What I wrote several months ago: I really like my research projects but I am chronically impeded in them by my unhappiness as a professor. As a professor I have tended to have jobs and lived in places that were not only professionally unsatisfying but also psychically unsafe for me. Repressing my flight instinct is always … More Labor Day I
A la fin tu es las de ce monde ancien Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin Tu en as assez de vivre dans l’antiquité grecque et romaine [Apollinaire] It is the weekend, and I am singing that I shall not visit Greek or Roman antiquities but Caddo ones. Later I … More Alcools (1912)
Whiteman (lecturing severely): At third year review, you will not just be reviewing me — I will be reviewing you. By that time I expect you to overhaul the undergraduate curriculum to my taste, add a new graduate program and have housed in the department an additional journal. If you have not provided these things … More Oxalá
In my foreign language class we have a thick textbook, a workbook, a lab manual, three websites, CDs, DVDs, PowerPoint slides, and videos. It is not yet clear to me how well these materials fit together or to what extent they repeat each other. It may take me more than this semester to learn. I … More The Textbook Industrial Complex, or, The Baroque Era
‘This old man,’ I said at length, ‘is the type and the genius of deep crime. He refuses to be alone. He is the man of the crowd. It will be in vain to follow; for I shall learn no more of him, nor of his deeds. The worst heart of the world is a … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Edgar Allan Poe
A GENERAL QUESTION Is this only my bad luck, or is it a trend — new professors, graduate students somewhere last year, who (a) refuse to write their own grant applications because that is “administration,” (b) have, however, big ideas for administrative and service projects in related to their fields that they think I should … More Heu Mihi
When I was a large child we would hear concerts at the Palace of Music. We would see people like Paco Ibañez sing, and we would make fun of them later the same night for being too serious. But we would only do this in private because we knew all too well that people could … More “The Truth Is Bitter, I Want To Spit It Out”
The Times-Picayune reported the catastrophic flooding is expected to worsen over the next few days after rainfall from the hurricane flows into Lake Pontchartain from upstream rivers and streams. With the levees broken, the water will keep rising in the city of New Orleans until it is at same level as the lake and Mississippi … More On August 31, 2005…
This weekend we are singing in victory, so we invoke the Cid. Listen to the precise clashing of swords in the Poem of the Cid as transcribed at UT-Austin. Here we have a much cuter version of the Cid — perhaps the very cutest ever. The best kind of background music for the Cid’s activities … More Dios, que buen vassallo, si oviese buen señore!
On August 27, 2005, I talked to all my New Orleans people, and on August 28 they came here. Some stayed; others went on to Houston and Austin after lunch. Traffic was really heavy that morning. The people and the storm were inevitably coming, and I was concerned to see how long we might be … More For August 29: The ‘I’ of the Storm
coldhearted scientist وداد 