SANS WAYNE, THINGS ARE LOOKING UP!
AS YOU KNOW, facilities for the School of Humanities and Languages at IVC have long been conspicuously excrementitious (aka "way shitty"). Here at Dissent we have occasionally endeavored to reveal that shittitude, and, in so doing, we have often found it advisable to present the PHILOSOPHY ROOM (A405) in particular. Were one to construct a lowerarchy of A405ular shittitudinality, one would surely start with the floor, an expanse of linoleum more scuffed than which can hardly be conceived.
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when, on Monday, students in my philosophy classes commented on the loveliness of A405's floor!
I looked down and—zut alors!—the floor was clean! Spotless!
It even sparkled!
On behalf of my students, Fumiko's students, and I-don't-know-who-else's-dang-students, I'd like to thank the F&M crew for doing such a fine job. Don't know why they did it, but they did, and we thank them.
Vielen Danks!
DUCKED UP BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION
AT ONE POINT TODAY, Brenda alerted me to the sudden and precipitous duckification of the planter between the Library and SSC. I took my camera out there and found that, indeed, the northern planterama was totally ducked up:
I tried to get close to the peevish beasts, but they quacked & shat & threatened to fly away, so I backed off.On the way back to my office, I espied a ruminative long-eared, short-tailed lagomorph:
He sat very still for this portrait, and for that I thank him. Viel Spass!COMING SOON: THE HUMANITIES BUILDING!
I happened to be in the President's Conference Room in old A100 today, and I noticed all that crap they have hanging on the walls. Most of it was the usual stuff, including an architect's rendering of the "Performing Arts Center":
—Somebody must've been hopped-up on stink-weed when they rendered this, cuz it doesn't look anything like the lurid new edifice out in the field, the one they're calling the "Performing Arts Center."But I noticed another, a much older, architectural rendering. Check it out:
—That's right. It's the long fabled HUMANITIES BUILDING. It is legendary. I had heard about it twenty years ago, when I was first hired, and, once in a while, rumors would fly that the damn thing would finally be built! And why not? After all, H&L practically carries the whole dang college! I mean, without H&L, we could fit everything in a quonset hut!
I don't get it. Those Chem and Math clowns got a new building a decade ago. And now those Fine Arts knuckleheads are gonna get theirs. Meanwhile, the H&L crew is stuck teaching in friggin' Hooverville!
So help me out here. What does it mean that this particular painting hangs upon the Presidential Conference Room wall? Has it always hung there?
Perhaps it has no meaning at all. That, of course, would be very IVC. —CW
20 comments:
Can we get that sketch of the Hum Building framed and hang it in our spiffy new lounge?
Chunk,
Did you have the proper authority to enter the Presidential Conference Room?
Did you file a request to photograph the confidential documents on display?
Have you once agin violated the chain of command?
When will you ever learn?
I thought you may like this poem.
The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Maybe you could ask your friends in B&G to take a mop to A201. And about that rendering of the phantom H&L Bldg., you of all people should recognize a joke.
It's really surprising that your physical sciences departments got the benefit of a new building. At universities, sciences basically subsidize humanities; scientists get grants, which pay for their keep and that of their graduate students, for labs, for equipment, etc. 52% is then taken off the top of those grants by the university, and used to pay for everything else. So, science buildings are a good investment -- they breed more money. On the junior college level, on the other hand, everything gets paid for out of the same pot. The sciences have no natural advantage. Hence, the reason for the dearth of humanities buildings probably has something to do with the humanities departments as loci of resistance. But I'm just stating the obvious.
I do believe that certain people were seen throwing darts at the tender rendering of the Hum Building and penciling mustaches on the faces of the anonymous stduents types.
Teaching in Hooverville adds a certain versimilitude to the teaching of The Grapes of Wrath.
Irony. Glenn is finally learning irony.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Tan Nguyen cleared by state Attorney General
By MARTIN WISCKOL
The Orange County Register
A state investigation has found that Tan Nguyen's congressional campaign committed no crime last year when it mailed 14,000 letters telling immigrants they could be jailed for voting, the Attorney General's Office said Wednesday.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed that its voting-rights section is still investigating the incident.
"I'm very happy," Nguyen said of the state case's being closed. Asked if he might run for office again, he said, "You can bet on it."
Nguyen, a Republican nominee subsequently denounced by party leaders, tried unsuccessfully to upset Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, in the heavily Hispanic central county district.
The Spanish-language letters, sent to foreign-born Hispanic Democrats, warned recipients that if "you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time" or deportation, according to the widely circulated English translation.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons said no criminal intent could be proven.
"We could not prove that there was an intent to intimidate lawfully registered voters," Schons said. "There's no doubt there was an intent to intimidate unlawfully registered voters."
Schons pointed to a line in the letter that said, "If you are a citizen of the United States, we ask that you participate in the democratic process of voting." He also said that when Sanchez beat incumbent Bob Dornan in 1996, illegally registered voters casting ballots, a factor that may have provided a legitimate motive for the Nguyen letter.
Schons said the investigation found that despite his claim to the contrary, Nguyen knew about the letter before it was mailed.
Nguyen said again Wednesday that he did not know of the mailer until afterward, but was otherwise pleased with the news.
"It pretty much exonerated me," Nguyen said.
Amin David of Los Amigos of Orange County, one of several groups outraged by the letter, was unhappy with the state's decision.
"The intent was very clearly to keep (legally registered) people from voting," he said. "We're hoping (the Department of Justice) sees through to the intent."
Schons said a key in the decision to close the case stemmed from the Spanish word "emigrado." He said the original draft of the letter – in English – warned those in the country illegally and those with green cards that they could face jail or deportation if they voted.
Schons said "those with green cards" was translated into "emigrado," which can be interpreted as meaning noncitizens with work permits. However, when "emigrado" was translated back into English after the letters were mailed, it became "immigrant," which carries no connotation of being a noncitizen with a work permit.
Maybe Chunk can link to the Tan Nguyen fan who sings...
Is that Hooverville or Hooterville? I like Hootervile! Say "hello" to Arnold!
What the hell does Tan Nguyen have to do with this?
The intended H&L Building became the new Science and Business Technlogy Building in the early 2000's under the mis-leadership of HG & RM, & you weren't told about it. HG was your Dean but he did not speak up for you or defend you or fight on your behalf.
ah, Howard.
ah, the days of neck tickling and threats.
"Humanities and Languages: IVC's loci of resistance" - I like that.
I'm going to get a t-shirt printed up with that slogan and when I'm not wearing my "plague of despair" t-shirt, I'll wear that one.
who else wants one?
All-cotton, sweatshop free.
Here's the link to Stand By Our Tan.
Who says the Vietnamese enclave doesn't connect with the wider community? This lady connects with about half of it.
Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger Forfeits Law License
Thursday, May 17, 2007
WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, apologized for taking highly classified documents from the National Archives and agreed to forfeit his license to practice law.
"I have decided to voluntarily relinquish my license," Berger said in a statement. "While I derived great satisfaction from years of practicing law, I have not done so for 15 years and do not envision returning to the profession. I am very sorry for what I did, and I deeply apologize."
Click here to read the report in The Washington Times.
Berger can avoid being cross-examined by the Board on Bar Counsel by agreeing to forfeit the license. Details about the formal agreement should be worked out on Thursday.
Berger served as Clinton's national security adviser from 1997 to 2001. Berger was fined $50,000, sentenced to 100 hours of community service and barred from access to classified material for three years after being convicted of taking documents from the National Archives in 2005 while preparing to testify before the Sept. 11 Commission.
So many good posts...where to start?
Yes, a framed copy of the fabled H&L building would be nice for the "lounge." Yes, we lost our H&L building under the tenure of warden Gensler, who was hired by RM to make sure that H & L got screwed. HG had to do the RM's bidding because no one else would hire him what with the neck tickling and other anti-social behavior.
But, at this point in my career I must admit I prefer Hooverville (I don't prefer Hooterville, sounds slightly sexist). I like that there are faculty from Biological Sciences and Social Sciences "mixed" in with the H & L folk and some of my best hall conversations take place out of my discipline. So I would be a bit saddened to lose that camaraderie, although I guess it would not hurt me to get some exercise and walk over to a Biological Sciences or Social Sciences building. By the way, when are the Biological Sciences getting a building? I mean A400 could hardly be a drabber or dingier place.
And yes, I want the organic cotton, sweatshop free T-shirt "Humanities and Languages, IVC's loci of resistance" in either natural or red.
I want a t-shirt too!
The new performing arts building was supposed to be mostly glass. Well as usual not enough money to do it so we are getting that redish art center that looked like it came from a Dr. Suess book.
The inside of the PAC will be beautiful. The outside looked better in the renderings than it does now, including a lot more glass, but, it has been made worse by adding that red-orange color and bland grays without much contrast or motion, (there are people who still believe that gray is only a primer), all of this caused the 'institutional look'. The red-orange color was opposed by the Fine Arts Faculty. That terrible color was selected by the Architects and the President of the college against the express wishes of the FA Faculty.
Either way we have very fine FA performances at IVC. Please do come and enjoy the performances.
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