Re: Guest Post - Witt

1

Heebie's take sounds right to me.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 11:47 AM
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At least as a the language program, they teach Mexican.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 11:48 AM
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Having been there at one of those times, I can say that the effort was so weak, or so ignored, that I did not note even that the demand was being made, much less argued about. And, in my own defense, I read the campus fishwraps pretty regularly.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 11:55 AM
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3: Yeah, me too.


Posted by: Osgood Yousbad | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:08 PM
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For [Harvard Latino Student Association] and its members, it is as much in our interests, as well as in those of the University, to maintain Harvard's pre-eminence among all groups domestic and international.

All the groups!

I am unimpressed with much of the argumentation in the linked piece. Without discussion of how this kind of cross-disciplinary scholarship is handled for other area studies at Harvard, I don't think it's saying much.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:15 PM
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Interesting. I checked two schools of family interest: UCSB (go Gauchos) started its Chicano Studies Institute in 1969 ("one of only two organized research units devoted to the study of Chicano/a and Latino/a populations in the University of California system"); Notre Dame has had an Institute for Latino Studies since 1999.


Posted by: bill | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:16 PM
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I would say 1995, not 1978.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:22 PM
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There was a gigantic protest when I was in college in the early 1990s about estabilshing a Latino themed residence (there was already a black themed one and bizarrely a native american themed one, populated by two actual indians and 11 proto-teofilos or something). I think one was established as a result.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:26 PM
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I think one was established as a result.

Yeah, there was one when I was there.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:30 PM
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I checked two schools of family interest: UCSB (go Gauchos)

Purely out of idle curiosity, as I also have a vague family interest in UCSB, Gauchos why? Is it a very Hispanic college?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:33 PM
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Why on earth is witt reading op-eds in the harvard crimson?


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:34 PM
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Not that an Argentinian connection would necessarily imply that.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:35 PM
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Why on earth is witt reading op-eds in the harvard crimson?

Ophthalmologist's waiting room?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:35 PM
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From the UCSB athletics site:

"The University has used the Argentine cowboy as a nickname since 1936 when, inspired by Douglas Fairbanks's performance in the 1927 film The Gaucho, the female student population led a vote to change the mascot from the original Roadrunners."

"By the late 1980s, students began fully embracing the gaucho name while attending standing-room-only basketball games swinging blue-and-gold boleadoras over their heads to rally the team; these were foam and yarn representations of the rock-hard leather balls that gauchos tied to a cord and used as weapons to hunt rheas, a flightless South American ostrich-like bird."


Posted by: bill | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:45 PM
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Doesn't every junior high and high school in the state have a Latino mascot? Seems like all the native Californians can hearken back to their Conquistador days.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:50 PM
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Yerba mate, laxative herbal supplement to an 18th century paleo diet. And with that, I will try to get something done today.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:50 PM
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Don't schools start institutes if and only if someone gives them money to do so? If no one wants to pony up the money what do you expect?

It seems a bit odd that the Latin American studies institute specifically excludes the US. I wonder if that's internal funding turf wars or a weird request of the original donor.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:51 PM
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I believe Pomona College is the "Hens" changed from the pre-1917 "Huns."


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:51 PM
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16: That stuff you drink from gourds makes you shit?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:52 PM
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Also, fuck those authors for not considering UC Berkeley an elite institution.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:54 PM
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Er, author, somehow I'd thought the op-ed was coauthored. Anyway the author must be an asshole to write that and it makes me sceptical of their whole argument.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:58 PM
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The perfect complement to a diet that includes both jerky and steak.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:58 PM
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Doesn't every junior high and high school in the state have a Latino mascot? Seems like all the native Californians can hearken back to their Conquistador days.

Carpinteria Warriors! (they almost were the Chumash) Camarillo Scorpions!


Posted by: bill | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:58 PM
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17: Latin American studies could be more of an international relations school, populated by empire builders and Central American ex-dictators. Harvard has a lot of those, and they aren't really interested in things like the immigrant cultural experience.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:59 PM
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20: they seem to have left a fair number of institutions commonly considered elite off the list.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 12:59 PM
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I think John Marshall high school in Silverlake's team is "The Barristers" which is pretty sweet.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:02 PM
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I've never felt strongly for these sorts of centers - race/ethnicity studies are very important to have, but I don't see why they all have to be separate. With a Race and Ethnicity Studies Center or some such, there could be a lot more focus on commonalities of oppression. But I imagine this debate has already been had (and of course there are all the different ___ Language and Literature departments).


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:03 PM
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I am going to leave one comment every six minutes naming a California high school team nickname.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:04 PM
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Let's not forget the Ribet Academy Fighting Frogs.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:07 PM
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28: To mark your minimum billing increment?


Posted by: Mr. Blandings | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:11 PM
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27: But x language and literature is usually very broad: romance, Slavic, etc. Having Latin American studies exclude Latin Americans in the US is dumb, but aside from this particular turf fight I don't see a compelling reason for Latino studies being on its own administratively.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:11 PM
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The Arcadia High School Apaches.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:12 PM
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For a while I was fantasizing about establishing the Helpy-Chalk Center for the Study of Nerd Culture.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:13 PM
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31: That makes sense (though there are also language-specific departments, I believe - especially for the more traditional languages like French and German). I wonder if it's a donor's objections that keep the CLAS from extending its mission.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:17 PM
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A high school friend once failed to impress the hot Argentinian girl in class when she mentioned Gauchos and he chimed in with "Those are the ones that swing their balls around their heads, right?"


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:18 PM
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Harvard has language family departments: Germanic, Romance, Slavic, etc. The Language and Literature departments really are just that though, with very little other areas studies stuff or even "cultural studies".


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:20 PM
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Dismayed to find that the Calaveras High School teams are the Mighty Reds and not the Jumping Frogs. No word about their celebrations....


Posted by: bill | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:25 PM
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The Language and Literature departments really are just that though, with very little other areas studies stuff or even "cultural studies".

I believe East Asian Studies is a more typical area studies program, as is the newer South Asian Studies. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations I don't know about.


Posted by: knecht ruprecht | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:32 PM
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Harvard has language family departments

So are Germanic, Romance, Slavic, etc. contained within the School of Indo-European Lang. and Lit., which is itself part of the somewhat shadowy Institute of Nostratic Studies, which may or may not exist?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:34 PM
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29: A play not only on their name but also on their location overlooking the neighborhood of Elysian Valley, nicknamed "Frogtown."


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:35 PM
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40, I never thought of that! When I was a kid I always assumed their name was pronounced "ribbet," and that the accent mark over the "e" was a lilypad. I'm still not sure it's not. I was recently told it was a green football, which now that I write it seems more implausible than my original assumption.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:39 PM
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Area studies are a Cold War legacy. Lots of funding back then for centers that would bring together expertise that you could convince the DoD and State would be useful. Pushkin or the rise of the Lodz textile industry, not useful. Roots of Soviet culture or economic specialization in Comecon and its causes, here's some cash.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:42 PM
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The best HS mascot.


Posted by: knecht ruprecht | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:42 PM
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The Compton High Tarbabes (it's true!)


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:43 PM
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The LA Manual High School Toilers.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:49 PM
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bizarrely a native american themed one, populated by two actual indians and 11 proto-teofilos or something

My (lily-white) old roommate lived there for a semester! This checks up almost exactly with her description. Of course "proto-teofilo" was not her exact phrasing.


Posted by: L. | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:53 PM
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46: Yes, that's more or less the standard take on that place. I myself, as a full-fledged teofilo, avoided it.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 1:55 PM
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Why on earth is witt reading op-eds in the harvard crimson?

I was linked there by Latina Lista* which frequent updates of extremely varied and often neat articles that you should check out.

Two recent links:

Neat TEDx talk: Scholar says kids are good at school, bad at thinking.

German study says women and ethnic minorities get more job interviews when companies use anonymized resume review.

*For the non-hispanohablantes in the crowd, lista=ready, *not* "list."


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:30 PM
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Whoops, that second link came via a different source. But the point stands. Latina Lista, check it out!


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:31 PM
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The Center for Latin American Studies sounds like it's probably tied into the area studies system created by the National Defense Education Act in 1958: "area studies" being those areas outside the U.S. where Communists might be showing up. I don't think it's unusual for area studies centers to not include the U.S.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:43 PM
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50: Yeah, "area studies" and "ethnic studies" centers come from very different movements. The latter I think mostly grew out of demands by minority student groups in the 1960s and 1970s, back when they would occupy buildings and stuff.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:46 PM
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probably tied into the area studies system created by the National Defense Education Act in 1958: "area studies" being those areas outside the U.S. where Communists might be showing up.

What a quaint idea: knowing more about the countries we might invade instead of deliberately knowing less.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:54 PM
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German study says women and ethnic minorities get more job interviews when companies use anonymized resume review.

I think there have been a number of studies documenting this.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:57 PM
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52:

He knew next to nothing about Iraq's educational system. Even after he was selected, he did not pore through a reading list. "I wanted to come here with as open a mind as I could have," he said. "I'd much rather learn firsthand than have it filtered to me by an author." He did a Google search on the Internet. The result? "Not much," he said.

(from)


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 2:59 PM
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Fab/io Roj/as's book might relevant here.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 3:01 PM
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The Arcadia High School Apaches.

Heh, I bet they're still using "Apache Joe" as a mascot too. The band uniforms are probably still the same as when I was in it, which had the "princesses" carrying the Arcadia sign at the front in full headdresses.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 4:28 PM
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Perhaps needless to say I don't think there is much case for things like Latino Studies Centers and therefore Harvard is showing good sense by not having one.


Posted by: James B. Shearer | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 6:14 PM
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Despite the fear that Area Studies would go the way of the phorusrhacids (rheas apparently are doing just fine), most of these centers are still funded through Title VI Grants from the DoE, which keeps them from taking on US-ethnic studies, so as not to have Americanists siphoning off their Internationalization money. This money is almost certainly going away if Republicans keep trying to balance the budget through cuts to education that they hope no one outside the liberal elitist academy will notice.

The most deafening silence in the article, to me, is the lack of a discussion of faculty who work on US-Latino/a Studies. They complain about the History Department's lack of a Latin Americanist (which, yeah, that's weird) but then link to a faculty list that includes an Americanist working on borderlands/Chicano/a history.


Posted by: Jimmy Pongo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 6:15 PM
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Perhaps needless to say I don't think there is much case for things like Latino Studies Centers

Needless to say! I love your racism, bro!


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:05 PM
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I mean, I love your racism, bro!


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:07 PM
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So what's going on at Harvard?

According to one former Harvard professor I know, "a precipitous decline in the quality of Harvard faculty". Which sounds about right.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:48 PM
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Glad you approve.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:52 PM
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62 to, I'm going to say, 60, 61, 59, 57, 56, 55, 52, and 41, in that order.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:53 PM
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62

According to one former Harvard professor I know, "a precipitous decline in the quality of Harvard faculty". Which sounds about right.

All those women and minorities they are hiring?


Posted by: James B. Shearer | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:53 PM
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Shearer your trolling isn't graded on a curve.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 7:54 PM
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Anglo faculty are an endangered species. But they're the best by definition, so there's no point in enforcing quality when making new hires.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:06 PM
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63: Too many fucking numbers.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:06 PM
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Bingo!


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:11 PM
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That has letters in front of numbers.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:19 PM
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||

What grievous sin have I committed that caused Newsweek to start sending me magazines? And more to the point, to start with the issue containing an article by Katie Roiphe. (Best criticism I've seen so far, I think via LGM: "It illuminates nothing, and only humiliates the writer." I am not reading it.)

Thank heaven it arrived on the same day as my newsletter from the Center for Constitutional Rights, so I can wash my brain with stories about anti-torture, anti-imprisonment, anti-terrorism, anti-bigotry, anti-hate and other important legal battles.

Bah. I hope I don't have to call that place up to get my name off their list.

||>


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:21 PM
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70.1: Bigamy.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:27 PM
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71: Ah, thanks, that's helpful.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:34 PM
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I wonder whether the increase in the fraction of top researchers who have spouses with careers is going to make the Harvard model of only hiring by poaching people already established at other places less competitive. Probably won't hurt Harvard in particular that much as they'd still do pretty well just poaching faculty from other Boston schools, but I wonder about Princeton.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:39 PM
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The couple cases where I've heard it was a big issue, either they find the spouse an equivalent or better job or they don't get their target e.g. a certain MA senate candidate. It's just another piece in the compensation negotiations.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:52 PM
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I think there may be multiple faculty members on that history page who actually got tenure while at Harvard.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 8:56 PM
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The Lick-Wilmerding Tigers? Seriously, the name of your high school is Lick-Wilmerding, and "Tigers" is the best you can do?


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 9:24 PM
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Seriously, the name of your high school is Lick-Wilmerding, and "Tigers" is the best you can do?

Do you have a better suggestion?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 9:30 PM
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Capybaras? Nudibranchs? Bromeliads? Really, anything but the bog-standard team name.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 9:39 PM
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Your first suggestion made me think of Chupacabra, but apparently Strafford High School in Missouri recently adopted it.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 9:46 PM
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There is also the Arkansas School for the Deaf Leopards.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 9:48 PM
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And let us not forget the Trevians, PBUT.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 10:00 PM
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77: My Darlins


Posted by: Turgid Jacobian | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 10:02 PM
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||

I was enjoying atrios link to poor man's chart of wingnuttery and wanking. But then I noticed how well placed sifu is. Surely burning man should put him much further out on wanking.

http://www.trigeminal.com/images/wingnutterywank.pdf

I'm trying to decide if atrios list for wanker of the decade demonstrates that not much has happened in punditry since 2005 or that not much has happened to atrios since then.

|>


Posted by: Simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 11:10 PM
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I was enjoying atrios link to poor man's chart of wingnuttery and wanking. But then I noticed how well placed sifu is. Surely burning man should put him much further out on wanking.

That may not be the most objective source of information for that particular question.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-19-12 11:13 PM
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83: Not much has happened in MSM punditry. Broder is dead, but his spirit lives on.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 04-20-12 6:04 AM
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I have definitely had stupider haircuts than The Editors.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04-20-12 6:09 AM
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