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Post Frequency: 2.8/day Last Entry: August 06, 2009 at 19:58:00 Recent Entries: 569
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Destroying Public Education in California
Posted on August 06, 2009So let's say you're in charge of one of the most successful university systems in the country. You're state is in a budget crisis, held hostage by a small but strategically vocal minority that are so against taxation (while their "free market" has caused the crisis) that they'd rather see the entire state go bankrupt than to actually do something to solve the problem...
Finally back!
Posted on June 23, 2009I went to visit my parents for a week to attend my nephew's high school graduation and to be exploited for free child care. For some reason, the entire week I could not access Blogger. I could access blogspot blogs, but not the "create a new post" homepage...
Things that make you feel old.
Posted on June 15, 2009My nephew is graduating from high school on Wednesday.
My relationship with illicit substances.
Posted on June 11, 2009I don't drink coffee every day. One cup can work if I'm not too exhausted (I have been known to drink it like warm milk and feel like a nap), two cups make me jittery but awake for a few hours, three cups give me arrhythmia and clammy hands and I can't sleep later that night...
Culture Clash
Posted on June 11, 2009One giant organization (The United States) attempts to reform the insular organizational culture of another (GM).:But it will be up to the federal government, which will own a majority of General Motors when it emerges from bankruptcy, to tackle what is perhaps the most difficult challenge in Detroit: transforming G...
Stay away, Belle
Posted on June 09, 2009This is exactly like the type of movie that would have appealed to my 20 year old self, yet I have the vague feeling that I should stay away from its twee sense of superiority:Verona?s question may or may not be disingenuous, but the answer provided by ?Away We Go,? the slack little road comedy in which it arises, is unambiguous...
Joyce Carol Oates on Salinger's Love Letters
Posted on June 08, 2009And on intimacy in the public sphere, in general:The Hawthornes' devotion to each other, and to the idealized image of each other they presented to the world, would seem to be a powerful rebuke of the debased and exploitative nature of intimacy in our time, in which lovers routinely betray each other in salacious ''memoirs'' (the most despicable of which must be James Hewitt's memoir of his love affair with Princess Diana, at a time when she was distraught over her failing marriage with Prince Charles) and by the peddling of intimate love letters (the most recent, 14 letters by J...
the ups and downs of married life
Posted on June 08, 2009If you didn't cry (or sob uncontrollably, in my case) at the wordless montage of a happy marriage punctuated by sadness and unfulfilled promises set to Michael Giacchino's song "Married Life" in Up, you sir/madam, have no heart.I loved the movie and alternately laughed and cried and felt grateful for every day adventures.
sociability index
Posted on June 05, 2009Progress: last night I went to a dinner party hosted by a friend in which I made more friends. And it'll be a semi-regular thing, because she wants to start up a semi-weekly support group for her friends taking the bar. What a lovely idea. Since I'm not doing anything super stressful this summer (well, other than ongoing dissertation work, which is its own nightmare), I was glad to be invited...
I don't want to die watching baseball like that guy's mom did in A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Posted on June 04, 2009Why can't I ever remember that character's name, when this was my favorite book my sophomore year in high school (shut up)? Anyway, update on the muffled hearing/ringing tone/ear ache situation: I just have to wait it out, and this fluid in my ears should go away after a few...
Cheapness Studies, the blog
Posted on June 04, 2009A new interdisciplinary blog by me, Miss Self-Important, and Phoebe Maltz! We all have introductory posts up. Because nothing conquers blog exhaustion like starting another blog. Check it out!
California's Crisis
Posted on June 03, 2009At the LSA, I attended the "Many Faces of Constitutionalism" panel, for which Sandy Levinson was the chair/discussant. Among his remarks about the short life of most constitutions (the average is 18 years, I believe, correct me in the comments) is that some constitutions render states ungovernable, and thus should be rebooted...
I need more people to talk to so that I can tell whether I'm going deaf.
Posted on June 03, 2009I called the Advice Nurse about my left ear, which is the first step to obtaining health care at my school. She suggested taking decongestants, and if my hearing/feeling of stuffed-upness doesn't improve, to call for a same day appointment to see if it's not something more serious...
Things I learned at the LSA
Posted on June 02, 2009I'm back! I had a productive and overall good experience. I presented and got some good feedback, I attended panels and learned interesting things about new research projects and developments, I schmoozed a bit, talked to really nice people who are interested in my future, and explored a bit of the city...
LSA and Sotomayor
Posted on May 27, 2009I'm at the airport en route to the LSA. I'm stuck here for a couple of hours. Ah, free wi-fi and plugs in airports. I'm moderately excited about the conference and learning new things and seeing old friends, but I also have grown to hate traveling and I never was that comfortable with schmoozing...
I see Belle's Glee and raise her Petra Haden
Posted on May 22, 2009Because... 1) Petra Haden is all kinds of awesome2) She is the daughter of Charlie Haden, who is ALSO all kinds of awesome3) She is the sister-in-law of Jack Black, who is occasionally all kinds of awesomeAnd I am also partial to this Petra Haden cover as well.
It's like The Wire, but in real life!
Posted on May 21, 2009This guy sounds even more unscrupulous than Maury Levy (although I'm only done with Season 3, so who knows): [Former prosecutor Paul Begrin] went on to become one of the state?s most prominent defense lawyers, representing clients as varied as Abu Ghraib defendants, the rap stars Lil? Kim and Queen Latifah and members of Newark?s notorious street gangs...
fill your heart with glee
Posted on May 20, 2009OMG, it's like they wrote this show especially for me. Bring it On meets Election meets Freaks and Geeks, with my favorite song as a finale:
random roundup with no commentary
Posted on May 18, 2009Gah, too busy, such that I'm eating Cheerios out of the box and pre-shredded mozzarella out of the bag (I am disgustingly grad student-y when I'm on my own and eating alone).1. Kept from a partner's dying bedside.2. Alec Baldwin on the Rise and Fall of Detroit...
The NYT is full of cautionary tales
Posted on May 17, 20091. Be careful of lead when you plant your urban garden.2. Beware of DIY-madness! It can result in DISASTER. There's a reason I won't cut my own hair!3. Don't play ridiculous Dada-esque "art sports" or else I will mock you. Okay, maybe that wasn't the point of this article...
I can't watch horror movies either
Posted on May 16, 2009I generally refuse to watch rape and/or torture scenes, or violent killings. At the very least, I will turn away and ask "is it over yet?" Occasionally, I will abstain from watching the movie/show at all, if the violence is prolonged and too much a part of the overall work...
Oprah Sucks
Posted on May 15, 2009And not just because her O magazine has her on every cover. That's just too much of anyone.She sucks because she puts anti-vaccine, pro-hormone replacement therapy quacks on her show, and she's so influential that women will listen to her. And this is dangerous stuff! Hormone replacement therapy is one of medicine's most controversial subjects...
a spirited defense of amateurism and in-group cliqueishness
Posted on May 15, 2009This negative review of Thomas Keller's restaurant Per Se by Ezra Klein was meant to invite the blog drama. My favorite comment, by a chef:As for the dissing of the IFA, I must say that most of my hate wasn?t directed as Ezra. However, I do think that this isn?t a typical blog...
double x
Posted on May 14, 2009Slate's new feminist magazine is pretty good.Favorite links:Get your kid off your facebook profile picture.The new language of feminism.Make feminism work!Feminism's problem with race.Katha Pollit's "Still the Second Sex"Linda Hirshman, being Linda Hirshman, on "The Problem With Jezebel...
Random Roundup
Posted on May 13, 20091. The always brilliant New Kid on the Hallway on how academia and law school can negatively impact your personal relationship (academia is worse). It's vaguely comforting to read, because while it suggests things will be hard and get harder, it also says "we'll get through this together...
Fidelity and betrayal
Posted on May 12, 2009There is hardly anything you can read about Elizabeth Edwards's book Resilience that will add any insight or value. Most of it, in fact, will be appallingly insensitive and just plain wrong (really, Randy Cohen? You can be bad if the execution is really good?)...
Star Trek, Reviewed (no spoilers)
Posted on May 11, 2009(Well, no spoilers except minor framing plot details that were already discussed by the NYT and Slate)My initial reaction: IT WAS AWESOME.My secondary reaction: Except for the parts that were not!Yes, the action can be a little schlocky. An extended scene where Kirk has to be separated from the Enterprise to meet Old Spock seemed nonsensical and unnecessary and dude, writers, you could not figure out another way around this problem? The use of portentous opera music was heavy handed...
Knights Out
Posted on May 11, 2009From Salon:On March 19, 1st Lt. Dan Choi, an infantry leader with the New York Army National Guard, appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and stated, "I am gay." Choi is a West Point graduate, Iraq combat veteran, and Arabic language specialist. He is also a founding member of the independent organization Knights Out, a group of LGBT West Point alumni who, in openly declaring their sexuality, are actively fighting against the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy...
AUGH. I may as well have told that Nigerian prince my social security number when he asked me.
Posted on May 08, 2009Dear Associate of Your University,We are writing to you because Your University's healthcenter recently learned that criminal computer hackers brokeinto electronic databases containing personal information belonging tosome clients and their parents or spouses...
Star Trek Fans, Unite!
Posted on May 07, 2009I am getting excited. Star Trek fans, show yourself in the comments.I left my comm badge at my parent's house. And it's been years since I've been able to find my little plastic borg cube toy. I did find my "live long and prosper" hand sign pin though, and I'm contemplating wearing that to the movie just to embarrass TD...
"Extremely dangerous to America"
Posted on May 06, 2009Along with Dahlia Lithwick and Hanna Rosin, I for one, would welcome a gay female Supreme Court of the United States justice. I never understood why gay people (or gay marriage) means the destruction of democracy, America, and "American values," but I do not listen to conservative media and I did not engage my family over their support of Prop 8 at Thanksgiving dinner...
In which the NYT shoulders the great journalistic burden of defending the defenseless...models.
Posted on May 06, 2009I kid you not. I would not have posted except for the bizarre preponderance of reporting on models this week at the expense of The Crazy Women, ostensibly because there is some kind of museum exhibit. Quick! Someone tell all of the college kids to stop lighting candles and instead campaign for Met exhibits on Darfur, and someone tell all of the anti-war protesters to target curators! Oh wait, that might only work for shallow subjects ofBesides, if not them, who? The Model Anti-Defamation League:1...
yet another tech problem
Posted on May 05, 2009My Firefox is broken or something. I open up the NYT homepage in Internet Explorer (which I never use). It looks normal. I open up the NYT homepage in Firefox (which I use all the time), and there is a big chunk of white space between the banner that says "The New York Times" and the main front page...
good and bad ways to save money
Posted on May 05, 2009(Goal: I will post 3-5 times a week, mostly on weekdays, even if it's crap. I didn't say this was a good goal)In This Current Economic Climate, it behooves a not-so-young graduate student to scrimp and save. There are good and bad ways to do this, however...
Conspiracy Theory: The NY media want you to think that women are crazy and stupid.
Posted on May 04, 2009Okay, this is the CREEPIEST Modern Love column EVER. Does she not know that you can block creepy stalking students from chatting with you on Gmail? Doesn't she come off as craving the attention and encouraging the crazy? This replaces this entry as proof that "Modern Love Exists to Perpetuate the Stereotype that Women are Batshit Insane"...
Recharge
Posted on May 03, 2009Things that I need on occasion to recharge:A nice dinner out.A nice dinner in (tonight: pork medallions and orange-braised fennel)Wilco's peppier music (I especially like California Stars and Outta Site (Outta Mind) and I Got You.Non-academic fiction reading (currently, I'm reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and it's really enjoyable...
State of the Belle
Posted on May 03, 2009Since I've last blogged, nearly a month ago, these things have happened:I'm still alive. No, really.I discovered that I make really great pudding and custard, but do not how to work with gelatin. Panna cotta FAIL.I baked challah and offered some to my Jewish friends, who politely informed me "thanks, but it's Passover...
on trust and intimacy
Posted on April 14, 2009The most recent episode of Dollhouse can only be described as "ZOMG." Many interesting themes explored in that episode, and lots of new plot developments. In the opening sequence, in what can only be described as the most pandering move EVER made by Joss Whedon to his geeky male fans, Echo (Eliza Dushku) is in a "dude, this is OK for primetime?!" dominatrix outfit and trying to explain to her handler Boyd (protector, I'm not using BDSM terminology to my knowledge) about how it's not about pain or domination, but absolute trust...
do you choose your hobby, or does your hobby choose you?
Posted on April 08, 2009My hobbies:Reading for fun, mostly fictionKnitting, if poorly and slowlyHiking/walkingBakingCookingBloggingBoard games.The reason for my choices: I don't read as much fiction (mainly because I don't read as much "for fun" anymore) as I used to, but I maybe read a novel or collection of short stories every two weeks to a month, and it this is reading that is "not work," and it's not mindless internet surfing...
undeclared blog hiatus is OVER
Posted on April 08, 2009I've been busy, blog weary, and my hands hurt. But I just got another round of shots and I am PUMPED! So I am back. Sorry for the long and undeclared absence and silence. I just figured that if I had nothing interesting to say, I shouldn't say anything at all...
the secret to asian cooking
Posted on March 26, 2009I have a recipe that calls for "Chinese Five Spice." Not knowing what that was, since I am not Chinese, I went out and bought it at a Chinese supermarket--it appears to be a mixture of star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, pepper. I like all of these things, but I have never combined them...
on difficult films
Posted on March 24, 2009The older I get, the more I want to be diverted and entertained by gaudy spectacles and improbable wish-fulfilling plots. Maybe it's the product of also feeling too old for drama in my own life, which may be mirrored in my aesthetic choices. I went through a major "bummer" phase in college, when I only liked sad, difficult cinema, and even better if it was in a foreign language...
Yet another reason to boycott Jezebel.
Posted on March 20, 2009My complaints against their faux feminism are many, but when one "feminist" sells out another victim of sexual assault for page views, it's the end of the line for me. Amber has the details.
Discrimination I don't get.
Posted on March 19, 2009Well, I don't get a lot of discrimination, even as I understand the cognitive shortcuts of availability heuristics that lead to discrimination, whether invidious or unconscious. But that's a conversation for another day.I bring this up because of this rather affecting post by Helen about her experiences at Le Bernadin, a very nice restaurant in NYC...
I don't get the point of this happy blog
Posted on March 17, 2009The Happiness Project. Wha?I'm working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT--a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn?t...
dollhouse, reviewed
Posted on March 13, 2009This post is dedicated to Jason W., who wrote me a very excellent review of the show. If not for the fact that I watch it on Sundays through Hulu, he'd be an excellent IM buddy to watch the show live with. I owe him an email, and my own review. But I though I'd share the TV addiction...
like a moth to a flame burned by the fire
Posted on March 12, 2009So one of my accidental New Year's resolutions (because the great reorganization project is still buried under piles of books and papers) was to cut out excessive negativity and anger from my life. This is not a Buddhist thing. I am a terrible meat-eating and greedy person...
yet another front in the mommy wars
Posted on March 12, 2009Hanna Rosin has a great article called "The Case Against Breast Feeding" in this month's Atlantic. It's especially good read in conjunction with Jill Lepore's "If Breast is Best, Why are Women Bottling Their Milk?" article in the New Yorker. The gist of both articles is not to posit La Leche or the American Pediatrics Society as a vast conspiracy to chain mothers to their babies, but that the statistics on the health benefits of breast-feeding are marginal (within statistical insignificance) at best, and so you're not feeding your baby this super vaccine and intelligence juice that will make them super smart and healthy super babies...
Should Belle Watch "The Watchmen"?
Posted on March 10, 2009Pros: I really like graphic novels and comics, and I like Alan Moore's work. This is the movie I've been looking forward to.Cons: Bad reviews. Really bad reviews (Anthony Lane doesn't like anything, but when he accuses a movie of misogyny, then...)...
greetings from someplace warmer than where you are
Posted on March 06, 2009Unless you're in Florida or something. I have escaped my cold and rainy climate for sunnier pastures. I am writing from a guest bedroom in the Los Angeles area, and oh yes, haterz, I am blogging poolside. 65 degrees is not exactly sunburn weather, but it is dry and warm here, with a cooling breeze...
random reviews of things
Posted on February 25, 2009I'm trying to reduce my levels consumption, but here are things I have particularly enjoyed:My second (or third) time reading it, Pfeffer and Salancik's The External Control of Organizations remains awesome, useful, and so clearly written. It's super interesting and readable...
you've made your bed and now you have to lie in it
Posted on February 24, 2009Phoebe remarks on the Obama family's efforts to maintain discipline and normalcy for their daughters by way of making them make their own beds and clean their own rooms:While telling the housekeepers not to make the girls' beds in the morning seems reasonable, bed-making is something I've never understood altogether--why must a bed be made, except on the occasion of sheet-change/laundry day? Can't a person (child or adult) OK with a messy bed have it messy in the morning and return to it messy each night? I get how having a maid clean a room could spoil a kid, but I tend to think parents who make their children make their beds (as opposed to saying, your bed will be as you leave it) do so to make a point, a point that could just as easily be made by having children help out with chores that actually must get done, such as dishes, laundry, vacuuming, cooking, etc...
throwing in the (kitchen) towel
Posted on February 24, 2009Augh! And I haven't even made it yet! One of TD's requested desserts is something called "Black Forest Cake." I have never eaten such a thing and did not know it existed. I mean, I have eaten black forest ham (delicious). But not cake.I'm a pretty decent baker, but I am terrible at cake decoration...
why i read advice columns
Posted on February 20, 2009In keeping with Matt's urgings (it's like he's my sponsor), I've been better about kicking the Modern Love column habit, because it's usually such dreck and it makes me so mad. I am even thinking of kicking the Jezebel habit, because while it's a great link-referral service to things that are interesting/infuriating, it's terrible at its own "substantive commentary" and the comments are completely idiotic, making me despair for modern feminism...
Belle's Macaroni and Cheese
Posted on February 20, 2009Pretty darn tasty, and pretty darn bad for you. This is a halved recipe, but I'd say it'd still feed four people really generously. Because we only got through very little of this and are eating it again tonight with the chicken piccata I'm going to make...
Belle's Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup
Posted on February 20, 2009My own recipe! Super-delish, and was much enjoyed by The Dude, The Best Friend, and The Best Friend's Husband. You can puree it (or half of it) for a Campbell's can toothless consistency, or leave it chunky like I do.Serves 4-6.Ingredients:8 oz. Shitake mushrooms, chopped8 oz...
New Kid on the legal job market vs. the academic job market
Posted on February 19, 2009One of my favorite bloggers, a Medieval-historian-turned-1L, has great insights into both:I think I bring a warped perspective to discussions about the employment prospects in law. (Disclaimer: I don't know much about the legal job market yet, not compared to the academic job market, so my comments here are just gut reactions, not reasoned arguments...
weekend report
Posted on February 17, 2009We eschewed the cheesy Valentine's day trappings (and crowded restaurants and pricey prix fixe) in favor of having friends come to visit for a really fun and relaxing weekend. I made many delicious three course things, and have many recipes to blog. Let me just say that wild creamy mushroom soup is like nothing out of a can...
random roundup
Posted on February 17, 20091. This makes me want to link to every Jones Day lawyer in America, except that I'm risk averse and don't want to be sued.2. What it takes to be a liberal. I qualify!3. Does this mean that I can't say "I drink my Haterade" anymore?4. NYT discovers that college students have a sense of entitlement about grades, study finds that students correlate effort exerted with grade deserved...
the principle of the thing, movie edition
Posted on February 13, 2009I never said that I was principled or consistent, but here goes:Much as I like fashion and much as I have been known to shop on occasion and much as I like Isla Fischer, I refuse to see "Confessions of a Shopaholic," because it fills me with feminist rage and it makes me want to break stuff...
Torn like an old sheet?
Posted on February 11, 2009Belle,Oh sweet JESUS, why did I read that Elle essay linked in the Traister piece? It makes cesareans sound like fun. My entire body is doubled over in sympathy. But isn't that sort of visceral reaction just what Purves was aiming for? The whole point of the female gross-out confessional is to puncture our composure and drill down into the fears and insecurities we mostly suppress...
G.R.O.S.S. Girls
Posted on February 10, 2009Click to enlarge:Amber,What did you think of this column by Rebecca Traister on the cult of gross-out confessionalism among the writers at Jezebel?Moe Tkacik wrote about the time she accidentally left a tampon in for 10 days. She described how, on the advice of her editor, she squatted on the floor and started rooting around for the source of the acrid discharge that had been plaguing her for days of sex and drugs and drunkenness...
what on earth is a "date" movie?!
Posted on February 09, 2009Amber,Apart from finding mutually agreeable viewing fare, I don't get why "date movies" have to be any different from "movies you would like to see in general." In fact, marketed-as-date-movies are guaranteed to be craptastic, since they will be terrible romantic comedies...
You think you're chocolate when you're chewing gum?
Posted on February 07, 2009Belle,Viewing love as something beyond your control, something inflicted upon you, does seem like a cop-out. Unless you believe in Cupid's arrow, or a Godfather-style "thunderbolt," or that inhaling pheromones has effects comparable to PCP or some other strong drug, love is something you create out of your perceptions of a person...
take responsibility for your relationships!
Posted on February 04, 2009Amber,To answer your last question: merely pathetic.While I agree with the author that social relationships can be divided into levels of intimacy and cohesion, I completely disagree with the valuation process. It completely ignores the more complex realities of social interaction...
'roid rage! grrr!
Posted on February 02, 2009I got steroid injections in both wrists today. Apparently, my doctor (who also helped to design this keyboard and this mouse!) thinks that hand therapy exercises are not useful for carpal tunnel syndrome. So I am getting three rounds of injections. So, we'll see if this works, or if it's surgery...
Why romantic relationships are intrinsically valuable
Posted on February 01, 2009Belle,At first I didn't have words to describe just how skin-crawlingly horrible I found this post to be.The basic idea is that romantic relationships are only instrumentally valuable, whereas strong friendships are intrinsically valuable, where "intrinsically valuable things are those that make us happy (rather than happiness itself being the intrinsically valuable thing), and instrumentally valuable things are those that we only value insofar as they give us access to those things that in themselves make us happy...
trash talking my nerd injury
Posted on January 29, 2009This is what I look like with my hands in wrist-stabilizing splints:This is the unsympathetic trash-talking I got from TD:"You look like Edward Scissorhands...but less cool."(upon discussing the ADA, my support of employer accommodation of disability, what is the statutory definition of a disability as some condition that substantially limits major life activities, and how carpal tunnel doesn't really count, or at least does not necessarily count):"You should own your gimpitude...
Ledbetter Equal Pay Act Signed by President Obama
Posted on January 29, 2009Story here. Most awesome Whitehouse.gov blog report here, with President Obama's remarks:Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue -- it's a family issue. It's about parents who find themselves with less money for tuition and child care; couples who wind up with less to retire on; households where one breadwinner is paid less than she deserves; that's the difference between affording the mortgage -- or not; between keeping the heat on, or paying the doctor bills -- or not...
what's up with that?
Posted on January 27, 2009I have frequently experienced that phenomenon of really loving a movie/musical artist/painting, and then, later, upon reflection, totally hating it and everything it stood for. This is not necessarily induced by reading external reviews by snarky critics--sometimes, it's just a creeping sensation of "I thought I liked this, but I was duped...
random roundup
Posted on January 26, 20091. After a week of hardly typing at all and doing hand exercises all day, I am really behind in work but my hands only hurt when I am typing rather than constantly in a dull with flashes of nerve pain way. Improvement! Sort of. No pain = good, no work = bad...
Leopard print tunics to tulle skirts
Posted on January 25, 2009Dear Belle,My extremely tardy response makes forgiving your arguable ball-dropping completely necessary---not that there was anything to forgive! Your poor hands are to be well-treated, even if that means a reduction in blogging. I was just playing catchup from the inauguration madness and whiling away the hours in good IRL company instead of writing...
state of the belle: pretty, patriotic, articulate, and in pain
Posted on January 20, 2009A very nice weekend: a romantic getaway on Saturday to Sunday to nearby scenic destination. On Saturday, at this delicious chain burger establishment, TD and I were discussing TARP and EESA and the stretching of the statutory language to re-label pretty much everything as a toxic asset and the proper role of government, etc...
that funny looking kid who smelled even funnier
Posted on January 16, 2009Dear Amber,I totally dropped the ball on our epistolary blogging with end-of-year projects, the holidays, and now carpal tunnel. (Update: new $80 Microsoft Wireless Ergonomic 7000 is worth it, even if the keys are stiff, and I am thinking of getting those wrist splint things...
anyone lived in a pretty how town
Posted on January 14, 2009(poem here)I love being back in my liberal college town with the bookstores and restaurants and little markets and my one bedroom apartment. And while we tried (unsuccessfully--no wind) to fly a kite last weekend, and may do some more outdoorsy things this weekend, it's been mostly staying at home and working from home...
anton ego cooks!
Posted on January 14, 2009I really enjoyed Ratatouille. I love food and cooking, and I like talking animals (but I hate talking babies in the sense of Look Who's Talking or those weird advertisements). I secretly like French things, even though bad experiences with certain French international classmates make me publicly disavow this with militant Francophobia...
random roundup
Posted on January 12, 2009My right hand still hurts, but I am improving by using my mouse with my left hand and typing like one of those people who can't touch type in the way the typing class in 7th grade taught us with your index fingers on the "F" and "J" and as if pecking the board didn't look stupid...
you can't spell "carpal tunnel" without "crap"
Posted on January 08, 2009I do not want to type much these days. Ouch. I think I should use the school's physical therapy. You know how your hand cramps and it zings all the way to your elbow and it stiffens and you can hardly hold a pen? Yeah, like that. I'm also just feeling general blog exhaustion...
she & him
Posted on January 06, 2009Karl introduced me to this awesome band, which consists of my girlcrush Zoeey Deschanel (I loved her in All the Real Girls...and probably no other movie) and M. Ward, chill indie dude singer.Don't you just love the upbeat '60s sound and Mary Tyler Moore-ishness? I am somewhat tempted to cut bangs, but I am more lazy than I am stylish (high maintenance = not Belle), and moreover I am not an indie rock girl (see also Jenny Lewis, Cat Power, Leslie Feist, etc...
anomie belle
Posted on January 05, 2009Anomie. Via Wicked Anomie, check out my evil and much cooler twin, Anomie Belle!:About Anomie Bellean·o·mie [an-uh-me] n social unrest or normlessness; malaise, alienation and purposelessness.belle [bel] n a popular and charming woman; especially: a woman whose charm and beauty make her a favorite...
orange county, yugoslavia
Posted on January 03, 2009Some places are described as having "no there, there." Well, there's none here either, and I'd still rather be there. My brain is addled by too much family time, too many movies (my parents put a plasma TV in my room to bribe me into coming home more often and for longer), too much sunlight, too many episodes of Spongebob and something terrible called "Drake and Josh...
"it's ok to be smart"
Posted on January 03, 2009My niece got these as a present. I hate anti-intellectualism. Since when was it not OK to be smart?
darn you nick and matt
Posted on January 01, 2009What a thing to do on new year's eve (now the first day of the new year!). I read through an old box of letters before throwing them out (and then deciding that some of them can't be thrown away). All because Nick and Matt said that letters should be kept or at least re-read before chucking...
obligatory blagojevich post, with questions
Posted on January 01, 2009Why on earth didn't Illinois call for a special election?! Republicans are blaming the Democrats for blocking this. True?I was telling TD that the legal opinions appear to be all over the place on whether the Senate can refuse to confirm Burris. Volokh says no, some guy at some other school quoted in the NYT says no, Balkin, Tushnet and Amar say yes, and so now I don't know what's the right interpretation of Powell v...
happy new year to you too
Posted on January 01, 2009Ok, that's it, next year I'm flying back early and having a real NYE, like the one I've never had, with TD at some party where I wear a hot dress (my fantasies are tacky and cliche and so the dress involves sequins) and kiss him at midnight just like in the movies...
how to cook and work at the same time
Posted on December 31, 2008(This is my kitchen. Note that the dining table right next to the stove can double as a desk, so you can work and watch the stove at the same time. Missing is my beautifully organized spice jar drawer.)In response to Anna's comments in the previous post (this started off as a comment, but I wrote too much):I read while I cook...
to buy or not to buy
Posted on December 30, 2008The answer, most of the time, is "not buy." Spare yourself needless expense! Which comes in all forms, especially if you like being stylish and fashion forward! Still, I am pretty good at not spending much money, as I eat out only socially, pack lunches if I can choke down yet another sandwich (no public microwave at school), do not frequent cafes by making my own coffee in the morning and packing my own cans of Diet Coke to get caffeine jolts throughout the day, and vow never to buy anything I can make...
random roundup
Posted on December 29, 20081. Via OrgTheory, an incredibly interesting first-person account of the Madoff scam by one of its victims--who also happens to be a psychology professor and expert in trust and gullibility.2. The comments thread to this Crooked Timber post on the responsibility of Western feminists to be careful to avoid adding xenophobic fire to Islamophobia when calling attention to human rights violations in non-Western countries is really fascinating...
that time of life
Posted on December 27, 2008I'm at that age where I have a schedule of at least 2-3 weddings a year. Often more weddings than I can attend, especially if they're destination weddings. Today I'm going to a really good friend from high school's, just as we just passed the time for our ten year reunion (hell no I won't go)...
bourgie cooking/shopping advice, please
Posted on December 27, 2008I normally cook on a budget, which means lots of non-fancy soups and pastas and casseroles and roasts. Plain eatin', folks. Apart from my pastry creams and crepes, TD never wants me to bake anything too fancy. He loves chocolate chip cookies, and I aim to please...
i wanted to be the one to break it to you, bryan
Posted on December 26, 2008...but our beloved Cloud Cult is now shilling for Esurance. Weren't we just talking about selling out?But not to worry, apparently it's all about environmental ethics:"We've been approached by a number of different companies over the years to use our music for various types of commercials," the band's lead singer-songwriter, Craig Minowa, told Songs for Soap...
three-day vacation for two
Posted on December 26, 2008If you had three, four days max to go somewhere in the United States, Canada, or Mexico, and wanted to get away for President's day, where would you go, and what would you do? I can't swim really. I don't gamble. Let's say the budget is grad student-y.
happy holidays from belle
Posted on December 24, 2008(This is on the heels of Phoebe's and Rita's excellent posts, and so I am not claiming originality.)And a Complicated Happy Holidays to You!Growing up, we were way poor and way Buddhist, and so we never celebrated Christmas. But it was more due to slow assimilation and poverty than a normative position on the non-celebration of Christmas...
i should burn this stuff
Posted on December 23, 2008The dangerous stuff that lurks in drawers and closets:br /br /ulliClothes that date from 1998, like my Buffy-era vinyl jacket and that liberty print pique dress that looked good on me before I "blossomed." Also, something I called my "lucky skirt", which you may take to mean what you will...
my brother
Posted on December 23, 2008True facts: he is 5'11" and 200 lbs and looks more Samoan than Vietnamese, wears cowboy hats and Frye boots, drives a Jeep, and his all-time favorite songs are:br /br /br /a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-0762114391920423 visible ontop" href="http://www...
In the Spirits of the Holiday...
Posted on December 23, 2008Everytime someone listens to a song by The Majestic Twelve, an angel gets its wings. Pass The Fuckin' Egg Nog (Original Version) by The Majestic TwelvePass The Fuckin' Egg Nog (Drunken Christmas Party Version) by The Majestic TwelveHappy Holidays everyone!
belle's lemon bars
Posted on December 22, 2008I am known as "that girl who bakes" at TD's work. I love baking, but I can't and shouldn't eat all that I bake. I would bring stuff into school, except that I have no cohort or department to speak of and my friends are scattered. Also, I don't want to be "that girl who bakes" at my own department, but am happy to be that vaguely pre-feminist person at TD's...
why do we do things that are bad for us?
Posted on December 22, 2008I get why people do drugs and alcohol. I don't myself, but I get it. I get eating indulgently, obviously. But why I continually indulge in advice columns, the Fashion and Style section of the NYT, and romantic comedies I'll never know. And I can't seem to stop! During breaks when I visit my family in very boring Orange County (it is boring not so much inherently, since I don't do much that is interesting where I live, but because I don't have much freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want, am always busy with family and babysitting and chores, etc...
aw, man
Posted on December 22, 2008I'm hanging out with my 14 year old nephew today. We watched Kung Fu Panda. I am really offended by the slanted eyes on the animals and the stilted, slow, staccato talking like David Carridine from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. If there were a better name for the Jack Black-vocied panda character, it'd be Chinky McKungPao...
belt-tightening
Posted on December 22, 2008I find a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/business/22layoffs.html?pagewanted=1amp;hp"these methods of cutting labor costs to save jobs/a positive and promising:br /blockquotebr /A growing number of employers, hoping to avoid or limit layoffs, are introducing four-day workweeks, unpaid vacations and voluntary or enforced furloughs, along with wage freezes, pension cuts and flexible work schedules...
back in orange county
Posted on December 20, 2008Dang, why is it cold here? I am wearing my college sweatshirt! Over the scrub-like, asexual pajamas my sister made me that look like rose-printed couch upholstery with hand-sewn labels saying "Made with Love." The family drama, it has already commenced, although it doesn't concern me...
belle's recipe for spaghetti and meatballs
Posted on December 19, 2008Mine is a variation of a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/meatballs-and-spaghetti/"this recipe/a, altered in that I have fiddled with the proportions of the types of meat in the meatballs and reduced the amount of ground beef (which I consider to be the driest) by 1/2 lb, made a totally different chunky sauce so that you can oversauce your pasta, etc...
why does some music make you want to shake your butt?
Posted on December 18, 2008I have never felt this impulse or wanted to ask this question, but apparently a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2206835/"it's been asked of The Explainer/a at Slate, and a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2206835/sidebar/2206929/"you can vote/a on whether you want it answered, or you can ask whether:br /br /blockquoteIs it just me, or do all national anthems the world over, no matter how rich and exotic the culture, seem to sound like European marching-band music? Wouldn't one expect China's national anthem be more "plinky"? Shouldn't Iraq's national anthem sound a little more "Arab-y"?/blockquotebr /or this non-question:br /br /blockquoteIf one gets a personal e-mail from a very famous or important person, such as the president, or the queen of England, or the Pope, or Paul McCartney, can that e-mail have monetary value? I guess not...
top chef, synchronicity, and sell-outs
Posted on December 17, 2008I just started watching Top Chef with TD, who's an avid fan. Of course, this means he has to watch all of the previous four seasons again. I like the show a lot. Drama and vote-off intrigue with a touch of the Real World, except that these people are actually talented and I care about their product...
I'd like to give Burger King a Whopper...
Posted on December 17, 2008From the files of "Are You Fucking Kidding Me?", comes the latest advertising campaign from Burger King. I heard about this a few days ago, but had no idea just how royally screwed up it was until I actually saw it:br /br /object width="480" height="295"param name="movie" value="http://www...
wtf of the day: "drunkenfreude"
Posted on December 16, 2008Oh, what makes it into the hallowed pages of the NYT today:As dessert ended, the woman in the red dress got up and stumbled toward the bathroom. Her husband, whose head had been sinking toward the bűche de Noël, put a clumsily lecherous arm around the reluctant hostess...
pro-vices and anti-sanctimony, and in favor of the ritual wallowing
Posted on December 16, 2008I talked to the inimitable Gowder for an hour or so on the phone this morning about many things: the IAT, stuff we like to eat, the irritation of the necessity of schmoozing at conferences (thus we will do this together: two snarky misanthropic misfits who like to raise both roofs and hell are the slightly-bitter-but-still-delicious equivalent of a Double Double), pretension and excess-or-lack thereof, and vices...
A long-awaited party response post
Posted on December 16, 2008Belle,(Finally, I can come up for air! Better late than never?)I agree that compromise is necessary for any relationship, but they have to be compromises that you can live with and that won't drive you mad by inches, or undermine the connection between you...
Why I'm Not Going to AALS This Year
Posted on December 16, 2008$300 registration fee, and that's the student rate?! Fuck that! In addition to flight and hotel, and I was planning on sharing with the inimitable Gowder, and we were planning on getting a double room at the cheapest motel possible. And you have to pay extra for sessions, breakfasts, and lunches?! I'd rather fly out to meet up with my law prof friends on a more informal basis, or go to conferences with more interesting (and free!) paper presentations...
law review article of the day
Posted on December 15, 2008This may be controversial to say, but sometimes a really well-written law review article is the best way to understand a complicated area of law or a nuanced two-part legal standard--not necessarily a casebook or horn book!See, e.g., Kenneth A. Bamberger, Chevron's Two Steps.
problem with netflix
Posted on December 15, 2008I put my Netflix account on hold last month because I figured I'd be too busy with work and away for the holidays for too many weeks to benefit from it until January. I put the DVDs I had in the mail, because if you don't, they charge you. Apparently, they have not received one of my DVDs, although it's not my fault the Federal government failed me or some sticky-fingered neighbor lifted it from the communal drop slot in our building...
call for recipes for french oven
Posted on December 15, 2008TD got me a Le Creuset french oven (5 qt, in chestnut, isn't it rustic and pretty) for the holidays. I know that this'll be good for braised dishes (braised short ribs, brisket, pot roast, beef bourguignon, lamb shanks, etc.) and stews. Also, apparently chili and gumbo...
TD's Curried Sweet Potato Latkes
Posted on December 14, 2008Traditional old world recipe--perfect for Hanukkah, and just like your bubbe used to make! If your bubbe was into fusion food and liked Indian food.They are super delicious though--great flavor, nice seasoning, sweet with a kick, good crisp outside with melt-in-your-mouth inside...
this was my evening
Posted on December 14, 2008We went out for a carne asada burrito the size of a child's leg ($5.95), chicken quesadillas with an obscene amount of guacamole and sour cream on the side ($6.95) and white fish ceviche tostada ($3.75) and 2 pints worth of strawberry agua fresca ($1...
cantaloupe island
Posted on December 13, 2008TD totally rocked the sax solo on this tonight. He also rocked singing backup on this song.I am a total groupie. The band was really good! Everyone had talent and great stage presence, and they were all dressed to coordinate. They were the best part of the evening...
when life gives you lemons....
Posted on December 12, 2008I bought a craptastic Samsung ML-2510 laser printer from Best Buy in March 2007. It continually fails to draw paper through its wheel thing to print. It is so not 12 pages per minute! It is such a lemon. Do I buy another printer? Seriously?!The only benefit is that by twittering my printer-cidal thoughts, I have managed to amuse myself by thinking up "yo printer" jokes like:It jams so much, Phish is jealous and people are wondering if the Grateful Dead are touring again...
nyt-picking
Posted on December 12, 2008There is such a blog! It is all things snarky and good, and sometimes fun.I rely on the NYT for a lot of news, don't get me wrong. But on my hate list:1. Modern Love columns, although sometimes you can't tear your eyes away from trainwrecks of humanity...
name your favorite soup
Posted on December 11, 2008...in the comments, and if the idea/ingredients appeal, I will try to make it and then blog about it. So far I'm recycling through beef and barley and corn chowder. TD doesn't like potato leek, alas.
Happy Birthday, Bryan D. Brown!
Posted on December 11, 2008Happy birthday to my good friend, esteemed co-blogger, musical guru and all around good guy Bryan D. Brown! I confess, I don't know what the "D" is for, so I have fun thinking of possibilities like "Dashiki."I confess to falling behind on blogging his awesome radio show (this week's is really good), mainly because of end-of-term insanity and bizarre and untimely predilection towards wintertime diseases, but I will hopefully get around to doing a highlight list of bands Bryan has introduced me (and you) to that I now really like...
What is empowering? Choice is empowering.
Posted on December 10, 2008Amber,As I am presently lucid and not in bed (what is up with the spate of bi-weekly malaises? I'm trying to get a lot of fluids by making myself thirsty through the eating of potato chips, but I can't say that's Dr. approved), I will respond forthwith...
gender studies in your spare time
Posted on December 09, 2008(Readers: the epistolary blogging experiment officially begins here until after the Inauguration: Amber and I started at her blog on 10/9, and wrapped up around 11/30, so I figure I've got until the end of January to host it here before we switch again...
love/hate
Posted on December 09, 2008Hate:1. Justin Rice in movies. Bishop Allen the band is ok, but I fucking hated Mutual Appreciation, and this movie sounds like another exercise in solipsism celebrating the delicate epiphanies of the bourgeoisie (or hipstersie), and thus execrable.2...
"I'll study your gender." *suggestive eyebrow waggle*
Posted on December 09, 2008Belle,Between Burke's warning and personal observations of the horrors of grad school, I'm not about to go, but that collection of syllabi is going to be immensely helpful. Thanks. I've been gearing up to read more challenging stuff of late: I started with a book that was far out of my comfort zone: prose-focused solely, plot and characterization incidental...
things i actually say out loud
Posted on December 06, 2008As we're playing cards, and I'm shuffling:"I wish I could shuffle cards like Data in "A Fistful of Datas. That would be the coolest thing ever."Thereafter I resolved not to say the first thing that came out of my mouth, since it's likely to be extremely weird and nerdy...
random thoughts
Posted on December 05, 20081. I am really tired. Ok, that's not a thought. But I am so tired and my head hurts and so do my eyeballs.2. AWB's blog is on fire! I should blog like this. I think I used to. Hmm. This blog sucks nowadays, I know. But it's hard to get that personal and feel comfortable...
admin law in the news!
Posted on December 03, 2008Everyone's favorite under-performing workplace safety agency is further undermined in the last days of Bush:The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job...
belle's challah recipe
Posted on December 03, 2008I looked at 20 of them, and my fourth time baking, have finally settled on the right combination of techniques and ingredients for moist, tender, eggy, slightly sweet loaves. Following recipes blindly leads to dry, bland, olive oily bread, and disappointing your Jew-ish boyfriend...
why I oppose tipping
Posted on December 01, 2008Look at Phoebe's experience! Look in horror!The check appeared suddenly while we were still eating, but I didn't take offense, because the same happened to the Latvian model and her date sitting next to us. (That this was a beautiful-people place is both the restaurant's saving grace and its downfall...
Google and Free Speech
Posted on December 01, 2008Interesting article in the NYT today:THE ONGOING DISPUTE between Google and Turkey reminds us that, throughout history, the development of new media technologies has always altered the way we think about threats to free speech. At the beginning of the 20th century, civil libertarians in America worried most about the danger of the government silencing political speech: think of Eugene V...
practice makes perfect
Posted on December 01, 2008We're going to a nine course Chinese banquet wedding on Sunday (his friend, not mine), and I'm trying out one of my dresses by trying to see if it feels comfortable after eating two large bean, cheese, pepper and rice tacos. Tostadas, really, since I can't even close the taco into a taco shape...
back and bemused
Posted on November 30, 2008I don't know if it's because I smuggle back Vietnamese snack food whenever I visit my parents or because I'm on some watch list, but I always get the "your bag has been inspected" slip from TSA. Hmmm. If I don't get to have my tamarind candy and seafood-flavored chips, the terrorists win...
snack food reviews
Posted on November 30, 2008I am very disappointed in the Trader Joe's brand Ridge Cut Sweet Potato Chips--not enough salt, not enough crunch, not enough anything. Strong sweet potato flavor, but it feels like eating a rice cake with higher fat and fiber content. Pass.I do, however, like Trader Joe's brand Ridge Cut kettle chips, lightly salted...
bean burritos
Posted on November 30, 2008I didn't over-consume anything over the holidays (Thanksgiving dinner: one piece of ham, two pieces of roast pork, bits of sides), and perhaps only indulged slightly more than usual in potato chips. Despite the previous post, I don't actually snack much, although being surrounded by snack foods at my parents' reminded me of the snacks I do love and how much I love snacking, which is why I don't have snackfoods around and thus do not snack...
action flicks, california love, pork, and thanks
Posted on November 27, 2008I babysat the first day here, and my six and seven year old are ubercute and tell me delightful stories and apparently do impressions of me in my absence. Today I hung out with the two oldest, a 14 year old and a 17 year old, and we watched Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk...
pho real
Posted on November 25, 2008At my parents' house in sunny, hazy, warm Orange County. As soon as I got home, I ate a bowl of my mom's pho. I hooked up my 12" X61 to the 42" plasma TV they installed in my bedroom (which they keep for me), thinking that I'll move home and teach at a local law school as soon as I'm done...
New Annoying "Trend": Slow-blogging
Posted on November 22, 2008And here I thought I was just being busy, sick, lazy, otherwise occupied with an off-line life, etc., but lo! There is a slow-blogging movement!:The practice is inspired by the slow food movement, which says that fast food is destroying local traditions and healthy eating habits...
Obama Killed Irony: Grim Melee Observed Sardonically by Hipsters
Posted on November 22, 2008Breaking news from the NYT.
do you have a dog in this fight?
Posted on November 22, 2008I wrote a post about education and intellectualism here. I was trying to roll up my sleeves and get dirty, but I am just too nice and believe too much in civility and collegiality. I wonder if there will one day be a war between intellectuals and anti-intellectuals, although what else were the last eight years?After Thanksgiving, the lovely Amber Taylor of Prettier Than Napoleon and I will switch venues and continue our epistolary blogging on Law and Letters, so that this blog actually has content again...
turn to p. 56
Posted on November 22, 2008Following on Gowder's experiment to ?grab the closest book, turn to page 56, and quote the fifth sentence?, except that I am surrounded by books and half of my reading is in PDF:Left: "Marty's car was not there; the road was bare except for the dwindling backs of the other visitors, passing under a streetlamp now as they made their way down to the bus stop near the Administration building...
scientists: 1, anti-scientists: 0
Posted on November 20, 2008(Thanks to KJH, caption: "Seen outside a Walgeeens. Maybe the owner was filling a scrip for someantibiotics. ")Well, I'm on the mend because of awesome antibiotics. I am very grateful for antibiotics. I do not abuse them and use as directed for the entire length of the prescription, but as a frequent sufferer of strep throat and other yucky bacteria-caused things (this is what happens when you're a sickly child who grows up to work in daycare in college and be a de facto au pair to your nephews and nieces), I am very grateful...
Guilty confessions.
Posted on November 20, 2008I have some confessions to make. 1. I now have a backlog of two cooking posts, and I've promised Belle that I'll post them, but I'm completely unmotivated to do so. Perhaps I'll cook something tonight, and, by doing so, become motivated to post all *three* cooking posts that will then be backlogged? 2...
more random roundup
Posted on November 20, 20081. Passive-aggressive notes. They are awesome!2. Sleater-Kinney plays Wii Music!3. A feminist literary critique of that asinine abstinence-only-vampire-love story! She mentions Byron.4. The school of (cultured) life. "Changing society through culture and literature, philosophy and conversation...
looking for love in all the wrong places
Posted on November 19, 2008In 1995, I placed third in the Ayn Rand Anthem essay contest. I recount this story as a mark of everlasting shame, a bright scarlet AR branded upon my bosom. Dude, I was really poor and I was socking my $2 a week spending money plus skipping lunch to buying books and classical music CDs in my quest for self-concerted cultivation...
random roundup
Posted on November 18, 20081. I don't get the appeal of these books (now a pro-abstinence, pro-vampire movie!), and I really liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer.2. Rehnquist's papers were mostly boring, occasionally illuminating.3. Stupid essay about the pathos of LOLCats.4. Accomplished, brilliant Michelle Obama celebrated for her Sir-Mix-a-Lot booty, decried for her momification (not quite convinced; I think M...
fun in the kitchen
Posted on November 17, 2008An exceedingly fun twist on that traditional standby date "dinner and a movie" is to take a cooking class on how to make traditional Japanese dashi, ramen, and mochi, followed by a showing of the lovely movie Tampopo. Dude, I so did not recognize Ken Watanabe with hair and without Tom Cruise...
*sniff*
Posted on November 14, 2008When I get stressed out by work, I have insomnia, sleep fitfully, wake up groggily, and have coughing fits due to acid reflux or whatever. So tonight I took a break, which I normally do anyway when TD is around, to watch a movie--Amazing Grace! It was good...
What? You don't like Billy Joel? Oh.
Posted on November 14, 2008Then maybe you'll like Adele:Great pipes, is a normal-sized, pretty girl with awesome eyeliner and bangs, what's not to like. And yes, I like Billy Joel, you haterz.This song is nice too:I need a plaid coat, stat.
what belle is reading
Posted on November 13, 2008In my free bits of time, before bed, in addition to admin law and soc of culture:1. Law as a Means to an End by Brian Tamanaha (finally getting back to it!)2. Eloquence and Reason by Robert Tsai3. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell4. An uncorrected proof (squee!) of the yet-to-be-released novel by Jesse Ball5...
state of the belle
Posted on November 12, 20081. Very confused about schemas vs. frames vs. narratives vs. group styles. Like, what the fuck is the difference. Damn you sociologists for finding one phenomenon and giving it five names. 2. Very stoked about finally getting to the judicial review part of admin law! Srsly...
What is "modernity," anyway, and why should we give a damn?
Posted on November 12, 2008Belle, I will salve your blog guilt. A dialog from the comments to a post in Gowder-territory:Wolfson: Religions are obviously more than passels of expressions sometimes conjoined with ontological claims, though one might forgive another for not getting this as a result of the general atomization of, you know, MODERNITY...
live-blogging NonDescript 11/11
Posted on November 11, 2008And good morning, and welcome to another week in which Belle sits in her rocking chair screaming at these dad-burned kids today and that noise that they call music. Ahhh, Ensure.Show feed.Playlist:Artist | Song | AlbumAstronautalis | Oceanwalk | You And Yer Good IdeasBeirut | A Sunday Smile | The Flying Club CupSharon Jones & The Dap-Kings | I Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Is In | Daptone 7 Inch Singles Collection Vol...
Cooking posts coming, I promise. But for now, some race posts!
Posted on November 10, 2008I have two more cooking posts backlogged... I'll write them soon. Honest. But while you're waiting, if anyone is interested in the debate about blaming black people for proposition 8, I have two posts on it at Uncommon Priors, arguing basically that even if there's a relationship between blackness and voting for proposition 8, the correct causal attribution is to the oppression that black people have suffered...
belle's recipe for beef, leek, barley and potato stew
Posted on November 10, 2008My head hurts from reading too much and trying to write. Soup helps.Again, I looked at 20 recipes and didn't like any of them. Trust your instincts! Some recipes seem too easy and too bland. Trust your instincts! And your taste buds! Mine led me to add the extra steps of browning the meat, adding wine, spices, extra salt, eschewing bland water in favor of beef broth, and adding an extra pound of meat...
idiot leaders around the world
Posted on November 07, 2008I never understood Berlusconi's high approval ratings, given his idiocy and crookedness. Seriously, the guy is like a real Godfather movie. Mafia? Seriously? I talked to one or two Italian LL.Ms. They don't get it either. Nor how he was re-elected. At least in a few months we won't have as strong a competitor for the "Most Idiotic World Leader" award.
Post-blogging NonDescript 11/4
Posted on November 07, 2008Post this week was delayed by election tension, euphoria, gettin' back to work, and stuff.You can find the playlist and podcast here.And good morning, and welcome to another week in which Belle listens to cool music and bobs her head rhythmically but with an economy of motion and an abundance of decorum as she judges you, girl in the tube top, for gyrating and flailing about, detracting attention from the band so that you can get your sexy dance on...
A moment of schadenfreude
Posted on November 06, 2008And to make up for it: a moment of beauty.(Also, re: the Crispin Sartwell reference, my appointment of him as my electionblogging proxy does not, of course, extend to the remark about Michelle Obama's clothes. But all the rest are pretty funny.)
belle's recipe for corn and butternut squash chowder
Posted on November 06, 2008I looked at 20 recipes and didn't like any of them. So I made one up. It's really good! Sweet with a kick. To make vegetarian, substitute vegetable broth and take out the bacon. To make vegan, add twice the amount of pureed squash & corn to make the broth thick without milk, though you then might need more vegetable broth...
two people in search of a parade
Posted on November 05, 2008We shouted and cheered along with a few hundred people at a movie theater-turned-into-election party. I got a little teary-eyed at many points. We jumped up and down the streets and hi-fived people. We honked our car horn. We got back to my neighborhood and walked up and down the streets, cheering and yelling and hi-fiving everyone...
Alternative election blogging...
Posted on November 05, 2008I nominate Crispin Sartwell as my proxy for electionblogging. He is as politically cynical as I, but funnier. Seriously, read his election day miniposts. I want to quote the funny ones, but that would ruin it.
I Voted. Did You?
Posted on November 04, 2008Obviously no pictures of me and my sticker, but you'll have to take my word for it. I went when the polls opened, and it took about an hour. And I'm not even in a battleground state, much less battleground precinct! On the rosters of registered voters there were few Republicans--I am telling you, I live in a liberal college town...
Open Letter on Prop 8
Posted on November 03, 2008From a Friend:There is a proposition on the California ballot this year that directly impacts my life and I feel the need to do something about it before it is too late. It is very personal, and in my opinion, not something that should even be decided by a popular vote, as it is a matter of constitutional law (you know, the thing this country is supposed to be based on- all of us are created equal...
stomach, knots, twisted
Posted on November 03, 2008This is your open thread for all things election. Me? Great weekend, and much food was eaten, but now I want to throw up.Vote For Change is great. My polling place is 75 feet away, or 2 seconds. I'm going to wake up super early and get there before 7 am, with my sample ballot filled out (it is an exhausting process in my state, as there are a number of dumbass propositions every year)...
Californian Political Nag.
Posted on November 01, 2008Time is running out to beat this nasty thing. Volunteer and donate for no on prop 8. If I, a po' and incredibly busy grad student, can afford to kick 'em 50 bucks and volunteer for a few hours on election day, so can you.
Happy Halloween!
Posted on October 31, 2008I hate this song:But I love this:I wanted to embed "Thriller," but they won't let me. :-(In other Halloween related news:Bryan D. Brown's scary playlist. Not your typical, and very cool!Eszter Hargittai takes pictures of a great Halloween house.The Little Professor provides an annotated and hyperlinked list of Madame Tussaud's gallery of Victorian murders...
I have to stop reading advice columns
Posted on October 30, 2008Ooof: "Attractive men scare me, so I only date the ugly ones." See also, "I'm a princess in love with a troll."Reading bad things is not unlike eating the cheap, tacky candy corn and circus peanuts. You know it's the worst type of bad for you (so bad and not even good!), but you can't help it, and it's something to snack on in between helpings of Bourdieu...
Wherein Paul is Crafty (also cheap and lazy)
Posted on October 30, 2008I was adrift in a sea of Halloween costume possibilities for this year, until my brilliant friend Lilit suggested that I go as a pothead by the simple expedient of putting a pot on my head. As this seemed like the ideal lazy and cheap person's costume (meta-perfect, since stoners are lazy!), of course I decided to go with it...
renewed ambivalence about celebrating my birthday
Posted on October 29, 2008I totally made this for TD:I know, I know. I just posted hours ago on how I wanted to make myself a special dinner and cake and seemed really excited about it. But now I am recoiling from the inherent diva-ness of feting oneself. Is it not unlike throwing yourself a party at which you are the host and only guest, waving a sign that says "I Rule"?I have a complicated relationship with birthdays...
taking "green" to ridiculous extremes
Posted on October 29, 2008I recycle, walk everywhere, take the bus or train, and haven't driven a car since I visited my folks for Memorial Day. I turn off the tap while washing dishes and rinse after and don't take bubble baths. I donate stuff to Goodwill rather than toss things...
belle's tips for cooking on a budget
Posted on October 28, 2008This is for you, Paul.I have a post on Amber's blog talking about how I really try to contribute to my relationship in the non-economic ways that I can. Of course, after years of cooking and baking I have a pretty good stock of dry ingredients, tools, pans, etc...
where i've been
Posted on October 28, 2008Working, not dealing with a backlog of emails and more work, and spending time with TD. Also, Amber's blog.I went to my first outdoor concert festival this weekend. It was everything I ever wanted from my first time. Magical, tender, and transcendent...
OrgTheory Spotlight: Cecilia Ridgeway
Posted on October 28, 2008Today in OrgTheory, we highlight the work of Stanford sociologist Cecilia Ridgeway.From her faculty biography:Cecilia L. Ridgeway is the Lucie Stern Professor of Social Sciences in the Sociology Department at Stanford University. She is particularly interested in the role that social hierarchies in everyday social relations play in the larger processes of stratification and inequality in a society...
It's My Birthday And I'll Bake If I Want To
Posted on October 28, 2008Friday's my birthday. I am telling you because I am telling no one else. We're going to a couple of Halloween parties of some friends of TD's. While I hate the fact that Halloween steals my thunder, what I hate even more is when a lot of people pay attention to me, except on occasions when such attention is diffused into some collective ceremony in which I am not a primary focus (hence, my desire to elope or get one of my friends to get a Universal Life Church certificate)...
Belle for President.
Posted on October 28, 2008Dudes, I've had enough. We're not making sufficient use of the wonderful Belle, purveyor of Cooking Wisdom and joy, and my hero in so many ways. She needs to stop being a grad student and start ruling. Belle for President. Or Queen. Whichever. (As long as I get to be minister of state security...
Cookblog III: What Price Popularity?
Posted on October 25, 2008Before we start the next installment of Paul's Adventures in Chefdom, a plea to the public: Will someone please teach me how to shrink (e.g., halve) recipes? I get the obvious step (reduce all the ingredients proportionally). But presumably one doesn't cook, say, half the food for as long as one cooks the original recipe (as there's less mass to heat, and thus one would burn it)...
I shall call this recipe Memento Mori Chicken. Perhaps Suicide Chicken would be better.
Posted on October 22, 2008As we learned from my last kitchen adventure, cooking is something I should only do under adult supervision. So I recruited some, in the form of my close friend Rachel. Another friend, Sarah, also tagged along, although she demurred from participating in the cooking, since she claims she can't cook at all...
drek on the presidential race, stealing yard signs, racial profiling, and white privilege/guilt
Posted on October 21, 2008Or at least, that's the best way I can describe this post, which inspired excellent and insightful comments. I'm still sorting out my own thoughts. I tend to agree with Olderwoman and Gradmommy, but I always do. Still, good question about whether I would have told the police...
live blogging non-descript 10/21
Posted on October 21, 2008And good morning, and welcome to another week in which Belle learns about new bands and gets hip and makes tons of '90s references, because that's when her musical education began and ended with large gaps because she grew up in Orange County, home of ska and thuggin' wannabes...
you people all look alike
Posted on October 21, 2008This kid reminds me of Rick Astley (who has the deepest voice and the dorkiest dance moves). I like the song (actually, both songs), because I am a sucker for earnest pop, but I don't predict a long career for him when he gets older and still looks that young...
moral reasons, causes, decision-making
Posted on October 20, 2008When I read this article, I immediately thought of this article.
weekend report
Posted on October 20, 2008Not bad. The food I made turned out really well, and there was dim sum, a science museum, and burritos, and then a lot of lounging about and reading and working. In my head, science museums are a bit bigger and more impressive, but that's because I watched movies with gigantic replicas of tyrannosaur bones and in which you could see the glass-encased progression of evolution from monkey to man...
ew.
Posted on October 20, 2008Squicky, vaguely Oedipal-y Modern Love column here:It was true: Why would anyone not love Sarvis? He was bright, self confident ? sometimes tender, endearingly spaced out ? and could keep a steady drumbeat in music class. And the brown ringlets he?d had since he was a baby still hung in heart-stopping whorls down his neck when he refused to brush his hair...
why do you hate america's freedom? get out there and shop, or the terrorists win!
Posted on October 17, 2008Gah, on the well-shod heels of Gwyneth Paltrow (whose shopping guides are so asinine), comes J.Crew, the latest contender for the economic turmoil insensitivity awards. The headline: J.Crew Gets Uppity. I kid you not:?THE timing is very ironic, I know,? said Millard S...
election law in the news
Posted on October 17, 2008I'm a big fan of Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog, and from the archives is his great Slate article on the American Center for Voting Rights--and its decline. And from Dahlia Lithwick, a great article on ACORN and undermining voter confidence.Read! And then vote!
post-debate thoughts
Posted on October 16, 20081. Obama was on fire! He killed! And yet he remained largely unruffled, while McCain looked half-crazed and ready to break out a can of whup ass2. If they use that baby as a campaign tactic one more time, I'm going to have to smack someone and make them watch "Life Goes On...
bust a move
Posted on October 16, 2008I will shamelessly admit that I almost wish I had a bustier and a pair of bike shorts and would totally dance like that if no one was looking.
speaking of music...
Posted on October 16, 2008Via OrgTheory's Brayen, a great article by sociologist Jenn Lena on how people create music genres.Brayden's description:The paper, coauthored with Richard Peterson, is about how people create new music genres, a process generalizable to the construction of symbolic classification systems...
Post-blogging Non-Descript 10/13 Show
Posted on October 16, 2008I have decided to do a new Tuesday series. Yes, people, I know today is Thursday. But every Tuesday, our own Bryan D. Brown has a radio show on KCSB called "Nondescript." You can get the feed for the podcast here. Incidentally, how is it that I just recently, as in two months ago, caught onto this podcast thing? This American Life and NonDescript and Studio360 delivered to my Itunes player without me having to coordinate fireside chat dates (which I used to do in high school)? Oh, joy!Anyway, for the past few shows, I've been "live-emailing" Bryan my silly thoughts on his picks, which is really fun...
John Cleese on Sarah Palin
Posted on October 16, 2008Because if you can't laugh at Sarah Palin... well, you might just start crying.
why I am voting in person rather than absentee
Posted on October 16, 2008For one, there's no excuse--the polling place is across the street from me. This is a marked difference than my time in Orange County, where for my first election (2000, sigh) it was in some church in some part of town I was unfamiliar with and I had to drive for a while to find it...
I still hate you, Lisa Belkin.
Posted on October 16, 2008When you write a bogus trend article about the opt-out revolution by interviewing a non-random sample of your acquaintances, I say "good riddance" to your "farewell" Life's Work column (found, delightfully as ever, in the Fashion and Style section). Of course, what is most shocking is Belkin's apparent framing of her role as the (finally!) catalyst for open and honest dialogue and even system-wide change, although she politely nods to social, economic, and structural forces too: Women who had been soldiers in the fight for equality were furious, at me and at the women I profiled, for turning their backs on the cause...
race baiting
Posted on October 14, 2008Is anyone else worried that all of the vituperative race baiting at the McCain rallies portends an inauguration day assassination of President Obama?I never would have thought that I would see a viable campaign for a Black president so early in my lifetime...
I have talented friends
Posted on October 14, 2008An old friend from undergrad (ok, we didn't get along at all in undergrad, mainly because we were both obnoxious kids, but we're friends now) has made this cute little video.He also makes serious stuff -- he did the film festival circuit for a while and won a couple awards with a documentary about his fucked-up parents -- which was a little (ok, a lot, embarrassingly) TMI for me, but that seems to be the zeitgeist, so more power to him.
elsewhere
Posted on October 14, 2008I am still contributing to my online epistolary exchange with Amber. She has expressed an exhortation to bring on the snark, and you can find evidence of that here.
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
Posted on October 13, 2008Somehow, between the Dr. John lyrics from the last post, and the craving for red beans and rice, I've gone into a full New Orleans nostalgia tailspin. I lived in NOLA from spring 2003-spring 2004, and in most ways, it was a disaster -- my car got stolen, I was falsely arrested, I ended up doing financially ruinous things in the local music industry...
weekend report
Posted on October 13, 2008Extremely awesome, from a really nice treat on Friday evening to really lazy gluttony day Saturday, to sailing today. While cool planes doing cool things flew overhead. How was your weekend? In other news, I am reading for fun Erik Larson's "Thunderstruck," and am extremely excited to find a $3 copy of a Nathaniel West two-fer novella set that I hadn't read before...
roll out my coffin/drink poison in my chalice/pride begins to fade/ and y'all feel my malice
Posted on October 12, 2008Yes, those (lyrics to Dr. John's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters") are the most appropriate food-sounding lines I can find to express the usual consequences of my cooking. I think my culinary skills are, on the whole, less potent than the Night Tripper's musical voodoo curses, but just as malevolent...
tony! toni! tone'!
Posted on October 10, 2008Who doesn't love a band that plays with homophones and punctuation? Check out those fly ruffle cuffs.
where in the world is belle lettre
Posted on October 09, 2008Over at Amber's blog, beginning our epistolary exhange style of blogging. I'm waitin' on you, Amber.
California voters: REGISTER NOW.
Posted on October 08, 2008This is horrible: A new CBS 5 poll finds that California's Proposition 8 has picked up support in the wake of a television ad campaign that features footage of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaiming same-sex marriage is here to stay "whether you like it or not...
how blogging changed john b.'s life
Posted on October 08, 2008What a great post. Read it.I want to pick up this meme when the work slog slows down a little after 7 pm tomorrow (and after I finish my mega post) and then tag Amber and Paul.
when blogging is like work
Posted on October 08, 2008When you have been gearing up to write (for weeks) and then spend an hour writing and still do not finish a mega post on the sociology of culture as applied to the problem of love but trying to be serious in your discussion of heuristics, schemas, and the other minds problem, blogging feels a lot like work...
our far flung reporter
Posted on October 08, 2008Reporting from the music library today. I was sitting next to this girl who was clearly actually studyin gmusic, which most people in this library do not (I see law students for sure, but there's other departments too as this is the only air conditioned library on campus)...
inverse and converse
Posted on October 06, 2008You can design your own kicks at Converse. Question: what would look better/be more traditional/not look stupid: a parchment rubber sidewall that has contrast racing stripes, or one that has no contrast stripes? Question 2: Should the heel stripe be the same color as the rest of the shoe, or would it not look stupid if it were a different color?Question 3: Is adding a monogram-like personalization on the heel stripe cool, or does that seem like writing your name on a jacket because there are too many hipsters at this shoes-at-the-door themed Soup-and-Cupcakes dinner party and must thus disambiguate, or are a child/developmentally disabled person who must be reminded of his/her name or would fear losing his/her own shoes if they were not on his/her own feet? I'm tending towards "awesome," but I'm one of those not-a-badass preppies who owns a L...
Who are your Heavy Friends?
Posted on October 06, 2008Isn't amazing how YouTube always seems to... amaze? Here's the artistry of Screamin' Lord Sutch - who many consider to be the grandfather of Goth/Shock almost a decade before the Alice Cooper's of the world came on the scene. His most notorious album was Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, which had the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, John Bonham and is largely considered to be one of the worst albums of all time - as Sutch was lacking serious vocal talent, especially considering the musicians with whom he worked...
the hudsucker proxy
Posted on October 06, 2008An enjoyable film, available for instant viewing on Netflix! Kind of strange to watch it during the current economic climate, though. Also can't help but wonder what the rules about leveraged buyouts were in 1959, such that the board felt like it needed a dummy president to drive down the price of the company's stock so that they could buy up the shares...
things I am excited about
Posted on October 05, 20081. Cognitive sociology2. Gerd Gigerenzer's heuristics literature.3. Nicholas Epley's perspective taking studies.All three are related, and were I actually fluent in the literatures I could explain how.Also, admin law in the news.
weekend report
Posted on October 05, 2008What I actually ended up doing (and for which Wolfson will probably judge me and my tastes):We didn't end up doing the performance art flash mob thing. Instead I made a pretty terrific baked challah bread pudding (made with homemade challah, my challah was a little dry but beautiful, but hey, it was my first time baking bread!)...
ig nobel
Posted on October 03, 2008Seriously, how do you use Diet Coke as a contraceptive? Like, do you pour it over stuff, or do you merely ingest it as usual? Look, the linked article doesn't say. But apparently the study is wrong, and I guess you would pour that effervescent stuff over junk as they did in a petri dish...
Froomkin's Roundups
Posted on October 03, 2008Law prof Michael Froomkin publishes an excellent roundup of "McBush/McSame Bashing" every Friday that I always find informative and provocative.
and don't think I'm not serious about this
Posted on October 02, 2008If she says "Joe Sixpack" one more time, I swear I will bake another batch of challah so that I can punch down dough, because I'm like, non-violent and stuff.The other option, were I the violent type, would be trying to track down a Palin-supporter in Liberal College Town and smacking them upside the head and telling them "now let that be a lesson to you all...
why sarah palin is bad for feminism
Posted on October 02, 2008Emily Bazelon says it all:So instead of bowing out, she heads into her debate with Joe Biden with expectations so low either she or her opponent seems bound to trip over them. For women who are watching this all unfold, this means a lot of analysis, much of it angst-ridden...
possible things to do this weekend
Posted on October 02, 2008None of these are really mutually exclusive:1. Participate in performance art flash mob thing.2. Try to find a showing of "Religulous."3. Go to the planetarium.Votes?
New Kid on one difference b/t law and grad school
Posted on October 02, 2008#1,004: You can wear bright pink polish unironically.I totally gets what she means. At the graduate level in the humanities departments, you can only cop to liking mainsteam, plebeian amusements in an ironic way, or in a socially critiquing way. I suppose, if I liked watching shows about rich white people, I would say that I was ironically into Gossip Girl for a class analysis of the noblesse-sans-oblige and their Teutonic-sounding last names...
not as advertised
Posted on September 30, 2008Things that lie:1. Nextbus.com. Damn bus is never there, satellite tracking or whatever.2. Peds' "no show" socks. They show!3. CBS News. Journalistic integrity my visibly sock-clad foot.
jeremy thinks it's the end of the world. do you?
Posted on September 30, 2008My post-apocalyptic skills are as bad as Jeremy's. So, what do I do, knit my way out of this financial crisis? Bake cookies and hope that they can be exchanged for penicillin?I was talking to TD about the financial crisis, and all I know is that the House rejected the proposal, thus fulfilling it's part of the bicameralism-and-presentment part of the whole Constitutional structure, but that the bill will probably be amended and adjusted and voted on again with the same mandatory Constitutional process, however long that takes while the economy goes further down the tanker...
the soft bigotry of low expectations
Posted on September 30, 2008This is just plain sad:?I think she has pretty thoroughly ? and probably irretrievably ? proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States,? David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who is now a conservative columnist, said in an interview...
weekend report
Posted on September 28, 2008What a great weekend. I don't have classes on Friday, and he took his Blackberry on the road and phoned it in (literally, as we had to pull over while he participated in a conference call). I found ingenious ways to pre-prepare and pack jambalaya and a gateau de crepes for his birthday dinner, and our one-room cottage was cozy and comfortable, with a little iron stove and a tiny kitchenette that reminded me of my 300 sq...
I Hate Gwyneth Paltrow
Posted on September 26, 2008I have a strange attitude towards celebrity culture--I hate it, but I can't seem to tear my eyes away from the stray bits of copy I might by chance encounter via Jezebel or the supermarket checkout line. It is not unlike watching a trainwreck. But while we may feel some obligation to look on the plight of our fellow man and sympathize and help (kind of like why some suggest making eye contact with a stranger during a crisis in order to get them to help you), there is nothing redeemable and everything awful with paying attention to celebrities...
I hope you're in a good mood this morning
Posted on September 25, 2008I recently heard a presentation by Nancy Rothbard of Wharton on employee emotional affective reactions and their effect on work performance. Her study is fascinating (I won't cite from it, as it's a work in progress and under review) in how it operationalized an arguably non-controversial idea: your mood affects how you engage others, and your subsequent interactions throughout a day, and your performance and engagement on the job...
not the response he was looking for, but how do you respond to that?
Posted on September 25, 2008The butcher shop is totally a place to get hit on, if one were into that. One of the guys is still quite attentive, although he hasn't stepped it up from asking me what I'm doing this weekend, to which, I presume, one could do more than reply "brunch and laundry...
stuff that's in my head but not on my blog
Posted on September 24, 20081. Michele Lamont's Money, Morals and Manners. Excellent comparative study of French and American white upper middle class men and the values they identify when they create boundaries and distinctions between themselves and others--moral, socioeconomic, and cultural...
You know you are truly batshit insane when...
Posted on September 24, 2008You wake up shaking from a nightmare in which you've spent all your worldly wealth by buying over $7,000.00 worth of Peeps. Yes, Peeps. I'm pretty sure nobody's ever bought $7,000.00 worth of Peeps, total, in their entire life. Except possibly advanced scientific labs (perhaps the dream was a very indirect form of dissertation anxiety!!)...
pedagogy in the news
Posted on September 22, 2008I'll be traveling for most of tomorrow and then going straight to class and then straight to bed, but for now, some links from today's NYT magazine:Bad teaching evaluations can ruin your life if you are a bad or polarizing teacher who teaches at a liberal arts college that values teaching but are teaching evaluations a really good metric of teaching ability or are they really just bad mirrors of student dis/satisfaction? (in a nutshell, without proper grammar)...
friday non-blogging
Posted on September 19, 2008I dig this song. Video is a little creepy with all of those dismembered legs and gyrating bodies though. Like what is this, a Fifty Cent video? But you try to find a non-objectifying music video. I blame the patriarchy. Actually I have no idea what this video is supposed to mean...
palin baby name generator
Posted on September 18, 2008Here.Mine:Belle Lettre, if you were born to Sarah Palin, your name would be:Krinkle Bearcat PalinVia Kaimi at Concurring Opinions
admin law in the news!
Posted on September 18, 2008I've been meaning to post on the Dept. of the Interior's sex, drugs, and rock and roll scandal, but for now, this!:ABC News' David Wright reports: At a joint rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Thursday, Republican John McCain slammed the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for being "asleep at the switch" saying that if he were president, he would fire Chris Cox, the chairman of the SEC since 2005 and a former Republican congressman...
genius idea that makes me sound high
Posted on September 18, 2008I've actually never been stoned (no, really!), but I got up early to do work and prep tonight's dinner, and I was thinking that they should make a tubular tupperware so that you can pour your garlic-ginger-lime-chili (with honey) marinade over your 1...
i need to connect my TV
Posted on September 18, 2008Last night we went to a benefit thing for our local public broadcasting system, which introduced a lot of new programming for both the radio and the local public television. We went because his company is helping them with their "Green Initiative," and because it's fun to eat appetizers and mill around gold sponsor watching (a lot of scarves) and watch an hour of previews...
things I find annoying, #1,006
Posted on September 17, 2008This whole "lifestyle branding." Probably why I never pulled a Gatsby and coveted the stylings of Brooks Brothers, Polo Ralph Lauren (really now...), or even the vulgar version of Abercrombie and Fitch (which used to be a real outfitter for the likes of T...
oh no she didn't
Posted on September 16, 2008Frances Bean Cobain blogs!The teenage years I'm forced to take part of are supposed to be about "finding myself" and discovering what is right and what is wrong. How can i possibly go about doing such a thing if every move i make is under the scrutiny of the public eye...
veronica mars
Posted on September 16, 2008I liked Season 1. I kept thinking it was set in Newport Beach, when clearly it must have been some suburb in San Diego, and then I realized that no one outside of Southern California would have been able to tell the difference. I liked the snappy, plucky heroine and her pariah status among the rich spoiled brats who once called her their own...
random roundup
Posted on September 16, 2008Apologies for the lack of interesting, original content of late. Things have been busy. I have actually resorted to Leechblocking myself from most sites of interesting content, and trying not to read too much political coverage because I used to be prone to anxiety attacks...
mixology
Posted on September 16, 2008I have found that I am better at making mixes for others than for myself, even an emotion centered mix (dude, I'm sorry your grandmother died; mazel tov on your baby, etc.). Road trip mixes notwithstanding, when I try to make a mix for myself, it ends up being extremely emo and too narrowly single-genre...
there and back again
Posted on September 15, 2008I skipped most of the political theory/philosophy conference this weekend, but I did attend most of the receptions, and hung out with the law and philosophy crowd. Usually, philosophers make me feel nervous, out of my league, and intellectually inferior, and usually not by design...
this captures it all
Posted on September 15, 2008Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Palin and Clinton on SNL.
My condition isn't...
Posted on September 12, 2008The worst thing about coming back from vacation is... coming back from vacation and having to hear all about Sarah Palin. Seriously, can the media please stop championing her utter stupidity about... well, almost everything... as some sort of charming "everyone's just falling in love with her" personality quirk? Please? Anyway, now that I've vented - and since Belle was on a bit of Big Lebowski kick, I leave you with Kenny Rogers & The First Edition on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour...
too many conferences, too little time
Posted on September 11, 2008There's always some conference or another at my school. Most of them are not within my areas of scholarly interest, but I usually try to stop by some panel for the sake of learning for learning's sake. But I'm shorter on time these days, and there are so many other colloquiums that are much more useful and interesting to me these days, mostly sponsored by other departments...
problem-riddled, under-enforcing agency of the day
Posted on September 10, 2008OSHA. I read up a little on it for Admin law, and seriously, awful stuff. Nominations for others include the ever beleaguered FEMA and ICE, although arguments can be made for every single agency ever created.
hobbies by referendum
Posted on September 09, 2008All those in favor of me taking drop-in social dance classes from the Liberal College Ballroom Dancing Club at school and then blogging about it, say aye.I am way too swamped with work, classes, work, classes, but I am still committed to having hobbies...
murphy's law or whatever
Posted on September 09, 2008Time stamp of Fed Ex delivery guy's arrival: 2:26 pm.Time stamp of the dropping of my new refurbished under warranty Motorola v3 Razr on my hardwood floors: 2:47 pm.Also, I put in my sim card from my old phone. Why is it not loading my phone book? Hmm...
not so random roundup: gender edition
Posted on September 09, 20081. The most stupid and offensive Modern Love column ever (and that's saying something, considering there was an article in which the author compared training her husband to training Shamu), in which the author conflates cyber stalking with romance. I want to smack this person upside the head...
academic beefs and playing apples to apples
Posted on September 08, 2008It's always interesting to me to take classes in other departments and learn about the entrenched disciplinary debates and divides. Obviously, law has its originalism wars and the whole Hart/Fuller and Hart/Dworkin debates, but I wonder if anyone has made a claim so bold as "everything else takes a toolkit approach; it is time to take the autonomy of ____ theory seriously...
phooey to the wedding industrial complex
Posted on September 08, 2008Because I am a 27 year old woman soon to turn 28, I am the demographic of that awful, execrable movie, 27 Dresses. Also, The Wedding Planner. Also, this movie probably counts. And that show "Bridezillas." And one of a hundred E! Hollywood weddings...
subprime crisis for laypeople
Posted on September 08, 2008I've been reading about Bear Stearns and the federal bailout of the Macs, but not really understanding what the subprime mortgage crisis was all about, and was talking to TD about it last night. This PowerPoint stick figure cartoon (via TD) was helpful...
Help Paul counsel a 1L
Posted on September 07, 2008Who wants to chip in with advice for this person? (Cross-posted to Uncommon Priors.)Just read your essay from last year, "Why you shouldn't go to law school." You've probably gotten lots of emails like this...I'm 35 and a published (but obscure) writer of fiction, essays, book reviews, etc...
chain bookstores suck
Posted on September 06, 2008I hate to say it, because it sounds like I'm just another liberal elite, but Border's sociology section is appalling. Amazon.com all the way. If you want to hang out at Borders for a couple of hours waiting for someone to get out of a meeting and you figure you might be able to read a little more of The Protestant Ethic at the bookstore in the mall (because you only got excerpts via PDF), you'd be sorely disappointed...
doing other people's work and your own
Posted on June 11, 2008So, I will be an RA this summer for a public policy prof, working on coding cases and I need some advice. I've been talking to another grad student friend, and she's suggested 20 hrs/week, so that I'm sufficiently engaged with the project, well remunerated, and still with time to work on advancing my own research...
The Model Minority
Posted on June 11, 2008Asian American blogging week continues. I feel very weird even saying that, although I have in the past blogged about Asian American issues, mainly because I am still figuring out how that aspect of my identity fits into my overall identity. The Democratic primaries highlighted the apparent divisibility of race and gender issues, as if one had to choose between one or the other...
put that hitch in your gitalong
Posted on June 11, 2008We're going on a road trip this weekend to hang out and watch a dear, darling friend graduate. There are vast stretches of highway with dead air. Thusly, I am making a few mixes.Mine are usually highly themed, but this time the only themes are "Music I Love/TD Hates" and "Music We Both Like...
"Toyota"
Posted on June 09, 2008This weekend TD and I went to a baseball game, which is always fun for this occasional baseball fan (I like live games, always forget to follow on TV/news). By a fortuitous confluence of events, his hometown team is my chosen adopted team (chosen before we met, when I first moved here two years ago), the result of spurning every team within a geographic radius of my hometown for various reasons (sellouts, soulless marketing, oh no they di'n't just betray my hometown)...
the post that wrote itself
Posted on June 09, 2008(not so much a verbatim transcript so much as capturing the gestalt of an exchange)Me: Want to go to the ____ Street Fair with a couple of my school friends?TD: Sure. Where is it?Me: A couple streets down from me, in that slightly-seedy-but-in-the-process-of-being-rehabilitated/gentrified neighborhood...
Who's on who's on first?
Posted on June 07, 2008Have you even wondered what Abbot and Costello's famous bit, "Who's On First?", would be like if it was a dialogue between an African American male and an Asian female filmed in the style of Jim Jarmusch?I'd like this more if the walls were melting.
Coming soon
Posted on June 06, 2008I WILL post on:1. Part I: How to go back to school2. How to teach a class on race and gender, or incorporate such themes in non special topic courses.Tomorrow though, and over the weekend.
SATC: Review
Posted on June 06, 2008I stupidly read all of the reviews beforehand and so not only was I not surprised by most of the movies, but I became very convinced that this movie was antithetical to all of my feminist principles. There are some really good critiques of this movie (mostly at Jezebel), and they're right-on--the movie celebrates gross materialism and strident selfishness, and doesn't exactly celebrate diversity, even if they hire black magic in the form of Jennifer Hudson...
the inexorability of time
Posted on June 05, 2008I rarely talk about my parents except to mention how strictly they raised me and how that upbringing shaped my views on gender, race, culture, and personal identity. In turn, this has affected my scholarship and scholarly agenda, insofar as I aspire to not think like my parents...
I'm Back!
Posted on June 04, 2008Returned from suburban exile! After catching up with TD, I'm back to work, and being lazy about it. There are worse things than wasting away the day reading, for fun, Fabio Rojas' book and watching Flight of the Conchords. But soon, back to RA'ing and dissertating...
This Telfeyan thing needs to stop.
Posted on June 04, 2008I'm starting to feel really sorry for this Phil Telfeyan guy. Nobody deserves to have their personality dissected on a gossip blog like ATL as punishment for publishing a law review note about public interest -- not even if the law review note is a crappy piece of non-scholarship (which it is)...
conferences for junior scholars
Posted on June 02, 2008Over at PrawfsBlawg, Andy Hessick is asking about conferences that are aimed at junior faculty. Help him out.I'd suggest the George Washington University Institute for Constitutional Studies annual research seminar (topics change by year) and the Seton Hall Employment and Labor Law Scholar's Forum , which is "is designed to provide junior scholars with commentary and critique by their more senior colleagues in the legal academy and, more broadly, to foster development and understanding of new scholarly currents across employment and labor law...
A First Crack at Crispin Sartwell
Posted on June 01, 2008Crispin Sartwell, a professor of political scientist at Dickinson College and philosophical anarchist, has offered the following challenge:A Philosophical ChallengeMy irritating yet astounding new book Against the State (SUNY Press) argues that all the arguments of the great philosophers (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Hegel, Rawls, Nozick, and Habermas, among others), are, putting it kindly, unsound...
Liberation from Gmail: An Essay on Memory.
Posted on May 31, 2008I have a new laptop. It is awesome. I transferred all of my old files and then deleted them from my old laptop, to give to my sister. I also, for the sake of privacy (which I do have), deleted everything in my Outlook 2007 on that old computer. I log into my Real Life Alter Ego account in the Gmail webclient...
the institutional culture and "reputation" of liberal arts colleges
Posted on May 30, 2008Lots of interesting organizational issues in this essay by Prof. Tim Burke (Swarthmore):It?s really hard to accept change in an institution that you cherished as it was. (Yet more declension narratives!) If alumni have a useful role, in fact, it?s as guardians of the essential traditions and values of their own institution...
quote of the day
Posted on May 29, 2008"Hipsters are just yuppies without money."--TD(a comment made to my description of the latest lame-o DIY projects in ReadyMade)
have passport, will travel
Posted on May 29, 2008Well, I dug my passport out of the family safe. Apparently, it doesn't expire until Jan. 2009! So, should I renew it now, or keep it handy and renew it around December, when I probably won't travel anywhere due to finals and Christmas break?I never had occasion to drag it out before--see, supra, impoverished childhood under strict parents, etc...
now this is TMI
Posted on May 29, 2008Really, I'm not that bad, folks. At least, not compared to others. We were first introduced to Lena Chen in this article in the NYT, in which Ms. Chen debated sexual morality with the president of the Harvard Anscombe Society, aka chastity club. Amber blogged about it here...
are you sure you want to be a big firm lawyer?
Posted on May 29, 2008A BIGLAW survivor tells her story in "Private Practice: What Went Wrong?":Law firm culture (at least at the three firms I worked at), regards the assignments you get as an evaluation of your skills and capacities. The useless associate who doesn't get assignments because they're more trouble than they're worth to work with is a familiar character, and that was the pattern of the assignments (or lack of assignments) I got - while I was billing, in some years, half of what a very busy, but not really out-of-the-ordinary associate might bill, I was billing that low because that was all the work I had...
the last word on emily gould and female confessional writers
Posted on May 29, 2008by Rebecca Traister: What provokes such fury, over Carrie Bradshaw, and -- for a flash -- over Gould (barring a book deal and TV show that will turn her meanderings into cultural furniture) is that in a media landscape in which there are a severely limited number of spaces for women's writing voices, the ones that get tapped become necessarily, and deeply inaccurately, emblematic -- of their gender, their generation, their profession...
orange county boredom watch
Posted on May 28, 2008(checking watch) Still bored. Trying to work on an edit of an article when I'm not using my two bachelors and two (and a half) graduate degrees to be a nanny to several children or a receptionist/office manager/secretary of the corporation for my sister's dental office...
oh no you di'n't
Posted on May 27, 2008Sigh. And yet I did.Because I am an alcoholic working in a bar (i.e., academic), in an attempt to increase non-existent productivity and avoid procrastination, particularly during the unscripted summer hours, I have installed Leechblock.As Jeremy Freese says, this is not for the faint of heart...
Summer Resolutions
Posted on May 27, 2008I don't really do New Year's resolutions. A new semester isn't as much of a fresh start when you're on an academic calendar. I think of Fall and Summer as being times of potentially great, life improving change.My life has changed in various, mostly positive ways already...
stagefright
Posted on May 27, 2008I think that it would be an awesomely fun date to go to a karaoke bar and watch people sing. I've never been to a real one--you know, the ones in white people movies, with a proper stage for public humiliation. You know, like in "My Best Friend's Wedding," where the once-attractive Cameron Diaz sang "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" terribly, or in that treacly movie I just saw, "P...
Games
Posted on May 27, 2008I celebrate summer by throwing dinner parties and showing a movie that everyone has already seen, or a foreign movie with subtitles, so that people can drop in and out of attention to the movie and conversations with others. My parties, they are popular, especially '80s themed ones...
Hooray for LSA!
Posted on May 26, 2008To all of my friends going off to Montreal for the Law and Society Annual Meeting, I wish you a safe trip! Rock those Powerpoints! Enjoy the camaraderie and academic bon homie of the largest international interdisciplinary conference on law and social science! I wish that I could be there with you all...
Memorial Day thoughts...
Posted on May 26, 2008A photo from Arlington West in Santa Barbara, as supported by the Veterans for Peace.There are times I really wonder if this war is a part of our national consciousness, or whether it is merely an inconvenience - like a writer's strike, a recession, or an election...
What the pho?
Posted on May 25, 2008Thoughts upon returning to Orange County on this 24th of May, most of them gastronomical: No one makes pho as good as your mom. Pho restaurants may try very hard, and name themselves annoying slangy names like "Pho Shizzle," or "Pho Good" or "Pho Real" (these are all real and I could tell you the cities), or names like "Pho Kim Long" that inadvertantly invite juvenile and unfortunate jokes from the gringos much in the way "Long Duc Dong" did back in the '80s (and oh yes, this is a potentially real combination of names, as are the lovely Vietnamese names "Bich" and "Phuc")...
Conference Envy
Posted on May 23, 2008Unfortunately, my travel budget is such that I am unable to travel out of the country for conferences this year, so I won't be seeing you all in Montreal next week. Why? Because my law school doesn't fund me anything (well, a one-time of $100, which I am saving for LSA 2009)...
May it's the hair?
Posted on May 23, 2008Ending the week on an up note...I always wondered what happened to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - and while they are still around, Jon Spencer has also teamed up with Matt Verta-Ray to form Heavy Trash. I can't seem to stop watching this video. The redhead haunts my dreams...
This is a REALLY AWESOME idea.
Posted on May 23, 2008Debategraph -- a wiki dedicated to gathering the arguments. Period. From the site description: Our goal is to make the best arguments on all sides of any debate freely available to all and continuously open to challenge and improvement by all.In pursuit of this goal, Debategraph is:(1) A wiki debate visualization tool that lets you: * present the strongest case on any debate that matters to you; * openly engage the opposing arguments; * create and reshape debates, make new points, rate and filter the arguments; * monitor the evolution of debates via RSS feeds; and, * share and reuse the debates on and offline;(2) A web-based, creative commons project to increase the transparency and rigor of public debate everywhere?by making the collective insight and intelligence of the global community freely available to all...
Here's who all of the fuss is about...
Posted on May 23, 2008Emily Gould on CNN's Larry King Live (hosted by Jimmy Kimmel).I'm believe she referenced this appearance in the NYT piece, but, frankly, I only skimmed it. And apparently Belle's Carrie Bradshaw reference wasn't coincidental.One of the major issues I have with her is her total distortion of the term "citizen journalism"...
Media Economics as Stochastic Process, OR: Perhaps Richard Posner Was Right About Something After All...
Posted on May 22, 2008One of everyone's least favorite Posner screeds is his critique of the media, published (where else) in the King of All Media, a.k.a., the New York Times. The article prompted so much annoyance that Bill Keller was moved to write, and then print, a letter to himself in response...
stuff that bothers the hell out of me
Posted on May 22, 2008This is rehashing every race essentialist/race betrayal argument I have ever heard throughout high school, college, and law school by white and Asians alike. It is a subject that turns family dinners into shouting matches. It also reminds me of that awful movie, Something New...
If everything is culture, what isn't?
Posted on May 22, 2008So, by now everyone knows about the structure-agency debate in organizatoins. You don't? Wikipedia to the rescue. Although I trust Brayden King of OrgTheory on this more, for obvious reasons.But I've been reading lots about culture, and can't figure out if culture is epiphenomenal or if it derives from structure, and whether agency does anything to define culture...
Augh!
Posted on May 22, 2008Read this. Although I'm nowhere near as bad. But, wow. I thought it was bad enough blogging about work/life balance and my assimilationist immigrant childhood in the suburbs. But, whoa, people do dish about their personal adult lives in ways far more than "working late sucks" and "I celebrated the end of an oral exam by getting the flu and cutting my hair...
Wednesday Poet: Richard Siken (Part II)
Posted on May 21, 2008Here is the first post on Richard Siken, with my favorite--Scheherezade.Saying Your NamesChemical names, bird names, names of fireand flight and snow, baby names, paint names,delicate names like bones in the body,Rumplestiltskin names that are always changing,names that no one?s ever able to figure out...
everyday superheroes
Posted on May 20, 2008Thanks to Bully, who runs a cool blog and helped me reboot my iPod! Bully saves the day!!Image: they will never know who i really am, from exploding dog.
Bourdieu is Funny
Posted on May 20, 2008Or, at least the way Tim Hallet describes him in "Symbolic Power and Organiztional Culture":The habitus plays an important role in interaction because it is so unconscious. Upon presenting a certain self, it is too difficult for the actor to monitor every movement he or she performs, even a highly conscious, manipulative actor...
Grrrr.
Posted on May 20, 2008The 80GB iPod I bought just last Christmas is not turning on. I am hoping that it's just because it is drained of battery. I can't imagine that it would be so since it's usually docked in my Athena iPod player, but hmmm, let's hope that's the reason...
Speaking of Jeff Buckley...
Posted on May 19, 2008Since Belle mentioned Jeff Buckley, allow me to follow up with an artist that should be right up Belle's musical alley. Jeff Buckley's girlfriend at the time of his accidental (not suicidal, as popularly rumored) death was a woman named Joan Wasser - who is a musical powerhouse in her own right...
Hey, Jealousy
Posted on May 19, 2008(I wish that I could embed this video.)It takes all of 10 minutes to assemble an all-Jersey playlist for a mix CD for a friend who is a proud son of The Garden State from the music I already have in my library--Springsteen, Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Regina Spektor, Steely Dan, Fountains of Wayne, Isley Brothers, Fugees...
Gerard Depardieu!
Posted on May 18, 2008Thanks to The Journalist for the recommendation. This is a shout out to The Idealist.Admit it, whether you're a francophone or francophobe, this is hi-larious. And I usually hate musicals!
Sunday Poet: Yusef Komunyakaa
Posted on May 18, 2008Believing in Iron The hills my brothers & I createdNever balanced, & it took yearsTo discover how the world worked.We could look at a tree of blackbirds& tell you how many were there,But with the scrap dealerOur math was always off...
Six Sevens
Posted on May 18, 2008It's summer. This is not that serious a blog. Why the hell not.This is an old meme, but when I avoid work I read through Amber's archives, and she did one, so why not me? Incidentally, I stole some of hers.Also, I have no idea why numbers and bullets turn into flowers on my blog...
Chris Uggen Has a Blog?!
Posted on May 17, 2008Chris Uggen has a blog!! It is totally awesome!! If I didn't have to work, I'd want to read all of his archives. Once I get done with this last push, I'll probably start with his "longer and vibier posts" on the right hand sidebar.I feel abashed, because he linked to me without me noticing, and I only recently discovered his three year old blog by looking through the blogrolls on the sociology blogs I read...
This is for all the peeps at Madisonian.net
Posted on May 17, 2008Click to enlarge.Well, Madisonian.net and Feminist Law Profs. Copyright law meets feminism meets awesomeness.
the culture of workaholism
Posted on May 15, 2008In writing a review essay about organizational culture and family leave policies, I am always continually struck by the desire--on the part of workers--to assume the responsibilities, hours, roles. It's a part of their identity within the institution and in their personal lives, and how they define themselves...
occupational hazards of the academy
Posted on May 15, 2008This may be a long-running series.Pen marks on my handHighlighter marks on my arm and white Ikea futonCarpal tunnel syndrome, sleep deprivation, blah blahHunched shouldersADD in the form of "other interesting articles"Dehydration from all of the caffeineChubby bottom from sitting for hours.
because I am psychic
Posted on May 15, 2008I predict that Paul Gowder will post up some weird spacey jazz or evil bayou blues in order to cleanse this blog of offending music vibes. There is a disturbance in the force, and Paul will correct the balance, restoring order and good to the world.
aw, hell yeah
Posted on May 15, 2008I luuuurrrve this song, and so does The Journalist. Doesn't it make you so happy? Is not the video the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen? But I believe that now Paul Gowder will reject my friendship and ostracize me, even though he just busted out a Hobbes-Mr...
A Joke:
Posted on May 15, 2008Q: What do you get when you cross Thomas Hobbes with Mr. T.?A: I don't know, but it pities the fool that doesn't keep contracts when the other party's already delivered.You may all ostracize me now.
how belle met paul
Posted on May 15, 2008Aw. From the archives, the wayback machine brings you this story of two hot-headed liberal law geeks meeting in the great pneumatic realm of the blawgosphere.I didn't always know Paul Gowder personally. In fact, we met each other through the blog, and not because we went to school together or attended some conference together...
California Is Awesome
Posted on May 15, 2008The California Supreme Court overturned the voter-approved ban against gay marriage. The court held that the law?s limitation of ?marriage? to opposite sex couples is unconstitutional under the CA constitution. This is interesting from an an equal protection perspective, because California has long allowed ?domestic partnerships? mirror the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of marriage under a separate designation...
power and legitimacy
Posted on May 14, 2008Power and legitimacy have such different definitions depending on the discipline! I had to disabuse myself of the political science definitions when I went to law school, and oddly went back to some Foucaultian concepts I learned in lit crit when I was doing CRT and learning about Derrick Bell's interest-convergence theories...
humorless
Posted on May 14, 2008Gah, I can't stand it--being circumspect sucks. I probably never will blog Stuff Asian American People Like, although it's pretty easy to do, because it's too dangerous even though it could be hilarious.It's hard to be funny, at any rate. Humor is so individual...
what's your backstage?
Posted on May 13, 2008This made me go "aw," but I'm a big ol' softie.From Pitse1eh on her "backstage" (go here for the explication of Goffman concept of backstage):[From Good Will Hunting] "Those are the things I miss the most. The little idiosyncrasies that I only knew about...
Help WickedA Go To the ASA
Posted on May 13, 2008Wicked Anomie, plucky grad student of my dreams, is a little short in funding to go to the American Sociological Association annual meeting this year in Boston because her travel fund was rejected. I sympathize, because I am not eligible for travel funds--although now that I have advanced to candidacy, I can get a one-time grant of $500 I think, and the law school will give me $100...
Procrastination
Posted on May 13, 2008Slate has a series up about Procrastination. It is depressing. Okay, I am closing down all the browsers now.
Eeesh
Posted on May 13, 2008Sometimes my attempt at snarky humor that is intended to have more self-deprecating tones than anything else miserably fails. I thought it was clear that I was making fun of myself more than anything. Sorry, everyone. The Dear Undergrad feature is removed.
this sounds like a question for venkatesh
Posted on May 13, 2008This is cross-posted at Scatterplot. Sociologists, you know where to go to comment. It seems that Venkatesh is on a roll with his rogue sociologist thing. He already has an "ask a thug" feature on the Freakonomics blog, but really, he should have an "ask a rogue sociologist" feature...
weekend report
Posted on May 12, 2008Well, I'm thankfully fully recovered from the virus from hell. I recovered sufficiently by Thursday, just in time to take a final I was ill-prepared for on Friday. But I'm still working on papers until 5/16. After which, I will take two days off (it being the weekend and all), and...
Blinded by Political Hatred
Posted on May 12, 2008Only the right-wing blogosphere could turn a reference to the preamble of the United States Constitution as a manifesto for Big Government, just because a Democrat said it.
lawfoodie.com: SB edition
Posted on May 12, 2008No, I only wish that such a thing existed. Really, I should start www.lawfoodie.com, except that I'm not a real foodie.Ok, I am looking up tasty but romantic restaurants in SB for dinner like a month from now.Recommend one from the following (damn 'nets are conflicting):BouchonThe Stonehouse at San Ysidro RanchEpiphanyElementsCitronelleThe Wine CaskSage and OnionSevillaThey're all the same in price range, pretty much, and I know he'd rather pay for food that is delish than food that is meh, if you're paying more than takeout prices (because there are plenty of takeout price-range good food options, but "overpriced" is easy to apply to sit-down places)...
Good News
Posted on May 12, 2008Not that I was super worried, but now all of my business cards and my signature block in my school email no longer profess falsehood and fraud. I didn't know, when I had them printed, that I had to qualify to advance to candidacy.Of course, the gist of this message is "Congratulations!! Now you can do more work! Good luck writing that bitch of a dissertation!!"---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------Subject: SJD Oral Exam ResultsFrom: Advanced Degree Programs PersonDate: Mon, May 12, 2008 12:11 pmTo: bellelettre@gmail...
those people
Posted on May 09, 2008Unfortunately, for a while I'll be one of those people.I have a final tomorrow, so no posting from me. But, on Saturday I am taking a study break/adventure with TD, whom I have not seen in a week due to sickness and work. See you guys Sunday, when no doubt I will be procrastinating from work (becoming once again, those people) with a long essay on public/private law, public order, and why I put constitutional law on the back burner.
Law in Wonderland: one of the more messed-up things I've seen recently.
Posted on May 09, 2008The perverse incentives in traffic law have reached the point where local authorities actually want you to break the law. See below for the story -- some jurisdictions are turning off red-light cameras, even though they allegedly produce a public safety benefit, because motorists respond too well to them, reducing the public revenue from tickets (i...
put that funky punk back in your trunk
Posted on May 08, 2008WTF?! of the day, and I say that to you as a girl who used to dress in the style of the 1940s and then 1950s during that retro-period in the '90s swing craze, loves Firely, and whose only post-apocalyptic Zombie-takeover skill is knitting badly:STEAMPUNK:The lead singer of a neovaudevillian performance troupe called the James Gang, Mr...
on the backburner
Posted on May 08, 2008I'm actually doing work today, because today is the second day I've had consciousness for more than 3 hours at a time. But while I work through an insane amount of work, inevitably my thoughts are drawn elsewhere, and I think that when I'm done with my due work and start tackling my overdue work, I'll also want to think about:Larry Solum's semantic originalismThe (fallacious?) distinction between public law and private law, especially in the employment law context and laws of public order...
law school in a box
Posted on May 07, 2008I kid you not. Law School in a Box Sure, you could spend $100,000 on an Ivy League law degree. But then you'd have to deal with crowded classrooms, inconvenient course schedules and rigorous academic study (the worst!) That's why we're proud to offer the very prestigious Law School in a Box, jam-packed with:? Law School in 96 Pages: This mini-textbook features Law Lingo (what?s the difference between assault and battery?), Famous Cases (Brown v...
travel tips for the romantic and poor in santa barbara
Posted on May 07, 2008TD and I will take a mini-trip to go to watch my best bud JRO's hooding ceremony (this ain't no simple walking) for her Ph.D. Congrats, JRO!If anyone has any tips for booking a not-ghetto, but not pricey hotel/B&B/motel in Santa Barbara during the most overbooked weekend in graduation history (6/13-6/15), I'm all ears...
the extent of my election blogging
Posted on May 07, 2008It is not that I don't care, don't follow it, and am not passionately invested--I am--I just don't want to talk about it. Not until we get to the end leg of the run, and even then, limitedly, because depending on whom you talk to, discussions of politics can be thought-provoking and invigorating, or infuriating and exhausting...
Larry Solum's Academic Wish List
Posted on May 07, 2008Larry followed up on my post on pragmatic wants over at his blog. My list of things legal academics want: A drawer with an ever replenishing supply of binder clips An office close to the coffee maker An interview on NPR about their new book Leave More leave An offer More offers Cites More cites The ability to type as fast as Cass Sunstein Dick Posner's book royalties And things other academics have that law professors envy: Graders Real scholarly associations Some idea of what they are supposed to be doing Fewer arguments about procedure in faculty meetings Journal editors who understand what they read Things law professors have that other academics envy Salaries Travel budgets Journals without standards Getting a job without writing a diss Tenure in less than six yearsI think we can all agree!
how i read so many blogs
Posted on May 06, 2008It is inefficient to type in URLs (or check bookmarks), so I add RSS feeds to my Google homepage. Unfortunately, that means that private blogs are not checked daily, but weekly.So, I see that one of the 40 blogs (or so, I don't know) I keep tabs on has a new post...
stuff you don't know you want until you become an academic
Posted on May 06, 2008A poweful staplerLots of paper--reams and reams of it.Extra toner cartridges lying around, just in case, for the Samsung ML-2510, which you bought on sale but then regret because the toner cartridges have to be ordered rather than purchased from the nearby drugstore...
paul hastings sucks
Posted on May 06, 2008For more commentary, go to Workplace Prof Blog and Concurring Opinions.I'll just reproduce an email sent by a former employee of the Paul Hastings law firm:From: [Redacted]Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:14 AMTo: [redacted]Subject: My departure The circumstances surrounding my departure from Paul Hastings have been deeply disappointing...
gap studies
Posted on May 06, 2008I've written previously about the gap between my scholarship on work/family conflict, and my own likely approach to handle that conflict: by outsourcing childcare and housecare, using institutional resources and strategic family planning (don't have one till you can afford the resources), and working within the system of rather than outright challenging it (although I probably will ask to stop the tenure clock if I have a baby pre-tenure, I will put in all those hours both at the office and at home/weekends)...
oh, what the hell
Posted on May 05, 2008It doesn't require courses in Asian American Studies (which I've done), or ill-fated attempts at being a co-chair of an Asian American law student association (which I've also done) or reading lots of Asian American jurisprudence (again) to see that Kung Fu Panda is incredibly stupid and offensive, trading in the most venal and atavistic stereotypes of Asians...
GN/BN
Posted on May 05, 2008Good news: It is 85% likely that I don't have strep throat (initial test negative; apparently the more accurate throat culture takes longer to develop).Bad news: I just have to ride out this virus until it's done gone. Until then, I have all of the pleasures associated with strep throat: sore throat, swollen glands, malaise, headache, sinuses...
William James: philosopher and ghostbuster
Posted on May 05, 2008I just finished reading The Master by Colm Toibin, which is a beautiful novelization of Henry James' life. Yeah, I'm behind in blogging my 50 book challenge. I'm impatient with writing the reviews of fiction, since they seem like silly book reports. However, I will write essays on social science literature...
Saturday Poet: William Carlos Williams
Posted on May 04, 2008A Love Song by William Carlos Williams What have I to say to youWhen we shall meet?Yet?I lie here thinking of you.The stain of loveIs upon the world.Yellow, yellow, yellow,It eats into the leaves,Smears with saffronThe horned branches that leanHeavilyAgainst a smooth purple sky...
i was going to post on the stereotype-laden marketing of kung fu panda, but
Posted on May 04, 2008There is plenty to think about and for me not to comment on, though biting my tongue hurts a little, in the following article about a real life embodiment of the East, for which one does not even need to have a there and the hell away from again relationship to Asian American studies to have a reaction:From the NYT:A trim, close-cropped man who likes to dress fashionably in dark colors and black leather pants, Tan Dun is a kind of rock star of the modern music scene...
liberation
Posted on May 03, 2008It's usually a dumb idea after a breakup (cough Felicity cough), but cutting 4 inches off your hair feels liberating after a tough week in which someone took what, in ye olden days, would be called a "cudgel" and swung it repeatedly at your emotional and professional self...
1943 Guide to Hiring Women
Posted on May 03, 2008Click to enlarge.And then smack your forehead on the table and go "oy."
What's In A Name?
Posted on May 03, 2008Shakespeare: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.Olderwoman, at Scatterplot: Not if you're publishing under it.This is a really good essay full of things we young, yet-unpublished academics should consider in our public name. Apparently a lot of complications when you take a spouse's name mid-career, or if you divorce and have to keep using that name...
how does it feel to sleep 22 hours?
Posted on May 03, 2008Pretty awesome if your sickness appears to be stress-induced. My throat, it is less swollen. I am responding to Advil. I can eat the rice krispie treats I made on Friday now. Periods of consciousness: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, 8:00 pm to 2:00 am, 10:00 am till now...
correlation does not equal causation
Posted on May 02, 2008I didn't care about its impact on my kidneys or metabolism (in fact, I would crack open a can, take a sip, and point at what I thought were my kidneys to Jurisprudential Boy of Wonder with a big thumbs up, to which he would say "those are your ovaries--your kidneys are in the back!"), but I was ready to throw out all of the Diet Coke in my house because it seemed to be burning my throat...
Flowchart of the Day: The McDonnell-Douglas Burden-Shifting Framework for Individual Disparate Treatment Cases after Desert Palace v. Costa
Posted on May 01, 2008Click to enlarge.PFC = prima facie caseLNR = legitimate, non-discriminatory reasonPrice-Waterhouse = Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, a mixed-motive discrimination case--if discrimination is reason among other "legitimate" reasons, then Plaintiff can still win...
weird and wacky
Posted on May 01, 2008Really, Bryan? You did entire radio show of covers of "Louie Louie"?I think you have officially endeared yourself to the more fringe elements of the L&L audience, although you have possibly alienated most of us.I think that's awesome!I went on a date once with a guy who got fired from his college radio station for playing 4 hours of Gordon Lightfoot...
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Posted on May 01, 2008I defended my dissertation prospectus today from 3:15 pm to 3:30 pm. Seriously. Yes, my program is apparently fake. But this is how I looked:Phew! The most intense 15 minutes ever!! I think I did fine, although I did get some tough questioning in those 15 minutes regarding the difference between organizational norms and legal norms...
write like a college freshman majoring in English literature day
Posted on April 30, 2008Well, if I were Scott Eric Kaufman, I would actually do that and produce something hilarious. But I am not he. One can only dream, and I dream about playing with puppies.But if I did, I would probably choose some theme that is relatively obvious and yet ambitious (like the "concept of time") and choose some incredibly difficult and abstruse author (like T...
Wednesday Love Poetry, Just Because
Posted on April 30, 2008Lots going on. Exam tomorrow to advance to candidacy. Paper writing. Other stuff.So I'm reading poetry instead of doing work. And then I'm going to go for a long run and eat some ice cream. Yes, I think that this is productive and a good plan for the day...
Org Theory Smackdown: Culture v. Structure v. Agency
Posted on April 29, 2008It is a mark of a highly ambitious, and possibly deluded graduate student to try to say anything about that neverending debate full of fine but possibly false distinctions. Which is more powerful than the other? Which has the greatest potential for harm? Which comes first? Is everything culture? If everything is, what isn't? Is culture embedded in structure, or does structure determine culture? Can agency do anything to affect culture or structure? Is there any agency at all? What explains employment discrimination better: a bad work culture or institutional/structural barriers? Both? What is the more pernicious mechanism that operates to discriminate or prevents the mobilization of rights? What can the employee do about it, and can anything be done at all?For context, it is like pondering the eternal Roshambo of rock, paper, scissors...
"No man can resist evil! The bet is on!"
Posted on April 29, 2008In celebration of the fact that I'm still here, here's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. This is a chunk of F.W. Murnau's silent film "Faust," with a new and unbelievably awesome score by Phillip Johnston.
Intro to Introductory Introductions.
Posted on April 29, 2008So after Belle's introduction, I am left trying to figure out an "introductory" post.I would by lying if I were to say that contributing to Law & Letters has me feeling a bit intimidated. I mean, it's one thing to imagine blogging about neo-liberalism's impact on post-structuralist cultural relativism, but it's an entirely different thing to actually do it...
This is it. I think.
Posted on April 29, 2008There is still time for you to advise me. I have been getting lots of different advice, and I am taking most of it into account. Seems that 2.1 GHz is sufficient, while 3 GB RAM is definitely advisable. I am getting a higher rpm hard drive (160 GB at 7200rpm rather than 5400rpm), and a wireless-N card...
I am FURIOUS
Posted on April 29, 2008I am so mad, that I can't even think straight. I don't have anything productive to say other than a string of expletives. But really, what can you say, or what needs to be said, against such utterly contemptible falsehoods?Why am I mad?Scalia says "Get over it...
Laptop Shopping Advice Stat!!
Posted on April 29, 2008Within the next 2-3 days I am going to purchase this Thinkpad X61 Laptop.Due to some sweet deal, I am going to be able to get a souped up rice rocket of a laptop for 30% less. So, I have more freedom with add-ons now. I have a budget of $1500. So far, I have just been adding the extra stuff and finding that wow, I can still afford this...
OrgTheory's Grad Skool Rulz for Women
Posted on April 29, 2008Over at OrgTheory, my other favorite non-law blog, Fabio Rojas has compiled some great advice from women in the academy for other female scholars and graduate students:Spouses: A common theme was that women have to really work extra hard to manage their partner?s expectations...
changes in the lineup
Posted on April 28, 2008Thanks to my illustrious guest bloggers for their interesting and insightful posts. For the illustrious guest bloggers who never blogged, I am sure that your posts would have been just as interesting and insightful. Fortunately, they are all friends, and know I love them...
choose your own adventure
Posted on April 28, 2008(The best way to ensure that I'll blog is for me to declare that I won't blog. But don't get too used to this until after 5/15).Over at Scatterplot, Jeremy has an interesting mental exercise for you, albeit potentially depressing."Does anybody else have a counterfactual career they wonder about?"Some of the answers are surprisingly within the realm of possibility, like "children's book librarian", "veterinarian," or Jeremy's "computer programmer...
poetry for tired people
Posted on April 28, 2008Maturity by Philip Larkin A stationary sense ... as, I suppose, I shall have, till my single body grows Inaccurate, tired; Then I shall start to feel the backward pull Take over, sickening and masterful? Some say, desired...
Exhaustion
Posted on April 28, 2008There's lots to blog about on the failure of the Ledbetter Amendment and the idea of equal pay. Also, I could go over the (false?) dichotomy of organizational culture vs. organizational structure.But I'm too tired and busy. This blog will be bad for a few weeks...
Linux Geek Bleg...
Posted on April 26, 2008So I'm trying to free myself from the clutches of microsoft, and I'm almost there, but the display on my laptop is not playing nice with ubuntu... can anyone who knows how to fix this stuff pleeeaaaassseeee go here for the details and tell me what to do to make life better? Thank you!
It's 9:55 PM on a Friday Night. Do you know where you are?
Posted on April 26, 2008I'm at home, but working. You?I have no kids to wonder where they are. But I suspect that one day, I will be home and working and my kids will be out having fun. That will bother me. Either because I was raised to not have fun by psycho strict Asian parents and work all the time (And thus feel guilt every time I have fun rather than work...
two views of the same river
Posted on April 24, 2008The last class of the seminar on foundations of L&S today. It wasn't a terrible class, at all, but the class was strained to the hilt by the laboriousness of the readings, the occasionally stilted nature of the discussion, and the weird dynamics that pitted political scientist against economist against sociologist...
A Possibly-Serious, Possibly-Not Last Word on Law Journals, OR Belated Mobblogging, OR a Case Study in Perverse Incentives.
Posted on April 23, 2008A few facts about publications, and tenure.Probability of faculty members getting tenure (plus status, good lateral transfers, jobs in the first place, etc.) increases in number of publications.Expected number of publications increases in a) number of ideas cognitively available, and b) probability of acceptance from journals...
Noodle Kugel
Posted on April 23, 2008I'm inviting people over on Sunday to do a dry run of my dissertation oral defense. That is very nice of everyone during finals/paper writing hell to come to my aid. I have to feed them. I have to feed them well. On the menu is spinach mushroom quiche, blueberry coffee cake, and noodle kugel...
Where in the world is Belle Lettre?
Posted on April 23, 2008When I'm not here, I'm at Scatterplot.Otherwise, until I get my new laptop and only have Firefox and install Leechblock to prevent myself from surfing, I'm leaving behind the laptop and spending the day at the library surrounded by stacks of articles and books...
a seat at the (conference) table
Posted on April 22, 2008Part of being a good institutional citizen of your school/university is attending paper talks. No, not just those free food ones sponsored by this and that student org or law firm. Go to those too, although you will get sick of pizza. If you are the type that goes just to get food but not from interest, well, that's a little mercenary of you, but who am I to parse and judge motives? No, I am talking about the true test of intellectual interest and commitment: the brown bag paper talk...
Excerpt of the day: Gravity. It isn't just a good idea. It's the law.
Posted on April 21, 2008I am pondering posting a "Concept of the Day: Structure vs. Agency", but I am not sure that I understand it myself. I should stick with employment discrimination law. However, going over that concept would allow me to introduce another topic of blogging delight, or "great beefs in the annals of academia"--apparently, the structure/agency camps are very polarized and contentious...
I don't do it all, so I don't have it all. Oh well.
Posted on April 20, 2008Alternate title: public shaming, home office edition.This is more like the secret shames that occur in the privacy of one's home office/living room. I really wish I had an office at school. This was one of my recommendations to Legal Theory Prof for making his school's VAP more attractive...
Blog Spotlight #2: Wicked Anomie
Posted on April 20, 2008I am quickly getting sucked into the world of sociology blogs. Fear not, legal scholars--I have not abandoned you yet. In fact, I often say to myself in my pup tent on the cold mountains of Wyoming, "I wish I could quit you, Law."But anyway, through my marauding travels in Scatterplot, I have been discovering awesome sociology blogs...
Blog Spotlight: Mybackstage by Pitse1eh
Posted on April 20, 2008This blog is awesome. I too, love fun socks. I have no idea how to pronounce that handle. The blog author seems to be taking a blog break. I want to encourage this wife, lover of bad television and fun socks, social psychologist and sociologist to keep blogging though...
Breaking Matzoh With Belle
Posted on April 20, 2008I'm hosting a kosher dinner next week for friends. No, not a seder--that's only the first and second nights of Passover, or the 15th/16th days of Nisan. Why do I know all of this? I took religious studies classes in college and can remember a whole lot from this course called "Jewish Nationalism and Literature...
Diplomacy: The Game
Posted on April 20, 2008No joke. TD suggests that we get a bunch of people together and play the game. On my computer.I got the rules. You got any tips? I am not known for my military strategist skills, or knowing how to form international alliances. Also, I am bad at figuring out which countries to fuck over in my quest for strategic alliance and global dominance...
Elevators and the American Legal System
Posted on April 18, 2008It's a long and storied history. Cookies to the first person who finds me the oldest case. But remember Portee v. Jaffee? I do, because my 1L memo was based on it--the Hubble Memo, we called it, about a mother's claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress over watching her son die, only our twist was that the mother was not actually present and observing...
The Wayback Machine: '80s Protest Songs
Posted on April 18, 2008The '80s were times of political change. Reaganomics, The Apartheid, the Cold War. Lots of good stuff.These are the greatest '80s protest songs?!Somehow, there was something lost in translation. I don't think anyone really gets this from "Rock the Casbah" from the great band, The Clash: This song is quite obviously about mideast peace, with the incredibly cheesy image of the rabbi picking up the Arab in a Longhorn Limo in the video...
A Tale of Two Classes
Posted on April 18, 2008I am taking two classes from the same professor this semester, who coincidentally also happens to be my advisor. She is quite awesome, both as an advisor and as a professor--knowledgeable, always prepared, solicitous, helpful, understanding--particularly since I seem to be competing for the Worst Grad Student Ever award...
More from the religion and politics files, OR: Take That, Rawls!
Posted on April 18, 2008So Rawlsians often cite (liberal) Catholicism as an example of a religion totally compatible with political liberalism. Here's what the Pope just said to Catholic universities (via NYT): Catholic universities and colleges have come under fire for inviting speakers who favor abortion rights, like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Stanley Tucci, the actor, who was dropped from an event at Catholic University...
Bob Sutton Has A Blog?!
Posted on April 18, 2008All I know of Bob Sutton is his older work on the endogeneity of law. The Legalization of the Workplace, for example. Or, The Strength of a Weak State, which I once reviewed for class. That's the problem with survey courses. You have to start somewhere, and that's usually somewhere in the 1980s or 1990s, which is considered "recent...
April Is National Poetry Month
Posted on April 18, 2008Did I forget to mention?I hardly write poetry anymore. I was That Sad Poetry Writing Girl in high school and college, and president of my high school Literary Club. Okay, I was also its founder. We had five members. I was not popular, no.Here is a FAQ on poetry by Robert Pinsky...
Photography Vote
Posted on April 18, 200816x20 mounted Giclee Print above my dining table. Help me decide.For context, and for a peek into my inner sanctum/home office, this is what my house looks like.
You Don't Think The Onion Is Funny? What, Too Lowbrow for You?*
Posted on April 16, 2008Ever write something funny, in the manner of an Area Person kind of article, and chuckle to yourself and send it to your friends and loved ones, and think that maybe this is the stuff of blog gold, and then suddenly become circumspect and realize that it's probably TMI and perhaps not that funny, and would not reflect well on you professionally and that you've outed yourself to too many law profs (because hey, blogging is great networking, and you never had the benefit of social capital being a state schooled poor immigrant kid, and so hey indeed) such that you can no longer blog the way you would have blogged if your blog had never become actually read by other people?Yeah, me too...
Irony Is
Posted on April 15, 2008Reading Arlie Hochschild's "The Time Bind" as your partner works late into the night after receiving an after-hours work assignment to turn-over numbers by tomorrow morning. Augh.Incidentally, if you were wondering what I was referring to when I mentioned accusations of academic "Taylorism" in the sum up post on the Madisonian...
MobBlog at Madisonian.net: What Kind of Institution Do We Want a Law School To Be?
Posted on April 14, 2008(The MobBlog is Over. Updated Links and Descriptions. Apologies for slight editorializing.)Deven Desai kindly emailed me the following (as if I wasn't reading Madisonian.net religiously, but I appreciate each and every personal email and link tip):As you have followed and pondered the way in which legal education works, I wanted to let you know that Madisonian...
Olderwoman on the "R-Word"
Posted on April 14, 2008Yet another interesting, insightful post by Olderwoman over at Scatterplot, this time on the discursive disjunction between White and Black use/interpretation of the word "racist," and how deleterious disparate impact should be thought of as not only invidious individual discrimination, but as an institutional, structural, societal problem.
Critique of the Day: Ewick and Silbey, The Common Place of Law
Posted on April 14, 2008Not sent to the class: this book kind of makes you want to never live in some parts of New Jersey (as does the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle), but Frank Pasquale might tell me otherwise. Then again, who am I to talk. I once worked for a summer near South Central LA, am from boring Orange County, CA, and currently live in one of the few U...
I have to see this movie.
Posted on April 14, 2008And so do you.And hey, bonus, John Cho is going to be Sulu. But wasn't Matt Damon supposed to be Kirk?! And how about Adrien Brody as Spock?!WTF is this untalented pretty boy doing as Kirk? Good thing I like Simon Pegg (from Hot Fuzz and 28 Days Later!) and Eric Bana (who, I'm sorry to say Amber, will be playing Henry DeTamble from that book you hate so violently...
In Which Belle breaks Ben Wolfson's and Paul Gowder's hearts, loses Bryan D. Brown's friendship, but delights Amber Taylor*.
Posted on April 13, 2008I just bought this girl's album.Hey, it was super cheap, it sounds pleasing and happy, and it's 79 degrees today and I'm stuck indoors and cleaning and doing work. I bailed on a sailing date, and I am regretting this.Yes, yet another YouTube content-less post as a stop-gap filler...
History of Hallelujah
Posted on April 10, 2008I forgot which academic blog tipped me off to this, but I thought you might like to learn about The History of Hallelujah.Hipster Law Prof started listening to Leonard Cohen back in college, which to me sounds like forever ago. I love the early '90s, but I was you know, 11 in 1991...
Do you hate pop music? Does this mean you hate America, too?
Posted on April 10, 2008Lite blogging continues. The sudden deluge means that I'll be offline and trying to finish a book/bookreview and researching for one of my many damned papers.Six months ago, there was an awesome day, that led to more awesomeness, which continues to be awesome...
Paging Patrick J. and The Best Friend
Posted on April 10, 2008TD and I were talking this morning as we listened to NPR's report on the turmoil in Tibet. We start talking about other recent instances of unrest and violence: Darfur, Rwanda, Basque, the neverending Israeli-Palestinian conflict.He posits that at least in developing countries like Africa, if we could solve the problem of hunger, then people would fight less...
Yes. A YouTube Post. Fine, Judge Me for Lack of Content.
Posted on April 10, 2008I have three draft posts on legal pedagogy and work/life. They are so long. I may have to stop doing long essay posts and just link to stuff or something, like most bloggers. But you come here for content, not frequency of postings, right?I'm also buried underneath work...
How To Announce Your (Positive) Tenure Decision
Posted on April 07, 2008Brian Donovan is so awesome. His book looks very interesting, too.Heck, I'd do this just for landing a tenure-track job! Maybe with slightly less fanfare. Maybe with only one squad of cheerleaders. I have to learn some cool moves though, like Brian's...
What's New With You?
Posted on April 07, 2008Me:1. Still way behind in dissertation work. What else is new? But I went to my first baseball game of the season. Gotta have priorities.2. Writing two potentially publishable Law and Society-angled papers this semester. One is a review essay on organizational culture and leave policies...
Briefest Movie Reviews From Me Ever
Posted on April 07, 2008I've seen a few movies recently, none of them super memorable:1. 16 Blocks: Corrupt cop Bruce Willis tries to transport protected witness Mos Def to the courthouse to deliver testimony against other corrupt cops, showing that people can change. I love Mos Def, but he acts like he has a mild case of Tourette's here...
What's On Your Amazon.com Wish List?
Posted on April 04, 2008Content Analysis does a content analysis of prominent sociologists' public Amazon.com wishlists, finding, soberly:From the first Wish Lists or two, I thought I might stumble onto some fascinating insight into the intellectual interests of prominent sociologists...
Gender and Organizations Reading List
Posted on April 04, 2008But a small selection: Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1977. Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books. Jacobs, Jerry. 1989. Revolving Doors: Sex Segregation and Women?s Careers. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Hochschild, Arlie Russell...
New Resources on Women in the Workplace
Posted on April 03, 2008I'm doing research for my review essay, that better damn well be published in an L&S journal because it might be the first publishable thing I write on my fave topic. I totally owe Laura Beth Nielsen an email, in hopes that she'll give me a free copy of her very expensive book and advice on making this publishable...
In Which I Provoke You and Invite You To Disagree
Posted on April 02, 2008I returned from break on Monday night, and have been really busy since. So in lieu of one of my long essay posts (two of which are in draft form right now!), a couple of de-contextualized, un-nuanced statements to stir the pot and get some comments/protests of violent disagreement:I am often intellectually/artistically elitist, but I feel bad about how judgmental I can be based on my subjective values, even though I think there exist objective standards of value...
Why Moral Universalism is a Good Thing, pt. 90276009246x10^847 (sorry Daniel)
Posted on April 01, 2008a.k.a. "Okin was right pt. 90276009246x10^847: Multiculturalism really is bad for women.(Subtitle: Venezuelan man assaults woman for declaring feminism, declares feminism form of U.S. "colonialism.")(h/t Amber)Edit: Nor is this particularly an issue about "foreign" cultures: among the cultures, whose advocates claim it is deserving of protection, that leads to violence against women is U...
While I'm plugging other blogs...
Posted on April 01, 2008Everyone should read my [internet-] friend Helen's blog. It's hilarious and mad and 100% New York City, in the least annoyingly obnoxious possible way that one can be 100% New York City. Also, cooking with math, and multiple deep and worryingly comical connections between fashion and Nazi Germany.
A really smart idea from some logician.
Posted on April 01, 2008From some blogger called "infinite injury" (whose blog I've never seen before, and which seems to be pretty random), the following extremely good idea:Instead of those individuals with the best defenses taking them trial we see just the opposite happening in the RIAA cases...
The Dismal Science, in a couple of lines.
Posted on March 31, 2008From the freakonomics people's nytimes interview with a couple of prostitutes (h/t: Amber): Q: If men pay by the hour, they would want to consume as many acts per hour as possible. How do sex workers feel about this?MINDY: I?m trying to be delicate with my answer: this usually doesn?t happen...
Specialization is for Insects: Why Don't I Follow International Law Anymore?
Posted on March 31, 2008I just saw the new Prime Minister of Australia speak at the Brookings Institution today. It was a really interesting talk, mostly about economic and strategic cooperation between Australia and America, and the pressing need for Western countries to really "understand" and engage directly with rising economic/political/global powers of China, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Asian region more broadly...
Summer Funding
Posted on March 29, 2008Filed Under Real Life Grad School Tales, alternate title Grad School Reality--It Sucks, So Keep Your Day Job: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a grad student who is not fully funded is cheated by his or her institution, and should not go to that grad school...
Dear Republicans, Credit Card Industry Goons, Democrats Who Voted for the Bankruptcy Bill, etc.: I Told You So.
Posted on March 29, 2008I've been railing against both the credit card industry and the bankruptcy "reform" act for years now. Here's, in relevant part, what I said in March 2005 (in a blog comment, along with a variety of less temperate things): Third, how about abusive practices as to consumers as well as to the democracy? The fact that the credit card companies DELIBERATELY TARGET THE FINANCIALLY UNSOPHISTICATED -- as can be seen most dramatically by setting foot on most any college campus (especially large state universities) about the start of the academic year, when they sucker college freshmen into signing up for these cards, on no income or credit history, and get them mired in debt right from the start -- gives them no claim to any moral high ground...
I Wish I Could Quit You, or The Book That Got Away
Posted on March 28, 2008I borrowed about 20 books or so from TD, pillaging his shelves and absconding with printed treasures. Yes, I talk this florid and purple prosey in real life--and only occasionally is it adorable, although I'd hope that it was adorable all of the time...
Stuff "Everyone" Should Know
Posted on March 28, 2008This is a post intended to provoke comments. Consider this your personal invitation.I was talking to TD tonight, which is awesome as always. TD does financial analysis and consulting (mainly project finance) for a company in some industry in some part of the country...
Making Chemistry Relevant to Grrrls
Posted on March 27, 2008Alternate title: Young Female Scientists Expose the Truth of the Beauty Industrial Complex. That is way too charitable. I am going with: How to make chemistry more relevant to girls, because mixing cool stuff that explodes or Mentos + Diet Coke is not enough, here's a gem from the NYT:Along with 10 other girls chewing over rumors of ingredients like skunk oil and pulverized fish scales, the two had traveled with parents in tow to the Museum of Science here three weeks ago to attend a Saturday seminar called Cosmetic Chemistry...
The Many Ways That Child Abuse is Still Legal.
Posted on March 27, 2008Warping the minds of your children with lies about science: child abuse.* Exposing your children to cult-like thought control: child abuse.Refusing to protect your children (or the public) from disease because you can't do math or, big surprise, because you think some spook in the sky said so: child abuse...
Random Stuff Because I Am A Personal Blogger/Raging Narcissist.
Posted on March 27, 20081. Reading review essays on subjects in which you have no interest merely to get the idea of format and structure is really boring. Sigh. Well, how else are you supposed to learn. When I am done, and if this is accepted to publication, I am writing a template formula for review essays and posting it on Scatterplot...
Unfortunately, it's not illegal to be just a jerk and a bully
Posted on March 25, 2008In the workplace, under Title VII, workplaces of over 15 employees can't hate/discriminate on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or religion; under the ADA workplaces of over 15 employees can't hate/discriminate on the basis of disability; and under the ADEA workplaces of over 20 employees can't hate/discriminate on the basis of age...
Lenny Dykstra's "Scholarship Kid"
Posted on March 24, 2008According to my New Yorker, Lenny Dykstra's kid, Cutter, will attend UCLA in the fall on a baseball scholarship. Lenny Dykstra is richer than God. UCLA is a public university, and in California, one of the two premier public universities for California residents...
Open Thread Day
Posted on March 24, 2008I am on vacation. Open thread day!Honestly, I got nothin'. All I've done for the past few days is eat, sleep, read Henning Mankell, play with a puppy and watch Major Barbara (which I must say is one of the funniest, wittiest, shrewdest plays about war and morality, topping All My Sons)...
TMI
Posted on March 24, 2008I don't quite know what to make of this. My first instinct is to delete every social networking account before I go on the market, and come back with a nothing profile and re-find all of my real friends, or else give up entirely on this social networking thing:There was a time when professors did not outrank music premieres on television...
Law and Social Science Damns Me to Heck
Posted on March 21, 2008As Huck Finn says, "well then, I'll be damned!"I occasionally worry that I'm veering too far off the doctrinal path into the murky shadows of social science. This is scary because I am not properly trained in social science. And yet, I persist. Why? You have to do what you want, and I am just not good enough at gaming the meat market in order to want to do that...
Lost In the City
Posted on March 21, 2008This is a picture of my foot, outside the Library of Congress (taken by accident of course), circa spring break, 2007. That pretty bag is full of law review articles, and those stylish shoes barely ventured out of the library. Who says that the life of a legal academic isn't glamorous?I really loved this collection of short stories, set in and around D...
Family/Life
Posted on March 21, 2008I'm scrambling to get work done, catch a train, get to the airport, and figure I'll sleep for the first time in three days on the plane, but I can't go without at least putting up a link to Olderwoman's amazing personal essay on family/life and caring for her mother...
For Those of You Interested in the Bear Stearns' Debacle
Posted on March 20, 2008In terms of FAR interests, I have greater interests (and ability) to teach Contracts or Civ Pro (and probably more Contracts), but I really loved Corporations in law school. Yes, me, who was That Annoyingly Sanctimonious Progressive Girl in law school...
Advise Belle: Laptop Shopping
Posted on March 20, 2008I am looking to buy an ultraportable laptop, under 3 lbs, max 4 lbs. I need to be more portable when I start fieldwork and dissertatin', even though I am going to take bunches of classes next year too. Right now I have a 17", 8 lb clunker that hurts my back, so I leave it at home and try to use school computers or gasp! write by hand...
Tablet Notebook vs. Regular UltraPortable
Posted on March 20, 2008Okay, now I'm thinking of getting this Thinkpad X-series Tablet PC.Can you give me reasons for choosing a Tablet over a regular laptop? Will this thing break off the hinge or something? Will I actually be able to write notes and is this a useful utility? Why are tablets better? Will they rock my world? Also, I need my laptop to last at least 3+ years...
Shamus Khan is Human, and He Rocks
Posted on March 20, 2008Shakha at Scatterplot writes an open letter to academics:In short, what lots of folks tell me is they are happy when we seem like actual humans, and not simply people who are huddled up in an academic monastery. Therefore, let me publicly affirm what I have been privately conveying to others...
The Racial Tipping Point and Title VII
Posted on March 20, 2008Yale Law professor Ian Ayres blogs for the Freakonomics blog!:1. African-American cab drivers, on average, were tipped approximately one-third less than white cab drivers.2. African-American and Hispanic passengers tipped approximately one-half the amount white passengers tipped...
i'm glad i hitched my apple wagon to your star
Posted on March 20, 2008Some people hate and denigrate YouTube posts. I am writing paper proposals today, and reading bunches for class tomorrow (yes, class on Friday!) and then I am taking a red-eye to D.C. So give me a break!This is the band The Boy Least Likely To. I got this from The Journalist...
Why Not Heavy Gas Taxes? Why Carpool Lanes?
Posted on March 20, 2008Someone explain this to me, because I do not get it at all.We have these things, carpool lanes (HOV lanes in the east), that are supposed to encourage people to drive less often, and share cars. They impose a cost on people who drive alone (in the form of lost time and additional burned gas), and transfer some -- but not all -- of that amount to people who drive in carpools, in the form of gained time and (presumably, since gas burns faster in traffic) less burned gass...
PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND SCIENCE: LET'S WRITE OUR OWN DAMN MOVIE.
Posted on March 19, 2008As everyone by know nows, this "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" movie is coming out soon. If you want to be really, really angry, watch the absurd, idiotic trailer. It's a paranoid conspiracy flick written by Ben Stein, claiming that something called "big science" is suppressing scientists who question Darwin...
Obscure Amendment Day
Posted on March 19, 2008Could Hillary Clinton (please, people, either use her full name or refer to her as Clinton, the way you do "Obama." Don't go by first names as if she were a Barbie doll. Not that I'm voting for her, and her own damn campaign does the Cher thing, but it is annoying) select Bill Clinton as her Vice President?Calvin Massey discusses this at The Faculty Lounge...
Critique of the Day: Erin Kelly, Discrimination Against Caregivers
Posted on March 19, 2008Citation:Kelly, Erin L., "Discrimination Against Caregivers? Gendered Family Responsibilities, Employer Practices, and Work Rewards," in Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities, eds. Nielsen, L.B. and Nelson, R. New York: Springer (2005)...
So you think your advisor is tough?
Posted on March 19, 2008From "Inside Higher Ed"A deputy provost at the University of New Mexico has determined that no ethics review is needed of a professor who posed with a graduate student on a sadomasochism Web site, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Some faculty members had demanded an investigation, saying that they were not objecting to the professor?s decision to pose for the site, but her decision to do so with a graduate student...
The Frequency of Awesomeness
Posted on March 18, 2008Some awesome independent scholar dude named Ray Cha (bust down those Ivory Tower gates!) has a blog that is most awesomely about technology and policy (check it out, Madisonian.net folks), and found my cross-post about Your Daily Awesomeness on Scatterplot...
Obama on Race
Posted on March 18, 2008I wish that I heard more speeches like this. It would be hard to believe, if I didn't believe so deeply, in the power of words and rhetoric. For once, my exhaustion with politics--its dross and dreck, the futility of it all--is overrided by the feelings of galvanization and inspiration.
Dear Phil. of Science People: How to Express the Falseness of Intelligent Design?
Posted on March 17, 2008WARNING: I'M TALKING OUT OF MY ASS IN WHAT FOLLOWS. IT'S ALL RANDOM SPECULATION. DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY.Apropos of the discussion in the comments to my last post, I overheard a discussion about intelligent design in a coffeeshop lately. A working scientist of some sort was holding forth at some length about why ID is not scientific because it's not falsifiable...
Wittgenstein: Go.
Posted on March 17, 2008Philosophy day continues, my dear philosophers.Same questions as before:What should I, your beloved Belle, know about Wittgenstein? Should I be reading Wittgenstein? Which works? What derivative philosophers and secondary sources? What are the merits and deficiencies of Wttgensteinian philosophy? What do you like/dislike about Wittgenstein? Of what use/purpose/meaning is Wittgensteinian philosophy to you and your scholarly work and own life?
Dear Philosophers: What Do You Like/Dislike About Kant?
Posted on March 17, 2008There are several Kantians (pro, contra) among my readers. This is an open letter to them.Dear Philosopher Friends,I have only read the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, and that was back in college. I am not a philosopher, and do not generally read much philosophy (unless it's legal philosophy, at least), and so I don't feel too ashamed about this...
Dumbest Influential Argument Ever?
Posted on March 16, 2008I've decided to run a blog contest for the dumbest influential argument ever, in any field in which the readers and writers of this blog have knowledge (law, sociology, philosophy, political science, humanities in general, medical ethics, economics, etc...
Awesome is...
Posted on March 16, 2008...being in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, hiking around, and coming home to a comfy house with wireless internet, hot showers, and soft beds. And steak and ice cream.It is also being on different laptops in the same room as he drafts the worst fantasy baseball ever, and you blog and read the Legal Theory Lexicon...
And while we're at it, don't stay up too late.
Posted on March 14, 2008Okay, I am off. Tomorrow is a long day of classes, conferencing, road-tripping. I'll be going from one thing to another, and my day will start at 6:30 am and finish at 6 pm, and that is the work part. I expect to begin to have fun around 7 pm, or at least as much fun as sitting in traffic can be...
Piling On
Posted on March 13, 2008Again, I really don't care about the Spitzer thing, except that it's generating some interesting discussions on whether sex work should be legalized, whether it is in fact oppressive (if you take out the abusive pimps part, which you can't, so...), and whether it is a "victimless" crime, and whether, if like porn, it cannot escape its oppressive nature (MacKinnon)...
I Declare This Timothy Burke Day. Also, don't go to grad school.
Posted on March 13, 2008Go buy Jessica Hagy's book, Indexed!I was hanging out with Wolfson last weekend, and we were talking about bloggers you'd like to meet or hang out with, present company excluded of course. I wish I could spend more time with Larry Solum, and I desperately want to shoot the breeze with Frank Pasquale, but as they are both law academics there's a good chance of this happening...
Naturally High...on Life!
Posted on March 13, 2008(Dude, if you were as dependent on federal financial aid as I have been for the last ten years, you would also never, ever risk losing financial aid over a doobie or scooby or whatever, and so natural highs are literally the only highs I really have ever known...
Work/Life
Posted on March 13, 2008For TD.Via Jessica Hagy, Indexed.I have three classes and ongoing research and independent projects, so the work is never-ending, but I never actually count the hours, and I take lots of breaks (but I work at least half weekends). I should, because they are roughly the same as TD's, except that his staying at the office from 7 am to midnight whenever he has to work on some complicated part of "The Deal" sounds so much more impressive...
The story behind my *real* name.
Posted on March 13, 2008This post is dedicated to JAM, who asked why my "real" name is not like my "pseudonymous" name--e.g. it is not "Isabelle" or for heaven's sake, "Brandy." Dude. Please.[aw]Begin heartwarming immigrant narrativeI was given a Vietnamese name, Oanh. It is like "One" but not...
I don't know how to swim. This is helpful.
Posted on March 13, 2008But yes, I can sail a boat. I have a lifejacket when I sail!This is how I need to be taught. This is not what my brothers did when they shoved me into swimming pools twenty years ago.I can float on my back and do a bad breaststroke for a few minutes, but I need to learn how to tread and really swim, at least so that if kid falls into the pool I can do something...
Legal Profession Stratification (Again)
Posted on March 12, 2008Quick answers to one of the discussion questions sent out a few hours ago for tomorrow's class:According to the readings, what are the sources of stratification within the legal profession? Are they structural? Cultural? Institutional? All three?All three...
On Second Thought
Posted on March 12, 2008I am so far refraining from posting the tracklist of mixes I make in which there is some sentiment attached, but this blog is and its readers are so awesome, that I have come to rely on you all for advice and good judgement. Also, TD doesn't read this blog, I swear, despite me giving him permission to read the blog...
Bacon and the Enlightenment
Posted on March 12, 2008Via TD, who wants credit for everything, even if he doesn't read this blog.(click to enlarge)
Stuff on Spitzer
Posted on March 11, 2008I don't care much about Spitzer's fall from grace, but I care about federalism and feminism, so here's the only things I consider interesting and worth reading:Prof. Rick Hills on Sex, Corruption, Federalism, and the Mann Act Prof. Orly Lobel on Legalizing Prostitution From Controlling Authority, a brief introduction to Catherine MacKinnon's and Martha Nussbaum's different views of prostitution(go here for more on Nussbaum and Feminist perspectives on sex markets)One of the most interesting articles on sex work is by Noah Zatz: Sex Work/Sex Act: Law, Labor, and Desire in Constructions of Prostitution , available here if you have JSTOR access...
Your Daily Awesomeness
Posted on March 11, 2008Via the awesome Kieran Healy:1. Go to http://www.google.com/2. Type "find chuck norris" into the search box3. Press the "I"m feeling lucky" button4. Feel the awesome.(Original awesomeness from Fabio Rojas (yes, envy him his name, bitches) on Chuck Norris Meets OrgTheory)...
Law School Progress In A Nutshell
Posted on March 11, 2008I should add this to the Wiki!Via Feminist Law Profs, Law School Progress (In A Nutshell) (but insert caveat in every year do not over-commit). I will edit this for some salient points:First Year ?.?They Scare You Death?DURING SCHOOL YEAR Take your basic law courses (Contracts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Torts, Federal Civil Procedures, Research and Writing) If you are taking the California bar exam, be sure to register with the California State Bar Association within 90 days (starting from first day of law school) with the California Bar Association...
Critique of the Day: Kay and Hagan, Cultivating Clients in the Competition for Partnership
Posted on March 10, 2008I know this critique sucks. I am really tired, and this is about Canadian lawyers. Like, who cares Canadian lawyers. More that I dispute the authors' contention that this is generalizable to the U.S. and how they define social capital. This is a really depressing article to boot...
Brief Reviews
Posted on March 10, 2008Talk Cinema is such a fun thing to do on a Sunday morning, and the best, most intelligent post-film comments come from the most unlikely people, especially in a liberal college town. I love this place. Also, it is slightly weird, but also cool, being the youngest people at a uber nerdy thing...
More Facts
Posted on March 10, 20081. Ben Wolfson is very good company, and more than that, a good person. I am glad to know him.2. I suck at dominoes. Like, ouch. Is there any game that I am good at? I don't think so.3. Daylight savings is good for my mood in the long term, but hard to adjust to if you have sleep problems...
Good Fences
Posted on March 10, 2008Everyone in my new building is super friendly and nice. People say "hi" to each other, and I have observed people engage in long, friendly conversations in which they convey the impression that they either 1) know each other's personal business or 2) actually hang out...
Retraction Of Ikea Imperialism Article
Posted on March 10, 2008You know that Ikea Imperialism article that I linked to? The one where Danish names are used for doormats, while Swedish names are used for fancy couches?The article has been retracted.Apparently, accoding to the original linked article:Last week, SPIEGEL ONLINE published an article about IKEA products named after Danish cities...
Living Constitutionalism
Posted on March 10, 2008If you are interested, which you should be:Michael Dorf on Living Constitutionalism.Larry Solum's Reply.Randy Barnett's Reply.
Motivation
Posted on March 10, 2008I forgot to blog this back in January when everyone was making ill-fated resolutions (mine was "do more stuff," which so far is working out), but here is Jeremy's progress on his excellent scheme for staying motivated in his goal to work out at leat 200 days in 2008:I give myself a gold star every day I work out, and for every day short of 200 stars I earn for 2008, I have to give $25 to a cause I don?t want to give money to...
Which Law School Would You Go To?
Posted on March 10, 2008(The Law School Advice Wiki has been updated!!)And no, Paul Gowder, the correct answer is not "None at all! Run! Run for your life!"And yes, Amber Taylor, Hypothetical Pre-Law (HPL) does have a "good" reason for going: doing law/policy work for which a J...
Who Cares About Spitzer's Hooker?
Posted on March 10, 2008Ok, ok, so Eliot Spitzer hired a prostitute. --- First, an interlude. Numerous feminist scholars read this blog, who are far better informed about this than I am. My understanding is that he hired a "high-class" (i.e. expensive) prostitute, and my intuition is that expensive prostitution is going to be fairly non-exploitative...
Songs Your Life Should Not Emulate
Posted on March 09, 2008And I am taking nominations.This is NOT a breakup music thread. If/when that day comes, it will be signalled by Dusty Springfield's/White Stripes' "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" and Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and all the most emotive dreck I can post without crashing the blogger server...
Chicken Soup with Kneidlach
Posted on March 09, 2008If you want to make Jewish-style chicken soup, the first thing to do is stop calling them matzo balls. The Yiddish word is kneidlach. But in any language, that's tasty! (*teeth sparkling*)Here's how I made an awesome chicken soup for my wife, who is struck with a cold...
Nothing Is Random At Ikea
Posted on March 08, 2008Via OrgTheory:Two Danish academics, Klaus Kjöller of the University of Copenhagen and Tröls Mylenberg of the University of Southern Denmark, conducted a thorough analysis of the names used in the IKEA catalog. They concluded that the Swedish names are reserved for the ?better? products, and that even Norwegian names manage to make it into the bed department...
Regina Spektor: Fidelity. Better and On the Radio
Posted on March 08, 2008Faithful readers, don't read everything into everything. If something truly bad happened and you know me off-blog, you wouldn't find out via blog for one thing, and I would be posting up Phil Collins and Dusty Springfield videos so fast the RIAA would storm the doors...
Saturday Poet: Mark Strand
Posted on March 08, 2008Our Masterpiece Is the Private Life For JulesIIs there something down by the water keeping itself from us,Some shy event, some secret of the light that falls upon the deep,Some source of sorrow that does not wish to be discovered yet?Why should we care? Doesn?t desire cast its rainbows over the coarse porcelainOf the world?s skin and with its measures fill the air? Why look for more?IIAnd now, while the advocates of awfulness and sorrowPush their dripping barge up and down the beach, let?s eatOur brill, and sip this beautiful white Beaune...
Call For Links: A "Why You Should/n't Go to Law School" Wiki
Posted on March 06, 2008I have created a wiki to collect links of advice pro/contra/useful if they are already stuck for aspiring law students, poor souls that they are.The link is here. To remember it, think anti-troll: http://lawschooladvicewiki.wikispaces.com/I have made this public, so that anyone can edit this wiki and do whatever it is that people do on wikis...
Stuff
Posted on March 06, 20081. Stuff is my favorite euphemism/code name/non-descriptive moniker for everything. You want stuff? I got stuff (keep in mind, I probably mean cookies and not illegal stuff, which I don't want or know how to get and would not ever go near for fear of losing financial aid, and yes I'm actually serious)...
Why I will never be happy.
Posted on March 06, 2008Looking at the date of this, a date burned into my memory as the Best Day Ever (so far) and re-reading it, all I can think is: man, I wish I had a blog crush.I will die alone, and unhappy.I can have all the happiness in real life (and I am pretty happy, I sayeth with a modest shrug and blush), and still want a blog crush...
Blogging makes the world go 'round
Posted on March 06, 2008I always like "meeting" people who read my blog. I mean, who reads my blog? Heck if I know. Sitemeter and Google Analytics tells me that roughly 300 per day do, and at least 30% of those hits are regular and returning. I have no idea who you people are or how long you have been reading me...
Sociology Run Amok's Template for an Academic Manuscript
Posted on March 06, 2008Previously, I posted Prof. Tina Fetner's template for a brief research statement.Wicked Anomie (Sociology Run Amok) has posted a most useful template for an academic manuscript--it's more geared towards quantitative work, but a few modifications would make it just as good for a qualitative study:"My Title And Abstract Include Keywords that Academic Search Engines will Pick Up AbstractMy study is about this...
I Wonder - Org Theory Edition
Posted on March 06, 2008Since some of you keep wondering about my work, namely if I'm doing any, here are a few questions I ponder as I run off the bacon:1. I wonder if organizational over-compliance is due to the diffusion of norms across their organizational environment, a macro-level phenomenon, or if over-compliance is due to some micro-level cognitive phenomenon, e...
Why I Don't Throw Out Stuff
Posted on March 05, 2008My stats notes from 2000 were more useful than any notes I took in class this semester. I like the prof a lot, but law professors, even when they have PhDs in Economics and presumably had some training teaching undergrads as TA's, are terrible at teaching undergraduate courses...
The Only Thing I Like About MS Word 2007
Posted on March 04, 2008I hate, hate the ribbon bar and the illogical RE-organization of commands that used to be under the drop-down menus and how you can't click the sides of the page to adjust margins and on and on and on, but I'm creating a crib sheet of formulas for my stats midterm tomorrow, and this function is highly useful!:(click to enlarge)Snap!
Blanker Than Thou
Posted on March 04, 2008(This post was edited several times. For now, this is the final version).For the record, I recyle, or at least I separate paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum, so stop hatin':I love my former roommate, and we are good friends still, but I love living alone even more...
Dreams
Posted on March 04, 2008I'll blog under "Belle Lettre" for as long as I can, but I think I'd rather stop bloggging completely than archive this blog and join/start another under my own name. Unless I resign myself to being a dry academic blogger, and never have another public neurosis (hah, right) or interesting story...
Aristotle was wrong:
Posted on March 03, 2008It is possible to pursue a life of vice, and yet not have one's soul corrupted, and even love the good. For our wonderful blog host has, indeed, pursued a life of vice, in the form of country music, Diana Krall, and similar such crimes. And yet, and yet, she does not only have bad taste, defined here as a taste for the bad, she also has good taste, defined as a taste for the good! For I inflicted a mix CD on her, consisting of the following tracks, carefully chosen as a sequential deprogramming from bad music, and particularly unchallenging jazz, to good music, particularly challenging jazz:1...
Facts
Posted on March 03, 20081. Paul Gowder is simply delightful.2. My chicken soup is awesome.3. My bittersweet chocolate pudding is even better.4. Stanford's political science department places its graduates better than God.5. One's musical education should always be continuous, and I am very open to learning and being challenged, and am at least aware of the good stuff and in favor of it...
How to Write a Brief Research Statement
Posted on March 03, 2008Advice from Prof. Tina Fetner at Scatterplot:My proposed study is about this. Here is why this problem is important. Here is what we know about this problem. These studies leave THIS IMPORTANT THING that needs to be found out. Here is what I will do to find that out...
Beware Sovereign Wealth Funds
Posted on March 03, 2008It seems the new political hot potato fresh on the heels of the Dubai Ports debacle is the growing back lash against Sovereign Wealth Funds. Bobbie S. Neal of the ABA Middle East Committee has an interesting discussion on this issue on the Middle East Law Blog...
The Power of One Woman Over a Man's Life
Posted on March 02, 2008One of my colleague's, A, and I have an ongoing debate about the power one woman can have over the course of a man's life. Interestingly enough, I find our positions counter intuitive. She says that I overestimate the power of women, and I say she underestimates it...
Are We Our Jobs?
Posted on March 02, 2008This is not meant to be a follow up to Belle's earlier post, even though the subjects are generally the same. No, think of this more like two studios developing similar, yet unrelated films: Deep Impact versus Armaggedon, or Dante's Peak versus Volcano...
I Am Captain, Not Tenille
Posted on March 01, 2008Let it be known that despite not knowing how to swim very well (can't tread water, can only do a few strokes for a few minutes, can only float on back) and despite not having much upper body strength, I can sail a 20-25 foot keelboat okay. Just fine, actually...
Music Thread #2: Nobody Does It Better
Posted on February 29, 2008...than ______?Go at it in the comments and nominate your favorite "covers" or "versions" of songs.I will stir the pot first by saying that I think the best version of Superstar is NOT Sonic Youth's, but Luther Vandross'. Oh sure, The Carpenter's is appropriately campy with plaintive female vocals on "don't you remember you told me baby," but Luther just takes it to the next level, with his drawn out smooth stylings, and the beginning of the song is just the most super dramatic, crazy thing ever...
Open Thread
Posted on February 28, 2008I actually have three long blog posts stored up and unblogged, because they are too long and complicated and would take too forever to type up, and I'm pretty tired these days.So, help a brother out. I have insomnia, a pile of work that is ever-piling, and a midterm on Tuesday...
Epitaph for a Romantic Woman
Posted on February 28, 2008It is perhaps a cynical remark, but the older I get, the less romantic I am, and the less romantic I am, the easier it is to live in this world and with other people.And yet, the romantic hasn't been beat out of me yet. She is alive, still, even if she has artificial lungs and a pacemaker...
Music Thread: Country vs. Jazz/Songbook -- The Original Emo
Posted on February 28, 2008Because I am feeling too tired today and too lazy about blogging my interesting intellectual/law related blog posts, let's do pop culture, which always generates comments.Sort of along the lines of the question posed here, and very similar to the question posed in High Fidelity, what music do you listen to in order to exaggerate a certain emotion? Whenever I am in the throes of infatuation, love, or heartbreak, the three most Whiny McEmo emotions I can think of (because depression about my professional prospects doesn't have many musical articulations--no one ever wrote a country-western song called "I Ain't Done With My Dissertation and I Ain't Got No Other Job Prospects"), I bounce back and forth between country and jazz/songbook...
Critique of the Day: Beyond Gentlemen by Lani Guinier, Ann Bartow, et al.
Posted on February 27, 2008Citation: Guinier, Lani et al., Becoming Gentlemen: Women?s Experiences at One Ivy League Law School, 143 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1, (1995).Description:This is an interesting article that began as an independent study by Ann Bartow (Law, South Carolina, now running Feminist Law Profs blog) when she was a law student at U Penn...
Right On Rape
Posted on February 27, 2008Nora Niedzielski-Eicher, a board member of the SAFER blog, has a great op-ed in the Los Angeles Times arguing against the Mac Donald article that claims there is no campus rape crisis called "Wrong On Rape".The SAFER blog has also assembled a list of of responses to the Mac Donald article...
Take Back the Rhetoric on Rape
Posted on February 26, 2008A few days ago, I spotlighted an awesome blog, SAFER: Students Active For Ending Rape.I am not going to get into my own personal experiences here, but I am sure every woman has had some experience with sexual harassment, and too many have experiences with date rape and other types of sexual assault...
Don't Fence Me In - Of Coase and Cattle
Posted on February 26, 2008It is hard to read Robert C. Ellickson's 1986 article "Of Coase and Cattle" and not think of this song.It is a pretty awesome article, by the way. Read it with a loved one, especially if the loved one is an economist, and enjoy a good argument about how idealized worlds where you can assume zero transaction costs do not exist, and so why do we even talk about that? And dude, informal norms are more powerful than formal law, and look, people do not behave rationally!In other words, the perfect article for a sociologish (I do not deserve the -t) and economist odd-couple.
In Which I Realize How Much I Need To Know Basic Life Skills
Posted on February 26, 2008Most people who meet me are surprised to learn that I am the youngest of six, since I am the one that "takes care of things" and "is so organized." Until they drive with me somewhere, and I can't remember where we parked. I became an aunt at the age of 11, and so I have been trained to be responsible in many senses, but when it comes to stuff like remembering where I parked or how to get somewhere, I am hopeless...
My milkshake tastes better than yours, damn right.
Posted on February 25, 2008(It also brings all the boys to the yard.)(In case you are an international student or professional reading this, my excessive use of "bourgie" and "ghetto" come from a few years spent in Los Angeles--most Americans do not talk like this, and rightly so...
That's the best compliment, ever.
Posted on February 25, 2008This replaces my college years best compliment ever, which was "yes, you are a romantic, but that's what I like best about you" from another friend, especially since I'm no longer as maudlin.But having my neuroticism described as "terribly cute" is quite awesome...
Advice for New Assistant Professors
Posted on February 25, 2008This may come from a sociology academic blog (Scatterplot), but I think the tips offered by "Olderwoman" are very instructive for new professors of any discipline. I am excerpting the ledes from the first five tips, but do go to the link above for the entire post--and the very good comments:1) Don?t take anything personally, especially not at first...
Sunday Poet: Jane Kenyon
Posted on February 24, 2008Briefly It Enters, Briefly SpeaksI am the blossom pressed in a book,found again after two hundred years. . . .I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper....When the young girl who starvessits down to a tableshe will sit beside me. . . .I am food on the prisoner's plate...
Change Happens: Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) Blog
Posted on February 23, 2008An awesome blog, which one of the board members kindly alerted me to via email. From her email description:Change Happens: we?re Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER), a nonprofit that provides college students with the resources and support to challenge their schools policies, programs, and practices around sexual assault...
No, I Don't Want To Talk About It, So Please Don't Ask
Posted on February 23, 2008Decision: I am not going to transfer and switch to an interdisciplinary Ph.D program.I am going to stay in my SJD program and write articles and try to get them published before I go on the market with my dissertation in 2009 or 2010, or go for a VAP/fellowship...
Stuff I Love Because I Am A Lover
Posted on February 22, 2008Again, Paul Gowder is the one to be tagged here, because he is also such a delightful hedonist. He loves as much as he hates, and how awesome is that, and how awesome is he.My new apartmentFreshly laundered sheetsBakingGetting stuff in the mail: letters, presentsSocial justice and equalityWhen the legal system worksGood reviews of articlesGood lectures (heard or given)Reading articles/books that are interesting, useful, novel, and well-writtenGetting flowers Mix CDs (making, receiving)Check-in phone calls for no particular reason to/from friends and TDMusic that takes me back to 1997Good music, however I define thatThe beach during winterReading on my couchVisiting TBF and TL, at least twice a yearSpending time with TDFriends visitingComics and graphic novelsPublic radioIndian foodMexican foodMaking my own Vietnamese/Chinese foodShopping onlineRunningRunning in the rainEmailing TL, TD, and HLP throughout the dayNapsGoing to movies by myselfChocolate PorkBeefBreadTeaRedwood forestsBloggingReading blogs, especially academic blogsReading in a random, haphazard manner all of TL's archivesGetting good adviceBeing listened toFancy organic all natural soap that smells goodJersey dressesPencil skirtsBallet flats and round-toe pumpsDelicate silver jewelryForest green, teal, magenta, mauve, orange, dark gray, pistachio greenRoad tripsMaking/giving presentsGetting presentsPubsBoard gamesCoffee and conversation, even at 6:30 amNon-stop flightsLaw review articles that are really good, however I define thatEmployment law conferences now that I know people8 hours of sleepAnd I love you all, dear readers...
Stuff I Hate Because I Am A Hater
Posted on February 22, 2008Inspired by Jeremy. His list is of five (or 6/7) things he hates most in the world. I cannot play favorites; my hate is equally distributed and my list is expanded. I tag all of my co-bloggers, but Paul Gowder in particular, because he is so deliciously snarky...
Take Heed
Posted on February 21, 2008I know that I need to, considering how behind I am, such that this summer looks like I'll be stuck at the library:How to be a good advisee.
Now this is constructive anger.
Posted on February 21, 2008Perhaps I should myself enable comment moderation and get a few things off of my chest, but then again, Megan From the Archives has already done this so splendidly.In other news, I think I need to go to physical therapy for my RSI on my right wrist. Dude, I have the wimpiest job in the world...
Work and Identity
Posted on February 20, 2008No one is their job, you say. People are more than the sum of their professions. What a limited view of humanity. Blah blah blah. This is certainly true. But then why do people introduce themselves as their professional roles? "Hi, I'm a doctor." "I'm a lawyer...
50 Book Challenge #2: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
Posted on February 19, 2008I am about seven or eight books behind in reviews, and this is actually the most recent book I've read. I am better at reading than reviewing. So now I am just going to review books quickly without regard to how interesting or useful the reviews may be...
Critique of the Day: Beth A. Quinn, Harassment In The Workplace
Posted on February 19, 2008Citation:Quinn, Beth A., ?The Paradox of Complaining: Law, Humor, and Harassment in the Everyday Work World,? 25 Law and Social Inquiry 1151 (2000).Description:This is a qualitative study in which Quinn interviewed 21 women and 18 men from a sampling pool recruited from a university summer school and evening class and an organization called ?Acme Electronics...
There Will Be Blood
Posted on February 19, 2008Briefly: AWESOME.Not so briefly:I was taken to a much needed movie break this afternoon. I am back to work now, but for a few hours I was lost in this movie. It is a more than a movie: it is another world, with different cosmology, morality, and conception of brutality...
That's a tip there, Kids. Write it down.
Posted on February 19, 2008Tip #104: Never blog while upset and emotional.It is common sense, but there you are.In other news, I am wondering how one would design a study, likely qualitative (semi-directed interviews, etc.), that could generate some interesting, workable theory on how to measure (in real economic terms) the deleterious effects on wage and advancement for women who end professional relationships due to the sexual harassmsent of mentors and advisors...
You Thought the Superdelegates Thing Was Bad?
Posted on February 19, 2008Then check this out... Hillary Clinton?s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday...
Excitement
Posted on February 19, 2008Joining a trivia team fills me with such excitement, that I want to polish my mary janes and brush my hair and read up on useless knowledge so that I can ROCK that party. Well, most of my education has been the accumulation of mostly useless trivia and cocktail party banter, and so I think I can safely say that I am SO going to rock that party! That the trivia contest is a fundraiser is even better...
Angry Belle Mobilizes Her Rights
Posted on February 19, 2008Actually, right now I'm not angry. I think I may have successfully diffused the difficult situation I was in, which is good because I was getting homicidal. Right now, I am full of happy, warm love, like a puppy rolling in the sunshine. I made chocolate pudding (which is awesome) and licked the bowl and spatula, I have sent off two parcels to TL, and and am waiting for TD to come home for dinner...
Things I Would Blog On If I Had the Energy
Posted on February 18, 2008Except for a weak wrist (RSI?) I am actually back to normal for the most part, if really behind in work.Things I have been consumed with and would blog on if they didn't emotionally exhaust me and fill me with anxiety and depression:1. Sexual Harassment in the academy...
Yes, David, I said yes.
Posted on February 18, 2008I just saw this. David Lat asks whether lawyers should date other lawyers. That question conceals two underlying questions, to wit:1. Is it good for lawyers to date other lawyers?2. Is it good for society as a whole to date other lawyers? OR: Is it right for lawyers to date other lawyers? The answers to questions 1 2 are obviously "no" and "yes," respectively, and for the same reason: would you want to date a lawyer? No...
What the Hell: I Am Mad, and I Can Type. If I Don't Have a Voice Here, Then Where Do I?
Posted on February 18, 2008Thinking about sexual harassment pisses me off like nothing else. Why? Because most people, especially men, don't get it, and most think it's the way of the world.I've been thinking about sexual harassment law a lot lately. I am stuck on an article because I can't figure out how to redraft the Ellerth/Faragher defense in a workable way...
Draft Lessig for Congress!
Posted on February 16, 2008The congressional representative for the district incorporating large chunks of Silicon Valley died recently. There's a special election on April 8. There's a movement afoot to draft Larry Lessig to run for the seat. The facebook group (of course there is a facebook group) got 1000 members within 24 hours...
Be It Resolved
Posted on February 14, 2008...that mix tapes are best when they combine the familiar with the surprising and "challenging," and that "message" songs need not be serious. For instance, "That's Really Super, Supergirl" is a great song for any mix tape. I don't really know what it means...
How Much (Deconstructionist) Theory Belongs in Law and Society? In An Empirical Study?
Posted on February 14, 2008I've recently had occasion to re-read Laura E. Gomez's article "A Tale of Two Genres," which is in The Blackwell Companion to Law and Society (ed. Austin Sarat). In this article, she argues that Law and Society scholars, while focusing on discrimination and oppression, have failed to utilize fully the theories of Critical Race Theory, which might enhance and flesh out "undertheorized" studies of institutional and structural discrimination...
Against Love, Or At Least The Idea Of It
Posted on February 14, 2008(Happy Valentine's Day.)Most people who have met me for even a minute or who have corresponded with me beyond two instances will wonder at this post. I am, as they would say, an unabashed, uncloseted (or rather poorly closeted) romantic. I am like a Tina Turner song in her post Ike years, knowing what it means to love hard and deep...
Law and Love
Posted on February 14, 2008Last year saw the celebration of the Supreme Court's land,ark decision Loving v. Virginia. In Loving, Virginia statutes prohibiting inter-racial marriage were struck down by the Supreme Court for violating the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment...
A Well Respected Man
Posted on February 13, 2008Thank you to Bryan D. Brown , a friend and CSS wizard, for fixing my template!
The Danger of Deconstructionism
Posted on February 13, 2008In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Prof. Peter Brooks (comparative literature, Yale) has an essay called "The Ethics of Reading":I've long been invested in the notion that teaching to read literature carefully, seriously, reflectively can be an ethical act...
C. Wright Mills on Blogging
Posted on February 12, 2008Well no, not really, but the awesome Kieran Healy adapts Mills' Essay "On Intellectual Craftsmanship" over at OrgTheory. Idea that sparked the post by Shamus at Scatterplot.Kieran:Of course you can waste your time blogging. And you can do stupid stuff like badmouth your colleagues or peers...
How Do I Center the Blog?
Posted on February 12, 2008No, I do not mean "on the political spectrum". I'm pretty squarely left of center, and there I shall remain.Anyway, you HTML wizards, why is my blog always shoved to the left side of the screen in any browser? How can I fix this?I will let you tinker with the template if you tell me how to fix it...
Weird Statue of the Day
Posted on February 12, 2008Not weird statute. That's a never-ending meme.But what is this statue depicting? This is football?! What is the kneeling dude doing with the rag cloth?Despite growing up with three brothers, I just don't get sports. I get art, but I can't get this...
What I Really Look Like
Posted on February 12, 2008...when I'm doing my statistics reading.With all due apologies to my new friends at Scatterplot. Usually I'm very much enthralled and engaged by my homework! I love STATA! Really!Granted, this may be due to my "urgent care chronic ache narcolepsy" talking, but perhaps the special care doctor will tell me if this 1) allergies (which I suspect), 2) chronic fatigue syndrome (which would suck), or 3) boredom and ennui (which are epidemic to my generation)...
Paging Dr. Love, Dr. I.M.N. Love
Posted on February 12, 2008Click to enlarge. You can find every C&H here.Sometime in 2001, I resolved to never again be het up about celebrating Valentines' day, whether I was single or attached. Occasionally I will slip and care a little, even though I know rationally that blah blah it is a made up holiday blah blah...
Reasons For NOT Blogging and For Not Blogging on That Thing I Told You I'd Blog About
Posted on February 11, 20081. Occasionally, I indulge in a personal life with "real life" people.2. I am actually working. This may surprise you.3. I periodically suffer from weird aches that span my head, neck, shoulders, arms, down my back and to my fingertips, and it's accompanied by what I can only call "narcolepsy...
McCain-Lieberman?
Posted on February 10, 2008Juan Cole (Wednsday, February 06, 2008, scroll down) recently discussed the possibility of a McCain-Huckabee ticket speculating that such a pairing could sink the GOP ticket in November. Professor Cole observed that, in the end, voters ultimately mobilize for the top of the ticket, and having Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won't necessarily mobilize evangelicals who, apparently, are beginning to drift away from the GOP...
Schneider On Inventories
Posted on February 09, 2008Whoa . . . hold on there . . . no need to panic . . . I?m not going to be blogging about tax law. I just want to thank Belle for having me, and let you know what an honor is to be a guest blogger here. One of my colleagues and I have an ongoing discussion about people we would like to meet, any level of fame, who are not necessarily obvious to most (i...
Superdelegates Part II: WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!
Posted on February 08, 2008Nobody seems to have caught my last post about superdelegates. And nobody has said anything about Belle's post about the general disaster that is our electoral system. But the fact is, things are messed up. In my last post, I said that things were looking like the superdelegates are going to decide...
Awesome New Blog: The Faculty Lounge
Posted on February 07, 2008Go to The Faculty Lounge!Sounds like a great blog! You should read this, if you care about law, culture, and academia.I am very happy to see Dan Filler back in the blogosphere! I am a big fan of his and have missed his blogging when he left Concurring Opinions...
Blasphemous Thought of the Day
Posted on February 07, 2008Pablo Neruda is just too....much.I can't read more than five poems in a row without going "Gah, ack, too much! Too much romance! Stop! I am not your ocean! You are not the waves to my shore!" This is the problem with trying to read an entire collection of Neruda's poetry...
Links!
Posted on February 07, 2008Empirical studies can be (and often are, should be, etc.) normative, you know.Rawls' "liberalism"?The importance of disambiguating Google searches about yourself to others, particularly prospective employers.The "New" Legal Realism, as if Cass Sunstein needed another SSRN download...
Stuff I Like: Nerd Edition
Posted on February 07, 2008This blog doesn't have enough endorsements, mainly because I don't want to do ads, or have Amazon.com tie-ins, etc. Not a moral superiority thing. In general, I avoid commercial stuff, but I am not above selling out and I don't judge others for doing so...
xkcd of the day
Posted on February 06, 2008This is from Exploding Dog, but pretty much sums up my life:I find this one sweet and lovely. Although I'm always at my desk, too. If only I were sailing. You can sail to just as well as you can sail from, but each being stuck to a respective desk, there's little hope for coming together...
Foundational, Pathbreaking, Seminal, Cutting Edge, etc. Articles
Posted on February 06, 2008Every sociologist will read Marx, Weber, and Durkheim a few times before graduating from college, and then a few more times before graduating from graduate school, and ad nauseum when s/he starts teaching Soc 1.Everyone doing constitutional structure whether in political science or law will read/assign Federalist 51 and 10 dozens of time over...
A Particular Kind of Heaven: Solitary Living
Posted on February 06, 2008(This is my favorite Ed Ruscha)I'm pretty much all unpacked, except for one large box of books, because I am stupid and don't do math beforehand and calculate how many inches of shelf I need for my books. So I can't organize by broad categories (law, social science, fiction, poetry, art) or alphabetize by last name author until this is settled, and that is a little unsettling...
History Lesson of the Day: Why Our Electoral System Sucks and How it Got to This Level of Suckage
Posted on February 06, 2008Eric Rauchway explains the history and development of our electoral system over at The Edge of the American West, another excellent academic (history) blog you should read:So the function of the American party system is to thwart the genteel, deliberative process envisioned in the Constitution, by turning the party conventions and the electoral college into the deciders...
Superdelegates
Posted on February 05, 2008A discussion question.Is there any normative justification for the existence of superdelegates? This page explains what they are -- I think accurately, though I don't know for sure. Basically, a bunch of high-ranking party hacks control fully a fifth of the democratic delegates, and the republicans have a similar (though smaller) number...
Introducing: Zorba The Geek(y Lawyer)
Posted on February 04, 2008This is all that I am at liberty to say about our enigmatic new guest blogger, Zorba The Geek. I will put it in bullet style, because he is all bad ass like that. He is so bad ass, that his alternate pseudonym was Tracer Bullet. Or maybe Chuck Norris...
Dude.
Posted on February 04, 2008No one posted over the weekend, despite my guilt trip? WTF?!Some days, they just ran out of carne asada at your burrito place and you have to eat chipotle chicken, which is fine, but not carne asada and you really wanted carne asada after two days of eating spaghetti with butter and cheese because that's all you had on hand after moving and unpacking completely in 2 days...
Venkatesh's Gang Leader For a Day and IRBs
Posted on February 01, 2008Yet another IRB post to kick up some kerfuffle between Daniel Goldberg, Bruce Boyden, and maybe 1L+:This is the book by Sudhir Venkatesh, who basically embedded himself in gangs to do his ethnography for his dissertation.This is the exchange with Venkatesh on Slate...
I AM MOVING TODAY
Posted on February 01, 2008No more coldness,no more moldThe Creepy Landlord done got told! Between the general creepiness, the entries without notice or permission, messing around with something in my roommate's room, having to buy a SpyFinder camera detector just for peace of mind, the extreme coldness of the house, the sink that always leaks, the showers that run brutally cold for 10 minutes in the middle, and the damp mold that always bothers my allergies, I am glad, glad I tell you, to move to a fancy apartment building that I can afford because it's far from school and in technically the gritty city next door...
Blog Break For Belle
Posted on January 31, 2008I really, really want to post on this really interesting discussion I have been having off-blog about Bourgie on Bourgie Hatred that is coincidentally also currently being played out on literary studies blogs. But while it is no trouble to copy and paste the email portion of the discussion, it's trouble editing and formatting...
Critique of the Day: What is Sexual Harassment? by Abigail Saguy
Posted on January 31, 2008Citation: Saguy, Abigail C. What is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne, University of California Press (2003).DescriptionThis book is a comparative empirical study of sexual harassment law in the United States and France. Using mixed methods of 1) in-depth interviews with prominent feminist activists and sexual harassment scholars and managers of American and French companies, 2) a content analysis of legal texts and popular mainstream media articles about sexual harassment that was then coded into variables that were empirically assessed, and 3) short interviews of French and American managers and lawyers to assess how they would respond to eleven different sexual harassment scenarios, Saguy paints a relatively full and compelling portrait of the similarities and differences in sexual harassment law between the United States and France...
It Started As A Comment: Why I Am Not a Marxist
Posted on January 31, 2008But it's too long. I'll put it here, a response to Patrick O'Donnell on why I am not Marxist:Wow, thanks Patrick! I love your bibliographies.To be fair and not snide, my critique of the Marxist critique of relative autonomy of law was in the spirit of Critical Race Theory's critique of Critical Legal Studies' trashing of legal rules...
Speaking of "Norms", What Do Sociologists Mean By "Normative"?
Posted on January 30, 2008In addition to my posts on "is the word 'normative' academic jargon" here and here,a political theorist friend asks:Why do sociologists use "normative" in a different way other than the common understanding? I found it so confusing when I encountered this secondary usage: a sociologist of deviance I knew used it to mean "conforming to expected behavior"; as in, "the opposite of deviant...
Googling Reveals Norms, Settles Many a Debate
Posted on January 30, 2008Apropos of the previous post on whether "normative" is "academic jargon" (an issue which you all should still vote to determine, although it looks like The Dude is winning this argument), a Google search revealed this thread from Ask Metafilter (from four years ago) when searching for "normative jargon":What does "normative" mean? Is it a useful word? I only ever see it used in obscure, academic writing, which makes me suspect it's worthless...
Because You'll Judge Me No Matter What
Posted on January 30, 2008In the end, this will go above the couch, for the bargain price of $7.95 for a 16"x20" giclee poster print from Winkflash, and an on-sale $10 (buy one, get one for $0.01) black wood frame from Aaron Brothers. I dunno. I like it. This and the photograph of the Calder mobile at the National Gallery...
The Random Five
Posted on January 30, 20081. Whenever I walk through a steam vent from the underground subways or the tunnels on campus, I can't help but hear the theme song to "Shaft" and strut a little. "Who's the man that would risk his neck for a brother man? Shaft! Can ya dig it?" Admit it...
Jeremy Freese Defines "Normative" w/r/t Sociology
Posted on January 30, 2008An answer to the question!The question:Why do sociologists use "normative" in a different way other than the common understanding?The answer (which will no doubt be supplemented in the comments):?Normative? has two separate senses and what is considered the primary usage differs...
Norms, Normativity, Normalcy in the Academy, or WTF is that Jargon?!
Posted on January 29, 2008Among other startling revelations of the past weekend, which I'll blog on later, it has come to my attention that I'm occasionally prone to slipping in "academic speak" in casual conversation with non-academics.You know what I mean by "academic speak...
Excerpt of the Day
Posted on January 29, 2008From What is Sexual Harassment: From the Capital Hill to the Sorbonne by Abigail Saguy:THE INADEQUACY OF ESSENTIALIST NATIONAL CHARACTER EXPLANATIONSThat sexual harassment is conceptualized differently in the United States and France makes intuitive sense to many people...
Movie Review: Atonement
Posted on January 28, 2008Not quite as good as the book. And yes, I did like the book, a lot. I like imaginative historical fiction, and this one was beautifully written. Appropriate, for a book about the power of words to destroy lives or express remorse or attempt atonement...
judge me, judge me, say that you judge me
Posted on January 25, 2008I'd print these as 5"x7" or 8"x10"; I'm going to blow up to 16"x20" giclee prints some wonderful photography of Larry Solum's. But what do you think of these? Frameable?
Movie Review: Persepolis
Posted on January 25, 2008Beautifully drawn, visually stunning, and emotionally resonant. As good as the books. Worth seeing on the big screen.This is no light praise. I am a big graphic novel fan. Praise for Marjane Satrapi's "groundbreaking" memoir is well deserved. They assign the book at West Point for good reason...
Work/Family Articles and Books
Posted on January 25, 2008I assembled a list of links to mainstream media articles and popular press books to post on the class website for my Empirical Analysis of Gender Discrimination class (okay, that is not the real title of the course, but you get the idea). Perhaps you would also be interested...
Big Vegetable
Posted on January 25, 2008For a few weeks during finals last term, I was hardly eating except when food was magically brought to me by the nice pizza guy or even more nicely, by The Dude. But except for those non-pizza meals, I wasn't getting much protein or vitamins. I ate a lot of cereal and pizza...
Marginalia
Posted on January 25, 2008Ben Wolfson has a most lovely post about reading books in which his mother has scribbled (helpfully) in the margins, and how re-tracing her thoughts and translations is endearing, charming, and humanizing:I'm moved to post this because one of the old books with which I came away a few weeks ago was a copy of Frisch's Homo Faber that she read while taking classes at, I assume, a UCLA extension program when teaching in LA...
Stupid Monkey Commands
Posted on January 24, 2008In which I finally sort of start understanding how to do basic commands in STATA:My task:1. Figure out the path to the sampledataset.dta file2. Compute the Mean and Standard Deviation of the sample_variable3. Figure out how many standard deviation units below the mean the figure 19 is4...
A Modest Update
Posted on January 24, 2008After the freakout of leasing my apartment before finding a new one and going into conniptions over the thought of paying double rent for a month, everything is settled. I got the rent deposit back, miraculously, did not pay as much as I thought I might have to (as in, total was under $2000) for the new place, and oh yes, I have a new place...
Tamanaha and Solove on Legal Education, Take Three
Posted on January 23, 2008(Be sure to go to the original posts to read the full versions. They are both quite compelling.)Brian Tamanaha has yet another provocative, interesting post on what is wrong with legal education:The accreditation process is justified as the means to insure a quality legal education so that the public will be served by competent lawyers...
The Significance of Heath Ledger's Death
Posted on January 22, 2008I found out that Heath Ledger died today through Googlechat:The Journalist:heath ledger is dead!that is your pop culture news brief of the dayi thought for sure we'd hear about britney spears committing suicide orsomethingbut not this guyAnd then she sent me links to the Washington Post and the New York Times, which grew in length and detail over the course of the day...
True Colors
Posted on January 22, 2008Good question from Dean and Friend Jim Chen:So here's the question. Imagine yourself a member of the hippest clique in today'slegal academy, doubly credentialed interdisciplinarians. You are attending aconference with equal numbers of professors in law and in your nonlegal discipline...
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Posted on January 21, 2008Here are a few good posts in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.:Adrien Katherine Wing at BlackProf on "Our Kind of People"Jon Hanson on The Situationism of Martin Luther King, Jr.Mary Dudziak on Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr.Frank Pasquale on Social Equality, Fellowship, and LoveMichael Dorf on MLK v...
Wow, Thanks!
Posted on January 21, 2008My temper tantrum late last night, as I was trying to read STATA guides (a weird use of time, I felt, when I could have been reading interesting articles on gender discrimination), was answered kindly and sensibly by Jeff Yates of Voir Dire:Belle, stupid monkey commands and feeling frustrated and inept for no good reason are all an integral part of the development of a social science scholar...
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know/Read on Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship
Posted on January 21, 2008(Posts in bold are the "must read" posts)1. Original Post by Brian Tamanaha at Balkinization.2. Brian Leiter asks for comments . Read Matt Lister's and John Oberdiek's comments and Tamanaha's response.3. Dan Solove has a thoughtful response at Concurring Opinions about the benefits that do accrue to students from having interdisciplinary teachers...
I Hate STATA and I Hate You Too
Posted on January 21, 2008STATA is the worst program in the history of the world, and if I didn't need to know how to read/do statistics better, I'd want to drop the class. If I wasn't concurrently enrolled in an awesome Empirical Analysis of Gender Discrimination course, I would definitely drop it, except that I actually want to get an article out on sexual harassment by the summer, and I sort of argue for the use of empirical analysis of discrimination by courts and the EEOC...
Tamanaha and Solove on the High Cost of Legal Education
Posted on January 18, 2008Brian Tamanaha clarifies his post on why interdisciplinary studies may be bad non-elite law schools:My point was not to be anti-intellectual but to get us to think about a growing crisis in non-elite law schools.Signs of the crisis are evident in many recent reports...
An Essay on Safety and Exercising Judgment in the Face of Judgment
Posted on January 18, 2008I went to college in one of the safest cities in America--Irvine, CA. Low crime rates. Good crime stats at the college too, and there were plenty of blue safety lights and night walking programs. But there was a big park in the middle (Aldrich Park) that I would never want to walk through unescorted at night, just because it was so dark...
Responses to Tamanaha on Interdisciplinary Legal Studies
Posted on January 17, 20081. Original Post by Brian Tamanaha at Balkinization.2. Brian Leiter asks for comments . Read Matt Lister's and John Oberdiek's comments and Tamanaha's response.3. Dan Solove has a thoughtful response at Concurring Opinions about the benefits that do accrue to students from having interdisciplinary teachers...
In Which I Discover That I Am The Demographic Trend
Posted on January 17, 2008From the Washington Post, an article on young professionals who choose to have children while still relatively young:Rexroth, a former congressional aide, and her husband, Philip, 27, who works for the Department of Homeland Security, are defying the norm for their class and age group: They are raising a child...
Question
Posted on January 17, 2008Surely, but surely, two able-bodied and relatively fit young women can load up and unload a 1 bedroom apartment?I live on the ground floor, and in my future place, on the first floor right past the lobby. The heaviest things I own are an Ikea full-sized Daselv bed frame with a foam mattress (truly, it benefits me that I am young and my spine is correctly aligned); two big 18 gallon tubs of books (okay those are heavy, but two of us can lift onto a dolly, and two off us can unload off a dolly); several more boxes of books (ditto); a chest of drawers which will be emptied, and an arm-less chair that I have lifted by myself...
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My grandmother-in-law came to US for a short visit on a visitor visa for tourism. Due to some complications we had to take her to hospital in emergency. She was in hospital for 13 days & had a pacemaker put in. My granny
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