I'm going to be at Jazz Fest next weekend in New Orleans. If I spot you in the crowd, I'll make a point of starting the chant.

Tattoo of a button on a student's wrist. Used with her permission.

Inspired by our American lit discussion of Gertrude Stein, one of my students got a "tender button" tattoo.

I use snow all the time, especially on speckled clays. Simple, but really shows off the clay. Not sure what it would do on black clay, though.

I wish I could give this two hearts.

Had a student in my American lit survey class say she'd get a Gertrude Stein tattoo if I read all the Twilight novels. First one arrives today.

There's a good discussion of the underlying justification for these things on John Favreau's *Offline* podcast last weekend. I guess they have their origins in agriculture markets?

For the mid-term, I had students respond to practice questions. Asked for volunteers to put their answers on the screen so we could discuss what worked/could be better. One student says she's glad to share, but it's in cursive. Sure, I say, who cares?

90% of the students: yeah we can't read that.

This happens to me all the time.

This is going to go down as an all-time terrible messaging error. Making regular folks, many from red states, encounter ICE for the first time just wandering around doing nothing in their ridiculous outfits? I'd be shocked if it lasts two days.

The main scholarly society I'm involved decided we can't run a conference in the US until there's a change in the administration.

I never know who seriously the journal/editor takes those limits. Once I get close I just send it in and figure I can cut if they really care.

As many people have noted, dems spent so much effort passing support for clean energy. Then Trump comes out and says that we have to repeal Biden's "EV mandate," Fox repeats it endlessly, and 40% of the country is like, I don't want to be forced to buy an electric car. So asymmetrical.

I'm with you. I wish it wasn't this way.

I'm just saying that when people complain, why are universities wasting money on fancy fitness centers and food courts?, it's because that dumb stuff does affect where students want to go. Campus tours are a big thing--much more than when I was a kid.

This is all terrible. But....

When I was a young person, you pretty much went to one of a handful of state schools in your area, unless you were an Ivy League type. Today, there's so much competition. I've given tours to students who say, I want to go to an SEC school, I'm just not sure which one.

My lit survey students continue to surprise. Today was Gertrude Stein day, and I had a couple of students say (esp. about *Making of Americans*) that she read to them as neurodivergent, and that they loved seeing different ways of thinking and writing represented.

Picture of a stack of Narrative stickers

I ran a conference right before Covid. Trying to cut down on waste, our only give-away was stickers. As you can imagine, we had a lot left over. I’ve made it a project to put these up in every dive bar we visit. By now every bar in Nashville and New Orleans has a Narrative sticker in the bathroom.

Right. Likewise, every time someone tries to argue how AI is helpful sifting through email and drafting replies (for example) I think, you work at an institution with a crappy culture. You just shouldn’t have to respond to so much email that you need a robot.

And worse because it seems like half of the disciplines/courses are encouraging AI use. It's like if, 10 years ago, half the professors required students to buy their papers from a paper mill. So confusing for students.

I think that there should be an Anthropic-style settlement, but for not being considered enough of an expert to have my work ripped off.

Conference culture is so important. MLA, for example, is so intimidating and impersonal. Conferences that have a reputation for being supportive should be priority. I'm biased, but Narrative (for example) has a "newcomer's dinner" the first night of the conference to welcome people.

Let's hope. Can't wait to read the new one. Have to admit, I was worried that it was "I've won a lot of National Book Awards" influence, pushing him towards more easily consumed material. Would be nice to think not.

Good to know. I've been a little cool to this trilogy--nothing wrong with it, good to read. But everything since *Nickel Boys* has seemed a little bit less ambitious, in contrast to *Intuitionist*, *Underground Railroad*, *Zone One*, etc.

The logic of let-AI-draft-a-plan will quickly turn into AI just did it. People will be able to offload responsibility.

My wife and wandered into Books & Books last year, unaware of Bloom's connection, and there was Judy chatting with customers and making book recommendations. My wife couldn't bring herself to talk to her, but we did get signed copies of favorites for all our friends. Lovely.

Conference program using the revise image

Used that image for a narrative conference I hosted in New Orleans. It's such a beautiful and evocative image.

Wow, those are beautiful. I do a little pottery. I suppose they're three separate pieces, each with that great green glaze over a white clay base? Porcelain, I'm guessing?

I dunno, don't tell Erza Klein. This doesn't sound like "practicing politics the right way."

Did I add WCW's "This is Just to Say" to my lit survey syllabus just so I could reference all the internet memes? Yes, yes I did.

www.amazon.com/Slightly-Irr...

I find the second-order effects of thinking this way problematic. When I was a department head, I wrote like a zillion emails a day just because I had to. But I *wrote* them, and the people receiving them knew I wrote them. Once we start saying, let the robots write this stuff, why read it?