Weep for us.

According to this, “half of the [high school] students [surveyed] said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.”

In the same paragraph, about the same survey: “when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes ‘too far’ in the rights it guarantees.”

Well, sure. This explains a lot, really, and none of it good. Thanks to Zero for pointing the article out.

As a TA, I just now got my hands on a username/password combo allowing for pretty much acret blanche on DIALOG. DIALOG, you see, is a terribly powerful, terribly expensive index/search-enginge/database combo that makes me all dreamy-eyed and drooly.

The username/password combo was given to me with the implicit understanding that I use it only in my TAing duties, naturally, but I’m pretty sure the accounts aren’t closely monitored. Still, and alas, I am a good boy, so I will eternally resist this creamy-rich temptation. At least it’s good to know I could wreak research havoc if I weren’t so damned dependable and trustworthy.

It’s fairly uncontroversial, I think, to say that The Simpsons started slumping pretty seriously a few years back. The bloom was off the rose, the shine off the nickle, the hair fell from the herring, all those cliches.

The show had, I thought, been picking up during this current season, occassionally even showing glimpses of the white-hot splendor that burned the show into my generation’s consciousness. And then came tonight’s ep.

I’m watching through TiVo, so I’m only halfway through, but at the midpoint I can honestly say there’ve probably been more laugh-out-loud (and I mean that literally, having been chortling like a fool) tonight than there have been in the last several years combined.

Hurrah!

I am terribly appreciative to everyone who’s left comments so far. Keep it coming!

Zero and Catherine: I’m with you in that Cooper is my personal favorite. I like Zero’s more cryptic approach, too, but I think the more brash, more American approach is a little bit funnier.

I also think Courier is a great idea, Zero, but the Courier New TrueType font I have installed ends up being a bit too wispy. I’ll look around for American Typewriter, though.

Mel: I’m so glad you posted!

Rachel: Modern is my second favorite; I think my first attempt would be greatly improved by increasing the horizontal spacing a bit.

And Catherine: I wavered on whether to even put up the scaled-down script. It looks pretty interesting at full size, in my opinion, but miniaturized it sucketh.

Our student ALA chapter running low on cash, the buzz over the necessity of fundraising is starting to increase toward a gentle roar. Of course everybody loves the idea of fundraising, but no one is too fond of the notion of actually going out and selling stuff. And even if we do manage to recruit a legion of willing hawkers, we still have to find something to actually sell. Even harder, we have to find something to sell that people might actually be willing to buy.

So, T-shirts, yeah? Everybody loves T-shirts. They’re like the Raymond of the sartorial world. But what kind of T’s to sell? What could a bunch of junior librarians come up with that would be sexy, hip, and groovalicious enough to part the typical undergrad from his or her money?

I have an idea of sorts, specifically of the sorts that faculty members and more conservative peers are sure to disapprove of. Let me know if you like any of these:

Cooper

Century Gothic

Maiandra

Modern

OCR

Informal Roman

Script

(Hint: Google is your friend.)

Um, that’s about it, really. But I saw Harper Lee! Author of To Kill A Mockingbird! Friend of Truman Capote! In the coffee shop downstairs!

Well, I was told it was Harper Lee, at least. Fellow (who, in a convoluted way, I sort of knew but had never met) who is a Proper Librarian downstairs came by looking for one of the professors to tell her that Harper Leee by the library for a visit. I suddenly felt the irresistable urge for a cup of joe.

I didn’t say anything, of course–that is Simply Not Done–and I couldn’t find an excuse to get particularly close to her table, even. I just gazed on her from a distance, and went melty.

Aye, 120 miles from home, sitting alone in a basement-level computer lab. It’s wonderful!

Why wonderful? Because I get to feel all professional and adult and stuff, driving out here for the teacher whose TA I am, checking everything out in advance of his class and editing the lab manual for the first exercise so that all the instructions are perfectly in accord with the set-up of the local machines.

I feel so official. Maybe I should’ve worn a tie, ‘though that would’ve looked weird with a black T-shirt. I don’t think I have this grown-up thing down pat yet.

Tonight it’ll be Phantom of the Opera, but only because I love spending time with my friends. And Miranda Richardson.

Er, I love Miranda Richardson, not spending time with her. I’m sure I would love spen…you know what I mean.

I’m not expecting much out of it, being a fan of neither Schumacher or Lloyd Webber, but I am intrigued by multiple reports of the fellow playing the Phantom being basically sex on legs.

If I’m going to see Closer theatrically I’ll have to catch it tomorrow, its last date in town. As I do very much want to catch it on the big screen, the die is pretty much cast.

Saturday there are loose plans for a Junior Librarians League viewing of the Lemony Snicket film, to which I’m very much looking forward. This leaves Friday empty, perhaps mercifully so, but we do get both Hotel Rwanda and Sideways then, both of which are worth checking out.

(Who would win a fight between Don Cheadle and Paul Giamatti? I’m placing no bets, but I’d gladly pay for a ringside seat.)

And then Sunday I’ll try catching up on some of the coursework I’ll have been putting off in favor of going to the picture-show. ‘rah grad school!

Seems the FBI is looking into charges that Alabamian (and, it appears, other regional) Boy Scouts organizations have been willfully, deliberately defrauding charitable organizations by plumping up enrollment with fictional names.

(We can rest assured that at least none of the made-up people are posing as fictional somdomites.)

Yeah, these are the same folks who claimed they wanted to keep out the queers (and, it must be said, the non-god-botherers) in order to maintain the purity of their organizations essence.

Oddly, in W’s Amurrica, this behavior does actually sort of make them look like “patriotic Americans” embracing “traditional family values”. Doom. Doom, doom, doom.

I’ve been in this library for a while, right, and I’ve yet to see my first ninja. Which could mean that the ninjas here are really friggin’ good, completely concealed in the shadows and secreted away in the ruins of abandoned card catalogs, but it’s sadly more likely that there are no ninjas here at all.

And that’s a shame.

With ninjas about, there would be no more interminably boring sessions of trying to while away the two hour gap between classes without going mad or breaking things or both, no sir! There would be a constant fear for one’s life, a perpetual shuddering and miles of whiplash from constantly looking first over one shoulder and then quickly over the other, ninjas being sneaky bastards like that.

And ninjas make with the shiny! There would be shuriken whirling about, which we could pretend were loverly falling stars as long as they didn’t nick our ears or get lodged in our oh-so-yielding eyes. Or our noses, which aren’t quite so yielding but still are no place to have a throwing star stuck, let me tell you. Not that I speak from experience, but I do have an awfully vivid imagination, especially when it comes to owie things.

Except for the sudden, unforseeable death-dealing, ninjas would be the perfect accompaniment to any library. They’re notoriously silent, so there’s no shush! factor to deal with, and they’re, um…chock full of educational goodness?

Perhaps I should begin writing up a grant proposal. I think I’m onto something here, and I still have 35 minutes to kill before class.