Y’all are just going to have to follow me on this one. Saturday Night Live used to have a series of sketches entitled “Deep Thought by Jack Handey”. It was purely satire. While this blog isn’t satire, and my mother’s maiden name was Handy (no E), I still felt the title of it. Let’s jump … Continue reading Deep Thoughts with a Handy: Politeness and Gender Identity
Hurdles
Photo by Vladislav Vasnetsov on Pexels.com First Hurdle: Limited Academic Recommendations My present academic journey began in Fall 2009 (yes, 12 years ago), when I enrolled as a non-degree seeking student in my department. My previous graduate school route had been rather non-traditional. It makes me feel better to remember that I didn’t get admitted … Continue reading Hurdles
The Value in Exposure
In 1986, my aunt married a man who was originally from Ohio. In the summer of 1987, we (my grandparents and great aunt) drove to Columbus, Ohio for what had started out as a family reunion. That ended up being canceled, but my grandparents, ever the domestic travelers, decided to go anyway. I remember several … Continue reading The Value in Exposure
Nothing We’ve Ever Experienced
Minus 2 trips to the grocery store, a drive to run my car and clear my head, and many trips to specialists in early 2021, I rarely left my property from March 7, 2020, to about August 2021. Now, I do recognize the privilege I have in owning a house large enough that my wife … Continue reading Nothing We’ve Ever Experienced
Let’s normalize talking about health issues
For the last year or so, I’ve been dealing with what can most easily be described as an autoimmune disorder. (Science refers to it as auto inflammatory, but since the inflammation is an immune response, it’s just easier to explain that way). Experiencing extreme inflammation does a number on your body. My particular issue is … Continue reading Let’s normalize talking about health issues
Failure is an option
I believe people subscribe to two schools, at least where failure is concerned. They either believe failure is unacceptable, or they believe that failure is not only acceptable, it is valuable. I once heard someone say “if we got it right the first time, it would be called search, not research.” Failed experiments serve a … Continue reading Failure is an option
The Origins
And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long. —Mary Church Terrell My goal in writing this blog is two fold: to give myself space for unstructured writing as I complete my dissertation … Continue reading The Origins
