the end of the world is nigh
scott and shelley are the only ones of you (prolly) who've seen me of late, and those two will know that this sort of thing doesn't necessarily translate to svelteness (sp?), but i forgot to eat today.
yup.
i had some cookies and some cheese and some potato chips (the cheese and chips came a few minutes ago) but that was it today. wierd?
some of you may read this and think "how has the weather been in west virginia of late?" i understand your concern. i respond with a poem (oh yes, a poem):
there will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
and swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
and frogs in the pools singing at night,
and wild plum trees in tremulous white;
robins will wear their feathery fire,
whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
and not one will know of the war, not one
will care at last when it is done.
not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
if mankind perished utterly;
and spring herself, when she woke at dawn
would scarcely know that we were gone.
[by sara teasdale, as quoted in ray bradbury's "the toynbee convector"]
and i, by the way, will scarcely be noticed by spring when i fly off to mexico tomorrow . . . hasta la vista?
THIS is an excellent lesson for all of us, particularly those of us who mused over the meaning of the assassination of pim fortuyn and the rise of the right wing in europe.
man oh man oh man
those of you who read my hand-wringing over christopher hitchens should also read
THIS, especially if you, like me, like(d) hitchens.
i'm preparing to wash my hands of him.
i saw spiderman this weekend and i couldn't agree more with
this review.
well, i took a long weekend vacation. you see, my life is so hectic that i need that sort of thing . . .
not really. but i do like that sort of thing.
anyway, upon my return i've discovered that the world kept turning. most particularly, the world of christopher hitchens, who i once loved. "hitch", as his friends apparently refer to him (i've never met him), has lately written more than a few things over which i puzzle. his latest,
The Real David Brock, in "the nation" is rather insignificant to me, given that i've not read brock's book, but it adds to my fears nonetheless. see, "hitch" is (was?) a lefty. more importantly, he's REALLY smart and REALLY good on tv and in print (i think his writing can border on brilliant: read "no one left to lie to" if you want a taste). of late, however, he seems to have taken to attacking things the left holds dear.
in the piece on brock, for example, he comes close to attacking the notion of the "vast right-wing conspiracy". now, don't get me wrong, i struggled for a good while before voting for clinton in '92, didn't vote at all in '96, and voted for nader in '00, but i don't (and have never) doubted that there were powerful folks on the right who hated clinton with a solar intensity. "hitch" hated clinton for reasons similar to my own, but surely he can't deny that the right was gunning for clinton (for reasons i've never fully understood) well out of proportion to the degree of leftishness in his administration. . .
the brock thing, however, is but a tempest in a teapot compared to "hitch's" stand on the "war on terror": he has written enthusiastic articles in support of it!!! i don't get it. not even the lovely prose of my (former?) hero can convince me that dubyah and his handlers are up to anything less than mischief. sigh. and i was only just starting to get re-illusioned. . .
(probably) bad analogy time:
if i were to come into you house and refuse to leave, what would you do?
assume that there are no police to call. assume also that it's just you and me. assume also that neither of us have a gun.
would you try to push me out? assume i'm bigger and stronger than you, and have a baseball bat. every time you push me, i push you to the floor. i then smash something that belongs to you.
come at me with a knife, will you? you get the bat. in fact, you also get the taser gun (given me by my even bigger friends, who are outside calling for you to stop the violence and negotiate). also, more of your stuff gets the bat.
say i fall, momentarily, asleep and you give me a hotfoot. more bat, more severely. i will also inform you, at this point, that i'm going to keep using the bat until you stop your violence.
what if i say to you that, if you promise never to attempt to harm me, i agree to give you the whole house except for the living room and exits.
what do you do? do you agree?
british
music polls are odd. of course, i shudder to think what would turn up on a similar poll of americans.
scott, mr english major, rogers sometimes blogs about phrases / words he despises. here's one i despise . . .
every semester, on the final exam, one of the questions my students answer is "what have you learned in this class?". i don't usually give too much explanation of what i expect on this question, as i really want them to think about it and i really want to see what they come up with. often the answers are pretty cool: every once in a while i even get a nice explanation of why the student learned "nothing".
so it is a mostly positive experience. but.
EVERY semester i get AT LEAST ten students who say (among other things) that they've learned that "there are two sides to every story". ugh. i HATE that! what does that mean? does it mean that they didn't know, before taking the class, that there were two sides to every story? does it mean that they thought that, while some stories have two sides, most have only one side? did they get the rush one gets from a moment of epiphany when they figured out that there are two sides to every story?
i have considered banning that phrase. sigh.
as a potential future resident of mexico, perhaps i should say a word or two about cinco de mayo . . .
(probably not)
my understanding is that it is NOT mexican independance day, as is often said in the us. rather, it is the celebration of a victory by a mexican army over (i think) a french invasion force.
mexico seems to have lots of national days of celebration, in part because they've had more than one revolution. it wouldn't surprise me if (and this is a big if) in the future people celebrate the day when vincente fox won the presidency over the pri candidate. we shall see.
if you saw tonight's simpsons . . .
mmmmm caramel baloney . . .
THIS is soooooo cool! i want
THIS!!!
(notdubyah is me)
scottrogerspersonal: we had a big shindig at our department head's house on Friday. Our BIGTIME film guy is retiring...
scottrogerspersonal: here's a google search for him
scottrogerspersonal: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22leonard+leff%22+hitchcock
notdubyah: neet
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: he did some commentary, apparently, for the DVD of Rebecca
scottrogerspersonal: he was on a PBS special about Hitch
notdubyah: so how does his film studies link him to hemmingway?
scottrogerspersonal: he began as a hemmingway scholar, apparently
scottrogerspersonal: I didn't know that until last night
notdubyah: ah
notdubyah: i'm glad he shifted to something useful
scottrogerspersonal: hehe
scottrogerspersonal: I don't care for Ernest
notdubyah: as if one needs an expert to get through hemmingway
scottrogerspersonal: I always feel so very Nick Carroway when I read him
notdubyah: hehe
notdubyah: good wine
notdubyah: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: bwahaha
notdubyah: wher'd you get it'
notdubyah: spain
notdubyah: ah
notdubyah: yeah
notdubyah: spain
notdubyah: good times
notdubyah: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: spain
scottrogerspersonal: good
notdubyah: the bulls
scottrogerspersonal: hot
notdubyah: and the wine
scottrogerspersonal: wine
notdubyah: good wine
scottrogerspersonal: yes
notdubyah: CHAPTER TWO
scottrogerspersonal: it was good
notdubyah: yeah
notdubyah: but the war
notdubyah: it wasn't good
notdubyah: it was bad
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: bad
scottrogerspersonal: hard
notdubyah: i met a woman
notdubyah: in spain
scottrogerspersonal: yeah?
notdubyah: in the war
notdubyah: we had wine
scottrogerspersonal: are you impotent?
notdubyah: the wine
scottrogerspersonal: oh
scottrogerspersonal: i see
notdubyah: it gives the desire, and takes away the ability, or something like that
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: that too
notdubyah: good fishin in spain
scottrogerspersonal: and winwe
scottrogerspersonal: and women
notdubyah: yeah
notdubyah: CHAPTER THREE
notdubyah: good wine in paris, too
scottrogerspersonal: oh yeah
scottrogerspersonal: and lights
scottrogerspersonal: and women
notdubyah: and women
notdubyah: jinx
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: jinx
notdubyah: and the war
scottrogerspersonal: the war wasn't good
scottrogerspersonal: in france
notdubyah: CHAPTER FOUR
notdubyah: not much war in cuba
scottrogerspersonal: not so much
notdubyah: but women
scottrogerspersonal: nor wine
scottrogerspersonal: oh yes. women
notdubyah: and cigars
scottrogerspersonal: and cigars
scottrogerspersonal: jinx
scottrogerspersonal: still impotent, though
notdubyah: CHAPTER FIVE
notdubyah: big mountain in africa
scottrogerspersonal: yes
scottrogerspersonal: and women
notdubyah: yes
notdubyah: and palm wine
scottrogerspersonal: and cigars brought from cuba
notdubyah: lots of things to hunt, there
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: no bulls, though
scottrogerspersonal: but otehr things
notdubyah: go on
notdubyah: let's eat
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
notdubyah: where will we go?
scottrogerspersonal: ever had elephant?
notdubyah: want to eat on the island?
scottrogerspersonal: sure
notdubyah: hehe
notdubyah: you just gave the next line
scottrogerspersonal: there's wine, right?
scottrogerspersonal: from Paris?
notdubyah: i was quoting from the sun alsor ises
scottrogerspersonal: and cigars from cuba?
notdubyah: the next line was "sure"
notdubyah: heehe
scottrogerspersonal: yeah
scottrogerspersonal: you should blog this WHOLE thing
well, the meeting with the two cheaters was a non event.
one fella half-heartedly pled his "freshmanness". my response was that he has time, therefore, to incorporate this lesson into his academic career. he offered that one lesson from this was to avoid me (i hope he was joking) as a teacher. to which i responded that "we all know how to catch them and we all do". that's a lie: most of my colleagues are living in a dream world where the streets are paved with gold, the dogs shit rubies, and students don't plagiarize. . . .
the other fella concerns me a bit. he made it clear that he had no intention of contesting my decision regarding his case, but then several times wanted to know whether this would turn in to a case for some sort of review board. i said (several times in several different ways) that i had never had a student appeal, but it was up to him. he said "oh no! i won't appeal!" and then wanted to know what would happen if he did . . . sigh.
ah well, i never make an accusation without having solid evidence anyway. i'd win any appeal, i think.
both of them pled that they hadn't done well throughout the semester and were flailing for a way to improve their grades . . . i noted that neither of them (and precious few of their fellow students) tried what should have been their first option: TALK TO THE TEACHER!!! ASK WHAT THEY CAN DO TO IMPROVE!!!
aside from plagiarism (and, of course, intimately connected with plagiarism), the reticence of students to come to office hours (or even write an email) is probably the biggest problem i see.
all is dark. we are slouching towards stupidtown.
raphael palmiero takes viagra!?!? say it ain't so!
today was the last day of class.
in my regular history class i told them about "candide" and read the last page or so (upon which i elaborated to make the point that they should become "enlightened"). we then tackled the last chapter of our text, by howard zinn, entitled "the coming revolt of the guards". (we are the guards). i then assigned the take-home final.
the movie history class was even easier, except . . . before class i graded one of the last few essays and discovered another cheater. sigh. then i graded another essay and discovered ANOTHER cheater. two in the space of an hour, three in one week. sigh.
during class, when i handed back papers, those two fellows got sheets of paper requesting their presence during my office hours on friday. NEITHER of them asked why (they should know). one did ask if we could do it at another time, as he has class . . .
i've never before given a plagiarist this much lead time. i am very much interested to learn what stories they will concoct. i'll let you know.
fuckem. i'm going to mexico in two weeks.
