[leephillips]

Well, put it this way: One day there was some kind of staffing glitch, and one of my classes had no teacher. So 30 students were left to their own devices; some snuck outside, some went to the cafeteria to socialize, some to the library, or to the auditorium, which was used as a kind of study hall. At the time, McCourt was covering Hamlet. Remember high school? Every subject, every day, for forty minutes. I went to McCourt’s classroom, found the one empty desk, and sat down. He glanced at me and kept on going, without missing a beat.

I re-read Hamlet every few years. In my inner voice, the characters have a tendency to slip into an Irish accent.