Mary Versus the Trumpeting Legions of Apathy

Here are some random pictures from the season interspersed with my own October Project: learning new pumpkin-related recipes. Here's the line up. Week one: Pumpkin Curry. My first pumpkin attempt was so nice & tasty that I had it for lunch several days running. It's very orange. (Here's Bastrop, where I got to haul chainsawed trees and sort through ashes, and move rubble. Sad, but nice to see all the people helping out.) 1 chopped onion 1 can chicken bits 1 tablespoon yellow curry 1/2 cup yellow raisins 2 cups chopped carrots 1 raw sugar pumpkin, in big peices (like 1/4 a pumpkin each), seeds removed In a crock-pot throw all ingredients, cook all day. Then scrape the soft pumpkin out of the shell (should be soft now), stir in and heat a little longer. The pumpkin makes the curry less kicky. Tis nice. Week Two: Spice Pumpkin Seeds Party Mix Gretchen says these are like crack. I altered another recipe and made them twice--once for practice and once for our Halloween party...

Two very cool things about this book: 1). Coming from a French and British perspective, it's already a little more "globesity expert" just from situated authority. Even better, while most of the research for this book /has/ taken place in the developed world, Delpeuch is quick to remind us that the obesity epidemic is going to hit the developing world like a freight train. Carrying lard. Old "high energy density" eating habits with new urbanized sedentary lives, plus an increased desire among the upwardly mobile for red meat and sweets create the bizarre world where in one country, in one city, in one household, there could be both radical undernourishment and dangerous over-eating. 2). The answers to the problem are also very European. "Stop telling fat people to be more puritan about food and exercise," this book declares, "and start changing their environments!" Frequently citing how the anti-smoking laws in England cut smoking rates, the ...

Scene: Upper floor Calhoun Hall. One MARY, in a black turtleneck and grey skirt, self-consciously businesslike, is pacing the halls looking over her notes of her field exam and reciting her impassioned introductory speech in her mind. Near ENGLISH OFFICE, a YOUNG MAN, tall, black, in trendy clothing. He appears to be looking for something. MARY: Hey, are you looking for something? YOUNG MAN: I think so, but I haven't found it. MARY: I wouldn't be much use for you. [beat] I barely know this building myself. {nervous laughter} YOUNG MAN: What's that? holds out his hand for papers MARY: Oh, these are just the notes for my field exam. [she hesitates, then hands them over] YOUNG MAN: [looking them over] Hmm, hmm, hmmm..is that the last page? MARY: Uh, these are my notes for my presentation. [hands over the last sheet] It's about, you know, being a specialist and a generalist at the same time. In rhetoric. YOUNG MAN: [still thoughtfully engrossed in the papers, then, looks up...

1: beanie baby chicken 2: brown-and-pink hand-dipped candle 3: external hard drive that doesn't (as far as I can tell) work at all 4: several almost-finished novelty post-its 5: money tree seed 6: little tiny gift box someone gave me a USB drive in 7: henna inking kit 8: pen shells with no cartridges in them 9: foreign coins 10: post-it notes sketching out (far distant) prospectus ideas 11: WWKBD (what would Kenneth Burke do) rubber bracelet 12: Ex Libris labels 13: National Zoo wildlife conservation sticker 14: roll of 200 smiley face stickers (red left only) 15: really cool headphones that only work if the cord's in just the right place

As I go from adviser to adviser at UT as well as BYU, I seem to get two theories of the PhD (and education in general): either you jump through the hoops and get it over with or else you take joy in the journey and let your ideas build and ferment. In economic terms, the first embraces the Spense signaling theory, which declares that getting degrees and letters after our names is just a way of demonstrating WHO we already are (smarty pants), while the latter suggests that education is an accumulation of human capital--you're actually learning something you couldn't have gotten somewhere else. If I buy into the former, I need to graduate as soon as possible, under the bar, to prove myself and then just rush into the career I've been long prepared for. If I buy into the latter, I should take my time. For a long time I was a "long, steady and intense" kind of girl. 18 credit hours a semester. Three semesters a year. I was 3 classes away from a 2nd major in economics ...