Well, I obviously never got around to any poetry over the last week, due to too much reading and not enough sleeping.

And to make up for that, here's some fun for everyone.


Two Replies to Nominal Returns on Unfulfilled Promises

Kris Weberg | September 12, 2006
Also, here's the clues so far for this round of the title theme game:

1. 'Round Midnight
2. Natural Deselection
3. Collaborative Theatre with Irrational Actors
4. Don't Leave Me Hangin' on the Telephone
5. Like, Real Gone, Daddy-O
6. Imaginary Exploits of a Hairpiece Gone Mad
7. Nominal Returns on Unfulfilled Promises

Jackie Mason | September 15, 2006
[hidden by author request]


Berserk Wig

Legend has it that Kris Weberg's head is filled with delicious candy, which is why he avoids blindfolded children carrying sticks. Fortunately for you, he's decided to empty the leftovers here at his blog for your amusement and bemusement. Read more »

Don't Leave Me Hangin' on the Telephone

"Goodbye" is, increasingly, the midpoint of every conversation I have online or on wireless. Every phone call with a friend or relative seems to turn into one of Eliot's winding streets, though usually neither tedious nor insidious. I thought this might help, but it's painfully generic advice: There are several ways that you can end a long phone call without making up a story or sounding rude: Leave the conversation open. Go »

* 'Round Midnight

First things first: Megan Baxter wins round 1 of the "guess the subject line themes" game. Go Megan! I'll keep a running tally of wins. Go »

Like the first census in China

Quite possibly the best non-TC blog post ever. The comments are the funniest part. It does raise an interesting, if commonly-known point about the Internet (or, as Senator Ted Stevens calls it, "a bunch of tubes"): It's like your permanent record from grade school, only real....and Go »

Cardinal Sins of the Blogosphere

Hey, is this thing on? I realize that blogging is meant to give everyone a picture of the blogger's ongoing life, but to be frank, I haven't really had one of those in awhile. Between exams reading, doing minor administrative work for a department working group, working up a course proposal for Fall '08, and complaining about much of the above I haven't gotten so much done. Go »

Imaginary Exploits of a Hairpiece Gone Mad

I stop blogging for a week to read up on political theology, and the world goes awry: planets vanish from the heavens, fantasy football gains a stereotypically "feminine" counterpart, and America's children become catastrophically dumber. And the worst of it is, I haven't really got much to post about in my life, unless someone here is up for a discussion of Walter Benjamin's metaphor of the automaton and the dwarf, which is nowhere near as funny as the dirty joke you probably just made up while reading that phrase. (See, there's this chess-playing automaton, and it represents historical materialism, but the machine is animated by a hidden dwarf who represents theology....oh, Go »

Collaborative Theatre with Irrational Actors

At a certain point, I guess everyone realizes that it's no use arguing with someone who's coming from virtually a different planet in terms of assumptions and opinions. And at a certain other point, some people realize that they cannot stop despite the uselessness of going on. While that sort of argument only very rarely happens to me here at TC, it certainly happens to me elsewhere, where I use various Zaba-proof psuedonyms to conduct my arguments about subjects ranging from the pointless to the inane. Go »