can you sue your parents for malpractice

when i was in fifth grade, i got in trouble with my homeroom teacher because i was reading paula danziger's book can you sue your parents for malpractice. it was a paperback and the boys at my table, tommy raley, gerard zeller and someone else?, wanted to read after me. so, i tore the spine and divided up the chapters and opened a lending library. ms. lesner, our teacher, confiscated the book. i cannot believe that i willing tore a book. quel sacrilege.

garrison keillor told me this morning on writer's almanac that it is paula danziger's birthday.


i attended several orientation sessions this week and settled into my office and loft more and more. i still have not received my other three bookshelves, but i have unpacked most of the boxes onto one shelf (very precarious). i am trying not to be shelfish, but i am getting desperate. i finally got office keys and a computer after i raised my concerns at the dean's meeting with brand new tenure track faculty in the college.

there were some high points during the week. unfortunately, there were in fact, too many moments that compete for nadirs during this transitional phase. i continue to be upbeat about the faculty in american studies. last night, at a reception, i met some of the new historians, one of whom is doing very very very exciting work (on horseback) on central asia. he and his wife and family live in columbus, and he has a pied a terre here in oxford. he chuckled when i used the term pied a terre...it hadn't come to him before and he wondered whether such an elegant phrase should be applied to his bachelor-esque pad that is the granny flat on one of the college's properties in student enclave.

i was impressed when the college's underdeans spoke about what it means to be working in the humanities at this moment in the country and the county's history. i felt like i was really part of something socially just and wonderful. typing that recalled how i attended a luncheon for dave eggers yesterday. miami first year students read what is the what as their summer reading. eggers came along with alex piel, not the valentino, but alex pial, another "lost boy" of sudan. they spoke at convocation. eggers stayed on for a seminar sponsored by the writing center. surprisingly few people went along...he remarked that when he went off to illinois, the reading program was called be a part from the start or was it be apart from the start he mused. i love obvious wordplay so i smiled.

en route to the convocation this morning, as i turned left off high street and in haste as i was late, i spotted three men on the corner with the JOBS WITH JUSTICE tee shirts. i tooted my horn and raised my fist in solidarity (it's a reflex when i see the royal and light blues of JwJ). i continued on to find the destination. just after parallel parking, i doubled-back past the university police, past the city police, past the hordes of students at their rental properties (houses emblazoned with slogans and names like BORED OF EDUCATION et al). they were stationed at their beer pong tables.

i figured i could miss a little convocation in the hopes of having a conversation with the jobs with justice men. i eventually caught up with them, the three. -- they came to campus to spread the word about Lykins Reinforcing, the concrete contractors who are working on the new parking structure. carlos and his cohorts have three chief concerns about lykins practices: no drinking water, abusive treatment, and deceptive pay practices.

no drinking water? i wonder whether the rodbusters who toiled one story beneath the ground ever thought joining the residents of bored of education for a round (? a match ? an inning ?) of pong? i emailed collected their information and sent off a round of notes to colleagues here. none knew of the action or the complaints. maybe we will investigate further?

this morning, i made it to the farmers' market in time for the yummy bread. i was chatting with the impresario of the market, an old science teacher who is adjacent to pia's bread table. he asked where i was from. baltimore and washington i replied. he turned and pointed to pia and said as if re-introducing us, she's from new york. this moment was not unlike the summer after my first year of college when i worked at the merry go round clothing factory before i went to study at the other oxford (oxford UK). one of the line supervisors beamed with enthusiasm when she reported and quizzed that her son went to college -- did i know him, and i sheepishly explained that i went to a women's college and that probably explained why i didn't know him.