The Happy News thread

[honeybee]

Aquarius, I booked my flight today - flying to London on May 19 returning from Paris May 24th. A short trip, but it will be fun. The conference is pretty much out in the burbs, near Wimbledon but I'm arriving a day early and will hop on the tube and probably hit the London Museum.

What's really fun is that a colleague of mine is going to speak on my panel, thanks to my invitation, and he's bringing his wife. They're all excited, so I was happy to make that happen for them.

Alelou, I hear you CC is slave pay here in PA. So true. The nine state schools that are unionized hire four year temps for about 37,000 AND trust me, you could get the job. We hire people with master's and CC experience every year since the English PHDs who apply often don't know how to teach comp and don't understand our CC-like student body. But it's not worth it to move to PA since it's just a short term gig and they can eliminate the job if admissions drop. We've never eliminated a temp job because admissions at state schools go up in a recession, but it's not worth uprooting yourself. But I am grateful that we are unionized.

[Silverbullet]

Honeybee, I hardly ran with the London School of Economics crowd. Your Mom wore the White boots that were so popular then? Micro too. suppose your dad couldn't wear gear from carnby Street or Kings road. Brolly and bowler? Did your Dad meet or know that Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones attended LSE? Don't know if he graduated but he did attend it.

[honeybee]

I think The Rolling Stones were already a big deal when my parents were in London, but my dad knew of Jagger's attendance.

And yes, my Mom had the white boots. But she didn't ever wear heavy mod makeup. She thought it was trashy, and women in the LSE crowd (ALL spouses and girlfriends back then) weren't so extreme. My mom did have stick straight black hair that she wore in a flip.

My dad, being a business guy, was never into anything but classic fashion. He couldn't afford many clothes as a student, mostly got Brooks Brother's stuff back home, but he developed a taste for getting custom shirts made that never left him.

Funny thing, when the first Austin Powers movie came out, I told Mom to go see it thinking she'd think it was hilarious. She didn't. She came back and was . . ."Men were really like that. It was disgusting." I think Mom developed her feminist streak then - she has a friend she met back then who was a Pan Am Flight Attendant - a woman with a degree from Vassar, who spoke two languages and was essentially an EMT on top of her flight safety training. But back in the late sixties - it was considered acceptable for the men in first class and the pilots to paw the woman's ass and constantly pester her for sex. That woman, Sue, didn't think Austin Powers was funny either!

But beyond that, I think my parents had an amazing time in London.

[Silverbullet]

Honeybee, many females used to Iron their hair to make it straight.

I was never one to paw a female so I can't comment on the pawing that went on.

Trivia, some of the more daring of young teen females woulld wear a micro (which came just below the cheeks of thier butt) with out panties. For a giggle.

I am told the LSE is the top school fo r Econimics and one has to really have it to be accepted. Jagger could not have been stupid.

More trivia.females were called "birds" or referred to as "it" As in "it" doesnt know what "it" wants. gives you that warm feeling doens't it?

[Alelou]

Aquarius, I booked my flight today - flying to London on May 19 returning from Paris May 24th. A short trip, but it will be fun. The conference is pretty much out in the burbs, near Wimbledon but I'm arriving a day early and will hop on the tube and probably hit the London Museum.

What's really fun is that a colleague of mine is going to speak on my panel, thanks to my invitation, and he's bringing his wife. They're all excited, so I was happy to make that happen for them.

Alelou, I hear you CC is slave pay here in PA. So true. The nine state schools that are unionized hire four year temps for about 37,000 AND trust me, you could get the job. We hire people with master's and CC experience every year since the English PHDs who apply often don't know how to teach comp and don't understand our CC-like student body. But it's not worth it to move to PA since it's just a short term gig and they can eliminate the job if admissions drop. We've never eliminated a temp job because admissions at state schools go up in a recession, but it's not worth uprooting yourself. But I am grateful that we are unionized.

Well, we are unionized too -- doesn't seem to help that much. Or maybe it does. I do get reasonable paid sick and personal days and so forth, and it does pay better than some other places. It's still ridiculous, though. I don't know how anyone survives with this as their only income. First of all, in order to do that they have to string together gigs from more than one college because I believe we can't teach a full load. We do also have about three adjuncts working as temp full-time this semester, though, which pays MUCH better, so maybe that will be an option in the future too. Unfortunately I don't think I can count on the regular faculty all being out having babies and sabbaticals.

[honeybee]

Our union is strong enough that it has made hiring adjuncts very hard, so we have lots of perma temps instead. And I really believe it ups the quality of the teaching since our temps are paid a living wage. You never know what will come along though, staff jobs are good but the classroom is always better.

Write that novel, and I'm sure they'd hire you.

[Alelou]

OH the novel is written, and so is the one after it. PUBLISHING the damned things is the rub. I already have a binder full of kind rejections on the first one.

[Elessar]

Aquarius, I booked my flight today - flying to London on May 19 returning from Paris May 24th. A short trip, but it will be fun. The conference is pretty much out in the burbs, near Wimbledon but I'm arriving a day early and will hop on the tube and probably hit the London Museum.

What's really fun is that a colleague of mine is going to speak on my panel, thanks to my invitation, and he's bringing his wife. They're all excited, so I was happy to make that happen for them.

Alelou, I hear you CC is slave pay here in PA. So true. The nine state schools that are unionized hire four year temps for about 37,000 AND trust me, you could get the job. We hire people with master's and CC experience every year since the English PHDs who apply often don't know how to teach comp and don't understand our CC-like student body. But it's not worth it to move to PA since it's just a short term gig and they can eliminate the job if admissions drop. We've never eliminated a temp job because admissions at state schools go up in a recession, but it's not worth uprooting yourself. But I am grateful that we are unionized.

Well, we are unionized too -- doesn't seem to help that much. Or maybe it does. I do get reasonable paid sick and personal days and so forth, and it does pay better than some other places. It's still ridiculous, though. I don't know how anyone survives with this as their only income. First of all, in order to do that they have to string together gigs from more than one college because I believe we can't teach a full load. We do also have about three adjuncts working as temp full-time this semester, though, which pays MUCH better, so maybe that will be an option in the future too. Unfortunately I don't think I can count on the regular faculty all being out having babies and sabbaticals.

Steal their birth control pills and replace them with tic-tacs or similarly shaped icebreaker mints

ADJUNCT EMPLOYMENT FOR EVERYONE!!! [/blue falcon voice]

[justTripn]

Well, happy follow-up news for me. Remember that wildly improbable phone call I got about an opportunity to teach AP economics to high school student for two weeks this summer in HAWAII????!!!!! It seems it's really going to happen. If you will recall this was the phone call out of the blue where the conversation veered from economics, straight to astronomy, and to Star Trek leaving me wonder if I had dreamed the whole thing. Well it's real and to add another layer of improbability to this Summer School story, in addition to having astronomy and economics components they also have journalism . . . and are recruiting my husband to participate. TOO wild. My boss is going too.*shakes head* Wish me luck.

[Aquarius]

YAY!!

[Alelou]

Poor JT. Good luck teaching and enjoying the mild temperatures and the Kona coffee and the gorgeous scenery and the great ethnic food and the free airline tickets and the free hotel .... Damn, it's tough, but somebody has to do it.

[panyasan]

H.A.W.A.I.I.
I am so jalours. (but wishing you a great time, JusTrippn )

[honeybee]

So, three years ago when I bought my house, I needed a desk. Having just bought a house, I was broke. (My house has been increasing in value, thank you Philadelphia). My Mom, who is never broke, told me to buy a "nice desk" and it wasn't worth it to buy fiberboard crap.

So, I bought a desk at Target and put it together. Three years later - this past Friday night it collapsed. It was a cheap desk, but I treated it like it could withstand weight. My bad. Happily, nothing but the desk was destroyed. It was a slow collapse. The glasses on it did not even break.

Anyway, the happy news is that I bought a solid, sustainable hardwood desk today that should outlive me.

Mothers are sometimes right, even if they don't get that college professors don't make much money.

[Alelou]

Well, the happy medium is to look for a good used desk. I grabbed my husband's lovely old desk at the thrift shop for $35. (My desk is still cheap fiber board but it's a nice L-shape so I will just hope it lasts awhile.)

Unfortunately, that kind of deal doesn't fall into your lap too often when you need it. He was using an ugly old metal desk that we were very happy to pass along to someone at freecycle.org.

Anyway, congratulations. (And hey, at least you aren't adjuncting anymore!)

[honeybee]

Your fiberboard desk probably hasn't had to withstand chihuahua jumping like mine did! Max likes to play mountain goat on furniture.