this is just to say:

were i within sight of ellen_fremedon, i would genuflect before her.

no, but seriously. i sent her an e-mail on sunday asking if she had access, through her library, to a journal (a) that has printed several articles relevant to my discourse paper in the past couple of years and (b) to which my university does not subscribe, in any manner, paper or electronic. my idea was that she could download the PDF's from her university's e-subscription and e-mail them (or something) to me.

the girl scanned a dozen articles and, variously, e-mailed some to me and uploaded others to a place from which i could download them.

if anybody. ever. hears me suggest that fandom has no sense of community, or that academia is full of backstabbers and cutthroats? you have my permission -- nay, my encouragement -- to return my attention to ms. ellen fremedon (and also to, as bertie wooster would say, whang me over the cupola with a blackjack).

further proof that if there's a god, he thinks it's really funny to mess with me:

just came from morphology, the last class of the semester (which class included self, two other grad students, six graduating seniors, and three juniors, one of which was le boy). as we were filling out our evaluations, one girl was talking about her (annual) summer job at georgetown hospital, and asked me if i liked georgetown, where i did my undergraduate work. she's planning to apply to med school there. i said i did, but i didn't know anything about the medical school, never knew any med students, etc., so i couldn't really offer her any useful impressions.

---

girl: hmm. but -- wait, where are you from, originally?

fox: cleveland.

le boy: seriously?

fox: what "seriously"? no, it's a lie. i'm from cincinnati, but i like to mislead people. yes, i'm actually from cleveland.

[five minutes later]

fox: i lied! i'm from pittsburgh!

le boy: well, close enough.

fox: ooooooh --

le boy: no, it's just weird. my mom's from cleveland. i'm there practically every summer.

fox: yeah? whereabouts in cleveland?

le boy: shaker heights.

fox [literally taking a step back and catching self against chalk tray]: my parents taught at shaker high for thirty years.

le boy: my great-aunt teaches at shaker high.

fox [beginning to feel that this just isn't fair]: what department?

le boy: phys ed.

fox: whew. it would have been strange if your great-aunt had turned out to be, like, my parents' best friend.

le boy: it would have been even weirder if my great-aunt had turned out to be your great-aunt.

fox: true. that would be freaky.

---

the conversation, joined by Loud Gay Boy, my pal and le boy's in-class presentation partner, went on to talk about silly things, like what would be a good name for a band, etc. it is the longest conversation le boy and i have had in at least five months.

therefore, a memo: whoever's pulling the strings on this amusing little puppet show, could you knock it off?! the customers want to see how it ends. thank you.

stolen (sin! sin!) from axiom_of_stripe:

the first time i took it, i was a virtuous non-believer. the browser freaked before i could copy the code, and the second time i took it -- giving what i thought were the same answers -- i'm a heretic. probably more accurate, but that's a biggish margin of error, innit? :-)

[edited to add: no, my mistake. the first time i took it, i was "lustful" -- the second circle, it told me, which, like an idiot, i looked at the second level from the top and went "huh?" is there a particular circle of hell where you go if you forget how to read?]

( The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis! )