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The past couple of weeks I’ve been trying out a different bus route home — the 14, which runs from Blake Transit Center to Pioneer High by what is probably the most circuitous and esoteric route imaginable. Unlike most AATA buses, the 14 doesn’t run directly through the center of town (State, Packard, Main, etc.)….

The Fourth was relatively quiet until about an hour or so ago, when some neighbors started off a round of fireworks (I’ll never understand what makes people with half a brain think that it’s okay to light off explosives around foliage, but I guess that’s just me). The town was almost eerily deserted the whole…

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which…

I had a better afternoon yesterday with anxiety, probably because I took a nap at lunch in an empty classroom. It helped a great deal. But the bigger issue that is emerging is the one that has been my prime concern: my physical capacity to deal with the pain, nausea and fatigue and keep up…

Today’s posts are simply going to be whining sessions. Forgive me, but this is all the therapy I can get while I’m sitting in class and keep my cool. My fatigue level is high suddenly. Nauseated. Fatigued. Anxiety-ridden. I’m a mess and I need to whine about it. Nothing wrong with that. Everybody needs to…

I’m trying to relax. I’m trying to breathe. I’m trying not to lose it. But it’s hard. Nausea is increasing this morning. The silly little games we do increase my problem. I understand the purpose, but here at the beginning, they are trying to break through my castle walls that have been erected in my…

Not as unpleasant, though, as that afternoon a week or so after I’d first moved here and got lost walking down Madison trying to find the main branch of the Ann Arbor District Library. Which tells me that either (a) that afternoon was unusually humid or (b) I’ve finally acclimated to the muggy summers. We’ll…

« Truly hilarious ». ‘Did you guys catch Tom Cruise on the Today Show this morning? I did. It was va-gynius. Watching Tom Cruise blabber on and on about the ills of medicine was mesmerizing. I’m a Matt Lauer fan, and I thought he handled himself smartly and gentlemanly. As far as Tom’s movie goes, it’s clearly…

The temps are supposed to be 14 degrees above normal here later today … yikes. The only possible relief may be a few scattered thunderstorms during the afternoon. It won’t get below 80, apparently, until next Friday.

I was eating breakfast in Frank’s Diner this morning and overheard one of the customers complaining about the weather to the waitress. She said, “It’s days like these when I ask myself, ‘When’s winter coming?’” I guess I’m not the only person in southern Michigan who misses milder temperatures.

Summer is here in a big way this week, despite the storm interlude on Tuesday. The past few days have been hot and almost cloudless, and the humidity is starting to creep upward. The weather has not been all that oppressive (although a friend of mine points out that that perception may be due to…

On my way home Tuesday night, a brief but intense deluge came down from the sky—a ripping thunderstorm on the first day of summer. I was unprepared, having forgotten to check the National Weather Service on the way out the door in the morning and consequently having also forgotten my umbrella. I was soaked through…

« This » is how the Empire supports the troops these days apparently: ‘John Tod of Mesa had been prepared to face Father’s Day worrying about his son’s pending date with the war in Iraq. Then Uncle Sam stepped in with more disappointing developments. Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod called home with news that his superiors were urging…

Well, my words about the hammer of summer weren’t quite on target. The past week has seen a few days of temps in the high 70s, but mostly it’s been overcast, even drizzly and thunderstormy some days, with highs in the upper 60s and low 70s. Some of it has been remnants of Tropical Storm…

Gosh, it’s been hot. So how’s everybody been? We’re still here, just a bit overwhelmed. I start grad school in two weeks and the allergy assault on Frank continues unabated. The beagle is on a new diet and we have a houseguest for an extended stay. The last day of school for Ann Arbor PS…

Oh, that « Gore Vidal », rehashing old, long-forgotten battles: ‘Asked to predict who would win in ‘04, I said that, again, Bush would lose, but I was confident that in the four years between 2000 and 2004 creative propaganda and the fixing of election officials might very well be so perfected as to insure an official…

Today, somehow, seemed appropriately the start of summer (though summer doesn’t officially start for another week and a half). Yesterday, the heat was hot, but it didn’t feel oppressive and exhausting. Today, it felt that way — I left the house at 9.30 and the heat and humidity were already stifling, and there wasn’t the…

It’s great how «this list» equates John Dewey, Betty Friedan, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Maynard Keynes, Mao Zedong, and Adolf Hitler. Such heartwarming catholicity is a rare find these days. Why isn’t Catcher in the Rye on the list? Are the book burners asleep on the job? [Link courtesy «Bifurcated Rivets».]

I love Molly Ivins always and I especially love her today for turning over her column completely to the blazing and brave words spoken in the Texas lege by « Houston Rep. Senfronia Thompson » … a speech which should be printed on placards and given to every American citizen: ‘I have been a member of this…

It doesn’t fit with the cherished fascist myth of the ‘liberal’ media so it’s being ignored in favor of Newsweek bashing, but documents the ACLU obtained show that the FBI knew about « desecrations of the Koran at Guantanamo Gulag as early as 2002 »: ‘New documents released by the FBI include previously undisclosed interviews in which…

May 24 and the weather today alternated between overcast, drizzly, and chilly, with a few moments of interspersed sunlight. It’s been this way all month, except for a few days earlier in the month when summery weather was threatening to bust out. Even I am somewhat surprised by this spate of what the cliché calls…

In the What the ? Department … Who won? Who lost? « Who knows »? ‘The Senate is to vote Tuesday to end debate on Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, clearing the way for her to gain a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans. With the threat of a…

Here’s something fun: free expression and religion « collide on the Delta Shuttle »: ‘Dear Ignorant Wench … ‘When you walked toward me smiling and stopped in front of my seat (I had just collapsed in a heap), I thought you were going to offer me a word of encouragement, you had a very kind face and…

Back in February, there was an article about millionaire « John Gilmore, who was making a point about privacy » in a world where the Constitution doesn’t apply on airport property: ‘In post 9/11 America, asking “Why?” when someone from an airline asks for identification can start some interesting arguments. Gilmore, who learned to argue on the…

Lordy, I’m tired. I just finished a week of full days of subbing, including two days with my favorite autistic kids. I’m also dealing with the increasingly … awful effect of the chemotherapy drug the docs in their infinite wisdom have decided will help my arthritis (the story is just too long and exhausting and…

Oh, it’s ugly, « ever so ugly out there »: ‘Discount airline carrier Jetsgo, which stopped flying in March, announced Friday that it is bankrupt. Jetsgo founder Michel Leblanc had hoped to have the carrier operating again by late June but he was unable to persuade some of the airline’s creditors to agree to his restructuring plan….

Apparently (judging from a photo caption in today’s Ann Arbor News) the trees I’ve been confusing with cherry trees are actually crab apple trees. I stand corrected.

First real humidity of the year today … though it wasn’t blazing wiith sunlight today, it got up into the high 70s, and the weather was definitely balmy. The trees are in full bloom — magnolias, cherry, etc. Haven’t seen all that many squirrels around the house lately, for whatever reason, though they seem to…

For various reasons I won’t bore you with, I haven’t posted here much. And so I missed marking the occasion as it happened. But the big behemoth got off the ground at last and had, « by all accounts », a very successful first four hours of flight: ‘The long-awaited test lasted almost four hours, with the…

Here on the 60th anniversary of VE Day, I’m watching two films, Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph des Willens and the Criterion version of the French film Nacht und Nebel. The first is the face that the Germans wanted to present to the world, the second is of the reality. Both are quite shattering, especially Nacht und…

I upgraded to the latest version of Textpattern and now subsections (like fly.airbeagle.us) are not working. Oy, what a pain. I hope to get them back soon.

Yes, it’s finally over. I still haven’t seen one of my final grades, but barring some unforeseen disaster, I think I can safely say it’s over – grad school, that is. What a strange feeling not to have constant overlapping and infinite looming deadlines, ill-defined professorial expectations, nausea-inducing pressure, and a calendar packed with meetings,…

Graduation pictures are forthcoming, I promise … we’re still a bit shell-shocked around here. But things are settling down …

Yesterday, Mother Nature was a jerk: Today, she redeems herself:

You’ve GOT to be $%@*#$@ kidding me …: ‘Today: Occasional snow. Steady temperature around 36. Breezy, with a north northwest wind between 22 and 26 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. ‘Tonight: Occasional snow. The snow could be heavy…

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The Imperial House of Corporate Representatives passed a bill permitting drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. « Let’s just see what this little bill does », shall we? 1. Provides $8.1 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, most of it going to promote coal, nuclear, oil and natural gas energy industries. 2. Makes it…

Quote of the Day: ‘I’m a radical. I’m a real extremist. I don’t want to impeach judges. I want to impale them.’ —Michael Schwartz, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn’s chief of staff, as reported on MSNBC.com

It’s Frank’s final week of Grad School Hell. Four more days, folks, four more days, then it’s ‘free at last, free at last …’ But I should let him speak for himself. Er, maybe next week. Me? I’ve been in a hell of my own … Hell, AKA Oklahoma. Good lord, there’s a lotta porn…

Yes, dear friends, I’m still alive and haven’t dropped off the end of the earth. But you could see the end from where I was: Oklahoma. Okiehoma. Oh my. Parent’s 50th anniversary was the occasion and I drove the Jeep because I still had books and sundry items in Duncan to pick up. Oh the…

Well, the weather’s been fabulous (if a bit chilly) the past few days. I think we’ve seen the last of the snow. I could be proven wrong, but I doubt it. It’s very pleasant here in the spring — in the Bay Area, the only birds you see much of are pigeons and seagulls, so…

We went through the first instance of the term-end ritual of professor evaluations this morning in my Preserving Information class, filling in circles on Scantron forms with stubby pencils to register our feelings about the course. That is the real signal that the finish line is fast approaching. Up till now it had all been…

More unpredictable Michigan weather, though I have the impression that this is about the end of it for a few months. Yesterday it got up to 77 degrees and was warm and even muggy. Today it was overcast, chilly, and not much over 60. Of course I overdressed yesterday and underdressed today. But it’s supposed…

There’s a blog called «Overheard in New York ». If Ann Arbor had a similar blog, it would be somewhat more boring. Or maybe somewhat more pedantic. Intellectual Lecturer Type: “Maurizio’s introduction to Marx Beyond Marx is the only thing I’ve read that tries to bring together all of those threads.” [Cafe Ambrosia]

I discovered the « Scissor Sisters » last night. Got their album via iTunes today and burned it onto a CD for my road trip next week. Ooooo that Jake Shears!!!! Oooooo lala! I’m feeling tres gay. [Except, of course, that real-er and hip-er gay boys discovered them way a year ago and have now moved on….

Then: ‘Corporate Legal Times, September, 2004; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 10 ‘Boy Scout Pride ‘Dear Editor: ‘Bruce Collins is mistaken when he calls Boy Scouts a “fundamentally different” organization from the one he joined 40 years ago. [“An Eagle Scout Takes Issue With Group’s Politics” July, p. 7]. Boy Scouts is the same organization…

I ventured over to Fourth this morning and tried the fare at Eastern Accents. Not bad. They have really good buns. But their tea is expensive. You get a teensy little espresso-type glass and a French press pot, which is a nice touch, but I’d rather have the pint glass and refills (you have to…

Yes, it’s spring, all right. The temperature hit 69 degrees this morning — I felt overdressed all day in a coat that I’d stupidly brought along — and the predicted thundershowers that were supposed to take place this afternoon never came close to materializing. They’re still predicting a 40% chance of snow for Friday night….

I was thinking of writing a diatribe to the Daily about yesterday’s article on commencement speakers (a bunch of whiny, childish undergrads boo-hooed about the lack of big name speakers for their ceremony) but someone (an undergrad) beat me to it in today’s edition: The truth is I would be proud if anyone agreed to…

Well, it looks like there may be rain and even some snow (!) later in the week, but today was undeniably spring. After a chilly, drab Easter Sunday, today dawned sunny and the sun stayed out all day long — the first all-sunshine day we’ve had here in, what, an eternity? Probably my favorite thing…