OfficeTemporal

Research assignment

2007-07-02T11:57:00.000-04:00

I've been reading A Room of One's Own by Virginia Wolf, and it has made me consider a different kind of writing assignment for English 102. Wolf starts out with the subject of "women and fiction" and develops a thesis arguing that women require money and privacy in order to write/create. In her discussion of her research and what led her to this conclusion, she describes in great detail the discovery process. She speaks about her play-by-play reactions to what men have written about women (since the subject of women seems to have been a favorite of men at this time). She talks of the anger she felt when reading one gentleman's discussion of the mental, physical, and emotional inferiority of women. She describes her experience sitting, watching a male colleague take meticulous notes on some scientific enterprise, while she has trouble reading her own scattered notes. And she describes the visual she conjures of this nasty, prejudiced, misogynistic professor who writes about the subject of women.

I haven't had much luck with annotated bibliographies in my research classes. Many times, it's difficult for students to grasp the concept of summary/paraphrase and doing the work necessary to write a cohesive annotated bib. Maybe, instead of entry-by-entry annotations, I could have students write a narrative of their research. They could describe, like Wolf, the ups and downs of their research and their frustration and anger towards their subject, the authors they are researching, or even me as the professor assigning this project. As long as it was anchored in research and it showed how they thought through the problem to arrive at a research question and then a thesis. Anyway, something to think about...

If only...

2007-06-08T09:05:00.001-04:00

this archivist had found Eliza Gurney's letter that was supposedly in Lincoln's pocket at the time of his death. Wishful thinking on my part (related to my grad school project), but either way, it's encouraging that such a pivotal primary document related to the Civil War was discovered at all. The letter's contents highlight this period after Gettysburg as a turning point in the war, which Lincoln recognized and tried to convey to his generals. And yet, although less than 20 miles away, Lee and the rebels slipped through the union army's fingers, and 2 more years of bloodshed followed. As one of the articles suggested, at least this proves that history is still 'dynamic.'

Some think that since we already knew of the information in this document through other sources, that the discovery of this document is secondary. I can see how historians might think otherwise. Sometimes, it's nice to have documentary/visual proof even if it's of what you already knew.

McJob?

2007-06-07T09:03:00.001-04:00

Do I have a McJob? The current definition according to the OED is "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector." While this could apply to many temporary positions as well as burger-flinging positions, I guess I am disqualified because I am not necessarily working in the service sector. The rest of the definition pretty much applies.

McDonald's quest to get the term "McJob" erased from the dictionary demonstrates its continued arrogance. If a word is taken out of the dictionary, does it mean that it won't be used? Won't it simply find a new home in a slang dictionary if the OED bends to McDonald's wishes? Even simply changing the nuances of the definition wouldn't do much to change the way people understand the word. Everyone knows that a McJob is a job that goes nowhere and pays very little. If only McDonald's spent its time and money on more beneficial enterprises - like actually changing the conditions of the job so that the word and its definition are no longer accurate. Wouldn't it be nice to see the definition of McJob become "a well-paid union job in the fast food service sector that guarantees pay at least 20% above minimum wage with employee benefits including health care plans and opportunities for career advancement and continuing education." Unlikely.

"Time Wasted, Perhaps It's Well Spent"

2007-06-01T14:11:00.000-04:00

Even though all I do at work is waste time (since I have next to nothing to do), this article might be interesting for people who actually have some productive tasks to do during the day:

Slumber

2007-05-24T09:34:00.001-04:00

This is just one of the great pictures published on slate.com of people in various stages of sleep.

CAMPANIA, Italy—1960.
© Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

"Adam and Eve in the Land of Dinosaurs"

2007-05-24T09:14:00.000-04:00

The creation museum opens on the 28th, and this article in the New York Times gives a look into what exactly a creation museum is and does. With exhibits designed by the guy who did the Jaws exhibit at Universal Studios, there is no doubt that the creation museum offers multiple sights and spectacles for visitors to behold. But what kind of sights and for what rhetorical purposes? Aren't they preaching to the choir, here? Will skeptical visitors come to the museum and be persuaded of the museum's message of creationism over evolution? What is the purpose of such a museum? To persuade non-believers? To strengthen and legitimize existing beliefs? Museums are tools of persuasion, but science, technology, and history usually lie at the foundation of the stories they tell through their exhibits. But we are fooling ourselves if we don't acknowledge the way museums 'fill the gaps' in scientific and historical knowledge, developing narratives in order to make exhibits more visually appealing, persuasive, and memorable to visitors. Maybe we should admire the creation museum for its unabashed attempt to mix biblical legends and "truths" with science and ethics.

As the author says: The Creation Museum offers an alternate world that has its fascinations, even for a skeptic wary of the effect of so many unanswered assertions. He leaves feeling a bit like Adam emerging from Eden, all the world before him, freshly amazed at its strangeness and extravagant peculiarities.

And, of course, it's in Kentucky.

Go Carter, it's your birthday...

2007-05-21T09:21:00.001-04:00

'White House Says Carter Criticism of Bush is Sad'

Could modern medicine have saved Lincoln?

2007-05-21T09:15:00.001-04:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/20/AR2007052000873.html

This article from the Post describes what the doctors did for Lincoln in the 19th century and how treatment would be similar/different today. As the author points out, the doctors attending to Lincoln followed many of the same protocols as modern EMTs and doctors. And the author poses the question, how would our world have been different if Lincoln had lived? Even if Lincoln had lived with decreased motor function and a drastically decreased ability to communicate, inevitably his survival would have changed a great deal about the course that history has taken since the Civil War.

Michelle Obama's struggle with "opting-out"

2007-05-21T08:51:00.000-04:00

"Michelle Obama's Sacrifice" http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/05/21/michelle_obama/index.html

This is an interesting article from Salon about Michelle Obama's decision to, for all intents and purposes, quit her high-powered job to be on the campaign trail. Although I disagree with the way the author reads into various comments by Michelle Obama (the author seems comfortable with putting words/thoughts/actions in Michelle Obama's mouth), the author poses interesting questions about the developing role of the wife on the campaign trail and the role of the first lady. I hope that Michelle Obama defines her own role and finds ways to put all of her talents to good use.

The issue (and Maureen Dowd's column about Michelle Obama) is discussed more on these blogs:

http://thelastplantation.com/search.aspx?q=maureen%20dowd

http://thehnic.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/the-white-lady-just-doesnât-get-it-a-response-to-maureen-dowds-critique-of-michelle-obama/#more-72

Opt-in

2007-05-18T10:55:00.001-04:00

To follow up on the articles I posted about women "opting out" of the workplace, here's an article about how companies are beginning to change their policies about mothers returning to the workplace. A step in the right direction, but just a small step as the author notes.

"After Baby, Boss Comes Calling" by Lisa Belkin

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/fashion/17work.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=b2cd8ac16c107463&ex=1179633600

narcissism anyone?

2007-05-16T09:46:00.000-04:00

"My greatest competition is, well, me... I'm the Ali of today. I'm the Marvin Gaye of today. I'm the Bob Marley of today. I'm the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realize that now." -- R. Kelly

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

2007-05-10T14:25:00.001-04:00

I've been listening to this album over and over. I stole it from Mike who has yet to listen to it. She is kind of a mess in terms of her personal life and such, but I love her songs.

Clavicle?

2007-05-10T09:09:00.000-04:00

What's a clavicle? If you know and you are obsessing over it, then you are apparently at the forefront of fashion's latest trend. Yes, the clavicle is the latest body part that the fashion world has decided women should start obsessing over. What kind of clavicle do you want? Well, definitely not a chubby one (is there such a thing?). Your clavicle should be pronounced with a nicely defined breastbone beneath it (read: you can count the ribs). How do you exercise a clavicle? Beats me. It looks like the only way to get one is to reduce your calorie intake. So, it's not enough to have a perfect body from the chest down; now women must also obsess about the upper chest/neck area. While it is nice that women's fashion is no longer pushing women to "bare it all," I find the obsession with the clavicle further proof of the fashion industry's hypocrisy. Yes, there have been fashion forums with distinguished panelists including Donna Karan and others talking about how models have gotten way too "skinny" and what fashion should do to remedy the problem. Apparently, the remedy is to find a new body part for women to obsess over. So now they are emphasizing a body part that is almost impossible to change unless you are underweight or naturally blessed with a "beautiful clavicle."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/fashion/10clavicle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The New Modern Woman, Ambitious and Feeble

2007-05-08T09:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/arts/television/05grey.html?ex=1179028800&en=bdc5ad51ee23d031&ei=5070&emc=eta1

My Mom sent me this article review of the latest 2-hour episode of Grey's Anatomy. TV actresses, like their movie star counterparts, should start complaining about a lack of strong female leads. Although I admit to enjoying Grey's, I can't help but wonder why anyone would want to be with some of these women. They can't make up their minds, they complain constantly, and they seem to be highly susceptible to any and every hint of testosterone that crosses their paths. Why not let Addison remain a witch and see what happens? Why does her character have to become more ditzy and "vulnerable" (read - psychotic) to be likeable? It's a disturbing trend, but I don't imagine that it will change any time soon.

Naked man leads police on 40 minute chase

2007-05-03T11:47:00.000-04:00

40 minutes? Thankfully, I don't have any pictures to accompany this article.

And to think that I just saw the naked-girlfriend Seinfeld episode yesterday :)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KY_NAKED_POLICE_CHASE_KYOL-?SITE=KYLOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

On payday, it's still a man's world

2007-04-23T08:51:00.000-04:00

These statistics are worse than I imagined. And what kills me is that even though there is no reason coming out of college for women to earn less, they still do (even though they outperform men in the college setting).

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/23/news/economy/gender_gap/index.htm?cnn=yes

Green Grass, Running Water

2007-04-20T10:03:00.000-04:00

This week I finished reading Green Grass, Running Water, a novel by Thomas King. I've never read anything quite like this book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in magic realism or native american folklore/texts. King's ability to weave together multiple storylines, both real and surreal, is really amazing.

While writing this I feel like that old spot on Reading Rainbow where the kids hold up their favorite book and give a short report on it. But it's true, take a look, it's in a book :)

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Grass-Running-Water-Thomas/dp/0553373684/ref=cm_syf_dtl_pl_6_rsrsrs0/002-3175872-8708052/002-3175872-8708052

The Cho Show

2007-04-20T09:36:00.001-04:00

Here's a good article from Slate about the controversy surrounding the airing of the Cho tapes:

http://www.slate.com/id/2164717/nav/tap1/

no words

2007-04-17T09:33:00.000-04:00

When I was watching the coverage of the VA Tech shootings yesterday, I was struck by how difficult it was for newscasters to convey the "seriousness" of these shootings. Inevitably, their descriptions ended up sounding almost trite and cliched (although I know this was not their intention). Shooting, Massacre, Slaughter, Carnage, Mayhem, Havoc, Chaos, Violence. These words do very little to describe the indescribable violence of this event. The newscasters then tried to put the event into context, first labeling it as "one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history" and then, as the number of dead began to rise, "the deadliest massacre in modern U.S. history." Comparisons were made to Columbine and the Luby's Cafeteria shooting in 1991. CNN showed the student cell phone video over and over again. And the newscasters struggled for words. I was almost glad to see them struggling to find the right words; it means that an event like this does not happen often, and when it does, we still have difficulty processing and understanding what has happened.

Here's a link to Slate.com's daily news roundup, which links to many of the major news stories on the events: http://www.slate.com/id/2164357/fr/flyout

And here's an article about how students have turned to the online community to comfort each other: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-web17apr17,1,3926754,full.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

The Thirteenth Tale

2007-04-12T10:09:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. If you devoured Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, then you would love this book. It's sort of a gothic novel within a novel, told by a popular novelist to her gothic-novel-loving biographer. Definitely entertaining. Apparently, Setterfield made a huge splash in the UK when she sold the book for 800,000 pounds. And then it sold for a million in the US. She was discovered in a writing class. Go figure. Perhaps there's hope for all of those creative writers out there.

Here's the official website: http://www.thethirteenthtale.com/

And a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Thirteenth-Tale-Novel-Diane-Setterfield/dp/0743298020/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8200658-9479132?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176386939&sr=8-1

Salon.com: "Memo to Bill O'Reilly: More immigrants equals less crime"

2007-04-10T10:42:00.000-04:00

http://salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/10/geraldo/

This article addresses the recent screaming match between Rivera and O'Reilly over immigration and crime. Although I am posting this mainly for my Mom (Hi, Mom!), I think that the interview debunks some pretty commonly held myths about immigrants and crime. The article ruffled a few feathers (see the last page), but it probably won't reach many of the people it is aiming to persuade. People just love to blame everything that goes wrong in their lives and in their neighborhoods on "the Mexicans," and one article probably isn't going to change their minds. Just another case of how perception (and prejudice based on perception) differs from reality.

Women in the workplace: the opt-out myth

2007-04-06T16:19:00.000-04:00

"The Opt-Out Myth" by E.J. Graff (Columbia Journalism Review): This is one of the first articles that I have read that considers all sides of this debate and, most importantly, uncovers the media's biased reporting of the women in the workplace issue. Definitely worth a read: http://www.cjr.org/issues/2007/2/Graff.asp

Here's an excerpt: By offering a steady diet of common myths and ignoring the relevant facts, newspapers have helped maintain the cultural temperature for what Williams calls “the most family-hostile public policy in the Western world.” On a variety of basic policies—including parental leave, family sick leave, early childhood education, national childcare standards, afterschool programs, and health care that’s not tied to a single all-consuming job—the U.S. lags behind almost every developed nation. How far behind? Out of 168 countries surveyed by Jody Heymann, who teaches at both the Harvard School of Public Health and McGill University, the U.S. is one of only five without mandatory paid maternity leave—along with Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. And any parent could tell you that it makes no sense to keep running schools on nineteenth century agricultural schedules, taking kids in at 7 a.m. and letting them out at 3 p.m. to milk the cows, when their parents now work until 5 or 6 p.m. Why can’t twenty-first century school schedules match the twenty-first century workday?

The article was referenced in this article on Salon about the book The Feminine Mistake, which the article author describes as "another book telling women they are doing something wrong."

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/04/03/feminine_mistake/index.html

"Amazing Girls"

2007-04-06T09:39:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to a New York Times article about the pressure on teenage girls to achieve perfection or some version of it so that they can get into a good college, have a good career, make good money, and have a good family. Of course, you can't have all of the things that go with a successful life (money, career, family) unless you get into one of the best colleges.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/us/01girls.html?ex=1176523200&en=79cd42f1c3cffa70&ei=5070

The pressure that these girls are under is enormous, and I don't know who is more to blame for the pressure - the girls or their parents (or society?). There is something deeply disturbing about this article, probably having to do with the contradiction between the girls' intense focus on NOT conforming to societal pressure to be materialistic, thin, and cookie-cutter beautiful and the comprises they make (i.e. buying $250 jeans and saying that being "effortlessly hot" is probably prized over everything else).

This, coupled with the most emailed article in The New York Times "A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them," makes me so thankful that I went to college when the application process wasn't so insanely competetive. Then again, applying to grad school has been pretty competetive... Which makes me wonder how the bar will continue to be raised as these kids finish undergrad and move on to grad school. Scary. Somebody stop them!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/education/04colleges.html?em&ex=1176004800&en=1f0bd7218ce4c9f6&ei=5087%0A

Horoscope

2007-04-05T11:44:00.000-04:00

My horoscope today (I'm a Leo):

When you're shown the secret of a happy life, it looks suspiciously like an old dying tree. Look past the appearances, and keep going for the gold (The Courier-Journal).

What the &*$% (heck)? Is my horoscope telling me that money is everything? That life is crap? That I should become an Olympian? That even old trees will one day bloom? That it's what's on the inside that counts? That youth isn't everything?

I have no idea, but the astrologers manage to be totally vague as usual.

Richards: "Snorting My Dad Was a Joke"

2007-04-05T11:00:00.001-04:00

Ha Ha

Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards insists he never snorted his father's ashes - his recent comments were made in "jest." The Gimme Shelter guitarist can't believe people took him seriously after he told British music magazine Nme he once snorted his dad Bert's ashes mixed with cocaine. He said, "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." However, Richard's manager Jane Rose tells MTV.com that the hellraiser's comments were "said in jest. Can't believe anyone took (it) seriously."

From IMDB News: http://imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-04-05/