One semester at ASU I took an audio visual class, designed to help future teachers learn how to use the equipment we would have in our classrooms. This was back in the days when we still showed super-8 movies, wrote on chalkboards, and made our own posters and signs using poster paper and markers.
The last week of the semester our teacher surprised us by informing us that we were going to use some brand new technology, video taping. On the last day of class he showed us a video camera, explained how to use it, and then told us he would tape some of us interviewing each other, then let us watch the video.
I was really not interested in being filmed, so I stood at the back of the group, but for some reason he looked over the rest of the girls and chose me to be the interviewer. Reluctantly I walked up to the front of the group. Then the teacher chose a woman I didn't know to be the intervieweee, (is that a word?) This woman was a little older than the rest of us, and the only thing I knew about her was that she was pregnant.
The teacher handed me the microphone and instructed me to interview the other woman for a couple of minutes, then we would go back into the classroom and watch the video. Racking my brain for something to say, I turned to my classmate, smiled, and asked the only thing I could think of.
"So, when is your baby due?"
The woman gave me a withering glance, then replied, "My baby was born last week."
I don't know what other questions I asked, I was so mortified I've blocked the rest of the experience totally out of my mind, but I sure learned my lesson. Never, never, never ask a woman anything about being pregnant unless you already know the answer. Never.
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