On 111 Male Characters Of British Literature, In Order Of Bangability
This list is discredited by the absence of Jack Aubrey.
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On In Defense of the .50 Caliber Round
Teaching this to the grasshoppers in an intro class. Will be interested to see how the conversation goes.
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On Why Is This Joke Funny?
This next to the dead parents thing is a lot. My father, who was not Jewish, but is dead, told a version of this joke where the man has his bees in a cigar box on a plane. Thanks.
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On The Shame of the Professor's Summer Vacation
Not sure why I'm bothering, but if the larger point is not that Ms. Pornstein is angry, perhaps she can, like, boil it down to where I can understand it.
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On The Shame of the Professor's Summer Vacation
I happen to work in one of Kevin Dettmar's former departments, though we did not overlap. I can say with some authority that the rage of the commenters is completely justified. We work 2-3 days a week, no more than nine months a year, and even that time is split between making up random nonsense concerning books nobody cares about, and smoking pot with attractive teenagers and twentysomethings. Working at a college is just like going to one! Higher education is a giant racket, and the liberal arts should be replaced with the kind of training programs that will enable the next generation to compete with the Chinese.
I would point out, if anyone cares, that the number Ms. Pornstein cites is presumably an average of all professors at Pomona. Most other fields pay much better than English because there are more private sector jobs for Ph.Ds in economics and chemistry than for Ph.Ds in the humanities. I hope this detail is a consolation to the many commenters who seem to feel that Kevin Dettmar should work longer hours and get paid less.
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On The Spandex Report, with Erica Sackin: The Great Bedford Avenue Bike Lane Debate
Missing from this debate is any recognition that bike lanes are a snare and a delusion. Motorists ignore them to the degree that they make riding more difficult and more dangerous, and they give motorists the idea that bikes belong only in bike lanes. If the city got rid of the lane b/c of pressure from Hasidim, that's lame, but the stiffer penalties for inattentive motorists are a better answer to the bike/car issue.
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On Emo Dracula Needs To Get Rapey
"Just as America's young men are being given deeply erroneous ideas about sex by what they watch on the Web, so, too, are America's young women receiving troubling misinformation about the male of the species from Twilight."
Except for a) young men have been getting deeply erroneous ideas about sex" since long before the Internet existed. "I never thought these letters were true..." to say no more, and b) the "sensitive, emotionally available, poetry-writing boys of [straight girls'] dreams" predate Twilight as well. Elliot Smith, Luke Skywalker, Holden Caulfield and Baudelaire, to name a few.
And it's possible that the audience for internet raunch may not be 100% male. But other than that, a solid argument. Young romance will likely continue to be a hot mess for most people most of the time, but don't blame vampires and the internet.
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On Does Judy Blume Make Abortion Seem Like A Pony Ride?
Vampire cunnilingus is the new graveside bukkake.
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On Three Rotten Classic Books I Never Want to See Again
Hard to say if it's a troll or not a troll, and not worth the effort to decide. I will split the difference and suggest that Margary is doing for literature what Lil' Nephew did for algebra.