Unfortunately, everybody has gone home for the weekend and won't be back until next week. But we'll certainly have an answer next week. If you want to wait around until then, there's some cold pizza in the refrigerator and half of an old birthday cake from a couple weeks ago. And feel free to play some games or read some of our old magazines. Just make yourself at home, Mr. Fresco. By the way, I think that's just a beautiful name. My sister has a friend named Al Fresco that she talks about sometimes. I've never met him. I wonder if you're related.
@Frod: I'm sorry. I never should have given the executive assistant my passwords. She must have still been under the influence of those meds the hospital gave her. She sounded a little woozy when I talked to her earlier today, but I thought she had things under control. I'll have to engage in some progressive discipline with her. It's hard to find good help these days. She means well. Rest assured that she will address you as "Professor Frankenstien" next time she sees you.
Meanwhile, I'm going to call my mom and tell her that the Greatest Goddamned Scientist in California thinks I'm erudite! She will be so proud.
I'm read the iPhone picture as a cleverly coded critique of all that is wrong with the culture in which our students are raised: though cheerful on the surface, it actually represents too much emphasis on sports and other extracurriculars (and too many smiley faces and trophies distributed to the participants), to the point where anything more substantive is crowded out of their lives. They (and we) are drowning in soccer balls (and the fact that their, and our, tech toys offer these images only underlines the point).
I'm not sure what to make of the yellow lines (unless those are suggested motions, as in a play book, which would continue the theme).
Bubba, what's your drink of choice? I'm a beer gal myself, but there is something about a ginger cocktail that helps wash away the misery. I never can say no.
I don't know if it's possible to hijack one's own post, but I am reminded of one of my grad school proffies who not only kept bourbon in his office but also would occasionally sip some from a little shot glass he'd bring to class.
(late) BIG THIRSTY: Have you ever consumed alcohol during a class?
Definitely part of class prep, and always with a stack of essays, but never during class. I'm pretty sure one of my students is a regular imbiber in class, though.
I'm old enough that my undergraduate department actually plied me with sherry on occasion (including the period at the end of freshman year when we were choosing majors). And the live-in faculty in our dorms did a Halloween "trick or drink" (made truly hazardous by the fact that we lived in a Gilded Age building designed around entryways leading to spiralling stairways with well-worn stone treads rather than halls. One got to know the idiosyncrasies of one's own staircase, but not necessarily the other dozen or so in the building).
But, leaving aside a couple of final sessions of grad classes held over dinner at the professor's house, I've never had a drink during class, as either student or proffie.
Nope. Whenever I throw up in class, it's because I've been asked, "I didn't bother to come to class last month, did I miss anything important?" Either that, or it's the angular momentum demo with the dumbbells and turntable: my students love it when I hurl after that, though.
I never have. Once I had a drink just before a class and it was a serious mistake.
One of my colleagues was so drunk during a class that he passed out, face down on the desk at the front of the classroom. One of the students went to get the president to show her. This man had been instrumental in securing grants for the college. He was good at that. Nothing ever came of the face plant incident. I think even tenure would not have saved him if it were not for the grant talent.
Well, I actually have a thirsty to post but it is overdue. Will you accept it late and plagiarized- for full credit, of course?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteBubba, if you don't tell us the answer to "How to keep an American idle," I am going to do this to you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sAF8gMN9c0
"Billy-Bob, that was the meanest kitty cat you ever picked on..."
Unfortunately, everybody has gone home for the weekend and won't be back until next week. But we'll certainly have an answer next week. If you want to wait around until then, there's some cold pizza in the refrigerator and half of an old birthday cake from a couple weeks ago. And feel free to play some games or read some of our old magazines. Just make yourself at home, Mr. Fresco. By the way, I think that's just a beautiful name. My sister has a friend named Al Fresco that she talks about sometimes. I've never met him. I wonder if you're related.
DeleteName calling? Bubba, I'm surprised someone of your erudition couldn't come up with something better.
DeleteBy the way, it means "ash tree." I know, I've been called worse things.
@Frod: I'm sorry. I never should have given the executive assistant my passwords. She must have still been under the influence of those meds the hospital gave her. She sounded a little woozy when I talked to her earlier today, but I thought she had things under control. I'll have to engage in some progressive discipline with her. It's hard to find good help these days. She means well. Rest assured that she will address you as "Professor Frankenstien" next time she sees you.
DeleteMeanwhile, I'm going to call my mom and tell her that the Greatest Goddamned Scientist in California thinks I'm erudite! She will be so proud.
Does David Baltimore think you're erudite? Great going, Bubba!
DeleteThere's no chance of it making you stuck up, of course, since Shelby Foote was more erudite. But he didn't have a horse. The women dig the horse.
Charles Townes is even more erudite, but in his presence, I am not worthy.
DeleteIndeed, there are so many things to learn about in this world, and so many people who can help us learn.
DeleteI'm read the iPhone picture as a cleverly coded critique of all that is wrong with the culture in which our students are raised: though cheerful on the surface, it actually represents too much emphasis on sports and other extracurriculars (and too many smiley faces and trophies distributed to the participants), to the point where anything more substantive is crowded out of their lives. They (and we) are drowning in soccer balls (and the fact that their, and our, tech toys offer these images only underlines the point).
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what to make of the yellow lines (unless those are suggested motions, as in a play book, which would continue the theme).
Is this what's keeping an American idle?
ReplyDeleteBubba, what's your drink of choice? I'm a beer gal myself, but there is something about a ginger cocktail that helps wash away the misery. I never can say no.
ReplyDeleteMix a little bourbon with the blood of jesus h christ on a cracker.
DeleteTasty!
I don't know if it's possible to hijack one's own post, but I am reminded of one of my grad school proffies who not only kept bourbon in his office but also would occasionally sip some from a little shot glass he'd bring to class.
ReplyDelete(late) BIG THIRSTY: Have you ever consumed alcohol during a class?
Be honest, damnit.
No. That's part of class prep.
DeleteDefinitely part of class prep, and always with a stack of essays, but never during class. I'm pretty sure one of my students is a regular imbiber in class, though.
DeleteOnce on a field trip I loaded up a bottle of screw drivers. But I was a student, not a teacher, and I thought it was super bad ass of me.
DeleteOh, youth.
I'm old enough that my undergraduate department actually plied me with sherry on occasion (including the period at the end of freshman year when we were choosing majors). And the live-in faculty in our dorms did a Halloween "trick or drink" (made truly hazardous by the fact that we lived in a Gilded Age building designed around entryways leading to spiralling stairways with well-worn stone treads rather than halls. One got to know the idiosyncrasies of one's own staircase, but not necessarily the other dozen or so in the building).
DeleteBut, leaving aside a couple of final sessions of grad classes held over dinner at the professor's house, I've never had a drink during class, as either student or proffie.
The classroom? No. Committee meetings?
DeleteMais oui. I consider being seriously buzzed a necessity for surviving them.
Nope. Whenever I throw up in class, it's because I've been asked, "I didn't bother to come to class last month, did I miss anything important?" Either that, or it's the angular momentum demo with the dumbbells and turntable: my students love it when I hurl after that, though.
DeleteI never have. Once I had a drink just before a class and it was a serious mistake.
ReplyDeleteOne of my colleagues was so drunk during a class that he passed out, face down on the desk at the front of the classroom. One of the students went to get the president to show her. This man had been instrumental in securing grants for the college. He was good at that. Nothing ever came of the face plant incident. I think even tenure would not have saved him if it were not for the grant talent.