Sunday, November 23, 2008

Stop Using Killer Kleenex

One of the students Chris Bordne in my WRT 255 course is studying the advocacy campaign Kleercut, which is a campaign to call attention to the fact that Kleenex, a Kimberly Clark product, is made from virgin forest--the Canadian boreal forest to be more precise.

For more on the campaign launched by Greenpeace entitled Kleercut, see the link above.

Here's the basics:

"Did you know that it takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex? That's right, every time you use a Kleenex tissue, you are blowing away ancient forests. And every time you use Scott or Cottonelle toilet paper, you’re flushing old growth trees down the toilet. That's because Kimberly Clark, maker of these products, all but refuses to use recycled paper in its products."


Chris is launching a Syracuse University campaign via Facebook and also some other tools to get SU to stop using Kimberly Clark products. I'll post a link to his campaign once he's done with it. Other colleges have lauched this very campaign:

http://kleercut.net/en/node/909

Monday, July 28, 2008

Not Knowing Your LInes

Last night I dreamed I was cast into a play, but I didn't know my lines the night before the performance. At first, I was relatively unconcerned about knowing my lines. I figured I'd put an index card in my hand and could read my lines or someone would hold up cue cards. Well, as the dream got further in, I realized that I needed to know my lines and couldn't fluff it in front of a live audience. So I futilely tried to memorize the lines, but nothing was sticking.

So I guess this is my re-entry after a week teaching and writing at Minnowbrook Retreat Center!

The play, by the way, was "Cinderella." And I was playing Cinderella. Half-way through the dream I made the joke to someone that since Cinderella was just a "dumb blonde" (an expression I thought was really fun in my dream, but not in real life) she wouldn't have to say much since she was the pretty, dense type. She could just fall and love and live happily ever after. The person/guy playing so-called "Prince Charming" reminded me that I had more lines than I thought, so I'd better get busy....

I remember being amused as a I dreamed about this that I was actually agreeing to be in the "Cinderella" play.

Is this a sign that the semester is going to start soon? That I don't feel ready to get back into the swing of things. Has the golden coach left for the castle without me or with me only half-way on board? Why Cinderella, a fairy tale that is not exactly my all-time favorite?

I woke up relieved I never pursued a career in drama....

This dream reminds of the "lack of readiness" dream I often have when the semester is going to start. In it, I'm supposed to be ready for my class, but I'm not. I don't have the syllabus or the assignments, and I'm trying to fluff it and give some kind of introductory lecture. The students either leave or disappear at some point in the dream, and I'm left trying to sort out what happened and how to carry on.

So....

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Rotten Tomatoes

ZZ the cat has decided he is far too tired to make an appearance on my blog tonight. There is bigger and more serious news to be discussed than his photo opps. Getting back to the agrarian focus that is part of this blog, I have been following the tomato/salmonella story in the news. Once again, we see how the food safety system in the U.S. is grossly underprepared to deal with food safety in the fruit and vegetable industry let alone the meat industry (that's a whole other level of madness with recalls of ground beef). A year or so back I blogged about bagged spinach and e-coli. Now it is tomatoes and salmonella outbreaks (Raw Red Roma and Plum and Round tomatoes grown in Florida and Mexico, it seems). Want to know how tomatoes get salmonella? Slate has a good article about the potential connection to industrial farming and waste run-off:

http://www.slate.com/id/2193474/ The subtitle in this article is from "Poop to Produce."


This weekend I transplanted about eight tomato plants in my backyard garden. You can't get more local than 20 feet from the kitchen. These plants were seeded from last year's crop, and I didn't plant a single seed--I just left them in the soil. So I'm holding out for these tomatoes, which have not even flowered yet. So it's going to be awhile.....

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

ZZ meets Photobooth

Tech Camp 08



Greetings from Tech Camp 08 at Syracuse University. We have been working with images, web pages, and tomorrow we will be working with video. We have been playing around with Photobooth (as evidenced above). So hopefully things will be looking up on my blog! Thanks to George Rhinehart, Derek Mueller, and Kurt Stavenhagen. More to come.....

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Race for the Cure

OK, it's been far too long since I wrote in my blog. The usual excuses apply-being department chair, being swamped, not blogging with a class. Mary G. and I ended up not blogging together as planned, but we did have some great conversations about the writing major in-person and about what she read, and she did just graduate. Congrats, Mary!

The real news around here is that Autumn ran the kids' 1 mile run for the Race for the Cure yesterday in Syracuse. 10,000 people showed up to the event, and there were hundreds in the kids' race. Autumn ran a 8 minute, 47 second mile! I know because I ran it with her and timed it. So at age six, she is already quite a runner. She told me this morning that she plans to eventually run the Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley. She has heard about this race from me since I told her about Pam Reed. Dianna and I ran the 5k with Autumn. I pushed Autumn in the jogger stroller for the entire 5k with the exception about 500 yards that she decided to run on her own. We had a good time, although it was hard for the first mile to have to dodge all the walkers walking five and six abreast having no idea there were "stroller runners" behind them. Now some purists will say that stroller runners should not be in races, but for some us, there's no choice but to run with a stroller if we want to do a race.

Anyway, summer race season has begun here.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Blogging the writing major with Mary

Mary Gallagher (hi, Mary) is going to be one of the first graduates of our Writing Major at SU. Mary and I have the great opportunity this semester to do an independent study together about the growing scholarship on writing majors in Rhetoric/Comp. Along the way, Mary and I are also discussing how writing majors and Writing Centers can be "sites of social action" for students. Mary has been active in the Writing Center for three years, so much of her view of the department and our curriculum is shaped by that experience. Mary will also help us plan an event to welcome our Writing majors and introduce them to all of the faculty. That should be really fun.

We are going to be reading the special issue of Composition Studies on the Writing Major together over the next couple of weeks and blogging our responses.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Shiva-land and winter reading

Make it a New Year's Resolution to read one of Vandana Shiva's books. Shiva is an global activist fighting for sustainable farming, environmental justice, and the rights of two-thirds world people, especially for indigenous farmers across the globe and in her native India. She is my all-time heroine--up there with Gandhi, Dr. King, Emma Goldman, and Mother Jones. She made an appearance on PBS tonight (reaired episode). You can view the transcript at:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june07/globalization_03-23.html

As for my winter break reading: I'm catching up on the latest issues of _College English_ and _CCC_. I'm getting ready to pick up Michael Pollan's latest book _A Manifesto for Eaters_ and Daniel Imhoff's book _Food Fight_ on the farm bill--all fodder for the paper I'm giving on the Rhetoric of Local Food at the University of Illinois guest lecture series. I'm also prepping a lot of readings on environmental justice for the mini-seminar I'll be leading in February.


As for lighter fare,I want to pick up Benjamin Cheever's (son of writer John Cheever's) book/memoir on running, which I've had my eye on, but couldn't afford until my sister sent me a bookstore gift certificate. I have been rereading Kathrine Switer's book _Marathon Woman_. If you don't know who Switzer is, look her up--she is the Syracuse University student who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon under a race number. Jock Semple, the race director tried to throw her out of the race when he realized that she was a woman running with a race number. The famous photos have been much-circulated. Switzer, our home town girl, ran the Pompey Hills so much that she didn't even notice Heartbreak Hill at the Boston Marathon. So if you want a hill work out, just move to Central New York.

Such is the reading life.