Over at Grammar.police, a smart consideration of why a smoking ban in Austin bars is a necessary and good thing. And why it totally and completely sucks. From waaay over in DC, Kriston does a perfect job of capturing the conflicted-smoker viewpoint on this issue, and I totally agree with him on all points. Plus he's got the science.
There's one thing that sets the Austin situation apart from similar efforts to ban smoking, even in a place like DC: the weather. Lots of bars here have outdoor seating which is accessible most of the year, and which slightly (slightly!) mitigates the loss of atmosphere or comfort or coolness that results from prohibiting smoking inside. So far, Billy's on Burnet is the only place we go regularly that doesn't allow smoking inside, but this is because it has a full menu and is thus technically a restaurant. I have to admit that I like having my Shiner and fries with no smoke. Unfortunately, the outside seating at Billy's is sort of in the middle of the parking lot...not so pleasant for the smoking crowd. Much like at the Draft House, but even that is a little nicer.
It occurs to me now that what would take place in a smoking ban would be a reversal of my own bargoing habits since college (for most of that time), that is, as a very occasional pseudo "social smoker" I'd just automatically stay outside whenever possible to avoid the smoke and stink of the inside. The Showdown is my current case in point, because dude, you don't want to be in that air for more than the time it takes to get your beer.
p.s.: While I'm on the subject, I so can't stand that "don't like smoke? get a different job" argument that gets hauled out by smoking ban opponents and used on bar employees who'd rather not inhale second-hand smoke all night.
Judging by the number of sneezes around here, it is now fully spring: oak and molds levels are soaring, much to our allergic dismay. But it has good sides, too. This morning on my walk I got to go by a stand of incredibly sweet-smelling acacias. They only seem to bloom for about two weeks around here, so I try to be around them as much as I can. (There's another good cluster of them by Trudy's on 30th.)
I spent some time yesterday cleaning up my flower beds and planting some stuff we got on the weekend (a delphinium, an icelandic poppy, and a blue hibiscus). The exotic little corms that I put in last fall are all starting to bloom, but unfortunately I can't remember what they're called. I posted this pic of one of them on flickr, but got no responses:
[click it for a larger version]
Anyone recognize it? Most of them are orangish-red.
via Jurabilis, this amazing bike route planner. For kicks I tried it out, tracking a route from where I lived in Mitte to where I had seminars in Dahlem. According to the results, it would take me about 40 minutes to get there, whether I used smaller streets or larger ones with bike lanes.
In the meantime I also happened to find out for whom Schröderstraße is named. Luise has all kinds of good local Berlin history in its Bezirkslexikon.
At Inside Higher Ed, some comparative data on average faculty pay. Not surprising:
Full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members earn approximately 26 percent less per hour than do tenure-track assistant professors.
Part-time, non-tenure-track faculty members earn approximately 64 percent less per hour from their institutions than do tenure track assistant professors.
...
The median, full-time, tenure-track faculty member is paid $8,424 per section taught, compared to $5,435 for full-time, non-tenure-track, and $2,174 for part-time, non-tenure-track.
Insurance and other benefits, or rather the lack of them, only increase the discrepancy. Ouch.
Last week, Douglas Crimp spent some time in our department. It was wonderful, as if my brain had gotten a spring cleaning. I'd like to write some extensive notes on his visit, but that's going to take a little thinking. For the moment I'll just quote one tiny bit of his "Getting the Warhol We Deserve" (available here), an expert defense of a cultural studies approach to art history:
What is at stake is not history per se, which is a fiction in any case, but what history, whose history, history to what purpose.
Exactly. What a guy.
Ben is blogging. Hot dog. Look for intelligent insight into contemporary culture and all kinds of other things. I'm so pleased that I am quoting his first post verbatim--it is, in itself, a quotation of the most eloquent kind:
Friday, October 08, 2004
Richard Wright tells me to start a blog"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger for life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human."
I can hardly think of a better reason to blog.
#Ralf# has posted another great shot, this time not for its atmospheric quality but because, well, this was one of my favorite things to see.
I recently commented elsewhere that most of the blogs that I read are not really personal journals, nor are they political. I think we're trying out the term "cultural criticism." (Yeah, you know, we're little Adornos).
But anyway: I've been thinking that for me, and probably for a lot of people, even a post that's just a link to someone else is revealing. I agonized at the beginning about even those little, meek posts, because they meant that I was allowing people to draw conclusions about me, Wildfremde Menschen out there in the world who will never get to see what a swell gal I am in person. This quickly passed, of course. But I still think writing and posting anything, anything at all, is a sensitive process which can leave you vulnerable (for some; I realize other people couldn't give a hoot one way or the other when they're posting stuff).
This is why [nods towards certain person in the readership] blogging can help you with other kinds of writing. Because it deadens you. No, seriously. Putting yourself out there, even if you don't know whether anyone's going to see it, can make you a stronger writer. Not necessarily a *better* writer, but a more confident one. Because hey, if you can survive the threat of weirdoes leaving you creepy comments, you can survive a colleague's (probably more well-founded) critique. [clarification: I've never gotten any creepy comments, but I did/still do worry about it.]
I'm still just trying this out. But I think it takes one step further the pro-blogging argument of "Blogging is good for your dissertation or other long-term writing process because it makes writing something every day fun." I'm trying to argue that it also makes you more courageous, even in a little way.
Would this be as funny in English? Einzelhandelpoesie collects the quaint, hilarious, and sometimes just strange little verses composed and used by independent merchants. So far my favorite is this one for a place called "Fast Pizza." It's nearly pizza! (I wonder if anyone is collecting similar slogans in English...)
[via Shopblogger, who keeps me consistently entertained.]
Following a recent recommendation I'm listening to the new Fettes Brot, generously provided online by the band. I gotta say, anyone who works "Frauenzimmer" into a rhyme is ok in my book.
[but sheesh, who publishes lyrics as word docs?]
Spiegel online has an interview with Wladimir Kaminer re: the so-called Visa-Affair. Worth a read. Kaminer pulls no punches.
[via Mehrzweckbeutel]
I went back to the new Whole Foods on Saturday, by myself, while Andrew was off at SXSW getting edumacated about the Interthingy. I bought all of ten things in the course of an hour and a half: little indulgences like wheat gluten and Whole Foods brand cat food. Mmmm.
But the most important purchase was also a partial admission of defeat. Several months ago a friend sent me a package of treats which either the DP or the USPS has subsequently eaten or blown up on a tarmack somewhere. At any rate, it hasn't shown up yet--so I figured it was time to take matters into my own hands.
Even if this package never appears, I STILL think it's the greatest thing to happen online, ever, that someone I never met would send me Caro.
In the meantime, Whole Foods has expanded its ersatz coffee offerings substantially and this tub of "Pero" is the same thing. So I bought one. I am drinking it now. I hope that by doing so, I will bring the forces of the universe back into alignment and Vasili's package will materialize, either on my front porch or on his...
[Yeah, woo, gluten AND ersatz coffee in one shopping trip, I live dangerously.]
Nice photo of a snowy Kreuzberg. The hill, not the neighborhood.
There's a box in the upper right. Now I don't have to look at Sports and Business unless I want to...I don't see this feature on Google News Germany, though.
It's been raining like crazy around here for weeks now, but that just means that the wildflowers will be better in April. In the meantime, the mountain laurel is starting to bloom, which means that the air smells like grape juice. Sounds odd, but it's a beautiful smell until the flowers start to go south. Then it just smells stinky.
Other signs of spring: SXSW starts soon, which means seeing friends who come into town once a year.
And finally: not really spring-related, but this weekend we visited two pieces of Austin retail history. The new North Lamar Half Price Books which, I'm so so sorry to say, has "replaced" the store on Guadalupe (this is the saddest thing to happen in my extended neighborhood in some time). The new place is huge and beautiful, but like so much else, we can't walk to it.
And: the brand new, gigantic Whole Foods Headquarters. I cannot describe the scale of this store. It has at least three levels of underground parking, like an organic food Hall of Justice or something. It's really absurdly big, but I admit I had a blast there and can't wait to go back when there aren't sixty gazillion people milling around open-mouthed. Don't know when that'll be, though, because the novelty's not going to wear off quickly.
Like everyone else, I am thoroughly loving Shopblogger [in German]. I wish my neighborhood had a grocery like this guy's. What a mensch.
Elsewhere, following tips from BerlinBlog, I've been reading La Entropista and RadioFreeMike. Good things continue to happen in the expat blogger community in Berlin.
Worth reading at signandsight: their Manifesto, i.e., why the [non German-speaking] world should pay attention to German feuilletons and why European papers should be sharing content more generally:
While European journalists might use all available sources in English on the Internet, the papers they write for do not return the compliment. Moreover, European newspapers have never showed interest in creating a European network; they also haven't had the means. The only newspaper that could establish a European readership if its owners wanted to, is the International Herald Tribune. And its owner is in New York!
Recall the American cinema's love of Paris which continued well into the 1950s. In those days, eyes were looking in the opposite direction. Europe had something to say and America seemed interested in listening. Even debate in the English-speaking world is in danger of becoming provincial if Europe doesn't do its part.
Coming out of the heaviest week in some time. The draft is submitted, I took two days to recuperate, and now I am easing back into a little editing, a little reading, a little writing. Oh and some blogging, finally (my one or two readers probably thought I'd fallen into a hole or something).
So, for my first real, but short post, I bring happy news that Perlentaucher has an English version of sorts, signandsight; the most useful page is the daily feuilleton review.
Huh. Maybe this means I'm becoming redundant. If they translate everything, I don't have to...Though the voice isn't really the same in English--it's sometimes quite funny and catty in the German.
And they say *our* educational system is in a crisis. Check this out. There's something so uplifting about finding a hilarious side to an otherwise extremely serious discussion...