Sucking Up Is Sucking More

Just a handy note for the kids out there in cyberland: trying to suck up is probably not a good idea.  If done poorly, it hurts.  If not done at all, there is no risk.  And doing it right usually does not pay off much.

Today, I had a student offer me a happy Jewish New Year after class ended.  Well, as those who read the Spew here probably have guessed, my identification with the people of the book (no, not that one--the other one) is not so good.  Regardless, it came off more as: hey, you and I are both part of the same club, wink, wink.  Well, even if I identified strongly with that club, I think I would still mind the injection of kinship in a non-kin situation.  If we were shopping for bagels, it would make sense--hey, these Montreal bagels suck, right?  If I was looking for a good moyel (is that how it is spelled?), I could use some advice from a co-religionist.  But since I teach at a secular school, I guess I don't really want religion brought in, unless it is for the subject, which it often is (why religion might cause more ethnic conflict than language, for instance). 

Anyhow, that was my annoyance du jour.  And I think it is less about religion and more about suck up strategies that, well, suck.