Commerce Regulation of the Day.

Describing an unsuccessful dead-shark transaction at the Casablanca Fish Market (Miami, Florida), CNN reported:

The men were turned away because they did not have a permit to sell the shark, said Martha Longueira, who handles purchasing for the Casablanca market.

Compare with:

Summer Vacation. Not.

Faculty at universities can be divided into two camps: Those who teach over the summer and those who don't. And it is almost a tautology that research active faculty do not teach over the summer -- summer is when they are most productive, without those pesky students to bother them. Moreover, in mathematics, having a grant that provides summer salary is the primary badge of approval of a successful research program. (In particular, at all of the universities with which I've been affiliated, promotion and/or tenure is nearly impossible for faculty not holding such grants.)

Since the 1980's I have had summer grant support essentially every year, with a couple of gap summers where my family and I just made do with the 9 month academic salary or with a small internal university grant.

But this summer I find myself for the first time since graduate school without summer grant support and with a frighteningly low bank balance. So I'm teaching two summer courses -- which amounts to essentially a full time job for six weeks. Since my various other professional responsibilities are not going away (not to mention research that I still want to finish this summer, in time for a Fall conference), it now feels like I'm doing two jobs. It's making me cranky.

I don't expect to add much to this (admittedly vanity) blog until the summer term is over.

Naming the Living.

The news of Michael Jackson's death this past week reminded me of another departed pop (of a sort) icon, Jerry Garcia. Indeed, the surviving members of Garcia's band, The Grateful Dead, have recently reunited. The curious thing is that this new, er, reincarnation of the band is called The Dead. Wouldn't The Grateful have been more appropriate? (Like, aren't ``the dead'' exactly who are not in the new band?)

Privileges of the Academic Life.

For one thing, you can publish a 5+ page essay complaining about the colleagues you find boring. (I could only get through about a paragraph before I became too...oh never mind.)