Author Archives: ghw

wow

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So, when Dr. B links to you, a great many readers come to your blog. 500 and counting. Strangely, none of them have left any comments, yet.

Toward the end of her post, she writes, “And the ‘oddly arousing’ thing makes me wonder–and wish–that more men would write honestly about sex and sexiness.” Well, I blog under my real name…mostly. And most of the women I know who write about such things frankly do so under pseudonyms. Not too many men who are academics blog pseudonymously. (Yes, we’ve all had this conversation before.) Is the reluctance to blog openly about “sex and sexiness” related to pseudonymity? Well, it is for me. I do talk pretty openly in IM with Dr. B about these issues, and I did f2f with my single friends in the city I just left (the vast majority of whom were female). But blogging? That’s another story.

…still thinking…

amusing and yet oddly arousing

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“We have so many problems in our country that deciding whether you take off your top or wear a thong is so trivial,” said Monique Ferrero, a 42-year-old government employee whose bikini bottom was rolled to show off her buttocks. “What’s more important is that people who have to work all summer have a place to sunbathe and feel like they’re on vacation. If it’s forbidden to be bare, I don’t care.”

Things I learned by reading this story:

  • Paris has a man-made beach along the Seine. (It didn’t have one the last time I was there, which was a long time ago.)
  • You will be fined if you wear a thong or bare your (female) breasts at this beach.
  • There are 42-year-old, politically minded Parisian women who will adjust their bikini bottoms to show off their…uh, bottoms.

Don’t ask me why, but this story has been stuck in my head for the last day or so.

peanuts, crackerjack

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Last night I watched the Stingers trounce the Copperheads at a baseball park that’s been in continuous use since the mid-1920s. The park’s in trouble, and while I can understand that it doesn’t hold the attraction it once did (the stands were maybe one-third full) it would be heartbreaking if they razed the structure as they apparently plan to do. There are few pleasures in life as enjoyable as watching minor league baseball at one of the human-scaled parks in which such teams play. It was steamy hot last night, but the cold beer helped.

The picture above captures not only the park’s history evident in the many layers of paint, but also its current state of decay. More pictures are in this Flickr set.

Continue reading →

call for carnies: tc #11

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Now that the schedule for the next few months is set, it’s time to start thinking and writing again about teaching in higher education. One month from today, I’ll host Teaching Carnival #11. Please email me with your nominations of worthy posts on this topic, and/or you can tag relevant posts in order to nominate them or to contribute to Teaching Carnival Backstage.

Any and all topics are welcome, but I thought I’d throw out a call for some specific things, too. Please do me two favors: post a link to this call for carnies on your blog, and email a few bloggers you know who might be unaware of the Teaching Carnival series.

  1. What are you doing differently this year compared to last year? Why?
  2. What kind of preparation for teaching did you get in grad school? Was it adequate? What should have been done differently? How are you preparing the next generation of grad students for the classroom? How does the way you were taught affect the way you teach?
  3. What sorts of innovative writing assignments are you using? I am particularly interested in disciplines other than English, since I believe that writing should be a part of almost all courses. How do you evaluate your students’ writing? Do you use a rubric?
  4. Are your students engaged in service learning? What kinds of connections between the classroom and the community are you making?
  5. How does information technology figure into your teaching?

Feel free to ignore my suggestions and come up with your own topics.

biking without going anywhere

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Yesterday I got a free tour of a local fitness center recommended by one of my colleagues, and I was also able to take a spinning Group Ride™ class.

Me, before the class: I love these classes.
Manager: You’ve done Group Ride™ before?
Me: Well, in grad school I took spinning classes.
Manager: Oh, this is totally different! It’s like nothing you’ve done before!

So, yeah, it was exactly like the classes I took in grad school. Which is to say I loved it. And I’ll go back. And I’ll join the gym.

Oh, and I bought a bike, but that’s fodder for another post.