That's a hilarious story!! It's awesome, seeing that "moment of acceptance."

On kind of the same vein, but not Seinfeld-related-- I have this one professor this semester who is a total jerk. Everyone hates him or is scared of him, and it's like a known fact that he hasn't smiled at a student in maybe 8 years. But personally, I never really disliked him, because he's a good teacher. He gives good lectures, and he's really intelligent. And he's very handsome for his age, and you know me and older men.

*ahem* So anyway, usually when people ask him questions, he just answers them quickly with little or no eye contact, and moves on. But the other day, I went up after class to ask him about this paper we have to write. He'd been really vague about it, but he's very particular about grading-- just because he was vague doesn't mean you've got a lot of room to move around, ya know? So I went up and asked him if intelligence agencies would fall under the category he wanted us to write about.

He rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, you wanna write about the CIA, go ahead, but I don't want any glamorous, fluffy Hollywood bullshit in there."

So I started laughing and said, "Oh, I can't use Al Pacino's The Recruit in my bibliography??"

He looked at me, and there was that sudden acceptance in his eyes, but without smiling, he said, "Heh." So it was kind of a laugh, but not really. So I mentioned, "Actually, I was thinking of concentrating more on the NRO, what do you think?"

And at this moment, I'll never forget it... he SMILED at me and said, "Recon, huh? Well, well!" And then, he actually started laughing and said, "Well, you're certainly not what I expected when I first saw you. I'm looking forward to reading your paper, no matter what you decide to write about."

I almost died. It was so cool. Well, it's not the first time that someone takes one look at me and decides that I'm an airhead (happens every day), but this was the most memorable one, for sure.

Now that I think of it, I bet he actually DID military or intelligence work before he was a professor... he looks like the type. He's tough, really tough. One of those men who's like in his early 70's, and very distinguished, but still could kick anyone's ass.