It's chilly in Crimson City, and I can see the maple tree outside my window, so resplendent last week, becoming barer and barer.

Today I actually volunteered an answer in my Contracts class, the first time ever, and got a confused look from the professor, who asked, "But how does that help the defendant? He wants to leave the law firm," and turned to someone else. Well, I tried. And you know what I learned? DO NOT RAISE YOUR HAND. You will be called on. You will try to guess what the prof is thinking. You will be wrong.

At least when you don't raise your hand, you can shrug and say, "Well, I wasn't prepared for that question." But raising your hand? You're just asking for it.

I think this lapse in judgment and character stems from sleep debt. Some studies show that when you are sleep deprived, your natural appetite suppressants are less effective. So say you normally get full after one tuna fish sandwich. If you've been getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep per night for the past several days, you may eat that tuna fish sandwich and continue on to the bag of chips, the apple and the leftover rice in the rice cooker.

Yes, this is a hypothetical. No, it doesn't have anything to do with raising my hand in class. Yes, I am sleep deprived. In fact, I'm going to take a nap right now.