While I’m sick with a severe cold, please enjoy this link encyclopedia:

A really REALLY really phenomenal idea on how to make the teaching of writing work. I say 1,000 yes to every word of this post.

One of my favorite bloggers is back with this amazing post on cheering death.

A student gets suspended for torturing cats. I’m guessing everybody else at the university is a vegan. If not, then these people’s hypocrisy is phenomenal.

“I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school. I grew up hearing that treaties like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which only the U.S. and Somolia, a country with no functioning government, have not signed) must be opposed at all costs because it would erode parents’ rights. This wasn’t some minimal thing. Michael Farris, the most well known homeschool leader in the country and the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, has been advocating for a parents’ rights amendment and fear mongering about UN treaties for decades now.”

“Should Barack Obama’s Life Been Destroyed By A Drug Bust. Obama did drugs as a young guy, and not just pot. Fortunately for him, he managed to avoid arrest and imprisonment. I have no idea why any sensible person thinks the enforcement of federal marijuana laws against the will of certain states deserves one cent or one minute of time.” I agree that federal marijuana laws are stupid, but, sheesh, what a ridiculous argument. It reminds me of those idiotic “the world would have been a worse place had Beethoven’s mother aborted him, so let’s ban abortion.”

How much should you publish in graduate school.

How to succeed in a PhD program in the Humanities.

Religious fanatics can be defeated: “Belgium’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the so-called “Burqa Law” that bans the wearing of items of clothing that completely or partially cover the face is not unconstitutional. However, the ban may not be applied to places of worship. The court ruled the law does not contravene constitutional guarantees on religious freedom.” Yay!

An unexpected but welcome victory for gay rights in Israel. Here, too, the religious fanatics are being defeated.

Hugo Schwyzer was asked this question by a “feminist” website: “How can society improve while success and power are the foundations of male attractiveness?” I haven’t seen such a blatant insistence that all women are whores in a very long time. That’s some “feminism” right there.

“Cuba’s government is banning reggaeton music from radio and TV as Raul Castro’s administration cracks down on “vulgar” songs in the island nation, government newspaper Granma reported on its website.” Communist governments are notoriously prudish. Reread Orwell’s 1984 if you are wondering why that is.

“In Manchester, England, a four-week-old boy bled to death after a circumcision.” But will that convince unhinged parents who want to carve their right to dispose of their children onto their very bodies? Of course not.

In order to answer this question, you have to ask yourself: what does Clarissa want to do the most? What effect does she aim to achieve? What does her every post try to do?

The answer is obvious. I want to subvert preconceived notions, to say and do something unexpected, something that nobody says on each subject. Of course, I’m not always wildly successful but that’s the goal. And which style of clothing will help me achieve this goal better than. . . drumroll. . .

THE 1950s STYLE!

Just imagine me, arriving at a conference (or a date, when I still used to date), in a dress that people associate with American housewives in the 1950s, with a full skirt and often even a big bow, Mary Janes, and sometimes even pigtails. Plus I’m blonde, blue-eyed, and have a Russian accent. So I sit in front of people and make the following facial expression at them:

Add some massive eye-lash batting, and what do you think people immediately assume? That I’m an idiot, of course. Then they begin to condescend like they are getting paid to do so. Some people even start speaking re-a-lly slo-w-ly to make sure the dumb blonde understands them.

I let them do that, and then I open my mouth and unleash what I usually unleash on this blog. The effect is priceless, folks. Remember that I’m also a pedagogue, and there is nothing I like more than educating. This is a great lesson in how judging people based on appearances might not be a good idea.

Everybody who answered that my favorite style is the 1920s was not that mistaken. I love it aesthetically but I couldn’t wear these clothes because I don’t have the body for them. They would make me look like an armoire.

And the style I hate the most is the 1980s. All those pulse warmers, white sneakers, acid wash jeans – brrrrr! The 1970s style also sucks like there is no tomorrow but the 1980s were the worst.

Here are the winners of this round:

Saia Sakira 1

Paranoid 1

Sarah 1

Evelina Anville 0.5

The Sister 2 (Of course, it was easy for The Sister who has known me for 30 years.) N. also guessed and how could he have not, if I wore a 1950s dress to our 2nd date?

Lindsay 1

Z 1

Amanda 1

I was named after (meaning my real name that will remain unmentioned):

A. My grandmother.

B. A famous Ukrainian writer.

C. A character from my father’s favorite novel.

D. My mother’s favorite doll.

E. My mother’s best friend.

F. My father’s first love.

G. My grandmother’s favorite brand of underwear.

H. My father’s favorite university professor.