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So, last night I had to go to a middle school dance with my wife, who is a middle school art teacher. I was dreading the experience, not least because that meant we would eat supper pretty late. it was actually kind of fun. The theme of the dance was circus, and my wife went as a mime. I went as a lion tamer, and my costume consisted of a small stuffed lion that my wife made for our youngest daughter 25 years ago. So the first thing that happened when we got there is that dozens of students wanted to be photographed with my wife. This included quite a few who didn't behave very well in her class at all. The next thing that happened is scores of students wanted to wave at her, run over and say hi, and then run away again to have fun. They are kind of cute. The next thing I noticed is that she was literally the only teacher or parent in costume, which was probably one of the reasons she got so much attention from the students. Somewhere between 10 and 25% of the students were in costume, which is actually more than I expected. The best costume, in my opinion , was a box of popcorn. it consisted of a red and white striped skirt for the box and white crumpled paper dipped in yellow paint and glued to the front of a shirt for the kernels. The only way it could have been much better is if she had done the same to the back of her shirt. Sadly, there was no costume contest. But wait, there's more. after the dance we went to really the only decent restaurant near the school except a Japanese steakhouse. It is a Mexican restaurant called jalapeno's. There are two main rooms. The one they seated us in had four or five middle school girls already in it, at least one of whom is one of her students this year. But very soon another 15 or so were seated in the same room. When we left, there was a chorus of "Bye Ms K!". Like I said, they are cute.