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.
September 12th, 2009 at 9:38AM
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."
September 12th, 2009 at 10:03AM
Love the medal!
September 12th, 2009 at 7:53PM
Is it my Firefox or is the opening bit of this post not being published?
September 12th, 2009 at 8:45PM
Neither. I’m trying to be clever. Aspects of the Novelty of …
September 13th, 2009 at 7:43AM
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.