Confessions of an Errant Mind

In a "wage management initiative" (how's that for corporate speak), Circuit City cut 3,500 jobs yesterday. These were not bad employees--in fact, the problem was that due to expertise and experience, they were just making too much money. Many positions will be filled with new hires making substantially less money.

Having faced a potential downsizing in my dept. a few years back, I feel like I can emphathize more with employees in this kind of situation. But this is still pretty cold stuff--money over people. Especially after reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Bait and Switch on the plane ride back from New York, I'm sure glad to be in a profession where performance is still the overriding job performance measure.

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The new Harry Potter book comes out just before my birthday (still sadly four months away), but the cover was revealed today. Here it is:

What's it mean? According to this interview, the cloaked figure is actually Voldemort, though my wife would say that Ralph Fiennes provides a more attractive version. It's definitely a stadium, but then there's the curtains on either side. Is it a drama of some kind? Another thought--the portal from the Department of Mysteries--the one Sirius Black fell through after his death--perhaps Harry has gone through to the other side, an option which others have proposed. Who knows? It's another four months until I find out. (Or more, since Sarah and I have had a habit of reading these aloud to one another.)

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I came across the following link of moments from Rachael Ray's show, $40 a Day. It's a compilation of responses she had after eating something. What's notable? The similarity of responses for one, though some do stand out for an extra head bob or glance at the camera. The number of outfits and hairstyles definitely jumps out at me as well. The actual utterances of gustatory delight aren't quite as over the top as they could be--this isn't infomercial territory yet. But they still lend some credance to a Harper's article a few years ago that cinematically and structurally, many food shows aren't that different from pornography. They both take a strong voyeristic interest in their subjects and their expressions of pleasure.

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A cute entry today from Batgirl, a rather sassy Twins baseball blog that's on my Netvibes page. I wonder if Micah would like this?

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Being the liberal social scientists that we are, Sarah and I spent most of yesterday touring the Lower East Side. It was an interesting time--one highlight for me was eating a "tres leches" doughnut at a shop featured on the Emeril show. We had lunch at Katz's Deli, made famous in When Harry Met Sally. In the afternoon, we saw Ground Zero, which was surprisingly underwhelming, since it's now basically a construction site. Then it was Wall Street and the Seaport. We had a yummy dinner at Siam Inn in Midtown--I had a combo plate of sushi and sashimi. Then we saw Inherit the Wind with Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy. All in all, a fun day on the town.

Today--the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Harlem. We're looking forward to some soul food!

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Got to New York on Wednesday night for the CCCC conference--the big to do for composition instructors. Sarah didn't get here until 1 AM on Thursday night (technically Friday morning), so I had my day as a bachelor in the big city. Much of it was spent at the conference. I presented along with some of my colleagues about the service learning project I'm doing this semester. That went well--we had about 14 people in attendance, which is a decent enough sized group that there was some good conversation during Q&A. I went to some good sessions about doing social science type research in composition classes and picked up some goodies at the book table.

One problem with being in New York is where to start when it comes to food. There's SO MANY options! The food scene here is so unique, I feel like any actual deliberation process would be too heart wrenching. I can only eat (and spend) so much in three days. So I've been trying to be more spontaneous. I had breakfast with a friend at a place by the conference hotel. For lunch, it was Indian wraps at Katy Rolls by my hotel. I got my obligatory street vendor hot dog and roasted almonds. For dinner, I had pizza at Pax Foods, an upscale looking place over off Broadway. Today, Sarah and I are heading to the southern tip of Manhattan, so from a culinary standpoint, that means Little Italy, Chinatown, and Jewish food on the Lower East Side.

I also got to see my first broadway show last night--Rent. While it's not a show that overwhelms with visuals, I was generally impressed. The dancing/choreography was especially notable, I thought. The roles of Mimi and Angel were played by people who could really move. Mimi has one number where she stradles a safety railing 20 feet high in high heels that was really scary. The music was decent--several catchy numbers, most notably "Another Day." I went with someone I presented with and we went out for cheesecake afterwards--yummy!

While I had read that Times Square is overrated, I'm not sure I agree. Our hotel is on 46th St. about a block off of it, so I've wandered around quite a bit. At night, with the lights and people, it's a pretty amazing spectacle. The rest of New York has been slightly overwhelming so far--like a bigger Chicago. It has impressed me how many languages I've heard spoken just walking down the street. And it's odd to see the headquarters of so many famous businesses. We'll branch out from Midtown today, so I'm sure I'll get a broader perspective on Manhattan.

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"You ain't worshipped God 'till you've praised him for Spaghettios and Spam. See, if you know how to worship God for Spam, you can worship him with steak."

-Our pastor, Efrem Smith, on his humble origins.

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Citypages had an interesting cover story last week on what our supermarkets say about us. The author looks at Bylery's, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's to examine the values that might motivate folks to shop there. All three would be what I would consider alternatives to the way most people shop--mass supermarkets, like Cub or Rainbow in the Twin Cities. Whole Foods in particular has gotten a lot of note in the last year for its mention in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. Pollan criticizes the mass production style of most of Whole Foods goods, even as they try to build an image of a locally based, alternative grocery. The controversy is noted here, with quotes from both Pollan and the CEO of Whole Foods (see an exchange between the two here and here).

Notably absent are co-ops and smaller, less spectacular food sellers--convenience stores or discounters like Aldi. Nevertheless, there are some interesting ideas here, and even a mention of a professor I hope to work with as a student, Tracey Deutsch.

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It's an often quoted sermon line that Jesus saved his harshest criticism for religious leaders, those whose hypocrisy and legalism suffocated the people they led. I'm not sure Newt qualifies, but his long alliance with the Religious Right certainly puts him in the ballpark. Now, with a recent admittance of infidelity, he's simply another in a sad line of self-righteous two-faced liars. That's the problem with legalism--it's the log in your own eye that gets you in the end. It's called grace, people. Grace.

Speaking of Newt, I'll always remember Terry Gross's interview with him on Fresh Air back in the late 90s. At one point, she quizzed him on his position against homosexuality and gay marriage. Though he claimed his was a "Christian" position, he couldn't name one part of the Bible that actually spoke against it. Not quite as bad as Howard Dean naming Job as his favorite New Testament book, but not good. He lost any claim to authentic conviction for me at that point.

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I completed my first IRB form today! For those unfamiliar with it, it's a form that's needed for any research involving human subjects, to make sure there's no harm being done in the research process. I'm doing a research study about my service learning project this semester at KBEM-FM. Hopefully, I'll get something written up about it this summer. It's one small step toward a career as a Ph.D.

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The title of this post from the God's Politics blog (Jim Wallis, et al.) got me thinking again. For at least four years, Ann Coulter has been one of my least favorite talking heads. It's not just that I disagree with her politically--my rhetorical disagreements are what most irk me. Using terms like "raghead" and "faggot" (the latter used most recently in reference to pres. candidate John Edwards) in blatant, provocative ways does nothing except drum up headlines and make people mad. There's absolutely no intellectual integrity there--she's not looking to engage in an honest debate, and she's using hyperbole in deceptive, damaging ways.

Perhaps most astonishing, Coulter claims to be speaking from a Christian perspective. While Jesus did save some choice words for the Pharisees, I just can't understand how this kind of speech models God's kingdom in any real way. Um, blessed are the peacemakers? Bless those who curse you? To me, it's the worst manifestation of the right wing takeover of my faith.

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Is there any food more symbolic of artificial ingredients than the Twinkie? Last semester, as part of my writing class, I set an unwrapped twinkie in my office for about ten weeks. It got rather hard, but there was nary a sign of mold on the thing. I and some courageous students tried a bite on the last day of class. It was crunchy and still sweet, something like a Nilla wafer.

A new book, Twinkie, Deconstructed, takes a look at the twinkie one ingredient at a time. While I can't imagine that the chapter on whey is all that exciting, this kind of text is becoming increasingly common. By examining one specific food, we get a glimpse of the complex workings of the American food system--how many different crops and places are linked together. Michael Pollan did the same in last year's The Omnivore's Dilemma. My bookshelf is already overflowing, but I might try to pick this up for a summer read.

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School is difficult. I found this out again last semester taking just a single Geography course while working full time. But it amazes me how many of my students manage to pull off much more difficult feats.

Case in point: today I had a conference with a student who's not doing well grade wise. He's missed several classes and assignments. I'm never sure exactly what to make of such students--sometimes there's a story, and sometimes they're just not mature enough to handle the freedom of a college environment.

In this case, it sounds like the former. He's an older kid in a seven child family. His dad is a "deadbeat" and his parents are in the middle of a divorce. He's working full time and also has to help care for his younger siblings--picking them up after school, for example. In addition, he's had two family members die so far this semester, one of them shot in west St. Paul for a gold chain he was wearing around his neck.

Would I even still be coming to classes if I were in his shoes? I did great as a student, but I had zero financial pressure, a stable family life, and no job. As an instructor, I feel almost no capacity to help guide this student--he's got a lot on his plate and there's not much choice about it. I've heard several stories like this one, and it always helps me keep my students' work in perspective. There's a lot of pressure (especially financial) in being an undergraduate, and it's amazing that as many get through it that do.

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