"croissant-munching, latte-sipping": instances of misconceived media-class self-loathing ITT

also is she implying that he is walking around with an alcoholic beverage? because it looks like a smoothie to me

he went to pilates class, now he thinks he knows shit about plane crash???

graduate pilates school, then talk shit how bout tht

This is just a bingo card

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-50-quid-hour-and-a-bit-troll-aphex-twin-at-field-day-reviewed/

if he'd done 2 hours of the hits any true Aphex fan would be outraged

This was an attack, not a gig: stop-start blares, schizophrenic synths, artillery-fire drums with not a hint of structure

I don't see the problem.

Don’t threaten me with a good time!

“underwater basket-weaving”

I have read that there is a native American tradition of weaving baskets in water (to make the materials more pliable). And that the use of the phrase to mean "doing something pointless" is potentially disrespectful.

Much of this sort of thing is pretty racist when ye scratch the surface, and you usually don't have to scratch hard

A course on underwater basket-weaving was genuinely on offer at Reed College when I was a student there back in 1990.

Surprisingly old, per Wikipedia:

"The phrase in its pejorative sense has been used since at least the mid-1950s. According to a 1953 article in the Boston Globe on 'Hepster Lingo,' 'Any snap course in school is "underwater basket weaving.'"

Also seeing references in 1960s congressional hearings, via Google Books:

SENATOR ALLOTT. But excuse me, Mr. Driver, I don't have my correspondence here on this but on this same subject, I am just as interested as you and the chairman or anyone else is in seeing that we don t get into the situation that we were in after World War II where we had universities setting up courses in underwater basket weaving, and all this sort of thing.

MR. MONK. Chicken sexing.

So, it seems to partially reflect an elite anxiety, post-GI Bill, about the opportunities for more people to get college degree through new types of institutions/programs/curricula.

At my college (which is the east coast iteration of Piedie’s one) the ‘underwater basket-weaving’ dig was definitely in common use, even by the students.

lol S my ex who went to your school (we've talked about this before) did a semester at Reed because of course he did.

My dad LOVED to use the underwater basket weaving thing when I was an English/creative writing major.

Weaving a basket underwater would actually involve a pretty good set of useful skills.

A course on underwater basket-weaving was genuinely on offer at Reed College when I was a student there back in 1990.

'Evergreen is harder than other colleges! You have design the curriculum, you even have to grade your own papers'

I took a few classes that could easily have been put into that umbrella- "Ability and Disability in German Film and Literature"— but perhaps unsurprisingly, these courses were often incredibly rigorous and taught by profs who knew their shit. (I went to midwestern version of Reed, fwiw)

xxp I remember my father as well referencing underwater basket weaving, snickering under his breath

There was 'rocks for jocks' (geology 101) and 'clapping for credit' (music appreciation)

haha! i taught music appreciation for a while and it was extraordinarily fun

the light of my life at the time. if i am being honest

I bet that class was so fun both to teach and be a student in.

It really was. It was an honor to be given the opportunity and I’m glad I made the most of it. Haters can take their share elsewhere! It’s a great class if you need a humanities credit and have a teacher who doesn’t sleepwalk through the semester.

share - * hate

big reveal is that underwater basketweaving was being taught for the benefit of Navy SEALS undercover as liberal arts college students who were using the skills learned therein to swim up to enemy ships frogman style and attach timed charges to the hulls with a swiftly woven basket

when will we understand that everything is an op, everything has always already been an op

There was 'rocks for jocks' (geology 101) and 'clapping for credit' (music appreciation)

I forget what the actual course was but it was "math for liberal arts majors" - the professor walked us through everything using a TI-82 and then gave us all of the questions that would be on the tests in the exact order. He bragged about having 90% of his students get As, dude was awesome.

Then I took him for stats which should theoretically have been a real class but it was pretty much the same. I appreciate a professor who knows he's teaching things that only exist to fill in requirements.

re: Rocks for Jocks, I took an amazing course to fulfill my science requirement: "Volcanism 101." It was a class entirely about volcanos. Never thought I'd have so much fun in a geology class!!

Did you get to make a model with a baking soda/vinegar eruption?

i took an intro electronic circuits class which had a reputation for being easy. some people called it “shocks for jocks”. reader, i found it one of the most difficult classes i had ever taken.

geology is cool af, I took one course on the geology of the US’s national parks which was awesome, and another general geology course taught by someone who owned their own excavation company

the actual zero-value classes are obviously in the business school

(my partner is a fibers prof; she can't swim though)

Did you get to make a model with a baking soda/vinegar eruption?

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, January 31, 2024 2:26 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

No, but one of the jocks made a scale model of a volcano for a research project and "erupted" it in class.

I, on the other hand, found lots of archival footage of Nyiragongo and showed some wild footage of the lava lake at its center. Nyiragongo is the coolest active volcano, I think.

Ever look at something and just think to yourself: "how did we ever get to this point in humanity"? pic.twitter.com/xGvlzwmSLn

— Bang Average 3rd Cat (@BangAverageCat3) February 21, 2024

(the jrm tweet, obv)

the man never drank a glass of full fat milk in his life

we know where he gets his from

What he'd do is, he'd get his nanny to drink it, then (is violently ejected from the internet)

wtf is chad milk and how am I not supposed to assume that it is cum?

It is, cum hard and drink.

"MID IS NOT the mediocre TV of the past. It’s more upscale. It is the aesthetic equivalent of an Airbnb “modern farmhouse” renovation, or the identical hipster cafe found in medium-sized cities all over the planet. It’s nice! The furniture is tasteful, they’re playing Khruangbin on the speakers, the shade-grown coffee is an improvement on the steaming mug of motor oil you’d have settled for a few decades ago.

If comparing TV to fast-casual dining is an insulting analogy, in my defense I only borrowed it. A New Yorker profile last year quoted a Netflix executive describing the platform’s ideal show as a “gourmet cheeseburger.”

I’m not going to lie, I enjoy a gourmet cheeseburger. Caramelize some onions, lay on a slice of artisanal American cheese and I’m happy. But at heart, the sales pitch for that cheeseburger is no different from that for a Big Mac: You know what you’re going to get."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/arts/television/mid-tv.html

i didn't actually know where to put that. but i had to put it somewhere.