Apologies to all three of you who read this blog for not posting much the past several days, but I have a good reason.
I managed to finish drafting Chapter 8 last night, then wrote the Epilogue (by which I mean I mostly copied the introduction to an article I published last month that served the [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Surprise!
Posted in acamademia, dissertation, tagged dissertation on 31 January 2009 | 1 Comment »
President Daft
Posted in acamademia, don't want to be an American idiot, send in the Slavs, tagged global warming, Gore, Klaus, presidential stupidity (foreign edition) on 30 January 2009 | 1 Comment »
Killing some time waiting for a meeting this afternoon, I was perusing a newsletter from the area studies program from which I’ve periodically received funding, and came across an article by my adviser reporting on a talk Czech President Václav Klaus gave during a visit in the fall.
Klaus, for those not in the know, is [...]
Of Super Bowl halftime shows and the lack of youth, women
Posted in diversion, tagged Stupor Bowl on 30 January 2009 | Leave a Comment »
ESPN columnist LZ Granderson has a great piece about the overreaction of various corporate suits to Super Bowl halftime programming after the Justin Timberlake-Janet Jackson “Nipplegate” controversy five years ago.
Here’s the best paragraph, with the money line bolded:
This is really why I find the reaction to Jackson’s 2004 performance, and the continual effects of it, so [...]
The president campaign in doodles
Posted in Ejection '08, cartoons, tagged cartoons on 30 January 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Sme wrapped up its coverage of the presidential campaign via the NYT today with a compendium of cartoons about the American campaign from around the world. (As an aside: how did I not see this on the NYT’s own web page?!)
It is well worth examining, not only to relive the highlights of the campaign season [...]
Disentropa
Posted in cartoons, tagged cartoons, Entropa, satire on 26 January 2009 | 3 Comments »
It seems like plenty of humorists and cartoonists around the EU have something of a sense of humor when it comes to Entropa. The Czech daily Dnes has a story about the cartoons and other images produced in response to David Černý’s, ahem, attention-grabbing art installation. Some of these are quite funny.
“Monica Davey” is a funny name, too
Posted in ridiculing the NYT for sport, tagged Blago behaving badly, NYT behaving worse on 26 January 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I was reading this story by the NYT’s Monica Davey about embattled Illinois Gov. Rod “$!#$@&#!” Blagojevich trying to mount a defense in the court of public opinion as his impeachment trial begins, but only really perked up when I saw this final paragraph.
For years, Mr. Blagojevich had national political aspirations, perhaps even as a [...]
Summoning motivation
Posted in course development, dissertation, tagged dissertation, teaching on 25 January 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I really want to get cracking today on Chapter 8 in the hopes of finishing the first full draft in the next couple of weeks or so.
My motivation has been lacking, or distracted, as I’ve been spending a lot more time of late preparing for the classes I’m teaching, whether it’s been reading ahead for [...]
Orphaned
Posted in acamademia, dissertation on 23 January 2009 | 1 Comment »
It’s probably not a major concern, especially since it’s looking much more likely than not that I’ll be sticking around an extra year (to my chagrin), but I’m still trying to put together my dissertation committee.
The first two members were easy. My adviser is chairing the committee, and I asked my second committee member months [...]
The New York Times became a filth rag so gradually, I hardly noticed
Posted in ridiculing the NYT for sport, tagged British filth on 23 January 2009 | 2 Comments »
Interesting if somewhat juvenile story in the Times about bawdy-sounding place names in Britain.
We’ve probably all known more than a few people worthy of living on a street called “Butt Hole Road.”
Then there’s this hamlet that rhymes with “Tennis Fun.”
As you can see below, Britain has no shortage of these.
In the scale of embarrassing place [...]
Pimp my ride
Posted in Obamarama, tagged Cadillac One, Obama on 21 January 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Check out the new set of wheels Obama got.
No mention of whether the rims are spinners.
I also find interesting the blurb about the driver’s window, which is the only window that opens “so the driver can pay a toll.”
Does the presidential limousine usually have to pay tolls? Is Obama planning to visit his Chicago home [...]
