My day with the communists...

How do? I've been drinking. I had a beer the size of an artillery shell and have moved on to local Missouri wine. We will see if it is possible for my typing to get any worse.

I was listening to the radio this morning, very early this morning, and the field reporter for the BBC in Cuba was talking about how the economic downturn hit the hand-rolled cigar industry fairly lightly. He ended his report speculating: "Perhaps during trying economic downturns, people turn to tobacco and alcohol for comfort." And I thought, "Booze! That's the answer!"

Well, not really, but it is a good reality delaying tactic for now. I spent most of the day reading and taking notes from Jedgar's book again. Man, that boy was a loon. It's pretty depressing. I did, however, find my movie clip for next week, and it is for all the entertainment value, completely consonant with the, let's face it, overtly religious proselytising about teh kommiez. Seriously, Jesus likes the free market. It's from archive.org, a really fun little site that is getting worse and more youtubey. Drats. The part I'm interested is about 5 minutes in, so you'll have to watch a little bit. If you are looking at pornography, you've gone too far.

http://ia360921.us.archive.org/3/items/Perversi1965/Perversi1965_512kb.mp4

How was that for a stretch? Eh? These 1950s-60s shorts are fantastic for getting a snapshot into public perceptions during the Cold War. I see them as only slight exaggerations. By far, my favorite short is "Duck and Cover." See if you can find the suicide monkey!

http://ia360911.us.archive.org/2/items/DuckandC1951/DuckandC1951_512kb.mp4

When I give a teaching demonstration, I sometimes show that and then talk about "How do we describe the apocalypse to children?" Talking about older texts, advertisements and readings, I find are useful ways of exposing assumptions about audience and explaining the choices that authors make....but enough of my pedagogy!

I was in the office all day visiting with students. The ones who care came in. There is a short paper coming up, and I let them know that I am willing to help them at all stages of the writing process. They took me up on it today. About 4 or 5 of them came to my office hours, which is just enough. One student is writing about "manifestos" and the role they play in validating conspiracy theories. That one will be fun to read.

Got a cat to take to the vet tomorrow. She's got what I think is a fatty lump on her back (it's sort of mobile and spongey), but better safe than riddle with cancer. Yay! or, Yuk!

HJ