9. 22-Year-Old Male Political Staffer And Obama Supporter

It was the first day of my last semester of college. It struck me that I had enough credits to graduate and did not really need to be there.

I entered a classroom and sat. Seconds later, the professor opened the door. It was John McCain. This surprised me at first, but then I vaguely remembered registering for a class he was teaching.

In one abrupt motion, McCain walked through the door and sat at the first empty desk he saw. Without any introduction, he scolded us for not doing the reading. (We didn't know how he knew we hadn't done it, but he was right –- most of us hadn't.) I took from my bag the text for the class –- a thin, illustrated paperback mostly about McCain's life. McCain barked about some kind of onerous weekly assignment we had to write based on the book, but then revealed that all of the installments would be due at the end of the semester. We took this to mean that for all McCain's sternness, the class would be easy.

When we went to discussing the book, his mood flashed from angry to sugary. McCain turned to me, smiled, and asked, So, it is really possible for a bird to change the course of history like that? I had no idea what he was talking about.

I flipped through pages of the book for a period of time, and the question seemed to stretch for a minute, but was really only a few seconds. Are you referring to the scene in the book where the cat eats the bird? I asked.

Yes, McCain said. Some know-it-all who had done the reading jumped in and fawned at McCain, taking the light off me. I turned to my right and discovered one of my friends was sitting next to me. He marveled at the improvisation.

I left thinking I would probably just drop the class.