allison speaks!
How out of it is Richard Rosen? ``Say,'' he writes, ``I see where this George Bush fella is running for president again. I thought he learned his lesson in '92.'' But Sen. John Breaux, D-La., is more fogbound: Peter Rosenbaum and Paul Rauber, both listening to NPR yesterday, heard him say of the Democratic vice presidential candidate that people wouldn't care ``what church he goes to on Sundays.''
Two years ago: The Kirk Poland contest!
Three years ago: I complain about there being 205 journals on Open Pages.
Four years ago: I have lunch with my parents.
Today's news question:Why are hundreds of American troops going to Nigeria?
(Don't send me your answers. This is just a little way to expand your horizons. Honest.)
The easiest entries are ones someone else writes, so without further ado, I give to you my friend Allison, who is currently majorly ensconced in academia as she pursues a PhD in Music (Composition) -- warning: spoilers for What Lies Beneath within:
I read your review of What Lies Beneath and had to tell you I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said! You really articulated what a mess of a movie it was and were particularly informative about all that POV stuff (with your superb screenwriter chops afterall).
I wanted to add my disgruntled two cents as well. It seems to me that the screenwriter did little or no research into the setting-- the (supposed) world of academia. He is obviously using a very antiquated (1950s or so?) model where only white, middle-aged bearded men can be professors and their wives are adoring, blond do-nothings whose only purpose is to look good and throw cocktail parties. [Has the writer *been* on a college campus in the last four decades or so?].
Also, this scare that female students can ruin a professor's career (esp. a tenured prof!) by going to the dean with allegations (or even proof) is unbelievably naive and untrue. Just to give you examples from my recent academic travels/travails: there is currently a prof in Vis Arts with (at last count) 29 sexual harrassment complaints against him -- and no worries about answering for this.
And on a personal note: I went to the Department Chair (music) to file a complaint against a problematic female prof who made blatantly racist comments. (I considered this move for a long time before making it because, honestly, it is much more likely to hurt the accuser than the accusee, esp. if you have hopes to go into academia). The prof has only been at UCSD two years but has several written and verbal complaints against her for threatening and verbally abusing grad students. The chair was sympathetic to me, yet said, in all honesty, the prospect of gaining tenure has very little to do with the professor's personality, behavior, or even complaint record, and nearly everything to do with his/her record of research/publishing. Since this prof has a very high publishing record, she's basically a shoe-in, no other questions asked.
How's that for justice? The notion that the Harrison Ford character could lose his academic chair because he slept with a student is preposterous.
I've had lots of wacky fantasies about what I wanted to do with my life; I don't think I've ever fantasized about going into academia. (Teaching high school, maybe. But not really.)
Allison, by the way, is going to have a baby in December. I've told her to hurry up and get as much of her thesis done as possible, because she's going to be out of commission for a while afterwards!
Last night, Sophia slept in her crib until 4 am, at which point Darin went to get her and bring her down. Mommy, however, did not sleep straight through until 4; she kept waking up and listening to the sounds on the baby monitor.
Another reason Mommy kept waking up is that she kept having nightmares about the Russian mafia, brought on by reading Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America by Robert I. Friedman. Lots of scary stuff in there, apparently the end of civilization as we know it. The difference between the Italian mafia and the Russians, Friedman tells us, is that the Italians have a code of honor. (such as it is, I guess.) Anyhow, Friedman had several gruesome stories to share on the topic -- I don't know how accurate he is, but he spins a good yan.
Note to self: you can read a little bit of the Harry Potter before bed and you won't have nightmares like this. Even if it is 7000 pages long.
In the forum:
Children and being child-free.
Spoilers and the spoilker game.
So, who's the second-richest woman in Britain, dammit?
The answer to yesterday's question: Joseph Lieberman is, of course, Al Gore's choice to run as veep on the Democratic ticket this year. This is remarkable both because Lieberman is the first Jewish man to run on a national ticket and because being Jewish is still noteworthy.
I wanted to write something pithy, involving deep thoughts about the reaction Lieberman's nomination has gotten, about Lieberman, about my views of religion and politics (okay, that's easy: I'm against it). But I'm still too tired.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@nobody-knows-anything.com