Alex says:

Whoa -- red tape and bureaucracy? I'd've been ecstatic to join a group devoted to either, but together...?

Well, I'm reminded of the old Reese's peanut butter cups commercial, with two youngish chaps colliding on the streetcorner:

"Hey...you got red tape in my bureaucracy!"

"Well, you got bureaucracy in my red tape!"

Yes: they are basically two great tastes that taste great together.

(Wonderful work as always, moo. It's a good thing you're so prolific, or all these poor groups might have been doomed to an eternity of non-existence.)

posted Jun 3

moo says:

Alex, come on...2 groups instead of 1? Even I'm not that much of a groupie - these subjects fit together and so they must stay together!
12 groups though?? Too many I fear!

posted Jun 3

Alex says:

At the start of my current semester, many of the new students still hadn't bought their textbooks (for the simple reason that the school bookstore hadn't stocked them), so I was permitted by the administration to make copies of a few pages. I was informed about this break in policy in such a way that made it seem the school felt it was being very generous and enlightened.

Luckily, I am extemporaneous enough as a teacher so that I could -- very possibly -- go an entire semester without any materials (and have also been known to produce my own), but as far as the beginning students unfamiliar with my methods were concerned, it was absolutely unaccceptable to study without a state-approved textbook open on their desk.

So, I requested copies of the first 15 pages of the text (which is, by the way, a horrible, terrible, stupid, brain-dead work produced -- with no standards whatsoever -- by an academic nothing possessing only a rudimentary concept of psychology and the absolute worst spirit of industry), for each of my students.

The administration's response?

"That's too many. You can only request three pages at a time."

Excuse me? I go through more than three pages of that turd in a single two-hour session -- so they were essentially sentencing me to return to the copy area during every single one of my breaks.

Now, I am usually a pretty even-tempered person, but when I learned about this rule, I'm not ashamed to say that I lost it. And though I eventually convinced the man (a lovely Jamaican fellow -- and I love Jamaican people!) of my position, he has not said good morning to me once since this incident.

I will win him back, in time. But I'm still working on it.

posted Jun 3

moo says:

You are still fuming!...Gets you so riled though, doesn't it? Common sense out the window.

posted Jun 3

Alex says:

Of course they must stay together, moo -- I was teasing. Chocolate and peanut butter may be taken on their own merits, but red tape and bureaucracy are as inseparable as...well, the two-headed spelling monster on Sesame Street, perhaps.

Or Penn & Teller -- though Penn has been hosting that new game show on his own, and does a pretty good job of it.

Or Fry and Laurie -- though Laurie is Dr. House.

OK, these are bad examples.

Let's stick with the two-headed spelling monster.

posted Jun 3

moo says:

Well Alex, good teacher that you are - there's a glaringly obvious spelling error in your above post (says she, rapidly checking her own spellings here) - see if you can spot it before I tell you!
Penn & Teller are WEIRD but very funny!
Fry and Laurie are both brilliant - I love House and all of Hugh's previous work and Stephen Fry is a genius whatever he does (and we get lots of his stuff here).
Check the spelling then ...10...9...8...7...the two-headed spelling monster's coming...6...5...

posted Jun 3

Alex says:

That always gets me, moo! I remember when my father first corrected that misspelling of mine, years and years ago -- but it's something that just hasn't sunk in. (P.S. It's one of only a handful -- but I only remember them for a few moments after each error, so...no list.)

posted Jun 3

Alex says:

I could spend all day on this forum, moo, but I'm headed downtown to see a movie with friends (Knocked Up, the directorial follow-up to The 40 Year Old Virgin, one of my favorites of the past decade; I hope the new one is even a tenth as good!). Have a wonderful day -- and should you meet any other cows on your journeys, tell them I said hello -- and give their neck a rub for me, right where it ought to be.

posted Jun 3

moo says:

Separate is a word I usually get wrong too, and it never looks right to me even when it is. Height is another (and also, just remembered - yacht) and sometimes it's words I use all the time that stop me short and I have to look them up to prove the point.
Sorry to correct your spelling - would have left it, but you were the one that mentioned the spelling monster!

Enjoy the film, speak soon moooo

posted Jun 3