Bones: Where I went to college, when someone said "Bones!" legend had it that various men soon to be employed by the national security apparatus would leap up and leave the room in a huff. Myself, I never saw it happen. But in the History Department at Brigham Young University they probably do run out of the room when someone says "bones," just for good measure. Radical readers recall that week before last, a box of human skulls arrived by USPS. They have now been partially identified, according to KSL-TV's website, as being the remains of people who lived between 1100 and 1300 A.D. This means they are probably not former history professors, but probably the ancestors of native people. For future reference: according to my local expert, it is illegal to buy or sell human remains as souvenirs, and if you happen to locate unidentified remains in a house you are cleaning out, it is also illegal to mail them across state lines.
KSL still does not know why these remains were mailed to BYU. Revenge perhaps?
Dykes: Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. However the exciting news is that DYKE: A Quarterly, described as "a magazine of Lesbian culture and analysis" that was published by Liza Cowan and Penny House between 1975 and 1979, is building an online archive. So far only a few issues are up, but it's like getting a breath of fresh air from the past. Put on your overalls and bandanna and beam yourself back to the past, Scottie. "What is DYKE?" issue one asks. "DYKE is a magazine for dykes only! We will speak freely among ourselves. We are not interested in telling the straight world what we are doing. In fact, we hope they never even see the magazine. It is none of their business. If they chance to see it, we hope they think it is mindless gobbledygook. We are already thinking in ways that are incomprehensible to them." (4)
'Toons: Followers of Tenured Radical were pleased, appalled and/or frightened last Monday to see that we have a whole new way of expressing ourselves through Xtranormal's animation program. The series "Planet University" was launched with the pilot episode, "I Want A Raise." As one anonymous commenter pointed out, "'I want a raise' voiced in slightly stilted British accent [is] a catch-phrase just about to take off on my campus." Soon I could be the academic version of the Rickie Gervais character on Extras who can't get a job in a real movie, but then writes a horrible, and horribly successful, sit-com where he has to wear a fluffy wig, squint and say "Arr ye 'avin' a laff? Is 'e 'avin a laff???"
In addition to the several thousand hits "I Want A Raise" received in the course of a week on one of your favorite academic blogs, people who while their lives away on the Xtranormal website seem to be finding it too. Let's hope to God it doesn't inspire them to go to graduate school. The big news is that Roxie's World has now taken up the challenge with: "I Want To Be Promoted." Sing it, Roxie!
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