@Brownh0rnet: Oh, not at all. I loved the idea of working for the Atlanta University Center (of which Morehouse is a member), in part because I had a romantic teenage obsession with that particular set of schools. Turning the position down was really hard, because I think it would have been an exciting university system to be affiliated with. Ultimately, I realized that I'm a little too much of a Brooklynite, and that prevented me from picking up and starting a new life (I'm not that young!) in Atlanta. I've built a career that I love working in academic institutions in NYC that primarily serve underrepresented students, and where I am very active working with queer/gay/activist etc student groups, who have a hard time of it. So I was genuine about the notion of having office hours with the Plastics. I suspect that I would have felt protective of this particular group, since it can be hard for people who dare (visibly) to rock the boat, particularly in tight communities. BUT I'm also geekily excited about the ways they challenge the community at large, and think that most people can afford to be challenged more often (and college is a great place for that). I probably would have tried to get them to start a committee, because that's the kind of thing I do.
I almost took a job there! At the end of the day, I couldn't bring myself to leave the Northeast, but I (being from the Different World era) often fantasize about how my life woud be if I were sitting back, chillin' in Atlanta with my best friend Jaleesa (who would be a professor by now, don't you think?). I guess in real life, I'd be holding office hours with the Plastics. Unrelated, I DID meet Jasmie Guy once, and it was awesome.
I spent most of college choking on one kosher salami or another. Good times.
@random number: If I recall my worst college boyfriend experience ever, Wyoming is some kind of separate nation-state (or suburb?) of Cincinnati. I was only there once, and the most lasting memory is that the first thing everyone wanted to tell me was all about how Wyoming residents were classier than the rubes in Cincinnati proper, and in every way superior to the folks five minutes down the road in Kentucky.
My folks are outside of Philly, and their house has been crawling with these things for years. The good news: they don't bite and they don't actually stink unless you smash (or torture) them. The bad news: They move in by the thousands and sweeping up the piles of their corpses is an unending chore. AND it's only a matter of time before one hitches a ride with me back to Bklyn. Still, if I had to pick a household pest, it would be the stinkbug; they move slowly and predictably, they aren't interested in biting you, your food, or your possessions, and once you get used to them they're kind of cute.
Crap, I was 25 when this originally aired and going through my whole quarter-life crisis (or whatever that was) and I LOVED this show. It made me all nostalgic for the high-school years that SHOULD have been filled with getting it on with mopey aliens instead of trying not to get noticed by the racists and homophobes I actually went to school with.
I rewatched this all last year while I was trying to figure out what to do after the recession ate my comfortable academic job. It totally helped. What's being an unemployed professor in her later 30's when there is true teenage alien love to worry about? Also, I loved the goofy sci-fi cameos.
I rewatched this all last year while I was trying to figure out what to do after the recession ate my comfortable academic job. It totally helped. What's being an unemployed professor in her later 30's when there is true teenage alien love to worry about? Also, I loved the goofy sci-fi cameos.
Christ, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the notion that there are people who think that ACTUAL PEDOPHILES are organized and socialized enough to band together in some kind of national, six-sigma style evil-doers club and that their first order of business is branding and PR.
I quit my job and applied to graduate schools in another city because it seemed like the least complicated way to break up with my boyfriend of seven years, whose worst quality was that he had started to annoy me. In all seriousness, it worked out great, I recommend it! It seems that Lohan's circle can probably afford to visit her, so she might have less luck with this tactic.
@SterlingArcher: Yes, but it would make actual lions as strong as elephants with crocodile jaws, so you'd still be out of luck.
@day2night: The "trans" image here is from Before Night Falls. He plays two different smallish, but AMAZING roles in that movie. Ed Wood is pretty good too.
@Mike Zuniga Has A Website: Tell it to Ian McEwan, who wrote the book. Being shortlisted for the Booker Prize was probably punishment enough.
@rollsnideroll: I'm having issues with a long-distance relationship because of this. We just never used to email, so I had no idea. This dude is insanely smart (in the sciences), but I can't help thinking that there is something wrong with him when his grammar is so bonkers that I can only make out his writing because I already know how he talks. I know this is totally my problem, but I can't help but squirm when I'm reading mail from him. I am working on being a better, more open minded person, but it's not easy.
@phantom lady: Wasn't Evan Dando in the picture for a while also?
@Aesop's Foibles.: Similar story here; I had a doctor who decided that I urgently needed biopsies, and then never called me to tell me the results. I called her office a bunch of times, and finally got told (nastily) that if there was anything I needed to know, the doctor would have called me by now. What do you know, when I went back for a regular check up some MONTHS later, I asked her about the tests. She had no recollection of them and it turned out that she had never even LOOKED at the results. Which were negative, but it meant the underlying issue (which was plenty serious) went all that time without being treated, and if they results had been positive, then it would have been months of serious cancer left untreated. I've learned that when things aren't going the way you need them to go, you need to make a huge stink about it, otherwise even the lady doctors tend to assume that you're exaggerating your symptoms.
@Hazel: Lay off the bowtie! (in all other matters, your doctor sounds like a creep). A lot of doctors are required to wear ties at work, and regular ties have been shown to pick up LOTS of germs and then transfer them from patient to patient. Ties, unless they're clipped back, tend to drift in to contaminated fields, pick up spatters, sprays, etc, and aren't laundered as often as shirts/coats (if they are at all).
I worked on a movie she was in about ten years ago, and after wrap, when the actors were walking off with all of the *nice* props, she grabbed a teacup and saucer and then handed them to me on her way out, saying that she thought I looked like I should have them. Sigh, she was totally right, I wanted that teacup. I'll be toasting her with my Earl Gray.
I was in junior high in the mid/late 80's and spent 1987 being ALL ABOUT Poison. I even have a scar on my thumb from trying to get the celophane off a Poison cassette tape with my friend's swiss army knife. It was, um, kind of a transitional year for me, music wise, but to this day, I have a soft spot for Brett Michaels. Fingers crossed for a recovery.
@eleusiswalks: I hate to be a downer, but I graduated back in the 90's, and if you plan on moving to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston or DC, plan on running into everyone you knew in college on a near daily basis, for the rest of your life. It levels off a bit once people start having kids, but because we're obies, that won't start happening until you're 35.
@EastandWest: Our resident old coot is still freaking out about the time he opened the door to a study carrel to find some students getting it on. The rest of us are not so naive, the library is a great place for shenanegins. As long as they don't make a mess for the cleaning staff, we don't really have an issue with youthful antics. We're all kind of hoping that that the students push him over the edge.
@The Bitter Librarian: Also, sexual harassment of female librarians in academic libraries by alumni who end up as sad sack, passive aggressive, 60 year old library pages who live in student housing and think that the world owes them something. Aaaand, scene.
