When I heard about this, it made me cringe. Not to dispute that there are better paying jobs, and more opportunity in applied fields than in the humanities, but why is it necessary to single out one field to be the butt of a crude joke? He might just as well have retold the quip that has the tired punchline "do you want fries with that?" Art history majors and art historians -- and by extension, the entire discipline of art history -- are an easy target, I guess.

Just yesterday I was talking to students about what I describe here (the "no offense" woman, not the student with the question). I have also been remembering recently that in high school, teachers warned us EVERY DAY that we would never get jobs because the economy was so bad. They never said, study the practical thing, or told us why we should love their subjects. Instead, PhDs were driving taxicabs in NYC, so we were doomed. The economy and generally pessimistic mood of the late '70s reminds me much of today.

So I studied what I loved, and did not give a thought to how I'd apply it. I have never had a regret about my humanities / social science liberal arts degree in history. It has served me very well, in fact, in preparing me to pursue graduate study, in honing my research and writing skills, in sparking a lifelong love of the field. I have never been unemployed, so there.

Ha ha. After the prior post, I couldn't resist this link. I don't think I've ever seen a student doing this in my classes, but there's always a first time, I guess, so maybe this semester?

Sometimes a picture really is worth 1,000 words

Classes start tomorrow! I am sorry to have less time for my kindle and Mark Twain and Elwyn's diaries. But ya gotta do watchya gotta do...

I'm basically all ready for the semester to begin next week. And...I learned I will be teaching grad classes instead of one of my foundations sections starting in '14-'15. Yahoo! This means I may make it to 67 without getting burnt out.

I expected to write here quite a bit recently since it's winter break, but as it turns out, I have spent time doing other things instead, and now spring semester looms (my classes start January 23).

Yesterday little Rosie had four warts removed & her teeth cleaned. I was nervous, since she's old, and she had to fast just in case she needed to be knocked out, as one tooth may have needed to be pulled. But as it turned out, she didn't lose any teeth and everything was done with a local (for the warts) and a sedative. She was an angel! She was groggy and wobbly afterwards, but her teeth look like a young dog's! Today she is 100%.

This was last night.

I've been reading Empty Mansions. There are two authors and the writing style is a little choppy, but overall it's an interesting read. It's clear the writers developed deep admiration for the father of the main character, a self-made fabulously wealthy businessman who eventually became a senator. At one point they "diss" Mark Twain because he wrote a 1907 essay that blasted the senator. It was very clear they were almost personally offended by the criticism. I felt the same about what they wrote!

I didn't recall reading the 1907 essay, so I started looking for it. It appears in a DeVoto edited book, published in 1940. I don't own it (hard to believe), and it's not available in an ebook (I am never buying paper again). I was thinking it might be in the new autobiography, but I didn't remember it from the first volume. However, while searching I discovered the second volume was published in October 2013! How did I not know this? 

So I bought it...and put Empty Mansions aside. No surprise there!

Here is my sister's latest post, about what has also been consuming me: kindles and Elwyn's diary.

 Day time & night views. (My cell camera isn't the greatest.)

Grades.Are.Done!

Almost finished with grades! Tonight we are going to Advent Lessons and Carols at the Parish of St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph in Rensselaer. Four choirs from Southern Rensselaer County (including ours) will be participating. Can't wait!

I've had my nose to the grindstone, and as a result can predict I will be finished with Fall grades well before the deadline. I did take a break Wednesday (to go the A Christmas Carol at Cap Rep), Sunday (to go to church, do laundry, remove homepage hijacker from the laptop, shovel snow -- winter has come early -- had our second storm today. Below zero temps last night), and Monday (for faith formation). 

We made batik (using Elmer's glue) and tie dye Sacred Heart Church logo tee-shirts. We planned to use Koolaid for the dye, but the prototypes we made were a disaster. We had cotton shirts, and Koolaid washes right out of natural fabrics. So we used a non-toxic dye made for kids instead. As preparation, the kids studied the painting "The Sacred Heart" (1954, Roy de Maistre).

It took two classes, and the shirts came out unbelievably good! Chalk it up to divine intervention, lol. Half the kids were absent the night we did the dye part, and Bob wants to tie dye again in January so the kids who were absent last week can make a shirt too. 

We handed the finished shirts out last night, studied "Nativity" by Elena Khmeleva, drew the nativity scene, and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas." Now we're on break until January 6.

This shirt most closely matches my "vision" for this project

After discovering no plagiarism since Spring 2012 (and congratulating myself that the "academic integrity awareness quiz" I designed that summer after that dreadful hearing episode was working like a charm), yesterday I found a shocking, and disheartening case. Disappointing not so much due to the guilty party -- a fairly weak student -- but because the stolen essay was written by a favorite, outstanding student from the past who I never would have suspected of being ethically challenged.

But I forged ahead, and finished all the essays even though documenting and reporting cheating takes a lot of time I don't have, thank you very much.

I forgot: the batik and tie dye shirts for faith formation came out awesome! Must be divine inspiration. The kids will be so proud, we will put on the finishing touches on Monday (and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. I'll post pictures soon.

Both my 96 year old uncle (his wife is my mother's sister) and my dissertation chair (age 82, had Alzheimer's for a couple years) died yesterday. So I am re-posting this youtube of the interview of my uncle I did in 2011 that my nephew recorded & edited. He stayed vital right until the end. A very well-lived life. Feeling melancholy but also blessed to have known these two men.

The only picture I took in my travels. Achilles is a huge GSD. Very lovable too. My friend adopted him in September.

I'll be traveling and so won't be around a computer for much of the day tomorrow -- and once I am, I won't be writing here. So to commemorate the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, I will link to this old post of mine, "Gym Teacher from H-ll."

I'm in OK shape as the end of semester approaches. But, I am sure to plunge myself into a backlog shortly, as I plan to go to Buffalo to visit my "best" friend from November 22-24, and then from Thanksgiving until December 1 we'll be in Samsonville with little opportunity for working. I have an overly ambitious list of things to do on the days I will be working (tomorrow, and Monday-Wednesday of next week).

Monday was strangely warm, but since then it's gotten quite cold. One benefit, the skateboard-riding students have vanished.

Evaluating midterms. It's a task I dislike, and so tend to procrastinate. But, I buckled down and I've made good progress. So far, they are OK overall, in the A- to C- range.

I've been struggling with this post, started a private journal post on the subject to vent, abandoned writing even that. This semester I have a larger number of students than usual who are struggling. I've referred a couple for academic support. Some are slackers, some are overwhelmed by various life issues. There are attendance problems, assignments that are weak, late, or missing entirely. A big presentation looms next week, and this is the time in the semester where most students are felling pressured.

I like all my classes a lot. There are always many wonderful students, even the struggling ones. This week was trying, though. My Tuesday evening class is often my favorite in any semester. This fall, it is a good group, especially participatory, and the atmosphere is relaxed. However, there are some struggling students, some needy students, and also some slackers. Three incidents happened during class -- all concerning strong students -- that really bothered me.

I won't elaborate more than this, as who knows who lands here, and it wouldn't be right for me to describe any of the students' actions specifically. Suffice to say this week tested me, caused me to dwell on it afterwards.

Then yesterday I found out that I got  a raise and change in status, and that went a long way toward making all right in my (professional) world. It was a much-needed boost. Funny how things work out.

As part of our focus on St. Francis of Assisi and animals, we are having a guest with a service dog visit class in two weeks. So last night we prepared, by reading the book "My Buddy, watching a couple short videos about service dogs, and making posters of "hero" dogs. This was our sample, crafted from photos of dogs we actually know:

Yesterday was my father's last day of radiation (for a slight re-growth of his brain tumor; this was not unexpected). Still, schlepping to Albany every weekday since September 23 takes a toll. We went to lunch at Sam's

when he had his first consultation at St. Peter's back in August. Sam's is closed Mondays, so yesterday we went to Lombardo's. You don't need three guesses to figure out what I had: Eggplant Parmesan. Both times. (Not that I have not had it many, many times in-between as well).

PS new shoes are AWESOME

Getting these new shoes today. So psyched!

Can it be that high schools really no longer have the full array of social cliques, as when I was in school?

I started this post on the 16th and it has been in draft ever since. I thought maybe I would draw instead, but haven't done that either. I think it has been a barrier to my writing anything else here...so I am moving on.