Not of General Interest

I am what might politely be termed "directionally challenged." This means that, although I can read a map, I am usually lost, esp...

I am at a conference, and I *so* want to be home. Classes are over, and all that's left is a mountain of grading and a big heap of writi...

Dear State Representative, Why does the road between East Nowhere and Palookaville widen out to three lanes going in the same direction? Do...

If the kitchen is clean, right down to those portions of the stove that have to be cleaned with toothpicks . . . And the microwave is so cle...

Message yesterday from Stu Dent (to borrow Profgrrrl's pseudonym for them): "Hi, I'm sorry I haven't been in class for a wh...

At a time when US pet food companies are importing tainted materials to put into pet food, here's a story about Victoria Hampshire, a ve...

Last year, I wondered what the much-touted/much-reviled WebCT and Blackboard merger might mean for faculty who're forced to use them. We...

This is the kind of day it's been: I called Business X to fight with them (or really to inquire politely) about an error they'd mad...

MaggieMay is disgusted with the media's treatment of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, and I don't blame her. What should be respectfu...

From the New York Times : At least 33 people were killed today on the campus of Virginia Tech in what appears to be the deadliest shooting r...

Scene: my office. A student comes to the door. She is red-eyed, hacking, wheezing, and having frequent recourse to a woefully inadequate an...

As in most grad classes, the students in mine this semester read criticism as well as the primary texts. We read some purely theoretical pie...

Done with the short essay (3000 words), and a big thanks to Chaser for getting me moving.

Yesterday I had a conversation with an advisee that went something like this (as run through the era/field anonymizer): Me: And in that cour...

One way to know it's spring is that people from the visit office or grad office call and ask if a prospective (accepted) student can com...

After seeing Lennard Davis's article "Huckleberry Who?" at Paper Chaser, I decided that full disclosure was in order. Has th...

This isn't traditional service--no meetings are involved--but I've done nothing since Friday but knock down and cross off list items...

A few years back, a reporter from the Chronicle contacted me about a story. Which story? you ask. Good question. I was away at the time, ...

I'd like to think that I'm not the only who who dreams about students and teaching. There are the usual panic dreams: I can't fi...

Unless it's a teaching or meeting day, I usually work at home. When I read profgrrrl and other bloggers talking about all the work they...