I Imagine He Just Froze And The Rest Of The World Is Moving On

Comedy Legend Leslie Nielsen Dies At 84: and with him a dear piece of my childhood. Airplane! is still one of the funniest movies ever made. And he was a WWII vet, serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In pace requiescat.

Technorati Tags: humor

Losing The Argument Again, At Last

This morning, Mrs. Mojo beamed as she showed me the dress that Nana bought the (no longer so) Wee One for the holidays. I sputtered, "Humbug! It's too early to deal with Christmas, go put that away!" And instantly I knew that was a mistake because I got The Look, but more to the point she responded, "Look at the calendar, it's thirty-one days to Christmas!"

Every year we have this spat, and every year I lose. To my mind Christmas should be a time of reflection, reverence and a bit of ribaldry. And stretching that out over umpteen days dilutes it. So I have made it a rule --"it is now a law of the Medes and the Persians and the Mojos" that we do not begin serious preparations for Christmas until three weeks out (discussions of logistics for major gifts and holiday dinners excepted).

Or so, at least, runs my official party line. However, Mrs. Mojo loves this season and takes it seriously. As the youth choir director at church, she begins preparations in mid-October(!). Being a prudent woman she does her shopping in early November. And as we approach Thanksgiving she begins tidying the house, not in preparation of company but in anticipation of putting up decorations. (NB one of the compromises that permits us to remain happily married is that I have zero role in holiday decorating other than erecting the tree itself [and the crêche, the years we have one].) And this rankles me, and so every year we have the argument about when the decorations actually go up and when we begin to play seasonal music (other than Christmas programs, which has already gone on for weeks).

And every year, right around this time, I lose the argument. LIke it's a ritual or something!

[Note: as Mrs. Mojo is growing increasingly expectante this time around, I have been promised that the actual amount of decoration this year will be limited. Mind you, I've heard that one before...]

Technorati Tags: humor, Christmas, relationships

Mind you, this is a bit late for my boat's fuel lines...

Al Gore: I shouldn't have supported corn-based ethanol: I'm going to love reading history books fifty years from now when they call him for the utter fraud that he is.

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, climate change, history, oil, ethanol, puppy, puppy, revisionism

When I was in grad school, they told us NOT to torture undergrads

The Cranky Professor: Our friend the brussel sprout . . .: wherein a well-meaning colleague feeds brussel sprouts to his students. Oh the horror!!!

(Pace Mrs. J, whose sprouts are the only ones I will willingly eat...)

Twenty Years Ago, People Made Fun Of Folks Like Me For This...

From Harry to Harvard: Quidditch Takes Flight in the Muggle World -FoxNews.com: wherein we read of New England college students taking the Harry Potter intramural sport and turning into a RL pursuit. Yes, they must be on brooms, but capes are optional. Yes, there are quaffles and blodgers (semi-inflated volleyballs and dodgeballs, respectively). Yes, there is even a Golden Snitch (go read the article). And quite obviously 'yes,' the people in the stock photo are straight out of a Stuff White People Like casting call.

Twenty years ago, people made fun of guys like me who played D&D on the weekends, even though we did not dress up like wizards and warriors, let alone go running through the woods rolling dice (I'm looking at you now, Mrs. Professor Mojo!). Now your'e telling me that cool young collegiates are doing this because they think it's cool?!?!?

Anall Nathrach

Uthvas Bethuud

Dothiel Tienve.

Anall Nathrach

Uthvas Bethuud

Dothiel Tienve. >

ANALL NATHRACH

UTHVAS BETHUUD

DOTHIEL TINEVE!

Technorati Tags: Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter, history, humor, News I Can Use

A Fair Question Regarding Diversity

Community College Spotlight | Ivy League admits few veterans: why is this, hmm?

The Devil’s Workshop Annual Most Highly Selective Survey of Undergraduate Veteran Enrollment

Princeton 0

Williams 0

Wellesley No reply

Brown No reply

Yale 2

Harvard 2

Amherst 3

Smith 3

Mount Holyoke 3

Dartmouth 12

Stanford 21

William & Mary 24

Bunker Hill Community College 367

I can think of a few reasons. Military vets tend not to think of themselves as Ivy material and so do not apply. The perception is out there that Ivies don't like vets. Ivy profs hate vets --they spoil the accepted narratives by providing primary source material that cannot be simply dismissed in-person as "war-mongering and biased" --except by a notable minority of tenured bloviates.

I am proud to teach a number of vets every year. It it a disservice to them to stereotype them in any way as to attitudes and abilities. And since I charge considerrably less for my services than my colleagues at the Ivies, I would suggest to vets that they look me up. I'm not that hard to find.

Technorati Tags: academia, education and pedagogy

There's An App For That???

Mobile phone kits to diagnose STDs | Society | The Guardian: oh brave new world in which we live!

(I could make a comment about a particular ex-flame of mine who turned out to be Tetched In The Head, but I'll refrain.)

Technorati Tags: health care reform, There's an app for that!