I have had strong reactions recently to various posts on how to be an academic, and to one on leaving the “fast track” and finding fulfillment. I reacted to the latter post because it reflected the trajectory Reeducation thought appropriate for me, when my own nature is research oriented even though I was told throughout … More Reverberating Whitemen
It is no longer Carnival time, but it is the weekend, so we will sing! This song contains a piano lesson. We will not sing the song I heard on the radio while driving, by a famous singer from the fifties, in which the speaker said he had told his driller he was quitting, but … More Piano Lesson
I said to a certain individual, with a meaningful glance: “I am your friend and I am an informal person, but I am also your senior colleague and a lady. I do not appreciate the expressions you are using or the tone you are taking with me.” When I got home it was the weekend, … More My Funny Valentine
1. I have reduced all my insurance coverage to the minimum legal levels, and eliminated optional retirement contributions, extra payments to mortgage principal, and long distance and DSL service to my land line. I had already renounced yoga and I may renounce gym membership. I have not yet targeted studio rent, house cleaning, or grass … More Underground Post
I may like the changed times for many reasons, and I may even like the recession for its wake up call qualities, but the university is being asked to imagine how it would handle a 28% budget cut in fiscal 2009. I myself have a 28% budget cut this very semester due to my sabbatical, … More On Budget Cuts and Usury
BEANS For the recession I am cooking more than ever. I will learn to use my grandmother’s meat grinder as a Cuisinart. In the meantime I have finally learned to make a pot of beans correctly. Until 2009 only vegetarian black beans ever worked reliably for me. But now I have invented all the tricks. … More Culinary Friday: Beans, Pu-erh Tea, Rabbits, and Cats
Cleaning and sealing a wooden deck is non trivial, and it is a fallacy that tasks like this one do not require knowledge and skill. All decks should be sealed, no matter what kind of wood they are made of. Mine is made with pressure-treated pine. This wood looks adequate until it ages slightly, at … More Home Maintenance Wednesday: Wooden Decks
Yes, I know there is an inauguration going on, but as far as I am concerned it is the day I planned to start working in earnest, so I am working (despite jury duty, which I hope to dispatch post haste). In this post I will work first by reminding Obama of certain campaign promises … More Back to the Twenties
I am in my house. The cat sitter drank the champagne. California is really beautiful. It is 2009. Watch out for “school reformers” and tell Obama to appoint Linda Darling-Hammond Secretary of Education! To be a school “reformer” is to support: § a heavy reliance on fill-in-the-bubble standardized tests to evaluate students and schools, generally in … More Linda Darling-Hammond
I never get over missing the Western landscapes and Woody Guthrie’s song “Roll On, Columbia” never fails to make me nostalgic. The video has majestic photographs, but listen closely to the song lyrics. They are racist, colonialist, anti-environmentalist, and although Guthrie would never admit it, they favor big business. These are some errors in modernization … More Limits of Modernity
coldhearted scientist وداد 