Thus the Misery Endeth.

My apologies to the final readers of the blog.

I spent some real money this week to get a more precise traffic count of the page, and it's clear to me from monitoring CM for 5 years that our reach is not sufficient to maintain the page anymore. The page has been dying - oh, it's been dying for 10 years - as of late, and I don't think the enterprise should continue in this format.

Many of you have written and urged me to keep it going during other periodic lulls, and I can't tell you how much that has weighed on me and encouraged me to push on. But I hit a wall this morning.

I know this place and RYS have been havens for so many of us with common appreciations of our profession, but those discussions will have to continue elsewhere.

To the folks who have worked on the page, and the readers, oh the readers who have supported it, thank you. RYS started almost 10 years ago. CM started more than 5 years ago. It's been my honor to be a part of an ongoing conversation that deserves more attention and care than it has ever gotten here or anywhere.

Courage, everybody.

Your pal,
Fab Sun

I Learn So Much from my Students

I learn so much from my students.  Often, they teach me more than I teach them.  For example, so far in the last couple weeks I've learned these wonderful new things.

Kant believes that morality is whatever the majority says it is, and that we should always do what the most people say we should do.

Freud was gay, because he was obsessed with penises.

Plato's theory of ideas is "stupid," because there's no scientific proof.

Buddhists are all "nuts" because they don't believe in Jesus.

The purpose of college is to get a good job, and learning about literature is a waste of time, because none of it is relevant to what they'll be doing for a job.

If you can't prove something to be true, then it's just a matter of opinion and all matters of opinion are equal.  Science proves that things are true.

Big Thirsty. What Class Do You Dread? From Itchy in Idaho.

Even though I know it is an important day, I am dreading tomorrow. My freshmen will pitch their research topics. Impossibly large like "Mistakes in World War II," and impossibly everything like "My Dodge Ram."

Q: What class or lesson do you dread each semester.


PS: Keep hope, misery, and the duck alive!