the recognitions

There’s that saying “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”  Why is there a saying: “Just because there’s a phenomenon called impostor syndrome doesn’t mean you are not an impostor.”  Except, not about you.  You aren’t an impostor and if you think otherwise that’s just more evidence of how insidious [...]

sorry to’ve crumped your style

Two months ago I was at a dinner party that included also an academic couple. The husband made a pun during dinner that indicated he had misremembered my last name (chocolate bar in my profile notwithstanding, it’s ‘Crumple’ not ‘Crumble’), and then he was so pleased with his pun that he made references to [...]

red stripe + red pen

E-mailed from a friend at another university:

My friend says there’s a whole story to the sign that makes it less odd than it looks. Still. And he assures me the alcohol is not handed out until after the grading anyway. Of course.

smoothieing over adversity

Just because I’m very pleased about the outcome of Australia’s elections does not mean I wish ill on the outgoing PM. In fact, I just sent him an e-mail with an exciting idea for what he might do next: