Yesterday was my last teaching day of the fall semester, and things ended not as smoothly as I would have liked. In one course, I had just a wee too much material backed up into the last class, and time ran out with me having about another 10 minutes' worth of brilliant things to say. That's a rookie mistake that an old hand like myself shouldn't be making. I must make some adjustments for the next time around.

When I got back to my office, feeling a little shaky after my final performance in that class, I got my copy of a short article that I had written for a student-run law journal. As I eagerly turned the pages to see how it came out, I found to my horror that the student editors had managed to screw up one of the tables included in the article, leaving it glaringly incorrect. A change was made after the last version of the article that I was permitted to see, and the mistake was totally out of my control. I'm sure they'll print some sort of correction at some point, but you have to wonder if readers will ever see that. My overall reaction is to wish that I had never written the piece, or at least not submitted it to that particular journal.

There was one other annoying episode, but I think I've brooded enough about that day. Suffice it to say, some days the big bear eats you.