ramble through the bronx

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

random

I don't remember if I posted this -- but we've finally got the Fordham Philosophical Society website mostly working, with my name on it (about a month or so ago) as President & no longer Secretary. Soon I'll be replaced, but the Google cache will be forever.

Also, Dr. Baur sent me a list of books I could review for the Owl of Minerva (the journal of the Hegel Society of America). What looks good? (I think I'm going to go for Hegel's Philosophy of Reality, Freedom, and God, just 'cause (a) it's interesting (b) it's quite recent and (c) it would be the most expensive if I bought it on my own, instead of getting to keep my review copy. Yes, I'm that shallow).

Bates, Jennifer Ann, *Hegel's Theory of Imagination* (Albany: SUNY Press,
2004): 153 pages long

Baugh, Bruce, *French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism* (New York:
Routlegdge, 2003): 178 pages long

Duquette, David (editor), *Hegel's History of Philosophy: New
Interpretations* [a collection of essays] (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003): 223
pages long

Fernald, Daniel Horace, *Spirit's Philosophical Bildung: Image and Rhetoric
in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and Science of Logic* (Lanham, MD:
Rowman and Littlefield, 2004): 178 pages long

Gemerchak, Christopher M., *The Sunday of the Negative: Reading Bataille
Reading Hegel* (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003): 222 pages long

Keenan, Dennis King (editor), *Hegel and Contemporary Continental
Philosophy* [a collection of essays] (Albany: SUNY Press, 2004): 446 pages
long

Losurdo, Domenico, *Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns* (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2004): 310 pages long

Mack, Michael, *German Idealism and the Jew: The Inner Anti-Semitism of
Philosophy and German-Jewish Responses* (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2003): 178 pages long

Mills, Jon, *The Unconscious Abyss: Hegel's Anticipation of Psychoanalysis*
(Albany: SUNY Press, 2002): 202 pages long

Moggach, Douglas, *The Philosophy and Politics of Bruno Bauer* (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003): 212 pages long

Russon, John, *Human Experience: Philosophy, Neurosis, and the Elements of
Everyday Life* (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003): 148 pages long

Wallace, Robert M., *Hegel's Philosophy of Reality, Freedom, and God*
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 322 pages long

What do you think? (this is probably mostly directed at Paul Kendal, though Doug, if you're reading, your advice also entirely welcome... non-philosophically-minded friends, bear with me, or go back to celebrities without makeup).

jane 9:13 PM [+]

Stuff that'll rot yer mind

Via Wonkette, check out this list of harmful books, compiled by "15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders." Some of them are pretty usual suspects... but John Stuart Mill? Seriously? Harmful?

As Greg Beato on Wonkette points out, tongue firmly in cheek, "But talk about your lack of diversity -- eight out of the top ten books on the list were authored by white Western males! Surely, the faith-based conservatives at Human Events aren't blaming the world's woes on them, are they? Everyone knows it's mostly women, minorities, and foreigners who've been screwing things up."

(I actually think this list would make a great syllabus....)

jane 6:12 PM [+]

It's Mark Felt

Well, it's no longer a secret; Mark Felt has revealed himself to be Deep Throat, the anonymous informant who helped bring down the Nixon White House. (the second link is to an advance copy of the Vanity Fair article). From the article:

The identity of Deep Throat is modern journalism’s
greatest unsolved mystery. It has been said that he
may be the most famous anonymous person in
U.S. history. But, regardless of his notoriety, American
society today owes a considerable debt to the
government official who decided, at great personal
risk, to help Woodward and Bernstein as they pursued
the hidden truths of Watergate.

[...]

I believe that Mark Felt is one of America’s
greatest secret heroes. Deep in his psyche,
it is clear to me, he still has qualms
about his actions, but he also knows that
historic events compelled him to behave as
he did: standing up to an executive branch
intent on obstructing his agency’s pursuit
of the truth. Felt, having long harbored the
ambivalent emotions of pride and selfreproach,
has lived for more than 30 years
in a prison of his own making, a prison
built upon his strong moral principles and
his unwavering loyalty to country and cause.
But now, buoyed by his family’s revelations
and support, he need feel imprisoned no
more.

Whew. In other news... oh nevermind.

jane 3:38 PM [+]

Let the jokes begin

Oh dear... so how about that chicken?

jane 12:05 AM [+]

well, I'm not sure I'd go that far...

Mark Morford writes that the female orgasm is proof of God.

Huh. I do sort of like the idea of every girl being "given a new Hitachi Magic Wand as a beautiful rite of passage when she hits 14."

comments?

(in other news, it's Fleet Week here in NYC... lots of sailors prowling around in uniform, and a whole line-up of brightly lit ships off the west side of Manhattan, including the truly impressive JFK. We drove past it last night. man! huge.)

jane 3:43 PM [+]

Tom Friedman, ah, yes

Tom Friedman's opinion piece about shutting down Gitmo in today's Times might be a good way of arguing this situation to the Bush administration -- utterly self-interested and concerned with security over, say, any sense of justice. Not that I don't think that Friedman is concerned with justice -- he does admit Gitmo to be immoral, but you know what, Tom?

This would have been a hell of a lot more helpful, say, FOUR years ago when the whole rest of the world noticed the utter illegality of the whole thing. Shutting it down now is just beyond obvious. You don't get credit for that.

What do y'all think? (maybe it's really just too easy to pick on the man. bloody flat-earther).

Oh, wait, may as well let Gawker have her say --

Now, on to Thomas Friedman. Friedman is not in his usual jovial idiot mood. No, Friedman is downright pissed. Don’t fuck with National Book Award-winning author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, man, no “world is flat” jokes or attempted explications of his tortured metaphors, no desperate attempts to figure out if he’s such an awful writer because he’s actually that simpleminded or if it’s a canny and dangerous method of cultivating a huge, simple-minded audience, no, there will be none of that today because Tom’s making like George C. Scott in Hardcore, head in his hands, shouting “TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!” Well, “shut it down,” but it’s close enough.
The “it” is Guantánamo Bay. “Shutting it down” is a magical panacea that will make Arabs stop hating us and turn Iraq into Athens circa 5th century B.C. and bring Brad and Jen back together and pay for a new Jets stadium and calm the housing market. Thomas Friedman knows this because he is IN LONDON. Also, this isn’t the first time Friedman has called for the immediate closing of a political black eye. Almost exactly one year ago (May 13, 2004), he wrote that someone up top should say: “Let’s close this prison immediately and reopen it in a month as the Abu Ghraib Technical College for Computer Training — with all the equipment donated by Dell, H.P. and Microsoft.”

Yes, brilliant idea! Hey, how about the My Lai IMAX Theater! And the Wounded Knee WalMart!

jane 2:24 PM [+]

do they ever really go away?

So Richard sends me an email, saying he's been trying to call but my line is busy, and he thinks I may have a key of his. I call him & remind him of my cellphone (I don't use my landline anymore, except for the internet; I don't even have a phone plugged into it). He says, oh, he doesn't have that number. I say, yes, you do, I sent it to you, probably twice. Anyway.... he says he's locked himself out of his car by accident, and that he thinks he left a copy of his car key at my place. O yes, I do recall that, cursing myself for not having more thoroughly divested myself.

He stopped by, got key (I handed it to him at the door, not inviting him in), we had awkward conversation ("Soo.... the Canadians didn't have an election?" "Nope...." "OK...."), he left.

Solution to life's troubles? My rapidly-emptying bottle of Macallan 12-year. Cheers!

--
Followup: Huh. Check out this post from (just over) a year ago. does it remind me of richard? -- not so much. Does it make me go, "shit, I need to e-mail Parviz about this year's ancient & medieval conference; I need to get those abstracts together!!!" -- yes. Is that skewed priorities?

jane 3:33 PM [+]

OK, I couldn't resist passing this one on

After the heartfelt Canada-defending and Polish poetry-posting yesterday, how I can I resist but to make sure that you all know about the Nick and Jessica Breakup Watch blog.

Now you can happily live.

Meanwhile, the folks at Blogebrity clearly have way too much time on their hands. (unlike me, for instance.)

And in other news, flipping down the Gothamist, I found a link to the Torontoist. I've been reading NYC & Washington DC blogs regularly but haven't, actually, been reading Canuck blogs. Anyway, here's the crucial question: do we know any of these people? (link to their 'about' page, which lists writers etc.)

jane 3:05 PM [+]

Something else Doug gave me

Sorry, Doug, have to share this one:

By Wislawa Szymborska:

An Opinion on the Question of Pornography

There's nothing more debauched than thinking.
This sort of wantonness runs wild like a wind-borne weed
on a plot laid out for daisies.

Nothing's sacred for those who think.
Calling things brazenly by name,
risqué analyses, salacious syntheses,
frenzied, rakish chases after the bare facts,
the filthy fingering of touchy subjects,
discussion in heat--it's music to their ears.

In broad daylight or under cover of night
they form circles, triangles, or pairs.
The partners' age or sex is unimportant.
Their eyes glitter, their cheeks are flushed.
Friend leads friend astray.
Degenerate daughters corrupt their fathers.
A brother pimps for his little sister.

They prefer the fruits
from the forbidden tree of knowledge
to the pink buttocks found in glossy magazines--
all that ultimately simple-hearted smut.
The books they relish have no pictures.
What variety they have lies in certain phrases
msrked with a thumbnail or a crayon.

It's shocking, the positions,
the unchecked simplicity with which
one mind contrives to fertilize another!
Such positions the Kama Sutra itself doesn't know.

During these trysts of theirs, the only thing that's steamy is the tea.
People sit on their chairs and move their lips.
Everyone crosses only his own legs
so that one foot is resting on the floor
while the other dangles freely in midair.
Only now and then does somebody get up,
go to the window,
and through a crack in the curtains
take a peep out at the street.

[ From View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska
Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
"A Harvest Original" Harcourt & Brace & Co. New York 1993 ]

jane 2:39 PM [+]

As Doug says, interesting use of the word 'was'

Clifford Krauss (of whom I've been unable to find a bio, despite extensive googling; he's the Times' regular Canada writer, and I'm always frustrated reading his articles -- generally correct on facts, but eerily off on tone), writing in the NY Times, asks, Was Canada Just Too Good to Be True?. (Thanks to Doug the Jesuit for forwarding me the article).

I just wanted to say a few things about it.

First, from something near the end of the piece:

The discussion over what exactly is Canada's identity - and whether its favored definition is perhaps a piece of Liberal propaganda - is beginning to emerge in the political debate between the struggling Liberals and the challenging Conservatives.

The discussion about Canada's identity is beginning to emerge? What!? Beginning? We've been talking about this for aeons.

Second -- he suggests that Canadians have blinkers on about the problems in our country: racism, the treatment of members of the First Nations, protectionism/free trade, the nature of our commitment to Kyoto, the status of our health care system, etc., etc., etc. I doubt that the Canadians who pay attention to politics/society at all (i.e., those who might read the NY Times) have great illusions about the problems we face.

Of course, quite a few nations have an embellished sense of righteousness, not least among them, many would say, Canada's southern neighbor. But perhaps no other country puts such a high premium on its own virtue than does Canada.

"That's why the sponsorship scandal stings as much as it does," said Janice Stein, director of the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto. With a touch of irony, she added, "We're not like this; we're nice and good."

The recent spectacle of scandal and tawdry politics has some Canadians now wondering if all the self-congratulatory virtue is not mixed with some old-fashioned hypocrisy, or what Robert Fulford, a leading literary journalist and columnist characterizes as "a fable" expounded by generations of Liberal leaders.

"During recent decades our politicians have told us a sweet bedtime story about Canada being an exceptionally compassionate country, a world leader in multiculturalism and wonderfully generous to the poor countries," Mr. Fulford said. "All of this expresses something called 'Canadian values.' All lies."

Would any Canadian who regularly read the paper really think that we actually live up to this ideal? Of course Canadians are hypocrites. Everyone's a hypocrite; who actually lives up to their ideals? Politics is always betrayal (thanks, Levinas and Derrida). Politics always involves giving up some things for others, weighing, calculating, etc. Canadian politics are no different. And is anyone surprised if a party that has been in power for aeons has some corruption going on? Actually, to restate: is anyone surprised if any organized human endeavour has some corruption going on? (the public sector is far from having a monopoly on corruption, contrary to what my father might think)

The problem with this article is that it lays out the areas in which Canada's ideals and its practices fail to connect -- our real treatment of the environment, immigrants, etc., etc., etc. -- as if these areas come as a surprise to thinking Canadians. We know these problems. We're working on them. We also know that we don't look so stellar on the peacekeeper front either. Yes. Krauss's article suggests that there is an unseemly reality behind a goody-goody mask. But anyone who knows Canada knows about the reality -- or at least that, of course, that goody-goody image is too good to be true.

Of course it's too good to be true. It would be too good for any country. We're a struggling, recently-formed democracy -- how could there be anything but problems? Further, anyone looking carefully at group of human beings professing some ideal will see the ways in which they fail to live up to that ideal (e.g., look at the power politics & abuses that go on within lefty activist circles).

It's as if, in an article about America, someone said that "Americans are beginning to have doubts about their status as perfect emblem of freedom and democracy." Of course Americans have doubts about that -- even the conservatives I know. Any Canadians who honestly believed that Canada was as perfect as its politicians orate are as dumb as Americans who believe everything Bush says in the State of the Union address. And frankly, I don't care what they think. And besides, they wouldn't read Krauss's article anyway.

Krauss concludes his article thus:

At a recent Liberal party convention, Mr. Martin pledged that "our most important commitment to the Canadian people was our pledge to protect and defend the values that define us: Liberal values, Canadian values." To which Stephen Harper, the Conservative leader, shot back at a rally of his own: "Corruption is not a Canadian value."

No, of course it isn't. Corruption isn't something you value, it's something that happens when human beings in an organization let their guard down and start thinking that something might be OK, no one would get hurt, as long as they don't get caught -- and the process snowballs. Are the Liberals genuinely committed to the same values as the Conservatives or the NDP are? I won't even try to answer that (it would probably take a book), but I will say that I do believe that (most) people who enter politics do so in genuine willingness to serve their nation, and (for the most part) do the best they think they can, and that humans are fallible and corruptible, and that we should try to work together as best we can, believing good of each other. We won't get far by writing off whole swaths of the political spectrum as monolithically corrupt/evil. That's no way to move forward.

I think that living up to your values, whether collectively as a country or individually as a person, is something that doesn't come easily, but that you can work on & ultimately get better at. (This is something my friend Doug explains really well, in the context of his Jesuit vows).

Krauss's primary mistake was in his use of the past tense: "Was Canada Just Too Good to Be True?". No country was. No country is. But maybe, maybe, maybe, Canada might someday become closer to the vision its ideals articulate. That's what we can hope for. That's what we can work toward. And dammit, I like those ideals.

jane 1:09 PM [+]

I may have acquired a cat...

My friend Ana took in a stray that was crying outside -- sounds like she was in heat. Anyway, since Ana has two cats she doesn't want the stray to stay with her (we think it may actually just be a lost cat, since she seems pretty domesticated & affectionate). So she's staying with me for now. She's on my lap, purring. She looks just like my old cat (now my mom's cat), Stacey.

Anyway, I've named her Trouble, and I'm trying not to get involved...

jane 3:11 PM [+]

Gloat, gloat, gloat

Check out this free show coming up:

Celebrate Canada Day with Music: Stars, New Pornographers, The Sadies

_Saturday, June 25, 7:30 pm
_Celebrate Brooklyn!
_Prospect Park
_Info: (718) 855-7882, ext. 45

Celebrate Brooklyn! and the Canadian Consulate General begin the
lead-up to July 1, Canada`s birthday, with this all-star, indie-rock
mini-festival of Canadian bands. Stars are at the forefront of a
sizzling Montreal music scene, and their critically acclaimed new
album, Set Yourself on Fire, is currently setting the music world
ablaze with its brainy, baroque melodicism. New Pornographers
(featuring Neko Case on vocals) is a supergroup of pop-music wizards
from Vancouver. Their most recent stateside release, Electric Version,
an album of summery melodic flourishes and sugary hooks, has been
celebrated as a power-pop masterstroke by American critics. The Sadies,
a kind of jam-band hybrid of spaghetti (south)western sounds and
sixties groove rock, are a thrilling live band, just right to kick off
this great night of Canadian music.

Admission is free.

How very very lovely.

jane 10:55 AM [+]

Well, that was a close vote, eh?

Whew.

jane 8:14 PM [+]

Stronach and Mackay 'take a break!'

From CP, via Yahoo news,

Stronach, MacKay taking `a break’ as news of defection rocks Parliament

1 hour, 46 minutes ago

OTTAWA (CP) - Belinda Stronach has left not only the Conservative party but also one of the most closely watched romances in Canada.

Sources say her stunning bolt to the Liberals comes as she and Conservative Deputy Leader Peter MacKay take a break from their relationship.

The high-profile pair announced in January that they were dating.

MacKay was holed up in his Parliament Hill office, refusing to comment.

Stronach says she has great respect for MacKay's effort to soften hardline Conservative views on social issues.

She says she didn't feel comfortable aligning herself with the Bloc Quebecois to defeat the big-spending Liberal budget.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says MacKay is devastated by Stronach's decision.

Sources say MacKay only learned of Stronach's intentions just before they were made public Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Harper's being kind of mean about it, saying it's only her own ambition driving her, not the good of the country, going on to say

Harper said Stronach's fellow MPs "are feeling quite devastated, quite betrayed by this" – especially Peter MacKay, who has been romantically involved with Stronach for about six months.

"I think Peter's taken this pretty badly, as you can imagine."

Meanwhile, the vote count gets closer.

jane 3:06 PM [+]

The craziest things come up on the internet...

Ah, the internet. Home of truth and, um, truth. I laughed out loud at this article about the evil Jesuit conspiracy.

It's an interview with some crazy guy - the interviewer says, "You, literally, link every major global conflict and political assassination to the hands of the Jesuit Order. The Jews, as with many other groups you mention, have been the unwitting pawns in this Jesuit Agenda." Anyway, it's pretty far-out.

E.g.:

So, you have the alignment with the Jesuit Order and the most powerful Freemason they had in the craft, Fredrick the Great, during their suppression. That is an irrefutable conclusion. And then, when you see the Napoleonic Wars, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars carried out by Freemasonry, everything Napoleon did, and the Jacobins, whatever they did, completely benefited the Jesuit Order.

It’s to this end that Alexander Dumas wrote his The Count Of Monte Cristo. The Count is the Jesuit General. Monte=Mount, Cristo=Christ. The Count of the Mount of Christ. Alexander Dumas was talking about the Jesuit General getting vengeance when the Jesuits were suppressed, and many of them were consigned to an island, three hours sailing, West, off the coast of Portugal. And so, when the Jesuits finally regained their power, they punished all of the monarchs of Europe who had suppressed them, drove them from their thrones, including the Knights of Malta from Malta, using Napoleon.

And Alexander Dumas, who fought for the Italian patriots in 1848, to free Rome from the temporal power of the Pope, wrote many books and one of the books was to expose this, and that was The Count Of Monte Cristo.

So, when you read that book, bear in mind that it’s really a satire on the Jesuit Order regaining their power in France. The Count of Monte Cristo has an intelligence apparatus that can’t be beat. Well, that’s the Jesuit Order.

But the Count doesn’t get what he really ought to have, or his last wish, and that’s the love of woman. He gains back all of his political power; he gains back everything he lost; but he doesn’t have the love of a woman. And THAT is the Jesuit Order. They have no women. They have no love of a woman. Because to have a wife, to have a woman, means you have an allegiance to your wife and family, and you cannot obey the General. That’s why they will NEVER be married, and that’s one of the great KEYS to their success.

They can betray a nation and walk away. They can betray all the Irish Catholics getting on the Titanic, and walk away. They can betray us in Vietnam and walk away. They can betray us every time we go to the hospital and get radiated and cut and drugged, and walk away, because it’s “for the greater glory of God”—Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: the greater glory of the god who sits in Rome.

or this tidbit --

So, hey, let’s just take it the whole way. Let’s just go right to the Jesuit Order. And what the Jesuits did with the Cold War, with their Inquisition in the East, they carry out with their war on the American people in the West, with their Medical Inquisition—cut, burn, and drug. And that’s what it is.

Personally, I have my own home where I use ozone oxygen. I use ultraviolet blood irradiation. I can show you how ultraviolet blood irradiation incapacitates Lupus. It destroys Hepatitis. It destroys Meningitis. It destroys HIV.

This is a very simple procedure; I do it every day. It can easily be done by any medical doctor, and they won’t do it. Because, when you kill off the virus, you don’t have the diseases. You are thwarting what they wanted to do with their vaccinations and immunizations.

That’s why they want to make a law. That’s why that filthy Ted Kennedy, that Knight of Columbus, wants all these vaccinations and immunizations—when it should be a religious tenet of everyone: “It’s against my religious convictions to put foreign pathogens into my bloodstream. It’s going to make me sick by the time I’m 40. It’s going to give me plaque build-up and heart-disease. I’m not going to do it.”

In the meantime, they’re suppressing all the things that reverse it: soft lasers, hyperbaric chambers, ultraviolet blood irradiation, oxygen ozone, north-pole magnetic therapy. All the things working together that would easily reverse it, they suppress, and consider it a crime. Make sense?

and here too...

In any event, Clinton was trained by the Jesuits of Georgetown. He was the class president of his junior year, I believe. His senior year, he was not re-elected because the student body said he was “too close to the Jesuit faculty”.

So, he was groomed by the Jesuits to be a powerful political leader. He was put in place in Arkansas, runs that scam there, while he’s Governor, in the drug trade, belonging to Rome, working with Reagan in the drug trade, and Bush. Then he’s made President.

Remember the picture of him at Georgetown, kneeling at the grave of Timothy Healy? That says it all. He is the complete and total pawn of the Jesuit Order ruling from Georgetown University. He does anything they want him to do. He hasn’t resisted a thing.

or here...

The Great and Terrible Second Thirty Years’ War was now over. Europe, Russia, North Africa, China, and Japan were “a universal wreck” thanks to the Company of Jesus. Millions of “heretics” had been “extirpated” pursuant to the Jesuit Oath and the Council of Trent. Unlike the Treaty of Westphalia ending the First Thirty Years’ War, the agents of the Jesuits controlled the negotiations at Yalta and Potsdam ending the second Thirty Years’ War.

It was time to apply the Jesuits’ Hegelian Dialectic worldwide. It would be known as “the Cold War”. The thesis and antithesis would be “the Free World in the West” verses “the Communist Block in the East”. The American Empire would head the West, and the Russian Empire would lead the East. Both sides would be financed by the Jesuits’ International Banking Cartel centered in London and New York—the Federal Reserve and Chase-Manhattan Banks in particular.

The synthesis would be the destruction of the American Empire through the so-called “ending of the Cold War”.

Yay Hegel!

I love those Jesuits.

In other news, I could not find a single google hit for "jesuit hag" -- can anyone think of a good parallel for "fag hag," for a girl who really likes hangin' with those scholastics, particularly the cute ones?

jane 2:42 PM [+]

paul, what's shakin'?

As the Labrador by-election heats up....

what's goin' on?

Oh, (in marginally other news) I had a conservative friend of mine here, who's been keeping tabs on the politics up north, tell me gleefully that not everyone is in favour of gay marriage. argh. (he has two PhDs - in philosophy and in political science - and is a lovely lovely person for the most part, and generally really great to argue politics with, but ARGH!) Bloody conservative Catholics.*

jane 9:40 PM [+]

I'm officially finished teaching for the semester

Man. I just posted my students' final grades. I am officially finished with that class. (Well, I have to send a quick email to one of my students, telling him his mark on his last paper, but I'm taking my time about that since he's never shown any initiative in coming to talk to me about it. He decided to completely check out of the last chunk of the class, and consequently got the worst mark -- a C- -- even after I graded his exam as generously as I could... I think I even gave him a mark just for spelling 'utilitarianism' correctly -- and he still got a 49 on the exam.)

Crazy, eh?

Anyway. If anyone's curious, the average grade on my final exam was a B-, which seems about right, and the average grade in the course was a B+. Folks either did really well on the exam (I gave a lot of marks in the high 90s) or really badly -- leading me to believe that it was an easy exam if you studied & knew your stuff, but that if you didn't, it was hard to fake it. That seems about right to me.

It's just crazy to think that the grade I just gave is going to go into their GPA, and that I'm a real fucking university instructor. What the fuck do I know? Just a little bit about philosophy -- aaargh.

Anyway, I still have to finish my independent study. But that's OK. I've been listening to all my old tapes -- a mix that Rob Vincent gave me back in '97, some Cure, and I think I'm going to put some Cocteau Twins that Ian Clysdale copied for me on next.

Symbolism: I was cleaning up my room. I picked up my Fall 2004 notebook (i.e., the semester of horrible breakuposity and my impossible Husserl incomplete) to put it away, and a bunch of cockroach babies (like 20!) crawled out. I killed them all, then shook the notebook, and a big fucking dead mommy cockroach fell out.

I guess that semester (and all it involved) is bloody well over at this point. I'm almost done coursework, I've finished my incomplete paper, I'm OVER Richard (SO OVER!), I'm movin' on.

Next stop: dissertation proposal, teaching Human Nature, a summer of workin' at the library & playin' guitar & dancin' & hangin'. It'll be great.

(oh yeah -- and seeing Dawn & Lisa & whoever else comes up! yay! And Megan -- see you tomorrow!!)

jane 2:16 PM [+]

OK, I really will get on with that grading... but many of these were accurate....

You Know You're From New York City When...

You say "the city" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.

You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.

You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.

Hookers and the homeless are invisible.

The subway makes sense.

You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.

You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple".

The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.

You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a yard.

You consider Westchester "upstate".

You think Central Park is "nature."

You see nothing odd about the speed of an auctioneer's speaking.

You're paying $1,200 for a studio the size of a walk-in closet and you think it’s a "steal."

You've been to New Jersey twice and got hopelessly lost both times.

You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the U.S. pay in rent.

You haven't seen more than twelve stars in the night sky since you went away to camp as a kid.

You go to dinner at 9 and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.

Your closet is filled with black clothes.

You haven't heard the sound of true absolute silence since the 80s, and when you did, it terrified you.

You pay $5 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28 cents.

You take fashion seriously.

Being truly alone makes you nervous.

You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.

Going to Brooklyn is considered a "road trip."

America west of the Hudson is still theoretical to you.

You've gotten jaywalking down to an art form.

You take a taxi to get to your health club to exercise.

Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes.

$50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.

You have a minimum of five "worst cab ride ever" stories.

You don't notice sirens anymore.

You live in a building with a larger population than most American towns.

Your doorman is Russian, your grocer is Korean your deli man is Israeli, your building super is Italian, your laundry guy is Chinese, your favorite bartender is Irish, your favorite diner owner is Greek, the watchseller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was Pakistani, your newsstand guy is Indian and your favorite falafel guy is Egyptian.

You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.

You secretly envy cabbies for their driving skills.

You think $7.00 to cross a bridge is a fair price.

Your door has more than three locks.

Your favorite movie has DeNiro in it.

You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

You run when you see a flashing "Do Not Walk" sign at the intersection.

You're 35 years old and don't have a driver's license.

You ride in a subway car with no air conditioning just because there are seats available.

You're willing to take in strange people as roommates simply to help pay the rent.

There is no North and South. It's uptown or downtown.

When you're away from home, you miss "real" pizza and "real" bagels.

You know the differences between all the different Ray's Pizzas.

You're not in the least bit interested in going to Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Your internal clock is permanently set to know when Alternate Side of the Street parking regulations are in effect.

You know what a bodega is.

You know how to fold the New York Times in half, vertically, so that you can read it on the subway or bus without knocking off other passenger's hats.

Someone bumps into you, and you check for your wallet.....

You cringe at hearing people pronounce Houston St. like the city in Texas

Film crews on your block annoy you, not excite you.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from NYC.

(from blogthings).

And the Toronto one....

You know you're from Toronto when...

A really great parking spot can move you to tears.

You can recommend about 3 good body piercing parlours.

You make well over $100,000 and you still can't find a nice place to live.

You realize there are far more rainbow flags in the city than Canadian Flags.

When the temperature rises above zero degrees, you yell "Woohooo! Patio weather!"

You enjoy watching channel 47 multicultural TV

You're guaranteed to know at least one person on every episode of Speaker's Corner.

You haven't been to the CN Tower since you were six, but still have nightmares about that damn turbo elevator.

You've had at least 3 bicycles stolen in the past 10 years.

You've partied with at least one of the members of The Kids in the Hall

You've fantasized about having sex in Casa Loma

At least 3 of your friends have moved to Vancouver

You turn your nose up at any establishment frequented by the S&M crowd. (Scarborough and Mississauga)

You never, never, never swim in the lake

You know "The Beaches" are really called "The Beach", but still say "The Beaches" just to annoy all the nitwits who live there

You ever had a birthday party at the Organ Grinder or The Mad Hatter

You can say "world's tallest freestanding structure" ten times fast

You know the correct answer to "Where do shopping carts go to die?" is "The Don River"

You speak better Chinese than French

The word "cabbagetown" doesn't strike you as particularily amusing

Castle Frank subway station remains one of the great mysteries of the universe for you.

You know what the bathrooms in the First Canadian Place are REALLY for

You don't know where Fort York is, but have a vague recollection of being there in a past life

You know the Demic's song "I Wanna Go To New York City" was intended as sarcasm, not a weekend getaway suggestion

You know where to find Dim Sum, Sushi, Curry, Pad Thai and a dildo at 3 am on a weeknight

For the last time, it's pronounced 'TRONNA'!

You consider eye contact a sign of hostility and an invasion of your privacy.

It takes you half an hour to get to work by TTC and you are the envy of all your friends.

You mourned the death of the Spadina Bus.

You know someone who went to high school with at least one member of The Barenaked Ladies or RUSH

You laugh heartily at people who refer to highway four hundred and one.

You've taken the vomit comit.

You can manuver your bike across Queen st. without getting caught in the streetcar tracks.

You know the difference between souvlaki, moussaka and spanakoptia.

You can name at least three locations of The Beer Store that are open till 11 PM.

You have NEVER been to the Hard Rock Cafe

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Toronto.

jane 7:38 PM [+]

while I procrastinate....or grade... QUIZZES!

Well, I'm going to take a break from my independent study paper in order to keep grading exams (yee-haw), so here are some quizzes to amuse y'all:

My results for this one aren't surprising:

Your Political Profile

Overall: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

My result here is kind of neat... maybe I SHOULD have gone to Northwestern...

American Cities That Best Fit You:

80% Chicago

75% New York City

75% Philadelphia

60% Boston

60% Washington, DC

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

The keys to my heart... I don't know... I always thought I was just after a cute lefty Texan...

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was insecure and in constant need of reassurance.

Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it.

In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Mmm, normal....

You Are 45% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Hey, I'm four years older than I am!

You Are 29 Years Old

29 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

jane 7:05 PM [+]

doug thinks he is pollock
Originally uploaded by Little Miss Hegelian.

In this photo, Doug thinks that he is Pollock, which is hilarious of course to me, given that the existence of a real Doug Pollock in Ottawa. (yes, you should all ask, what is with jane and dougs? she's dated two and this one, the jesuit one, is also lovely).

Ah, flickr is fun.

jane 10:40 AM [+]

We are philistines
Originally uploaded by Little Miss Hegelian.

Yes, we are philistines, standing in front of this Jackson Pollock like idiots, but that was Doug's desire, and so we were obliged to comply. Left to right is Eleanor, Jane, and Reuben, still in his lovely tie.

How I love free fridays at the Museum of Modern Art. We can run around like idiots and children and so forth.

And yes, you're allowed to take photos, you just can't use a flash.

jane 10:38 AM [+]

doug is looking at my knitting reuben smiles
Originally uploaded by Little Miss Hegelian.

Eleanor took this at the MoMA last weekend. I'm just testing out my ability to have photos. Isn't Reuben's tie lovely? I'm knitting in this photo (that's what Doug is looking at), but the knitting is alas not in the frame. It was really fun carrying my knitting all around the museum... knitting in unexpected places is unexpectedly enjoyable

jane 10:36 AM [+]

and in other news,

It was lovely to see Sarah here in the lovely NYC. She and Meredith and I did it up in style. Huzzah! Sarah got to meet the famous Josh, Reuben, and Doug the Jesuit; we strolled all over town after a lovely brunch at the Pink Pony on Ludlow on the Lower East Side(one of my new favourite hangouts because of the excellent bottomless cup of coffee, and the cute people who frequent it).

I'll leave it there for now.

In still other news -- I just found out yesterday -- Richard is dating someone he met at a party with my friend Ana. Fortunately it's no-one at Fordham. So that's OK. I think I'm basically fine with it. Or just numb. It just seems weird that he's been dating for a few weeks and I didn't know. But hey! Whatever.

I'm going knitting tonight at Knit New York on East 14th st, with my officemate's girlfriend and some of her friends. Yay knitting!

jane 10:07 AM [+]

HELP!

Please send me advice on how to remove paint from my favourite black shirt (from H&M, with cool stripy sleeves and a great collar). I was walking to the library, and stopped to finish the last of my coffee. I leaned against a lamppost, listening to Tegan & Sara on my iPod, sipping coffee, lost in thought. Suddenly I looked down at my sleeve and thought, "oh, no, Fordham, you've cursed me again." There was no "Wet Paint" sign, but the lamppost had just been freshly painted green.

So I have a green sleeve. I don't know exactly what kind of paint it is -- outdoor paint, blah blah blah. All over the whole sleeve.

This seemed to be the best advice, and I suppose I'll try it (the shirt is pretty much ruined, since it's a dressy enough shirt that I can't just ignore the paint stains), but anything you guys can suggest will be very very welcome. I'm still at school, so I'm not in a position to quickly take off my shirt & start scrubbing.

jane 10:02 AM [+]

I [heart] NY

Yesterday. Went down to Battery Park with my friend Josh (who may eventually read this). Sat around drinkin' coffee & watchin' the tourists, including one mop-headed boy. (Seriously. A mop.)

Eventually started walkin' up through Battery Park City, where all the folks were out sunning themselves and playing volleyball. Then walked through Tribeca and SoHo, through the hordes in town for the festival.

We sat outside on a bar-cafe-restaurant on West Houston St., right between Thompson and Sullivan. The bar's name was Jane. Yay! Josh had a yummy, spicy bloody mary and I had champagne. It was delicious. I looked at the light flowing through it and sipped and tasted the sun. My mom called, and as I was talking to her on my cellphone, champagne in my other hand, Willem Dafoe walked by. Neat.

We kept walking. Walked up through the West Village, then sat for a bit in Washington Square Park, where we watched some skateboarders.

We kept walking, up University, past Union Square, over to 5th Ave, then back over through Gramercy Park, where we passed on awesome building (81 Irving Place) with crazy gargoyles. (through Gramercy Park neighbourhood; not the park itself, to which only residents of the area get keys.)

We kept walking. We passed a cozy-looking bar that had fifteen minutes left on its happy hour and $4 pints of Guinness. We stopped in; the bartender was a cute girl with long black hair; we each had a pint (Josh had Stella; obviously I had Guinness); we left; we kept walking.

We kept walking, up through Murray Hill, over along 34th St., past the Empire State building, stopped into the H&M at Herald Square (I bought a nice red shirt), turned and walked up Broadway.

We kept walking, up through Times Square, yes I ate McDonalds, and while waiting outside for Josh (who'd stopped into the men's room), saw mop-headed boy again. Yes, the same one.

We kept walking up Broadway, then over on 55th to 9th Ave in Hell's Kitchen, past bars, then over to 12th and the West Side Highway, saw the HUGE Con-Ed Steam plant between 58th & 59th, that provides the subway system with power. Massive building. We walked back over to West End Ave., then ultimately back to Broadway.

We kept walking, up Broadway, but all the liquor stores were closed since it was 9.30 pm on a Sunday, and the streets were relatively quiet.

We kept walking, then stopped in for a cup of coffee at a 24 hour place at 85th or so.

We kept walking.

We kept walking.

We went to a grocery store for beer and cookies and a drug store for more allergy meds.

Natalia, we walked past Smoke, at 106th st.

We walked back down a couple blocks to Josh's.

Exhausted, we sat and drank beer, then went to sleep.

We walked Manhattan.

jane 2:24 PM [+]