Since I entered grad school many years ago, I have been drawn to academic novels. I think the first one I read was Jane Smiley’s Moo, which absolutely killed me because the big state university with its huge agriculture department sounded a lot like the place where I got my MA, except my school was [...]
Archive for May, 2007
Me and Academic Novels
Posted in Uncategorized on May 31, 2007 | 7 Comments »
Four-Oh
Posted in Uncategorized on May 29, 2007 | 11 Comments »
I turned 40 yesterday (thanks to all who left birthday wishes in the comments to the previous post!). In a lot of ways, it is sort of hard to figure out exactly what I feel about this age thing. Society tells me that I’m supposed to feel something, but I really don’t.
Dorothy got me a [...]
At Least I Didn’t Crash
Posted in Uncategorized on May 27, 2007 | 4 Comments »
We went up to the Hartford Criterium today. It is one of those downtown crits that runs around a big municipal park, one 90 degree corner, and the rest weird squiggly little s-curves and corners tougher than they look on paper. There is a sort of strange vibe to the Hartford crit, I think partly [...]
Silent Centennial
Posted in Uncategorized on May 26, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Tomorrow (May 27th) will be the centennial anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth. The New Yorker has a short article about Carson and the reaction to the publication of Silent Spring in 1962. This book, which was first published in serial form in the New Yorker, is certainly the most important environmental book of the 2oth [...]
This Will Not Surprise Anyone
Posted in Uncategorized on May 25, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Your Score: Pure Nerd
100 % Nerd, 26% Geek, 43% Dork
For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You [...]
It’s Sunday, so I Must Be Racing
Posted in Uncategorized on May 20, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Dorothy and I signed up for a race on the other side of the state, and when the alarm went off at 5:00 this morning, I was not terribly happy at the prospect. Add to the early hour a deeply gloomy sky and spits of rain drizzling down, and I found temptation stroking my back, [...]
The Noonday Demon
Posted in Uncategorized on May 7, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Andrew Solomon used that phrase for the title of his book, and it is a great title. The problem is that it is woefully inadequate. I remember when I first heard of it about six years ago; I thought, “Wow, that’s perfect!” But it’s not. It suggests sun and limitations and a demon that leaves [...]
Race Report: A Tribute to Dad
Posted in Uncategorized on May 1, 2007 | 8 Comments »
I entered my first race in 1987. It was the Downtown San Luis Obispo Criterium, and, at the time, it was a fairly important stop on the national race scene–not Coors Classic status, but still big. The 7-Eleven team always sent a strong squad, and many other big teams showed up. My dad and I [...]
The Designated Moron(tm) Returns
Posted in Uncategorized on May 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
When I was working on my master’s degree, I had developed a friendly, professional relationship with one of the fairly young, untenured professors. I worked as a TA for her upper-division Elizabethan Drama course, and I helped her out a lot with her summer Shakespeare series, writing press releases and radio spots, taking tickets, [...]
