What's the most unexpected way you've ever made money?

What's the most unexpected way you've

ever made money? In college, I was

completely broke and desperate for cash

when I noticed something weird in my

linguistics class. Every time the

professor, Dr. Harmon, said the word

essentially, which was about 30 times

per lecture, he would tug on his left

earlobe. It was this weird unconscious

tick that nobody else seemed to notice.

After three lectures of watching this, I

had an idea. I created a simple betting

pool. Guess how many times Dr. Harmon

would say essentially. In Tuesday's

lecture, $5 entry fee, winner takes all.

The first week, only eight people

joined. I counted 27 essentially, and

earlobe tugs. Nobody guessed correctly,

so the pot rolled over. Word spread. By

week three, half the class was in on it.

The pot grew to over $200. People were

studying his speech patterns, analyzing

previous lectures, trying to find the

pattern. What they didn't know was that

I had started sitting in the front row

wearing a bright red shirt. Whenever I

subtly touched my ear, Dr. Harmon would

unconsciously mirror me and say,

essentially basically conditioning our

professor like Pavlov's dog and betting

on the results. By mid- semester, even

students from other departments were

placing bets. The pot hit $500, and I

made sure no one ever guessed the right

number. Then came the final lecture

before finals. The pot was nearly

$1,000. I had orchestrated a miracle

streak where no one had won for the

entire semester. That day, I didn't wear

red. I didn't touch my ear once. And Dr.

Harmon only said essentially three

times. The lowest count ever. Only one

person had guessed three. Dr. Harmon

himself, who approached me after class,

collected his winnings, and whispered,

"I've been a professor for 30 years. Did

you really think I wouldn't notice what

you were doing?" essentially, you got

played. And he tugged his ear and

winked. He donated the entire pot to the

linguistics department scholarship fund

and gave me an A in the class for what

he called applied behavioral

linguistics.