condescending raze the winter he shot himself through the heart with the nail gun of his mind, he was waiting tables, hating the people who sat at them, murdering them in his waking sleep. he was as thorough as he could be. some of them he'd killed twice already when he smiled at them and asked to take their order, and they said they'd have the fish, or a roast beef sandwich, or the special, whatever the special was, not knowing they were two times dead in his thoughts about them. "what a friendly waiter," they thought, and between the third and fourth thought words he killed them again. but he wouldn't spit in their food. even the triple dead deserved a good meal. where they were going, there was no telling what there'd be to eat. 131123 ... tender_square “i’m a former faculty member,” the woman on the phone explained, “and my husband and i have some classic psychological texts we’d like to donate.” i accepted and relayed that we had a community shelf to put them out on. “i’m sure these books will go very quickly; they are quite valuable.” i doubted that was the case but didn’t say so, thanked her profusely through a false smile. when i met her outside with a cart by her car, her black lab jumped and barked incessantly in the front seat while she shoved a paper into my hands demanding that i sign a statement about her donation. “if these aren’t going to be used, if they’re going to be thrown away, let me know and i will come back for them,” she snapped. “they are very valuable. and i’d rather they go to some place that wants them.” i assured her the books would not be thrown away, even though they’d probably be recycled in the months ahead if they remained. the hardcover texts piled in her trader joe paper bags smelled of vanilla and must. they were from the 1970s, well past the point of usefulness, though they had been lovingly cared for. “i just want them to be enjoyed,” she emphasized. “i mean, i guess you could read them too, but they’re really for the faculty and students.” 220413 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Oh, ouch. I'd have no immediate response, but I'd be stewing away and thinking of a comeback. E.g., "Well, now that we're speaking of texbooks... I used to think 'microaggression' was a needlessly academic term for something that could be expressed in simpler words, but THAT was a textbook example! *Thank you* for educating me." 220414 ... e_o_i I once had a professor at Brock who said to me "I've never had a *grad* student with *accommodations* before." (asterisks stand in for italics, by the way) 220414 what's it to you? who go blather from