<![CDATA[Comments from minou]]> <![CDATA[Comments from minou]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Lisa, The Mean Self-Serving Hack, Lives To Cook Another Day]]> This confirmed my suspicions that Lisa will win. They establish her as universally despised, then, in some crazy turn of events it will be revealed that she has a heart of gold and then she'll win. Bravo's just creating their usual dramatic arc.

(I think Richard should win, fwiw, although even with his extreme slimyness, Spike is playing Top Chef like it is Survivor and I respect that too.)

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Student-Suing Prof Wrote a Lame Senior Thesis]]> universities don't typically take a job candidate's senior thesis into account during hiring. considering that the thesis in question is written -- at minimum -- 6 years prior to the appointment.

this is like criticizing a doctor's competence because he got a "c" in dissecting the frog.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Depress-y College Writing Can Get You Committed, Expelled]]> @SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley: i think you just summed up why i'm not really getting it up to defend this dude. it seems equally likely that he was really up to something as it does that the university was overeacting.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Depress-y College Writing Can Get You Committed, Expelled]]> @Koreanish: bingo.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Depress-y College Writing Can Get You Committed, Expelled]]> @bytememehard: because mine is closer to, say, a croissant.

anyway the whole objet d'art suggested in its solidity and, you know, thereness, a loaf of bread.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Depress-y College Writing Can Get You Committed, Expelled]]> @lawyergay: Boozeless cocktail party? Sounds a little like my classes, also always disasters.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Depress-y College Writing Can Get You Committed, Expelled]]> @BeRightBack: I recently had a student give me a clay vagina the size of a loaf of bread as part of her final project for an English class.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Breaking: Ted Kennedy Rushed To Hospital]]> i feel a little bit like edwards endorsing obama here, but i have to say i've always liked teddy kennedy.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Did Tyra Banks Fix <i>America's Next Top Model</i>?]]> @cassandra: tyra missed her chance for a real, and gorgeous, plus sized top model when she booted toccara.... she was stunning and for my money the best contestant ever on the show.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on How Did We Miss the 2nd Annual Edgy Moms Reading?]]> @plasticene: you're absolutely right. but i don't see what that has to do with anything -- except, wait, are you drunk right now?

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on How Did We Miss the 2nd Annual Edgy Moms Reading?]]> @plasticene: or wait, maybe i don't.

no winners in this story either, huh?

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on How Did We Miss the 2nd Annual Edgy Moms Reading?]]> I prefer sanctimony to this tripe.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Professor Confesses To Lifetime Of Plagiarism]]> @minou: there are, of course, more ethically sound remedies than the one kopelson applied. but they're *harder.*

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Professor Confesses To Lifetime Of Plagiarism]]> @jrhys: yes. we do.

i'm not outraged at kopelson's behavior at all. teachers like that breed students like that. the old guard in the academy has tenure and a rabid interest in keeping out anyone with even a vaguely new idea. students think that they are owed a college education, and that, since they paid for it, they deserve an "a."so instructors "adapt" lectures from sparknotes occasionally because, why put any effort into teaching a bunch of kids who aren't listening? it's a sh*tty cycle.

at this point the educational system (especially higher ed) is f**ked beyond reasonable repair. i'm still in it because ultimately i love what i do, but i have no illusions about it.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Cynthia Nixon's Girlfriend a Big Ol' Dyke, OK?]]> @Buzz Killington: I can see where you're coming from. that's exactly how i thought about lesbianism when i was 9.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Here We Are Now, Entertain Us]]> @ian spiegelman: about 10 years ago, i qualified as all of those things. and i'm still waiting for the book deal i was promised.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on "I Love the Ghetto": Bushwick Hipsters Explain Their Outfits]]> @Clarence Rosario: I've always wanted to take a busload of Royals and drop them off in Detroit, to the same end.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Filthy Hipster Dorm Infiltrated]]> @mattymcd: I hope the Times is paying you well to illustrate their point because, wow, you really deserve it.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Christina Aguilera: Blue, Possibly-Blotto Baby Mama]]> this is probably the first time she's had a drink in, like, a year. hell, i'd be f***ing drunk too.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Raxl: Well, multivocality would mean that it IS the student's responsibility to learn as well as the instructor's responsibility to teach, no?

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @1000 Tony Romo DJs: I should let you in on this fact: some of us working in those areas have heard this news. It's not a lot of money, and most of what we do is totally irrelevant, but I've got job security and summers off.(OK, every now and then you get the odd, rewarding teaching experience, but mostly -- meh.)

In other words, you're preaching to the converted. I don't think it's shocking to most younger academics -- junior faculty, to be precise -- that we're on a sinking ship. A lot of folks outside academia like to talk about how irrelevant theory is like it's some kind of revelation. It's not.

Plus, without us, where would the young journos get their half-baked ideas?

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> @Dave J.: "Irresistible Dictation: Gertrude Stein and the Correlations of writing and Science" by Steven Meyer, pub 2001.

Some one is writing about it. So her stuff's not new either.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her]]> She's at that point in the process where she probably just got hit by all her student loan debt.

I guess this is one way to pay it off. It's also a great way to never have a career. Untenured junior faculty member suing university? Forget. It.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on David Sedaris: Do You Remember Smoking?]]> @BigRiver: A friend of mine, after hearing that the relative of an acquaintance had been struck by lightning (and lived), said: You know what I'd do if I got struck by lightning? I'd smoke. God gave me the best he had and it wasn't good enough. Hence, cigarettes won't kill me."

Same logic, I think.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Which One Of The Five Types Of Moms Do You Have?]]> @minou: I should mention that my Dad is a pretty wonderful creature, a perfectionist who genuinely believes it's possible for me to be perfect because he thinks I'm great. And whatever point I make it to, he calls THAT perfect, so I never let him down.

He's still married to my mom. I'm struggling with how to negotiate only wanting him in my life -- I don't care if I suffer in this situation so much as I care that he doesn't.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Which One Of The Five Types Of Moms Do You Have?]]> mean/unpredictable/perfectionist mom. so i have severe anxiety disorder wherein, essentially, i am constantly afraid that someone is going to pop out of nowhere and yell at me for not meeting an impossible standard. so.

at 32, i just realized that i can choose not to have a relationship with her if i don't want to.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Hemingway Continues to Diss From Beyond the Grave]]> @belltolls: I'm not picking on you, Bell, we just keep respectfully disagreeing.

It is worth looking up, Granite. The summary doesn't do the scene justice.If you can imagine, you'll find it in the chapter "A Matter of Measurements."

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Hemingway Continues to Diss From Beyond the Grave]]> @belltolls: For my part, I have a huge problem with "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and would have give up on Stevens were it not for "The Idea of Order...". So I hear you.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Hemingway Continues to Diss From Beyond the Grave]]> @Seeräuber Jenny: Ha! Now I'm going to reread the poem and look for the punch.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Hemingway Continues to Diss From Beyond the Grave]]> @belltolls: This is one of my favorites also. But I like it as Stevens's. Somehow, it uncovers him.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Hemingway Continues to Diss From Beyond the Grave]]> My favorite Hemingway anecdote:

Hemingway boasted(in a letter to Sara Murphy)that, in a boxing match at his home in Key West, he had knocked Wallace Stevens down quite handily: "... for statistics sake Mr. Stevens is 6 feet 2 weighs 225 lbs and ... when he hits the ground it is highly spectaculous."

Also, Stevens was 20 years older than Hemingway.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Plus-Size Miss England Contestant Would Like To See Your Bikini Line]]> @Xavoc: Once and for all, the most flattering two-piece bottom on a big girl is a bikini with side ties.

It's counterintuitive, I know, but in that situation, the less material the better. And you can adjust to fit. I can vouch for the fact that this really works.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Is Top Chef Just One Big Lesbianic Morality Play?]]> By the way, I think it's a "Sapphic" morality play.

Oh my god it's working.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Is Top Chef Just One Big Lesbianic Morality Play?]]> @minou: Holy shit. Bravo is trying to TURN ME GAY.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Is Top Chef Just One Big Lesbianic Morality Play?]]> @karion: So what is this "Jen is adorable" phenomenon? Before last night, I was kind of indifferent to her. Then, as soon as the opening credits were over I was all "gosh she has beautiful skin... what a nice voice," etc etc. Is Bravo really that subtly manipulative?

(I mean I believe they are manipulative, obviously, but usually we notice.)

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Is Top Chef Just One Big Lesbianic Morality Play?]]> I really liked Jen, too. In fact as of last night, before she got the boot, she was about to edge out Jackie Warner on my list of "Women I Would Switch Teams For." Now it'll just be me, the memories, and Mary J Blige.

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on A Brief History of the Longest Primaries Ever]]> Pareene, I'm going to view this page ONE MILLION TIMES (can I even do that?)so that you get paid exactly what you deserve for "Oh My God Remember When Texas and Ohio Were Supposed to Finally End This Fucking Death March?"

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on One More Thing]]> Also, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one hitting up the $4.99 pinot grigio. What? It's supposed to be for cooking what?

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on One More Thing]]> @mathnet: Huh. Thought this was going to be some kind of 1992-Seattle-themed deal. And now I'm just confused. Peeps' name is *really* Jeremy?

]]> <![CDATA[minou commented on Email Friends News of Your Own Death!]]> Dear Sallie Mae;

Good luck trying to pry it from my cold, dead fingers you old hag.

Bests,
Minou, PhD.

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