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An interesting psychology experiment in the bathroom next to my classroom. It seems to be the official graffiti bathroom, often filled with the usual high school comments—homophobic, mildly racist, pro-drug, pro-gang, scatological. In an attempt to cut down on it they painted the stalls a deep blue color. Why deep blue? I assume they thought [...]

I’s been a rough week for teaching. The school district yesterday approved a budget that cuts quite a few positions, removes Molly’s $2000 stipend for having a PhD, removes my petty $200 for sponsoring National Honor Society, and most likely eliminates our annual pay raise (making it two years in a row that both of  [...]

Is it possible to see a grown man on a BMX bike and not assume he has been doing meth all night?
(Inspired by a near-miss on the way to work today.)

Uhh, looking for filler in order to feel good about myself for posting after a long day. Umm…

My two favorite all-time bumper stickers: “Shoot All Extremists” and “My Other Vehicle Is the Mahayana.” The combo of those two sums up Columbia.
Favorite soccer referee quote:  “I hope nobody remembers I was there.” That’s the attitude of [...]

Sometimes a single headline–especially when accompanied by an oddly blurred photograph–can make my entire day. I’ll certainly be on the lookout for this primate. I assume that it won’t be too difficult to discover the identity of the owner, since few people have the cash to purchase a monkey, and even fewer take their furry [...]

Two things I should get worked up about but can’t find the hate.
The first comes from today’s news story reporting that 25% of Americans did not read a book last year. I guess I should be bothered, should work up a sweat about the pointlessness of teaching English to a public that chooses not to [...]

Another first day. Like usual, I found it exhausting and mildly traumatic. It’s a lot of mental work knowing that a first impression with these students will take weeks or months to counteract. You know they find their friends after school and run down the list: “Yeah, Mr. Z.’s class seems like a drag, and [...]

Karl Rove resigns, and with him (I hope) goes the myth of invincibility. This myth is based in part on one of the basic principles of the past two terms: Just say everything is great, no matter what the truth may be.
The obvious criticism to level at Rove as that he was good at running [...]

A mushy mind from spending the entire day running numbers. I had a salesman from Boone County Millwork visit this morning and give me an estimate for replacement windows. (Yes, I invited him.) Our windows have more than fifty years in them–single pane, ice on the inside, and (worst of all) I have to replace [...]

I’m feeling very old fashioned today. I’ve been working my way through the Sunday New York Times, and on every cultural or aesthetic dispute, I keep coming out on the side of the people who are described as “a fogey, a Europhile, an elitist.”
One article was about Philippe de Montbello, the director of the Metropolitan [...]