Posts by Amy Gale

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  • Hard News: The conversation they want to…,

    The parents that are really a menace at farmer's markets are the parents-of-undergraduates, who descend three weekends per year and take up all the parking spaces and make the line for breakfast burritos incredibly long and buy all the best bread before you can get to it.

    When I rule the world this will not be permitted.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Up Front: Does My Mortgage Look Like a…,

    teh interhosen

    The internet is pants.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Southerly: They don't make 'em like they…,

    I too am scared... that the Americans might try and make a movie or series of S&S...

    I prefer to imagine that Russell T Davies will get hold of it and bring it back in style. Some of Steven Moffatt's Dr Who eps have given me great hope that this would work well.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Up Front: Does My Mortgage Look Like a…,

    Should you require a utilitarian justification, I'm reliably informed that hi-rise stilettos provide a great boost when walking uphill.

    This is true, but balanced by the extra precariousness experienced when you walk back down that hill later.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Up Front: Does My Mortgage Look Like a…,

    I don't understand why it's the impractical things that are fashionable.

    Perhaps it's about showing status?

    "I don't need to be able to walk in these heels, I have a limo"

    "I don't need to be able to dial[*] the phone with these nails, I have a secretary"

    [*] What are we supposed to say now, anyway? The autothingy at my local pharmacy invites me to "touch 3", which obviously sends my inner twelve year old into stitches.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Up Front: Does My Mortgage Look Like a…,

    Pointing Percy at the proletariat...

    I am in love with just about everyone here.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Legal Beagle: The Inexorable Advance,

    As a point of clarification, this refers to an effort by graduate Teaching Assistants (ie PhD students who also teach...

    Unionisation efforts vary somewhat by university, but High Above Cayuga's Waters it was also Research Assistants, which can mean "PhD students who also do research unrelated to their theses in exchange for funding" but more often means "PhD students who have scored money to do the thesis research that they were going to do anyway".

    But it was sometimes instructive to see otherwise liberal (and thus supposedly "pro labor" in the US parlance) academics turn purple over the thought of having to deal with unionized students.

    I have to say it was a bit startling to find myself on the no-union side of an issue. Quite a lot of it was to do with not wanting to be a United Auto Worker. Now, if it had been the Teamsters...

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Legal Beagle: The Inexorable Advance,

    There are some really good arguments in both directions on this thread. Lots to think about, and I must confess I haven't given compulsory student association membership much thought since I was an undergrad.

    I would say I hadn't given it any thought at all, but when I was in grad school there was an attempt to organise grad students - by the UAW, of all people - at which time my approximate thoughts were "this really is nothing like a NZ student association, why do people make that comparison?". Richard points out that student association fees are more like the US activity fees, and I think that's accurate. It's also accurate (in my experience) to state that nobody seems to complain about them, though this may also be because a couple of hundred dollars is just noise in the overall bill.

    But what I'm left with right now is this: if Roger Douglas is in favour of voluntary membership, there's probably something deeply wrong with it.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Up Front: The Up Front Guide to Parenting,

    Conversely, sometimes acronyms are the only things holding one's inner twelve year old in check. I, for one, snigger guiltily every time I see LHC spelled out in full.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Southerly: I Was Dissed By Three Old Ladies,

    A friend of ours told the neighborhood kids to "clear off!" within a week of becoming a homeowner.

    My neighbourhood kids have consistently failed to play their part in any lawn-related traditions; they do not play on my lawn, nor do they come to the door and ask to be hired to mow it. What is suburbia coming to?

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

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