Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Walked Into That One

Tuesday, the 12th of April

Today we had a marathon session in one of our classes (scheduled for five straight hours).  It was actually my last class for the semester (wahoo!) and now I just have three exams and two papers between me and a summer of fun (and productivity of course).  The class is pretty small and we all know each other really well which leads to a great classroom environment.  In addition, the professor also knows us pretty well, keep this in mind as it will came up later.

Today we were talking about British criminal procedure around the start of the colonial era.  The professor mentioned that prior to this time the penalty for all felonies was capital (read: execution) but at this point in time they started to sentence people to "transportation."  The professor asked, "what does transportation mean?"  I could have answered factually, "the practice of sentencing criminals to exile" but instead I chose to get in a shot at one of our classmates who's Australian so I said "Australia!" and looked her with the "you come from a land of criminals" face.  The professor responded "yes that's right, and also [pause slightly for emphasis] the American South" (looking straight at me).  Boom roasted.  Everyone laughed and I had been put back in my proper place.

Apparently Georgia was a British penal colony at one point.  Boy doesn't that explain a lot?  (See here or here or here.)  Thugs.

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