dating professors

Me:  It's not fair that so much in a small supposedly
neutral midwestern town reminds me of you ...I miss you.

Him:
a) Nothing's fair.
b) I'm very, very happy that you do.
c) Me too.
d) You give good pocket.

Read more »

naive diatribe

A snippet of a naive but heartfelt diatribe in response to a friend's query today:

I guess my response to the student who thinks poetry is a waste of time could be some diatribe about the value of human expression and how human cognition is closely related to our modes of expression, so we learn so much about what it means to be human when engaging with fiction and other types of cultural products, even if we don't find personal interest or beauty, etc., etc. Or, that the thorny problems of being human are often best (most interestingly? poignantly?) addressed not in a documentary (although those are valuable), but in a piece of writing that seems to do something other than tell a story.

Read more »