11.5.07: Special Evening Lecture

This is the live blog of a guest speaker, Professor Greenspoon of Creighton University. Things are a bit chronologically out of order on the blog. We'll get caught up soon. Enjoy this special presentation.

7.27 Just arrived and this is ridiculous. Its standing room only to hear a lecture about the history of Biblical scholarship. My theory is most people are here only because Troxel called this guy “a personal friend”. One of my greatest goals in life is to get as physically close to anyone Troxel considers a friend. Maybe I can get a handshake after the show.
7.29 The potential for song and dance is high. I see Prof. Greenspoon (great name) and he’s a prankster, he just compared this presentation to “Hannah Montana”. I don’t know if this knowledge of pre-adolescent TV makes him cool or creepy.
7:30 Troxel comes down and announces we will do something unorthodox by all sitting up in the front on the floor, which won’t be too odd because “Prof. Greenspoon is used to his student’s falling all over him.” Weird Troxel. Weird.
7.31 People still streaming in, we are nowhere near starting and its for sure going to be a violation of the fire code. But if we do all get trampled, what a way to go. Death by Biblical scholarship.
7.32 Troxel is wearing a (according to Jon Tong) “grayish maybe” suit. He looks nice, he looks excited. He is now giving an intro. Very nice, very respectful, excellent diction, not able to use any Powerpoint, yet still gets by. This man’s skills cannot be contained.
7.33 We are now being given an extensive history of Greenspoon’s works and positions.
7.34 Greenspoon is a pretty big deal, he’s a “vigorous and vital” figure in Biblical scholarship.
7.36 Greenspoon comes up and is given a nice ovation. He is a portly figure with a nice bald look. He reuses the Hannah Montana joke I heard him give to the TAs, gets a hearty laugh. Also, he describes himself as quite addicted to alliteration.
7.37 Now we are being shown a series of comic strips. He knows how to control an audience.
7.39 I’m not sure if I trust him, his accent makes me think he might be trying to sell me a used car. Whoa, sudden shift to scholarship, abrupt but it works.
7.40 He appears to be using the exact same background that Troxel takes advantage of, but without the colored texts, subset boxes, or impressive animations.
7.42 A Powerpoint faux paus as the lower left corner is obscured by the box of options that comes up when you right click.
7.45 Greenspoon gets a laugh.
7.47 Yes, Wylie we’re watching you, you look engaged. We won’t distract.
7.48 The documentary hypothesis is being discussed, more laughs from the crowd, they are eating this stuff up. Feeling a need to actually pay attention so my apologies if the blogging becomes uninteresting.
7.52 A McCarthyism reference and he leaves off by saying “but that’s another story”. Our collective thoughts cry out, “Please tell us”, but no we’ve moved on to Harvard, if I was a TV pundit I would make some comment about Harvard being a stronghold of Communist thought. Thankfully, I’m not.
7.54 Zinger! Sarcastic reference that scholars are never boring. He’s just a little bit feisty. Loving it, I imagine a dinner party with him and Troxel, if I could just sit in the corner and observe, oh the excitement that would be.
7.57 He’s a miniature Barry Alvarez. That’s what he is. This is uncanny, I can’t believe I didn’t realize until now.
7.58 Back to comic strips, he apologizes for only being able to find one strip relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
7.59 “A sober, serious, sound, scholar.” This mini-Barry doesn’t mess around about his love for alliteration.
8.03 A shout out to the TAs from the podium, he gives a tip don’t get between your students and the blackboard. No he doesn’t mean it literally, but I wish he did.
8.04 A picture of Krusty the Klown appears on the screen, I really have no idea why, we’ve moved on.
8.06 Little Barry is bold he accepted the task of writing an entire encyclopedia article on the LXX in just three weeks.
8.07 Legs are getting a little sore from sitting on the floor perhaps we could be led in some half-time stretches by T-rox.
8.09 We are onto comic again. The accent is getting better and better. He says: “I would doubt your vowacity [veraticy]”
8.11 One comic too many and the joke falls flat and Greenspoon knows he made a serious error. He must be kicking himself inside. However, the crowd continues to gaze deeply at him. I’m no expert but I would bet most of the ladies in the room are seriously crushing right now. Just a guess.
8.15 This man has a serious love for “Frank and Ernest”. We’ve seen at least 10 strips of it.
8.16 Many other people in the room have laptops out, I seriously doubt any of them are also live-blogging however.
8.18 I said I’d stop looking towards Wylie but I can’t resist. Greenspoon makes a medieval monacticism joke and Wylie can barely control his laughter, he draws looks from people around him, after several minutes he is able to calm himself.
8.19 Three more Frank and Ernest. I thought that this was just a little attention grabber, but no, he intends to use comic strips at every juncture possible. There are a surprisingly large number of comics about ancient scribes.
8.24 Were moving at a frantic pace here, but still finding more comics between every slide. The man is a gold mine of pure comic genius.
8.26 A BLOG COMIC!!!! A BLOG COMIC!!!! If he only knew.
8.29 Wow! Greenspoon wrote an article on “The Septuagint in Popular Culture.” We need to find this as it is likely the most amazing thing ever written.
8.33 YES! We’ve moved on from comics to the Weekly World News. And Greenspoon tells us that he writes a monthly humor column for a scholarly journal. Also, something worth looking up.
8.37 This man is amazing. He would be a fantastic fun uncle. He could have his own variety show. The depths of talent have just barely been scratched. Hooray for mixed metaphors.
8.38 He closes out by showing us a comic strip that featured him as the star! Well done sir. Well done. We move into a time of Q and A.
Conclude: Well I guess in reality, I can sum it up by saying “What just happened?” Though it was a whimsical ride through comics and the Bible (maybe), I’m not sure if much actual information was presented. We have an unconfirmed report that Troxel fell asleep, I won’t see it until someone provides me video evidence.