Safe and Not-So-Safe Places to Visit

According to the Canadian government, here is a map roughly depicting the countries that are safe with ordinary precautions, the ones where extra precautions are needed, and the ones to be avoided.  In general, Europe is pretty safe (I'd skip going around St. Denis in Paris, some parts of London, the Red Light District of Amsterdam, and Travestre in Rome.)  And so is Australia and New Zealand.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/travel-warnings/

 

If it's green: no worries.

 

If it's red, you're an idiot for going.

Random Observations on Academia

Now that I'm safely retired, and no longer subject to the social and fiscal pressures of academic life, I'd like to weigh in with a few observations.  If you're going to fell a chinaball tree, let the chips fall where they may.

When I first started teaching at an institution in another state, I had to sign a loyalty oath.  As if I even thought of overthrowing the United States or the State of Louisiana!  Naive and unpolitical as I was, I signed this as well as a bunch of other things.

My hair was a bit long from grad school days, and I was told to get a haircut.  I did.

Colleges and universities back then operated under the in loco parentis, with various rules, some quite arbitrary.  For some reason, the Dean of Women would smash Hurricane glasses in girls' dorm rooms. 

Curiously, some faculty members who were higher-ranked officers in the military used their military titles instead of plain old 'Mister.'  It was 'Colonel This' or 'Captain That.'  No one went by 'Sergeant Whomever' or 'Lieutenant Diddle.'

I got another job, this one in northern Alabama.  The previous president required all of his faculty to be members of the A.E.A.  Yeah!  The new President ended that.  We don't need no stinkin' union membership!

A former President jumped out of a cake.  He was wearing shorts.

When I was about 12 or so, I was amazed to find myself thinking for myself.  By the time I was an Associate Professor, I had learned to keep a lot of it private.  That is a useful skill for college faculty members.

I've repeatedly encountered seagull administration in a number of settings.  Basically put, this is the management strategy where the person flies in, shits, and squawks.

There is also the management by slogan strategy.  It's like they channeled Chairman Mao Zedong and parody some of his quotes.

College teaching requires a sense of humor.  Actually, college students are wonderful to teach, even the freshmen!  I remember an old prof from grad school who pitched a fit because he had to teach a large freshman class.  I thought at the time that I hoped that attitude is not too prevalent.

Sadly, it is.  One strength of UNA is that real professors taught classes, not overworked and underpaid graduate students.

Praise the Lard!

It is surely the winter of our discontent that nowhere in northern Alabama is their a decent barbecue restaurant, since the demise of Dreamland.

I know there are some barbecue places, but not up to the grade.  There was a nice one on 2nd street in Muscle Shoals years ago, and then Dreamland; but the rest have been pale imitations of the real deal.

And for some, they put that mayonnaise-based white CRAP on their sandwiches.  And they shred, not pull!  That, in my opinion, is as big a sin as stirring martinis.

Not that I go in for such a pretentious drink; only that is James Bond's way.  And the original James Bond (Sean Connerly) was cool!

It is written in the Book of Bubba (6, 22-24): "thou shalt not defile your stomach by eating roadkill, nor eat of the products of mayonnaise."

Christ, get it right!

Christ, get it right!

Iwo Jima Day

On this date in 1945, five U.S. Marines and one Navy corpsman raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima.  Photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the moment in this famous photograph.

Semper Fi!

The Pilfered Cod

One of the more legendary pranks involved some Harvard students stealing the Sacred Cod from the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  This five-foot pine carving of a codfish hangs suspended above the entrance to the chamber of the House.  It was there as a symbol of the importance of the cod on early Massachuetts history.

It's a quirky decoration; the kind that's tempting to mess with by irreverend college students. 



THE PILFERED COD

By James J. Montague

From Winthrop Beach to Bunker Hill,
From Cambridge to Revere,
The voice of happiness was still,
One heard no note of cheer.
A pallor whitened every face.
All eyes were red and swollen;
A dreadful crime had taken place —
The Codfish had been stolen.

The Fish that symbolized a trade
Which, in the days of old,
The shores of old New England made
A strand of shining gold,
The Fish that millions came to view
With ardent admiration,
The Fish whose fame has echoed to
The Corners of the nation.

When first I set my roving feet
Upon Bostonian sod,
I hastened blithely up the street
To view the Sacred Cod,
And in its dull and glassy eyes,
The instant of our meeting,
I fancied that I saw arise
A glance of cordial greeting.

Today there is an end of grief;
No more the skies loom black;
A chastened and repentant thief
Has brought the Codfish back.
No Stygian gloom now broods around,
No heart with woe is freighted;
Bostonian pulses leap and bound —
The Cod is reinstated.

Kitten Killing and More

No, this is not about that internet euphemism for mastrubation; it's about the recent spate of alarmist articles that allege that cats are bird- and wildlife-killing machines that account for much mortality.

The solution sometimes proposed?  Eliminate large numbers of cats; or at least spay them.  Especially feral cats.

Let's put things in perspective.  Some cats are efficient killers; most are not.  Certainly, the domesticated, well-fed cat has less motivation and opportunity to engage in aviacide.  Moreover, this is a skill that is partly learned by observation.  The typical housebound kitten has much fewer opportunity to learn this.

Plus he has regular access to food. 

So what does a house kitty do?  He sits on his butt, or he sleeps.

And, seriously, where does that data come from?  One thing that I've learned over time is that some people are very impressed with numbers; and they should be, if the source is valid. 

The fact that humans do domesticate several species of animals and make a select number of species does tinker with nature, and possibly the course of evolution.  But so does feeding the birds! On the average, more birds are able to survive and breed because humans kindly feed them.  The rigors of natural selection are lessened to some degree, some less vigorous birds may survive into adulthood.

And so does every silo or warehouse shift the balance.  Basically, these are unintended places where rats and mice have more access to food than would be present in nature.

And cats are not the only species that preys on birds.  Even other birds, such as hawks and owls. 

But, wait!

We're part of nature too.  And we screw with it for our own advantage.  And thank god that we do, sometimes.  Advances in agriculture, animal science, medicine, and public health are examples of our tinkering with nature. 

So I would not lose much sleep over some lardass housecats offing a few birds or rodents. 

As a matter of fact, the PETA crowd does not come out strongly pro-rat.

John Heisman Quote and Factoids

"What is this? It is a prolate spheroid, an elongated sphere in which the outer leather casing is drawn tightly over a somewhat smaller rubber tubing.  Better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football."

John Heisman coached at Auburn, Georgia Tech, and Penn State.

In 1916, while coaching at Georgia Tech, his team ran up the most lopsided score ever in college football, winning 222-0.