One of my friends works in an EU country and describes corruption and the ‘black’ economy there. These are the kinds of stories which inspire my fantasies of studying Economics. According to my sources, friends high up at the large security company which packages and ships all of the cash for the National Bank, the … More Cloak and Dagger Economies in the EU
Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected President of the Republic of France, and he has a triumphalist video. The White House is of course pleased and I, of course, am not. A year or so ago this blog was being attacked by French people opposed to the Iraq war. They said that as an American, I … More Travail, famille, patrie
Here is a new, self-tagging meme to entertain those of us who may be in Grading Jail. What college majors, other than the one(s) you actually declared, have you seriously considered or repeatedly fantasized about declaring? These are mine: Creative Writing Economics Environmental Studies Law Near Eastern Studies Studio Art / Ceramics. Also for Grading … More Other Majors, Other Worlds
Now we can test our texts and weblogs for masculinity, femininity and gender focus. I have tested three of my blog entries in the Gender Genie. The genie informs me that my writing style is highly masculine. This may help explain why, when I believed I had created a gender neutral weblog, readers thought I … More On the Gender of Texts
The Washington Post recently published an interesting article about the U.S. refusal of foreign aid to help offset the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I quote from the complete text: [W]hile television sets worldwide showed images of New Orleans residents begging to be rescued from rooftops as floodwaters rose, U.S. officials turned down countless offers of … More Our Government, Ourselves
On May Day, 2007, the LAPD assaulted immigration reform demonstrators in McArthur Park. For Cinco de Mayo I am channeling Benito Juárez. Axé.
What has been the great imperative of my life? Geoffrey Philp has tagged me for this meme, invented by himself. It is always flattering to be tagged for a meme, so thank you, Geoffrey! The great imperative of my life was revealed by my reaction to a children’s book called Eva Meets Noriko-San, which my … More Great Imperative Meme
Today I spent seven straight hours teaching four different topics, after getting up very early to finish preparing. At noon I had expected to have lunch and pick something up from Interlibrary Loan in the process. Scheduling was off for technical reasons, and there was no time. I was able to eat because a colleague … More A Rather Internalized Whiteman
I thought encyclopedias were a comparatively modern invention, but there is the Suda: (Σοῦδα or alternatively Suidas Σουΐδας) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopædia of the ancient Mediterranean world. It is an encyclopædic lexicon with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost. The derivation is from the … More Esoterica
coldhearted scientist وداد 