5 Thoughts on a Thursday Returns!

1) You know what's crazy? 47 percent of American households paid no federal income taxes in 2010 AND 47 people were arrested in Arizona in a massive raid against human smugglers near the Mexican border. Coincidence? I think not. More on this as it develops.

2) I had a friend in college who once told me that he believed that you couldn't be both a Leonard Cohen AND a Bob Dylan fan, and that he kind of resented everyone who liked Dylan's music because he was a hard-core Leonard Cohen fan. Later, he said, he realized the absurdity of this position and started buying Bob Dylan albums like a sane person. I just thought of that because I'm listening to Fresh Air right now and kinda wishing that Terri Gross were interviewing Bob Dylan...

3) While on the backporch enjoying the dying sunlight of a warm April afternoon, sipping beers from the excellent Two Brothers Brewery, watching the flowers bloom and the cats chase imaginary objects:

Me: You know that saying, "April showers bring May flowers?"
Robyn: Yeah.
Me: I always liked that saying - for the moral message, that you have to endure bad things in life in order to reap the benefits and all - but I never thought that it made sense, weather wise.
Robyn: It makes sense in New England. New England has very cold and rainy Aprils, and then some time in May, maybe the last week of May, it gets nice and Springlike. Then it goes straight into a hot and sweltering Summer.
Me: But not in the West. Not in Portland or Eugene. There it'd be more like, "April showers bring May showers."
Robyn: No, I guess not. Or it would be just "Rain begets rain." Or, in Bend, it would be like, "Sunny and mild weather brings sunny and slightly warmer weather."
Me: Or "Hot and dry July brings crazy thunderstorms and disastrous forest fires in August."
Robyn: I guess you can't take moral extracts from Western weather.
Me: No, I guess not.

SCENE.

4) Man, the Twins are sure looking good right now.

5) I think I had a seminal moment at my work this week: I had a student write, "Fuck Mr. Wright" on a page of notes. There was a problem, though, because he had to turn these notes in to me. And I think he realized this, and so he had erased his offence, but not nearly well enough to actually hide what he had written. (An interesting case of defacement, I think - especially in regards to a student owing something to a teacher qua authority figure...) The funny thing is that I didn't read what he had written until the end of the day, and I had been wondering why he suddenly became so helpful and polite for the last two periods of the day. So if he erased it out of fear of being caught or out guilt for having done something vulgar and wrong, either way, I'm glad that he did it.

5^) Our biology PhD room-mate has been studying like crazy for his qualifying exams, and has been leaving notes on stem cells and toxicology all over the house. Right now I'm looking at his white board, where he has written, "No Transcription. REPRESSIBLE." and I'm kind of wishing that he were a critical theory or lit major, instead.