it’s raining

Actually, it’s pouring. Good thing I went out early to get some groceries: two apples, soy milk, juice, and a mini Toblerone bar. I needed some little treat since today I plan to get ALL my grading done. I’ve got one exam left and about ten book reviews. Once grades are in I can turn [...]

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icing on the cake

Last night before leaving work I checked my email and found an unpleasant message from across the border. I didn’t bother to respond and instead headed straight to the bakery where I bought a slice of banana cake. I could have done grading on the train ride home, but instead I mused over that email [...]

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talking back

The only good thing about bigots is that they usually hang themselves if you give them enough rope. That’s just what happened on The Daily Show when Al Madrigal traveled to Arizona to interview a school board member who voted to ban Mexican American Studies in Tucson schools (based on “hearsay,” not facts). If you [...]

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pruning

I have finally got my conference paper down to 12 pages! Unfortunately, in my effort to include as many quotes from my interviewees as possible, I cut a really strong passage and *forgot* to paste it into the footnotes. Crap. In that passage I analyzed a troubling review Ship of Souls received from a Canadian [...]

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books beyond black & white

Compiling a good book list is *hard* work—but once they’re ready (they’re rarely ever “done”), they become an invaluable resource. A few weeks ago I met Malaika Rose Stanley through Wendy Meddour on Facebook; Malaika was putting together a list of PB, MG, and YA books that feature mixed-race protagonists and I asked my “team” [...]

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