The resident faculty at Blogistan Polytechnic Institute were especially surreptitious this week as they made their way from the wine cellar library where they'd spent the weekend drinking thinking on our motto of Magis vinum, magis verum ("More wine, more truth") to the hot tub faculty lounge for their weekly game where the underwear goes flying planning conference. They passed some sheets of paper back and forth, nodding and sniggering, almost daring the staff to guess what they were up to this week.
But we already knew, because we'd put them up to it.
More below the fold....
First our customary thanks to last week's guest lecturers. Last Tuesday, Professor of Neuroholdemology Caractacus invited us to Follow the Money in a discussion of how Someone Addisnana Rebels At Hearing, Please Avoid Linking In News - don't type the acronym! - decided to cash in on her (we hope) brief political career. And last Wednesday, newly-tenured Professor of Commuhealthmemiofieldrogueology TheFatLadySings regaled us with yet another tale of rogue organizing, with My Recycling Misadventure. Both were excellent discussions, so please read them if you missed them.
This Tuesday, Professor Caractacus' Things We Learned This Week series continues with a primer on Michel Foucault and Critical Theory. On Wednesday, Professor of Hamptolocopolism LI Mike will discuss his local activism on immigration reform, a hot topic likely to get hotter over the coming months. As always, Chef will circulate with coffee and bagels, and the Professor of Astrology Janitor will triangulate his buffer settings.
Notes: We have guest lecturers for the next three Wednesdays, however we have openings starting Wednesday, May 26th. If you would like to guest host Morning Feature, please volunteer in the Tuna Can, below.
Also note that glendaw271 takes her first shift this Wednesday in BPI's state-of-the-art High Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector (HEMMED) laboratory. We're sure she'll do well, so please pay no attention to the Geiger counters placed around campus, or to the fact that your lowly mail room clerk will be hiding in BPI's not-so-state-of-the-art High Apathy Washers En Dryers (HAWED) laboratory.
Finally, please remember to tell us about your offline political activism in the Things We Did This Week thread.
Which brings us to the resident faculty and one of the 20th century's least appreciated wordsmiths, the late Victor Squirrelhill, seen here in a tree outside Chequers.
Few know that Victor wrote many of the best lines for the well-known human with whom he shared both a similar name and similar body proportions, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. (Rumors that Victor often doubled for Sir Winston in public appearances have never been confirmed.) Among Victor's contributions to history was this famous line, spoken in November 1942, upon news of the British victory at El Alamein and the successful Allied landings in Tunisia and Morocco:
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Of course the BPI Squirrel is very familiar with Victor's work, and he sneaked into the wine cellar library to whisper those famous words in Professor Plum's ear while the good professor was sleeping studying. Thus, when Professor Plum awakened, he was primed to realize that we're nearing the end of the Spring semester. One thought led to another, and another, though we won't chase those too far as Ms. Scarlett usually figures prominently in them. Regardless, before he thought of her - or maybe after - Professor Plum came up with with he thought was his own idea, and shared it with the rest of the resident faculty.
That led to their surreptitious planning, to keep the staff from overhearing. But we didn't need to overhear, because we asked the BPI Squirrel to plant the idea in Professor Plum's ear. Just to get even with Professor Plum for reading our mail every week.
What does all this mean for you? Only that this week the resident faculty will review the topics covered since January in Morning Feature, just in case there might be some common end-of-semester activity for which a such review would be helpful.
Like a formal dance or something.
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Happy Monday!