Guess what movie turns 40 this week?

[gratuitous]

3. Saw it during the premiere week

Then, the night before my last college final, a core class that I had to pass to get my degree, a bunch of friends and I piled into a couple of cars to drive 30 miles to a suitably big enough first run theater to see it a second time. Laughably, I grabbed my text book for the class, intending to skim material that was going to be on the next day's final. Yeah, I didn't crack the book.

There was one other senior in the class, and our grades had to be in by noon, so although the rest of the class was scheduled to take the final in the afternoon, Allison and I reported for the final at 10 a.m. No, I still hadn't skimmed anything, and I wasn't really sure if I had a passing grade for this must-pass class.

The professor sat us down, and had two copies of the final in his hand. "Gratuitous, you currently have a B grade," (inside me: No shit?!) "and Allison, you have a B+." We both nodded, and he continued, "For you, you need to score 138 out of 150 to bring your grade up to a B+, and Allison, you would have to score 144 out of 150 to get an A-." We both nodded, not quite sure where this was going. "Now, if you want, you can of course take the final, which means I have to grade it before noon to get your grades into the registrar. Or you can forego the final, and just take the grade you have now."

The professor's eyeballs were smoking watching us tear out of the classroom with our degrees now secured.