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Apologies for the relative silence as of late. Tests to grade, articles to referee, karaoke to sing, ladies to woo—you know the drill.
In keeping with Brock’s posting, I probably ought to offer some advice for incoming freshmen and graduate students. A former Ole Miss professor had what was infamously described as the “Bull Durham speech,” which is deeply pessimistic but nonetheless accurate, and was known to send potential grad students away in fits of tears. Personally, I think Monty Python said it best: “Run Away! Run Away!”
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3 comments:
Chris,
My condolences on your current assignment. As a new graduate student, soon to be immersed in the joys of Capital Acquisition and Allocation (among many others), I’m suddenly very aware of my age and the possibilities for
imprisonmentgreat shame given the age of the co-eds.The scary part is I haven’t even started work at Millsaps yet. I’m still up here in Ann Arbor having my last gasp of “grad student freedom.” A real hardship tour, I’ll say…
Chris,
I picked up on the Ann Arbor thing and you have my sympathy. Tell the LaRouchies I said Hi! They were campaigning in downtown Chicago—complete with van and loudspeakers—in late 2001 and I was quite impressed with their gusto. Or insanity, depending on your point of view.
Well, just as your “grad student freedom” ends, mine begins as of today. I attended a TA workshop and I was quite impressed. Other than the extended piece on identity politics—I never would have expected that at Mississippi State, and I nearly barfed when they started discussing how assimilation is bad and so forth—they go to a great deal of trouble to prep the TAs. It’s reassuring and the quality of TAs has improved remarkably since I was an undergrad, oh-so-many years ago.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to put together a small presentation on indifference curves. Thankfully, even if I botch it the other TAs probably won’t notice since they are chemistry majors and the like.