Re: What a way to make a living.

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How in the heck do you get HP out the door by 7am? It takes me at least an hour to get through the changing / feeding / probably changing again / cleaning up cycle. Yeah, it is crazy making. But it gets easier -- in 20 years they'll move out!


Posted by: W. Breeze | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 7:07 AM
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Well, feeding is still only nursing, which is probably a lot quicker and cleaner than actually trying to put solid food in the little squirmy-pants. Or in her mouth.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 7:22 AM
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I'm staying until I find myself.


Posted by: W. Breeze Junior | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 7:23 AM
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I've found it takes more time to feed a three year-old than an 12 month-old just on solid food. The younger one is hungrier and less able to invent new ways to play with food.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 7:25 AM
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Also we spent too much money on a parent-saver exer-saucer which is God's Freaking Gift to entertaining babies. She can spend ten minutes totally rapt in that thing, and then another five distracting herself from growing fussiness.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 7:33 AM
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So it should be no trouble to keep her in your office all day, in the exersaucer, right?


Posted by: Cryptuic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:13 AM
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I love dropping my kids off at school. Very little makes me happier.

(I also love picking them up.)


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:16 AM
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exer-saucer

Man, I was generally opposed to gadgety things, but the exersaucer was gold. We wouldn't ever have bought one, but we put Sally in day care on a ski trip when she was six months old or so (day one: shrieking when we left, weeping when we returned. day two: crying when we left, babbling with an air of horrified relief when we returned. day three: grinning at the day care people when we walked in with her, too busy to acknowledge us when we came back.) and the exer-saucer was clearly the greatest thing ever. That was the only way I got to eat a meal with both hands for the next six months.

Of course, babies differ. Sounds like Hawai'i is like Sally, but I'm sure it leaves some babies cold.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:19 AM
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It takes me at least an hour to get through the changing / feeding / probably changing again / cleaning up cycle.

But the daycare can do all of those things!

I'm placing all my faith in the notion that there's a learning curve and I'll get more efficient and less harried.

I doubt you ever get less harried, but you do get more comfortable with harried as it becomes routine harriedness.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:21 AM
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I'm sure it leaves some babies cold.

Indeed. Rory hated the thing. She also hated the stroller, the car seat, and her high chair. Partly because she didn't like being confined, I suppose. Mostly because she believed she was entitled to be held ALL THE TIME.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:24 AM
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First day of dropoff was extremely difficult for me, easier later, because the daycare was pretty good, I was lucky to get a good tip.

It gets easier to set priorities IME, though instability with respect to small problems took a couple of years to damp out.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:32 AM
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Our son really like the exer-saucer and would sit there smacking the teddy bear like he was using a speed bag to prep for a fight. We also had a little chair that was fabric on a metal frame. I can't think of the name, but it was Nordic. We called it the "Swedish Pooping Chair" as everytime we put him in it, he took a huge dump.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:34 AM
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I'm right now being a stay-at-home telecommuting part-time worker parent. I know from harried.

Wouldn't trade it for the world though. Except the part-time worker part.


Posted by: dob | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:47 AM
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By Monday morning, I'm totally relieved to get into my quiet, calm office after a weekend of noisenoisenoise. Much as I love my kids, I would make a shitty stay-at-home parent.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:34 AM
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Speaking of noise, somebody (the leading suspect is grandpa) said "Fuck off" in front of our toddler. He is sharp enough to not only repeat the phrase, but to have figured out the proper context. Hearing "Fuck off" as a reply to "Time for bed" is not pleasant.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:47 AM
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Oh man, the shouting. I tell them "whisper voices", and yet.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:49 AM
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Oh man. I started with 'inside voices' and then realized that wouldn't work when they were outdoors. So I started telling them to use their 'inhabited region' voices. I couldn't actually say it with enough of a straight face to make it stick, though.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:00 AM
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Whatever happened to the old tradition of "speak when spoken to"?


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:02 AM
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It is taking the little guys forever to find their "highly reverberent space voices", even though we have discussed bare walls and floors versus rooms with carpets and soft furnishings.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:06 AM
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Rory never raises her voice enough to be told to use her "inside voice." She does hear alot of "What? Speak up, I can't hear you. Quit mumbling!"


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:09 AM
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I have to do that too -- Newt mumbles sheepishly when actually trying to communicate sometimes. It's the full range of audio annoyance!


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:11 AM
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15- If you catch it right away you can get them to think they misheard and that's it's really another (non-offensive) word. I took my 4-year old to Fenway Park a couple times this year and convinced him everyone was chanting "Yankees truck."


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:16 AM
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It's just different types of harried. As I was on the Metro this morning, I was standing next to a woman with a boy on her lap; I'd estimate he was five years old or so. They were on for at least nine stops, and every time, the kid was asking if they were there yet. At various times the woman had to tell the kid to give me some room for a handhold (they were sitting down, I was standing, and the only bar I could reach to hold on to was the one across the back of the seat in front of them) and to keep his hands off his mouth or his mouth off the bar or something. I really had to cough at one point, but after hearing that I was extra-conscious not to.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:46 AM
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re: 15

An, ahem, younger male relative of my acquaintance came home from his child-minder's aged about 5 or 6 with a lovingly crafted Mother's Day card, in which he had carefully inscribed, "Fuk off Mum".


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:50 AM
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alot

Every time I see this, Di, I die a little inside.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:57 AM
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Alot of us have alot of things on our minds and alot of the time we use alot of incorrect wordaging.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:59 AM
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I only like to see Josh die on the inside alittle.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:06 AM
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Heebie -- redaction needed in the Not OK thread! (I can't do it from work.)


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:07 AM
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25: I am troubled, Josh, by all the pain I have caused you.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:19 AM
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29: It's all right. At this point my soul is mostly dead anyway.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:37 AM
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OT bleg: Other than holding a baby, can anyone suggest easy bicep exercises. I just got started on the nautilus machines at the Y, and I can do most of the exercises fine, but the bicep curl is killing me. On the lowest weight I can do 3, barely 4 (That's 20 pounds). Should I get a resistance tube for home use? Or one of those vinyl weights. 2lbs?

I have to say that I like their fitlinnx system. You can keep track of all of your cardio exercise on a kiosk. When they set you up, the instructor figures out what your range of motion is, and plugs it into the machine, so you can make sure that you go from 0 to 100. If you go too quickly, it tells you to slow down.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:43 PM
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20 pounds per arm? That is a lot.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:47 PM
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31: Good question, BG! I wind up doing all lower body work when I make it to the gym because the arms are so dishearteningly weak!


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:50 PM
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30: Go pick up some dumbbells and do curls with those. Your gym must have a rack with tens and twelves -- if you can do three or four with twenty, you can do ten or twelve with tens or twelves. Or eights, or fives, whereever you want to stop.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:53 PM
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Stop should be start. And not two pounds -- I'd be really surprised if you couldn't do eight or ten curls with at least fives, probably eights. Eight pounds is a gallon of milk. You could curl a gallon of milk. Repeatedly.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:55 PM
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I was only able to do any with the trainer's help getting to my starting point, and I'm pretty sure that I'd injure my back. There are some dumbbells. I just wondered if I should be doing curls every other day instead of just twice a week.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:57 PM
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I was only able to do any with the trainer's help getting to my starting point, and I'm pretty sure that I'd injure my back. There are some dumbbells. I just wondered if I should be doing curls every other day instead of just twice a week.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:57 PM
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I curdled a gallon of milk. Repeatedly.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 12:58 PM
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36: Curls are one of those things that are actually easier with free weights rather than Nautilus -- when you're starting out, you can recruit other muscles to help rather than it all being bicep, and then tighten up your form as you get stronger. Don't worry about your back unless lifting a gallon of milk would worry you.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:01 PM
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And stick with the twice a week. Giving yourself plenty of time to recover between workouts is a good idea.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:02 PM
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Milk works better with flow than with curl.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:05 PM
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I don't believe it: Jr is asleep and the Ms has gone out, so I have the whole house for a whole evening all to myself! So of course I'm wasting time watching pr0n doing the housework on Unfogged.

BG, I don't particularly believe doing isolation exercises is an effective use of your gym time. I would suggest doing a pulling motion to work your biceps and back muscles simultaneously. This includes horizontal rows and pull up type movements. You should be able to scale a body row to all strength levels but adjusting the angle of your body (Google for body row to see an example of the exercise). There are pull up machines that provide assistance if you can't do a full pull up. All gyms will have some kind of weighted row machine, or you can use a barbell. I would recommend working in the range of 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets. This range emphasises strength. Higher rep ranges emphasise first hypertrophy (bigger muscles) then endurance.


Posted by: W. Breeze | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:10 PM
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Another good bicep exercise is lat pulldowns -- the ones where you pull a bar down from over your head to under your chin. It's primarily for your back, but works your biceps as well.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:12 PM
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31: What LB said: dumbbells are your friends. I'd say start out with 5- or 8-lb. weights, and get to the point where you can do a couple of sets of 10 with them, then bump the weight up. 20 lbs. is way too much for someone who's just starting out.

And read this.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:12 PM
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They've got a rowing thing on their basic circuit which also works the biceps.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:13 PM
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That crossed with W. -- yeah, assisted chinups are very much the same thing as lat pulldowns. I find the assisted chinup machines tend to be badly designed for short people, though. At 5'7", I usually wish I was taller -- to get my chin over the bar, I'd have to actually chin myself off the kneepad.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:14 PM
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46: You have an over-broad definition of 'short people.' At least based on current population figures by gender.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:16 PM
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Well, yeah. I'm not short for a woman -- I'm sort of right at the bottom end of tall. But my experience of chinup machines is not being tall enough, so anyone actually short is probably going to have problems with them. And IIRC, BG is shorter than I am.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:18 PM
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The one thing I'm really bummed about is that they don't have an assisted pull up machine. The staff manning the fitness desk at the Y are not super informed.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:19 PM
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I'm barely taller than you, male, and trying to think of myself as average in height.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:19 PM
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50: A good imagination is a big plus in life!


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:20 PM
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I'm a lot shorter than 5'7". More like 5' 2 and a 1/2"


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:21 PM
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I think LB's lifetime residence in the land of the model woman makes her think she's short when she's really 3 inches above average for American women.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:21 PM
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Go pick up some dumbbells and do curls with those.

Believe me, I've tried. Maybe I need a cuter outfit or better lines/


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:22 PM
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49: If you poke around on stumptuous, they've also got a post specifically targeted for women about how to work up to doing pullups.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:22 PM
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Seriously, while it sounds great, I've been disappointed by them in practice -- the height thing, and the grips also tend to be too wide. Lat pulldowns are almost the same exercise, and if you get to the point where you're pulling down close to your bodyweight, you can switch to negatives off a regular chinup bar (that is, jump or stand on something to get up with your arms bent and your chin over the bar, and then let yourself down slow). Those are great - last fall I got myself to the point where I could do one chinup by doing negatives, and then got distracted and stopped working on it. (All right, I did one chinup one time. But I was still very impressed with myself.)


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:23 PM
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Speaking of short, I just screwed-up big time in guessing the age of some kid. He was barely three inches taller than my three year-old. How should I have known he was nine.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:23 PM
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49 crossed 48. I used an assisted chin up machine at a place in Davis, but I dropped the membership when I moved into an overpriced apartment with a "gym".


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:24 PM
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53: No, it was growing up with a six foot older sister. I know I'm tallish, but my self-image is of a tiny person, because I was always so much littler than her. But this is really about being too small for the machine, not that I'm short generally.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:24 PM
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57: I have such a hard time guessing kids ages now as the kid I hang out with most is much, much, much smaller than average. I see one year old's and think they're 3.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:25 PM
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59: Ah, you're the short one in the family. I understand that. My mom and I are pretty much the same height, which is not especially tall, but my sister is a fair bit shorter than us and always complains.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:25 PM
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60: Yeah, and my judgment's off in the other direction, because mine are both monsters.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:25 PM
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60, 62: I still feel bad about it. These are the neighbors' relatives and this kid is the same height as his 4 and 5 year-old cousins. He must take a ton of shit.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:31 PM
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62: because mine are both monsters.

I don't care if the the closet rod is too high for you! And no wire hangers, ever!


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:32 PM
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63: At 9 it might not be too bad yet, but....

I was going to attribute it to the fact that I feel like people are growing monster children now. Better nutrition/health care, I don't know, but it seems like kids are way bigger* than they were even 20 years ago. I wonder where I could find statistics to back up this wholly unscientific claim.

* I don't mean fat, just taller, larger at birth, that sort of thing.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:33 PM
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Me to nephew recently: "Pitching for the Red Sox is a perfectly fine thing to aspire to, but you're small and you can't see all that well, so you'd better have a backup plan." Psyche, schmikey.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:33 PM
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||

No more masturbating to Stanley Kaplan.

|>


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:35 PM
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65: Maybe, but nobody in my family has made it past the Irish/Italian famine-resistant short peasant genes unless they've married somebody freaky tall.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:36 PM
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66: Pitching for the Pirates?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:36 PM
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65: If I recall correctly a lecture from a friend's father, a prof at some prominent med school, if one wants tall children, one should (a) be tall, (b) marry somebody tall and (c) cause said children to drink a lot of milk, but (c) is pretty helpful on its own, so maybe America's cornfed dairy industry isn't all bad.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:37 PM
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Or it's all the bovine growth hormone making its way into the system!


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:38 PM
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That's our problem: Organic BGH-free milk. Whole Foods has done us wrong.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:46 PM
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Give it time, Mobius. Rory drank all Organic BGH-free milk and was quite petite for years, but she has really shot up as the tweens struck. (Come to think of it, I guess they give her hormonized milk at lunchtime at school. Which may in fact correlate with the sharp upswing on the growth curve. Huh. Damn.)


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:49 PM
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Wouldn't HGH have more of an effect? Nine out of ten elite athletes can't be wrong!


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:51 PM
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Drinking milk, maybe, but also, when our parents were born wasn't smoking during pregnancy more common?


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:53 PM
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I mean, I don't know how smoking during pregnancy affects lifetime height or height at various stages of childhood, but I have a recent increase in birth weight attributed to that, at least.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:54 PM
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BG, the "lat pulldown" is similar in its effects to the assisted pullup. It is one of the few exercises I do regularly in my quest to avoid chornic back pain. And good for the upper arms too.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:54 PM
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Sorry, that should be "chthonic back pain"


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:54 PM
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72: Nah, mine are brutes on the organic stuff. (And they don't eat the school lunch, mostly. Newt does on Fridays because he likes the pizza, but Sally never.)


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:54 PM
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I mean, I don't know how smoking during pregnancy affects lifetime height or height at various stages of childhood,

As I noted above, my sister is six foot. My mother attributes the fact that she survived the pregnancy and birth to the growth-stunting effects of smoking and drinking during pregnancy. (While she was pregnant with me, she had some heavy bleeding that made her doctor worry that a miscarriage was imminent. He prescribed gin. The early seventies were a different time.)


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:57 PM
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And they don't eat the school lunch, mostly.

Eventually, however, school lunches are going to crowd out private lunch providers.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:57 PM
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I mean, I don't know how smoking during pregnancy affects lifetime height or height at various stages of childhood, but I have a recent increase in birth weight attributed to that, at least.

A friend who gave birth to two 10-pounders vowed that the next time she got pregnant she was taking up smoking. Of course, her real mistake was marrying a tall, broad-shouldered man with a ginormous head...


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 1:58 PM
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80: Yes. I had an aunt who was told by her doctor that smoking would make for an easier delivery.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:00 PM
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Also, seat belts were some sort of exotic safety measure that everybody ignored. When they got a car that buzzed when you didn't buckle, my dad knotted the seatbelt to keep the sensor from triggering the buzzer (and anybody from using the seatbelt).


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:02 PM
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I think they knew about the connection between smoking and lower birth weight before they knew that lower birth weights were a problem -- the idea was that the baby would be smaller, but otherwise fine. Which would be a great idea if you could pull it off.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:03 PM
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Or they just didn't like kids. Based on the clothes we had to wear, I wouldn't ignore the possibility.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:07 PM
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You didn't like that acrylic poncho? You know how long it took Grandma to crochet that?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:08 PM
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||

Oh my god, my most least favorite cal II student ever is back in my cal II class again.

|>


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:17 PM
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Does that mean you failed her last time? Good for you!


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:20 PM
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(65): I've been getting the same sense that Kids Today are getting much taller, but I've also been sensing a class difference to it. When I taught at Stately Landlord University, it seemed like the place was crawling with female students my height (six foot) and male students who looked down on me. You could tell that their parents fed them the best food, drove them to soccer practice where they got plenty of exercise, and scrubbed their faces until they had a permanent glow. Here at Last Chance Community College, people seem about normal.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:21 PM
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I just got started on the nautilus machines at the Y, and I can do most of the exercises fine, but the bicep curl is killing me. On the lowest weight I can do 3, barely 4 (That's 20 pounds).

Adding to the chorus of people saying you should use dumbbells, with yet another reason: depending on what era nautilus machines your Y has, they might not actually be good for someone your size. There are only one or two of them on the entire circuit at my gym that are adjustable enough to fit me. And you're only a touch taller than me (though I think you probably have longer limbs).


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:24 PM
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De-italicize that second paragraph.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:24 PM
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Actually, I need a better pseudonym for my old place of employment. My current school has the initials LCCC and is really called Last Chance Community College by its students. My previous school (elite, private, liberal arts) had the initials SLU. What should it be called? Slightly Liberal University?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:26 PM
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I trained for pull-ups by stepping into very large rubber bands that gave me a boost at the bottom. Started with two thick rubberbands, which gradually went down to one, then smaller rubber bands until I could do jump-pulls.

If your gym isn't willing to get new big equipment, they might buy a set of bands.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:26 PM
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Stately Landlord University,

I initially read this as a sort of reversal of something like Landlord Stately Jr. University.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:28 PM
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Stuffwhitepeople Like University.

I think your college was the one that, for mysterious reasons, sent me more than twice as much literature than any other college, when I wasa bsdaihs high schooler.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:30 PM
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93: I like Stately Landlord U., actually. Evocative.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:31 PM
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I think your college was the one that, for mysterious reasons, sent me more than twice as much literature than any other college, when I wasa bsdaihs high schooler.

They do have a top notch typing program.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:31 PM
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When I was in high school, apparently I looked like somebody who wanted to go to college in rural Minnesota.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:31 PM
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Ned's suggestion is good, though.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:31 PM
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"Yes sir! Here's your baby Kools!"


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:31 PM
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Megan, I hear those bands can deliver a wedgie of gigantic proportions if you use them wrong right.

(But don't let this be construed as a vote against them. I also hear they're awfully good, wedgies aside.)


Posted by: W. Breeze | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:32 PM
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Actually, I think Ned nailed the university culture there perfectly.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:33 PM
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USC used to send me these incredibly elaborate full-color glossy booklets and stuff. Several times. Even though I had never contacted them or expressed any interest in going to USC.

Texas Tech sent me a t-shirt. Also totally unsolicited.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:33 PM
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I kept getting brochures from a college with a name like the one teo went to, only it was in Iowa.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:33 PM
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I got fuck-all from colleges. They could have at least hooked me up with a mop and some coveralls.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:34 PM
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I don't know if they still do this, but when you got accepted by Oberlin in the late '90s they would send you a little care package of t-shirt, bumpersticker, etc, but the best part was the coupon for the free pint of Ben & Jerry's.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:37 PM
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Ah, I thought perhaps it was referring to a State Land Grant university.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:37 PM
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108: That's where I went. Twice.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:38 PM
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Dammit, eb, now everyone will know that I went to the upstate New York campus of the Maharishi University of Management.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:39 PM
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Ah, I thought perhaps it was referring to a State Land Grant university.

Like the one teo went to?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:40 PM
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107: I don't know if they still do this

If they still do it was hidden from me. (Perhaps wisely.)


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:41 PM
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111: He's at one now, although it was established well before the designation as land-grant.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:44 PM
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I think we should speak in more generalities, here. Somebody might catch on. I'm talking to you, commenter with a pseud that contains vowels.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:45 PM
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I went to one before, too.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:46 PM
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Good point, Sifu.


Posted by: tfl | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:46 PM
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114: O.K. IJCTAANCPUI.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:47 PM
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I kept getting brochures from Purdue with accompanying letters thanking me for my interest in their nutrition program. At one point I got a letter informing me of my acceptance to the nutrition program at Purdue. I hadn't expressed any interest in nutrition!


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:48 PM
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rh-c, every once in a while I'll read one of your references to SLU and for a moment I think, huh, I didn't know he taught in St. Louis.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:49 PM
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118: Identity theft or marketing?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:50 PM
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I remain a little puzzled about how the legal status of, um, the upstate New York campus of the Maharishi University of Management as a state school functions. On the one hand, it seems that only certain divisions (the Ag school, the Vet school) are considered state schools, but on the other, any meals eaten on the University's dime are tax-exempt, regardless of department affiliation.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:50 PM
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Texas Tech sent me a t-shirt. Also totally unsolicited.

The most embarrassing (and possibly only) solicitation that I got from a college was a call from a prof in the Math department at the university of Montana asking if I had any questions.

I kept thinking about how awful it would be for the associate professors to be forced to cold call high school students. I'm sure nobody with tenure would do that.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:50 PM
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At one point I got a letter informing me of my acceptance to the nutrition program at Purdue.

Some of the acceptance letters I got from places I never applied were really puzzling.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:50 PM
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114: I'm confused on what would be the unwanted specificity. As I was last night with regard to the specific city in another thread. I don't see race nuanced obfuscation. (Or maybe just "shut up" would be work.)


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:51 PM
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Yeah, I'm surprised by how often schools do that. My high school had a deal with the local, excellent state school that anyone in the top 10 automatically got in (which they didn't seem to actually tell us about ahead of time); I didn't apply and yet, there was my acceptance letter. So strange.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:52 PM
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Oh look, I overuse the words "puzzled" and "puzzling".


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:53 PM
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121: It's complicated, and I'm not sure I understand all the intricacies myself. Basically, the colleges and schools that make up the university are split roughly 50-50 between state and private, and the university-wide offices and functions are, I think, considered private for legal purposes. Even the private schools and offices are still non-profit and tax exempt, though, which may explain the dining thing.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:53 PM
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124: well, I think that if people can come in here and determine the specifics of what the given term at issue here refers to, then of course that could lead to the specific consequence or set of consequences that all or some of us may be aware of.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:53 PM
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I thought it was a play on Leland Stanford.


Posted by: Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:54 PM
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Don't play on me!


Posted by: Leland Stanford | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:55 PM
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128 is actually dialogue from Achew00d.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:56 PM
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I'm confused on what would be the unwanted specificity.

I'm pretty sure this is all joking about keeping secret what has already been revealed in other threads. But if not, I'll exercise more discretion.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 2:56 PM
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128: Someone said something about that specific in front of Eisenhower and next thing you knew Patrice Lumumba was dead.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:03 PM
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Can somebody redact 133?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:04 PM
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133: TIWIUIAAAT.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:05 PM
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Arizona State sent me a brochure explaining their admissions requirements. It was a chart with GPA on the x-axis and SAT score on the y, with various shaded areas detailing the scores needed for admission and scholarships. It was nicely to the point. I think I would have qualified for a full academic scholarship even if I had had a something like a 2.1 high school GPA.


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:06 PM
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I've been getting the same sense that Kids Today are getting much taller, but I've also been sensing a class difference to it. When I taught at Stately Landlord University, it seemed like the place was crawling with female students my height (six foot) and male students who looked down on me. You could tell that their parents fed them the best food, drove them to soccer practice where they got plenty of exercise, and scrubbed their faces until they had a permanent glow. Here at Last Chance Community College, people seem about normal.

This is true, sort of. Here at my land-grant institution the really upper class people are small and go into comp lit or some other annoying discipline where you read a lot of Negri and snot off to people; the merely wealthy are tall and scrubbed and go into various professional programs where they learn to condescend to secretaries. Regular people do regular people things.

What's really clear, though, is the class-weight-aging link. Whenever I'm in a large meeting, the upper-level folks are thinner and look much younger than their age peers in lower-status jobs. I just sit in the corner and snarl, class-x-ing with all my might.

When I was a mere slip of a girl, I was heavily recruited by Princeton. Also by Bradley University, located in scenic Peoria. I could have had a full ride and an extra grant on top of it at Bradley.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:07 PM
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I'm delighted that AWB has already generated a nickname for my current employer. Nerd U it is!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:08 PM
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I'm sure nobody with tenure would do that.

Au contraire. It happens in my very department.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:09 PM
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local, excellent state school that anyone in the top 10 automatically got in (which they didn't seem to actually tell us about ahead of time)

Wasn't this about the time that they changed admissions rules? I thought the top 10 thing was a way to get a diverse class without applying diversity criteria on an individual basis.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:11 PM
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This is true, sort of. Here at my land-grant institution the really upper class people are small and go into comp lit or some other annoying discipline where you read a lot of Negri and snot off to people; the merely wealthy are tall and scrubbed and go into various professional programs where they learn to condescend to secretaries. Regular people do regular people things.

This is such a crazy weird sentence. Don't let your activism lead you to eugenics or phrenology, okay Frowner?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:14 PM
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"I just sit in the corner and snarl, class-x-ing with all my might."

I always though Fussel's Class X was a whole lot of him thinking about what he liked rather than, as he did in the rest of the book, pointing out something that was commonly observable. If I recall correctly, snarlying isn't Class X. However, heavy drinking and visible protruding nipples are.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:14 PM
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I'd like to think that when I was accepted at Cal they sent us rocks with which to break windows. But, no, even in Pre-Prop 13 Utopia, you were expected to supply your own.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:16 PM
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But, no, even in Pre-Prop 13 Utopia, you were expected to supply your own tear up paving stones.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:24 PM
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I'm sure nobody with tenure would do that.

Au contraire. It happens in my very department.

Cold call HS students with good SAT scores? That can't have a high success rate (though, I suppose it works if you make enough calls . . .)


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:42 PM
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It's considered good training for working in a call center on their furlough days.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:45 PM
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I think she's right. At my 20th HS reunion, it was really noticeable. There are subcultures where being pasty and overweight is accepted (programmer, attorney), but it's prosperity theology of the tailored shirt and small waist elsewhere.

Off to swim....


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 3:45 PM
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Cold call HS students with good SAT scores? That can't have a high success rate (though, I suppose it works if you make enough calls . . .)

Ohhhh. No. Sorry, I was confused.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:00 PM
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I am reminded once again that teaching is really physically strenuous, at least the way I do it. I'm pooped.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:02 PM
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149: RFTS is John Cleese? (Probably NSFW.)


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:06 PM
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149: You're not supposed to use the paddle until midterms.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:07 PM
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Wasn't this about the time that they changed admissions rules? I thought the top 10 thing was a way to get a diverse class without applying diversity criteria on an individual basis.

This was separate from that, I think. It was only for the local state school and applied to the top ten of the graduating class, not the top 10%. Unless I'm confused - I thought that if you were in the top 10% of the class, you were sort of guaranteed acceptance at one or another California state school (under the old rules).


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:28 PM
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I thought you were teaching, ()!


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:29 PM
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See other thread.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:31 PM
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The thread where you say you "are listening to neb's show"?


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:32 PM
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Dang. I shoulda read the other thread.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:33 PM
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OT: I know it's supposed to be a scam (or sign of one) when "landlords" ask you to wire money as a deposit. But what about PayPal?


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:36 PM
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152: I think you're right; I confused 10 with 10%. That does sound like an odd policy. Though my local state school had a deal with local high schools to accept seniors who met a set level of test scores + GPA. That required its own application, though - basically a college application without essays - and you took classes during your senior year.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 4:39 PM
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After the deadline for applications, I was asked by Harvard to apply. I did. Then, they rejected me.

But, they told me that I come the following year.

Clearly, the standards went WAY down after that.


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:17 PM
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OT: Hey, will, did you see this? Number 25, baby!


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:36 PM
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Yes, but I'm loving Duke at #2.
"Home of: The O.D. (Original Douche). They're probably number one. But we'd rather not rank Duke number one at anything."


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:41 PM
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160 gets the douchiness of the university that currently employs me just about right. I sort of object to tarring all of Chicago with the Wolfowitz brush, though.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:46 PM
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That list is kind of uneven. Some of the entries are dead-on, though.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:50 PM
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I was surprised by how few of the universities were in CA. It displays a certain east-coast tilt; surely we have our own brand of douchery?


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:55 PM
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164: I was going to suggest that USC sucks up all the douchiness in the state, but then I remembered a few other fine institutions.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:57 PM
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They were using a pretty broad definition of "douchery" to include all those different types of schools, I think. It presumably has an east-coast slant because the writers went to east-coast schools (they're clearly much more familiar with east-coast schools than with schools anywhere else). Still, they had USC there, and that's got to be douchiest California school by any definition.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:57 PM
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They also got the University of Colorado exactly right. "In 10 years you will be: a junior." So true.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:58 PM
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Is there really any reasonable metric by which Harvard is douchier than Princeton? I don't think so. (But, I have a deep fondness for Harvard that's probably borne out of visiting at length but never having studied or worked there.)


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 8:59 PM
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Aww, I have a real fondness for the University of Colorado also, which probably comes from spending a month there in the summer when basically no students were around.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:00 PM
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It is weird that everyone always confuses Brown, the Eurotrash Ivy, with imaginary Brown, the Hippie Ivy.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:00 PM
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The order really didn't make any sense. Brown was way too high, of course, and UVA too low. At least they had a reason for only putting Duke at #2.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:02 PM
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Douchiness is not a descriptor that comes to mind for any CA schools I'm familiar with.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:02 PM
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165: Chico douche. UCSB douche. USSC douche. Stanford Douche. Cal Douche. And so on and so forth. I'm just feeling slighted, don't mind me. I might have to make up my very own top 25.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:03 PM
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Hm, I wonder if my definition is off.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:03 PM
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and UVA too low

No arguments against that here.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:04 PM
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173: See, that's like the whole range of douchiness exhibited by all the schools that did make the list.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:04 PM
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168: 2 > 3.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:04 PM
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By which I mean, of course, 3 > 4.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:05 PM
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164: Don't forget they had Deep Springs.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:05 PM
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California's kind of insular. Most of the schools () names aren't that familiar to people outside the state.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:05 PM
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Stuff white people like: Making lists of fine-grained distinctions between groups of similarly-situated white people.

Stuff white people really like: Arguing over Finding mistakes in those lists.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:06 PM
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The inclusion of Deep Springs was actually kind of weird. I think they were just showing off that they'd heard of it.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:06 PM
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UC Santa Barbara, Berkeley, and Stanford aren't widely recognized? I'll allow that perhaps Santa Cruz and Chico don't have wide name recognition, beyond both often making the top party school lists.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:07 PM
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Stuff white people like: Making lists of fine-grained distinctions between groups of similarly-situated white people.

So true. The narcissism of small differences.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:07 PM
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By which I mean, of course, 3 > 4.

Oh hey, you're right. I misremembered the list after closing the window. Oops.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:08 PM
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181, 182: In fact I think title of this post goes well with the construction of such a list.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:08 PM
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UCSB is douchey? Maybe I was just too well-insulated while I was there.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:09 PM
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I know I have no ready stereotypes about UCSB. I only have some about UCSC because I've been there.

Berkeley and Stanford, yes. Well-known.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:09 PM
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Oh, I can see Santa Cruz as douchey.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:09 PM
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187: I'm sensing a pattern to essear's comments on this subject.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:09 PM
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UCSB is douchey? Maybe I was just too well-insulated while I was there.

Isla Vista is a scary, scary place. Halloween? Douche central.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:10 PM
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Berkeley and Stanford, yes. Well-known. Douchey.


Posted by: Leyland Douchey, Jr. | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:11 PM
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Oh man though, really, humans of all varieties love obsessing over small differences in subsets of their cohort. It might even be humanity's top leisure activity.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:11 PM
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IV is definitely a weird place. But I was only in IV about three or four times during six months in SB, and wasn't in the area at all at Halloween. I suppose I didn't get much sense of student culture outside of a couple of cliques.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:12 PM
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187: I'm sensing a pattern to essear's comments on this subject.

That I live in a bubble and don't notice the douchiness, except when it's so overwhelming (Princeton) that I can't avoid it?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:13 PM
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Pretty much, yeah.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:14 PM
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193: Obsessing over the differences is number 2. Punishing the deviants is number 1.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:14 PM
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It might even be humanity's top leisure activity.

Obligatory link to archives.

And on that note, I'm headed for bed.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:17 PM
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It's a cheap shot, but reading about Princeton, I could not help but think of John Malkovich's character (Oswald Cox) in Burn After Reading. And the Princeton Club dinner in particular. Samuel Alito-vintage Princeton. (But then appearances can be deceptive.)


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:19 PM
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I am sure there are better examples, but, well, when I was there, this sort of thing was on the lower end of the douchery on display.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:20 PM
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161: Except that they botched the Duke entry. There's very little old money there, it's mostly a school for children of doctors and grandchildren of plumbers. To be honest, you're much more likely to see pressed Oxford in Chapel Hill.


Posted by: Gabriel | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:21 PM
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Oh, oh, I found a better example.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:22 PM
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Punishing the deviants is number 1.

Ah, but is that truly, purely a leisure activity? Punishing deviants (like marriage!) is HARD WORK.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:22 PM
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Wow. Come to think of it, I did see more public vomiting in downtown SB on a typical Friday or Saturday evening than in, oh, a typical year anywhere else I've lived, which surely says something about the student culture there.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:23 PM
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I did see more public vomiting in downtown SB on a typical Friday or Saturday evening

I feel bad judging on the basis of Halloween alone, but I figured that I could more readily find pictures if I concentrated on that. The party school atmosphere of UCSB is pretty intense, though.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:26 PM
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Looking back through the list, about half of the entries are seriously phoned-in.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:27 PM
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204: Eventually, all that public vomiting is going to put the private vomtrepreneurs out of business.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:28 PM
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186 -> 206


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:28 PM
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UC Santa Barbara, Berkeley, and Stanford aren't widely recognized? I'll allow that perhaps Santa Cruz and Chico don't have wide name recognition, beyond both often making the top party school lists.

Why would Santa Barbara be more famous than Santa Cruz?

The sum total of my knowledge about both is the words "banana slug" and "Ezra Klein".


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:29 PM
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207: In Canada, old people sometimes have to wait weeks to vomit.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:29 PM
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Why would Santa Barbara be more famous than Santa Cruz?

Santa Barbara is a much, much bigger school than Santa Cruz, but I think teo's right and I'm just suffering from California-blinders.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:30 PM
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Ah, but is that truly, purely a leisure activity? Punishing deviants (like marriage!) is HARD WORK.

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:32 PM
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Also looking back through the list, I see that of 25 spaces, 2 are occupied by California schools, so I think California is amply represented.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:33 PM
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I must admit that in my experience the soul of true campus douchitude is captured in the phrase, "work hard, play hard". Especially if it has been adopted by the college community to describe itself. Kiss of fucking death.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:34 PM
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But California has a shitload of people, and while it does send a goodly number of douches elsewhere for school, it also imports them.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:35 PM
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213: We're more than 10% of the population! We only got 8% in the list. And I don't really count Deep Springs. It's practically in Nevada.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:36 PM
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Why would Santa Barbara be more famous than Santa Cruz? The sum total of my knowledge about both is the words "banana slug" and "Ezra Klein".

You could add to your knowledge the nickname "UC Surfboard" and UCSC's annual pot-smoking event. That might just about cover it.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:36 PM
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213: When I saw Randolph-Macon made the cut, I figured it was a DC-based crowd who made the list.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:37 PM
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215, 216: True enough, but note how massively overrepresented southern schools are on the list. Douchiness may not be equally distributed across the country.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:37 PM
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Santa Cruz is a really weird (and, imo, kind of unpleasant) place.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:38 PM
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218: Makes sense.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:38 PM
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As much as anything, I think what they were more precisely trying to measure was Pretentiousness, which isn't exactly douchebaggery.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:40 PM
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Santa Cruz is a really weird (and, imo, kind of unpleasant) place.

Unpleasant? Really? I love it there.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:40 PM
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219: I don't dispute the douchiness of Southern schools (or of the Ivy League), and it's true that douchiness is not spread evenly (University of North Dakota: probably not douchey, if anyone could be persuaded to go check), but I'm going to have to take issue with the idea that California punches below its weight in any douchitude contest.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:41 PM
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I think what they were more precisely trying to measure was Pretentiousness, which isn't exactly douchebaggery.

I think they were including pretentiousness as a variety of douchebaggery.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:42 PM
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Georgia Southern University is much bigger and more prominent than North Georgia State University, but it doesn't affect many people outside Georgia.

Oh, I also know UCSB has a really good soccer team one of whose stars was railroaded into jail a couple years ago on apparently evidence-free date rape charges. Although that might be Long Beach State.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:42 PM
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I'm going to have to take issue with the idea that California punches below its weight in any douchitude contest.

I don't doubt that it has plenty of douchebags, but, again, insular. So many of them stay there that the rest of us don't notice them as much.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:43 PM
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226.1: Right, I totally acknowledged that I was seeing it from an insider's perspective.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:44 PM
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225: I'd go with that. Maybe they were leaning heavy on that knob? I mean "Cali Surfer Dude" is a sort of douchebag but not the same kind as Ivy Leaguer wearing topsiders and going on about summering in Maine.

I'd advance an argument that the latter is more pretentious than the former, but they're both douchenozzles.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:44 PM
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UCSB also has several really world-class research departments and institutes, in a way that I don't think UCSC does. (I could be a bit myopic here; in my field, somewhat broadly construed, UCSC is strong, but UCSB is arguably in the top five anywhere.)


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:45 PM
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223: It felt like kind of an overgrown beach town, and the campus is completely and utterly isolated from the rest of the town to a bizarre degree. (From talking to people there I came to understand that this was a deliberate decision when it was founded.) I dunno, it just didn't feel very comfortable to me. Different strokes.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:45 PM
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So many of them stay there that the rest of us don't notice them as much.

NOT my experience.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:45 PM
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230: No, you're totally right on that front. UCSC has some great people in most fields but they're not as strong, academically, as UCSB.

Somewhat relatedly, I don't think I realized that UCSD was actually a good - and according to many studies, a great - school. Everyone I know that went there just wanted to surf.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:47 PM
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work hard, play hard

For instance,

"Work hard, play hard." I heard the motto my first week at Princeton two years ago. Since then I've come to realize that it's much more than just a saying. It's a way of life; it's a mentality; it's an obsession.
To truly understand the seemingly ideal balance, you must live and observe it. But since freshmen are at a disadvantage, having only set foot on campus for an overzealous orange key tour, I'll be your candid teacher.

And this discussion.

And of course there is a lot of non-douchiness and non-pretentiousness at even the douchiest place (well maybe not at Washington & Lee, was that on the list?).


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:47 PM
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229: Yeah, I think that does suggest a DC sort of attitude, with all the attention to Ivies and such. Still, though, ASU. Definitely douchey, definitely not pretentious.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:47 PM
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It felt like kind of an overgrown beach town,

I grew up in one of those, which probably explains a lot about why I like Santa Cruz.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:48 PM
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Somewhat relatedly, I don't think I realized that UCSD was actually a good - and according to many studies, a great - school. Everyone I know that went there just wanted to surf.

It's a world-class biomedical center complexed with all kinds of Scripps and La Jolla this and that. I think of it as a sort of Thomas Jefferson University of the west which might not have any undergraduates at all.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:49 PM
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232: Huh. Experiences differ, I guess.

233: I'd say, actually, that UCSD is better known outside of California than UCSB is, and it does indeed have a good academic reputation.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:50 PM
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I think of it as a sort of Thomas Jefferson University of the west which might not have any undergraduates at all.

Only 22,000 of them.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:50 PM
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230: My (mostly secondhand) experience as well. Of course, for schools like the UCs (and many other research institutions) the faculty/grad and undergrad atmosphere are worlds apart.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:51 PM
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223: It felt like kind of an overgrown beach town, and the campus is completely and utterly isolated from the rest of the town to a bizarre degree.

Huh. All of that goes double for Santa Barbara.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:51 PM
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233: I'd say, actually, that UCSD is better known outside of California than UCSB is, and it does indeed have a good academic reputation.

I totally agree. I only brought up UCSB because of the douche factor. I'm sure UCSD has it too but I have no personal experience with it.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:51 PM
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22,000?!? That must be the biggest public school in the country without Division I athletics.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:52 PM
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I suspect Santa Cruz is a lot nicer if you like beaches and stuff.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:52 PM
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Washington & Lee, was that on the list?

No, but I'm always struck by the seemingly disproportionate number of moneyed New Orleans folks who end up there {I'm through there regularly for gigs}. Maybe that's a personal-anecdote blip, though.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:53 PM
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California's huge, Ned.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:53 PM
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My knowledge about CSU-Chico is that I think they filmed a series of porn movies there, and people make fun of its total lack of academic quality.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:53 PM
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I think Randolph-Macon was the entry on the list representing places like Washington & Lee.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:54 PM
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243: California has many very large schools without huge sports programs. USC is more the exception than anything else. I don't get the way many public schools on the East Coast are basically just overgrown football programs.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:55 PM
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My dad went to Duke. He viewed Washington & Lee as the world's douchiest school. (though he would not use that exact word)

So, as Duke is to the rest of the world, Washington & Lee is to Duke.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:55 PM
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1. P-ton is way more douchey than Brown.
2. The Chicago douche description is 25 years out of date.
3. NYU is in all ways guilty as charged.
4. Oh man, the take on Trinity was perfect.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:55 PM
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233: Huh. Yeah, for UCSD, I think strong in life sciences (Salk Institute, etc) and oceanography (Scripps). But in my field it's fairly weak (except in one hyper-specialized topic, and one generally great guy who I think stays there only because it's a good place for his wife to work), so it's sort of off my radar.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:55 PM
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248: Yes, the way Ohio State represented the big excessive school pride places.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:56 PM
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I'm with Ned, but I'm also biomedical, so no surprise there. UCSD + Salk is one of the top programs in the country for my field; UCSB and UCSC presumably have programs in my field, but they're not much on people's radars.


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:59 PM
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To continue with this, there are 160,000 undergrads in the UC system. And another 415,000 in the CSU system. California is big!


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:59 PM
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Yes, the way Ohio State represented the big excessive school pride places.

And I'm *very* disappointed that my alma mater only ranked honorable mention in that category.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 9:59 PM
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252: That is my impression of all of the non-Berkeley, non UCLA UCs, very strong academic reputations in selected programs. UCSB may be the broadest of those. And the general undergrad experience is almost totally divorced from any of that.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:00 PM
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My UC doesn't even have an undergraduate!


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:02 PM
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Rankings of the UC, according to the AWRU:

Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UCSB
UC Irvine
UC Davis

and so on.

But of course it depends on what field you're talking about, yadda yadda.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:03 PM
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256: If it's the place where you are supposed to respond in a certain way to a public shout of "We Are!", then I'm with you on that.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:03 PM
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Look, just because there's twice as many college students in California than there are people, total, in my state, it doesn't mean anything.


Posted by: Senator Michael Enzi | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:03 PM
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Huh. All of that goes double for Santa Barbara.

I find the Santa Cruz campus to be more isolated than the Santa Barbara campus, though it's true that IV is distinctly separate from SB. But at Santa Cruz, it's like they put a ring of empty campuses around the campus as a moat.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:03 PM
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How is Reed in the same category as Brown? Weird.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:04 PM
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Berkeley - hippies
UCLA - football
UCSD - medical center
UCSF - another medical center
UCSB - surfing
UC Irvine - baseball
UC Davis - viticulture


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:04 PM
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That is my impression of all of the non-Berkeley, non UCLA UCs, very strong academic reputations in selected programs.

Sounds about right. Interestingly, one area in which Santa Cruz is really strong is linguistics, in which it's one of the top programs in the country. (Which is why I was there, of course.)


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:05 PM
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262: Santa Cruz does have a great bus system, though.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:05 PM
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Huh. All of that goes double for Santa Barbara.

Only UCSB's campus actually feels like a campus, whereas UCSC's feels like a state park. The urban legend is that there are no large public areas (no quad or anything like that) on campus because the designers wanted to avoid events like the takeover of Sproul Plaza at Cal. Santa Barbara also doesn't have the Berkeley-wannabe feel Santa Cruz does.

Plus Santa Barbara has La Super-Rica.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:06 PM
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262: My impression of Santa Cruz is that it is a bit saddled with an excess of self-consciousness of being "Santa Cruz". A lot of schools have that, though.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:06 PM
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But at Santa Cruz, it's like they put a ring of empty campuses around the campus as a moat.

And sprinkled several more in between the buildings as well.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:07 PM
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260: The very one.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:07 PM
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The only thing I know about Santa Cruz is the band Good Riddance's claim to provenance there from.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:08 PM
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It's like you're camping at school. I think it's fantastic. (Full disclosure: My sister goes to UCSC.)


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:08 PM
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The urban legend is that there are no large public areas (no quad or anything like that) on campus because the designers wanted to avoid events like the takeover of Sproul Plaza at Cal.

I heard this story when I was there too.

Santa Cruz does have a great bus system, though.

It does, but it kind of has to, because there's no other way to get around.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:09 PM
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UCLA - football

John Wooden would like a word with you.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:09 PM
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I find the Santa Cruz campus to be more isolated than the Santa Barbara campus, though it's true that IV is distinctly separate from SB. But at Santa Cruz, it's like they put a ring of empty campuses around the campus as a moat.

Yeah, I guess I'm just thinking of the big desolate area near the airport that separates UCSB from SB. But it's true that IV and parts of Goleta are close. Plus, there's great public transit and bike paths everywhere, so it's never very hard to get around.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:09 PM
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Just look how the Californians have strolled in and made this a conversation about them. Rank douchebaggery, I tell you.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:10 PM
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It's like you're camping at school. I think it's fantastic.

Freaks me out. You can't even see anything! There are all these fucking trees in the way! And they're redwoods, so they're huge and dominate everything.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:11 PM
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I should note that I was only in Santa Cruz for a few days, so my opinions on it should not be taken very seriously.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:12 PM
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263: How is Reed in the same category as Brown? Weird.

I thought the selection, placement and write-up on Brown was one of the weakest items in the article. The use of "limousine-liberal" says it all.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:12 PM
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You can't even see anything!

Spoken like a true desert man.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:12 PM
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Spoken like a true desert man.

Guilty as charged. Growing up in New Mexico gives you an odd perspective on other places.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:13 PM
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Just look how the Californians have strolled in and made this a conversation about them. Rank douchebaggery, I tell you.

Why thank you. I noticed Megan's not been around as much, so I have to step up and do my part.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:13 PM
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You can't even see anything!

Clearly you didn't go over to Porter. The dining hall there has a magnificent view across the bay to Monterey.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:14 PM
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The rankings in 259 are interesting. My own ranking of UC schools in terms of where I would like to get a job has Berkeley, SB, and Davis at the top (all in "probably hopeless, but I would be overjoyed" territory), Irvine next ("nice department, but who wants to live there?"), and nowhere else is really on the map.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:14 PM
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I have no idea where on the campus I was (wherever the linguistics department is), but there were certainly some places with great views across the bay. Aside from that, though, it was all trees, trees, trees. The damn place is literally a forest.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:15 PM
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Experiences differ, I guess.

Possibly Californians are more inclined to invade Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon than (most parts of) NM?


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:15 PM
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259: Poor Riverside never gets any love.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:16 PM
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I bet 1 out of every 4 people in Santa Fe is a California-transplant.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:16 PM
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286: That's what I was thinking. There are some Californians in NM, but way more Texans.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:16 PM
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285: There's plenty of coastal grassland too. I happen to love it, but it's not for everyone.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:17 PM
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how the Californians have strolled in

I thought most of the people discussing California are not Californians.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:17 PM
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288: Probably, but Santa Fe's not typical of the rest of the state, and I haven't spent all that much time there personally.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:17 PM
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Apparently there is a thing called "San Francisco State University" which has over 30,000 students. And so do San Diego State, San Jose State, CSU-Long Beach, CSU-Long Beach, and CSU-Northridge.

At least I'd heard of the last five, since they have basketball teams.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:17 PM
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259: Poor Riverside never gets any love.

I was too lazy to go looking for it. It bears noting that all of the ones in the list were in the top 50 universities in the world according to that particular diagnostic. (And yes, I'll stop being California's flag bearer any moment now.)


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:18 PM
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292: I know, I'm just really amused by the specific sort of Californian that ends up in Santa Fe.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:19 PM
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295: They are an amusing bunch, for sure.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:20 PM
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I thought most of the people discussing California are not Californians.

Fair enough. I've been programmed to make cavalier assertions.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:20 PM
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(And yes, I'll stop being California's flag bearer any moment now.)

Hey, if you let the flag fall I'll just pick it up. But don't you have to do this sort of thing in order to keep your funding?


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:21 PM
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297: to make cavalier assertions.

And so back to the original comment starting this discussion.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:22 PM
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Even more astonishing, there is something called "California State University-Dominguez Hills" which has 2/3 as many undergraduates as the University of Virginia.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:24 PM
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But don't you have to do this sort of thing in order to keep your funding?

It probably wouldn't hurt (and I'm really angry about what's going on in the system, but that's a whole other story and probably left for tenured people to discuss, not lowly grad students). But I've always, annoyingly, been a California patriot.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:25 PM
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California really is its own world.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:26 PM
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Huh. For the first time, I know someone in my approximate age cohort who is divorced. I feel old now.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:26 PM
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At least I'd heard of the last five, since they have basketball teams

So does SFSU!


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:27 PM
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At least there are plenty of Mexican (New) in NM.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:27 PM
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I don't understand 305.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:28 PM
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I heard the same story about UCSD. California has too many UCSx schools.

I know basically nothing about Trinity, but the one person I know who went there completely embodies the description. Same goes for Brown.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:29 PM
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Florida has some fairly unknown massive schools as well (although they have been moving up to Div I sports). Number one campus in the country for undergrad enrollment? University of Central Florida.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:31 PM
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Number one campus in the country for undergrad enrollment? University of Central Florida.

Huh. It used to be UT-Austin, didn't it?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:33 PM
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Will the University of North Florida never get its due recognition? So sad.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:36 PM
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309: Probably, it is now at #2, ~4K behind.

1 University of Central Florida a[›] Orlando, FL 42,933[1]
2 University of Texas at Austin a[›] Austin, Texas 39,000[2]
3 Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona 38,627[3]
4 Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 38,479[4]
5 Texas A&M University a[›] College Station, Texas 38,430[5]
6 Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania 37,988[6]
7 University of Florida Gainesville, Florida 35,528[7]
8 Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 34,853[8]
9 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 32,377[9]
10 Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 31,508[10]


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:36 PM
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Oh, I'm around. I just haven't had much to say on the topics recently. Was someone calling for rank California chauvinism?


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:36 PM
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312: They largely left us out of the douchebag list! It was terrible!


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:37 PM
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310: It does every few days when I type "unf" into the URL area and then push Enter before selecting unfogged.com from the recently visited sites.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:38 PM
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Oh, and for the locals:

Pie Contest is on Sept 13th. I'd love it if any of you could make it.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:38 PM
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Don't forget UC Merced, a.k.a. the embodiment of the promise of California's future.

I'm rather surprised SFSU has 30K students. Their main campus isn't what I'd call large. (142 acres vs. the 6,651 for Cal's similar total number of students.) I bet a lot of those are of the commuter/evening variety.

My favorite Cal State campus has to be California State University, Channel Islands. Sounds so romantic!

CSU-Dominguez Hills was mentioned in Bring It On:

Aaron: We'll be reunited at Cal State Dominguez Hills! I'll be the experienced sophomore, you'll be the hot new freshman. It'll be just like high school, only better. Dorm rooms.

Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:39 PM
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314: Thanks for making that explicit, ned.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:39 PM
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My favorite Cal State campus has to be California State University, Channel Islands. Sounds so romantic!

But not, Google tells me, actually on the Channel Islands, or even on the coast. Sounds so disappointing!


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:42 PM
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316: Most of my compatriots who went there lived somewhere in the Bay Area and did indeed commute. Not quite evening commuters, though.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:43 PM
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The Channel Islands are a state of mind. The headquarters of Channel Islands National Park is on the mainland, in Ventura.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:46 PM
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So now I'm wondering, and Google Maps suggests a tentative 'yes': is UCSB the only university in California which is literally on the coast, as opposed to overlooking the coast, or just across a highway from the coast, or a few miles from the coast?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:50 PM
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I think Pepperdine might literally be on the coast.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:51 PM
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Amusing (to me. maybe teo) geography trivia from the list in 311. You will note that despite being already located in the most dominated-by-its-college town in America, State College, the campus of Penn State has "University Park" as its mailing address. Apparently this dates back to when Penn State became a university* yet the town refused to change its name, so PSU petitioned and got a different PO name.

*From 1855 to 1862 it was the Farmers' High School.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:52 PM
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So I thought, but Google Maps says it stays on the wrong side of the PCH.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:53 PM
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You will note that despite being already located in the most dominated-by-its-college town in America, State College, the campus of Penn State has "University Park" as its mailing address.

I have noticed that, and wondered about it, actually. Thanks for the explanation.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:53 PM
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324: Then I bet UCSB is indeed the only one on the coast, though I'm really unclear on most of the Southern CA schools' geography.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:55 PM
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325: Most of the campus is in fact within the Borough of State College.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:56 PM
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I bet CSU-Northridge is thrilled to be the fictional school of the student who gets in the limo to make porn with Rollergirl near the end of Boogie Nights:

JACK No, no. Anyway. How'd you like to go round with Rollergirl? Have you seen her film work?
COLLEGE KID . . . yeah . . . yeah I have. (to Rollergirl) We watch your films in my frat house. I go to CSUN. The fuckin' guys are never gonna believe this --

I think that exhausts my knowledge of CSU mentions in cinema. Oh yeah, the kid in Errol Morris's Gates of Heaven went to Chico, I believe.


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:59 PM
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I bet nobody outside PA can guess which college is located in Collegeville, PA.


Posted by: Cryptic need | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 10:59 PM
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Megan! Did you know that they're turning the area around your home town into a mountain range?


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:00 PM
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I was curious how they could justify calling the school Channel Islands. Here's how:


On a clear day, you can see some of the islands from the University.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:02 PM
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331: By that logic they could have called UCSC UC-Monterey.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:03 PM
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Oh yeah, the kid in Errol Morris's Gates of Heaven went to Chico, I believe.

He did. I just watched it and thought he managed to represent the culture of Chico still.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:03 PM
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Coming soon to California: CSU-Alpha Centauri.


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:04 PM
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Heh. I always considered Boogie Nights to be the story of Sherman Way Blvd, which I knew pretty well from driving between my parents' houses. My Mom taught at CSUN, which only reinforces my sense that Boogie Nights was a movie on my home turf.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:05 PM
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334: "If you thought UC-Merced was the embodiment of the promise of California's future, you ain't seen nothing yet..."


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:06 PM
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337

University of Alaska -- Russia.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:07 PM
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they're turning the area around your home town into a mountain range?

"They" like the Pacific plate, trying to dive under the North American continent?


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:08 PM
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I bet nobody outside PA can guess which college is located in Collegeville, PA.

My guess (Dickinson, off the top of my head, and which I often confuse with NC's Davidson College) was incorrect.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:08 PM
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338: They're tricky, those tectonic plates. Gotta watch out.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:09 PM
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Throwing up mountains, higgledy-piggledy.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:13 PM
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338: Don't be naive. That's what they want you to think.

If Alaska opened a campus called "University of Alaska - Putin's Head", then I would have to forgive the state for everything.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:14 PM
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UC-Merced. I know nothing about the place, but this picture (captioned New students proceed through the "Beginnings" sculpture en route to an ice cream celebration) does not really entice one to learn more.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:15 PM
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They're not higgledy-piggledy. You have to consider the possibility that they're targeting your house.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:16 PM
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If Alaska opened a campus called "University of Alaska - Putin's Head", then I would have to forgive the state for everything.

But the campus would have to be either on Little Diomede Island or at the summit of Mt. McKinley.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:17 PM
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Huh. Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space, some new movie that looks crappy) is an alum of UCSD.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:17 PM
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346: He also grew up in Albuquerque.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:19 PM
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343: Every so often the pincers close and one student does not get ice cream! A Beginning turns out to be the beginning of the end!


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:19 PM
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343: Merced is in one of the most economically-depressed regions in the state. It was supposed to serve the burgeoning population of the lower San Joaquin valley, but it is my personal theory that anyone who would be interested in going to a UC that lived in the region would leave it as fast as they could.

But they did get Michelle Obama as their graduation speaker!


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:19 PM
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Has there been recent seismic activity? Also, how closely have you pinpointed my home town (not that I've kept it secret)?


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:20 PM
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I see You See Us Booze apparently lives up to the nickname I heard for it once.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:20 PM
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ABC says Ted Kennedy's shuffled off. I can't even make the requisite joke. Poor guy.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:22 PM
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Before Merced opened, there was talk of setting aside a considerable number of slots for students from the SJValley. I remember speculation that since they were likely to be the first people in their families to go to college, and very poor, they likely wouldn't want to go far away to school.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:23 PM
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348: I also thought that if you were showing off your new college you might display a picture that either actually shows the whole statue or the students well, or is otherwise competently composed rather than like, "I was passing by and saw these kids walking through this big metal thing so I took a picture on my cell phone".


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:25 PM
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350: From satellite, I feel confident I could target your house within 50 miles or so. I was just reading Atlas of the Former World, which mentions that despite being very flat, the area around Sacramento is rising rapidly (in geologic terms) and may eventually be part of a new mountain range. Since you're the only person I know who lives in the Central Valley, I thought of you.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:25 PM
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353: That is the supposed speculation, and it's probably true.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:27 PM
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When I was applying to schools, I had the impression that Santa Cruz was potentially better for undergraduate instruction, but that other UC's, Berkeley especially, poached the top research talent. Santa Barbara I think has some institutional strength based on being an earlier UC campus, although being a newer one hasn't prevented San Diego from becoming such a good school.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:27 PM
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352: Seems to be reported all over.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:29 PM
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Oh, I was confused. I think of the town of my birth as my home town, and there are already mountains around it. My current home town! Mountains are coming to visit us? For Pie Contest?


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:30 PM
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I bet mountains make the best pies.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:32 PM
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354: Another message of the picture might be, "At our university, you will wait in long lines to access limited resources, and pass through arbitrary chokepoints on your way."

(N.B., I'm not actually interested in ripping on UCM.)


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:32 PM
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Uh, to continue my thought in 356, I was going to say it's probably true but having spent some time in Merced I like to at least pretend that the first-time college bound have hopes of going someplace that feels less depressed. Though, personally, I would like the chance to work at the campus and try to get involved in the community in a way that you can't at a more established school.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:32 PM
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358: Yeah, went ahead and made a new thread for that discussion.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:33 PM
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Haven't been to Merced in years or the campus ever. Your assessment of it is better than mine.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:36 PM
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Haven't been to Merced in years or the campus ever. Your assessment of it is better than mine.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:37 PM
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365: One of my friends from college got a job as a city planner there in 2004, when the housing boom was making Merced much more viable and there was much excitement about the campus. I hope that the university manages to push through the budget crisis.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:42 PM
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352, 353: What, the existing cancer thread wasn't good enough for you?


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:43 PM
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366.last: That's what I was thinking, hell of a time to be a brand new public university in California.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:44 PM
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359: Yep, your current home town. Rising faster than the Alps, apparently. The mountains probably won't be there in time for Pie Contest, though. They're always late.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-25-09 11:45 PM
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338:"They" like the Pacific plate, trying to dive under the North American continent?

Actually, the relative motion between the Pacific Plate and the North American where they meet is transverse, so they are sliding alongside one another (the San Andreas of course). From Northern California on up there is a remnant of the Farallon Plate (Juan de Fuca Plate, part near CA sometimes further subdivided into the Gorda Plate) that *is* diving under the NA Plate creating a subduction zone with the resulting Cascade volcanoes.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 12:00 AM
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Don't try to pretty it up with your fancy geology, JP. The Farallon Plate is being murdered, while we just stand here doing nothing but eating Cheetos and blogging.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 12:04 AM
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The Farrallon plate is responsible for basically everything in northern California, and I don't just mean geographically.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 12:10 AM
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The Farallon Plate is your father, nosflow? That must be tough.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 12:15 AM
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I wasn't born in California.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 12:16 AM
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I wasn't born in California.

I knew there was something weird about you.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 12:21 AM
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I was all ready to defend dear ol' UCSD, but then I see nobody said anything particularly untrue about it. Oh well.

Don't go there for anything to do with humanities anything, but yeah, anything to do with wet human parts or computers or the intersection thereof it's great. Full of nerds, though. And surfers. But surprisingly few surfing nerds.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 1:10 AM
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anything to do with wet human parts or computers or the intersection thereof it's great.

The intersection thereof? Electrocution?


Posted by: OFE | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 2:00 AM
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Robocop?


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 2:23 AM
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356: Also, real estate more affordable, correlatively (word?)

I have been to UCMerced on my way to a possible fieldwork spot. Am working near Santa Cruz instead; can anyone recommend a good hardware store in town?


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 4:58 PM
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I keep trying to ask for a recommended hardware store in Santa Cruz but LeechBlock is...protecting me? What, doesn't it have an 'actual work question' heuristic yet? Phoo.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-26-09 5:01 PM
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