Some Follow-Ups

A few things that I've written about recently need some following up.


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First of all, I am thoroughly enjoying not being department chair anymore. It's nice to be able to focus on teaching, and since I'm teaching two sections of a brand new class, I have no choice but to focus on teaching. I'm not exactly making it up as I go along -- I've had a plan for the course, which Isabel and I developed over the summer (she's teaching two sections of the course as well). But I am revising that plan pretty much every day.

Which isn't a bad thing. What I've always liked about teaching is the ongoing attempt to figure out my students and what they need, and then starting all over again the next semester. I may have a bad class one day, but I'll set to work trying to figuring out some other way to explain what I want them to know, and get excited about trying that new thing, and then more excited when it actually works. That's really the big difference for me between being chair and being a teacher: I could work all day on a chair project and not be successful, and be exhausted and depressed by the time I went to bed. But I could have a bad day as teacher, talk to some colleagues, figure out a plan, and by the end of the day feel energized. Being a teacher energizes me (usually), and it's that energy that I've really missed.

Of course, all of that figuring has taken up a whole bunch of my time lately (that, and the kids' activities being back in full swing), so I've had less to time to do the research and writing that goes into the blog. I'm trying to do my three blog entries per week, but it gets difficult some days to come up with something interesting and relevent.

So here are some sort of interesting, sort of relevent follow-ups for you.

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A little while ago, I posted a link for the "Seven Hamburgers of the Apocolypse." I rationalized that it was about encouraging good eating habits in my readers, but really, it was because I like looking at pictures of hamburgers.

Here's another one: the Hamburger Fatty Melt, a thick burger with two grilled cheese sandwiches acting as the bun. I love that the recipe calls for a grilling machine that will let you cook the sandwhiches and the burger at the same time. God love George Foreman.

I recommend clicking the link just above the picture, which gives "the backstory for the Fatty Melt." Read the comments section, where people debate whether or not to put bacon on it, and then whether it should go directly on the burger or in the cheese sandwiches.

(How come all of you don't have good debates like that in my comments section?)

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My guy Jon Lester continues to amaze. He pitched another 7 innings as the Sox clinched. The deabte now is whether or not he's the staff ace, and when to have him pitch in the next playoff series to best help the team. No mention of cancer, either.

Which brings up this issue: Yesterday, Isabel and I had lunch with a colleague who is a Sox fan, and we discussed current staff ace Josh Beckett's recent problems with injuries. My brilliant solution: Beckett needs lymphoma. Worked wonders for Lester. So if the Sox won't let me pitch for them, I can volunteer to donate blood to Beckett and see if that helps.

(I know, I know, it's a joke. I don't wish cancer on anybody....unless it would really help them somehow....or something.....)

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I was going to do one more follow-up on some lymphoma treatment news, but that will have to wait. Too much else going on, and it requires some reading on my part to understand it enough to explain it all. I could give you a raw link, but it wouldn't mean much.

I'll get to more of that good, hopeful cancer news soon. When things slow down. Like, in January...