The other Sunday I was in the checkout line at the grocery store in my neighborhood and pulled out a twenty and a ten to pay for my $25 bill, when this (short) (40ish) (dirty-looking) (brown-skinned) guy behind me who had just a big plastic carton of punch on the conveyor belt stuck out a plastic card at me and was like, "Hey, can I pay for that with WIC and you can give me the cash? I got twenty-five dollars on here, I need gas for my truck."
I shook my head no as the (Mexican-American) cashier subtly looked up at me from the sides of her eyes in a "what the hell is this" kind of expression.
Then, the (dirty-looking) guy went off to the store to get something else as he left the carton of punch on the conveyor belt.
"You get that a lot?", I was like, but she just said she didn't get why he was doing that.
"He was probably short on cash and didn't have any of that, but had WIC money and wanted to trade that for actual hard money so he could fill up his truck," I was like.
"Oh," she was like.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Friday, November 28, 2014
More laff riots with students.
I forgot -
I was telling my writing students about how effective short punchy sentences can be if used in moderation, when some (white) girl at a nearby table in the campus cafe where I was holding this meeting shouted out in my direction as part of her conversation at her table, "You have got to be kidding!".
So, without missing a beat, I turned my head to speak to her as if she was addressing me, and was like, "No, I'm *not* kidding, short, punchy sentences can be highly effective in writing, when used judiciously!".
A lot of the kids laughed at that.
I was telling my writing students about how effective short punchy sentences can be if used in moderation, when some (white) girl at a nearby table in the campus cafe where I was holding this meeting shouted out in my direction as part of her conversation at her table, "You have got to be kidding!".
So, without missing a beat, I turned my head to speak to her as if she was addressing me, and was like, "No, I'm *not* kidding, short, punchy sentences can be highly effective in writing, when used judiciously!".
A lot of the kids laughed at that.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Fomenting revolutionary discontent among friends.
The other Friday I met the (half British) (half Sudanese) sister of my one (half British) (half Sudanese) friend for drinks, and we ended up at this new wine bar near the apartment where she's living with her boyfriend.
She only recently got a job and at first she didn't want to go the wine bar since it was pricey, but since she recently passed a professional qualification exam and I'm doing okay with money and on top of all of that it was a new bar that I'd need to go to at some point, I insisted that we go and I'd buy, so we went.
We sat up at the cheese-carving area, since the place was packed with complacent (young) (mostly white) professionals and those were the only two seats open.
"Look at how complacent they all are," I whispered to her, looking around conspiratorily over my shoulder and eyeing the crowd behind us.
('Complacent' is my new favorite word.)
She agreed.
"What this place really needs is a brick through the window," I was like.
"I don't think that'd happen much around here," she was like. "No one to throw them."
"Oh, but there's a lot of people who work here who are probably discontent," I was like. "All it takes is a ski mask and a spark to set it off, then they march down the street chucking bricks through windows."
"Perhaps," she was like.
"Perhaps?", I was like. "That day will come."
We split some designer cheese, and the board came out with this pretty small piece of cheese, but a big nice freshly-baked baguette.
"That's pretty small," she was like, looking at the cheese.
Then, a few minutes later, she commented on how good the olives looked that the people next to us ordered.
"Take them," I was like. "Those are our olives."
Then, nodding toward the complacent olive-eating (white) women, I was like, "Just look at them, they're people who live off the backs of others, of people like you and me. Our money bought those olives, so take them, they're ours."
Every once in a while, then, for the rest of the time we had drinks there, whenever waiters brought out something tasty-looking, I'd encourage her just to up and take the food.
When we left and were heading to another bar, I was telling her about how I'd been reading about the Symbionese Liberation Army and how much sense their slogan made, "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!".
"You know," I was like, "It's a little much, but it's kind of true."
"I'm not sure I like the 'fascist' part," she was like. "It vilifies people too much and descends too easily into violence."
"Then what would you have instead as a slogan?", I was like.
"Oh, something like, 'confiscation of property'," she was like, quite seriously.
She only recently got a job and at first she didn't want to go the wine bar since it was pricey, but since she recently passed a professional qualification exam and I'm doing okay with money and on top of all of that it was a new bar that I'd need to go to at some point, I insisted that we go and I'd buy, so we went.
We sat up at the cheese-carving area, since the place was packed with complacent (young) (mostly white) professionals and those were the only two seats open.
"Look at how complacent they all are," I whispered to her, looking around conspiratorily over my shoulder and eyeing the crowd behind us.
('Complacent' is my new favorite word.)
She agreed.
"What this place really needs is a brick through the window," I was like.
"I don't think that'd happen much around here," she was like. "No one to throw them."
"Oh, but there's a lot of people who work here who are probably discontent," I was like. "All it takes is a ski mask and a spark to set it off, then they march down the street chucking bricks through windows."
"Perhaps," she was like.
"Perhaps?", I was like. "That day will come."
We split some designer cheese, and the board came out with this pretty small piece of cheese, but a big nice freshly-baked baguette.
"That's pretty small," she was like, looking at the cheese.
Then, a few minutes later, she commented on how good the olives looked that the people next to us ordered.
"Take them," I was like. "Those are our olives."
Then, nodding toward the complacent olive-eating (white) women, I was like, "Just look at them, they're people who live off the backs of others, of people like you and me. Our money bought those olives, so take them, they're ours."
Every once in a while, then, for the rest of the time we had drinks there, whenever waiters brought out something tasty-looking, I'd encourage her just to up and take the food.
When we left and were heading to another bar, I was telling her about how I'd been reading about the Symbionese Liberation Army and how much sense their slogan made, "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!".
"You know," I was like, "It's a little much, but it's kind of true."
"I'm not sure I like the 'fascist' part," she was like. "It vilifies people too much and descends too easily into violence."
"Then what would you have instead as a slogan?", I was like.
"Oh, something like, 'confiscation of property'," she was like, quite seriously.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
"Our Founders".
Something else on my mind recently:
From scattered references that I've read (I have nothing at hand), the founding generation of the U.S. thought that no good could come of secret societies.
If I'm not mistaken, that same ethos carried through the anti-Masonic debates of the 19th c., since why would citizens be okay with politicians all belonging to the same secret club?
Yet, we're in that place now, with the manipulating money that's funding political campaigns, and all the top-secret shindigs where politicians go to give speeches to the likes of the Koch Bros.
When did America lose that sense that secret societies are never any good?
From what I gather, the default common sense now is that "they can do what they want, it's a free country", which is some bullshit that can be used to excuse anything.
Really, our country suffers from an impoverishment of recognition of the basic values and behavior appropriate to citizens.
From scattered references that I've read (I have nothing at hand), the founding generation of the U.S. thought that no good could come of secret societies.
If I'm not mistaken, that same ethos carried through the anti-Masonic debates of the 19th c., since why would citizens be okay with politicians all belonging to the same secret club?
Yet, we're in that place now, with the manipulating money that's funding political campaigns, and all the top-secret shindigs where politicians go to give speeches to the likes of the Koch Bros.
When did America lose that sense that secret societies are never any good?
From what I gather, the default common sense now is that "they can do what they want, it's a free country", which is some bullshit that can be used to excuse anything.
Really, our country suffers from an impoverishment of recognition of the basic values and behavior appropriate to citizens.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
On the complacency of the young.
I think what most surprises me about nowadays is how complacent the young are.
Overall, it seems like kids nowadays are so trained to love authority that they look around everywhere for a pat on the head from daddy, and don't realize how much they're getting fucked.
You think with a rainbow of faces in a college classroom that there'd be some diversity on that front, but there really isn't, as far as I can see.
Instead, it seems like most of the kids have been trained in ass-kissing and so can't snap out of that mindset enough to wake up, or perhaps they come from that section of the nation where the economy is doing quite well for them, as my one (half British) (half Sudanese) friend loves to say.
Unfortunately, as a society, it seems that the only values we have around are the "lowest common denominator" values of the dollar, so that's the only thing that kids seem to aspire to.
How refreshing it must have been in the late 60s and 70s, when the default attitude was questioning "the system"!
I'm wondering if these kids are ever going to wage intergenerational warfare and think contemptuously of their parents and their values.
You can always hope...
The other day at the art school as I was setting up for class I heard the students talking among themselves, and one was saying how she had a medication reaction and her RA had to call the ambulance, and now she has a $1000 bill for that and $5000 for the ER b/c the school's insurance doesn't cover it.
"What does all this money go for?", one student asked. "You think with what we'd pay, we'd be covered."
Then they began batting around how fucked up the system was with money being taken out of their pockets for education, something I never hear at the other university I work for.
That said, I still get the sense that the art school kids aren't in the "overthrow the system" mindset, but rather are kind of mildly bewildered that the system isn't working out for them.
Overall, it seems like kids nowadays are so trained to love authority that they look around everywhere for a pat on the head from daddy, and don't realize how much they're getting fucked.
You think with a rainbow of faces in a college classroom that there'd be some diversity on that front, but there really isn't, as far as I can see.
Instead, it seems like most of the kids have been trained in ass-kissing and so can't snap out of that mindset enough to wake up, or perhaps they come from that section of the nation where the economy is doing quite well for them, as my one (half British) (half Sudanese) friend loves to say.
Unfortunately, as a society, it seems that the only values we have around are the "lowest common denominator" values of the dollar, so that's the only thing that kids seem to aspire to.
How refreshing it must have been in the late 60s and 70s, when the default attitude was questioning "the system"!
I'm wondering if these kids are ever going to wage intergenerational warfare and think contemptuously of their parents and their values.
You can always hope...
The other day at the art school as I was setting up for class I heard the students talking among themselves, and one was saying how she had a medication reaction and her RA had to call the ambulance, and now she has a $1000 bill for that and $5000 for the ER b/c the school's insurance doesn't cover it.
"What does all this money go for?", one student asked. "You think with what we'd pay, we'd be covered."
Then they began batting around how fucked up the system was with money being taken out of their pockets for education, something I never hear at the other university I work for.
That said, I still get the sense that the art school kids aren't in the "overthrow the system" mindset, but rather are kind of mildly bewildered that the system isn't working out for them.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Cumulative reflections on the midterm elections...
My biggest lasting impression of the midterm elections is that something's profoundly changed in our political system b/c of the influx of $, and an uneasy thought is circulating that we're not as much of a democracy as we used to be.
In Iowa and Wisconsin and Illinois, everyone is shocked at and sick of the amount of TV ads, and at least the guest housing host who I had in Iowa said that she'd not only heard that same response from a lot of people, but also that people were wondering where that money was coming from and why we don't have better things to spend it on as a society.
In Wisconsin, the same hardcore old union activists who I know were comforting themselves by saying "we fought the good fight", but seemed uncertain whether their "knock doors" tactics could really stand up as much as was needed to the influx of money.
In other words, individual people really can't unite against billionaires as much as we'd like to think. Life isn't some Disney movie where it's easy for underdogs to win.
A few years ago, my one (Mexican) (naturalized U.S. citizen) friend said that every year the U.S. is becoming more and more like Mexico, where politicians make a show of being connected to people but are actually being bought and paid for by millionaires, and where everyone knows it but no-one does anything.
I think he's right, and I can only wonder when and how we can pull out of it.
Amendment to the Constitution? Replacement on the Supreme Court that allows reversals of key rulings?
What's worst of all is that so many people don't even know what's happening; Citizens United is going to be in history books as a key point of American democratic demise, and yet so many people I know don't even know that it exists.
Just sickening.
In Iowa and Wisconsin and Illinois, everyone is shocked at and sick of the amount of TV ads, and at least the guest housing host who I had in Iowa said that she'd not only heard that same response from a lot of people, but also that people were wondering where that money was coming from and why we don't have better things to spend it on as a society.
In Wisconsin, the same hardcore old union activists who I know were comforting themselves by saying "we fought the good fight", but seemed uncertain whether their "knock doors" tactics could really stand up as much as was needed to the influx of money.
In other words, individual people really can't unite against billionaires as much as we'd like to think. Life isn't some Disney movie where it's easy for underdogs to win.
A few years ago, my one (Mexican) (naturalized U.S. citizen) friend said that every year the U.S. is becoming more and more like Mexico, where politicians make a show of being connected to people but are actually being bought and paid for by millionaires, and where everyone knows it but no-one does anything.
I think he's right, and I can only wonder when and how we can pull out of it.
Amendment to the Constitution? Replacement on the Supreme Court that allows reversals of key rulings?
What's worst of all is that so many people don't even know what's happening; Citizens United is going to be in history books as a key point of American democratic demise, and yet so many people I know don't even know that it exists.
Just sickening.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Text re: Iowa GOTV from my friend.
Text from my one friend who's a prof of modern Czech literature when I texted her about the half-naked fratboys answering their doors when I did GOTV work in Iowa:
I'm imagining half shirts and hairy navels.
. . .
I'm imagining half shirts and hairy navels.
. . .
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