Boxing

Things I learned from my father this weekend:

1. When you are in a competitive walk, walk as much as possible in a straight line. This will cut seconds - even minutes - off your time. Race car drivers know this.

2. The night I was born there was a boxing match on television which my dad would have liked to seen the end of.

3. When my father went to see Hunter S. Thompson at the University of Oregon more than a few years ago, Thompson was late in arriving. Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs got on stage and started discussing their bus, Further. One frustrated student stood up and yelled "I didn't pay good money to see this! I want to see Hunter S. Thompson!" Kesey grabbed the kid by the collar and threw him out - not before giving him $5 and saying "I know exactly how much you paid for this!" About a half hour before he finally appeared on stage, Thompson peeked out at the crowd, said "jeez!", and didn't come out for another half hour.

Woke up this morning to an NPR voice saying something about the "larger implications" of using the militairy to aid in establishing order after hurricanes, rather than state and local governments. I wonder what Thompson would have to say about this?

My friend J. has been transcribing the poems of Elizabeth Bishop. In Michele's workshop we memorized poems to recite, and this seems to be something along those lines. I am going to try transcribing some Revell - when his book arrives.

I still have a few essays to grade. Writing comments can be challenging, but the trickiest part can be assigning a letter grade. One technique is to throw all the papers up in the air, and assign As to ones that fall to the left of you, and Bs to the ones that fall to your right. This technique is discouraged in most academic circles, but I believe Ken Kesey would have approved.