Grad students, in life and film

I need a new place to study. At the coffee shop I went to read in this morning, I saw John Cameron Mitchell, of "Hedwig" and "Shortbus" fame, out front. Whoa! But this Petite Fadette remains to be completed, and that, not the wig-filled musical, might be on the MA exam. Interdisciplinarity has its limits.

So I sit down with an iced coffee and a bagel, put on headphones, and get back into the story of these allegorical paysans. When who should walk in, with his mother (?), but Jake Gyllenhaal. His mother sits down at the table next to me, but at the seat further away, leaving guess which seat open for everyone's favorite gay cowboy/math grad student. He was a matter of inches away. Without the accoutrements of either a gay cowboy or a math whiz, Jake (first-name basis, why not) is less distracting than he might be otherwise. In fact, he's not even a little bit good-looking. OK, of course he is good-looking, but of an aesthetic that would probably appeal more to men than to women.