I stared at that posting for a couple of minutes, stone still. Clots of students coalesced around me, squinting and jostling, then d i  s  s  o  lv   e         d.

Their murmuring rose and fell. I think I was vaguely expecting some revelation. You never know when you'll get a revelation.

 
None was forthcoming, though, so I returned to my apartment and wrote a cover letter.

I wrote that I was studying Linguistic Onanology, which was true. My resume was true, too. I submitted the whole package to the university employment office later that day.