Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college (finished 8th grade)
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college (graduated from high school)
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is (was) an attorney, physician, or professor (I want to be the professor dammit)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school ( Read more... )

I’ve been wondering if I’ve approached my entire life-path widdershins. There are people who would rather phrase it “making bad choices.” Yeah, I know, fuck that. My choices are mine and I don’t regret them on a certain deep level. Where it gets screwed up is in the present with the financial problems that are affecting not only me but also other ( Read more... )

Dark as a Dungeon

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,

Where the danger is double and pleasures are few,

Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines,

It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.
Merle Travis, "Dark as a Dungeon"

Every time this happens it hits me in a personal way. I think about what my father was able to get ( Read more... )

Well well well.

There's been a rumor around for the last few years (ever since the Yellow-Roadway "merger" at least) that DHL has had their corporate eye on another buyout. I had it confirmed from a pretty reliable source today that the deed has been done to YRC. Oddly, I can't find confirmation anywhere on the Internets.  Is it just another rumor ( Read more... )

I picked up my mail at the college before the long weekend and found the journal from my adjuncts' union there in my mailbox. The union is new and they are just getting started on our campus - I didn't realize they published a journal ( Read more... )

Ah, the pieces may be falling into place on the new house finally.  Part of the problem with the bank is that I am being used as the primary borrower because (hold on, now) my credit is better than Michael’s.  We add him in at the closing, I guess.  Good grief, talk about creative financing.  I barely make enough to support myself, let alone the ( Read more... )

Okay, plunging into work to get my mind out of the dumps ( Read more... )

"The middle class and working poor are told that what's happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand.' This is a lie. What's happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and ( Read more... )

Well, now, I never really thought about this before, but I guess I can climb into another box. Or would it be more appropriate to say climb out of it, since I like to think of myself as an out-of-the-box type? Anyway. The box? I'm a working-class scholar ( Read more... )