sex and violence
If you are a fan of Anthony Bourdain, you’ll want to click right over to ruhlman. It would appear that His Highnass is guest-blogging now.
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02.28.07
encyclopaedia as metaphor
If the world could be contained in a single room, it was because no natural object was devoid of significance, but rather everything was a manifestation of a plan or a latent meaning. Everything, concluded the rhetorician Emanuele Tesauro, was a metaphor, ‘and if nature speaks to us through these metaphors, it follows that an encyclopaedic collection, as the sum of all possible metaphors, must logically become the all-encompassing metaphor for the world.’
Mauries, Patrick. Cabinets of Curiosities. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
02.23.07
where are you going, where have you been
The month of February usually doesn’t get to me, but this year it’s been a long trudge. Some of it is good stuff, some is just difficult. Three talks on campus, the diss prospectus, a new prep, an old prep that has unexpectedly changed due to low enrollment, and various proposals have kept me busy. But there also seem to be no end to Big Issues to deal with in my personal life: depositions in the ankle lawsuit, significant health problems for a family member, an unwanted phone call, tax season, and other things. (What, you didn’t know about some of those? Sorry, but this is probably all I’ll say about them.)
So I’ve been entertaining myself by posting pictures of my socks on the Internets, working on a long nonfiction essay, and reading more Irving in the evenings. That works well for me right now. The largest February snowstorm since 1891 is forecast for this weekend, which is awesome. And I’m looking forward to March, which contains my birthday and Spring Break.
02.19.07
downtown st. paul
02.17.07
outside
The fact that I was taking photos of coffee grounds made me notice that I’ve been stuck in a rut lately, image-wise: flowers, food, fish, plants, food, fish. It was time to get out of the house.
So we went and stomped around in downtown St. Paul for a couple of hours. 25 degrees and windy, but we ducked into the skyways and coffee shops when it got too brutal. It was surprisingly pleasant along the river, and the sky hasn't been this blue in weeks.
02.15.07
New & Improved F&R 07 — now with electronic submissions!
The Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) website is now up and running. Proposals are invited from a wide variety of fields, including history, ethics, new media, political science, social justice, pedagogy, law, literature, art and art theory, queer theory, international studies, cultural studies, race studies, economics, environmental studies, science, social activism, communication studies, technical communication, visual design, philosophy, and engineering. The deadline for submissions is April 20, so don’t dally too long.
The organizers are still finalizing the keynotes and featured speakers, but it looks like Krista Ratcliffe, Hui Wu, Shirley Logan Wilson, Malea Powell, Carol Mattingly, and my old colleague Jessica Reyman will all be speaking.
Pulp Project #12
Amazing Stories February 1953
02.14.07
the sock drawer rules
The older I get, the less tolerance I have for improper sockage. Today I implemented the following policies:
- The responsibilities of the socks are three-fold: to keep my feet warm, to absorb sweat, and to make me happy. The last requirement has historically been ignored. No longer shall this be so!
- Therefore, a strict quota is imposed on professional, boring socks. Life is too short for a drawer full of black trouser socks.
- Life is also too brief for an unreasonable shortage of cushy white cotton athletic socks, or the same of an improper style. Purge.
- Black tights that no longer fit are banished. The last time such things were routinely called for were during late-teens moody goth period.
- Likewise, all pantyhose are banished. 12 screws in an ankle constitute a free pass from high heels, and no heels means one no longer need concern oneself with hose.
- Socks associated with bad memories are banished.
- Socks that were a gift from First Love in 1993 are banished. Fourteen-year-old socks are ridiculous.
- Socks that might maybe possibly have a mate somewhere in another dimension are banished.
- Socks that are much-loved but faded or full of holes in the toes are also banished. Learn to darn? Pitch ’em.
- Happy socks will heretofore comprise the bulk of the sock inventory. Stripes, polka-dots, snowflakes, and skulls are mandated. When one lives in a place where long pants and boots are de rigeur for half the year, nobody actually sees them anyway. Might as well make yourself happy.
Update: The Happy Sock Flickr Set is sprouted and growing.
To His Coy Mistress [or, Vegetable Love!]
(Just because it’s a Brit Lit 101 poem doesn’t mean Marvell’s not rockin’. Plus, it’s been stuck in my head the past few days.)
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges’side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at slower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv’d virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am’rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp’d power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
02.11.07
winter dinners
Cabbage, potatoes, and kielbasa braised in porter and beef broth. Perfect freezing February food, were it not for the fact that our apartment is subtropical on the lowest possible setting. (The building’s hot water heat is overly sufficient.)
I also made this roasted squash puree with apple and ginger the other night. Yummy bachelorette-night food, and very filling.
exam strategies handout
Greg Schneider (known elsewhere on this blog as Compatriot G) and I recently did a department workshop on the comprehensive exams process, along with John Logie and Mary Wrobel. The DGS asked to include our handout in future editions of the grad student handbook, so I thought I’d also post it here in case it might be useful to others. It’s licensed as noncommercial/attribution/share-alike, so borrow and modify it for your own graduate program’s needs if you like.
There’s three pages of practical tips, the things that you learn as you go along but really wish you had known going in. One of the most useful things in it is the resources section, which includes links to AKMA’s recent take on exams as well as Becky Howard, Tim Burke, and Matt Cornell’s posts on reading effectively. Go take a look. And if there are other things that should have been on there, please feel free to leave them in the comments for future stressed-out examinees.
02.10.07
happens to me all the time
Sometimes I accidentally write a whole poem — something that quacks like a poem, anyway — before remembering I’m not a poet. Which is something I might not get away with so easily in other professions, but poems — the quacking kind, anyway — don’t explode as readily as amateur rockets.
02.06.07
Blogumentary available for free
Chuck Olsen has uploaded the full version of his Blogumentary to Google Video and YouTube. Go take a look.
Chuck, Dan Gillmor, Rex Sorgatz, and I did a panel together a couple of years ago for the UMN New Media Center, and Chuck was smart and articulate. So is his documentary. Clancy and I have used it in a couple of blog workshops we did for faculty from around the university, and it always generates good discussion when I teach with it. If you’re an Internets Researcher, it’s worth an hour of your time.
a modernist interlude highly recommended by Mister Husband
Perfection. Thanks, boynton (who also points to authors who write in the buff.)
02.04.07
winter light in the kitchen
the ABC meme
Because Billie says I hafta. And I'm counting it as part of the 100 Freakin’ Things list that I still haven't finished.
A- Available or Single? Neither.
B- Best Friend? Ev0r? G! (Best Minnesota Friend? C!)
C- Cake or Pie? Pie. Peach in the summertime. Apple any other time. Or rhubarb. Rhubarb’s quite good. (Cake or death, though? Cake!)
D- Drink of Choice? Generally water, since I get dehydration headaches. But lately Saturday mornings have become a snotty beverage festival: loose-leaf Irish Breakfast tea, French-pressed Costa Rican coffee, fresh-squoze juice. I also went on a root beer tear a couple of weekends back, but that's unusual.
E- Essential Item? Jacked-up white MacBook.
F- Favorite Color? It shifts. Right now I'm in a green mood, I think. But we just bought a deep purple bathroom rug (selected by Mister Husband), and it's pretty awesome. (It's the background in this photo.)
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Bears. The red ones. All the best candies are red, unless they are chocolate. Red is a flavor.
H- Hometown? Little Rock.
I- Indulgence? Coffee ice cream with hot fudge and roasted pecans. Hot baths with bubbles. Reading novels on Saturday mornings. (Does any of that not sound hopelessly bourgeois and 30-something? Grrrr. Or maybe as you get older you just notice that simple things are what make life good.)
J- January or February? Totally January, because it's fresh and loaded with possibilities. And it's not plastered with sparkly hearts and teddy bears.
K- Kids and names? No.
L- Life is incomplete without...? books. In quantity.
M- Marriage Date? July 29th. Or October 25. Or February 9. Three dates for someone who has only been married once to one person? Lemme splain. I had always planned to get married in the fall, and the date I observe as our Real Anniversary is October 25, which is when we first went out. But being academics, we wanted an anniversary that wouldn't fall in the middle of a semester, so there you go. (An explanation of the February date is here.)
N- Number of Siblings? One.
O- Oranges or Apples? Oranges. Especially lately, since I bought a marvelously simple stainless steel juicer and got to work:
P- Phobias/Fears? Sea Monsters. Bugs with many legs. A centipede sends me shrieking from the room; a millipede would probably make me spontaneously combust. (We finally watched the Peter Jackson King Kong last night, and I had to hide for the bug and worm scenes.)
Q- Favorite Quote? "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anais Nin
R- Reasons to smile? New orchid plant. Learning to make spring rolls. Conference proposal acceptances. Cold, cold winter, finally. Dissertation prospectus is starting to fall into place. The video for "Listen Up!" by The Gossip.
S- Season? Fall. Oh, fall. Crisp and new and full of promise and sweaters and leaves. Part of the reason I love Minnesota so much is because fall starts so soon. (And also because winter is my second favorite season.)
T- Tag 3 people? If this seems like a fun gig to you, consider yourself tagged.
U- Unknown Fact About Me? I think the most recent five are the best I can do at the moment.
V- Vegetable You Hate? Turnips.
W-Worst Habit? What's any grad student's worst habit, aside from procrastination? Imposter syndrome.
X- Xrays You've Had? Better question: what part of my body hasn't been x-rayed? I don't think my upper arms have. But that's about it. The ankle has been xrayed more than most other parts, of course.
Y- Your Favorite Foods? Dark, dark chocolate. Sushi. Gus's Fried Chicken in Memphis. McClard's BBQ in Hot Springs, AR. Fried green tomatoes. Glow foods.
Z- Zodiac? Pisces. But an atypical, ornery pisces.
02.02.07
a weekend inside
10 to -10 is pretty optimal winter weather as far as I’m concerned, but that has to include the wind chill. -30 is overkill.
The phrase hunkered down comes to mind.
02.01.07
you know what I haven't heard in awhile?
“How you been doin’?”
“Fine as a frog hair split sixteen ways.”