Yeah, Prof's immediate response is sheer asshattery.

Wow, yeah.

The thing is, if the poster were left up and professor did kill someone, then there would be a mountain of outcry that he clearly demonstrated violent tendencies, which were ignored by the authorities, etc., etc. t edit It happens every time there's a student who goes on a shooting spree -- the press gets ahold of his violent Comp 101 essays, or his blog with pictures of himself posing with Uzis, and then all hell breaks loose about the "warning signs."

The prof. sounds like a pretentious douche who thinks he's a badass. In a pacifistic way, of course.

Yay Amy and Stephen!

Hooray for The Sproggening!

Scrappy, that seems awkward.

Context matters. I had a sociology professor whose concentration was race and ethnicity in America. She had a large collection of signage "NO IRISH NEED APPLY" "WHITES ONLY" and some little black sambos she used in her classes.

Without context, seeing these things in a random professor's office might be horribly offensive.

It was remarkable to see and touch the signs and that had rust stains where they had been screwed into things or nailed. This shit is real.

I have no idea what the context was for this dude. Would he feel the same way about putting up a naked lady calendar on his door and having it removed? I wonder.

I just sent a fan email to Amanda Marcotte. She must get a lot of hate mail. Every now and again I think it's important to remember to send love mail.

Ima send some love mail to Scrappy.

Eesh, Scrappy. That is weird. Maybe Big!Boss is just tired of talking to people, and wants to talk to only one?

I just typed the phrase "See you next Tuesday" in all sincerity.

Luckily, I really like the guy I will report to and he was quick to tell me that he thinks of us as consolidating and that we are still peers. We'll see.

Ugh. Remember that scene in Mad Men where they restructured and Roger wasn't even on the Org Chart? People will say anything to your face, but they don't lie on the org chart.

Oh well, at least you have a good working relationship with this guy and it sounds like he respects you, so at least over the short term he won't be all in your business.

But stolen money is YIKES. Did they steal it out of the boats, or was it money you left with the rafting company?

I didn't need my wallet and so probably shouldn't have taken it that day, but we were told that we could leave anything in the van and it would be fine (because cameras etc. shouldn't really be taken on the whitewater portion). What we think happened is that one of the extra people they picked up to join us for the whitewater section (which was apparently a protocol breach on the company's side) saw my bag sitting there and took the opportunity to quickly reach in blindly (because they only took $80 of the $250 that was there in different sections). Of course, since I obsessively track my cash every night, I knew exactly how much should have been there when I found my wallet open in the bag later on. The company is very respected and were mortified about it, and admitted responsibility for valuables in the van, so I'm assuming they'll make restitution, but we'll see.

I can't wait to see the pictures, megan. And yeah, the buffalo got kind of boring for me, too. But I did see a bear in Yellowstone, with some cubs! I wanted to see a moose, though.

I'm sorry we didn't see a bull moose, but we did have a moose cross our trail in the Tetons. Our most amazing wildlife sighting was a bull elk bounding through a field right by our car. It was a sight I won't forget anytime soon, but he went so fast he was far away by the time I got my camera out and the window down. The most amazing sound was when we went to a star-gazing event led by two rangers, who were interrupted at one point by coyotes howling in the distance.

At one point some Members of Congress were challenged to live on a food stamp budget - they'd have the amount that they'd have if they were trying to live on food stamps and let them actually see how "much" it was. There weren't many takers but those who tried it were AMAZED at how little it actually bought.

My friend and opera partner Jenni actually recently blogged the SF Food Bank challenge, which is a week of doing just that. I'm not sure I could, and she's a tri-athlete! For anyone interested in exactly what a week on food stamps buys: [link]

I'm sorry, Scrappy. That's not fun.

I rather wish that the professor with the poster was not a Firefly fan, because I don't want to be part of any group of which he is a member. He appears to have an advanced education in being a jerk.