Oops. I just outed myself to my students today.

So there I was in my Middle English class, messing with the new computer system to figure out if it has a way to make the screen dark when you want to switch back and forth between the board and the projector (it doesn't, but that's a rant for another time), and since we still had 5 minutes to go before official class time, I decided to amuse the students and show them the insane pork cartoon (because I'd mentioned in the last class -- don't ask why) and then, since it was more germane to class, Chaucer's blog.

Now I've done this before and worried a little bit about the fact that my blog is the second link in the Rotulus Bloggorum. But this time I really asked for it. We were talking about what was and wasn't Middle English syntax, lexicon, etc., and then I pointed out the little uses of French and Latin on the blog and asked them why he did that, since we'd recently talked about the broader linguistic environment and uses of English in the period. And so I showed them the Rotulus Bloggorum and how the titles of various blogs had been Latinized or Anglicized medieval style (and it's interesting, btw, which blogs get which). Then someone noticed "Anothir Damned Medievaliste," which they thought was funny, but they seemed skeptical that the implied complaint of the name was necessary. So I said, "Well, there are a damned lot of medievalists in the blogosphere -- you'd be surprised."

And that prompted one of them to ask, "So, do you have a blog?"

Crap.

As you may or may not know about me, I am congenitally incapable of answering a direction question with a lie, especially if it's a yes or no question. So if they'd said, "What's your blog called?" I might have managed to make something up.

But no. I was trapped. Wanna guess what I did?

I freakin' blushed and then dropped my head on the computer desk!

Of course, then all my students squealed with delight and one exclaimed, "That means you do have a blog! And I bet it's on that list! And I'm going to find out which one it is!"

Oh well, I was going to become less pseudonymous after the end of this year anyway. But students, please, if you're reading this, keep it under your hats for now. Don't tell anyone outside of that Middle English class. I'm up for tenure this year and I'm a little paranoid, and the provost is brand new, the president only in his second year, and I have no idea what they think of nutty blogging academics. There's a reason why I've been pseudonymous up to now, and I'd like to keep it that way until the university's Board of Directors signs off on my tenure.

So thanks in advance for your discretion.