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01/28/2005 Archived Entry: "Pet Peeves Friday"

Pet Peeves
Today is Friday, kids, and it's time for Pet Peeves Friday! (soft sound of applause). One of many horoscopes of the day tells me that Pet Peeves Friday should be on full steam today:


You're furious, and that's just not like you. Ordinarily, you'd rather make a joke out of a bad situation, put some distance between you and the opponent and forget it. But this time?

So, with that insightful advise in mind, let the party begin. I GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE!

  • Open Source. Open shmorse. Or better: Creative Commons type stuff. Who gives a damn anyway? So you slapped a "you can copy this" icon on the bottom of your webpage. Did you really think I wanted to? And if I did it without you having put up that pretty little icon, what would you do about? Nothing. I knew it. Sister, I was copying crap off of the Internet without credit long before you all made those fancy icons. I called it Yellow Dog: the digizine.
  • Technorhetorician. Who the hell came up with this term? Part of the "let's slap techno, multi, digital as preface to everything we already do and really make no difference" camp. I'm a technorhetorician cause I made our dept's website! If anything, a technorhetorician should be someone who listens to techno.
  • Cathy. Honey, you are fat. So stop acting surprised every time you step in front of a mirror.
  • Christmas. Yeah, I know. I'm not the only one. Thank heavens it ends as fast as it starts.
  • Big Shot Name Game. Here I'll get a little academic on you people. David Shumway's whole take on the academic star system should be read and re-read by every damn one of us from time to time (yeah, even me). Other word for impressive big shots and big name schools: FETISH.
  • CNN. It ain't news. It's a bunch of pretty people reading teleprompts and "associate" producers gleaning each other's work and writing the same story ten times a day. So why the hell do I keep watching it?
  • Marxism. Yeah, sure it's useful. But it's so 1800s.
  • Sports Talk Shows. The only thing I watch more than sports is shows about sports. But all these shows - PTI, Around the Horn, TNT's threesome, etc. have turned into the latest variation of Entertainment Tonight meets Christian morality. "Can you believe what Randy Moss did! OMIGOD! He should be fined!" Since when did sports become so puritanical? Heaven forbid players should do interesting things out on the field when they score, curse, or speak their minds when "interviewed." Rasheed had it right when he rejected the whole concept: "Both teams played hard, man!" Answer the cliché with cliché. That ain't no interview. That's a way for you to pass time.
  • College Board. This thing never ceases to amaze me. A bunch of folks preaching "critical learning" as mantra for educational policy follow the whims and uninformed decisions of the College Board - a big money making enterprise dependent on cheap labor to function. Critical what? Maybe you folks ought to pay more attention to your own mantras before you turn to yet another "saying nothing" College Board report on learning and literacy (not to mention the scores that business generates for students).
  • PMLA. Seriously. Does anybody really read this thing?

    Replies: 5 comments

    Today Was my birthday -- maybe that's why i was crabby on the listserve This weekend. told in digital time . . .

    Posted by student from comp "class" @ 02/03/2005 08:04 AM EST

    When is Pet Peeve Friday going to end? Maudlin Monday is almost over!

    Posted by not even a bit fazed @ 01/31/2005 07:11 PM EST

    Both teams played hard.

    Posted by Mike @ 01/30/2005 03:46 PM EST

    you're running a little hot, aren't ya, son?

    Posted by a bit fazed @ 01/29/2005 10:04 AM EST

    I'm sure you could publish that observation about Marxism in PMLA.

    Posted by Jonathan @ 01/28/2005 11:21 AM EST

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