Time and the bell have buried the day, The black cloud carries the sun away. Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray Clutch and cling? Chill Fingers of yew be curled Down on us? After the kingfisher’s wing Has answered light to light, and is … More T.S. Eliot
“Go anywhere.” Not quite. Z to colleagues: Well, despite a request and funding from upper administration, I may not get my course release. It feels like discrimination, or inappropriate interference: do you think it is about me personally, or about our subfield, or something else, or am I being “overly sensitive”? Colleague 1: Our subfield. … More Bad advice #2, and good advice #1 and #2
I am not Catholic. I am a Mexican, but I am not Hispanic, I am a skull on a Mayan stela, as we know. She who here performs the ancient text, however, was recently called, with appreciation, a “free Anglo-Saxon” because, not having been baptized, she does not fear pagan symbols or associate them, in … More Ways in which I am not Hispanic.
As we know, I am in a writing group and committed to do research and ideally, writing daily. I always have a few minutes for this, no matter what, but I want to spend more time than that. I need to, if I am to get anything truly significant accomplished. I also deserve to because … More Public Opinion Poll
Z, speaking in foreign: What changes would you make in the United States if you were President? (This is designed to elicit use of the conditional tense.) Students, speaking in foreign: We would abolish the distinction between church and state. This happened, yes. Axé.
1. I am not a full professor so I do not say so in my signature line. Some of the instructors, however, the ones with the M.A.s, sign like this: Rex Prince Professor of English Vichy State University This is why the students obey them more easily, and believe they supervise the assistant and associate … More Coda to understanding everything.
We have established that many put teaching far ahead of research and/or life far ahead of work, but others want to be virtuosos and put that first, naturally. I am in this group and I thought ours was the standard attitude. But it is not necessarily. Locally, we struggle for tenure or promotion while others … More Now I understand everything.
So tonight, trying to work with a graduate student on the concept for hir paper, I realized ze had not yet read the primary texts in question. Here I have been e-mailing suggestions for the secondary bibliography and the reason the student keeps wavering on hir stand and focus is that ze has not read … More And I can rest my case!
1. We may well be getting a 2% raise next year. That will be the first in five years, although there have been 71 salary adjustments to retain people who got better offers and although some people have gotten the small amounts you get for promotion (if I were promoted I would get $600 more … More In which my university tries to become lovable, and succeeds
Here is the shoe I recommend for this fall. Here is a .pdf of the piece of paper I received almost by chance, and here is the website I found years later. I associate academic advice and verbal abuse. While we are having foreign language wars in Maringouin, some of the sentences I hear in … More Off topic
coldhearted scientist وداد 