"I think if Barack Obama really wants to bring the country together, he needs to incorporate as many Wire references as possible into his inaugural address." Yes, yes, yes.
Some blogs went BIG time in October. See Perez's and 538's numbers.
Just ran into a mom at Starbucks who told me that she was just part of the latest layoffs from Hertz. Her husband is a contractor and nobody is calling. They are going to have to go on Cobra soon. Ugh. Layoffs are increasing in the New York metro area.
A tenured professor leaves academia. Read why.

Just ran into a mom at Starbucks who told me that she was just part of the latest layoffs from Hertz. Her husband is a contractor and nobody is calling. They are going to have to go on Cobra soon.
Good for them, though, for saving enough when they had 2 incomes that they can still afford fancy treats when down to .5 incomes.
Posted by: Siobhan | November 03, 2008 at 07:32 PM
No. She was walking by and saw me working at Starbucks. She came in just to say hi.
Posted by: laura | November 03, 2008 at 07:42 PM
"She was walking by and saw me working at Starbucks. She came in just to say hi."
New job, Laura? I'm guessing you mean you were working on your laptop?
I've never understood why there's this dark tendency to blame people who are in pain. Kind of meshes with the California Repubs filing a complaint against Obama's visit to his grandma simultaneously with her death.
Posted by: bj | November 03, 2008 at 10:10 PM
The tenured professor might have helped his case more if he didn't sound exactly like every other burnt-out mid-forties professor for the past forty years.
I mean, maybe his complaints have merit and maybe they don't, but his rhetoric makes it impossible for me to take him seriously.
Speaking of rhetoric, I don't know whether snideness or judgmentalism is more tiresome. But both of them bore me to tears.
Posted by: Jody | November 03, 2008 at 10:50 PM
Even better!
Posted by: Siobhan | November 04, 2008 at 09:06 AM
I am outside the academy but the tenured professor's comments about kids graduating unprepared for the workplace totally resonated with me. Am I the only one? Or does that also make me burnt out? (I'm asking this seriously.)
Posted by: jen | November 04, 2008 at 10:32 AM
Seriously, I don't think you've given us an either-or choice.
Posted by: MH | November 04, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Jen, I'd love to hear more about what you're thinking about kids graduating without skills. I work at what is considered a "career-oriented" university, and I don't teach "regular" English classes in that I try to avoid saying "Hey, kids, let's write a compare-contrast essay," or "Wow, look at that use of meter in Eliot's poetry." I saw this article recently--what do you think? Is he right?
Posted by: Wendy | November 04, 2008 at 11:54 AM