A couple of good things happened yesterday.  First,through the glory of Ebay I received my small marble bust of Ludwig Schwanthaler (picked up in lieu of this beautiful but wicked thing). 

Also Friday, I successfully defended my dissertation.  This turned out to be a really interesting and pleasant experience.  After a bit of proofreading and some very minor changes, I should be able to deposit the diss sometime next month.

Father John FitzGerald, who I’ve mentioned here before passed away a little more than a week ago.  I knew him only slightly, and yet he influenced me in ways that are difficult to categorize, and he’ll will remain a point of reference in my life more prominent than I suspect he’d ever have guessed.  I miss him, even though I haven’t seen him in years.  My thanks to the person who emailed me to let me know.

His funeral mass and burial is scheduled for tomorrow.

I’ve been wondering why so many of my students have been stretching out their papers by adding an extra line between the paragraphs of their essays.  Turns out, it hasn’t been their fault at all:

In Microsoft Office Word 2007, the default line spacing for most Quick Styles sets is 1.15, with slightly more space following each paragraph. The default line spacing for Office Word 2003 documents is 1.0.

Why, for the love of small innocent puppies–WHY?

Microsoft will surely reap a Kama whirlwind for this one.  Sheesh.

Doing some marathon grading today, sitting in Merry Ann’s. Some good fellow just put “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on the jukebox.  Too cool.

See also: The Barefoot Contessa!  And: etc.

Stanley Fish has his opinions.  But Regina Spektor and Pele beg to differ.

The Why Democracy project seems to be asking the right questions, and others are too.  It’s no Global Parliament, but Avaaz.org (whose backers include Moveon.org and SEIU) is up and running, doing its best to whisper in the voice of the multitude.

See also.

…have you checked the MLA JIL list yet? 

As usual, jobs may be scarce for literary academics; however as Naomi Klein points out, the economy continues to offer some vibrantly growing sectors.

I just turned on the TV.  I heard the following exchange, beginning in the brief moment before the old tube-style screen was fully illuminated.

Audience member: Martha, I’d like to ask you, what is your favorite gardening hand-tool?

Martha:  Humm.  I think I’d have to say the Japanese hand-hoe.

I’m thinking it’s going to be a lovely day.

The attack conducted by units of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on the city of Nablus in April 2002 was described by its commander, Brigadier-General Aviv Kokhavi, as ‘inverse geometry’, which he explained as ‘the reorganization of the urban syntax by means of a series of micro-tactical actions’.1 During the battle soldiers moved within the city across hundreds of metres of ‘overground tunnels’ carved out through a dense and contiguous urban structure. Although several thousand soldiers and Palestinian guerrillas were manoeuvring simultaneously in the city, they were so ‘saturated’ into the urban fabric that very few would have been visible from the air. Furthermore, they used none of the city’s streets, roads, alleys or courtyards, or any of the external doors, internal stairwells and windows, but moved horizontally through walls and vertically through holes blasted in ceilings and floors. This form of movement, described by the military as ‘infestation’, seeks to redefine inside as outside, and domestic interiors as thoroughfares. The IDF’s strategy of ‘walking through walls’ involves a conception of the city as not just the site but also the very medium of warfare – a flexible, almost liquid medium that is forever contingent and in flux…

(via)

As rated by Radar.

What, no Northwestern?

Ok, there was a particularly odd moment in one Bloom/Rose interview, which I’d wanted to show to y’all.  However I can’t find it. Let it therefore suffice to point out that Mr. Rose has made a great many of his interviews available on-line, and that you may therefore wish to have a look at Charlie’s archives.