Dear Dr. Boli: My professor in English 101 assigned us an essay, and she said that the conclusion should end with a “mic drop.” What is a “mic drop,” anyway? I was going to ask my professor, but I was afraid she would think I was stupid. —Sincerely, Olivia, a freshman at Yohogania Community College.

Dear Madam: A mic drop is an emergency airlift of audio equipment to underdeveloped countries with a serious deficiency of public-address systems. Why your professor wants you to end your essay that way is not entirely clear to Dr. Boli. It seems like an expensive activity for a community-college freshman to indulge in. Usually mic drops are handled by UNESCO.

Incidentally, if you want to see an audio engineer’s head explode in colorful fireworks, you should point out that the word mic is, by the laws of English orthography, pronounced “mick,” and that the proper spelling for the short form of “microphone” is “mike.” For some reason this statement will cause apocalyptic rages that are very entertaining to watch. It has nothing to do with your essay, but after you have finished that you may need to unwind for a while, and taunting audio engineers is a harmless pastime that arguably improves their characters.