Here we go again...

Classes start on Monday, but meetings and stuff start this week. I actually have an 8:15 meeting on Tuesday, which seems mean to me. I've been in my office almost every day I've been in town these past couple of weeks, but being compelled to be here before 8:30 on one of our last days of "break" is a bit much. Oh well.

The good news is that I've got 3 of 4 syllabi ready to go. I am still working on my ENGL 372: Advanced Composition syllabus--and probably will be until Sunday. (Maybe I'll post more about that class later...)

For now, though, how about some good old-fashioned linking-posting as a way of taking a 20 minute break from syllabizing?

1) Just because the kid is so very very cute, I must link the "Baby in Tub Assures You that, No, He Does Not Like Anything You Suggest." I love that the kid is saying pretty awful things, but you can't help but smile--and that you kind of want to ask him/her more questions.

2) Lots of folks are talking about last night's How I Met Your Mother and its big surprise ending. I'll admit that it made me tear up. It's a pretty bold move for this kind of comedy to make, but I don't agree with people saying that it doesn't work because it came out of nowhere. Isn't that precisely the point? I also didn't really get the countdown thing happening, although as soon I heard people talking about it, I remembered certain numbers standing out.

3) This is one of the silliest columns I've ever read at Insidehighered.com. I don't have vast amount of experiences on hiring committees (I've been involved in 6, on the committees for 5, and chaired 3), but I can say that we really and truly never talked about what folks wore. I don't even think it was a "back of my mind"/subconscious consideration for us. Sigh. Fortunately, people are tearing the piece down in the comments. 

4) Women laughing alone with salad. Love it, love it, love it. And, as Homer and Bart remind us, you don't win friends with salad.



5) Well played, James Van Der Beek. And the website is real.

6) Finally, this one, because yeah, it's not exactly new, but it really makes me laugh.

Links...

It's Writer-in-Residence week here at Shepherd and I've got major assignments due in every one of my classes. And my parents are coming this weekend. So long story short, I have just about zero time for anything else, but I did want to just post a few interesting links:

1) Oprah will reunite the cast of The Sound of Music. I love love love this! The Sound of Music is my sentimental favorite movie. I even like reading/grading to the soundtrack. Can't wait!

2) Maybe lots of people knew about this, but somehow yesterday I stumbled across this old (1950) Time magazine article. Kind of mind-boggling to think of Congress policing Hollywood morality. Actually, I am sure plenty self-righteous folks in Congress today would think this is a good idea. By the way, my mom was named after Ingrid Bergman, but she was born before this scandal. I wonder if my grandparents would have made the same decision post-scandal.

3) Lots of folks are talking about this piece: "Tragedy at the Virginia Quarterly Review."

4) Some good people got arrested for non-violent protests against mountain-top removal earlier this week, including Jason Howard, who I met last year when he visited Shepherd with Silas House.(In the photo, Jason is the first person on the left, and Silas is the third.) Thoreau would be proud of them. And so am I.

5) Someone needs to see this movie with me. I'll pay. I'll even buy you popcorn AND candy AND a soda. And I don't even do that for my niece when I take her to the movies. Seriously, this thing looks like so much fun.

6) "When Your Infant is Secretly Famous in Japan." To quote South Park, "Simpsons already did it!"



7) And yeah, this O'Keefe dude is a total douche. And a pervert, too. Loser.

Lisa Simpson's Wedding Day...

Remember when August 1, 2010 was way in the future?

Finally, a Michael Jackson post...sort of.

I don't really have anything to say about Michael Jackson or his death, but an unanticipated positive result of his death was Fox's re-airing of "Stark Raving Dad," one of the best episodes of "The Simpsons." It was great to watch this one again, but it made me realize (once again) something that hurts a bit to admit--an episode like this one (from Season 3), makes it quite clear how far this show has fallen. (This is something Amber and I have talked about a lot.) There is so much to appreciate in a gem like this including:

1) Homer standing out at work because of his pink shirt: A great little statement on conformity that would make Emerson proud. And we also hear Mr. Burns say, "Simpson, eh?" Seriously, when is the last time we heard that? Or even saw that much of Homer at the power plant?

2) Lisa's poem reflecting on her birthday which begins, "I had a cat named Snowball. She died! She died!"

3) The "insane" stamp on Homer's hand that he can't wash off.

4) The town's reaction to "Michael Jackson's arrival": "He's 300 pounds!" "He's white!" "He's dressed without flair!"

5) The fantastic "Happy Birthday, Lisa" song. (And Bart's first attempt at a song makes me chuckle, too.)

This is "The Simpsons" at its best: funny and wonderfully satiric, but also with a heart. So much of this is absent in the new episodes which seem driven by one or two jokes with no real purpose beyond them. (There are recent exceptions, of course, but they are few and far between.) I'll continue watching new episodes, but I really wish they could make episodes like they did back then.

Anyway, you might find the Wikipedia entry on this episode interesting, as it explains just how MJ's guest appearance came together.

TV links...mostly about Dollhouse

Just some quick links I've been collecting:

1) Good news for Dollhouse fans who are worried about low ratings: lots of people are watching the show on DVR. That's true for me: I have yet to watch a single episode while it aired. (Sidenote: How did I ever survive without a DVR?)

2) A fun interview with Eliza Dushku.

3) An essay about a topic I've thought about before: What if a TV show would really work better as a movie? (And yes, this pieces uses Dollhouse as a specific example.)

4) Matt Groening on The Simpsons and Futurama.

New Simpsons Opening Sequence

So I know lots of people have stopped watching The Simpsons and say it isn't funny anymore, but I still watch regularly and was actually kind of pleased by the new opening sequence. I like that is basically the same, but with some changes to reflect the show's history. Some of my favorite additions: Marge buying "Mr. Sparkle," "The Baby with the Eyebrow" (Maggie's nemesis), and the awesome cast of characters Bart skateboards past.

"I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean, S-M-A-R-T!"

The title of this post comes from one of my favorite Simpsons quotations. Now check out this article, about how the Simpson's have made it into the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Awesome.