The Post For Stuff You Wanna Tell People

[mamselle]

Just got email and phone alerts:  one of our campuses (not mine) is on shelter-in-place lockdown.  (NOT a drill.)

Yikes. Sorry to hear that.

Be safe.

M.

[hmaria1609]

Already?!
https://wtop.com/health-fitness/2022/10/soon-youll-turn-back-your-clocks-how-to-help-your-kids-adjust/
Guess I'll be posting a sign for my coworkers at the library.

[hmaria1609]

Local radio station announced it'll be playing Christmas music starting this Friday evening (11/12) as I was driving to the library this morning.  I howled like Kevin in the 1st "Home Alone" movie--I wanna get through Thanksgiving!

[apl68]

Now and then my mother keeps me up with people she used to know while teaching.  Among them was a woman whose husband was diagnosed several years ago with a severe aneurysm in his aorta.  At one point they looked at performing some major, high-risk surgery.  Then they decided he wouldn't survive it.  Then they essentially sent him home to die.

A year and a half later, he was both still alive and doing a good deal better.  He contacted his heart doctor.  The doctor was shocked to learn that he still lived.  He persuaded the doctor to scan his heart.  His aorta no longer shows evidence of having an aneurysm.  They credit divine intervention.  Certainly it was the answer to many prayers.  We don't know why sometimes these are answered and sometimes they aren't.  We're just glad when they are.

[Juvenal]

It's the time to play various Holiday turkeys.  Nominate your least favorite.  My Mother's was, "The Little Drummer Boy," as saccharine as a candy cane.  Where's Rudolph when you need him?"

Local radio station announced it'll be playing Christmas music starting this Friday evening (11/12) as I was driving to the library this morning.  I howled like Kevin in the 1st "Home Alone" movie--I wanna get through Thanksgiving!

[mamselle]

As a strolling musician in the 70s-90s in Ohio and elsewhere, I had them all memorized, had my vocals worked out, and delighted in playing any one of about 50 on request.

Then, suddenly, I got tired of all of them. I also started working in more interfaith and ecumenical settings in other aspects of my work, and became bothered by the univocal blanketing of the airwaves by one faith perspective in a place where (especially in my second home) many others existed.

I'm Christian, so I also don't object to those undergirded by a well-considered theology or narrative that's consistent with the season overall, but some became outliers to me on those grounds as well.

Now, my favorite is the lovely 13th c. chant, Conditor Alme Sidarum (1st hymn of Advent) "Creator of the Stars of Night," and for jolllity, "Branle L'Officiel," from Arbeau's 1571 dance-tune from《Orchesographie》which was later, in the 19th c., set to to words of "Ding, Dong, Merrily We Sing."

ETA, ...and all the beautiful hymns, classical works, and chants meant to be heard in worship, or that I choose to listen to myself, at those times and places where I am choosing to be present.

Maybe it's just the banal, Muzak imposition on my soundscape that I mind the most.

M.

Now, I

[cathwen]

I make a distinction between secular holiday songs (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc.) and Advent hymns and Christmas carols and hymns.  I don't much care for most of the holiday songs.

My preferences run along the lines of Mamselle's.  "Creator of the Stars at Night" is gorgeous! And I love the Sundays in Advent when we get to sing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," among others.

In the church I attended where I used to live, the rector would give his annual diatribe against "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." The idea of having to be good to get presents is, he always claimed, counter to the Christian message: Grace is given freely.

[mamselle]

Agreed.

Two more favorites to add: Mozart's "Laudate Dominum"

   https://youtu.be/AaEGwph2Qr4

and this series from a concert at Oxford, long ago: (lasts c. an hour)
   
   https://youtu.be/fhXLG5Bwd_8

M.

   

[AmLitHist]

For the first time ever, I got an invitation in my email to join the Oxford Round Table.

Clearly, I have finally arrived (far later than others here, but considering I'm just at a CC and ABD, I'm shocked they ever got around to me).

I'm in my 3-year faculty eval cycle this year; I'm tempted to include this in my packet and see if any of The Powers Nimrods That Be would notice it.  My luck, I'd probably be honored at a BoT meeting.  (No, I really don't work with the sharpest crayons in the box.)

[AvidReader]

For the first time ever, I got an invitation in my email to join the Oxford Round Table.

Clearly, I have finally arrived (far later than others here, but considering I'm just at a CC and ABD, I'm shocked they ever got around to me).

This is clearly an occasion for celebration! Congratulations!

AR.

[Parasaurolophus]

For the first time ever, I got an invitation in my email to join the Oxford Round Table.

Wow, congratulations! =D



For my part, I have sourced some children's Tylenol online, so I won't have to ration my remaining stock quite so carefully.

[secundem_artem]

For the first time ever, I got an invitation in my email to join the Oxford Round Table.

Wow, congratulations! =D



For my part, I have sourced some children's Tylenol online, so I won't have to ration my remaining stock quite so carefully.

Children's Motrin is a very viable alternative and has a longer duration of action than APAP (acetyl para amino phenol) AKA Tylenol.. Assuming that's not sold out too.

[fishbrains]

I have the announcement of a major medical breakthrough: The cure for a bad cough? A raging case of the green apple splatters.

Someone please shoot me.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Lord, Allah, Osiris, Bastet, Krishna, Visha, Zeus, Hera, Odin, Modjadji, Buddah, Mother Theresa, the current (and past) Pope(s), and all other deities, the Universe, etc.- have mercy on me for this family trip I am about to take. Please let me have the strength to endure the bigotry, weight comments and other bullshit that will come my way!

[Dismal]

I'm reading the PhD applications that don't mention any faculty the student has an interest in just in case I can think of someone for who this student might be a good fit. Otherwise these apps don't get forwarded to the committee. One mediocre applicant submits a writing sample that is oddly detailed but lacks an intro or conclusion. One search for a particular sentence on google scholar reveals that the entire submission is the middle four pages of a 2020 journal article written by someone on another continent. The whole writing sample was plagiarized.

I wish there were a job where I could get paid well for this skill!