Monthly Archives: October 2004

happy halloween!

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Last night we went to the first honest-to-goodness Halloween party we’ve attended in well over a decade and did not get home until about 2:30. Alcohol was consumed. Dance moves were executed. Cats hid under beds. Is it just me, or are the costumes available for purchase or rental much, much better than they used to be? I can remember, as a child, being disappointed that most of the available costumes were simply a crinkly polyester jumpsuit with a picture on the chest of who you were supposed to be. Even then, I knew that made no sense.

There were many inspired costumes last night, including…

  • Guinivere
  • Cookie Monster
  • Jackie Onassis Kennedy with a bloody skirt
  • Yasser Arafat
  • A wolf
  • A black lab
  • Beck
  • Various gothic princesses/sorceresses
  • A bloke in a kilt
  • A billionaire for Bush
  • A pirate
  • Fonzie-modo

I have pix, but I’m saving them for blackmail purposes.

I’ll give you three hints as to my costume:

  • I did not have a hit in the ’80s with “White Wedding.”
  • I used to write really bad poetry.
  • My girlfriend is a high school student who likes to carry a wooden stake.

reading, writing, and race in kansas city

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I’ll be teaching English 225 again in the Spring, an Honors Program section with an Academic Service Learning component.

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I intend to focus the class on Kansas City history with special attention placed upon race and neighborhoods. Students will fulfill their ASL requirements by taking oral histories from current and former residents of the neighborhood(s) bounded by 49th Street, 63rd, the Paseo, and Oak Street. I don’t yet have a full syllabus or a description, but I’ll use my blog as a placeholder for relevant links as I work on the course design.

please vote

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What if you show up to vote next Tuesday and election workers say you are not registered?

  1. Make sure you are at the correct voting precinct. You can check at My Polling Place or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE for assistance.
  2. If you are at the correct polling place and officials claim you are not registered, request a provisional ballot. Itís your right under the law.

Please pass this on to as many people as you can.

(via Liz Lawley)

Local readers might be interested in the Missouri Elections Website.

L and I will vote at a location about two blocks from our apartment. The polls open at 6 a.m., so I think we’ll probably roll out of bed and head right over. Both of us received our voter registration cards this week, and we should be good to go. I cancelled classes on Tuesday so that my students could get a head start on their research in the library, and so that they would not have to worry about making it to class on time if they were faced with long lines.. For almost all of my composition students, this is the first election in which they will vote, and I’d hate for it to be a negative experience.

thursday

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Out of order, chaos. Out of chaos, order. This is my life. It’s your life, too.

The cat’s gone blind. It happened quickly. He still gets around just fine. That’s what whiskers and tails are for.

I seem to be going deaf in my right ear. It’s happening quickly. I don’t know if it’s only temporary.

if this whole academic thing doesn’t work out…

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…I want to be Paul Westerberg.

Paul Westerberg with Telecaster thinline, sitting on small amp.


Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare

That is all. Carry on.