I lost my grading virginity today by failing one student paper. The moment was unfortunate because the student lost the majority of their points by ignoring the assignment basics: page length, use all 6 artifacts etc. I had to remind myself that such papers are bound to come in and that it is the student, not me, who is responsible for the failing paper. My sentimental side, of course, hopes that the student will take the opportunity to re-write the paper and talk to me. We shall see.

You will simply have to read to find out what a picture of INXS in doing here.

Two Olympic moments: Forced by network coverage to watch the women’s moguls events, I realized that I may in fact still have some attraction for the blond blue-eyed variety. I thought only darker brunets could catch my eye but one skier [insert cheesy skiing reference here] with my heart—or that part of it that is connected to my hormonal reactions. After completing a run that put her in first place, this Norwegian skier simply put one hand up, unlike every other shmuck who raised both hands and jumped around after their own runs. The Norwegian then calmly takes off her goggles and smiles with an intoxicatingly sexy confidence, while also effortlessly showing off her uncanny resemblance to a young Sharon Stone.

“I need to get me a Norwegian…”

or as Renuka said after playing with Mary’s kids for a few minutes… “I love kids with blue eyes….must mate with Caucasian.”

Indeed…


The second Olympic moment comes from the Men’s speed skating event (5000m); an American, a Texan no less, won the event and deservedly so. His reaction, however, irritated me and, quite unintentionally, contrasts sharply with everything I appreciated in the Norwegian Sharon Stone. The expression was all too classically male: fist clenched and pumping, mouth wide open in a roar, hailing the crowd for applause et al.

“Look, you can see my gigantic [thighs] through this fully body condom I wear…look…aren’t they enormous…YEAH!!”

Honestly, the first thought that came to mind was to have the man tested for drug use.

I reject any notion that this is all that can be expected simply because there have been great Olympians in the past, Dan Jansen comes to mind, who were tearful after their world record setting victory runs. I both admire and attribute the latter reaction to a greater sense of the moment’s gravity, a collision between a sense of their location in the continuum of (Olympic) history, the realization that this is the manifestation of a life devoted to the abstract (a dream) and the pinnacle from which only one direction is possible, down.

Perhaps they just don’t have the same size [thighs] these guys do.

Last thought (the payoff): When do you know that you’ve become something of a hyperacademic?

1)You write a post like the one from yesterday and find it ridiculously funny, which in turn makes other people give you a strange look and wince when you ask them to read your blog.
2)A friend mentions the 80s band INXS and this is the first thought that comes to mind: Perhaps they were aware of their own implication within the capitalist mode and attempted to foreground the “excess” labor that comprises capitalist wealth.

You know foh shizzy that you’ve fallen off when that happens…