You would think this would be obvious, yet it continually eludes my roommate. It takes about 30 seconds to check the arrangement of the silverware before you close up the dishwasher to turn it on....

I find that what is "obvious" about loading the dishwasher or washer/dryer is very different to different people. And people are very stubborn about their system.

I can't believe I've been here since November 1992! It's very strange.

My business statistics prof pissed me off, since he was the only teacher I had in college who took advantage of Marquette's policy of class cutting--if the prof reports you after five cuts, you got a warning from the dean, six and you get booted from the class. I hated the class and him anyway and so had cut it four times by late October, when my grandpa really did pass away. I told him earlier in the week that I'd be missing the Thursday class for the funeral, and he just scoffed and said, "Yeah? And how many grandfathers do you have?" I looked at him and calmly informed that I wasn't lying and could prove it with the prayer card the following week, and he tried to be all "Well, if he really did die, I'm sorry to hear that," but I didn't buy it (he was a real asshole). And then, he did report me to the dean for that fifth cut! Jerk.

On the 'probably not so sad' side, we are in the midst of midterm exams, so we are experiencing the usual mysterious epidemic of grandparent deaths.

My grandmother did die during my midterm exams my sophomore year of college. But I'm pretty sure my professors could tell I wasn't lying, and I came to my exams anyway because it took my mind off things and they didn't conflict with the funeral.

do you think students have gotten worse about taking advantage of their professors?

I think college/graduate school has come to be seen as a commercial transaction, i.e., students feel like they're paying lots of money and thus buying a degree rather than earning one. As if they feel they're paying my salary and thus the boss of me, more so than I felt 12 years ago when I started working for universities.

My niece is going to be Cinderella [link] for Halloween and I'm thinking of sending a costume for my nephew. What could be be that would coordinate? A mouse? A horse?

Whenever my daughter pretends to be Cinderella, my son usually opts for being "the mean stepsister with the RED hair!" His second favorite character is Gus Gus the mouse (I think he likes saying the name).

Rick, any other professors out there, do you think students have gotten worse about taking advantage of their professors?

I'd tend to say they aren't worse now, but it's a lot more annoying to deal with it from this end. I have heard of some real PITAs, usually from the cheaters and plagiarists categories.

Rick, any other professors out there, do you think students have gotten worse about taking advantage of their professors?

Definitely worse. But it's more the attitude that they should be able to get out of stuff for a whole multitude of reasons (sister's cousin's dog's funerals, traffic court, interviews, etc.) that really bugged me.

My dad is convinced his students are getting stupider. Or at least, they start college less prepared than they used to.

I think generally there's a growing sense of entitlement which doesn't exactly butter my muffins.

they start college less prepared than they used to.

This is definitely true. A regular part of my job was teaching students how to write (not just how to write in French). And I don't mean nuances, I mean things like "you should have paragraphs".

I think college/graduate school has come to be seen as a commercial transaction, i.e., students feel like they're paying lots of money and thus buying a degree rather than earning one. As if they feel they're paying my salary and thus the boss of me, more so than I felt 12 years ago when I started working for universities.

I know back in the '80s when I was at Marquette, we definitely were aware of the cost of getting that degree, so we didn't feel like we had time to splurge on getting worked up about protesting, screwing around, or other ways that the Boomers spent their college time in the '60s and '70s. (And we were criticized by those Boomers for not being more combative--they said that we were lazy and/or mercenary, when we were really just trying to get through school in as short a time as possible.)

But, we were still earning the degree, not buying it from the school. The teachers were in charge, and even though I hated that stats prof, I didn't protest his decision to turn my name into the dean's office, because I was in violation of the attendance policy, so I felt I should have to pay the price, as stupid as I thought that policy was.