I have, what I have come to accept as, a strange pet peeve.  It is not my biggest pet peeve (can anyone know that?  I mean, there’s a thin line between, say, your biggest pet peeve, and your smallest actual “issue” or “cause” or “hate”) nor is it my most ironic (that would be my […]

I am not, by nature, an organized person.  I tell my students this on the first day.  Because of this, I have a strict system for keeping track of their papers.  It involves a virtual Rube Goldberg device-like system of baskets and trays. I recognize this weakness in myself, and have compensated in a way […]

So I’m a big fan of Christopher Nolan’s films.  I’m particularly a fan of his collaboration with his brother Jonathan, because his brother is a prose writer, primarily, and lends a really interesting literary undercurrent to the films.  People who hated the end of Dark Knight tend to hate it because it wasn’t a very […]

Any time someone says they’re afraid of something, people immediately label it a “phobia,” which is, let’s face it, silly.  You stand on the edge of a high cliff, look out over the side amidst gusts of wind and then step back saying, “whoa” or something and people say, “Oh, you have a fear of […]