The absent-minded professor

Among the many ten-page papers that need to be written in the M.Div. program at Holy Cross, there was also this one. I enjoyed writing it, so as far as I am concerned, the grade does not matter. Still, I was curious whether the professor had any comments. Today, he brought some papers to return to us, but mine was not among them. After class, I went to him and asked about it. The response was something along the lines of "Why do you worry about it? It was a good paper." I said, "I'm not worried about it; I'm just curious about your comments. Could I come by your office to get it?" He said, "Yeah, come by."

When I got to his office, there were a couple of other people there and a lot of papers on the desk (which very much reminded me of my desk at Notre Dame, as well as of a sticker a professor from Midwestern State had on his desk: "A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind."). It took a little bit before he found the paper. He paused... he looked at it... and he said, "You know, I haven't read this one yet."