Blogs

After the election and the emotionally-charged reactions to it, Michelle and Cindy have started afresh, deleting their old blogs and starting new ones. I don't quite understand the motivations, mostly because they've done it for personal reasons I can't possibly know. While I'm dismayed to lose the old posts, I respect their decision, and they don't owe anyone an explanation. I'm more concerned about the likelihood that some will stop blogging completely, like Rana, who has announced that she's going on hiatus indefinitely, and now Jeanne, who is thinking about taking Body and Soul down.

I know it's awfully melodramatic, but images of self-immolation on a pyre of virtual burning books keep coming to my mind. I might as well say it -- suttee -- because I can't pretend not to notice that these are all bright, eloquent women. It should be obvious that I have nothing but respect for all of the bloggers I've mentioned, I certainly understand the desire to retreat and reflect for a while, and I'll support any decisions they make about their blogs, but it's precisely because I hold them in such high regard that I must object to the decision to stop blogging (in the case of Rana and Jeanne, that is).

NB to Cindy, Michelle, Jeanne, and Rana: Please correct me if I've misrepresented your motivations. People have assigned motives to me before that hadn't even occurred to me, and I don't want to do it to anyone else. I sincerely apologize in advance if I have.

Fairly soon, we're going to be discussing informal fallacies in my first-year composition class. We've touched upon them already, but I want to set aside a day just for talking about them. I'm toying with the idea of adding a list of mostly tacit debate commonplaces to supplement our study of fallacies of ethos, pathos, and logos. Here are the ones I have so far; they have already come up in class obliquely, but it doesn't hurt to spell them out:

1. The first person to get mad loses the debate. (Inspired by one of the Tutor's comments here.)
2. Anecdotes about "my black friends," "my gay friends," etc. don't hold up as evidence to support your points. (Inspired by one of Harrison's comments here in response to this post.)
3. Comparing those who disagree with you to Hitler or the Nazis really hurts your ethos. (Inspired by countless arguments on various message boards.)

Got any to add? Ought I to chuck the idea altogether? I'm not particularly attached to it and am open to suggestions.

NCA is going on right now. Is anyone blogging it?

Lately I've been checking out those Standard Deviants DVDs from the public library, particularly the ones on physics and chemistry. I figured it was time for a review of scientific notation, scalars, vectors, one- and two-dimensional kinematics, Newton's laws of motion, etc. The viewing is motivated by my desire to use metaphorically terms like "covalent bonds" in casual conversation to impress my friends and my paranoid fantasy that one day I just might find myself in an imperiled spacecraft and need to know this stuff. Yeah, you can say it! I'm an "odd bird." I've heard it hundreds of times before.

There aren't many annoying situations that can't be assuaged by listening to music. Yesterday I was standing in a long line at the post office -- which normally causes me to seethe in my cauldron of impatience -- and I had my CD player, headphones, and Emmylou Harris' Anthology playing. I decided right then and there to make it a point to take my CD player, headphones, and several CDs everywhere I go. Today's soundtrack is Pizzicato Five's Happy End of the World, which you should all check out from your libraries immediately.

Go see Cindy at her new place!

YOU ARE CHAMOMILE


What herb are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Michelle.

A news story for which I was interviewed came out today. If you'd like to read it and aren't registered at philly.com, you're welcome to use my login info. Email: abstractgroove at lycos dot com, password: ararat2

I'm only quoted a couple of times, short quotes at that, and a little oversimplified, but it's to be expected. Oh well.

I want to start the sequel meme! I mean, after the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, they released "More Dirty Dancing." After "Songs from Ally McBeal," they released Heart And Soul: New Songs From Ally McBeal Featuring Vonda Shepard. If they can do it, why can't I? :P Here are 100 more things about me:

1. I have never bought or sold anything on eBay.
2. My least favorite household chore is cleaning out the microwave.
3. My second least favorite household chore is ironing. For years I bought only clothes that didn't require ironing.
4. About twelve years ago, I wanted to be a writer for Soap Opera Digest. I mean it was my dream job. Ugh.
5. I love almond butter and jam and honey sandwiches on stone ground wheat bread.
6. I prepare and eat such sandwiches in a ritualistic manner. I put the honey on the bread first, so that it can absorb into the nooks and crannies. Then I apply thick layers of almond butter and jam. When I take a bite, the almond butter and jam ooze out from the crusts of the bread, so in between bites, I constantly run my tongue around the crusts of the bread to catch the excess, like I'm eating an ice cream cone on a hot, windy day.

I wonder what Chun is thinking right now about the current political climate. I typed his old URL into my address bar, hoping he had come back to say something about the election and the aftermath. Come on, Chun! Make a cameo appearance at Crooked Timber or at Michael Bérubé's or somewhere! (I will, of course, feel like an idiot if he's already done this. Please point me to it if he has.)