For the love of God, please stop messing around with the stylesheet. You've basically got it where you want it for now. It's not THAT big a deal that you're having trouble locating the .xtmpl file to change the background color of the cell that contains the banner image so that it will extend to the edge of the right column. So there's a little padding between the banner image and the columns. You can fix it later!

How is it that I lived my entire life except for the last 2.5 years in the south and never heard or even heard of Leroy the Redneck Reindeer? My attention has only been brought to the song today by Joanne Jacobs and Joe Kelley, who point to a controversy surrounding the song; a school in Texas is planning to perform it in the Christmas show, and a parent -- the white mother of a biracial child -- is complaining, citing embedded racism in the lyrics. There is, for example, a reference to a Confederate flag. Jacobs and Kelley reacted the way one might expect given their political affiliation; they're disgusted at what they perceive as PC's having gone too far. I find a couple of things interesting about this case. First, the Houston chapter of the NAACP is apparently supporting the parent, Jennifer Scott. Second, the story doesn't really give us any context, and I have all kinds of questions that need to be answered before I can form an opinion about this case. Is this boy the only child of color in the school? If not, can we assume the other parents are fine with the song? Have the children already been rehearsing the Christmas show and singing the song? Has the singing of the song contributed in any way to the little boy's getting teased (which I can imagine would be heart-wrenching for any parent, so perhaps she was desperate for recourse?)? Putting the song aside for the moment, do the school and its employees have a history of racist remarks and practices? Are any of the parents of the other children members of the KKK, and do they feel that their views are somehow approved by the inclusion of this song (yeah, I know that's a long shot, but I'm wondering)? How are the Civil War and the Confederate flag presented to the children in history class? And so on.

Oh yeah, and Charlie has just upgraded me to Drupal 4.5 (thanks, Charlie!). I'll have this default template for a while until I can carve out a little time to tweak the style sheet.

I'm on a roll! Tonight I picked up one of my projects that was going to be a purse and decided it would make a better hat. Inspiration struck, and I decided to sew my star paillettes to the sash. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep it or give it away; maybe I'll give it to a certain cute, scandalously witty, eerily precocious five-year-old girl I know. I realize it might be a little floppy on her, but I think it will fit okay. :)

I haven't been knitting all that much lately, but last night I finally finished my Windy City Scarf from Stitch'n'Bitch while watching the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I have some of the yarn left over and intend to make a hat to match the scarf, hopefully in time to wear this winter. Why do I get so inspired to be crafty at such inappropriate times as the end-of-semester crunch? Anyway, here are pictures. Obviously, I've still got some yarn ends to work in (I hate doing that!).

Just a quick blink to point out Foucault Studies, a new electronic journal through the Queensland University of Technology. The first issue is up, and they're accepting submissions for the next.

Much has been said about Ailee Slater's article in the Oregon Daily Emerald, including thoughtful comments on Dennis Jerz's weblog and Kairosnews. A generous, sympathetic reading of the column might emphasize Slater's obvious alienation from the university and interpret her virulence in that context. She is clearly troubled by the grading system, which exacerbates an already stressful environment that ranks and disciplines minds rather than nurturing them. She writes, for example:

perhaps a decrease of focus on grades will actually lead to more fair admission policies. Time not spent calculating grades could be used by teachers to write recommendations for the students who have truly shown the ability to work hard and be motivated to educate themselves.

That being said, she foregrounds the university-as-corporation, student-as-customer model ("If I'm paying someone to do my housekeeping, I'll be the one to tell the receiver of my hard-earned money exactly how well they did. Shouldn't it be the same with education?"), which hurts her ethos, and even worse, she comes across as being oblivious to and dismissive of considerable issues of privilege and access that affect student performance (my emphasis):

Students who work hardest would be surrounded by similarly ambitious and intelligent peers; as for teachers, their time could be spent concentrating on exceptional students who want to learn, rather than wasting resources grading the sub-par work of students who didn't care enough to do a good job in the first place.

I realize I'm preaching to the choir here, but: Some students are much more well-prepared for college than others. Students whose parents can afford, for example, music lessons, summer enrichment day camps, tutors, book-of-the-month clubs, private schools, computers, the internet, etc. and who have the leisure time necessary to take children to museums, to read to them, and to help with homework (which implies that the parents would need the necessary education to provide such help, which implies that they would likely have had access to similar resources) are better prepared for college, and their performance is more likely to be interpreted as "exceptional." I object to Slater's argument for those two reasons.

Now, I've been looking at the comment forum at the Oregon Daily Emerald, and one poster mentioned that Slater was getting ripped apart at Fark. I've only occasionally visited over there, and the times I have, I've enjoyed all the PhotoShopping fun. However, this time, I was troubled by some of the comments I read. I don't mean to single out Drew Curtis by any means; these comments could have been left in any forum, unfortunately. I've seen this before; one example that comes to mind is the comments at the ESPN.com forums when Linda Bensel-Meyers openly criticized the University of Tennessee's athletic program and the tutoring the athletes were receiving, claiming they weren't getting a proper education and that, basically, they were being treated like pieces of meat, a means to an end (revenue from ticket sales). "I bet she weighs at least two hundred and fifty pounds," one poster at ESPN.com said about Bensel-Meyers. These are only some of the comments about Slater:

"She was not accepted at the University of I'd Hit It.

/admissions officer"

"I was really hoping it would be one of the much cuter girls I met... I'll ask if they know this one. The creature that wrote this is pretty scary, not to mention inept."

"Please, this was my excuse in high school. College is the big leagues, biatch, come up with something better.

Also, we regret to inform this biatch that she was not accepted into U of I'd Hit It West, as well."

"I thought unattractive female college newspaper columnists only wrote about their sex lives. What gives?"

"That's OK, there's dozens of boobie bars that will be waiting for her after she drops out."

"From her pic, can we guess that she is not sleeping for her "A"s?"

"This chick redefines the meaning of fugly."

"Look at her face right now

What's that in her mouth?

Is it a big wad of gizz?

Yeah, i think so too."

Would comments about Slater's appearance and speculation about her sexual practices have been made had she been a man? Maybe, but I've seen them repeatedly over the years in reference to women (and yeah, I know I've only provided one other example, but perhaps others will point to more). Am I being a strident, knee-jerk feminist? It certainly wouldn't be the first time, probably not the last either. Should I just lighten up? Seriously, I really want to know.

Check out this piece by Nicole Converse Livengood of Purdue University, written for Linda Bergmann's Writing Across the Curriculum seminar. It's a good prolegomenon-style essay, especially for people who don't know a lot about weblogs and would like to explore their potential uses in writing classes.

Just passing this new literary journal along to those who might be interested.

Dislocate was founded as a new media journal of the arts in 2001 by students in the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. In the spring of 2003, a group of new students got together to brainstorm ways they could develop a high-quality print journal on campus. They spoke with faculty, staff, and students past and present. The former editors of Dislocate were interested in handing their journal off to new energy. In the fall of 2004, the newly reinvigorated Dislocate completed its first web issue. The first print issue of Dislocate is due out in spring 2005. Dislocate is committed to publishing high-quality work in many different styles and forms. We publish both established and emerging writers in each of the three genres — fiction, nonfiction, and poetry — in which University of Minnesota students specialize. Each issue publishes an interview with a featured writer who has recently visited our campus, alongside a selection of his or her work.

I looked but didn't find any copyright information anywhere on the journal. It should be obvious that I hope they'll offer authors the option of licensing their work under a Creative Commons license.

Which reminds me, I haven't yet blogged about how pleasantly gobsmacked I still am about the fact that not one, not two, not three, but four journals in my discipline are letting authors choose CC licenses 8): Kairos, Computers & Composition Online, The Writing Instructor, and Lore (if you ask).