I failed her. As I was walking to work this morning, as usual rushing because I’d left at the very last possible minute, I passed a woman in the street. I saw her long before she reached me–shortish build, short hair, disheveled, walking in a line that was not precisely straight. But the most noticeable … Continue reading
Category Archives: All
Inventory
I recently finished reading Moab is my Washpot, Stephen Fry’s first memoir. I discovered that he too was the child of an inventor, though his dad invented very different types of stuff than mine. Also he describes a dad with a very different temperament than my own father. Nevertheless, his description of growing up in … Continue reading
Night and Day
I was stuck. I was on the bus, a friend had invited me to what sounded like a glittering intellectual evening at a literary salon in Shoreditch, and I was not moving forward. I’d been on this bus for nearly an hour and probably could have walked as far as we’d gotten. As the time … Continue reading
Swimming Along
Oh yes indeed, Caitie has returned! I missed you, gentle readers, and I know many of you missed me. How lucky do I feel that a few of you even wrote in to express your consternation at my extended absence? Very lucky, that’s how. My disappearance was principally due to a most welcome new development … Continue reading
In a Merry Hour
DON PEDRO Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour. BEATRICE No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. Much Ado About Nothing, II.i Continue reading
Offloading Memory
A few weeks ago, an article in Science on how search engines are changing the nature of memory became very popular in the news. Specifically, if people know that they can easily look answers up instead of remembering them by rote, their recall of the answers themselves declines while their memory of where to find … Continue reading
The Calm After the Storm
Riots raged around London the past few days, and while things seem to have calmed for this city, violence and disorder appears to be escalating in other English cities. I hope that today will be the tipping point around the country and that things will begin to return to normal. No rioting affected my part … Continue reading
My New Hat
I have triumphantly returned from Exeter with my most excellent trophy of a genuine PhD hat. It is a very charming hat modeled on a sort of Henry VIII style, with a squashy velvet top and a round brim with a piece of wide ribbon tied around it. Topping it all off is a bit … Continue reading
Much Ado
It’ll be a week or so before I blog again. My PhD graduation is coming up next week, family and friends are flying in, and there is a lot of celebrating to do! So I will leave you (for a time) with these reflections on my very favorite play. The first time I saw the … Continue reading
Computing Anthropology
Lately I’ve been spending a LOT of time at the computer. The vast majority of my life, in work and entertainment, has revolved around this screen recently, in exactly those kinds of scenarios that writers like Faranheit 451 and Brave New World and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? got all worked up about. This … Continue reading
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