Toodles

We're off to Rehoboth Beach for the weekend; one of Cha's non-blood Filipino 'cuzzins' is getting hitched and Saturday promises to be a good day for booze and dancing.

Hopefully we get a day like today, an Indian summer steamy hot day, so I can play around in the surf a bit. It's been a while since I swam in the sea--more than two years, in fact, and that was the South China Sea.

Likely no blogging until Sunday, unless bad weather keeps us in the hotel. Over and out.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

Yes, had they voted 'nay' the measure limiting war crimes exposure of Executive Branch Torquemadas would still have passed. Even so, I'm calling for the immediate waterboarding of these motherfucking turn-coat torturous bastards:

Tom Carper (DE)
Tim Johnson (SD)
Mary Landrieu (LA)
Frank Lautenberg (NJ)
Joe Lieberman (CT)
Bob Menendez (NJ)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Ben Nelson (NE)
Mark Pryor (AR)
Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Ken Salazar (CO)
Debbie Stabenow (MI)


Welcome to the Land of the Free! Vote Democratic in November for a clean conscience.

RIP

Didn't know that Frederick Busch died until I saw it in Harper's this month. Last year he wrote a harrowing essay about his son serving as a Marine in Iraq which appeared in that very periodical. I own a couple of his novels but haven't read them; I know his short fiction only from his appearances in The Best American Short Stories series.

"Ralph the Duck" was one of those stories, and I go back and re-read it every few years because I love it so much, and anyone who crafts a bit of fiction I can't dislodge after 18 years deserves note. In fact there were many excellent stories in that year's edition (1989)--though I haven't kept up with The Best American Short Stories annuals in about a decade because they grew tired and formulaic. We read "Ralph the Duck" in my first writing seminar class at Loyola College a billion years ago. I had bandages on my wrists because I was mauled by a dog--the chicks all thought I was an attempted suicide and for some reason that made me very popular with the ladies in English classes. But yeah, read some of Busch if you get a chance--one of a thousand small-niche writers of good fiction who'll likely fade away too quickly after death.



His latest, excerpted in Harper's:

Won't somebody think of the children!

Good grief. It's impossible to take youngins to a major museum without them seeing a nude figure of some sort. I took my niece and nephew through the Met in NYC a couple months back and they made sure to point out all the boobs and wee-wees.

The American Taliban strikes again.

I might read it

So Bob Woodward is done writing hagiographies for King George. Guess those aren't so likely to top the NYT list these days, and Woodward moves with the polls as easily as any Beltway insider. According to Bob Georgie told Republican brass: "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me."

Great! Get your ass over to Iraq, George. You and Barney and Laura can lay down covering fire while our troops evacuate Iraq, hopefully this fall.

The Golden Ratio of Porn

Caution: The linked site below is NOT safe for work, and--depending on your sensibilities--may not be safe for home. Click at your own risk!

I don't typically link directly to hard-core pornographic images, but an aesthetic analysis of a raunchy scenario using phi? Hilarious! There needs to be a new word, a combination of silly and filthy, to describe such silthiness.

A sample:

Even superficially, this is a pleasing composition. The actress has clear skin, the three penises direct your eyes toward the action and the electric blue blanket in the background provides a nice counterpost to the actors' warm skin tones. Not to mention the visual drama, the mono no aware, that comes from capturing fleeting moments on camera.

[link found via Fleshbot]

The French call it la précarité

Not comforting to take a job with a non-profit and then to read the following article in Tuesday's Baltimore Sun:

Four years ago, a nonprofit education firm called Success for All occupied four floors in a Towson office building and employed 500 people. Hundreds of schools across the country were signing up to use its highly regarded reading curriculum, which stresses phonics.

Today, Success for All has laid off two-thirds of its employees and shrunk to two floors. A federal inspector general's report appears to explain why. It says the U.S. Department of Education steered federal grant money to certain reading programs and away from others.

The report, issued last week, accuses the department of favoritism, conflict of interest and mismanagement in the awarding of $4.8 billion in federal funds.

Robert Slavin, the Johns Hopkins University education professor who co-founded the Success for All Foundation and spent years researching effective reading programs, said he watched in disbelief as the nonprofit lost business because states chose to adopt other programs favored by U.S. officials.

Gulp!

La fin

I'm about to finish my third academic degree: in addition to the virtually useless BA and MA in English, I'll have a fantastically practical BA in French Literature come December. The final two requirements for the second BA were a 400-level French course and an advanced Writing course in English, required of all 2nd BA candidates at TU. When I was first notified of the Writing requirement I was teaching advanced writing courses here, and joked with the Enrollment Services staff that I was going to register for my own class and give myself an A. They weren't amused. Finally today after much running around the English Chair gave me a waiver for the requirement, and as soon as I hand in my final paper in FR499 Media and Culture I'll be finished.

I started this degree on a whim; I was considering teacher certification and taking some education classes and took a couple refresher French classes on the side, then gradually dropped the education track and kept plugging away at language classes. Now, c'est presque fini! What's next? I have been accepted into the Graduate English program at the Univ. of Maryland--should I attempt a PhD in Literature, or go ahead and finish my teacher certification and teach English and French to high school students? The former is more interesting, but the latter is much more practical (and potentially much more financially rewarding). Practicality has never been a major concern, however.

Christ, Tiny Drum just came in for the first time since last June. He's as annoying as ever. All of the loony patrons are dropping by to celebrate my Cook Liberry departure.