things i have learned in human development

On Peers: "Peers! Can leave! Lifelong! Lasting! Scars!!! On you!!!"


On Unwanted Infants: "But you change your mind! It's like when you have a pet! You get the pet, you don't like the pet, you live with the pet, and then you like the pet!"

On Careers: "If I could do it again, I think i'd go into primatology because I think it is fun to play with chimpanzees."

On Animals who are Independent at Birth: "Have you observed the chickens that hatch out of the egg? It's so cute! They peck peck peck out of the shell!" 

On Hospitals: "Have you been to the hospital? Don't go there. Ever. But you never know."


On Temperament: "I'm well known in my family as OH too much arm moving around."


On Human Nature: "Luckily we're not like goats. We're not that simple."


On Vulnerability: "I thought, before i got rash, that I was immortal. . . . NO. It can strike anyone."


On the End of Times: "Particularly rats. I have no doubt that after humans are long gone, there will be rats on this planet."

Love always,
Clara

glitter

Andrew: Today my mother sent me a picture of my cat's paw.
Me: I saw my dog on skype today. I win.
Andrew: I saw both of my cats in person today.
Me: Oh.
Andrew: Never try to defeat me.

Mother, please step it up. Andrew is winning. Also, Mother, if you're reading this, please skip the rest.

I came home two nights ago covered in glitter and lube, and I am going to tell you why.

Friday night was a relatively chill night from the start in Keeney. We decided that classy cocktails would be a fun thing to make, so we spent a solid amount of time hanging out in Scott's newly half-empty room (Ken, we all miss you terribly). Slowly people worked their way down to play Beirut, listen to music, and generally do whatever it is that we do on a Friday.

However, this Friday was unusual in that there seemed to be a circle of people in their underwear on the quad. Nicole and I had decided to investigate, but she got wrapped into a game, so I boldly adventured out on my own.

Me: Hello! What is going on!

It was at that point that I realized the two guys approaching me were also covered in glitter and paint. They explained that it was a birthday party for their friend who had lived in Keeney for two years in a row. They also explained that they were open to welcoming new paint-party-goers. They were out of paint it appeared, but had ample glitter.
The glitter was sustained in some kind of gooey substance, a fact I discovered when someone smeared it on my arm. I discovered that it was lube much later on, once there was no turning back.

I convinced the others to come out with me, before going upstairs myself to shower. At around that time, some Zetes showed up, people got naked, and DPS made an appearance. I'd say it was the most quintessentially weird college experience I've had all year.
I hope next year has as many of these moments.

Love always,
Clara

can I borrow a pen and SCREW YOU

Hannah: My director tried to bond with me over the fact that we're both in multiracial relationships. It was kind of racist. She said that basically the only reason someone would go into one was to make a political statement. I mean, I'm making a political statement with Andrew, but it's not because he's white. It's because I believe in retard rights. They deserve regular sex too, for a little while.
Andrew: You're just giving me an experience with sex before I'm alone for the rest of my life.
Hannah: That's right, dear.

Hannah really is doing a great thing for the movement for the rights of the mentally impaired. I admire her a lot. Really.

Me: Can I borrow a pen of yours?
Stefan: Did you just say "up yours"?
Me: I said "of yours." Not like, "Can I borrow a pen and also fuck you!"
Stefan: Can I borrow a pen and I hate you.
Me: Can I borrow a pen and you're a giant asshole.

For the record, Stefan isn't always a giant asshole. Only a significant fraction of the time.
He's a good study buddy though. We're going to kill this Brain Damage exam. And after that happens, this week is going to get a lot better.

Love always,
Clara

klingon

Aaron: Generally, text. On a page. I mean, if you want to build a mechanical robot that... breathes fire... let me know. But yeah, usually people do stories.

Yesterday was an average day in Fiction class and by that I mean nothing made sense ever. We watched the first twenty minutes of Wizard People, Dear Reader, though. I'm half-convinced that Aaron is just trying to turn us into cool people.

Brigham: Why is there a 69 and 1/2 Brown street?
Aaron: Um... hard to say.

After fiction, I went to a lecture with the linguist that the Star Trek people hired to invent Klingon. He was surprisingly charismatic, and I think he had the most interesting career possible for a linguist. This saddens me and makes me wish there were more science fiction movies in need of otherworldly languages, because if so, I would make linguistics my major right now.

Aaron: I hope graphic sex scenes also inspired you to not write about sex ever.

Today has also been fun. I just woke up from that nap that's been three days in the making, which was actually quite nice, and I woke up to a text from Dan.

Dan
I have procured some sir kensingtons ketchup-we now need a tasting party immediately!
Me
Good heavens! Bring on the space disco!

It's been (and, I suspect, will continue to be) a very good friday.

Love always,
Clara

sophomore

Mr. Cox once told us that the word "sophomore" comes from the greek words for "wise" and "fool". That sounds about right. I really don't know what to make of the whole idea of a second year of college in which one must decide what one is to be studying.
This is relevant because I preregistered for next semester this morning.

At the moment, I'm signed up for (or planning to sign up for):

• CLPS0610, Children's Thinking, because I am considering being a psych major, and I want to be able to go home and psychoanalyze little baby Ava.
• ANTH0300, Culture and Health, because it sounded interesting. That's really my only rationale.
• ENGN0090, Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations, because I've heard it's a fantastic class, people are obsessed with the professor, and knowing how to run a business just seems like a practical skill to have*.
• HIST1460, History of the Modern Middle East, because someone told me this weekend that the professor is great, and it seems like one of those classes that helps you read the newspaper.
• VISA0100, Studio Foundations, because I want to be artsy, damn it (I'm in the lottery, so that might not happen, but I'm hoping it will).
• ITALXXXX, Italian of some kind, because I don't want to lose the italian that I learn this summer.

So, that's a lot of classes. This is the first semester that I've really gotten to take advantage of the fact that I know people who have taken certain classes and can ask them whether they're worthwhile. My mom used to say that she would just follow the good professors around, and that seems like a solid strategy.

Anyway, who knows what I'll actually end up taking. I didn't fully expect to find myself in Syntax this semester, and yet, that is where I will be in an hour, and I have not yet taken that nap... I should do that now.

Love always,
Clara

it was far from over!

My last post was indeed a premature retrospective on Spring Weekend. The best, in fact, was yet to come.
There is a man named Dave Binder, and apparently every year the Greek Council gets him to come play a final Spring Weekend concert on Wriston quad.
Everyone is exhausted and drinking at two pm... and then he makes us do the hokey pokey.
I'm not even joking.

Everyone goes out onto the quad, and the nearby frats have cookouts and such. I made some new fratty friends (this has basically been my primary nighttime activity for the last month or so) which was superb. Then Benny and I went with some guys to dance (or, specifically, to twist and shout).

Binder also played Time of Your Life by Green Day.

Me: This song made me cry at the end of eighth grade! Oh my god!

I made the wise decision to bring out my diana mini. One of my new friends said that with my analogue camera and roundish sunglasses and such, I must be a dirty hipster. This, of course, isn't true; I listen to Taylor Swift in the least ironic way possible. There's no way that those two facts can coexist.

I'll have photos soon though. I need to schedule a trip to the CVS that develops film.

Love always,
Clara

i feel like i'm scrapbooking the strange things in life

Today, in Health Care class. Guest lecturer is using clickers to take a poll.

If you were the Omnipotent US Health Czar in 2011 and could be granted 1 wish, what would it be?
a. Institute a single payer system to control costs and re-design delivery system?
b. Make costs and quality completely transparent, then provide everyone vouchers for private insurance?
c. Assign every American to a primary care medical home and pay for care coordination?
d. Make everyone move to Utah?

Lecturer: All of the answers are valid. Even the last one. My sister lives in Utah. It's a lovely place.

... I am still probably not going to move to Utah.

Love always,
Clara

standards

Standardized testing, in particular. Did you know that the most recent SAT essay was about reality TV? Is that not ridiculous?

I, for one, am insulted. I think the College Board and I both sighed with relief when I finally ended my entanglement with them (they get tired of nasty letters on scratch paper, I presume). I've always been of the opinion that the College Board is the primary force responsible for squishing those of my age group into the role little bubble filling lab rats (hit correct button, get pellet) that we're told will bring us life success (the greatest little pellet of all!).
The real fact of the matter, of course, is that the things that lead us to life success are the things that we are doing when we are not studying for the SAT.

I feel that this essay question debacle has provided some insight on the matter though. Perhaps the College Board does not even realize what they are doing wrong (although I have tried to explain it to them. Perhaps they do not read my letters). Maybe they think that we don't do fulfilling things for their own sake. Maybe they think we spend all of our time watching Jersey Shore and studying for their tests and doing school. The notable exception is sports; they seem to assume that we all play sports, and there seem to be sports-oriented questions on every test (I am bitter because I am not good at sports).

All of this would explain their choice of essay question. I can just picture them in their boardroom. "I hear the whippersnappers are watching this reality TV thing. Shall we bring this test to their level? I think we shall." It's out of touch and condescending.

So, College Board decision makers, if you read this (as you clearly did not read my letters), I hope you've learned something. You won't get tested on it, but I trust that you don't need that kind of threat to retain vital information in your peculiar little heads.

And for those of you who are still taking SATs, a slice of college life for you to look forward to. I just heard this conversation outside my door:

Girl: If I were a guy, I would get my butt waxed.
Girl 2: What, like on a weekly basis?

Love always,
Clara

exquisite

The time between tuesday night and friday afternoon is always a blur of class and Post- (what up, 3am?) and sleep and syntax and fiction class and sleep and more class. Class and sleep and class and sleep and post- and class and sleep and class. I'm slowly coming to.

Yesterday in Fiction we tried to do an exquisite corpse out loud, based on some poems and excerpts that we were told to memorize.

K: I want you guys to memorize a poem for next week, the reason for which is as ambiguous as life itself.

The ambiguous reason was the exquisite corpse. We were meant to each say a line of the thing we memorized, or, if the spirit compelled us, something else completely. That's what I like about fiction class.

Alejandro: But the pen is mightier than the sword.
Sahil: Both, as it happens, phallic images.
Cara: Everything is a phallic image.
Ade: Freud would be proud.
K: That's what she said.

Exquisite indeed. I was just proud that the whole thing didn't turn to a discussion of menstruation. In my fiction class, that really is an accomplishment.

Love always,
Clara

risky business

If you had come up to me a year ago and said, "In college, you will play more board games and board game variants than you ever thought possible," I would have thought you were 1) Crazy, 2) Full of shit, 3) Wrong, or 4) All of the above.

If that had happened, today I would have found you and apologized, because you would have been totally right.

Last night we went to Tea in Sahara again. There were a lot of us, so we brought along a game of Risk to supplement the usual Monopoly doings. I played Monopoly because I was in a Monopoly mood, and lost because I got screwed over by Park Place with three houses and lost my sources of revenue. It was all very shady, since there was some sort of joint-ownership situation with the monopoly at the end of the board (John and Mark, I am shaking my head) but that's capitalism for you.
We went to Jo's on the way back, and then returned to Keeney, where I decided I did want to learn how to play Risk. Risk is one of those games that I've always seen and thought "That looks like it takes a long time."
It does.

So Audrey, John, Andrew, and I sat on Andrew's floor and started up another game, while Hannah went to Zete for some kind of Zete-function (I'm glad I didn't go greek. It all seems to require a lot of bizarre obligations, between carrying lighters and bricks around, making girls kiss you, and drinking on tuesday nights.)
Teddy immediately took to hurling information at me, which was a waste of time because I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently he's really good at Risk, but all of that was lost on me.

Hannah turned up about an hour later, back from Zete, entertaining as ever.

Hannah: Clara, you need to fuck Alaska's shit up.
Me: Oh, I plan to. That's on my to-do list. Thanks Hannah!

There's advice I can understand.

Love always,
Clara

"okay, new question. hexagons or pentagons? no flying allowed."

I turned up to lunch in a mood. People fixed it, as people tend to do. A bad mood, I've found, can almost always be remedied by being around people.

David: So, guys, question. If you could harness one element for destructive power, which would you pick?

I said air, so that I could fly, which is always a priority. David said no flying was allowed, and that we could only use our elements for destructive ends. I then chose fire.

Nicole chose water. David was operating within a Pokemon paradigm in which water and ice are two different elements. The rest of us disagreed.

I, for one, was operating within an Avatar: The Last Airbender paradigm, simply because I have the most exposure to it. Considering the fact that I've never seen the movie, or a whole episode of the cartoon, this should be surprising, but as I explained to the table, in my house, when Grace likes something, there's no way to insulate yourself from the all-encompassing enthusiasm.

It then occurred to me that Grace liking something is better than Grace disliking something.

Me: It could be worse. When my sister was younger she decided she didn't like cats.

David: And that was a dark time in all of our lives.

Me: It was.

To be fair, she was eight or nine when that phase happened, and so biting kids on the playground was a tiny bit more acceptable than it would be, for example, right now.

Syntax class has been somewhat weird for the past few classes. I keep inferring innuendo that isn't actually there.

Pauly J: So this verb phrase, in its lexical entry, says "Yeah, put that inside me."

Me: *giggles*

Actually, on second thought, that innuendo was definitely there, although certainly not intentional. Most of the other people in the class seemed slightly horrified that my mind was so far into the gutter at three PM on a tuesday.

Today we talked about transitive verbs. Our example word was "kiss".

Pauly J: This is so much fun. Some years, I use "lick." You could do anything, really. We could say Zephyr likes Vertigo. It's just more fun with kissing.

Love always,

Clara

prefrosh

Things are slowly coming together. I know where I'm living next year. Hurrah for the international house!

Last night, Lucas went into a chat room for potential Brown pre-frosh. He's already preying on the little freshmen, and they haven't even decided to come here yet. It's either epic planning ahead, or ethically questionable, or (most likely) both.

Lucas: My closing line is always "Fuck bitches, get money."
Andrew: Lucas, how exactly do you see yourself?
Lucas: Hm. A combination of... Rorschach and Barney.
David: Rorschach didn't fuck bitches or get money.

Lucas then amended that statement. Instead of "Barney" in the above dialogue, he would prefer that you read "Biggie Smalls" or "Weezy" or "Bubastis" (who I am told is a lynx).

At some point over this conversation, one of the baby prefrosh said that he was a cool guy.

Lucas: Ah! See! Fie on all of you!

It all reminds me of the time Robert got his Polish friends to troll a Brown-applicant chat room because none of them knew what a "liberal arts university" really meant. They were like "OH YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE AN ENGINEERING PROGRAM," and everyone else in the room was like "... don't we? Pretty sure we do."

We do. They have a weird fascination with cats.

Love always,
Clara

syntactic cheekiness

I fell asleep in the SciLi today. It wasn't good for a number of reasons (speaking of, those chairs in the back that look like amoebae are not too comfortable) but the greatest of which is probably that I slept through the first twenty minutes of Syntax class.

Me: Hi! I'm here. Sorry. I fell asleep in the SciLi. It was not a good plan.

Pauly-J: That's not a good place to get a good night's sleep!

Because I was in that familiar post nap haze (in combination with the daunting pre-migraine absurdism), I was in a particularly punchy mood today.

Pauly-J: What language is this similar to?

Me: Well... it has some things in common with German.

Pauly-J: It's just like German!

Benny gave me a very disapproving look at this point, the reason for which is unclear. I started to giggle because I didn't know what else to do (and when a giggle is coming, I can't stop it. That's actually been a theme today. Too much giggling, not enough giggle-oriented-restraint.)

Pauly-J: What just happened over there?

Me: Oh, nothing. Benny just gave me a look.

Benny: What?

Me: Yeah. And I'm calling you out on it. What.

Pauly-J: Okay... I'm not sure I want to know.

I was also in the mood to mumble to myself today. That's generally okay in bigger classes, because I can make an aside to someone next to me and do so without disrupting the flow of class. In a small seminar though, it can be problematic.

Pauly-J: So in Icelandic, some words have case variation in their subjects, such as the word for "lack".

Girl: Doesn't that cause ambiguity?

Pauly-J: Well, not really, because usually the subject of "lack" is something animate, and the object is not.

Girl: Not necessarily. You could say "The soup lacks salt."

Me: I bet they drink a lot of soup in Iceland.

There was no reason to say that. And yet... words. Coming out of my mouth.

Simply inexplicable.

At this point I knew I was in a pre-migraine mood. I popped a couple advil when I got back to the room, which seems to have helped. I'm getting the watery-eyes thing, but the full on headache seems to have backed off a bit. When the weather stops changing I'll know I'm safe.

Love always,

Clara

fun things about prosopagnosia

I have a brain damage exam (for the class, not my brain. Although my brain is involved) on friday. Therefore, this post qualifies as studying.

I have mild prosopagnosia. I don't think it was acquired, I think I'm just like this. Actually, I think it's genetic, but in my mom the same deficiency (in the same area of the brain) gives her a terrible sense of direction.

Anyway, usually this facial-recognition deficit means I don't think I know people that I should know. Ask me how many times I introduced myself to Kyle, or Josh from the fourth floor, or Josh who is Benny's roommate, or countless other people whose names I still don't know. By introduction three, they generally give me a look like, "Are you joking right now?" and I realize that I probably should know who this person is.

(This is why I tend to introduce myself by saying "I'm not sure we've met." It introduces an opportunity for my interlocutor to say, "We have.")

It also means I'm bad at telling similar-looking people apart. For at least two years, I was convinced that Andrew R. and Alexander K. were the same person (If you went to my school and know who these people are, it will make sense to you. If you don't, know that they're both average height and have dark hair). Worse, I couldn't distinguish Paul and Brendan (the only two black kids in my third grade class) for at least a semester, and everyone called me a racist, and it wasn't true, I swear. If my third grade self had known that prosopagnosia was a real thing, I would have said something about it (smugly, I presume. That was my third grade self in a nutshell.) but I just thought that, oh no, maybe I was secretly racist.

Cameron and Russell gave me a way out of this. Cameron and Russell were two kids on my bus in the class a few grades below me. Both had older sisters. Both were of average height. Both had hair that was on the darker side of blonde. I could not distinguish them to save my life when I was younger. Eventually, I think Cameron said, "Look, I have a red backpack and Russell has a blue one. Figure it out."

And so I developed compensatory operations. I could tell Alexander from Andrew by their voices (going to a school where everyone wore uniforms didn't help). Paul was just a little shorter than Brendan. And so it goes. I tend to recognize people based on what they wear and how they carry themselves (apparently the neural pathway that processes expressions and emotions was fine, because I actually rely on particular people's expressions to distinguish them) and the sounds of their voices, and context.

Where I'm going with this is that sometimes my compensatory operations lead me to believe that I do know someone that I really don't.

Exempli gratia: I had this great idea the other day in the Ratty to get a piece of bread and drizzle french onion soup over it. While I was standing there dealing with my soup, a girl of below average height, with dark hair, wearing black, approached to get some soup of her own. She fit the profile of a girl named Tiffany, who is from england, and whom I've met enough times that we could certainly make small talk over soup.

Me: I'm not sure this plan is going to work.

Girl: [In what is very much not a British accent] That's a good idea though! That's the best part about french onion soup!

Me: I hope so!

Girl: Maybe I'll try it!

Now I'm thinking, I've never met that girl before, but I have made a new friend and she now has a new idea in her head about soup.

Hooray for brain dysfunction!

Love always,

Clara

P.S. Usually that conversation goes something like this.

Me: Hey.

Person: [Questioning look]

Me: Oh, you're not who I thought you were.

Person: [Very questioning look]

Me: Sorry...

it's exactly what it sounds like

There is a website detailing how to have sex with a dolphin.

I don't know how we discovered this tonight, but we did.

Valerie: I don't want this on my search history!

Ken is applying to be a Meikeljohn, which is a word made up by people at Brown to describe an academic peer advisor. He took this site to be a sort of inspiration.

Ken: Why do you want to be a Meikeljohn? I would like to help the freshmen adjust to college life... and interspecies sex. No, I want the title because it will help me pick up dolphins.

It turns out that you should never try to orally pleasure a dolphin, because it can literally blow your head off with dolphin-ejaculate. I hope that this is the last time I ever have to type (or you ever have to read) the words "dolphin ejaculate."

Oh wait, there I go again.

Anyway, if a dolphin ever propositions you (because, according to this website, they do ask for it), definitely avoid that option.

I get the feeling this is going to be one of those posts that gets hits based on very weird google searches.

Love always,

Clara

i enjoy economics

I have an economics exam tomorrow. It's the last one, so I keep reminding myself that in twenty four hours I'll be done with first semester, and, hopefully, drunk.

That will be a good thing after this week. Last weekend I was mostly either studying for my linguistics exam or feeling like I should be studying for my philosophy exam, so an opportunity for some good old fashioned college stress relief was forgone.

That will be fixed by drinking on a wednesday. In celebration, of course. It's a totally okay thing to do.

Anyway, I just spent three hours in Andrew and Teddy's room studying. We managed to get off topic more often than not.

Me: So MV equals PY. We need a mnemonic. Mars Venus Pluto...

Andrew: Your-anus?

Me: Cool. So Mars, Venus, Penis.... crap.

Andrew: We could just make it Mars Venus, Your Penis.

Me: That works well.

It turns out though, in the quantity equation, the price (P) is actually the GDP Deflator (which is nominal GDP over real GDP)

Andrew: How are we going to remember that?

Me: Your penis is deflated.

Andrew: ... economics does deflate my penis.

This was far more innuendo than you expected to find in my recounting of studying for economics, isn't it?

We've also established that there was consumer surplus of at least thirty cents when Andrew bought a song about communism, ironically, on itunes, and to answer questions such as "What is money?" it would probably be most productive to walk into the exam high and write a long rambling monologue on why we should all just not value money, man, and communes are like, totally great.

Billy came in at some point and started insulting transgendered people. I don't think he was doing it on purpose exactly, but we being politically correct Brown kids felt the desire to chastise him for this.

Me: Billy, we were having a perfectly nice conversation before you came in.

Teddy: Yeah, about having sex with Hooters girls in an alley.

Me: It really wouldn't work in the winter, we've decided.

Reasons I prefer hanging out with guys: #9204

Love always,
Clara

happy december!

I hope your day went well. Mine was relatively uneventful.

That's not entirely true. I'm trying to invent a language for my final linguistics project and it is incredibly entertaining.

the older bird always gives the worm to the littlest bird in the nest
badnazo boro pɪrɪna laz lalɪma pɪtapar boroma zasopararar.

Do you see that? "zasopararar?" What?! I was doing this in Faunce and basically giggling to myself. It feels so ridiculous, but it's a significant portion of the grade. (Not everyone is making up a language. That was just one of the options. But it's totally my style.)

In third grade, Corinne and I had a language I think. It wasn't really a language though. We would just make noises at each other and pretend that we understood what the other one was saying. Corinne was a character.

Also, speaking of incredibly entertaining things, read this. McSweeney's cracks me up on a regular basis and I am thrilled by it.

Love always,

Clara

adjacent to the ship

Kid: [asks question]

Professor L: Wow. You've jumped ship here. Well, you've jumped ship to an adjacent ship.

I found this hilarious for some reason.

Speaking of things I found hilarious, last night when I decided I really ought to watch the damn film for MCM, I discovered that it's in spanish. It's hard to find a spanish movie with english subtitles for free online. And the quality of said subtitles is not the greatest.

It's like everything went through Google translator... twice.

Professor C: Why Web 2.0 Suicide? Why this obsession with ending it all? Why do I want to retire in ten years and become a survivalist in British Columbia?

I swear, at the end of this class the professor is going to have a whole lecture saying, essentially, "GOTCHA! This doesn't mean anything!"

Love always,

Clara

do YOU ever watch youtube?

Man: Jim, do you ever watch youtube?

I'm sitting in Starbucks (no I'm not telling you where it is! And if you've guessed, you're wrong!) with my shitty earbuds in, and people are assuming I'm listening to music. In reality I can listen in on other people's conversations in an inconspicuous way. This might be my new hobby.

These two older men are sitting nearby. They seem to be writers of some kind, with a particular interest in the middle east. They had a great conversation about Tom Friedman. Very smart guys.

Man: Speaking of parallel universes...

I came here with the intention to write my MCM essay about voyeurism, cinematic pleasure, freudian psychoanalysis, and Alfred Hitchcock.

I'm finding it strangely fitting that my preferred method of procrastination is basically being a creeper. Just like Jeffries in Rear Window! So relevant!

I'm just trying to make the most of my Ivy League education over here. Applying new concepts to everyday life. Not being a freak at all.

Jim: I don't know where the truth lies.

Man: Somewhere... deep down below.

... I really wish I knew what that was about.

Love always,

Clara

fierce.

TA Hunter: Tyra Banks uses this term "je ne sais quoi" frequently on the show, not that I have a vast encyclopedic knowledge of America's Next Top Model or anything...

I love it when teachers admit that they're real people. People fall into roles so quickly.

My linguistics teacher talks about her dogs all the time (within the context of example sentences, but still). And apparently our MCM TA is really into America's Next Top Model.

TA Hunter: Perhaps to paraphrase Tyra Banks, this is a fierce photograph.

Love always,

Clara