Number of publication rejections I've received in the past three days: 2

But it was balanced out with an exciting editorial opportunity that I'm not sure I should talk about now. Squee!

Also, I hate State Farm Insurance. I'm trying to get renters insurance, and they are making the entire process positively prohibitive. They're asking for information about the history of the house and the structural features that my landlord doesn't even know -- which is to say, his homeowners insurance reps didn't ask him to provide. The kicker is that I'm asking for such a low level of coverage; even in the event that the entire house was destroyed, the payout would be so low for them that I don't understand why they're treating this situation as so high-risk. Why can't they just sign me up and take my money? [Edited: Yes, I suppose they have to know if my heating and electrical units are fire boxes about to blow any day now, but my point stands that my landlord's homeowners insurance company was apparently fine with insuring this house without that information.]

Do you ever, when walking in crowded areas, pretend to talk to someone on your cell phone so that no one will try to talk to you? I'll confess, I do it every day. I had always thought of these as my nonversations. However, upon trying to corroborate this using Urban Dictionary, I found that I was wrong:

1. nonversation
When you're sitting at a table full of people (pref. boisterous and social) but you're between two conversations, and no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get into either of them.

So you end up staring at your drink.

Sad.

Alone.

"Hey Rod, why so quiet?"

"Wha--? Oh sorry -- I'm stuck in the nonversation over here."

2. nonversation
When 2 or more people are together but not talking. Or when a group of people are talking together, but one or more of them is sitting in silence.

*silence*

Thats a nonversation.

What I'm really engaged in is a cell faux:

1. cell faux
Pretending to be engaged in a cell phone call so as to avoid someone or something.

noun: A device that pretends to be a cell phone

verb: Pretending to use a cell phone that is not turned on.

She was so intent on avoiding her worst enemy in the same theater queue that she pretended to be chatting on her cell faux the entire time.

This is for the research ethics course I'm teaching this semester. I'm looking for references to studies that may have prompted one of the primary concerns of feminist research: the relationship between researcher and participants. Can you think of any examples of studies in which the relationship between researchers and participants suffered from a severe power imbalance, resulting in harm to the participants, especially studies actually referenced by feminist researchers as evidence for the need to empower participants in the research process? There are the obvious ones:

1. The studies in Nazi concentration camps that prompted the Nuremberg Code

2. The Tuskeegee syphilis study

3. The John/Joan study

4. The Thalidomide clinical trials

But there must be others. Actual bibliographical citations would be terrific, but are not necessary; I'd be happy with simple leads I could look into.

Yeah, so a while back I was wondering what all the fuss was about (I still do, to an extent). But I thought some of you would like to see what my upcoming week looks like:

Monday
12:00-?, a lunch with guests of the department
2:00-3:00, a workshop with the same guests
3:00-?, a meeting of faculty who teach writing-intensive classes

Tuesday
12:30-1:45, teach
2:00-5:00 office hours (will have to be truncated today)
3:30-?, a meeting with our visiting professor -- a master class

Wednesday
3:00-5:00, faculty meeting

Thursday (always ends up being a 12-hour day for me!)
9:30-10:30, meeting for FYC teachers -- I may or may not go this time
12:30-1:45, teach
2:00-5:00, office hours
6:30-9:00, teach

Friday
11:00-12:00, job talk (finalist for a position in Asian American literature)
12:30-2:00, new faculty luncheon (we'll be able to talk to representatives from the IRB, Office of Sponsored Programs, etc.)

I have to say, though, this week is an anomaly. During any other week, I'd have no meetings at all in addition to teaching, or maybe one. Last semester some of us had a writing group, and that was usually my only meeting. Needless to say, this week I'll have to use my mornings wisely for research and grading.

Much to Jonathan's confusion, I woke up last night in the middle of the night laughing. As I tried to go back to sleep -- and eventually I did -- I would think about the dream I'd had and start laughing again. Here's the dream.

My friend April and I were in Florence, Alabama. We went to the Krispy Kreme and got a dozen doughnuts. Then we got in the car and were headed somewhere else. As it turned out, the brakes in the car didn't work, and we were driving down North Wood Avenue (a street in Florence). I was driving, and it became clear that we were about to crash, so I veered off the road and ran into someone's front yard. We thought this was inexplicably hilarious, and we laughed and laughed at what the person living in the house would think, imagining him or her coming out into the front yard and gawking at the damage to the flower beds. Then we realized that during the near-wreck, the doughnuts had been hurled out the car window onto the yard, unsalvageable.

April said, "Let's go back to Krispy Kreme. We WILL get some more doughnuts." We didn't have any more money, so April looked in the glove compartment for a receipt for the doughnuts. She didn't find one, so she pulled out some random person's business card. We went back to Krispy Kreme, and she marched up to the counter, angrily demanding another dozen doughnuts, pointing indignantly at the business card and shoving it in the cashier's face. I was standing behind her, trying to keep from laughing, but I didn't succeed. So then I woke myself up laughing.

• A CD player for my car (which has nothing but the radio)
• A copy of Inspiration
• A copy of InspireData -- downloading the 30-day free trial now. Oh, and see how Inspiration can assist with the goals of NCLB!
• A grant or two
• A book contract
• this t-shirt, this one, and this one. Okay, this one too.

For days now I've had a certain song in my mind, but I couldn't place the title or the artist (The Church? Tears for Fears? Erasure? XTC?), and I was unclear on the lyrics. All I could remember was the melody and rhythm. It was driving me crazy. I considered talking to Jonathan about it, but due to the genre, I wasn't convinced he'd know what song it was. I was afraid he'd just look at me askance and make me even more frustrated. I even considered trying Songtapper. I even considered making a brief podcast about it and half-singing-half-humming the song:

something something inside your head
something crashing in the aisles
something something something something
something something every time

But THEN: I was just going about my business, and I remembered -- "pure and simple every time." Eureka!

Oh, and after I remembered, I did go ahead and try Songtapper. It wasn't helpful:

Unificial World Cup Song
Stan Boardman

Whats On Your Mind
Mr. Sancho

A La Queue Leu Leu
La Bande à Basile

Ava Avadore
The Smashing Pumpkins

Babylon Sisters
Steely Dan

Eat This City
Thunderbirds Are Now!

Hey Leonardo She Likes Me For Me

Playboys
The Rasmus

Coppa Cabanna
Barry Manilow

I think it gives "Copa Cabana" as a possibility for everything you tap in there, but "Babylon Sisters?"

A couple of nights ago, I watched Long Day's Journey into Night.

I've written about how great art produces in me a sensation of erasure (the mental Etch-a-Sketch). This play/film certainly did. I had shied away from watching it in the past, mostly because I was worried that I'd be sucked into all the emotional labor. I was, but I was able to aestheticize it, I guess, due to the performances.

I was always able to perceive that performance layer of it -- in other words, the actors didn't manage to slip underneath the characters -- especially in the case of Katharine Hepburn. This is due to the fact that she's a star, not anything about her performance, which was stunning. Her face, for example, would instantly go from a placid, faraway look as she remembered the past to a scrunched-up, tortured look as she snapped back into the present. Ralph Richardson's performance was distracting in that he was overacting, but I understand that that's part of the character, a would-have-been Shakespearean actor.

Jason Robards' performance was, apparently, the one that made him famous, and it was definitely great, but I liked Dean Stockwell's performance even more, particularly the scene in which he recites Baudelaire to his father. Also, who knew Stockwell was so hot back then?

Ultimately, I guess it turns out I don't have all that much to say about the film, only some brief observations:

1. The decision to zoom the camera way out, then back in, then way out again was an unusual one, but understandable given the withdrawal of Mary Tyrone during her monologue at the end.

2. I found myself wondering if that play could even be written or imagined now. Do families ever engage that deeply with each other anymore? (Or did they then, for that matter?) I'm thinking particularly of the card game scene between Edmund and James near the end. Wouldn't the 23-year-old son, upon arriving home, just creep upstairs to his room and listen to some music on headphones, or get on the internet, or watch some TV?

3. Mary Tyrone says at least twice during the film that she is "getting fat," has to have the seams of all her dresses let out, and that it's good for her not to eat. Hepburn didn't do a Zellweger and gain any weight for this role; she's as slender as ever. It made me wonder about "beauty standards" back then, which I have heard were different in the 1930s and 1940s, but which I've long suspected weren't really all that different (feminist revisionist history, being nostalgic for a past that never was, etc.). Or, on the other hand, was Mary Tyrone meant to be played by a woman who was actually overweight? (Yes, I understand that her lack of appetite in the dining scenes was likely due to her addiction, but that she was able to cite "getting fat" as a plausible excuse for not eating must be indicative of something.)