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Insert a Trite Metaphor About a Corral

Posted on May 17, 2005 in Roundup

This roundup covers the period from 8 May to 14 May 2005.

square-10.gifIt was an interesting week, with most of my personal time devoted to trying to explain to some people the difference between name-calling and assessments of healthfulness. I am sorry to have missed the discussion about how gay men have a different sense of smell: long ago, I’d proposed to Lynn that that might eventually be discovered to be the basis for the difference between straight and gay men. I’m thrilled to see my theory vindicated.

The looming hammer of the Frist filibuster busting caught many peoples’ attention as did tales of torture from various parts of the world. It still strikes me as absurd that so many Americans get all emotional over preserving their “right” to overeat while so many suffer in war zones and regions of catastrophic environmental disaster. I look in my mirror and say shame on me. We deride Hummers, the waste of dollars for war toys, and government corruption while blatantly ignoring the corruption that we manifest as persons. Last week one false feminist suggested that I be castrated. And I can’t say that I agree with anyone who calls any episode of violence “amusing”. All around, I felt sad about how twisted or insensitive even members of the Left can be.

I think we need to show some discipline in our ranks. We can’t excuse the lack of it on the grounds that those in power do worse because they invokes our small acts as justification for more horrific ones.

Politics
Culture
  • Bitch Ph.d related the tale of a professor who kept a not-too-secret blog about her impressions of students and faculty at SMU.
  • I don’t have a problem with IHE linking academic blogs w/out permission, though I know some do. But I do think this whole question of academic blogging and the private / public divide is really interesting. I’m uncomfortable with the statements in the article that there’s a problem with what the Phantom Professor blogged was that it hurt students’ feelings. It seems somewhat Horowitzian, this idea that as professors we have a responsibility not to say things that will make our students uncomfortable. Malicious slander is one thing; but satire and social commentary surely ought to be allowable intellectual endeavors.

  • Tracy is having trouble proving that she exists to the State of Ohio.
  • I no longer exist. Or at least, I cannot prove that I exist. How could this happen, you ask? I lost my driver’s license. Somewhere between North Carolina and Ohio. It might’ve been at the Fox & Hound, where Kim and I shot pool. It might’ve been at that little gift shop in West Virginia where we bought the coffee cup. It might be inside the pocket of a pair of jeans I wore between then and now or shoved in the shredding file with all my report sheets from work. We have searched and searched and searched…and finally decided to have the fucking thing replaced.

  • Joe learned that gay men love different scents from straight men.
  • I have to admit that I don’t find these pungent scents so enticing. Then again, I don’t have much of a sense of smell. I’ve needed admonishment to throw out a pungent smelling bag of garbage more than once by a caring friend. I attribute this to having my nose cauterized as a little lad due to recurring nose bleeds.

  • Francis had his own anecdote about the women-only railway cars in Japan:
  • Apparently, the excuse is that setting aside a whole car for women makes overcrowding on the rest of the train worse. Well, if the men would keep their hands to themselves and behave like mature adults, then this wouldn’t be necessary. And, really, I doubt that the number of women on a train like that is so few that they couldn’t make good use of ONE train car.

  • Manda shared her doodles from a lecture on interdisciplinarity.
  • Now there is a certain crass humor in likening disciplinary knowledge to piles of shit. But, it’s something we produce. And shit can be gross and stinky and make you sick… hey, so can academia. But it also makes the crops grow. So, I’m not trying to be insulting here.

  • Ming insisted that most of the information we receive from companies marketing products is false.
  • Brian Kane nominated It’s a Small Small World as the most annoying song ever.
  • Elkit claimed she never loved Elvis, but you couldn’t tell by her blog.
  • Jeremy asked “Why is dumpster diving illegal?”
  • H.K. celebrated the Disco Years.
  • Robert counted the incidence of certain words on Google.
  • Andrea talked about living with organized crime.
  • Lauren started a few fights this week, but check out what she said about women, drinking and violence.
Religion
Personal
Visual Art
Poetry and Fine Prose
  • K: Morning Verses
  • Rana: Coping with Enormity
  • I watch fleas hopping on the wooden floor, new-hatched fleas, smaller than the head of a pin. Yet I see them, standing tall on their springloaded legs.

Due to a cold, I only got so far through my list. Next time I will start from the bottom.

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