Well meant

The following event is upcoming on our campus:

Event: The Imposter Syndrome
Date: October 6, 2011
Time: 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Location: Guest House Meeting Room C

Description: How to Feel As Bright and Capable As Everyone Seems to Think You Are: What Every Woman and Man Needs to Know About Competence, the Impostor Syndrome, and the Art of Winging It

Now, I am thinking that if you are a person who suffers from said syndrome, the last thing you are going to want to do is enter a room full of unknown people and reveal yourself....Or is that just me?

The plagiarist sues

For anyone following the scintillating story of our now fired faculty plagiarist, Sunday's paper carried the story that he has filed a suit in 3rd district court. The suit is against a history professor named Peter Sluglett (I kid you not). Sluglett is vintage, unreconstructed Englishman of a certain type which, if you read his quotes in the article, you will have no trouble conjuring up. Here is the link:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52514204-78/bakhtiari-sluglett-plagiarism-suit.html.csp

Incase you don't have time to click over to the full version, my personal favorite Sluglett-ism in the piece is:

"After all, I didn’t write these things," he said. "He wrote them. I am no more responsible for his plagiarism than I am for starting the first world war."

It is official.

I am old. Sometime during our time abroad one of the pop stations on my car radio presets became an oldies station: 'Rewind' they call themselves and their version of oldies is to play 80s music. So just like my mum listened to her oldies stations when we were growing up, Catherine now rolls her eyes in the car when yet another Go Gos song comes blasting over the airwaves. I, however, am a pretty happy camper.

Sunday morning in Utah

One of the secret pleasures of living in Utah is the fantastic obituary tradition. The culture here is to publish lengthy and detailed accounts of a deceased's life and accomplishments, not just information on the where and when of the funeral. Sometimes, the lack of editing renders up such gems as this from Sunday's paper:

"X passed away on August 29, 2011 from an accidental drowning due to a head injury from a fall."

I am trying to picture the chain of events....

Later there is the sentence: "Eagerly learning to swim on his own by one year old." No irony intended.

Lower down the page we read about someone who "enjoyed hunting, snag fishing and art." Which made me learn what snag fishing is. So it is educational as well as amusing to spend time with the obituary section of the paper.

Rejoice! Undergraduate writing assignments are coming in!

Because I know you love them: here is an exchange between colleagues on the latest undergraduate writing gaffe:

Professor A

Homework answer: "Women bust learn to make full use of their rights and

to stop being timid or diffident."

Professor B
I never thought of Russia's social problems being linked to women not
making full use of their busts' rights.

Boy, this could revolutionize the place!

Professor A
Busts of the World, Unite!

A tale of two pictures

Recently I put a long ago purchased in Russia painting into a frame and hung in the hallway outside our bedroom. It looks like this:

Craig said it gave him the creeps but it wasn't until one of his fellow bandmates saw it and reacted so strongly that I learned it had to go. It turns out, my Russian subject bears an uncanny resemblance to Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism. Here is a portrait of him:

These two middle-aged former Mormon men told me in no uncertain terms that I just couldn't have a picture hanging in my house that EVERYONE IN UTAH will understand to be Joseph Smith. "uh huh" I kept saying, but didn't actually take the thing down. I didn't realize how dire this was until today I found my Russian in the garage. Craig felt compelled to take matters into his own hands.

Back to school

is always exhilirating (how do you spell that?). I think the kids had an ok day. Sam was exhausted as evidenced by the napping on the couch he was engaged in when I got home from work. We just got back from a marathon school supply shopping trip so each of them is now sufficiently bindered and dividered for at least a month...

They actually have a class together -- ceramics although they are in different levels. I don't know if this means they are strictly relegated to opposite sides of the room or whether there is actual sibling communication. Perhaps I will learn something as the semester goes on.

I had a great first day. It feels good to be back in the routine of teaching and just generally having the school year structure.