Keeping up with me

And, finally, one of the reasons I've been behind with my postings is that I'm teaching SAT prep stuff again on Sundays. In Long Island (or "on?").
Anyway, this weekend had a bit of a surprise for me. I knew I was going to do a double shift. But I was quite certain that I'd be teaching all Writing. Turned out I was teaching Reading on the second shift. Eeek!
So I stalled for a while and then, boom, my best lecture ever. Not really, but it went just fine, I think.
I even came up with a dumb pun that I can't help but share.
See, one of the ways I like to remember new words (Reading in SAT exam terms often means knowing vocabulary) is to dissect them. For example, the word "dissect" which we pronounce as "die-sect" and therefore often misspell. But the word doesn't refer to sectioning in two (di); rather, it's sectioning apart (dis).
I still misspell it all the time, but at least I know why I'm wrong.
So I shared my favorite root:
-stitution.
It goes with:
con, in, sub, de, re, and, of course, the one that gets the giggles, pro.
And then I said that prostitution is just a way of making, heh, heh ends meet. Not realizing until the middle of the word "ends" that I was making a pun.
But these kids are smart. They actually got it and had the typical pun-appreciation response.
A groan and a smile.
That's really all I can ask for.
(And it sounds like drink order: a shot of whiskey with a champagne chaser.)