More news

So it turns out that I only need two signatures for my proposal, which means they can approve it next week, fucking finally. So that's great. Also great is that my DGS and my committee got together to scrape together some funding for me for the fall!!! It warms my cockles to think that they just went and did it. Also, I turned in a draft of my introduction.

So now, the writing must really begin. 

Also, kudos to Sam for being so supportive by watching some Stan Laurel with me. Thanks, baby.

To chortle

When I read scholarly texts, my standards for what is funny become much lower. Anything resembling humor becomes a welcome relief. Take Gerald Edelman's rendering of an apparently old "joke":

A race track . . . was failing financially. The track management consulted three experts: an accountant, an engineer, and a physicist. The accountant recommended restructuring of the balance sheets; the engineer suggested that the slow track could be fixed by slight banking and better drainage. When his turn came, the physicist went up to the blackboard, drew a circle, and said, "Let us replace the horse with a sphere."

The joke structure is there: A reasonable premise—racetracks fail, I guess. An unusual assortment of people—who calls a physicist for advice anyway? The progression—first one, then another, then the [and I use this term loosely] punchline. 

I admit that it made me chortle, which word by the way Lewis Carroll coined, as a combination of chuckle and snort. I guess some logicians are funnier than others.

New Outside Reader

On a dissertation committee in my department, you must have 3 departmental readers and 1 reader outside the department. My current outside reader is a poor soul in the Art Department, but my project has evolved to the extent that it is well afield of what this woman knows.

So what's a person to do? Reach out. I wrote an email to the author of my currently favorite scholarly text and asked him to be my reader. And, folks, he said yes!

I'm not especially good at this sort of thing, so I'm pretty excited that Dr. Singer agreed to participate. He said that my project "looks very interesting," and he thinks that it'll possibly help him prepare for a course he wants to teach. All to the good. 

Picture pages

The baby

We have a 7.5-week-old baby cat. [Picture to come.] I'm pretty sure that he's a boy, not that it really matters. He's fast asleep on his back, head lolling carelessly, in my lap. I know that all kittens are cute, if only by virtue of being tiny, but this kitten is no bigger than a coffee cup. Every visible part of him is gray, except his pea-sized pawpads and the inside of his ears. He's brave and curious, and he tends to fall off of his perch when he's trying to pounce on something that moves. 

We were going to name him The Artful Dodger, but although he dodges sometimes, he is in no way artful about it. So his new name is T.S. 

Nora gets really excited about him, and they're on the verge of cuddling while sleeping. Jane is taking the addition remarkably well. She hisses and growls when he gets too close, but she doesn't generally take swipes at him. 

The problem is, as I see it, he's so fucking cute that it's hard to get work done. He's either trying to play with the pen I'm using, or he's purring loudly in his sleep. It's a real problem. Thanks, Sam.