going to put up much of a fight as the US finally slides into a full blown authoritarian regime.

Thanks to Justin Rankin for loaning me his number 5 as part of the Great Countdown. He's quickly become one of my favorite CFL players, and not simply because I saw him play last year in Edmonton and that he became my go-to running back in my CFL fantasy team. Rankin was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and played college ball at Kent State and Northwest Missouri State. After going undrafted by an NFL team (the classic first stop on a CFL career), he played three years in the Indoor Football League (IFL), for the Bismarck Bucks, Frisco Fighters, and Bay Area Panthers (winning an IFL championship with the Panthers). After that he moved north and signed with the Edmonton Elks. After a slow start he hit his stride, rushing last year for 1013 yards and catching 56 passed for another 713 yards. I really need to get one of his jerseys.