← Previous Post: | Next Post:

 

Aspects of the Novel

ty of teaching again at George Washington University after a yearlong sabbatical:

*** There are three-foot tall Purell dispensers in front of all elevators.  (The elevators in her own building, Academic Center, are being upgraded.  One of them is already way chic, with recessed lighting and bright silver buttons; but when its doors close, it lets out a high-pitched whine that goes on forever; and when it takes you to the first floor, it flashes the number seven.)

*** Now that Michelle Obama and UD‘s university have made their pact, UD ponders, while walking to class, what she’s done for the world (blood donation; tutoring; town clean-up… what else?).   Plus she marvels at how many Peace Corps, Teach for America, Habitat for Humanity, etc., people there are among her students.

*** Because she’s picked up extra teaching duties this semester (an independent study; other classroom stuff) on top of her regular courses, UD‘s on campus all the time, working, working.  She has renamed herself Ekaterina Stakhanova.

*** And because she’s always on campus, marching from one classroom to another, UD has taken to scanning the students around her, hoping for a La Kid sighting (her daughter goes to GW). She often thinks she’s had one, only to discover that almost all GW women have straight blond hair, fine threads, and UGG boots.

mymedal

Margaret Soltan, September 12, 2009 7:01AM
Posted in: snapshots from home

Trackback URL for this post:
https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=17400

5 Responses to “Aspects of the Novel”

  1. Townsend Harris Says:

    The Soviet society that brought us Stakhanovite also brought us, in later years, the cynical counterpart to Stakhanovite, embodied in the industrial workers’ slogan: "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work."

  2. Michael Tinkler Says:

    Love the medal!

  3. jeff Says:

    Is it my Firefox or is the opening bit of this post not being published?

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Neither. I’m trying to be clever. Aspects of the Novelty of …

  5. theprofessor Says:

    Before I read the story, I thought that perhaps Michelle had agreed to run poor people out of GWU medical center, as she did for UC.

Comment on this Entry

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

Archives

Categories