Monthly Archives: October 2007

Speaking of watermelon . . . Sydney snorted when I brought home a watermelon a couple of years ago and prepared to cut it open in the kitchen.  Watermelon, it seems, are best eaten outside, when sitting on the benches … Continue reading →

We ate our last watermelon today. In happier news, we dug up some sweet potatoes today. They were gigantic. Quite a few of them were over 2 lbs. apiece. One was a good foot long. So it appears that one … Continue reading →

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, three hundred dollars would buy you a really good mule.  The men in Faulkner’s stories are always swapping mules for a figure around $300.  I have gotten the impression that these men are much more … Continue reading →

When I was a kid I used to pepper my mom with questions about words I read.  For a long time she produced, incredibly, definitions as if she were a walking dictionary.  At some point my mom gracefully handled the … Continue reading →

Those of you who knew me growing up know that I come from a meat-and-potatoes family.  My dad, the one who got off work early, picked us up from school and almost immediately threw steaks or chicken on the grill … Continue reading →

This morning I went to campus early and by myself, working in the building where I would teach a few hours later.  It was so nice to have a quiet, lovely environment in which to work.  As you might guess, … Continue reading →

1)  I don’t think most students understand how difficult it is to give bad grades.  With good papers you get the joy of offering simple encouragement and ideas for taking the work further.  Who doesn’t like grading good papers?  But … Continue reading →

A recent New York Times article: Birth Control Allowed at Maine Middle School PORTLAND, Me., Oct. 17 — The Portland school board on Wednesday approved a measure allowing middle-school students to gain access to prescription birth control medications without notifying … Continue reading →

Earlier this year a Cornell student was arrested for savagely beating and pouring a bleach mixture on a dog that he was ostensibly taking care of for his friend. He was just sentenced to six-months for felony animal abuse. The … Continue reading →

Cornell has made it a practice of posting the median grades for each class online.  Not surprisingly, recent studies have shown that students are drawn to classes with higher median grades, thus encouraging grade inflation.  This is no small difference: … Continue reading →