Class Pre-Union

Cory and Minkus are role-playing in history. Cory is George Washington and Minkus plays King George. They go back and forth for awhile until Cory stops and says history is boring and they should all think about their futures. Mr. Feeny says that's a good idea and gives an assignment- pretend you are coming to your 20th high school reunion. What's your profession? Married? Kids?

Minkus says he'd like to marry Topanga. She's flattered, but says she doesn't recognize the institution of marriage. At lunch, the boys talk about what they want to be. Shawn will be a tire salesman like his dad. Yeah-Yeah is back, and is going to be a teacher just like Feeny because he thinks that'll net him a good grade. Cory scoffs and says the boys aren't thinking big enough. He's going as what he actually wants to be- a center fielder for the Phillies. Shawn and Yeah-Yeah point out how crappy Cory is at little league, but he doesn't care. He runs home and writes down stats, makes a baseball card, and fashions his own cereal.

Morgan wore a gold necklace of Amy's to her friend Stephanie's birthday party and ends up trading it away for a cheap plastic one. Amy calls Steph's mom, but she's not having any of it and says she won't give it back. Amy sets up a playdate and Stephanie and her mom Jane come over. Jane explains that Stephanie is super attached to the necklace and it has nothing to do with the value of it. In the kitchen, Morgan bribes Stephanie out of the necklace, her hat and dress, and Jane's car with nothing more than brownies, a tiara, and my little pony. Morgan needs to teach sales seminars.

At the Class Reunion, Minkus does pretty much what Richard Gere does in Pretty Woman. He's got a massive portfolio with lists of assets, stocks, bank loans, etc. In his personal life, he's married to Topanga, and they've just celebrated the birth of their third child, Rainbow Einstein Minkus.

Topanga is the president. She's disbanded the military, eliminated nuclear weapons, instituted a national dress code of togas, and moved all men underground to only be used as breeding. Feeny tells her Minkus said they were married and she just says they don't see eye to eye on their futures.

Shawn is a tire salesman, with a bitchin' mustache/beer gut combo. Yeah-Yeah is dressed exactly like Mr. Feeny and Feeny sees straight through it and fails him. When it's Cory's turn, he shows Feeny his card and cereal and says he dropped out of high school in junior year for a 6 mil a year contract. Feeny says that's not a ton of money for a major league ball player, and Cory replies that he sunk some of it into "investments." Feeny doesn't believe him and says that because Cory has no high school or college degree, he won't be able to manage money or any investment once his career is over. He gives Cory an incomplete and Cory is heartbroken.

Cory pulls all of his baseball stuff off the wall and Alan comes in to talk to him. Cory asks if anyone told Alan he couldn't be the grocery store manager when he was little. Alan says he actually wanted to be an engineer and build bridges, but then his dream changed into having a family and providing for them. Now his dream is to be the father of a Phillies center fielder. Cory says he'll have to give that up, because baseball player dreams are just for kids.

Eric is on the phone with a friend when Cory rushes downstairs and hangs it up. He calls Shawn and tells him to round up all their friends because Jim Abbott is in their kitchen. Eric doesn't believe him, but lo and behold, Jim Abbott is in the kitchen. He gives a nice pep talk about overcoming odds and how his high school coach said Jim would never play in the majors, what with his lack of a hand and all. However, Jim is grateful to him because he helped him get into Michigan so he could get a good education.

Later, Cory is playing ball out back and hits one into Feeny's yard. Cory tells Feeny all about Jim coming over and says that he's going to go to college just like Jim and get noticed that way. Then he'll go into the majors and be a big star. Feeny says Jim seems like he had things thought out pretty well and Cory would do well to emulate him. To show how proud he is, he gives Cory all his balls back. (Heh. Balls.)

Roundup

*Stephanie's mom Jane is a bitch.

*Feeny tells Yeah-Yeah that someone tries to dress up like a teacher and kiss ass every year. He just thought of this assignment. I understand giving Shawn an off screen sister who we never hear about again, but there should at least be continuity within one episode.

*Some chick dresses up as a Vegas showgirl for the reunion. It's a bit of a risqué costume.

*At the end, Alan and Amy start making out o the couch and it turns out Cory is filming it. He asks for a little action. I'm not sure if he means action as in something more interesting or action as in "get sexier" but either way it's creepy.

*I love hippie Topanga

* Did the Phillies and the Yankees have a rivalry in 1994? Cause I'd think Cory wouldn't be so enamored with Jim Abbott.

*When all the kids come over to see Jim and get autographs, Minkus accidentally brings a basketball. Poor Minkus.

Teacher's Bet

We open with Cory and Shawn talking about Barry Bonds making millions of dollars a year. Minkus overhears and is disgusted that sports stars make so much but Feeny only makes about $40,000. Cory and Shawn are amazed by this figure and can't believe he makes so much, but Minkus thinks he's quite underpaid. Cory points out that Feeny doesn't actually DO anything, because the material never changes and all Feeny has to do is tell students the same thing year after year.

In class, Feeny assigns The Diary of Anne Frank as part of the unit on prejudice. Cory makes a disparaging comment and Feeny calls him out after class. Cory doesn't really apologize, he just says that since teaching is so easy, his smart ass comments stir things up and make it interesting for Feeny. Mr. Feeny ponders this and gives Cory the opportunity to teach one of his classes for the rest of the week. If more students than normal pass the test, Cory will get 1/5 of Feeny's paycheck. If more fail, Feeny will get Cory's new bike.

Cory rushes home to tell Alan and Amy about the bet. They have some reservations, but Cory just brushes it off. Eric brings home a new girlfriend, Linda. Linda is very pretty and smart and happens to be Japanese.

The next day is Cory's first class. He pretty much throws one big party and assigns the same homework as Feeny did. Minkus points that out and Cory says he knows 6th graders sometimes don't do homework, so he's giving everyone a second chance. Minkus replies that he did do his homework, so Cory gives him an assignment to get a life.

Alan asks how the class went and Cory says it was great, they partied and Shawn taught Feeny to play poker. Alan says that's fun and all, but wonders if he actually taught anything and Cory says no, because the book is the teacher. Alan raises his eyebrows at that and inquires if Cory's actually read the book. Cory skimmed it and came to the conclusion it was about the Nazi's and when there was prejudice a long time ago. Alan tells Cory he's going to lose his bike.

That scares Cory and he asks Shawn for help getting the class back under control, but Shawn blows him off. He tries to call roll, but Topanga is mediating, Minkus gets sassy, and the class gets out of control. Cory just sort of sits there defeated.

At home later, Cory is actually reading the book and realizes it's sort of hard to be a teacher. Eric leads Linda in and sits her on the couch. Linda is sobbing and distraught, and it's not until Morgan asks what's wrong that Eric tells them someone called Linda a really bad name and the mall. Amy takes Morgan into the kitchen and Cory is incredulous that something like that happened that day in their neighborhood.

The next day in class, Cory tells everyone about what happened with Linda. No one pays attention and Cory almost quits, but then turns around and asked Shawn his mother's maiden name. Shawn tells him it was Cordini and Cory calls him a wop. Everyone immediately stops what they're doing and looks. Shawn starts pushing Cory and tells him he's going to kill him. Cory stops him and asks what Shawn would do if he lived in a country where he could be killed just because of his name. He gives the class a speech about racism being bad and says everyone has to read the book and pass the test so that they can all stand up and fight against prejudice.

It turns out the bet is a draw and neither Cory nor Mr. Feeny have to give anything up. Cory is happy but can't believe people still failed. Feeny says it'll happen no matter what, but Shawn got a B and usually gets C's so Cory must've gotten through. This makes Cory feel better and he realizes he learned an important lesson, too.

Roundup:

*Shawn has a different denim vest. Still has the ripped sleeves, but with a classy collar, not a sweat hood.

* While Cory teaches, Feeny is a student. His student clothes are a Phillies jersey and a Meat Loaf hat/sweatshirt combo. Feeny is such a fashionista.

*When Eric brings Linda home, she asks Morgan if Eric's brought home lots of girls. Morgan says there's been billions. I have a very scientific girl tally, and this is not the case.

*At one point Alan brings groceries home in a reusable bag. The Matthews were on the cutting edge of the green trend, people.

*On the first day of class, Cory says he's doing away with the no hats policy and Topanga asks if they can also go against dress code so she can wear a sari. Wouldn't those rules be established by the school and not Mr. Feeny?

*Feeny is late to class and says he was "chillin with his homies."

*At the end, Linda makes the cheerleading team. Amy used to be a cheerleader and does this ridiculous, cheesy cheer. Eric says cheerleading is cool and cutting edge, but Linda demonstrates the exact same cheer.

Girl Tally:

Eric- 3

Shawn- 0

Cory- 1

Banned Books Week

Check out Nikki's post for full celebration deets.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.

You won’t find me comparing this book to The Catcher in the Rye. Oh, comparisons can certainly be drawn (and have been, almost ad nauseam). Why? Because my name is Caitlin, I hold a Bachelor of Science in English Literature, and...

IthinkCatcherintheRyeisoneofthemostoverratedbooksintheworld.



Phew. It’s finally off my chest. In fact, as come of age stories about boys go, I much prefer the woefully UNDERrated A Separate Peace.

My friend Carolyn routinely comes to visit me toting large boxes of books. She puts stickers in the ones she wants back and I throw the rest onto paperback swap when I’m done. It’s a fool-proof system. She introduced me to this book years ago when we were living together. “Here, read this, I think you’ll like it”…it was a highlighted, dog eared copy with strict instructions this was one she wanted back. Obviously this negated the need for the aforementioned sticker system. I flipped through it, and the quotes she’d highlighted immediately stood out. “I feel infinite” was the first one I saw. I turned to page one and was off to the races.

*Plot*

The story in and of itself is very simple. I like things to happen in my books. I like court dramas, murder mysteries, horror novels, and the occasional chick lit. Character studies don’t do much for me. However, the simplicity of this story works highly in its favor. At its core, it’s a story about “Charlie” finding his place in the world. He begins high school confused about who he is and what his roll is in his own life. He’s recently reeling from the suicide of his middle school friend and the death of his favorite aunt. To help sort things out, he begins to write letters to an anonymous “friend” who he heard was nice. The entire school year unfolds throughout, and the reader is let into Charlie’s world. He’s the youngest of three, with a football star brother and a sister who has enough issues to make her own book (I would totally read that). He’s an outsider looking in, reticent but ready. His English teacher takes a special interest in him and gives him extra credit books to read, so he spends most of his time going through those. There’s a boy in his shop class who seems very nice to everyone, and they get to talking at a football game. Patrick and his stepsister Sam become Charlie’s near constant companions, and he’s pleased as punch about it. Charlie develops a near epic crush on Sam almost instantly and feels terrible about it. With the help of friends, Charlie goes to parties, drinks, smokes, becomes enamored with and eventually a part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show crowd, and generally has a pretty good time discovering there’s a life apart from being a wallflower.

*Non-spoiler alert*

I want anyone who reads this book to come at it with fresh eyes. Without giving too much away, Charlie and his friends deal with domestic violence, homosexuality, sexuality in general, physical and sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol, depression, and suicide. I realize putting it all together in one sentence like that makes it sound like the most over the top afterschool special/lifetime movie/soap opera hybrid in the world, but it’s the point of view that makes it worthwhile. Charlie looks at all of these as an outsider, even the ones that directly involve him. He’s like the photographer that lets the lion eat the gazelle instead of stepping in, because that’s how life goes. The writing is engaging, and riddled with anecdotes, one liners, and totally highlight-able quotes that unfold the story as if you were the “friend” Charlie is writing to. Some people have said there’s a twist ending to the book, one you won’t see coming, and that it’s kind of a cheap ending designed to play on emotion. I don’t agree. By the end, you are emotionally involved with almost all the characters, and what happens in their respective arcs matters.


*Why is the book so challenged? *

The depictions are real. Not fact based, but there’s not a lot that gets sugar coated. Charlie says “penis.” He describes oral sex, gay sex, and sexual abuse in frank terms. There’s swearing, drug use, masturbation, drinking, and other horrors.

*So what?*

Newsflash. High school aged kids swear, smoke, drink, and copulate. Not all of them, but a solid faction. If anything, this book puts all that into perspective. It doesn’t matter if you hung out in the basement or were homecoming queen. Every teenager has had self esteem issues, self doubt, self hate, and moments of self love (high self esteem wise, not diddling your diddle, though that also happens). This book speaks to that. It reinforces that it’s ok to fall down, it’s ok to experiment, and it’s ok to let out what you’re feeling. These are lessons that are important for teenagers to learn. This book resonates with the high school crowd. I was in my early 20’s the first time I read it and it certainly resonated with me, so much so that I now own my own (ha) highlighted copy. Look how much it affected these fine folks here and here <--- tattoo pictures that wouldn't load to the post properly, totally SFW.



This is a book that needs to stay in the system, and stay relevant. If Catcher in the Rye and even A Separate Peace can do it, this should round out the trifecta.

Grandma Was a Rolling Stone

Keri Russell! Rue McClahahan! Making out is not a spectator sport!

Cory and Shawn are collecting snails out of Mr. Feeny’s garden to use as bait to go fishing. Alan points out that fish don’t eat snails and Feeny just laughs it off before launching into a ridiculous story about catching small mouthed bass. All three make a pretty hasty exit. We find out Eric isn’t going on the fishing trip because “he’s discovered girls.” In fact, Eric has been using Morgan’s cuteness to meet girls at the mall. Amy says it’s fine, she’s actually glad the two of them are bonding.

La Cucaracha blares out as a harbinger for Rue. She comes in wearing the most redic outfit. Claudia Kishi is probably the only other person who could pull it off, because we all know she looks distantly dibble in everything. Rue doles out presents- a shrunken head and promise of new clothes for Morgan, a bull whip and promise of a car show/girls for Eric, and a Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card and promise of an autograph for Cory. She also bestows dried cactus on Alan and Amy, proclaiming it will make them “regular as a diesel.” Poop jokes. Always a classy move, BMW.

Rue takes Morgan shopping and they both buy a bright red shirt covered in white fringe. She takes Eric to the car show and he gets his arm signed by Victoria’s Secret model Graciella Tertciana. He’s about two steps away from awkwardly sexing up to his own arm when Feeny comes in and says his niece is in town. Eric thinks Feeny is asking him to date the niece and pretends to be sick, but Feeny just wants to know what teenagers do. Eric tells him dinner and a movie and Feeny leaves.

The next day, Cory comes downstairs ready to go to Baltimore (!) to get the Ripken card signed. Rue is nowhere to be found, and Amy distracts Cory by asking him to bake with her. They end up making four batches of muffins. Amy tries to bake a cake next, but Cory thinks something happened to Rue and they should call the cops or go look for her. Amy gentle explains that Rue sort of marches to a different beat, and she’s probably not coming. Cory is pretty bummed, and Amy says she’ll take him and Shawn bowling if he’d like. Cory calls Shawn, but Shawn left with Alan to go on the fishing trip. Cory is even more upset because he lost his grandmother to who knows what and his best friend to his father. He goes to sulk in the treehouse.

Eric spies Feeny’s niece outside. Why, it’s Keri Russell! He runs outside, hops the fence, and picks up a heavy bag of fertilizer in an effort to appear strong. Morgan comes out and goes through her spiel, and Keri takes it hook, line, and sinker. The three of them go to the fair. When they come back, Morgan cons Eric into giving her his sunglasses because she knows he can’t say no in front of Keri. When she goes inside, Keri calls him out on using Morgan and on having some random chick’s name on his arm. She’s either incredibly stupid or Eric is incredibly charming, but she forgives him pretty fast and they get to kissing. Cory sees them for the treehouse and Alan and Shawn come back from fishing and catch them. Everyone just sort of stands around until Shawn calls Eric “The Lipmaster!” and Keri gets embarrassed and goes inside. Eric scoffs at all of them and leaves. Cory jumps down and whines about missing the day with grandma and his dad. Alan sends Shawn home and brings Cory inside.

Alan explains that Rue is different from most people. Once when Alan was little, she forgot to sign a permission slip for a field trip to a space exhibit at the museum. Little Alan was super bummed because the rest of the class got to go, and he really liked rocket ships. One day, Rue woke Little Alan up and drove him down to Cape Canaveral to see an actual rocket launch- while his classmates watched it on little black and white TVs. He explains that while the whole world was watching the launch, Rue was watching him. She loves Cory, but she shows love differently than most people.

Rue comes in and apologizes for missing the day with Cory. He accepts and says that the Cal Ripken card is his favorite, and his signature might have messed it up. She promises to do something really great the next time she’s in Philly, and Cory says he can’t wait. Eric runs in and asks Alan to cover for him and says he’s been at home. Feeny follows with a flashlight and tells Alan to keep Eric and his hormones away from Keri. Rue juts in and covers for Eric, but Feeny says he just heard her pull up and run over his mums. She asks Cory who Feeny is and Cory explains he’s his teacher. She asks if Feeny gives Cory straight A’s and when he says no, Rue goes to run over the rest of his mums.

Roundup:

*So many Baltimore references here. Remember when the Orioles weren’t a joke? I wasn’t living here then, but I hear stories.

*After Keri goes inside, Alan wonders how she’s related to Feeny. Eric says “Niece.” Alan replies “Niiiiiiiice.” Super pervy, AM.

*In regards to the above, there’s a running theme in the later seasons with wordplays on niece/nice/niche.

*When they’re collecting snails, Shawn is wearing a long sleeved baggy thermal, a loudly patterned baggy T-shirt, and a jean vest. With the sleeves torn off. With a sweatshirt hood. I can’t believe I collected this kid’s poster out of Tiger Beat.

*I think I might be in the Morgan minority (I like the later Morgan a lot more than this one.) However, this episode is my tuning point from annoyance to acceptance. She’s pretty funny in this one.

*When Rue asks Cory if he’d like to go to Baltimore to get the card signed, he replies “What are you, new!?” I totally say this all the time, and did not realize it was from this show.

*I did every spelling combination imaginable in Google to find the model who writes on Eric. I don't think she's real.

*We have to put Rue in the character graveyard. In later seasons, Cory's only grandparent is Grandma Boo-Boo, who is alternately alive and dead. Rough life, Boo-Boo.

*A little layout update: I’m not going to be pulling quotes for the titles of the blogs anymore. There’s too many good lines. I’ll start including a best lines section instead. Next time though, because I’m writing this at work and didn’t write any non-Baltimore lines down in my notes. *

Girl Tally
Eric -2
Shawn- 0
Cory -1

Character Graveyard
Stacey, Shawn's sister

Bernice (Rue McClanahan), Cory's grandmother

look to your right and click

I don't think you guys know much about me, because I don't think anyone I know in real life reads this blog. I told my parents I was writing it and they rolled their eyes because they were subjected to enough Boy Meets World when it was actually on TV.

I work in advertising. A big part of my job is statistics of markets in the Baltimore Metro area. You'd think by this point I'd find statistics boring, but it's pretty much the most interesting part of my job. The point is, on my bloggy homepage I get statistics of who's looking at what and when. (Shout out to Japan, by the way. You guys love you some BMW.)

Now that we're a quarter way through the first season, I want to see if the stats match up with your actual preferences. You'll notice a poll to the right of this post. If you'd kindly click on your favorite episode, I'll file that away for my awesome statistical roundup when we're done season one. I promise it'll be a lot more interesting than that sentence leads you to believe. Be on the lookout for new polls as we get to the 1/2 and 3/4 marks.

New recap Tuesday!

"these kids make Minkus look like Fabio!" aka Boys II Mensa

Cory is clowning around (literally, he's got the nose) with Shawn while Feeny hands back some tests. Cory gets a C and Minkus gets an A. Cory complains that just because Minkus is smart, Feeny likes him better and lets him get away with everything. Cory gets detention for the nose and for mouthing off.

After detention, he and Shawn find crumpled up test answers in a trashcan. They both get pretty pumped, but it turns out the answers are for a standardized IQ test. Shawn throws them back, but Cory grabs them. Shawn wants to know why Cory would cheat on a test that isn't even for a grade, but Cory wants to be treated the same way as Minkus.

At home, Eric takes Morgan Halloween shopping and "she" ends up choosing a gory zombie costume instead of a princess. Amy is kind of upset, but Alan totally approves. Cory has brought home a note from Feeny about the test and starts flipping out. He decides he'll try to prove to everyone that he actually is a genius and has just been hiding it all these years. It doesn't really work, and both Feeny and the Matthews drop hints that they know what's up.

At school the next day, Feeny pulls Cory aside and tells him he'll be going to a new school for gifted kids. There's no sports or recess, they just study. Cory says he wants to stay, and Feeny gives him a chance to come clean, which doesn't happen.

Cory calls Shawn over to yell at him for letting it go this far. Someone from the genius school is coming over to test him and then he's going to be carted away. Shawn not-so-gently points out that Cory is not actually a genius and likely won't pass the test no matter how hard he tries.

The woman comes and is really snooty and terrible. She insinuates Alan and Amy are stupid for being a grocer and a stay at home mom, and insults Morgan. After Cory finishes the test and his score is only average, she accuses him of cheating. He comes clean, but she thinks Cory's cheated on this test so he doesn't have to switch schools. She won't listen when he tells her he cheated on the initial test. She finally gets it, and leaves. Cory is grounded for two weeks, but can still celebrate Halloween.

Roundup:

*Shawn's voice breaks a ton in this episode. Ah, puberty.

*Still no Topanga. I miss her.

*As punishment for wearing the clown nose, Feeny makes Cory wear it all morning long in class. Ha! Good call, Feeny.

*Minkus penned a haiku on the test he got an A on. He recites it for the class, and the kid behid him pulls the weirdest faces. He looks both terrified and disgusted.

*One of the things Cory does to convince his parents he's a genius is conduct a symphony with a giant Phillie's foam finger. It's kind if a hilarious scene; he gets really into it.

*During the scene with the admissions woman, it's pretty obvious Ben Savage is holding back a big laugh. I'm not sure why, because it's not that funny of a scene, but I guess something was going on behind the scenes.

*The woman tests Morgan to see if she's as smart as Cory. She gives Morgan the following analogy: Maple is to Elm as Daisy is to.... Morgan's answer is booger. That's about as good as I could do, kid.

"sometimes a man doesn't know himself until he's walked a mile in another man's humungous pants" aka Killer Bees

There's no Topanga in this episode, which is kind if a letdown after all the smooching last time. However, it's Minkus heavy, so that almost makes up for it. Minkus has just aced another geography test, and Feeny announces he's entering Minkus in the state Geography Bee. No one cares until Feeny tells everyone the prize- the winner will be bat boy/girl in the opening game of the World Series. Once Cory hears that, he decides he needs to get into the bee.

At home, Eric has gotten tickets to the Aerosmith show. When he tells Amy, she mentions she and Alan are also going to the show. Eric freaks out and says that this is his first concert and a big night for him and Heather. Amy says she's liked Aerosmith for a long time and she's sorry, but they're going to the concert whether Eric likes it or not. Eric leaves and says he'll just get tickets for a more current act, like Eric Clapton.

Shawn, Cory, and Ellis bring Minkus back to Cory's house and convince him that if he doesn't do the bee they'll be a little nicer to him. He tells Mr. Feeny that he's dropping out of the bee and Cory begs to take his place. Feeny is reluctant because he knows Cory only wants the prize, but Cory convinces him that he's actually eager to learn.

Cory gets into learning geography- there's little factoids all throughout the episode. Feeny doesn't say it, but he's pretty impressed with how much dedication Cory is putting into it. However, the bee turns out to be pretty intense. Cory knows nothing and ends up losing.

Eric goes to the concert and has a terrible time because Alan and Amy have better seats, backstage passes, and an all-around better time. After everyone gets home, Alan gives Eric a speech about how he needs to chill out and learn to appreciate that his parents have lives and are comfortable with themselves.

Cory is pretty upset about losing the bee, especially when he figures out Minkus probably would have won it. He ends up getting an A on his geography test, and Mr. Feeny calls him a winner anyway.

Roundup:

*At one point, Cory wears baggy jeans, an oversized yellow sweatshirt, and an even bigger blue shirt over that. His clothes are almost comically oversized.

*Heather's last name is Ralston, and she's played by Nikki Cox. Nikki Cox is super hot. Good pull, Eric.

*Amy tells Eric she and Alan went to see Aerosmith while she was preggers and says "we were there, you were here" and points to her belly. Morgan incredulously asks Amy if she ate Eric. You'd think with all the sexytime in that house, Alan and Amy would have explained the whole deal to Morgan by now.

*Speaking of which, at one point Amy physically carries Morgan up to bed. Isn't she like six? I'm not a mom, but that seems old to still be being carried.

* Geography facts in this episode

- The highest and lowest points in the continental United States are only 50 miles apart.

- Hawaii used to be called the Sandwich Islands, named for the Earl of Sandwich, the inventor of the sandwich (this is a really nice convo between Cory and Mr. Feeny. Feeny leads Cory on the whole time, letting him think Cory is teaching him something)

- The indigenous people of Tierra Del Fuego are the Yagans.

- The Tuamotu Islands are owned by France, and their major export is copra

* Copra is the dried meat of a coconut. Thanks, Wikipedia.

*The other "current" musical acts Eric says he should go to instead of Aerosmith? Elton John, Led Zeppelin, and Tina Turner.

*When Minkus does the cool guy thing, he wears a backwards Phillies hat. I knew other kids had them.

*After Mr. Feeny hangs Cory's test up, the audience starts clapping, and you can audibly hear someone yell "All right! Whooo!!" It's like that SBTB episode at Malibu Sands when Zack tells off Stacy and the rest of the audience claps like they're supposed to but one dude yells "Busted!"