Category: Uncategorized

In ten days, not that I’m counting, I will officially be promoted to full professor. (Yaaaahoooo!!!!) You’d think this would mean I know what my title is going to be. But no. Academia is never that simple. You see, I’m on a “clinical appointment” at Northwestern. That means that I’m on a non-tenure-track, but reasonably secure,…

I woke up today still in a funk that I’ve had for a few days, maybe even a few weeks. The chief cause of this funk is a problem I’m having with my writing. I’ve been feeling unsuccessful as a writer. I know that sounds ridiculous given my c.v., but there you have it. I’ve…

“I’m not a doctor, but I sleep with one.” It was about five years into my work trying to change how doctors treat kids born with funny-looking bodies that I took to starting my grand rounds presentations with that joke. “I’m not a doctor, but I sleep with one.” Those eight words set up the…

No, not that kind of pot. I’m talking about a Le Creuset  3.5-quart French oven in the red-orange color they call flame. That’s the pot that made me give up tenure. OK, let me back up a bit. Apparently, even as a baby, I loved food. My mother told me once that, when I was a toddler,…

[Note; you can read about the episode I was on here, and watch the explanatory video I was on here.] The nice folks from Oprah called recently to let me know the show I was on will re-air on July 25. So I thought I’d take a moment–it’s too darned hot to go out and garden!–and answer here the…

My mate came home from a brutal twelve-hour day at the office today and promptly laid down on the clean laundry on the bed, where our son and I assaulted him with hugs and perky news of our long summer day. In the midst of all this, I congratulated the offspring on having eaten three different…

OK, this isn’t really about academics, but I have to get it off my chest. Let’s face it: red is not the same as blue. Not only do the two colors have different wavelengths, they have radically different effects on the human psyche. What’s the color shown to most improve retail sales? Red. What’s the…

As I mentioned in my last blog, for the last several months I’ve been working with my neighbors to agitate against a poorly conceived development proposal in our city. Lately, among the unrelenting flood of email related to that, I’ve been getting messages from queer activist and queer theory colleagues asking me what I think of…

My mate tells me that, when at the tender age of 18 he entered the Honors College of Indiana University, the faculty member welcoming the new class had this to say: “Why be in the Honors College? Because the sex is better.” This is the sort of thing you couldn’t get away with saying today,…

And now a little rant in celebration of Women’s History Month: What I’m about to say here may seem blindingly obvious to a lot of people, but I feel like someone has to log this point in print. I’ve been talking to a lot of colleagues who agree with what I have to say here,…