Yesterday at a department event, I spent a few minutes slumming it by sitting at a table with the grad students, who gave me a lot of insights into the reality of the engineering and science side of our little school. I asked about a professor at our little school whom I’ve been looking at collaborating with, who is now legend. Apparently, he started bringing his dog to class with him, with the excuse, “She’s an emotional support animal.” Now our little school always wants to be at the cutting edge of progressivism and sensitivity, so of course they would make that accommodation. So no problem for the prof and his dog.

That’s when things took… a turn. It transpires that the emotional support dog has a phobia about people she doesn’t know. A whole classroom of people she didn’t know really got her upset: barking, whining, growling, howling. The next class, the professor had TWO dogs. Yes, the second dog was the emotional support dog for the emotional support dog.

God, I love living here.

Speaking of dogs all the way down, there are a few birthdays today, including one of (((us))) whose work lives on at nearly all college campuses; a weird example of a celebrity musician being an incel; a fascinating guy who blurred scientific boundaries; another one of (((us))) whose work memorably lives on; a guy whose… diction was… famous for random… pauses; a guy who slept with Elizabeth Montgomery; a guy whom everyone thought he was good, but he was just a pretender; a Dr. Phil wannabe (at least Dr. Phil’s money) and might be one of us;  and a guy who don’t play that.

As they say in India, let’s do the needful and get to Links.

 

Remember the videos of German and other European “leaders” actually laughing at Trump when he predicted this? Oops.

 

So the insane waste of money and resources will drag on even longer.

 

I’m sure the apartheid government gave them a fair trial.

 

Unfortunately, he didn’t land on a My Pillow.

 

“Taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries.”

 

NPR discovers that buying a car involves negotiating and dealership games. Huh, must be something new. Women and minorities hardest hit, of course.

 

“The premise that this is going to make anyone safer is simply as not consistent with any data or experience that we have in the field.” 

 

I can’t remember if I posted this phenomenal cover of a great John Hartford tune (though that’s redundant), so if I did, too bad, here it is again. Molly Tuttle just OWNS this song.