Duncan and the Electoral Process

A moment ago I was unobtrusively microwaving my lunch (yummy leftover Indian food) in the faculty lounge.

A table of faculty were discussing "their favorite deposed dictators," and as I left one man was nodding with satisfaction while another discussed how the actual Macbeth ruled happily and the original Duncan was ousted in due process by an electoral function...

I like eavesdropping on odd conversations.

I'm a fan

My Office

Who would wear this?

Mini-Moo's?

Why don't you need to refrigerate the little cups of cream? What is this stuff?
I'm cold. Stupid fickle Chicago weather.

Sleazy movie characters and my limited visual memory

In the last week I've had two guys express interest in me only to realize later that I've replaced their faces in my memory with images of obscure, kind of sleazy-looking movie characters.

I've never had that great of a visual memory, but what does it say about me that I can remember what the parking garage attendant in Ferris Bueller's Day Off looked like but not the guy at Blockbuster I talked to yesterday? And I work with the other guy, so I see him at least once a day. Still, I replaced him with the image of the father from Pieces of April, which I saw about two years ago.

They do both kind of look like the actors (Richard Edson and Oliver Platt) but neither of them give off the greasy, sleazy vibe that the movie characters' images do. They may have made me feel a little trapped by trying so hard to be friendly, but that's awkward, not creepy. Am I screwed up?

Freeze-dried books and chocolate chip bagels

I like working at a college in the summer. Free pastries and no one's eating them but me. Why does low-fat cream cheese look like slick sour cream?

My boss is reading about an old case where one state judge in California was going to shoot another judge (in a courtroom) and was shot down by a federal marshall who thereby precipitated all sorts of state vs. federal arguments. Her favorite part is the woman who carried a gun to court every day in her purse and would stand up occasionally and say "I'm going to kill you! You know I'm going to kill you!" and no one seemed to care.

I, meanwhile, am throwing away printed out e-mails from ten years ago requesting more paper in the copy center. At this rate I'll get the whole filing system in "my office" down to two drawers instead of twelve.

Did you know that some people freeze-dry books? Midwest Freeze-Dry Ltd. can rescue books "dating to the 16th century, captain's logs from sunken ships, and insect-infested artifacts of wood and leather"

Naturally she had a chip on her shoulder, not being Lutheran.

Zimmie is not a lutefisk and does not wish to be a housekeeper for Mr. Harsano.