This blog contains no secrets but it exists to I can say to myself things I would not say to others. So that I can steam emotional pain out of myself. So that I can find out how far things go. So that I can look at my words and find out which have hidden … More I might shut down this blog after all, because I might have ruined it by letting people out it.
Granada would awake each morning with bells and cries of vendors in the streets: I have oranges, papayas, jocotes, watermelons, musk melons, zapotes! — Who wants to buy? and water vendors with their casks crying out: Waaaaaaaater, waaaater, waaaater! All day long that cry of water would cool the streets and there were stands with … More Walk(er)ing further in Nicaragua
1- I wish people would realize how unoriginal this speech is. I wish they would realize that just because they think they are a Latin Lover, I am not entertained by the standard speech. I am bored and pained by it at this point, having heard it to0 many times, from so many over the … More New faculty, and/or their spouses II, or, I am an American Puritan. More on some pesky señoritos
This is what they always say: 1. The United States is terrible because it does not have the right kind of café, because it has more poverty than they expected in a rich country, because it is a world power with oppressive policies. 2. Driving is a terrible imposition, and traumatic. 3. Academia in US … More New faculty, and/or their spouses I
Some of my first Danish friends could never quite understand US politics because we do not have a parliamentary system. Why the President did not resign, why the government had not fallen, they would ask. Technically they knew the answers to these questions but they did not feel these answers. In the US some common … More Horizons of political understanding and expectation
We have accomplished so much this semester. I started this weblog in 2006 because I wanted to learn to speak. In 2009 I said I was going to end it because I felt ready for my PhD examination: the blog had accomplished its purpose. I did not end it, though. Now I feel as though … More Mictlantecuhtli
We have had the last class! We are finished! I have a lot of papers and five finals to write and give, but I have finished! Axé.
After many years of struggle our problems were solved, not because we won at last but because an administration came in that had no interest in obstructing our work. In the meantime we worked on slow reforms and tried to follow the advice there is about how to rise above things. But the fact is … More Even more on academic advice
I have been ranting and raving all semester against the idea that we should emphasize that we are working, working, working, that our work is work, and so on. I have been ranting and raving against the idea that we should resent those for whom things look easy. I enjoy the presence of those for … More Postscript on “Golden Boys”
All right, I will say this and then finally go, it is almost 7:53 AM and I should have been in the office already. But I was thinking of how I would formulate something I want to discuss with an administrator and my thought stream had a byproduct: on European culture as a culture of … More An interesting button of thought
coldhearted scientist وداد 