tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715996605820386365.post1339769270683395344..comments2023-02-20T03:42:45.166-06:00Comments on Mojo Bison's Range: Shhh, if this gets out I'm out of a day job...Professor Mojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09285987759839613252noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5715996605820386365.post-62908152645335470222008-10-26T22:03:00.000-05:002008-10-26T22:03:00.000-05:00We returned this evening from visiting our son at ...We returned this evening from visiting our son at grad school. Oh, how I loathe "higher" learning. <BR/><BR/>He says that the conversations at this new school waft over him in drifts of platitudes. or something like that...and he's a science major. What must it be like for the humanities majors? <BR/><BR/>I didn't like his undergrad school any better, but I can see his culture shock at being in the midst of a large -- nay, humungous -- student body after being at a smaller place. And it doesn't help that his advisor appears to suffer from an untreated bi-polar disorder. In the real world, he'd have long been given the boot. In academia, they give such people tenure.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, when I read this post the other day, I was reminded of Billy Collin's homage to Wallace Stevens in this poem, so I'm finally getting around to passing it on in case you haven't seen it. If you're familiar with "Sunday Morning" I think you'll find it a passing good homage --<BR/><BR/><I><B>Monday Morning</B><BR/>by Billy Collins<BR/>The complacency of this student, late<BR/>for the final, who chews her pen for an hour,<BR/>who sits in her sunny chair,<BR/>with a container of coffee and an orange,<BR/>a cockatoo swinging freely in her green mind<BR/>as if on some drug dissolved,<BR/>mingling to give her a wholly ancient rush.<BR/>She dreams a little and she fears the mark<BR/>she might well get–a catastrophe–<BR/>as a frown darkens the hauteur of her light brow.<BR/>The orange peels and her bright senior ring<BR/>make her think of some procession of classmates,<BR/>walking across the wide campus, without a sound,<BR/>stalled for the passing of her sneakered feet<BR/>over the lawn, to silent pals and steins,<BR/>dorm of nobody who would bother to pull an A or care.</I><BR/>__________________<BR/><BR/>BTW, we is all in our family afficianados of history. <BR/><BR/>The Baron likes his European. I like Colonial history, and our offspring likes it all, even into the 20th century, where he is given to pondering military decisions...he took ROTC courses for fun, which confused the ROTCEE kids who would puzzle why anyone would study John Boyd if they didn't have to.<BR/><BR/>Nowadays he uses Boyd's OODA loop theory to fly behind his advisor's strange wobbly craft. So far he has remained aloft and out of shooting range.<BR/><BR/>Here's a place you might enjoy:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.worldhistoryblog.com/" REL="nofollow">World History Blog</A>Dymphnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11332644582520636279noreply@blogger.com