Midterm grading...

29 February 2020: It's that wonderful time of the semester. Sigh. Right now I've got 6 more essays to grade, so I should be fine. But part of the "should be fine" is a result of not letting up for like three weeks straight. Anyway...here's a line from a student's essay, about men getting upset when women don't laugh at their jokes, that made me laugh out loud: "I would venture to say this means women laugh at more things that are actually funny, or as some like to call it, 'smart humor.'"

"Light On"

28 February 2020: Hannah sent me this song today and I instantly loved it. Perfect vibe for a long Friday and maybe for this year...

"And I am finding out
There's just no other way
That I'm still dancing at the end of the day"

"the feminist tool-belt..."

27 February 2020: Grading midterm essays all day and find myself struck by this insightful and funny (and kind of butch) line from one of my GWST/HNRS seminar students: "The withholding of laughter is a prominent feature in the feminist tool-belt."

I've been thinking a lot about this lately--how easily we laugh at what disturbs or offends us, or perhaps even more problematically, how women laugh when men say unacceptable things. My favorite (and by that I mean least favorite) manifestation is when men (and not all men...duh) make jokes about why they haven't done something they were supposed to do, why they did something they weren't supposed to do, or why they messed up, as if their charming "oh shucks" moves absolve them. And I love (and by that I mean love) the move of just looking back at them without smiling or laughing. Such a flex.

So yeah...totally featuring that tool on my feminist tool-belt.

"Fraktur"

26 February 2020: So many options for today's post, including:

• The way my students collectively tensed up as we watched the closing 20 minutes of Nanette in the GWST/HNRS seminar today, a testimony to the power of Gadsby's performance. I sat behind them all as they watched and the tension was palpable.  
• The fun and complicated discussion I had with my YA Lit class over the sentimentality (I actually called it "cheesiness") of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
• The amount of stress/anxiety/energy I felt this morning that spurred me to take a spontaneous lap around the block at 8:30 a.m.--and how lovely it felt with the cool morning mist falling on my face.
• The never-ending flood of emails that makes me want to burst back outside again.
• The practice session we had for the six students who are presenting their work this weekend at the WV Undergraduate Literary Symposium. (They are so good, so smart, and so energizing...)
• The fact that I've been on campus since 7:00 a.m. and it's 6:18 as I type this and there is still so much to do.
• The sore throat that is in its very early stages and that I am trying my best to ignore. (Colleagues and students are dropping like flies and these stacks of midterms can't grade themselves.)

But instead, I think I'll just link to this episode of 99% Invisible, which I started listening to early this morning. It so good. Come for the font discussion, stay for the references to Martin Luther, and crazy proposed recommendations for federal architectural guidelines.

Dante, Aristotle, windows, and mirrors...

25 February 2020: “It’s like my mom and dad created a whole new world for themselves. I live in their new world. But they understand the old world, the world they came from—and I don’t. I don’t belong anywhere. That’s the problem.” --Benjamin Alire Saenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Re-reading this book again for my YA lit class and falling for it all over again. T

his time, perhaps because I am also teaching American Ethnic Literature in the same semester, I am paying more attention to the role of ethnicity, specifically the title characters' Mexican-American heritage, on display in the passage above. In the Ethnic Lit class, I've been thinking and talking quite a bit about first-generation Americans' experiences with their parents, something that is also reflected here.

In the YA class, I keep talking to my students about the "windows and mirrors" concept, specifically multicultural YA--that some students need texts that allow them to see into worlds they don't know (windows) and others need texts that reflect themselves back (mirrors). But texts like this one? In this moment, they do both. Dante is like so many kids--feeling unable to fit into his parents' world and like he doesn't belong anywhere. Yes, his experience is shaped by his ethnicity, but some of what he is talking about transcends that.

Home a bit early...

24 February 2020: Even with a college meeting at 3:15, I still managed to make it home today just a bit after 4:30. That's basically unprecedented for a Monday. I still had work to get done, but when the meeting got out, I was across campus (having driven to make it to the meeting on time after my class let out), and I was determined to get home. Glad I did, because upon greeting this fellow, he insisted on using my outstretched hand as a spot to rest his head.

In the Walgreen's parking lot...

23 February 2020: This morning, sitting in what passes for traffic in Shepherdstown, I saw two people walk across the Walgreen's parking lot, with outstretched and open arms, meeting for an embrace. I don't know who they are, how well they know each other, how surprised they were to see each other, or anything about them really. All I know and all I will carry with me is that image. And, on a weekend when I've spent a lot of time alone and thinking, that's enough. 

"Foolish Heart"

22 February 2020: Listening to Music for All Occasions on this quiet Saturday. Getting work done, thinking (and feeling), with a bit of a rockabilly/Tex-Mex beat...

"Unending Stream of Life"

21 February 2020: Had the absolute pleasure of seeing Shepherd's Wind Ensemble's concert this evening. This piece really captivated me.

Genius...

20 February 2020: "Virginia Woolf was like 'Senator Warren said she would decimate the billionaire herself.'” --R. Eric Thomas in his latest masterpiece, this one on last night's debate.

"The Pedestrian"

19 February 2020: I keep telling my students this semester that I wish every one of them was in every one of my classes because the material keeps intersecting in such unusual and unexpected ways. In American Ethnic literature, we've been wrestling with questions about identity, racism, and double-consciousness. In Young Adult Literature, we've wrapped up our discussion of Monster and are about half-way through The Hate U Give. In my seminar on gender and humor, we've finished Phoebe Robinson's book and spent our last class discussing 2 Dope Queens. 

So today's poem-of-the-day just really hit me. I love its use of the sonnet form, its title's double-meaning (as a noun and an adjective--as in, this is just an ordinary occurrence), and its quiet devastation. Give it a read.

Back to 2 Dope Queens...

18 February 2020: Spent part of this morning grades students' "Listening Responses" to episodes of 2 Dope Queens, an assignment in my "Gender and Comedy" seminar this semester. Basically, I told them to pick any episode, listen carefully, take some notes, and write some things down.

The students loved the podcast. Loved it.

And the assignments? These were really good. I am telling you, even their grammar was better than usual. What? How? A Phoebe and Jessica miracle, especially impressive for a show that isn't even producing new episodes anymore.

"The Show of Delights"

17 February 2020: I actually listened to this episode of This American Life yesterday and found it, well, delightful. It was the perfect thing to listen to on a late Sunday afternoon. And today, as I've been moving through a busy Monday, it keeps replaying in my mind in all the best ways.

"Work Without Hope"

16 February 2020: Thinking about this poem this morning...

"Work Without Hope"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— 
The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— 
And Winter, slumbering in the open air, 
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! 
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,         
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. 

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, 
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. 
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, 
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! 
With lips unbrighten'd, wreathless brow, I stroll: 
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul? 
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, 
And Hope without an object cannot live.

Mini-break with my boys...

15 February 2020: Quiet Saturday here, but I've been trying to stay productive. Snapped this picture during a mini-break. I was on my way out for a walk (as you can tell by the hat I'm wearing) when I came across Bing, who jumped up on the bed and indicated he wanted me to join him. It's hard to say no to him these days, as he's showing some signs of age. "Okay--just for a minute," I said. Soon Wes joined us, his paws on my arm. "Just a minute" turned into a bit longer, but not too long. Can't complain. These two have been with me for nearly 18 and 16 years, so they've earned it.