what I noticed in chicago...

1. a line of blue trucks with big cranes on them lined up next to a huge line of 747s, all sitting dormant on the tarmac.

2. that the endless rows and blocks of perfectly symmetrical suburban chicago laid flat against the midwestern terrain resemble a computer chip or trash on an assembly line depending on how high you are.

3. the largest part of academic conferences would be best characterized as academic masturbation.

4. the power of rhythm and ritual and markings can make everyone feel the same about everything. (after an evening spent with these guys)


5. (in one of the delightfully non-self-indulgent sessions I attended) I heard about how tourism of the amish country is often a way for time famished middle america to *consume* a nostalgic past where time was aplenty. Slow food (like the stuff at this place where our wedding rehearsal dinner was) serves as a rhetorical mechanism for this purchase / performance.



6. academic conferences are not, after all, fantastic opportunities to catch up on your novel writing ambitions. I'm so far behind that my EXCEL spreadsheet says that if I keep on at this rate, I won't finish until mid-December. Trust me, I'm going to prove this spreadsheet wrong.

7. good wine + good friends + long downtown walks + chilly clear November nights = some funny and revitalizing moments...

i'm back to grading and novel writing....