fine, if that's the thing you enjoy ...

it's more important to figure out where to place the blame than it is to figure out how to solve the problem.

memo

to: Washington Post staff writer Eric Weiss
re: cardinal directions, names of suburbs, things that are self-explanatory

dear sir:

you give the location of your report as "west lake, ohio". you refer to the emergency room at st. john's west shore hospital. does it really make sense to turn around and describe westlake (that's one word, by the way) as "an eastern suburb of cleveland"?

signed,
nicole.

(well, signed fox. but i had to keep the tradition going. [g])

oh, and --

i may have missed the LJ-ness of this while i was away, but i learned while i was home at my parents' house that gregory hines died last monday. it was tuesday or wednesday that TNT was showing his episode of law & order, and in a commercial my dad turns to me and says "you know, he just died."

me: gregory hines?
dad: yes.
me: no, dad, gregory peck just died.
dad: him too.

and sure enough, the show ended and a frame came up that said "in memory of gregory hines". damn shame. young guy. (cancer. only 57.)

same day as herb brooks was killed, which people must have mentioned and i just wasn't looking. here's bok's cartoon, which ran on wednesday (i'd link to the post, but the editorial cartoons come up in new windows and every time i try to figure out the URL it's different and takes me somewhere else): ( here it is. )

[headdesks]

and here, we have the absent-minded professor.

the story begins last fall. i come to this university, where the director of my program (recall that i don't actually have a department) mentions that i may be able to get a gig teaching ESL, and puts me in touch with the director of the Center for American English Language and Culture (or something). she -- let's call her A, for absent-minded -- said she'd staffed all the ESL sections for that year, but i could count on her to offer me a position for next fall. that was the last i heard from her on the subject.

along about december, the professor who teaches the intro class -- call him B, for businesslike -- told me he'd very likely be able to offer me the gradership of his course, along with two dependent discussion sections; it only had to wait for him to double-check with the department. in the spring, he did formally make the offer, and i accepted it, went in to the department office, filled out forms, signed things, etc.

today i get an e-mail from A, addressed to self and two or three other people, headed "Dear ESL T.A.s," and talking about this mandatory test-proctoring thing we have to do and that test-grading we can pick up for some extra cash and how we won't teach in the first week of the semester, blah blah blah.

i respond: "i'm happy to help, but i'm confused -- i'm T.A.ing for B, for [intro course]. i'll be out of town on [dates i'll be out of town], but if i can help you with the grading on the days i'm in town, i'd be happy to ..."

phone just rang. "i thought you were T.A.ing for me! oh no! what am i going to do!"

she did concede that she'd never gotten around to making me a formal offer. she thought we had a verbal agreement -- but she admits that it's her fault that i had no knowledge of the fact that she assumed (and told others!) i'd be teaching ESL this fall. (she also acknowledges that the position i do have is better, professionally, for me than hers would be.) lots of the "where am i going to find a T.A.", but it was more in the way of expressing distress than the way of blaming me.

am welcoming assurances that there's no need for me to feel guilt.