disciplinary pride

walking around campus last week, I passed by the chemistry building, which has a sand and rock garden out front. one morning, I noticed that someone had written in the sand outside the chem building

CHEM IS BOHRING

for a brief moment, I thought the message was left by some disgruntled undergrad who was being dragged through some general ed requirements. then I got it. hilarious. I actually stopped and laughed out loud. unfortunately, by the time I came back with a camera, someone had returned the sand to its previous, uniform, unamusing state, so I can't post a picture, but at least I can recount the story.

self-reference and a koan

two great quotes I heard recently. the first one is your oxymoron for the day:

The only thing I cannot tolerate is intolerance.

this is somewhat akin to fearing fear itself, except that it doesn't make the speaker appear brave and insightful, but rather self-important and unreflective.

and quote number two:

Social interaction is simply more than one person doing things together.

I really like this one. if you just read it, nothing seems awry, but as soon as you actually try to parse it, the sentence sort of falls apart. a bit Zen, I'd say.