STARING AT NOTHING: TEACHING PUDDY'S SISTER

One of my favorite TV shows of all times is "Seinfeld." In one of the episodes, Elaine keeps breaking up and making up over and over again with her boyfriend, Puddy. At one point in the show, they are on an airplane flying to Italy or France or someplace romantic, and they break up on the plane. Then they make-up again. All is well for about twelve seconds until Elaine settles in with a magazine, and Puddy stares off into space. After a moment, Elaine can't help herself. She asks Puddy what he's doing, and he tells her he is just sitting there. She asks if he wants a magazine to read and he turns that down. He tells her he just wants to sit there. Elaine asks him what he's thinking about, and he replies that he's not thinking about anything. He's just sitting there. Sure enough, Puddy stares off into space until finally Elaine can't stand it anymore and breaks up with him, right then and there. She claimed it was weird of him to stare into space. Surely Puddy was thinking about something. You can't be just sitting' there with your brain on flatline, right?

I was reminded of that "Seinfeld" episode today when a teacher across the hall from me had a student who was reading during their twenty minute silent reading time, but the book she was reading looked very small, and the girl had it up very close to her face, so the teacher wandered over to investigate. Turns out it was a blank journal for writing daily thoughts and ideas. It was completely blank, and instead of saying something, the teacher decided to watch. The girl "read" the blank book for fifteen minutes. Finally, the teacher went over to the girl and confronted her with the fact that she had been "reading" a blank book for fifteen minutes. The teacher suggested she get a real book to read. The girl insisted that the blank journal was the book she wanted to "read," and that she didn't want to read a different book.

Puddy's sister, perhaps?

Humph.