Is it too much to ask that all I want for Father's Day is that promised sequel, Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League?

Blanching garden tomatoes to remove their skins before I make a recipe from the great *Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking*. Feeling very virtuous, and also kinda old-timey.

McSweeney’s is always great, but this is a lovely (and only gently satirical) portrait of modern masculinity. My second favorite example is the “wow, unbelievable” one, but the best is the dishwasher one, because I would totally be practicing the TED talk. Plus, I did have to wrangle a bat.

going to throw a star wars party and call it a boba fete

Garden firing on all cylinders.

This is such a good point. When I'm reading scholarship on a topic, the first few articles are all new. Then they start to seem familiar. Then a sense of sameness sets in. That's when you can write a sentence like, "Scholars generally agree on..." to get into what you're offering that's new.

First red tomato of the season.

I've probably said this before on here, but I love using the text-to-speech feature (on a Mac, but I assume it's there in Windows) as a way to test a presentation for time. Keeps a consistent pace, and you can frankly just walk way and let a timer run for a while to see how it comes out.

Got my evaluations from students, and they're breaking my heart. So sweet, so thoughtful. Gonna miss those kids so much.

At a dive bar in Nashville, listening to an opener (perhaps of another opener). We enjoy hearing music out of our normal habits, and this is a hard-rock band. After the show, the band's manager comes up and asks us which member we're the parents of. Dude.

Gotta say, just saw Sheep Detectives, and the premise seems so silly but it’s an absolutely charming movie. Very well constructed. If you’re a fan of British crime dramas it will totally push your buttons.

Geez Duolingo. Apparently today is when we learn “sad”. Am I sad, are they sad, is the dog sad? Leave the dog out of it, he didn’t do anything to you!

So many times I've tried to earnestly participate in some kind of review system (article, book, etc.) using a content management system only to get unending messages saying that I've messed something up, then contact the editor who says, yeah, it's fine. Seriously, please stop doing this.

I have entered the time of the year where I obsessively stop by Lowes to see what's on the plant clearance rack. This lasts roughly until September.

Had our last department meeting yesterday, and realized we spent about half our time this year talking about AI stuff. What an incredible tax on our time this junk has been, distracting us from real stuff.

Sweet (although weird) complement from a student on what was effectively the last day of class. I remarked how much I enjoyed the class and would miss them, and one student suggested that I should fail them all so we could take the class together again in the fall.

Loved David Byrne at Jazz Fest here in New Orleans. Great show, but also appreciate the way he lets all the supporting musicians move around to the front of the stage, sharing the spotlight.

Kermit Ruffins opening his set at the New Orleans Jazz Festival with a 15 minute instrumental version of the Flintstones theme song is why, in fact, America is great.

Inspired by our American lit discussion of Gertrude Stein, one of my students got a "tender button" tattoo.

Had a student in my American lit survey class say she'd get a Gertrude Stein tattoo if I read all the Twilight novels. First one arrives today.

For the mid-term, I had students respond to practice questions. Asked for volunteers to put their answers on the screen so we could discuss what worked/could be better. One student says she's glad to share, but it's in cursive. Sure, I say, who cares? 90% of the students: yeah we can't read that.

My lit survey students continue to surprise. Today was Gertrude Stein day, and I had a couple of students say (esp. about *Making of Americans*) that she read to them as neurodivergent, and that they loved seeing different ways of thinking and writing represented.

I ran a conference right before Covid. Trying to cut down on waste, our only give-away was stickers. As you can imagine, we had a lot left over. I’ve made it a project to put these up in every dive bar we visit. By now every bar in Nashville and New Orleans has a Narrative sticker in the bathroom.

Did I add WCW's "This is Just to Say" to my lit survey syllabus just so I could reference all the internet memes? Yes, yes I did.

I've been allowing students in my lit survey classes to bring a one-page "cheat sheet" to the exams. Front and back, as small as font as they can read. They think it's a concession, but they put so much time into these things. Don't tell them they're basically writing a paper in prep of the exam.

Invited to a 4-year-old's birthday party on Sunday and, as one does, bought him a copy of Donald Bartheleme's *Slightly Irregular Fire Engine*.

Got a haircut today. She gave me the "Jacques Lacan."

Taught *The Waste Land* today. Warned them it was tough sledding, and expected them to mostly complain. But all the students (those who talked, at least) loved it. Go figure. Last week, students compared "In the Station of the Metro" to a banana duct taped to a wall. Students are weird.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba... I cannot speak as to the accuracy of the piece yet I found it a fascinating exercise @adamroberts.bsky.social @drlauravarnam.bsky.social

I'm so old, I learned to type by taking a typing class in middle school where we practiced on an IBM Selectric. That was a sweet ride: what a great keyboard feel.

In my Am Lit survey, students came into class this week worked up about (of all things) late 19th C defenses of the novel by Howells and Norris. One student furious about Howells's insistence on realism, and another passionate in defending the "romance" of life Norris describes. Love these kids.

So gratifying when you get an orchid to re-bloom. Plus, I threw that pot!

5 classes: 1. Existentialism with Alexander Nehamas (my 1st semester!) when he was still at Pitt 2. Russian novel via Bakhtin 3. Grad philosophy class on Paul de Man (I know I know) 4. Beowulf in Old English; I was the only registered student 5. Class where the only text was an 80-page Husserl book

Enjoying the Seattle/LA game. But 90% of my attention is on the jersey fonts. Rams have some explaining to do about the "1" (is it a 1 or 7?) but otherwise Seattle's design is a disaster. What's up with the curved bottom on almost every number on the Seattle jersey? Have some self respect.

Walked into class today and students were like, I've got no idea what's going with this structuralism/poststructuralism reading you had us do. And I'm like, by the end of class you'll all be rushing out to get your Derrida tattoos.

Shout out to how great the New Orleans Jazz Festival is--which is only partially about Jazz. This year: David Byrne, Lorde, Nas, Black Keys, Jason Isbell, Herbie Hancock, plus older bands like Eagles, Stevie Nicks, and Rod Stewart. Anyone close to NO, keep an eye out. www.nojazzfest.com/music/

Saw The Beths live a couple of years ago and loved them. “Expert in a Dying Field” is such a great metaphor for a failing relationship, but maybe hits even better for my academic friends. Plus: “plausible deniability I swear I’ve never heard of that” is great. music.apple.com/us/album/exp...

Teaching in a classroom without a chalkboard/whiteboard in the front of the room, only on the side. Gonna be a weird semester.

Every team that I rooted for in the NFL playoffs lost, so for a small fee next week I will cheer for your enemies.

Not in my skill set, but I so need someone to do one of these with the metal presentations at the end of Star Wars. Start here, it's perfectly set up:

For people of my age (let's not speak of it) who have parents that are hard to buy for, I got my mom this Bird Buddy smart bird feeder that takes pictures when birds eat and tells you their species. Pretty cool, and the definition of a gift for someone who doesn't need anything.

Taught my first classes of the semester today, and never had the standard today-is-the-first-day-of-class-and-I-didn't-prepare-my-syllabus anxiety dream I usually get over the break. Not sure if my unconscious is getting chill, or lazy.

Classes start this week. We've been running around the last few days doing (fun) social stuff. Today we have nothing on the schedule, leftovers in the fridge, and football on tv. My wife has declared it "luxury day" and that seems perfect.

Geez, that Timmy Chalamet movie about ping pong? They should teach it in film schools about the importance of editing. What a mess.

A nice thing about Mississippi is that you can put plants in the ground so early in the spring--usually in March--so my habit has been to start seeds for things like tomatoes on January 1st under a grow light. Always fun to see them germinate and grow over these (relatively) cold months.

Mississippi State has, of course, a big agricultural focus. Just got an email from a friend who has a @poultry email address. How can you not be jealous? I always imagine their department made up of chickens in little lab coats with clipboards. Department meetings must be adorable!

Reviewing my Am Lit survey for the spring term, and realized I made a terrible oversight by not including WCW's "This is Just to Say." So few poems are internet memes: finally something the kids can relate to. We're gonna have fun with that.

I know it got good reviews when it came out, but the new Naked Gun movie with Liam Neesom is just such a joy--out on Prime. All the fun of Airplane and Police Squad. If you love that stuff, take time to watch this, it so much fun.

Got new grow lights this year for starting tomatoes and peppers over the winter. Can't help but feel, based on the logo, that they have growing something else in mind.

Always happy to be back in the Pittsburgh area.