tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post116343147808552161..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Straight Outta Chicago: Streisand Meets Berube On the Way to the BlogosphereCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163772845065762852006-11-17T09:14:00.000-05:002006-11-17T09:14:00.000-05:00I should also say that discussion of the hipness o...I should also say that discussion of the hipness of blogs has to do only with small potatoes blogs like this one. In comparison to Daily Kos -- which is read by tens of thousands daily (at least), raises millions of $$ for GOTV efforts and specific candidates, has been (grudgingly) granted space in the corporate media, and was a major mover in the success of John Tester and Jim Webb (and, er, Ned Lamont) -- questions of hipness give way to questions of effectiveness. Clearly its got that, in spades. But of course our goals here are a lot different, and Berube likely wasn't thinking political/journalism/activist blogs when he borrowed the raw/cooked analogy.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163771671805100482006-11-17T08:54:00.000-05:002006-11-17T08:54:00.000-05:00Of course, I may be trying to differentiate two te...<I>Of course, I may be trying to differentiate two terms that are hopelessly collapsed together as meaning the same damn thing.</I><BR/><BR/>Maybe we need more terms. "Happening" (as an adjective); "popular." I'm approaching hipness from the concept of being a "hipster" (or ex hipster in my case), and the community of hipsters is nothing if not arty (and necessarily disenchanted), but it's also simultaneously community focused and exclusionary. It's the last bit that blogs lack. When I think "cool" I think "kind of blue." We could go round and round on this, I think.<BR/><BR/>--<BR/>PS Squid and the Whale. I'm inclined to disqualify this one (and Todd Solondz's <I>Storytelling</I>) because I think creative writing teachers don't have the same cultural value as humanities teachers. That said, hurrah for Ball of Fire. Love it. What about Jimmy Stewart in <I>Rope</I>? And ALK reminds me of the medievalist played by Robin Williams in The Fisher King.<BR/><BR/>--<BR/><BR/>JJC: so In the Middle is like a hipster mustache, but more circa 2001 then circa now?Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163768300376697792006-11-17T07:58:00.000-05:002006-11-17T07:58:00.000-05:00On hip and cool: I believe that In the Middle is s...On hip and cool: I believe that In the Middle is stuck in that impossible place where objects like plastic pink flamingos for lawns used to reside, til ubiquity re-ruined them: we are so uncool that we are hip.<BR/><BR/>People who quote Latin, ruminate over temporallty and carrion and fairy mounds and whether the past can kill can never be cool, and can only accidentally and for a brief time be hip. Sorry, that's just the way it is.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163768057129534852006-11-17T07:54:00.000-05:002006-11-17T07:54:00.000-05:00Debbie Reese: great site! My son is researching "t...Debbie Reese: great site! My son is researching "the first marylanders" right now so you send the link at just the right time. My neighbor also happens to be the education director at the National Museum of the American Indian, so I'll share your blog with her.<BR/><BR/>Thanks.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163713177632236422006-11-16T16:39:00.000-05:002006-11-16T16:39:00.000-05:00Though I'm on tenure track, I'm much more invested...Though I'm on tenure track, I'm much more invested in getting my work to teachers and librarians who actually work with children and children's books, specifically those about American Indians. Traffic to the blog has increased a lot this month, given it is "Native American Month" and Thanksgiving, too, when all things Indian are on the store shelves and the lesson plans in schools everywhere.<BR/><BR/>Reviewing data of those who come to the site helps me create additional posts for the blog. In October, when people dress up as Indians for Halloween, the number of people who found my blog using phrases like "Indian face paint" was amazing. Hopefully they read what they found... I push people to think critically about that activity----dressing up as Indians, for Halloween, or Thanksgiving reenactments... <BR/><BR/>I get flamed for these remarks. You can see that in the comments section. But, I also get a lot of private email from people thankful for the perspective.Debbie Reesehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14972409006633565859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163710262009042512006-11-16T15:51:00.000-05:002006-11-16T15:51:00.000-05:00JJC-I'm glad you mentioned "The Squid and the Whal...JJC-I'm glad you mentioned "The Squid and the Whale," as I had forgotten that one. It's an awfully depressing movie, for all the reasons you mention.<BR/><BR/>Karl--I'm not sure I agree with your definition of hip, which [perhaps] I think I see as different from "cool," which is the more exclusionary term in the sense you give it. "Cool" is not something everyone can do together; it's always avant-garde and doesn't follow anyone or anything. "Hip" to me is just what's "in" and/or popular at any given moment, like YouTube or Facebook or blogs in general or Justin Timberlake [who, thank god, brought sexy back], etc. Hipness, though, like cool, I would admit, has a limited shelf life and once absolutely everyone is on board, perhaps it loses its edge? But that's also like saying something that has broad appeal at any given moment cannot be hip, and I don't think hip has the subersive edge that "cool" does.<BR/><BR/>By the way, at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Medieval Association held recently in Oxford, MS, Robert Frank gave an amazing talk, "The Hip Factor in Anglo-Scandinavian England" that was absolutely amazing. She did, I have to admit, conflate the terms "hip" and "cool" as essentially being the same thing, and she drew out this elaborate analogy between Viking culture [and its hybridizing effects] in Anglo-Saxon England and black culture in America, from the blues to jazz, etc. that was really ingenius [basically showing how, even if the early English Christian elites put down the Vikings as "savage," many Anglo-Saxons still aped their dress, customs, etc., in much the same way black Americans have been treated in our own culture as half-human while, at the same time, they are viewed as progenitors of "cool" in the arts, and then ripped off, etc.].<BR/><BR/>To me, blogging is hip precisely because everyone wants to do it--"hip" always draws followers; but only a very few blogs are "cool." Of course, I may be trying to differentiate two terms that are hopelessly collapsed together as meaning the same damn thing. I only do things that are hip, Karl--can you just please accept this? [haha]Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163707104387394032006-11-16T14:58:00.000-05:002006-11-16T14:58:00.000-05:00I didn't find that commercial creepy at all, JJC, ...I didn't find that commercial creepy at all, JJC, until the bobbing head at the beauty shop. I don't know why, but then it hit me.<BR/><BR/>Quoting from Berube's place:<BR/><BR/><I>On another note and contra Karl the Grouchy Medievalist: blogs are hip, yes they are. You heard me, Karl. Meet me over at In The Middle for fisticuffs, if you dare.</I><BR/><BR/>I dare! Blogs are not hip, because hip is exclusionary. Something is hip in an inverse ratio to the number of non-initiates who know about it. My favorite graffito in Olympia back in, say, 1991 was "I liked Nirvana before you did." Blogs are available easily to anyone with an internet connection, and, now with blogger, it takes no special skill to do one. The only skill it requires is the writing itself. And I say: yay. (note the lack of an exclamation mark)Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163689561705914262006-11-16T10:06:00.000-05:002006-11-16T10:06:00.000-05:00PS On the Uncanny Valley, cited in Karl's comments...PS On the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" REL="nofollow">Uncanny Valley</A>, cited in Karl's comments above, see <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsIM2HB0hrs" REL="nofollow">this commercial</A>. It came on TV this morning when I was at the gym and five hours later it is still creeping me out.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163689187003814412006-11-16T09:59:00.000-05:002006-11-16T09:59:00.000-05:00Hey what about The Squid and the Whale? Aren't aca...Hey what about <EM>The Squid and the Whale</EM>? Aren't academic couples always composed of one genius-in-his-own-mind and one much smarter and *actually* superior person? Aren't relationships between academics built upon noncommunication, fraught dialogue, over-reading of everything, obliviousness to imperilled families that are your own, and atrocious metaphors? Isn't it necessary to gaze upon the squid and the whale in their primal fight for life, without the mediation of literature (how that gets in the way!) and say: ick, my dad the English professor is really an asshole?<BR/><BR/>No?<BR/><BR/>Well, I'm not married to an academic, so I wouldn't know.<BR/><BR/>As to cults, I got <A HREF="http://jonkwilliams.blogspot.com/index.html" REL="nofollow">JKW</A>. I inducted him into a secret society so, um, secret that all I can say is that it revolves around the veneration of Chester A. Arthur. That's about it.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163665694218238742006-11-16T03:28:00.000-05:002006-11-16T03:28:00.000-05:00RAE: - criteria vary between subject panels (great...RAE: - criteria vary between subject panels (great!).<BR/><BR/>There is a category for electronic product - not highly rated - seems to be more about datasets than blogs which I suspect 'they' have not imagined.<BR/><BR/>So yes - mainly print media - and as a general rule...<BR/><BR/>Scholarly monographs much better than textbooks or unnoted books).<BR/><BR/>Articles in refereed journals much better than articles in collections of essays.<BR/><BR/>Editing collections of essays counts as admin not research (unless editor has a substantial authored research contribution in the volume).<BR/><BR/>... and so on<BR/><BR/>Others welcome to chip and correct this over simplification of labyrinthine rules.<BR/><BR/>Good thing? It makes people more productive? Bad thing? For all this kind of stuff see debate in Times Higher Ed Supplement - available online - free trial subscriptions. (and no i am not advertising)N50https://www.blogger.com/profile/02927387227571782287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163647909957338512006-11-15T22:31:00.000-05:002006-11-15T22:31:00.000-05:00Yes, Karl, there actually are several Eileen cults...Yes, Karl, there actually are several Eileen cults, and they include the occasional animal [uh, I mean, mineral] sacrifice. Okay, that's a lie; there are no sacrificial rites, per se, but there are some shamanistic rituals that involve Hello Kitty talismans--seriously.<BR/><BR/>ADM--"Ball of Fire," yes! I actually took a class as an undergraduate in the films of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges, where I watched that film. Is anything hotter than the young Barbara Stanwyck? I don't think so [an often overlooked academic fact, by the way].Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163645565292421452006-11-15T21:52:00.000-05:002006-11-15T21:52:00.000-05:00I always liked the professors in "Ball of Fire" my...I always liked the professors in "Ball of Fire" myself ...Another Damned Medievalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163629111048023352006-11-15T17:18:00.000-05:002006-11-15T17:18:00.000-05:00Do not be charismatic? Oh boy. I wish. I can't ima...Do not be charismatic? Oh boy. I wish. I can't imagine teaching without building up a little cult of Karl personality (and somehow, Eileen, I have a hard time imagining that your classrooms don't have an Eileen cult....). Although sometimes I get <I>very</I> direct questions from my students ("Where do you live?" "Uh....Park Slope." "Oh. Are you Jewish?"), and so would rather have done it, I dunno, Bynum-style (not imperious, but certainly no nonsence): yet I find that keeping them interested in <I>me</I> helps me hold their interest in Chaucer, Dante, the Madame de Lafeyette, whatever. The thing is, I've always wanted to be on stage in some capacity. When I was a kid, I wanted to a preacher (since preachers were what I saw on stage most often); then a rock star; then a trial lawyer; I was a dj for a while; and now, an academic.<BR/><BR/>That said, I didn't want to do research and make arguments really until I hit college. My motives for being a teacher--which, however much I like getting conversation going, largely derive from not quite latent drama geekdom--don't have much to do with my motives for being a writer/researcher. The two elements of being an academic aren't incommensurable, but they're hardly homologous either, at least for me.<BR/><BR/>--<BR/>Amanda: if you're ever in Brooklyn on a Monday, I'll let you know where the bee is. Or, rather, bees <I>are,</I> as we have two. As this <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/fashion/thursdaystyles/29bee.html?ex=1285646400&en=c562869bee312ba1&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss" REL="nofollow">Times</A> article states in some poorly selected quotes, I'm a terrible speller, but my wife is grand. So you two can go head to head into the deep rounds.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163627549292454222006-11-15T16:52:00.000-05:002006-11-15T16:52:00.000-05:00A.G. Rud--thanks for joining this discussion. Yes,...A.G. Rud--thanks for joining this discussion. Yes, I think portrayals of professors [and/or teachers more generally] can be done well on screen; we just have to search a bit harder [for my money, the best yet are the creative writer and literature professors porytrayed by Peter Krause and Mark Ruffalo, respectively, in the searingly tragic "We Don't Live Here Anymore"; I also love Matthew Broderick's hapless high school teacher in the very dark comedy with Reese Witherspoon "Election"; Berube mentioned the short-lived television series, with Richard Dreyfus, "The Education of Max Bickford" as coming closest to reality--I agree, with a nomination for Christine Lahti's history professor on the WB's "Jack and Bobby" as maybe the most ridiculous ever--let's just say that having sex with her teaching assistant on her dining room table when her teenage son walks in represented a real low point for me]. The most ridiculous recent portrayal, as Marty Shichtman pointed out on our panel at the Midwest MLA meeting in Chicago, would have to be Tom Hanks as a professor of a discipline that doesn't even exist--symbology--in "The Davinci Code."<BR/><BR/>But here's another thing about that Streisand film [and I am not making this up], when I was going through orientation as a new faculty member here at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, a representative of the Office for Excellence in Undergraduate Education showed us the very same clip from "The Mirror Has Two Faces" [of Streisand waxing poetic on the mythology of romantic love]. His purpose in showing us this clip was to get us to understand that the kind of charismatic teaching represented by her performance doesn't really exist, and even if it did, we should be on our guard against it as ultimately ineffective and un-measurable [in terms of evaluating learning]. "Do not be charismatic," I wrote in my notes [haha, and again, ha]. Someone should have told Leo Strauss.Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163626125785520332006-11-15T16:28:00.000-05:002006-11-15T16:28:00.000-05:00My good friend Corax here showed clips from Mirror...My good friend Corax here showed clips from Mirror Has Two Faces for a talk on professors on film, where Queen Bee goes over the top about love to the lecture hall, contrasting it to the cardboardy stiff style of Bridges in an earlier clip. I read a summary of the film, and "romantic comedy" put me on alert, and as I suspected, little does the film have to do with higher education, though that teaching clip is fun, if you can shade your eyes from too much Barbra. <BR/><BR/>But I wonder about this in MB's comment: "...facetiously arguing that because there are no remotely realistic portrayals of the lives of professors and graduate students in American film, we have to turn to scenes in Babe and Toy Story as oblique allegories instead."<BR/><BR/>Is it just impossible to do a realistic portrayal on film? Moo and Straight Man come pretty close to realism for me as I sit here in ye olde land grant. Why can't such be done on screen?<BR/><BR/>PS: This is a cool blog, the medievalists can be fun here at Purdue too.A. G. Rudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14065737458510256119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163624647408736122006-11-15T16:04:00.000-05:002006-11-15T16:04:00.000-05:00Great discussion. I was going to contribute someth...Great discussion. I was going to contribute something of substance, but have been completely derailed by seething resentment that Karl still gets to go to a spelling bee, whereas the one I was going to in Raleigh, NC was canceled on account of grad school. The organizer, that is, was about to begin it and decided she didn't have time to organize it. They asked me to keep it running, but I declined on account of visiting assistant professorship. Darn you, academe! <BR/><BR/>I want my spelling bee back. I have no interest in organizing one, anyway: what I want is to KICK BUTT. <BR/><BR/>Seethe.<BR/><BR/>--Amanda FrenchAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163611192893659502006-11-15T12:19:00.000-05:002006-11-15T12:19:00.000-05:00Lastly, a warm WELCOME to all who followed Le Béru...Lastly, a warm WELCOME to all who followed Le Bérubé's link. Please <A HREF="http://jjcohen.blogspot.com/" REL="nofollow">look around</A>.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163600267963108742006-11-15T09:17:00.000-05:002006-11-15T09:17:00.000-05:00Oh, and N50, could you say a bit more about how th...Oh, and N50, could you say a bit more about how the RAE inhibits cooked blogs? By demanding so much time be placed in conventional publication?Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163600203134774082006-11-15T09:16:00.000-05:002006-11-15T09:16:00.000-05:00The linking is good, SEK, it brings more readers i...The linking is good, SEK, it brings more readers into the conversation, and takes this blog out of the medieval ghetto. You've done a good job of outlining what is valuable about blogs, especially because they do bring a fuller picture of the academic world to those who might not otherwise see its tribulations and minor triumphs, and they do allow a space for experimenting with a research agenda. If there is a pitfall it is the tendency to preach to the converted.<BR/><BR/>Liza, I second the motion on thanks to Karl for the Uncanny Valley reference. I love the crazy graph that goes with the wikipedia article. Any graph that includes "zombies" is OK by me.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163584597322546262006-11-15T04:56:00.000-05:002006-11-15T04:56:00.000-05:00OK, way to much homework for my class in a few hou...OK, way to much homework for my class in a few hours to really respond with my own bloggish musings, but I have to say, quickly -- Karl, the uncanny valley link is seriously great. Seems one can graph anything these days! Thanks for it!<BR/><BR/>More later, I hope ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163578794229975402006-11-15T03:19:00.000-05:002006-11-15T03:19:00.000-05:00I think there is more cooked blogging from US than...I think there is more cooked blogging from US than UK academics (and I mean place of work not nationality). I suspect this is explained by three letters: RAEN50https://www.blogger.com/profile/02927387227571782287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163524673680519532006-11-14T12:17:00.000-05:002006-11-14T12:17:00.000-05:00SEKnnnn: Wait, am I saying we have a responsibilit...SEKnnnn: <BR/><BR/><I>Wait, am I saying we have a responsibility to seem stupid? That's absurd. </I><BR/><BR/>NKH:<BR/><I>Toto pulling aside the curtain hiding the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz - I think the raw blogs can demystify something that often seems very mysterious.</I><BR/><BR/>I like approach #2. Part of the value of an academic blog is being able to present work that's only 1/2 worked out. Although conferences might seem a value to try things on and to solicit expertise from the audience, in practice, I've seen (and delivered) only good papers or papers that try too hard, with not much in between. Here, we're allowed to be tentative; not to know things; not to be quite sure what our argument is. Apart from actual conversations, I can't think of any other academic venue that allows for, even encourages, that level of uncertainty. Why encourage? Because a blog isn't just an opportunity to present data, interpretations, etc. It's an opportunity to engage in conversations. Being tentative, rather than sealing the post with a neat conclusion (like my recent carrion post), is a better way to get the conversation moving.<BR/><BR/>--<BR/>Filmic presentations of professors. Berube included only American cinema, and I think we might limit it to professors of humanities, but I of course want to say: okay, humanities, but let's include the rest of the world. I can think of a one off hand:<BR/><BR/>Immanual Rath (played by Emile Jannings) in <I>The Blue Angel</I><BR/><BR/><I>Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</I><BR/><BR/>There are others I haven't seen: <I>When Night is Falling,</I> <I>Possession,</I> and, uh, I'm tapped for now. Can't think of ANY from the 70s, and all I get from the 80s, off hand, is Dead Poet's Society, which I'd rather forget.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163513102537152782006-11-14T09:05:00.000-05:002006-11-14T09:05:00.000-05:00AVOIDED, not avoised. Geesh. RAW.AVOIDED, not avoised. Geesh. RAW.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163513067939153032006-11-14T09:04:00.000-05:002006-11-14T09:04:00.000-05:00Eileen Joy began her first email to me as follows:...Eileen Joy began her first email to me as follows:<BR/><BR/>something tells me you have probably already made the connection, but the news <BR/>today about the outbreak of mob violence between Albanians and Serbians in Kosovo related to the drowning deaths of three Albanian boys (supposedly chased into the water by gun-wielding Serbs) instantly made me think of your recent Speculum article, "The Flow of Blood in Norwich." <BR/><BR/>I had not drawn the connection, and the email made me think: wow! Someone actually conjoined the contemporary and the medieval through the kind of bond I was hoping to foster in that stuffy article in a stuffy journal (the essay itself is very medieval and historicist, but is also in some ways a roman à clef about the aftermath of 9/11 in the US). I also thought: that's what is great about email, it leads to interconnections that chance conference conversation and encounter might, but does so with more permanence and thoughtfulness. All praise email! (NOTE: I never say that any more. My email is a spigot that I cannot turn off. Its flood makes my <A HREF="http://jjcohen.blogspot.com/2006/10/dc-vignette.html" REL="nofollow">shriner morose</A>.)<BR/><BR/>Eileen's email propelled interconnection presented a realization and desire, too, that encouraged me to start this blog about a year ago. <BR/><BR/>My earliest posts were quite cooked (overdone, sometimes), but have become more tartare as sabbatical ended and chairship of a sprawling department began. I've loved having the group format because it has (1) shared the burden and (2) ensured that the blog isn't only about some <A HREF="http://jjcohen.blogspot.com/2006/11/psyche-of-university-professor.html" REL="nofollow">absent minded professor and his obnoxious children</A> and (3) allowed many stages of the career and several permutations of how to do medieval and literary and historical studies to be discussed. Plus Karl andf Eileen are damn smart; I enjoy their posts immensely. <BR/><BR/>I also never aspired to be a brand like Le Bérubé. He is just too cool for medievalist emulation.<BR/><BR/>So, raw and cooked: blogs must be both. Like sushi (and therefore should be avoised by the pregnant or salmonella-fearing).Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1163489408869896582006-11-14T02:30:00.000-05:002006-11-14T02:30:00.000-05:00Admire cooked, mostly dish raw - but then in some ...Admire cooked, mostly dish raw - but then in some ways it is better for you. Cooked stuff I can read in Speculum etc - where it is more polished and edited and generally easier on the eye - and mostly online in much the same way as a blog these days.<BR/><BR/>Raw can be penetrating, insightful and ... fluffy. The kind of thing you get in real conversation (something I think that most academics wherever they are have less of nowadays).<BR/><BR/>and hey - n50 is young is it - of course it is!N50https://www.blogger.com/profile/02927387227571782287noreply@blogger.com