1. I repeat. And I cannot believe how many people make this mistake, which even I have always been smart enough not to make. Do not speak poorly of faculty to other faculty. You do not know who is friends with whom, or who may owe favors to whom. You also may not realize which … More More advice to new and prospective new faculty.
So far today I have almost 1,500 hits on this blog, a number I never get, evidently because I mentioned a Hollywood movie and pornography in the same post. I am now attempting to drive my hit count up by declaring myself a fetishist. The blogger Clarissa says she is a masochist and by the … More I am a fetishist.
Out of scholarly duty I saw Savages and it is even worse than expected — it feels like an assault, really. In any case, I was reminded that Laguna Beach is beautiful and I miss it. I learned that Mexicans are savages and pacifists are highly corruptible and unreliable, and that the sanguine, clean, and … More Savages
The current form of maternal martyr, I discern, is not the one I remember from childhood but is, nonetheless, an interesting inversion of this one. The form of maternal martyrdom I remember was undertaken by those mothers who had renounced everything to be at home with children. They were legion and they were known to … More Maternal martyrs of the 21st century
Blond-haired, blue-eyed, stony-faced, slack-jawed men chewing gum slowly, endlessly, and somewhat menacingly — this is the Southern stereotype and I am always amazed when I actually see such people; they really do exist and everything is true. What people in general are slower to realize is that the South is Black; Yankees against Southerners are, … More El Sur
This allegedly finds salons that use Davines products. It is hard to find the hair dye for sale. On their Italian site you can see color swatches, though. Davines’ ad copy might have been written by a shade of Rubén Darío: …un precioso regalo para obtener tonalidades cromáticas que generalmente sólo la Naturaleza es capaz … More Davines
What I notice is that you have to put more, not less time into everything. I do not mean larger blocs of time, of course, although that is fine too. What I mean is, more total time into everything that matters. That means less into what doesn’t, of course, but it does not mean starving … More Time Time Time
Despite poor picture quality (note our vampire eyes!) I am posting this. It was taken on the evening of July 3, 2012, and I am the last person on the right. The first person on the right is someone I wrote about last week. And, despite poor picture quality again, I am posting this as … More Breaking pseudonymity, again, and spreading advice for the vain.
A large part of the problem, as a local friend points out, is the abusive environment. One could, theoretically, move about as freely as one does elsewhere and enjoy local delights, but one learns that it is not so simple — unpleasantness comes when you least expect it, but often, and “just avoid it” or … More Things I do automatically when abroad, and did here before Reeducation, but have a hard time doing here now.
The TSA employees do not understand that my visceral level reasons for not going through that airport scanner that takes and keeps the equivalent of your naked photograph is not shyness about the body, but the fact that to have that photograph taken, you must stand in the prisoner of war position, hands on your … More That airport scanner
