The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Aiming to get a large chunk of T1 done today.

Good morning!

A bit past genius with pangram.  Yesterday I got to QBABM! I think my final word was loony.

For LB I had bigamist-topography, bigamist-tomography.

This morning is the ablation consult, so we'll see what that doctor says.

Happy solving!

Coyotes and turkeys have been spotted in Manhattan. I think they come down from the Bronx, as I don't recall any instances of their sightings in the boroughs of Brooklyn or Queens. I've seen turkeys in Manhattan and Staten Island. We went looking for one on a bird walk in Brooklyn, along a path where he'd been sighted for at least a couple of weeks, but didn't see him that day.

The Saturday bird walk was along the shoreline/marshy area where we saw assorted shorebirds--great egrets, snowy egrets, herons, glossy ibises, more than 50 ruddy ducks, other duck species, several migrant warblers, and ospreys, one of them sitting on the ususal nest. Just missed the red-headed woodpecker, which according the the birders standing there had just flown off the tree it's been haunting for about a week. I went again yesterday, and much to my surprise saw it a few trees away from its usual haunt. The coloring was exactly like that in the photo (see link above). After hopping up and down that tree trunk, the bird flew across the path and into the bushes on the other side. It was interesting to see that most everyone had either seen the bird or wanted to know if any of us had seen it. I directed one birder to the spot where I saw it and heard him tell another birder that I had seen the bird. Earlier in the week at another location, I came across a duck with 12 newly hatched ducklings.

Good morning!

QB. QB yesterday, with oniony as the last word.

biographs/stormy, bigamist/topography

Happy solving!

I can only drool over the idea of a year or more's pay as severance incentive. I just looked at our most recent offer (2021).  We had the option of:

1.  Full insurance coverage (i.e., both the employee's and college's portion) for up to 24 months--based on one month of coverage per full year of employment.  (In my case, if that were offered today, it would be worth about $2200/month for 20 months); or

2.  1.5% of the employee's current base salary x the number of years of FT employment, UP TO a maximum of $30,000. (For me today, that would be about $24K.)

So, not jack-diddly-squat, though if it happens again tomorrow I'd jump to take the insurance (as it would bridge me to Medicare coverage).

Crappy as the options are, though, I have to admit that things are sufficiently rocky here now that I'm eagerly awaiting another VSIP (voluntary severance incentive plan) offer. (I do have the advantage of having a good pension waiting, with about $200K available to me right now as a partial lump sum, plus a guaranteed monthly net payment of about 75% of my current take-home. I won't get much in SS since I haven't paid in for the past 20 years.)

I lived poor for a long time before getting this job, so I know how to do it and can do it again. I just didn't expect to have to go back to living that way after working my ass off (in grad school and on the job) all these years. Still, I know I'm way better off than a lot of people, so I guess I should STFU.

There are four hungry little robins in the nest, and increasing numbers of hummers at the feeders!

I've never thought about it. At a glance, two years seems insufficient--I'd be relatively comfortable with five, I think, and I guess I could make three or four work. But I'd really have to believe that my writing was on the wall.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 13, 2024, 07:24:33 AMMore today.

I did it.

There's a rumour going around at my place that some senior faculty will be offered buyouts this fall.

I can be bought, and everyone has their price. I'm sure my price is too high, but I'm curious . . . . .

What's your price? Two years' salary? Three? One? A fake gold watch and steak knives?