Monthly Archives: August 2007

Cursing around the kids

Via Ed Champion comes a hilarious story from Tod Goldberg, the upshot of which is that Tod gets called out by a parent for using the phrase “serial killer” while a child (of indeterminate age) is within earshot. He wonders … Continue reading

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Serving time

One more post on the workload of an assistant professor: Picking your service commitments. Viewed narrowly, service is less important to one’s career than teaching and research. I’ve heard of extraordinary teachers being tenured despite scant research portfolios, and everyone … Continue reading

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Overheard at the Genius Bar

Standing on line at the Genius Bar Wednesday night, I overheard the end of a transaction between the Genius and a Customer: G: You’re all set . . . just pull your car to the door in parking lot B1, … Continue reading

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Teaching as a professor

Dr. Crazy has a great post this week about the intensity of an assistant professor’s workload, and how that’s different from graduate school. I also teach at a “regional comprehensive” university, and so have a roughly similar mix of teaching, … Continue reading

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One sign you’re becoming yet another absent-minded professor

When you spend three minutes staring out of your office window wondering how to figure out whether it’s stopped raining, the better to return books to the library . . . you may be an absent-minded prof. Not good. (One … Continue reading

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Another Dickens adaptation

Fleshbot is reporting a new film version of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist: In case you were wondering: yes, “Oliver Twinks” is the homo porno version of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, just in case that sad looking waif asking “Please, sir, … Continue reading

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No thoughts, just heat.

“Seeing lousy movies / but only for the a.c.” –The Hold Steady, “Hostile, Mass.”   What happens when you visit your parents during the hottest week in southeastern Virginia in a decade? Underdog on Monday, The Bourne Ultimatum on Tuesday, … Continue reading

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September as Memorize Poetry Month

Here’s a sentence I’ll be quoting forever when my students complain that I make them memorize poems: One poem per week…how difficult can that be? At 32 poems, Deborah Ager’s agitating for September to be “Memorize Poetry Month,” with participants … Continue reading

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Penn CFP list

I don’t think this information has been disseminated very widely, so: According to the list’s main page at the UPenn website, the list is (at least temporarily) dead: Due to technical and administrative difficulties, we can no longer offer mass … Continue reading

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Yet another reason not to like RateMyProfessors.com

Today I found out that my parents check up on A’s and my teaching by reading RateMyProfessors.com regularly. Awesome.

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