Introducing Dr. Curmudgeon. I wish I had had his confidence when I was his age. Here’s the story. I’m 35 years old. I’m going into my fourth year of teaching at a small university somewhere in America. I get to discuss big ideas and controversial notions on an almost daily basis. I get to ask … More On Being A Professor
…je vestirai. The state will refund 50% of your solar installation costs up to $25,000, and the Federal tax credit is 30%. I cannot easily gather $25,000 to pay up front to covert my electrical system to a solar one. This in my case might not eliminate all electrical bills, and solar panel technology is … More Ma verte cotte
The principal whiteman of this hour is, of course, the McCain/Palin campaign. Momo has a relevant post, and the Anxious Black Woman has another. Fortunately Christopher Buckley, William F. Buckley’s son, sees beyond the Republican smoke bombs and says this: Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have … More Some New Whitemen
“I’ll kiss you in my dreams.” Every once in a while we have to have a Huddie Ledbetter Memorial Post, and this is one with excellent, heretofore unseen pictures. Leadbelly’s lyrics, as we know, are very nineteenth century. But the world described apparently lived through the 1960s at least, and I know a man from … More Good Nignt Irene
I am channeling my former academic self and it is working. I haven’t had this person so well channeled in years. It is really fun to get this objective. It gives one a great deal of power and speed. Objectivity and power were, of course, not valued in Reeducation, and I lost them by taking … More C’est bien
There are many versions available of this traditional Sephardic song, but this is one of those I like best. Here is one Ladino text: La rosa enflorece en el mez de mayo, mi alma s’escurece, sufriendo de amor. Los bilbilicos cantan, sospiran de amor. Y la pasión me mata, muchigua mi dolor. Mas presto ven … More La rosa enflorece
¿Cuánto tiempo ha durado la anestesia, que llaman los hombres? ¡Ciencia de Dios, Teodicea! si se me echa a vivir en tales condiciones, anestesiado totalmente, volteada mi sensibilidad para adentro! ¡Ah doctores de las sales, hombres de las esencias, prójimos de las bases! Pido se me deje con mi tumor de conciencia, con mi irritada … More “Las ventanas se han estremecido” IV
El paciente contempla su calzado vacante. Traen queso. Llevan sierra. La muerte se acuesta al pie del lecho, a dormir en sus tranquilas aguas y se duerme. Entonces, los libres pies del hombre enfermo, sin menudencias ni pormenores innecesarios, se estiran en acento circunflejo, y se alejan, en una extensión de dos cuerpos de novios, … More “Las ventanas se han estremecido” III
¿Qué pensaría de si el enfermo de enfrente, ése que está durmiendo, si hubiera percibido el huracán? El pobre duerme, boca arriba, a la cabeza de su morfina, a los pies de toda su cordura. Un adarme más o menos en la dosis y le llevarán a enterrar, el vientre roto, la boca arriba, sordo … More “Las ventanas se han estremecido” II
It is a beautiful weekend, and we must sing. This is Mardi Gras in New Orleans – Jim Crow New Orleans, of course, as it is 1941. It was the last Mardi Gras until the end of the war. It is amazing how little the parades have changed. See those drum majors step! Here we … More New Orleans Mardi Gras, 1941
coldhearted scientist وداد 