Repelling blandomness with randomness.

[Good Intentions]

There is a little code in operation, with academic refs at least. For instance, if you really do want to heartily recommend a student, you say 'I would offer my HIGHEST recommendation', or a similar superlative. Most academic refs close with such a coded statement. At least, that is how it was suggested I was to proceed when I was writing such things. When I saw a rec from a prof for me way back when (I had asked for one extra by accident and I couldn't resist), that was its last sentence. I have also written 'neutral' letters, where I just gave a paragraph of nice things, but failed to close with such a statement, thus offering an academic 'meh'.

This is also how it's been explained to me. The way we were told that a letter of recommendation would be a subtle warning against hiring the person would be by specifically picking out qualities unrelated to what the person was being recommended for. Like, when recommending someone to a post as lecturer, in "Dr Davis shows remarkable skill at administration" the "but doesn't understand anything he teaches" is understood as implicit.

[edison]

This actually makes letters of recommendation sort of fascinating. The only time I had to try writing a letter of recommendation was when I was helping out a French teacher in Vienna. She had to recommend a student of hers for some exchange program in France. I think after reading her draft I told her that she could maybe be more enthusiastic - there was in particular a passage about how "X is always trying to help in class" and she told me it meant "she always keeps interrupting and it annoys the hell out of me". "Studying in a foreign country would benefit her a lot" meant "Please, Dear God, get this girl out of here, far, far away". So, decoding that stuff takes skills!

[howardfinkel]

So last Tuesday, I find myself in Covington, Kentucky. (Had mega-bused into Cincinnati for tMg show.) This nice guy Peter who I had met in St. Louis calls me, telling me I should come meet up with him near the venue in Kentucky, at this bar. Says my fake ID will fly there. So I say yeah what the hell. I don't have any money because it's probably been like a month since I've felt those green pieces of paper in my hand, but it's better than hanging around in Cincinnati.

So I get there, fake ID flies, meet up with Peter, 1$ PBRs, buys me a few beers. We put tMg on the internet jukebox. Listening to Against Pollution in this weird small-town hick bar in Kentucky. Drinking beers. Smoking cigarettes. Telling stories about our travels. A generally awesome time yanno?

All of a sudden this crazy guy attacks me from behind, like he puts me in a sleeper hold kinda. Within a second I kinda elbowed him and everyone around kinda launched themselves at him. But it was just nuts. This crazy drunk guy was kicking and grabbing hair and freaking out.

Apparently, it would later be explained, that he was fighting with (presumably) his ex, who was seated behind me.
She had moved over to sit behind me, and she said that he attacked me because he thought she was going to hit on me because I was younger. Also the crazy fuckup thought I stole one of his cigarettes.

So yeah, meanwhile this guy is still going nuts. He has to be restrained. And the lady starts yelling out "I've got a new man now!" And he's yelling "He'll never support you like I did" and it's in general the trashiest yelling contest I've ever witnessed. He starts kicking chairs over and throwing glasses. The poor bartender lady is screaming that he has to leave. She finally says she's going to call the cops. He starts yelling "You got the cops called on me baby!?"

Then he is kind of pushed out of the place, try to lock the door while he starts banging up against it, pushing a little bit in, trying to get back in. Eventually, he leaves.

So yeah, it was one of the weirdest, most random holy-shit-I-figured-this-only-happens-in-movies moments I've ever had. To think one day I would find myself amidst a bar fight in Covington, Kentucky yanno?

Oh and I forgot that the lady tried to excuse her behavior quite nobly too--"I'm sorry, I only moved here because there was a black man over there."

[DCDave]

Wow.

There needs to be a song about that.  Or the Gandalfs needs to use that as their new banter intro for that song.

[Aglaya]

I swear I just read "we are a plane crash" in someone's post somewhere.

[El_Josharino]

I think a member of Do Make Say Think left a bunch of condoms in my bathroom last weekend. Unused.

[dieblucasdie]

Unused

I think you're looking for the "Unsurprising Revelations" thread, there.

[jebreject]

maybe he's just trying to promote safe sex everywhere he goes

[El_Josharino]

There's a sexy comment about their foxy violinist somewhere that I should post here, but I'm just not in any condition to put it all together.

[diesel_powered]

For being an art school, my school doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of CMYK hair.

[Greg Nog]

There's a sexy comment about their foxy violinist somewhere that I should post here, but I'm just not in any condition to put it all together.

Maybe something about the 70s blaxploitation classical musician "Foxxy Violinist"?  Let's brainstorm, people, together we can make a joke.

[Andrew_TSKS]

For being an art school, my school doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of CMYK hair.

i googled cmyk and i still don't understand what this means.

[SPACERACE]

i don't really know how that's possible

[maggiego]

Manic Panic has fallen out of favor? That's a drag.

[FreddyKnuckles]

I googled and figured it out andy

[milesofsparks]

Manic Panic has fallen out of favor? That's a drag.

my bathroom still has magenta Manic Panic spots from the last time my brother visited.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I googled and figured it out andy

yes, but i'm dense.

i get it now that people have mentioned manic panic repeatedly though.

[diesel_powered]

I think it might be due to the fact that there's no undergrads so the average age here is about 28.

And soft scrub with bleach (or straight up bleach) will do wonders for Manic Panic stains.

(And can any designey types give me a good explanation as to why Black is referred to as "key" in "CMYK"?)

[jess]

I think it's because B could be blue (and is in RGB) and I'm guessing K as the last letter instead of the first?

[jebreject]

wikiAnswers says:

Back in the old days of printing when all printing was done using plates the black plate was actually called the Key plate. This was because it contained the artistic detail or "key" information.

[girl]

Remember last year when Amazon.com did that thing where you could vote for special deals and I got to buy my LCD TV for $200? They're doing the same promotion this year for like 6 weeks this time. You vote on the thing you want to buy, then whichever thing wins, some of the people who voted for it get the chance to buy it at a really great price. Fun!
Amazon.com

[El_Josharino]

Oh man! You should've posted that yesterday so that I'd have had time to vote for the Wii and have a chance at getting one for 79 bucks.

[girl]

Oh, is the voting over on that? Sorry! (I voted for the Wii.)

[RavingLunatic]

I've never read anything about nihilism, but I think I might be a nihilist. I'll have to do some reading and find out.

[diesel_powered]

Do you believe in nosing?