When I was in grad school, a visiting professor, who was an expert on burrowing owls, went on a field trip with a class of mine. One particularly annoying graduate student cornered the professor by sitting next to him in the van.
Poor visiting professor.
Desperate to impress the professor—why, I’m not sure—the graduate student babbled on and on with questions and comments. The rest of us sat quietly, rolling our eyes.
And then the brilliant graduate student said, “Can you tell me how high up a tree a burrowing owl nests?”
The professor’s eyes got really big and he said, “Can you tell me the definition of burrow?”
Okay, no, he didn’t, but it would’ve been awesome if he had because she really did ask that stupid question.
