Piled Higher and Deeper

I can't believe that I was in grad school for five years and I never saw or heard of the comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper. It is written by a former Stanford grad student named Jorge Cham. He brilliantly captures the essence of life in graduate school. I got both of his books for Christmas, and both my lovely wife and I are already finished reading them!

Woo hoo! Go Bulls!

My beloved University of South Florida Bulls 
won their first bowl game ever today!  
(I got my PhD at USF in 2004.)  The Bulls beat the East Carolina Pirates 24-7 in the inaugural PapaJohns.com Bowl.  You can read all about it here or here.  The Bulls finish 9-4-- not bad for a team that has only been around for ten years (and only made the jump to Div. I-A in 2001)!

Media hypocrisy

I'm not making apologies for the racist comments of Michael Richards or Mel Gibson, but why has Rosie O'Donnell gotten a free pass from the media for her racist mocking of Asians? Is it because she can claim that she did not know that her comments were racist? That's no excuse. I had a friend a few years ago who said that she meant nothing by it when she said, "That's mighty white of you." I argued that her lack of evil intent made such comments even more insidious. The phrase clearly implies that white people are more decent than those of other races. Likewise, Rosie's statement that she meant nothing by her offensive routine makes it even more frightening. It seems especially ironic in the wake of her condemnation of Kelly Ripa's supposedly homophobic comments to Clay Aiken. Where's the media outrage? Heck, where's the media coverage? Don't get me wrong-- the comments of Richards and Gibson were certainly more evil; I just think this sort of subtle racism is more dangerous.

Practically beach weather....

My lovely wife is giving me grief for not blogging enough. It's not like I have an audience of eager fans.... I have a couple of friends in Florida who check in occasionally, and a lot of folks find my blog by searching for phrases like "ftd rant," "banfield boycott," or "single malt."

Anyway, not much is going on here of interest. It's pretty warm here lately, with highs around 40. It's funny that this strikes me as warm. Still, I was hoping for my very first snowy Christmas. Oh, well.

It was rather cold a few weeks ago. The low one morning was 2 degrees, and with gusts of 22 m.p.h. the wind chill made it feel like 27 below! Even the locals agreed that was pretty cold.

The semester is coming to a close, with final exams and a boatload of grading looming. The next week'll be fun....