I'm a Hungarian Movie Star

I've always been one to pursue fame over fortune, and today I might have just used up 3 of my alotted 15 minutes. A film crew (or TV crew, I couldnt really tell) were pretty much camped out filming in the lobby of our apartment building (which is quite gorgeous) most of this evening. Definately a Hungarian show and not Steven Spielberg-- who is in town filming "Munich"--Budapest is serving as the backdrop for shots of Paris. So there I was, walking back and forth in the lobby with jeans and a sweater, hopefully looking sufficiently Hungarian for the TV cameras. If I only knew what the movie was. Oh well.

For those of you that are concerned about my procrastination tactics, I have good news to report: I managed to work on my National Science Foundation grant proposal for about 6 hours today, when i wasnt starring in the film downstairs (and it is Saturday!). I feel as though I have found a bit of a groove, so hopefully I can continue on with this and crank out a bit tomorrow. NSF has a rolling deadline for applications, so been a bit hard to motivate without a solid deadline.

on a random research note, if anyone knows about html coding using iso-8859-2 characters (allows for all of the funky hungarian vowels) please let me know. I'm starting to code my web survey.

The rains came last night and the weather turned cold. I'm hoping my boxes of sweaters shows up any day now! Tomorrow high of 63 F with 90% chance of rain. good day to work on nsf app.

Go Hoosiers, I see that the Hoosiers are up ten-nuttin' to the kentucky kats, perhaps we will be better this year, now if only duke could win a game! Oh wait, i just checked the score and Duke did win, 40-14 over VMI, incredible! Why is it that I have never attended a decent football school (wooster, indiana, duke)? perhaps that should be one of the criterion for selecting where i get my first professorship----USC, Texas, Tennessee, LSU, Virginia Tech...............

take care, off to bed. love, bets

The Spirit of 1776

Today i had the priviledge of attending a lecture by David McCullough, the author of the most recent Spirit of 1776. The lecture was sponsered by the US Embassy as a cultural exchange. Mr. McCullough spoke mostly about his book, the leadership abilities of George Washington in leading a rag-tag army of exhausted, filthy, hungry soldiers in the various battles of the Revolutionary war. He then ventured into his take on the role of history in society, the importance of a liberal arts education, the difference between "information" and knowledge and intelligence. He suggested that we students should not only read the books written by and about historic figures, but to immerse ourselves in the books they read, imploring us to read, for example, Don Quixote by Cervantes. He said that before he writes any book, he reads everything that his book subjects have read in order to better capture their thoughts, ideas and dreams (e.g., John and Abigail Adams, who were apparently voracious readers). Wow, that seems like a pretty darn daunting task to me. He also told us to turn off our televisions.

One of the audience members (a Hungarian) asked about comparing the leadership abilities in 1776 versus the lack of leadership that was shown in the aftermath of Katrina. I felt kind of bad for McCullough at this point, as he was standing 3 feet from President Bush's cousin (the ambassador). The author hailed the leadership skills of Rudy Guiliani post 9-11 (the head of the fire department of New York city was also at the McCullough's talk, although Im not sure why, perhaps as part of the cultural tour with McCullough in an attempt to improve our image across the world). McCullough, who wrote his first book about the catastrophic Johnstown Flood in 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, said that he saw the biggest weakness in governmental leadership as not recognizing (or doing anything about) the risk of the levee failure when it had been predicted by so many experts . But McCullough emphasized the need to hold judgment of those in power until after the crises has subsided. Overall, quite a fascinating talk from an incredibly knowledgeable, articulate historian.

On a side note: I received an email back from the gallery/artist that was displaying one of my paintings in New Orleans, they all made it out okay and are living in DC. They plan on returning to New Orleans at some point. There is an interesting article in today's NY Times about artists and their artwork in New Orleans post Katrina. (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/arts/design/13arti.html?8hpib).
The gallery/shop where I was displayed in New Orleans:
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/archives/2001/0410/feat-shop.html

On a second side note: Did you all see that Ebay bought Skype for $2.6 billion? Skype is the internet telephony company that i have been using, with great satisfaction, to call and receive calls from the states (2 cents a minute for me to call the US, the cost of a phone call to north carolina to call me using my skype carolina number(email if you want that number)). Its a pretty amazing service with great phone quality (now that i have a good phone to plug into my computer). This is generally cheaper than any phone service ive had within the US, but im a bit disappointed by the acquisition by ebay---while it will probably elevate the number of skype users across the world, by name alone, i fear an increase in fees and decrease in ingenuity. The brain-power programers behind skype (Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis) are two of the most brilliant, entrepreneurial programmers out there (they also developed Kazaa, a file swapping program) and have recently been covered by Vanity Fair. Definately two guys whose careers are worth following. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/technology/13phone.html

What Im Really Doing in Hungary

In all seriousness, I do plan on doing work this year. I am meeting with my Fulbright Sponser, Dr. Istvan Ijjas at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE) tomorrow to discuss my dissertation project. JoAnn, a professor from MIT who funded me to go to Prague the past couple of summers is coming into Budapest tomorrow as well and is staying until Sunday. I will be housing an MIT student at my flat for the rest of the week (Elizabeth).

The next couple of months I am going to (1) finish my application for an National Science Foundation grant, (2) finish the Duke IRB (institutional review board, approves research projects) (2) Meet with and interview scientific/water experts in Budapest, (3) develop a database of all towns/cities in project area (includes most of Hungary, and a touch of Romania, Slovakia, Austria, Sebia, Croatia, Ukraine) (4) Develop an online survey for town mayors (asking questions about past flooding, water quality issues, land use development, cooperation with other cities and nations. This online survey will be developed in all of the languages of the area.
Then in January I will select four specific watersheds based on the information I have collected in this first part to study how past flooding has affected management of the rivers and water quality.

So the next three months or so will be spent mostly in Budapest, working on my Hungarian, making Hungarian friends, making contacts with translators, relaxing, hanging out a bit, etc. After January I will be travelling a bit more throughout the region.

well i better get to work, ashlin, a fulbright playwright (working on his mfa at columbia), former NHL hockey player is coming over for dinner at 7. real nice guy and a bit random. okay, really going to get to work, my skype telephone just arrived from Denmark, so hopefully that will improve reception!

My Hungarian Tutor

Had my first official (post-orientation) Hungarian lesson today from Eva, the woman on the left in the picture. She teaches Hungarian, is a painter, student, photographer, dancer and former sandwich delivery person (in London). Next she wants to move to Jordan to teach scuba diving. hmmm. She's a friend of a friend of a fulbright-friend. In the picture she is selling some of her spray-painted sunset scenes on the main shopping street near my flat. Im not a big fan of the work, but apparently it sells quite well to Americans. She has made about $3,000 so far in two months or so, which really has me thinking that i should start painting again and set up shop. anyways, she seems sweet, and helpful with my Hungarian, mostly just chit chatted. She wanted to know if Indiana is like the television show 'Dallas'---can we please export newer and better televisions shows than this? The second question was why we voted for George Bush, which I wasn't quite sure what to say, since I didn't vote for him---so friends and family that did, can you help me with an explanation, please?

An Afternoon at IKEA

As a means of delaying work on my dissertation for one more day, I decided to take the red metro to the end of the line to check out IKEA, in particular their pillows and towels. As I walk into the giant blue box with huge bright yellow letters IKEA sprawled across the side of the building, I think how i very well could be in suburban Chicago, or perhaps northern Virginia. But no, Im in a Swedish furniture store in Budapest, listening to Seal (a British musician of Nigerian/Brasilian descent). As i walk past the restaurant serving swedish meatballs and falafel on pita, I grab a large yellow bag and head upstairs to the linen section (or what i guess is the linen section, my household hungarian words need some refreshing). I check out the other customers, generally youngish women wearing low hung jeans with flip-flops, skin tight t-shirts and cloth belts of various pastel colors. i really could be in Northern Virginia.

I find some towels and pillows that are adequately fluffy for my sensitive skin and toss them into my bag. Good thing i left my atm and credit cards at home and just brought cash, as i passed woks, blenders, and asundry other fancy kitchen contraptions that i dont really need, but would really enjoy having.

I finished my shopping and headed to the swedish meatball snack bar to relax a bit before i head home on the metro. I started thinking about the fact that im shopping at a swedish chain store that ive frequented in the states, which spurred me to think about the globalizing forces that are so prevalent in today’s world. Recently these thoughts have been lingering in my head after reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman of the NYTimes. Friedman’s main thesis is that due to a number of forces (fall of the berlin wall, the internet boom/bust, open source software, outsourcing, insourcing etc.) have leveled the playing field of the global economy, not only are companies competing globally but so are individuals.

I’ve come to the conclusion that globalization is inevitable, the world is becoming smaller, I can shop at IKEA, eat a sandwich at Subway, and call mom and dad for 2 cents a minute all while never leaving Budapest. Fifteen years ago, none of these could have occurred. In the early nineties, Friedman offered a theory that no two nations have ever fought once they have acquired a McDonalds. Even if this theory holds, which it may, in an ideal world, would there be McDonald’s in every country---is that truly globalization or is that U.S. culinary hegemony? Does globalization necessarily mean cultural homogenization? But then, if the citizens of Hungary also want to clog their arteries through the consumption of Big Macs, should my dislike of McDonalds matter? Probably not. If I don’t want to support McDonalds, then I won’t eat at McDonalds. If enough people choose not to frequent McDonalds, then it won’t be financially beneficial for McDonalds to maintain their presence in Hungary (Im just using an example of McDonalds here, I could have very well used Nike, Walmart, Kmart, etc.).

This theory of essentially voting with your dollars relies on the assumption that costumers have adequate information to make the consumption decisions and that the cost of receiving this information is reasonable (ideally free). For example, I believe that it is the responsibility of McDonalds to have freely available information regarding (1) where and from whom they purchase their food supplies (e.g., cattle farms in Hungary versus Brasil); (2) how these animals and vegetables are raised (e.g., free range chicken versus cooped chicken, hormone use in cattle, organic or pesticide intensive); (3) the employment practices of McDonalds and agricultural enterprises that grow their food (e.g., wage rates, benefits, child labor laws); the list could continue. It is my opinion that very few people in the developed world seek out this information before making a consumption decision (be it where you eat, what shirt you buy). Tracking down this information is costly, takes time and it takes resources. However, if McDonalds and all other corporations are required to supply this information to all of its potential consumers, a portion of society may change their consumption patterns in favor of small local businesses, and higher environmental and labor standards and some may not, but at least all consumers can be informed at no cost to them. Now I realize that this will only work if the consumers have a certain level of education (e.g., literate, environmentally literate etc.)---I’ll address that in a future blog. As well as the United States hypocritical free trade and protectionist policies.

Akarok Magyarul tanulni (I want to learn Hungarian)

as i sit here in front of my hungarian lesson book, eating strawberry icecream out of a winnie the pooh plastic bowl, i contemplate the difficulties of the hungarian language---a language that even the US embassador to Hungary struggles with (or refuses to learn).... “you have to be a genius to learn Hungarian,” he once remarked to the St. Louis Dispatch. Please keep in mind that the US embassador to Hungary is George Herbert Walker III. Yep, a first cousin of George W. Bush ---I've always wondered how one becomes an ambassador. anyways, im looking forward to hearing him speak tomorrow at the reception for david mccullough, ill let you all know how it goes (the honorable ambassador manages to be in town for the reception for mccullough, but not for me????).

anyways, back to my struggle with hungarian......as you may know, hungarian is in the ugric-finno language family, most closely related to estonian and finnish. if i only knew estonian. the language is based on 24 grammatical cases (e.g., absessive, ablative, absolutive, adessive, adverbial, allative, etc)---hell i dont even know what those words mean in english. in addition hungarian is based on vowel sound agreement---this part i like, i try to rhyme the end of the word with the beggining of it and i think that usually works, or at least it sounds poetic to me.

throughout my hungarian struggle, im reminded of a recent article i read about a new computer algorithm that has been developed that can 'read' a text of a specific language and then develops its own language rules based on the structure of the text and then can develop new sentences based on these rules (http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug05/
comp.learns.language.ssl.html). this is somewhat similar to how a 2 year old learns a language, without knowledge of specific rules, but makes rules up as he or she goes along. ive decided to return to this approach in hungarian, i.e. screw the grammar lessons and just make up my own rules as I go along. hopefully it will all work itself out in my head, just like my favorite three year olds.

The Not-So-Natural Natural Disaster

This morning, on my way home from the grocery store, I managed to drop a newly purchased bottle of Tokaj wine on my left foot. As I was managing the outside door to the apartment, the elevator door, my groceries in my right hand and the bottle in the left, the bottle must have somehow slipped, bouncing on the cement floor into 1,367 shards of glass. Unfortunately I was wearing my somewhat new grass-bottomed flip-flops recently purchased at the lake. I looked down at my foot to see a pool of blood--unfortunately Tokaj is a white wine so the blood on my foot was not masked. I went upstairs, leaving a trail of blood drops behind, similar to when i smashed my toenail at my durham apartment about a month ago. i have since stopped the bleeding and cleaned up my mess, but all of this rendered me a bit incapacitated and out of three dollars (the cost of the wine). Unfortunately my digital camera was out of battery power so I couldnt take any lovely photos of the foot for your enjoyment--so you will have to use your imaginations---i now have no big toe nail (from moving day a month ago) and approximately 5 cuts of various sizes across the top of the foot. anyways, i should probably learn that perhaps i should not wear flip flops. After much soaking, i have managed to clean them up however, so I will adorn them once again when im feeling brazen and particularly coordinated.

anyways, since i spent most of the day hobbling about the apartment, I decided to write up some of my thoughts on the environment and hurricane katrina. somehow it became a little preachy in tone, and for that i apologize. im working on putting these thoughts together, and making it sound less academic and submitting as an editorial or something to newspapers. the target audience are folks that are not that informed about environmental issues. is the news media talking about the environment as a part of this tragedy? it is hard for me to tell from over here. im working on adding a secion on environment justice issues---the nexus of the environment, race and class, which is particularly relevant in the South and has been quite visible in this disaster. any comments, suggestions would be helpful.

anyways, feel free to read or ignore. going to go fix dinner. will write more tomorrow about life in hungary.

The Not-So-Natural Natural Disaster

While smoke spews across New Orleans, the recovery process continues. As the dikes and levees are repaired, while the incredibly unfortunate search in vain for their loved ones, relocate or rebuild, we, as a nation, must evaluate this disaster from a number of perspectives. The conversations will most likely focus on disaster relief, the inadequacies of FEMA, the lack of emergency preparedness and the vulnerability of the most marginalized in our society. While these are all valid concerns that must be addressed, we must not ignore in this discussion our relationship with the environment and the role this relationship has played in exacerbating this disaster. It remains to be seen how this dialogue will proceed and more specifically how this disaster may influence national, state and local environmental and climate policies.

Wetland Protection

The coastal wetlands of Louisiana (approximately 3 million acres) encompass approximately 40 % of the coastal wetlands of the United States, while it has been estimated that the state of Lousiana is losing 18,500 acres of wetlands per year (http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/LAwetlands/lawetlands.html). This loss of wetlands represents approximately 80% of the total loss of wetlands across the United States. Not only do these wetlands provide habitat for aquatic species (including protection for the seafood industry in the region), and water quality protection, but wetlands also buffer the coastal regions from the impacts of hurricanes. Draining wetlands for agricultural, residential and commericial development reduces the area in which precipitation can be absorbed into the soil, increasing the volume and velocity of the water in streams and channels. This in turn increases the likelihood of flooding events. In addition, the channelization of the Mississippi River and its tributaries has reduced the natural seasonal flooding patterns that deliver sediments to the wetlands of the Mississippi delta, reducing the area and viability of the delta wetlands (http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/LAwetlands/lawetlands.html).

In April of 2004, President Bush announced an initiative to increase the wetlands in the United States each year (http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/84e181a37019a07d85256e7e00750320?OpenDocument). From an ecological and economic perspective, we must encourage our administration, legislators, and local and state governments to carry out this initiative and increase wetland protection throughout the nation. Does it make more economic sense for us, as a nation, to spend our tax dollars on wetland protection or to pay the mitigating costs of the potential ecological impacts of lossed aquatic habitat, water quality degradation and increased flood and hurricane risk exposure? In addition, we must remind our administration that a national tally of wetland acreage doesnt necessarily capture the status of wetlands from either an ecological or economic standpoint (e.g., the Bush no net loss policy). It is highly feasible that we increase total wetland acreage across the nation while at the same time decrease the overall functional capacity of our wetlands. Dollars should be allocated at the national, state and local levels to adequately map and study the functionality of current wetlands and to analyze the function of new or restored wetlands. In addition, it becomes necessary for us as active citizens to become involved in local land use policy decisions—including flood plain zone development. We must ask the important questions in development decisions regarding the amount of loss of wetlands, the function of these wetlands, the location and predicted functionality of wetland mitigation projects (wetlands constructed to replace wetlands that are destroyed) and the populations (both human and non-human) most affected by loss of wetlands. Only by seeking the answers to these questions will we reach more environmentally, socially and economically sound development practices.

Update: Here are a couple of articles regarding wetlands and hurricane exposure on the gulf that I just found (after I wrote the entry above):

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00060286-CB58-1315-8B5883414B7F0000

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/09/05/katrina.wetlands.ap/index.html

Climate Change Policy

Questions have arisen in the media and elsewhere regarding the link between greenhouse gas accumulation, global climate change and hurricane occurence and strength. While it is nearly impossible to pin the effects of climate change on any one hurricane, scientists at our own National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have stated (http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~tk/glob_warm_hurr.html):

"Although we cannot say at present whether more or fewer hurricane will occur in the future with global warming, the hurricanes that do occur near the end of the 21st century are expected to be stronger and have significantly more intense rainfall than under present day climate conditions. This expectation is based on an anticipated enhancement of energy available to the storms due to higher tropical sea surface temperatures. "

For a recent academic journal on the effects of global climate change on hurricane intensity and precipitation rates go to: http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/reference/bibliography/2004/tk0401.pdf.

To most of the world, the US climate change policy remains indignantly unscientific and unrealistic, generally denying that greenhouse emission accumulation and global climate change are issues that should be addressed. While increases in average global sea levels, a significant decrease in Arctic sea ice levels and increases in global mean temperatures have been documented and correlated with increases in the buildup of greenhouse gasses, the current administration refuses to recognize the validity of the science behind the findings. Per the request of President Bush, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released a report on global climate change that concluded:

"Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures are, in fact, rising. The changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability. Human-induced warming and associated sea level rises are expected to continue through the 21st century." (http://books.nap.edu/books/0309075742/html/1.html)


However, the Bush administration continues to actively obfuscate the science behind climate change http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10710F6385C0C7B8CDDAF0894DD404482). The current Bush policy is based on the concept of greenhouse gas intensity---the level of CO2 emissions per GDP. While at first glance this may make some sense to tie CO2 limits to economic production, this policy allows for an increase in overall CO2 emissions through time, rendering the policy somewhat useless in managing long term climatic shifts (It has been projected that CO2 emissions will increase by 12% by the year 2o12 under the current policy (http://www.pewclimate.org/policy_center/analyses/response_bushpolicy.cfm).

Fortunately, several mayors throughout the United States have taken the threat of global climate change more seriously (178 mayors as of August 30th including Columbus, Indiana and Durham, North Carolina) by declaring that climate change must be addressed. These cities will aim to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements of the Kyoto Protocol (the international agreement regarding greenhouse gas emissions reductions ratified by approximately 140 countries). In addition, Senators McCain and Leiberman have introduced the Climate Stewardship Act (S. 139), calling for a market based approach to greenhouse gas emission reduction, increased climate change research and the reduction of dependence of foreign oil. I strongly believe that it is our duty as US and world citizens to become informed about the issues of climate change, to assess our personal CO2 emission budgets (yes, I know, I own an SUV), and to discuss our policy concerns with local, state and federal government officials. We will only be able to determine the most appropriate climate change policy, both economically and environmentally, through an open national discussion based on findings from the scientific community. It is only through our own actions that we can address the long-term implications of our consumption and development patterns.

update: here's an interesting article in Fortune magazine regarding climate change, hurricanes and financial risk of climate change:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,1101173,00.html

update: a new article in science
"Changes in Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a
Warming Environment,"
By P. J. Webster, G. J. Holland, J. A. Curry, H.-R. Chang,
Science, September 16, 2005:

Foods I Crave

Well ive been in BP for a bit over two weeks now, and i think im starting to go through some withdrawal symptoms of my favorite foods. im hoping by formally recognizing and recording them on the blog, it will help me minimize my yearnings.

1. moms apple sauce
2. popcicles from loco-pops
3. deluxe chicken burrito from cosmic
4. spinach soup (ohh, i could probably make this one, mom can you send me the recipe? I wonder if i have a blender, hmmm.)
5. gazpacho from tapas bar on 9th street
6. eggplant quesidillas from blue corn
7. ethiopian food

more to come...........

Tourguide for the Day

Saturday, September 10th, I decide to take a break from working on my proposal and studying Hungarian to play tourguide for the day and take JoAnn (a professor at MIT who is on my dissertation committee) and Elizabeth (a student of JoAnns who stayed with me for the week) on a tour of Castle Hill. JoAnn and Elizabeth are in town for some sleep-inducing conference (ECPR, European Consortium for Political Research). By the last day of the conference we were all pretty burned out and decided to ditch it to take in some of the sites of this fair city.

For all of y'all that are planning on coming over to see me and Budapest, please print out this blog, bring it along, and you too can have a virtual Betsy-guided-tour of the Buda Castle Hill. While you burn multiple calories and tighten your gluttus maximas by climbing the Castle Hill, I will be relaxing in the baths of Gellert but I will be more than happy to meet up with for dinner at Cyranos, my favorite, but somewhat spendy, restaurant (your treat of course).

As you climb up the hill (or ride the funicular if you (1) have blisters; (2) are a lazy American; and/or (3) have an extra 3 bucks on you) you can peer across the river and see the Hungarian parliament building. (Orszaghaz) built between 1885 and 1902.

We managed to catch the end of a traditional Hungarian folk dance competition.

Fisherman's bastion (Halaszbastya) was built (not sure when) to commerate the midevil market that once occurred at this location. Now a prime location to be swindled into buying a "My mom went to hungary and all i got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirt. Feel free to climb up into the bastion and peer out over the Danube, but please avoid all ruddy, round, grandma-esqu ladies, better and cheaper souvenirs can be found at the real market (see future blog for photo).

Matyas Templom--where the last two kings of hungary were crowned. Built in the mid 13th century. During the Ottoman occupation (Turkish) it was the central mosque in Hungary (1526-1686). Currently, High mass is held at 10am on Sundays with full orchestra and choir.

This concludes the brief tour of the castle hill. Please stop by the gellert baths, pick me up, and take me out to dinner. Thanks!

FYI: Blog information: For those frequent readers, you may have noticed some formatting changes on the blog. I hope this makes it easier to read and view the pictures. I have filed away past posts into archives so if you want to see my previous photos and writings, feel free to click on the archives. Feel free to comment on my entries if you feel so compelled. To do so, click on the "comments" by the entry and you will be asked to type in the comment into a box. If you are not a blogger, you can select "anonymous" to leave a comment.



New York Times Quote of the Day:

So in the New York Times today (Sunday, September 11th) , in an article about literature production (Among the Believers) A.O. Scott writes about blogs versus literary magazine production:

"If you are an overeducated (or at least a semi-overeducated) youngish person with a sleep disorder and a surfeit of opinions, the thing to do, after all, is to start a blog. There are no printing costs, no mailing lists, and the medium offers instant membership in a welcoming herd of independent minds who will put you in their links columns if you put them in yours. Blogs embody and perpetuate a discourse based on speed, topicality, cleverness and contention - all qualities very much ascendant in American media culture these days. To start a little magazine, then - to commit yourself to making an immutable, finite set of perfect-bound pages that will appear, typos and all, every month or two, or six, or whenever, even if you are also, and of necessity, maintaining an affiliated Web site, to say nothing of holding down a day job or sweating over a dissertation - is, at least in part, to lodge a protest against the tyranny of timeliness."


So if any of you literary minded folk want to fight against the 'tyranny of timeliness' and help me produce a literary magazine (Matt, Dave, Laura????), let me know. I need to find another distraction as I sweat over my dissertation.