Just discovered that my high school geometry and physics teacher, Paul Gaddie, died. I thought he was old when I had him in 10th grade. If I do the math right, he would have been 29 then. I guess that used to be old.
I remember that he didn't suffer too many fools gladly, and the cardinal sin in his book was that you didn't fall asleep in class. Otherwise he would take a cattle prod out and head for the student. The student usually woke up before this happened, so there was no problem. Well, one day, a kid didn't wake up by the time that Mr. Gaddie reached his spot, and he jolted the kid. The kid threatened to sue, and that was the last time the cattle prod was seen.