My general botany prof, let’s call him pseudonymously Ernie Willow, was something else. He lectured without a textbook. He had it all in his head. We took notes of his words as quickly as possible for it was impossible to read his blackboard handwriting and copy his notes. Kindergarteners tortured chalkboards less. It was atrocious. A first-grade elementary school pupil did much better. A little later, when I mentioned to him that he was in need of a penmanship course, my remark immediately placed myself on his blacklist. You would think that professors would not take such an attitude of spite. Alas, I learned early on that they were mere humans, and in spite of their initiated specialized knowledge, they, too, did not easily welcome criticism.

Though I could not classify him, he could classify nearly every photosynthetic organism on earth. He could give the binomial or trinomial........

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