Trick r' treat!

What I learned this Halloween:

• There are "live" streets where families go all out, have lots of candy and tons of kids frolic everywhere. And these kdis are not just neighborhood kids, but gangs of kids either interloping or being trucked in from other parts of town. Woodland Avenue, where we first tried to buy a house and where our friends the Dusseres live, is a "live" street.
• Likewise, there are "dead" streets where virtually no one will show up. Because it is a main road, as of now at 8:40pm, I officially believe that I live on a "dead" street. Which is OK, because we can just go over to the Dusseres.
• It is also a good thing because one must be certain to always buy enough candy. The Dusseres were running out so I rushed to our place to bring half of our Wonka cache and all the Take 5s and chocolate chip granola bars (for the granola parents).
• Kids love Wonka. But I already knew this, because last year my Peruvian nieces and nephews only asked for bags of Wonka candy and I brought each of them a five-pound bag I had hoarded since Halloween the year before. They still talk about it. Also still talking about it are my cousins who are still upset at me -- not that I brought their kids the candy, but that I didn't bring them (my cousins, the kids' parents) any candy.
• Kids also love Heath bars. This genuinely surprised me, since I always considered them "adult candy bars."
• Kids do not like coconut. The Dusseres were getting passed over since all they had left were Mounds. Luckily, I love Mounds.
• Students have a hard time taking their professor seriously if said professor is wearing bunny ears or (more distracting) a cottontail. (Pictures to come.) The gravitas partially returns, however, when you give them a quiz. On the day that their midterms are due. Yes, I am evil.
• The Supreme Court can get tricky.

Darn you, U.S. government!!

There are many reasons why I am shaking my fist like Homer Simpson this morning at the U.S. Government. (Say, for example, the new Supreme Coast Justice nominee.) But my beef this morning is far more mundane: I'm railing against Daylight Savings Time.

Why? you ask. After all, did you not get the extra hour of sleep/fun this weekend? Oh sure, I would have. Except someone forgot to tell my baby! Having no clue what daylight ssavings time (or, for that matter, time in general) is, he woke up at his normal time for the day this morning... which now is around 5:30am. Thr itony is that now (at 7:00am) he's napping, while I'm awke.

So, because I love my son, I blame the government.

My child ate your homework

Xan and I love to go food shopping. OK, maybe Xan doesn't really care for it (at least until I give him a can to play with), but it's a lot of fun for me. Not only do I get stopped all the time and people tell me how cute he is, but it's also something to do to amuse him and get something useful done at the same time.

Today we went to Trader Joe's first, as usual. At the checkout, I gave him the shopping list. He quite happily was using it to bang himself and everything around him and I was loathe to take it away. Since he wasn't putting it in his mouth, I left it with him while we drove back to the Shopper's Food Warehouse by our home.

When I opened the back door of the car, this is what I found being held by an extremely happy little boy:


Luckily, I could still read everything on here. I figure at least he's getting some fiber.

This happens immedaitely before I am to receive the first major stacks of papers from students this semester -- and, indeed, for the first time since becoming a dad. Suddenly, I am imagining the state I may have to return some papers in as he gets a little older. "By any chance, does anyone recognize this paper before the name was chewed off?"

Evidence that improving Sino-American relations are perhaps not a good thing

Ange showed me this and, while we wonder what exactly our colleague Kelly was googling when he found this instead, I assure you that this is possibly the most compelling three minutes of video you will see in a long time.

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that...

My adoring blog-readers, your clamoring has been heard. I have been very lax at updating the blog of late and I apologize. (This, right after I told my cousin Mónica to keep checking it.) Things have been busy, busy, busy -- and won't get any better on Monday, when I will receive the papers from both classes that I idiotically assigned to be due on the same day. This weekend, with the nuptuals of one Katie Taylor happening (and Angela and I in full costume at the wedding), doesn't stand to be much less busy.

Hence, this is a perfect time for my son to discover that there is possibly no greater therapy than a swing. Somehow, I think he understands.

Squish! Squash!

Angela actually used these words today when exposing Xan to the mysteries of Squash-o-Lanterns. (Tune in later to see pics of these in action! Meanwhile, guess what's for dinner!)

This one's for Julie Donahue, for obvious reasons

My nephew (the lucky bastard) got Lloyd Dobler. And I haven't seen this one. Still...

Which John Cusack Are You?

Not to mention I was wearing my sweatshirt that reads "American University DAD"

I took Xan this morning to go see In Her Shoes at the Georgetown Loews cry-baby screening, where I was one of two people with a Y chormosone in a packed theater over the age of five. (Though not nearly as accomplished as A History of Violence, which I saw last night with Cuozzo, I found it far more entertaining than I thought it would be. Not up to director Curtis Hanson's other work, but still fun.)

The priceless moment came before the screening. As I purchased my ticket, a woman came up with her baby behind me and said, "Oh, how cute. Are you a manny?"

Ah, Washington.

ZZ: Tops

Is this cute? It makes a professor's heart go pitter-pat.

My former TA, Dan Zak, now writes movie reviews for The Buffalo News; my other former TA, Emily Zemler, now works for Entertainment Weekly, doing something she hasn't quite told me yet. Though it seems she would be perfect for the "Going Five Rounds [of Drinks] with [Insert Rock Band with Cute Male Singer Here]" for the Listen2It section, I can only assume -- since she won't tell me -- that she gets coffee or something... and apparently, occasionally posts to the EW blog, PopWatch.

Nearly five years after having collided in my Critical Approach to the Cinema class and sparring every since (Quoting EZ, minutes before I was going to ask her to be my new TA: "I'm so angry that you chose Dan as your TA and not me!"), they collide once again as PopWatch lists Dan's review of Serenity in their humorous summary of review titles riffing on the movie title. OK, so Emily didn't write it -- still, it warms the cockles of my heart. Way to go, guys!

But then, what to do with the gilblet gravy?

I just read an ad in the CityPaper for a nightclub which will feature a Thanksgiving Day attraction of mashed potato wrestling.

The scarier part? Upon googling "mashed potato wrestling," I find that it is a sport practiced in many places, particularly Clark, South Dakota, the mashed potato capital of the world.

Pretty much speechless now.