Patriarchy and property

From an article in today's New York Times, "AIDS and Custom Leave African Families Nothing":

Many tribes are patrilineal, meaning children are considered the father's descendants and men are seen as the sole property owners in the family. If her husband dies, the wife may be allowed to stay in the couple's house--but, sometimes, only on condition that she marry one of her husband's relatives. If she wants to move, perhaps back to her own family, she typically leaves with nothing but the clothes on her back.

Or she may simply be driven out altogether. Increasingly, in-laws cite the possibility that a widow is infected with the AIDS virus as reason to confiscate her home.

You can read the article by clicking here.

[To read the Times, use mediajunkie as your name and password. For more names and passwords to enter free sites that require registration, go to bugmenot.com.]

How to improve writing (no. 6 in a series)

From a written statement by a school-board candidate withdrawing from an election (as reported in the local paper):

I am looking to make a sacrifice for the benefit of the April 5, 2005 election and understanding that I will be retaining the right for me and my qualified supporters to circulate future petitions so that I can pursue a future election in approximately two years or any election thereafter, to a position as a member of the [Name] Community Unit School District so long as I am a resident of that school district and otherwise qualified.

Note the unnecessary legalisms: "retaining the right," "qualified supporters," "any election thereafter."

Translation: Now is not the best time for me to run, but I might run again in a few years.

Link » Other How to improve writing posts, via Pinboard

Sinks

3703 students: Here are three links to photographs of sinks that more or less resemble what we saw in "To My Wash-stand." It's difficult to tell whether these are really old or only faux-old. I found them by typing old bathroom sink in Google. Here they are: the first, the second, and the third. Notice the old-style tile floors in the second and third photos.

Yet another word from the Greek

From the wordsmith.org word-a-day service:

misandry (MIS-an-dree) noun
Hatred of men.
[From mis-, from miso- (hate) + -andry (male).]

The feminine counterpart of this term is misogyny, and hatred of humankind is known as misanthropy.

"Television advertising, for example, is deeply infected by misandry. In adverts for everything from jeans to yogurt, men are portrayed as idiots."
John Waters; A Hate That Dares Us to Breathe Its Name; Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland); Nov 25, 1997.

Overheard

In What's Cookin':

"Shall we build with jelly packets?"

Overheard

Near Booth Library:

"I can feel his head in the back of my head."

A new use for PowerPoint

"After everyone left the room, I sat down and went through Ron's final presentation in slide-sorter view," Williams said. "Man, I gotta tell you, it blew me away. That presentation really utilized the full multimedia capabilities of Microsoft's PowerPoint application."

"We're really gonna miss Ron around here," Williams added.

From The Onion, "Project Manager Leaves Suicide PowerPoint Presentation." You can read the article by clicking here.

Thanks to my friend Norman for "pointing" me to this article.

Evaluating an anthology

3703 students: You can read Marjorie Perloff's deeply thoughtful and deeply critical review of Cary Nelson's Anthology of Modern American Poetry by clicking here.

English professor spam

I received this item today:

Dear Professor of English,

Please submit a paper for [name withheld], an International journal . . . . Please visit the journal's website.

The important-sounding International was amusing, and the sheer absurdity of this invitation made it impossible not to visit the website. (Note: I have a strong anti-virus program and a firewall on my computer.)

The journal must be unique in the world of English studies in having an Angelfire homepage. It's probably also unique in having images of foxes (wolves?), polar bears, and walruses on its homepage. An individual copy costs $30 ($50 if you're a library). A $10 "processing fee" must be included with one's essay, the check made out not to the journal but to an individual. There is no indication what sort of essays the journal is seeking. My best guess is that it's seeking essays accompanied by $10 checks. Best of all, submitting authors are asked to name two people to serve as referees. Not what one usually means by "refereed journal"!

I can't decide: Is this a scam in which you hand over your money and get "published"? Or does the "publisher" simply take your money and disappear? Either way, this lit crit scam is a welcome diversion from the usual junkmail. At least these people know that I teach English, unlike the Nigerian barristers who are always knocking at my e-mail door.

Related post
The National Dean's List

Getting organized . . . part 6

One more suggestion: the Hipster PDA. That is, a stack of index cards held together with a binder clip. The ways in which people have worked out the details of this analog organizing tool are pretty amazing. Google returns close to 10,000 hits for "hipster pda."

Tip of the (Valentine's) Day: A Hipster PDA makes a great Valentine's Day gift. Use pink index cards and write something on each. (Happy Valentine's Day, Elaine!)