I really, really understand that academic work is work. I have never doubted it and never not said it. I have been defending my broader field as work since freshman year, and my narrower field as work since graduate school. I have had to prove that what I do is work in more ways than … More Manifesto, Again
So I have only written thirty words today and I am knocking off to prepare my seminar for Tuesday. But I realized that in all this discussion of work I had not considered what anniversaries other than the obvious we might be commemorating this fall. My life has been more interesting and more pleasant than many … More 30
What did you teach today? This semester I am teaching: Spanish 2 (30 students) Spanish 3 (50 students) Portuguese Reading and Composition: for seniors in Linguistics, and graduate students preparing for the reading examination (5 students) Latin American Film: one of those hybrid senior/graduate courses, a highly diverse group (15 students). I am also Secretary … More My Grading Innovation
There was the Chilean coup in 1973, and there are these important anniversaries as well. Axé.
This film looks excellent. I found it, of course, while looking for something else, and it reminded me of one of the many ironies of life. There were long term Uruguayan exchange students at my high school. They had left before the 1973 coup but by the time they went home, the military had been … More Resisting Juan María Bordaberry
I had written about three more paragraphs of vitriol, about my irritation with entitled beings, but I erased them inadvertently and cannot reconstruct. I feel horrible because of teaching 5 classes and doing other work too, it is grueling, and I do not have good habits at this time (as in, always going to the … More 937
Storm Update: T.S. Lee broke through my roof and destroyed part of the interior, where I had finally been able to have damage from the 2008 Hurricanes Gustav and Ike repaired. Before Katrina all these things were covered by homeowner’s insurance, but that is no longer the case. Roofers are coming tomorrow morning, Labor Day. … More Moi de Morón
Tropical Storm Lee is coming on in, and you can feel it. Hurricane Katia is in the Atlantic, but we have had hurricanes in October several times. In 2008 I lost the same piece of my roof twice, to Gustav and then to Ike. Update 1: And it’s here, and a state of emergency has … More T.S. Lee / Ezra Pound
I last saw my cat, an important personage, exactly six months ago. I had named him Krishna. Earlier he had been called Melody, then Mel when he turned out to be a boy. I do not know what his name is now. Axé.
This place is superior to my present location, as Ubuntu 11.04 is superior to Windows. Seriously. This Dell Windows box I have in the office, upon which I am now typing at 5:50 PM, used to be much fancier than anything I had at home but it pales in comparison to the post-IBM laptop I … More Tepoztlan
coldhearted scientist وداد 