"A" For Effort

I was on the subway the other day, and I noticed a youngish-looking professor marking papers. It was a relatively long commute, and so I spent my time slyly peering at my neighbor's "marking system."  In the end, me and my wandering left eye extended themselves for far too long, and so, in the interest of keeping me and my eye intact, I just asked him how he determined an "A." He was startled, and initially stumbled, and then said rather demurely that an "A" is determined by the quality and persuasiveness of the argument.  I really wasn't satisfied with his answer, but thanked him anyway, and batted a left eyelash in recognition, while my right eye rolled around a bit.  This is bogus I thought.  Can't he come up with something better than that?  Oh, cut him some slack, Clover, he is not Groucho Marx, who would have come up with a wittier, funnier, and smarter retort, chock-full of puns, and precipitous predications.  Oh, poo-p00.  This is what I get when I spy and I pry.  But, hark, there's a bit of wisdom here; like an old-scratch-and-sniff sticker from the Eighties that every now and then, when provoked, can emit its original scent and derivation.  Is that bubble-gum, popcorn, or skunk?  So here's the rub - what's my grade? Do I get an "A" for effort, and a "C+" for results? I don't think I've ever received anything lower than a "B" in my life.  

My qualifications are there, and so is the persuasiveness of my argument - that I want and need a permanent job now.  I'm not sporting signage that reads "Give me a good job," nor do I hold a beggar's cup; I am just hungry for a return to my career.  I think I've been pretty clear in my interviews, in my e-mails, and in my follow-up calls that I am eager, without being desperate, to re-start the system of working and receiving paychecks.  So what's the hitch, and the glitch? I understand the itch.  The whole point of this blog is to express the source of this most complex, and itinerant of itches.  This whole period of time has been supremely vexing, and left me with a hankering that has not yet been fulfilled, a hankering that is fast becoming a lusty and compulsive eruption that is burrowing itself under my skin.  It's a manifold mite, and I don't like mites.  When will my "A" for effort turn into an "A" result?  When will the quality and persuasiveness of my "argument" be understood and answered?  It only takes "A" phone call, "A" note returned, and "A" yes, you're hired.