The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the work of Cait S. Kirby, a doctoral student in biology who has created simulations of a day in the life of a college student and a faculty member required to be on campus in Fall 2020. The simulations are a bit like Choose Your Own Adventure, or Nightmare.
What Kirby hopes someone working through the simulations will conclude: “Wow, being on campus in the fall is probably not going to be good for anyone.”
Simulations of the day in the life of a grad student and a contingent faculty member are to come.
*
An aside: Kirby’s simulation assumes a student in possession of a face mask. That’s good. But I learned just recently that my university’s plan for an on-campus fall semester includes the distribution of one cloth mask per student. One. How long before a student loses it? Or lends it to someone else? Or fails to wash it before reusing? Or has to run to the library for research materials while that mask is drying? Granted, a student might be bringing multiple masks to campus. But the distribution of single masks, meant to last a semester, seems ludicrous.
And I can’t help wondering if these masks will bear the school colors.
A related post
College, anyone?
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Choose your own nightmare
Beard maintenance
The New York Times offers advice about beard maintenance. All good, especially re: the neckline and the use of a hand mirror. I speak from many years of experience.
Advice from 1879, and not from the Times: “It is best for men not to shave at all.”
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A beard-trimming recommendation
Saturday, July 4, 2020
The Fourth
“America the Beautiful” (words by Katherine Lee Bates, music by Samuel A. Ward), reimagined by clarinetist Anthony McGill. The hashtags accompanying the video: #ALMBLM2, #HowAboutNow, #ICareAboutBlackLives, and #TakeTwoKnees.
[Found via The New Yorker, which has the backstory.]
Friday, July 3, 2020
Tomorrow’s Saturday Stumper
Tomorrow’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Greg Johnson. By Stumper standards, it’s an easy puzzle. I had to guess for the last letter, a cross of 49-A, six letters, “Laurel Weaver, in Men in Black ” and 50-D, five letters, “Start to go.” I guessed right, and saw the logic of 50-D as soon as I typed the missing letter. Aha.
Some clues I especially liked:
2-D, eight letters, “Treat shaped like toes.” I think I know the answer only from living in the midwest.
15-A, nine letters, “Rescuers in whodunits.” You were thinking people?
35-A, six letters, “Big name in Haitian rap.” Oh, that must be — yes, it is.
38-D, eight letters, “Diamond former.” Baseball? OLDTIMER? No.
40-A, seven letters, “It might go with a miniskirt.” The first few letters of the answer are a bit of misdirection — I think.
54-A, three letters, “You might have a ball with it.” Especially in the dowdy world.
My favorite clue: 28-D, six letters, “Screen icon since the ’80s.” Here the first few letters of the answer must be meant as misdirection.
No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.
#UNFIT
Streaming now and through the weekend: #UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump, directed by Dan Partland. Excellent film, $6 to access.
Metaphor of the day
“He is fat Elvis”: Nicole Wallace's characterization of Donald Trump*, just now on MSNBC.
SPA day
Me, in the supermarket earlier today:
“This person’s COMING THE WRONG WAY. Let’s back out and go down two aisles.”
“Here’s ANOTHER PERSON NOT WEARING A MASK.”
“Let’s go the other way. THIS PERSON DOESN’T HAVE A MASK ON.”
“Could you keep your distance? ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO WEAR A MASK.”
I would estimate that half the customers in the supermarket this morning wore no masks and paid no attention to one-way aisles or social distancing.
SPA is my newly invented acronym: Sparring Passive-Aggressively. My other new acronym: SITEEMO. Shop In The Early, Early Morning Only. Today we were too late.
Our tube
John Amos, Ernest Borgnine, LeVar Burton, Jerry Orbach, Adam West, all in the Murder, She Wrote episode “Death Takes a Dive” (February 22, 1987). Familiar faces in new arrangements: one of the pleasures of television.
Domestic comedy
“It looks absurd — it’s like a Love Boat toupee!”
Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)
Reluctant professors
“Thousands of instructors at American colleges and universities have told administrators in recent days that they are unwilling to resume in-person classes because of the pandemic”: The New York Times reports on reluctant professors.
The University of Illinois faculty and staff petition for an open forum on re-opening, mentioned in the article, is worth reading.
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College, anyone?
