Did I Mention?

Did I mention that I would like to start a political party? That sounds pretentious, but I am not thinking about fame or fortune. The best scenario would be the party coming into existence spontaneously. What I envision is a number of like minded people meeting under the comfortably loose bylaws of the Reasonable Party. We would not even have to be all that like minded since we would hold as our goal and our highest value the practice of reason. Of course we would have to hammer out what that means, but then we could indeed be reasonable.
In the meantime, I really, really need to comment on a couple of things that should immediatly provoke, at the very least, social ostracism or, at the other extreme, pain and embarrassment. The first is blue tooth technology, that now familiar plastic tumor extending from some poor schmucks' ears. I could devote a separate entry to the myriad possibilities for rude behavior involved in that technology, but here I will concentrate on another technological phenom: the listserv. I admit have no clue about its history. What I do understand about the email chat kind of site is that it is meant to be devoted to a subject or purpose common to the users/subscribers. I believe there is also a moderator or director who has some power over what may be posted. I belong to a neighborhood organization listserv and the threads run the gamut from who might be good at repairing a 100 year old roof to automobile break-ins. It is a chatty, sometimes newsy site and performs pretty much as advertizede.
Wouldn't one think that a listserv dedicated to the English Department at a community college would focus on English and teaching concerns? Writing is what community college English attempts to teach, so that might be a priority. In this era of painfully strident political correctness, one might even assume that politics would only be suggested, only whispered in inuendo. After all, like many two year colleges, 80% of the teachers are part-time and trying not to step on the toes of the all-powerful full-timers, so the full-time profs would be especially careful about not being too pushy with personal agendas. (They might even rescue part-timers who fall into traps of pedagogical argument? Right. Maybe if the victim is young and kisses up satisfactorily. . .surely if the victim is a young kiss-up recently ranked among the full-time.) One listserv that shall remain unnamed has, however, become the political arm of the small but vociferous, full-time, communist, anti-Bush faction of the English faculty. There are sometimes even caveats, ah, the caveats. "I know I shouldn't. . ." or "This may not be the place to. . ." Sometimes we are spared even the insincere quasi-apologetic warning. One wonders why the majority of faculty no longer post. There is no conversation, just ranting and occasional backslapping over clever, left-wing rhetoric. So instead of reacting to challenges of theory or responding to calls for suggestions, I now scan the listserv for departmental info I may need and I spend quality time considering what painful punishment the abusers deserve. Dante would be a bit outmoded. Something technological would be so much more appropriate. Hmmmm.

philology

I was playing in the OED today. No telling what that may lead to, but I was interrupted somewhere between linguistic and morpheme. Language is pretty interesting stuff.

A Visit

My son Ian visited St. Louis last week with his family. I have not posted in two weeks due to prep followed by visit followed by recovery. Aren't house guests an interesting phenomenon? (Now, there's a mix of singular and plural, just like the issues suggested.) Actually the best encounter we have all had since Ian's sojourn to college over ten years ago, the interaction is currently replaying in my mind and the critique is under construction. I know I held up well, and my husband managed to maintain through heat and three active granddaughters aged six and younger. Bevin was here some of the time and Colleen came into town for a few of the days. When Terry and I drove her back to Columbia, MO, we got to see her new and rather cute apartment. A couple's first meager home can be so much fun, as it plainly is for them. She is such an optimist and that makes her optimism often be the truth of the situation.
One moment of touristy, family activity orchestrated by Bridgett, or a vignette taken from Grandma, Uncle Joe and Aunt Jackie's joining the rest of us for barbecue on Friday, reflects more than can be taken in at once. Something like peering at that drop of "clean" water under a microscope, it takes awhile to discover all that exists within the microcosm of the larger world.