Oops I Forgot.... Everyone is Loco

I just stumbled back across this in my inbox... and thought I would share it now:


Subject: A dog's mind
From: tracku [email omitted to protect the "innocent"]
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 6:53 PM
To:Jenny Anne Armentrout

So, I've finished my masters in communication studies. Defended my thesis fall semester. I'm cruising around, looking for erudite-sounding stuff to put in my statement of teaching philosophy (looking for comm studies jobs, of course), and DAMN! I really don't want to be sleep-shanked, so I am exercising considerable restraint on the plagiarism front, but...have I said this?...Damn! This has to be the single most creative (is that overstating?) title I've ever laughed over. And yes, it's a question that I see running through my dog's mind every time we go for a run.

I've never been to Bowling Green, but I once hitchhiked across (well, halfway across) the country and got a ride with a professor from Bowling Green U in a bright green Volkswagon beetle. He gave me a ride for, oh, probably two days, hundreds of miles, and a strange, fascinating elixer of conversation. Don't know his name or what he taught, but if you see a guy driving a bright green VW bug, please hug him, thank him for me, and then just walk away. It'll completely freak him out. Course, this was almost 30 years ago, so...

I am, of course, putting off this writing project, thus my pressing need to write to you right now - when I should be composing my own teaching philosophy rendition. But, seriously, after reading your title - the rest of it was pretty good, too, but that title! - how can I hope to compete? My only hope is that you're not competing with me for comm studies teaching jobs next fall...but you probably are. Oh well, I'm older and wiser, and I thought I was creativer than most, but - not to be redundant, but damn!

So, basically, I'm just writing to say I like your style, your spunk (I hate that word, but it "communicates"), your bullshittishness. If I were on the hiring committee with a choice between someone whose teaching philosophy was entitled "My Teaching Philosophy" versus "Should I eat that...?," you'd have the job and I wouldn't even have to read the rest of it! I realize that's your blog's name and not just your TP title, but you could apply it to just about anything. I'm thinking about lettering it onto my favorite t-shirt.

Wish me luck on my teaching-job search, if we're not competing for the same jobs. You'll have shinier letters in your honorific (mine is B.A.-M.A.-M.A, sounds like Banana or Obama, or maybe a combo), so we're probably going after different jobs (I just sent a cv to a junior college in Texas!), so it's safe to wish me luck.

Hope we can be long-distance correspondence-ers. :)

Seeya!
[Name omitted to protect the "innocent"]
University of Montana



So did you all read this? Seriously WTF? Next thing I know I'll be getting emails from Phil Coultrip begging for that laptop password! As long as I don't find anything more disgusting... or weird... or crazy amidst all my other messages. It's sort of like finding a pile of cat puke in the morning. Or this:

Nevertheless unsettling =(