TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2023
Halloween delights: As we noted just last week, it's our favorite passage from Walden:
This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath...
The pleasure we take from the winter squash isn't quite that intense. But many neighbors in this neighborhood create displays of winter squash on their doorsteps at this time of year.
We imbibe delight from the winter squash every time we pass. We stop and look at them every time, these seasonal doorstep squash.
What is, or are, so-called "winter squash?" We weren't sure until we googled the term this week. The leading authority on the topic was willing to inform us:
Winter squash is an annual fruit representing several squash species within the genus Cucurbita. Late-growing, less symmetrical, odd-shaped, rough or warty varieties, small to medium in size, but with long-keeping qualities and hard rinds, are usually called winter squash...
Cultivars of winter squash that are round and orange are called pumpkins. In New Zealand and Australian English, the term "pumpkin" generally refers to the broader category called "winter squash."
According to the leading authority, certain cultivars of winter squash are known to the public as "pumpkins!"
Such cultivars are orange and round, and are perfectly fine. We're thinking to a larger degree of cultivars like the calabrazas:
Although winter squashes are grown in many regions, they are relatively economically unimportant, with few exceptions. They are grown extensively in tropical America, Japan, Northern Italy, and certain areas of the United States. The calabazas of the West Indies and the forms grown by the people of Mexico and Central America are not uniform, pure varieties but extremely variable in size, shape, and color.
The winter squash on local doorsteps are indeed extremely variable in size and shape and color. We stop to look at them every time. For one photographic representation, you can just click here.
Also, some local squash look a bit more like this; they basically look like blue pumpkins! We stop to look at them every time. As with Finch's mockingbird, it seems to us that they've agreed to look like that just to give us pleasure.
We've also been struck today by this report from Kevin Drum. It involves a personnel flap which has been underway at Cal Berkeley for at least several years.
Some graduate students got into the act before the start of last Saturday's Cal-USC football game. Drum reports the basics of the case, but we recommend that you read KQED's full report on this endless matter.
The dispute involves a tenured Berkeley professor (Isabella del Valle) who has acknowledged harassing a professor from Cal Davis (Joshua Clover).
What has this admitted harassment involved? Kevin quotes this part of the KQED report:
In an interview with KQED, del Valle acknowledged some of the behavior described in the investigative reports, including keying Clover’s car, vandalizing the area outside his apartment door, contacting his friends, posting an image of his partner online and leaving messages outside the home of his mother. Those messages included one that said “I raised a psychopath,” according to the university’s investigative reports.
....“I did write outside his door, ‘Here lives a pervert.’ I did that. And again, I’m not proud,” del Valle said. “If I had the opportunity to do things differently, I would do them differently.”
Drum doesn't quote this additional part of the (lengthy) KQED report:
Del Valle said since the suspension in the fall of 2021, she has not been teaching at UC Berkeley and has been living out of two suitcases because of the uncertainty around her future. She said she could accept an 18-month suspension UC Berkeley offered as a settlement, but has no plans to do so. If she doesn’t accept that outcome, the case could instead be brought before the university’s Privilege and Tenure Committee, and she could lose her tenure and be fired.
“My life is completely destroyed,” del Valle said. “I don’t want UC Berkeley to think that they can do this to a minority woman in order to protect a white, senior professor. It’s not acceptable.”
Clover has stirred his own share of controversy. He was widely criticized for a 2014 tweet saying he was thankful that all living police officers “would one day be dead.” He later advocated killing police officers, and suggested the easiest way would be to shoot them in the back. UC Davis’ chancellor condemned those statements in 2019 but said they were protected free speech.
Professor del Valle seems to think that she's being disciplined because she's a minority woman while Clover is an older white male. Some graduate students seem to believe this, and who knows? They could even be right!
For his part, Professor Clover has advocated shooting police officers in the back.
At Davis, the chancellor ruled, perhaps correctly, that this was protected free speech. Last weekend, a bunch of graduate students staged a full-blown "sit-in" demonstration on Professor del Valle's behalf.
Some winter squash seem to exist just to give visual pleasure. Again and again, some professors, chancellors and graduate students seem to exist for the principal reason of making the stars at Fox smile.
Is this personnel matter simply a crazy outlier? Or is it possibly, in some way, what our blue tribe is secretly like?
We think our tribe would be better off if we were able to come to terms with how crazy we can seem to be. Fox News is often (not always) dishonest and nuts. Then too, there are our own tribe's very occasional journeys off the rails!
Are we blues aware of that fact? Or is this a possible blind spot?
"Is this personnel matter simply a crazy outlier? Or is it possibly, in some way, what our blue tribe is secretly like? "
ReplyDeleteWhy would Somerby suggest that this is what all liberals are like and not the behavior of two mentally disturbed individuals engaged in some sort of feud with each other?
Having been a tenured full professor at a university in CA myself, I know that this behavior does not characterize liberals or academics. I do not believe this has anything to do with Del Valle being a member of a minority group or her target being a white male. The behavior involved is clearly inappropriate but del Valle, in addition to be well-liked by students (or there would be no protest) has probably given years of service to her department and is respected enough for colleagues to recognize that she needs help, not discipline. There is a lot of forebearance in this story and that has likely been earned, no matter what del Valle's current circumstances.
Here is an example of someone truly engaging in mentally ill behavior but Somerby has no pity for her and mainly wants to label all liberals as similarly crazy. Where is Somerby's understanding in this situation? There is none. He instead calls this funny (to Fox News and perhaps he is himself a little gleeful) and wants to say that we on the left are all that disturbed. That's a cheap shot, and where is that famous empathy that Somerby claims to admire when it is aimed at mass shooters?
Also note that we have not heard anything about the other side of the story -- what her target Clover did to infuriate her and motivate such retaliation. The forebearance may come from knowledge among academics of what he did that motivates people to cut del Valle some slack.
There is no reason why academics should be any less vulnerable to mental problems, or any more susceptible either. I find it outrageous that Somerby would use this opportunity to call liberals crazy. And I don't see how that helps to lessen the political divide in our country, nor is it the kind of thing an actual liberal would say about lefties.
It is a lot like what Cecelia would say and think was hilarious, and she admits she is conservative.
You've been a tenured professor at a university, and you read this as Somerby suggesting "that this is what all liberals are like" rather than, as he says, "our tribe's very occasional journeys off the rails"?
DeleteWhen you think about it, your reading is goofball, right? Do you really think that Somerby is saying that you, and me, and every other liberal is likely to get into a workplace skirmish like this one?
He also said:
Delete"Winter squash and blue professors!"
"...Is this personnel matter simply a crazy outlier? Or is it possibly, in some way, what our blue tribe is secretly like?
We think our tribe would be better off if we were able to come to terms with how crazy we can seem to be. Fox News is often (not always) dishonest and nuts. Then too, there are our own tribe's very occasional journeys off the rails!
Are we blues aware of that fact? Or is this a possible blind spot?"
Those sentences make my reading correct, not goofball. Somerby is linking a mentally ill professor's behavior to liberal, blue professors and liberals in general. It doesn't help that he says "very occasional" in one sentence.
Somerby is saying that liberals seem crazy, as crazy as this poor woman, to who? He doesn't say who. But he thinks we need to be aware of our craziness so that what? We can be less crazy or more conservative? He doesn't answer that one either. Calling the left's views crazy, in the context of discussing a mentally disturbed woman, is linking her behavior to the ideas of liberals and THAT is akin to calling the left crazy too.
Your refusal to acknowledge what Somerby says today, doesn't change that he is equating the left's behavior with mentally disturbed behavior, no matter with what frequency. If you can't see that, it is you who are misreading his essay, not me.
Somerby NEVER states things directly, on purpose. That doesn't mean he isn't saying what we think he is saying. This isn't a court of law. This is human discussion. Inference and implication count, and excessively literal interpretations of Somerby's essays do not fly.
Cecelia is misunderstood.
Delete"Somerby is saying that liberals seem crazy, as crazy as this poor woman, to who? He doesn't say who."
DeleteYes he does - to "the stars at Fox." And the implication is that through Fox, to all those who watch Fox religiously.
And are you the mouse who keeps lecturing us about "context" and "implication" and "literalism"?
And Professor Mouse, I really think you are misreading this essay. Somerby is saying that episodes like what happened between these two professors will be spun by Fox as evidence of the craziness of liberal elites. And he's saying that people like you, Professor, have a blind spot that prevents you from seeing what this looks like to the Others.
DeleteDogface’s defense of Bob here is obviously based on selective quoting. Come on Doggy Dog, it’s right here, we can read the whole thing.
DeleteThis pretty bonkers post does illustrate the soft bigotry of Bob’s use of the “Tribal” cliche. It does sound like an interesting case, one that a good book might flesh out and give us some understanding of. I am sympathetic to the position of the poster who says the woman had mental problems. I also think She should have gotten help and found another career.
And your blind spot is your rationalization - all your bit about the need for an understanding of mental health and treatment issues. That blinds you to how it looks to the Others. To the Others, it looks simple: Crazy, liberal professors acting badly. Period. (And, of course, I don't even know if the professors are liberal, but Fox-watchers won't care a whit.)
Delete1. This is abnormal behavior.
Delete2. Academic don’t approve it.
3. It is not typical of any academics, right or left wing.
4. We liberals have no control over Fox News.
5. Fox spins such things negatively against liberals no matter what is true or what we say or do.
What are we supposed to do to keep Fox from doing this? Somerby has no suggestion. Professors do not control what students do outside class.
I am personally glad both universities were responding with restraint and kindness.
Somerby poses this question: Is this incident a crazy outlier or is it, in some way, what we liberals are like?
DeleteI would say some liberals, at some times, act in nutty ways. This woman seems to be justifying her nutty acts because of racism and the patriarchy. This man seems to express the nutty opinion that shooting a police officer in the back is admirable. We have some nuts on our side, and Fox exploits and amplifies their nuttiness.
And I think we're blinded to what these incidents look like to the Others. We see these incidents as one-offs; they see them as representative.
We were all already aware that the red tribe, in many circumstances, is largely incapable of viewing reality with rationality. So what?
DeleteRepublicans think the blue tribe is nutty for wanting health care as a human right, wanting racism and similar oppressions diminished, wanting living wages, etc. These are the real reasons the blue tribe is viewed as nutty. Republicans are even starting to turn against Jesus!
Pandering to, acquiescing to, and trying to persuade members of the red tribe is a fool’s folly, it’s been tried and was a complete failure (neoliberalism/Third Way), there’s no advantage, only disadvantage, to such a stance, and worse, it is how we had to suffer through various right wing tragedies like slavery and fascism.
If Somerby actually wanted to convey that the incident he references was an occasional occurrence or an outlier, he would not rhetorically ask such a question: is this an outlier or is this how we really are? Duh.
George, you might be a really nice person, but your stance is clear, you are a Somerby fanboy, here to defend your hero, as such, you appear to the rest here as someone suffering under the same conditions typical right wingers suffer from; we blue tribers, we want to ease human suffering, unlike the red tribe that see suffering as a weakness to exploit.
Having said that, what is also clear George, is that you are un persuaded by the comments here. You should really take note of this, you remain un persuaded, staunch in your views. Think about that, and a helpful insight might dawn on you…
really Dogface, FU. You are distorting the post by selectively quoting parts of it and ignoring the parts that don't support you. Do you handle all parts of your life by distorting the truth this way? You are much like Bob justifying Trump's drivel a few years ago, by pointing to minor disclaimers among the hateful swill. Really sick stuff.
DeleteI would think that the natural place for a Somerby “fanboy” would be in the Somerby comment section. I have some difficulty in understanding why Somerby-haters keep reading him year after year and keep spewing Somerby-hate in the comments. Care to enlighten me about that?
DeleteSomerby keeps saying things that need correction, like this essay today. He has an audience that recalls when he really was liberal. I don’t think red tribe members are persuadable but I don’t want blue tribe members to be deceived by Somerby’s dishonesty.
DeleteI’ve said this multiple times. Why are you still asking the same question, already explained?
Doggy, it is a question you have asked many times and we have answered many times. Yet again you ask, with no acknowledgment of the replies you have gotten. So, who has the blind spot?
Deleteanon 8:49, no it's never been answered even once. You and the other anonymouse above don't even have the self-awareness to understand that Dogface's question is a valid one.
Deleteanon 8:45, I see, TDH "needs correction" that explains your obsession. If only that's all it was, but what your "correction" always wind up as distortion and over the top slanted. TDH is not some genius savant, but generally his posts make reasonable arguments. If you were a tenured professor, I wonder why you're not one now, What happened?
DeleteRetirement.
DeleteSorry AC, but I have answered it several times and others have too. I guess you just don’t like the answers, shithead.
DeleteI don't @7:56 is nutty for wanting health care as a human right. I do think s/he has a different understanding of what a "right" is. To me, a right is something the government can take away from you, like freedom of speech or the right to bear arms. They can give you that right by just not taking it away.
DeleteThings the government can give you are not "rights", they're benefits. The government cannot give you health care simply by not preventing something, They need to collect taxes, set up a bureaucratic structure, etc. in order to provide health care. It then becomes question of whether it's better for health care to be supplied by the government or by some other means.
Corby/Perry/a spends her retirement obsessed with this blog, spending hours every day writing unhinged misrepresentations. This is further evidence our blue tribe is mentally disturbed and the behavior described isn't a crazy outlier.
DeleteOne thing is for sure, both of those b*%^hes are crazy af.
8:45 - Oh, so as a public service you valiantly protect gullible liberals from Somerby’s errors! How noble and self-sacrificing of you to do this year after year after year!
DeleteOr perhaps the explanation is simpler: You get off on spewing hate, and you’re addicted to it.
DeleteAnonymices are Isabella del Valle and Joshua Clover.
DeleteThey’re angry, controlling, militant, freaking nutcases.
They’re here day in and out not to enjoy a brilliant blogger, but to try and tear him to shreds. He’s enjoying the fall displays in his neighborhood, they’re writing thirty paragraphs a day against him.
They’re awful and they are creeps.
Cecelia’s right. I’m an awful creep. I’m not Corby.
DeleteDogface says: disagreeing with Somerby = hate
DeleteSomerby is not brilliant, except to people like Cecelia and Lauren Boebert.
DeleteSomerby is comparing blue tribe members to squashes, not just enjoying the fall displays.
Delete"They’re angry, controlling, militant, freaking nutcases."
DeleteAnti-abortion Republicans have entered the chat.
This seems like a personal dispute, not a political matter, so Somerby should not be politicizing it.
ReplyDeleteanon 5:04, more than a personal dispute, when after admitting to basically psycho conduct, Delvalle explains her refusal to accept suspension because she "doesn't want Berkely to think that it can do this to a minority woman in order to protect a white, senior professor' And then, a group of Berkeley students protest her suspension. She's saying that her suspension is the result of racism. The red tribe gets informed about this type of thing, the blue tribe doesn't - and vice versa.
DeleteThe woman is mentally ill, that’s why it is personal, not political.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:04pm, the dispute is utterly about politics and anonymices are obsessive in the same way.
DeletePeople are not squash.
ReplyDeletePeople and squash share 50% of their DNA.
Deletehttps://www.absolute-knowledge.com/why-people-have-common-dna-with-most-of-the-plants-and-animals/
DeleteThen why is “squash” and “squat” so similar in spelling and pronunciation?
DeleteWhat about 'people' and 'peehole'?
DeleteAre “people” overly “squeamish” about bodily waste?
DeleteNotably, some humans only “squat’’ for number 2, whereas others “squat” for both number 1 and 2.
"Are we blues aware of that fact?"
ReplyDeleteSomerby is not one of us, not a blue. This silly column should make that obvious.
There was a professor where I worked who had written a textbook and served as an administrator before returning to his department to teach. At one point he became addicted to pain medication due to an injury, lost his home and the lost an apartment lease and became homeless, and was borrowing money from students to buy drugs and food. This was not "wacky" behavior but neither was it appropriate for a faculty member. Where there are no mandatory retirement rules and someone can keep working even when frequently absent and unproductive, how does a university remove a person, but more importantly how do they remain caring and respectful of that person's lengthy former career in the last years of their academic life? This is nothing to laugh at, not Fox funny. It is sad and troublesome and difficult for administrators and colleagues. I suspect that every university has had an experience like the one Somerby is mocking today. But so have other types of workplaces, including some where the response would be less caring and where there are fewer rules about what qualifies as grounds for dismissal.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in another situation, a faculty member liked to invite students to a seminar held at his home. He also kept a pet mountain lion at home. Eventually, the pet attacked and injured a student. The professor was fired for negligence toward the student, but not all situations enable firing of a tenured professor, because there are not clearcut circumstances when a professor is instead doing other inappropriate things, including racist or intemperate public statements, sexual harrassment or coercion or stalking of other faculty members. These are personnel matters, not political issues or teaching related. There is no reason for Somerby to make this about anything but an unfortunate woman's acting out due to problems we know absolutely nothing about. And it has nothing to do with either professor's professional work, which creates a problem for their respective universities.
Professors tend to identify themselves based on their academic areas of interest, not their political views -- they are not blue or red but professors of business, education, computer science, engineering, etc. There are many conservatives in academic, but they tend to be found in business, economics, engineering, computer science, sometimes music, biology, geology, chemistry, physics. There are more liberals in the social sciences and humanities, but that doesn't mean all in those disciplines are liberal. Nor is Berkeley necessarily all liberal, although Pepperdine (a religious school) is pretty conservative. There are liberals not just conservatives at the Claremont Colleges, despite Eastman's presence there.
ReplyDeleteThat makes Somerby's suggestion that academics are blue or liberal extremely silly.
Why would Somerby brag about not stereotyping winter squash and then try to treat academics as if we were all pumpkins?
ReplyDeleteClover and del Valle should both be tased in their privates. I am not Corby.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think tasing crazy people makes them less crazy?
DeleteOf course not.
DeleteTased or tasted?
DeleteWhy not both?
DeleteOrange winter squash makes good pies. Whipped cream is the perfect topping.
ReplyDeleteYou sure that was whipped cream? I’ve worked in many restaurants, you’d be surprised at what happens to your food before it arrives at your table.
DeleteHome-cooked food is the best food.
DeleteI stumped as to what makes any of these people members of "our tribe." Is it because they are academics? Because the woman hails from a Spanish-speaking country?
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any major news outlets offering either professor sympathetic coverage. Nor have I seen any lefty politician take up either side of the conflict.
Fox declared that the handful of protesting students were laughable and therefore must be "team blue." That doesn't mean that anyone--Our Host included--has to take their word for it.
This sounds like a variation of the Poomboom Paradox.
DeleteThese folks likely disparage voting Democrats as Neoliberals and will happily explain to you why they are worse than Trump voters.
DeleteCorby is in Northamptonshire.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Del Valle was obviously a popular teacher. She may have opened up vistas for her students that were enriching. She seems to have experienced some kind of mental breakdown. This situation is heartbreaking for the young people who liked her. They are wrong, but I recall a similar situation with a popular teacher when I was in school. Young people are more given to emotion. The school seems to have made a reasonable call. The aggravated teacher has his legal options against Del Valle.
ReplyDeleteSo, all this from Bob, who sees Donald Trump a few breaths away declaring himself dictator for life and yawns.
Aggravated? Or possibly aggrieved.
DeleteBoth apply.
DeleteAs to why Del Valle is saying desperate things to hold on to her job, that probably has to do with money. She is not likely to easily match her Salary ever again. If these are mental health issues, She should have gotten help for them, or quality help. Because She ruined her career.
ReplyDeleteHelp isn’t a magical cure with mental health any more than it is with physical health. Look at the shooter in maine who had prior treatment but still did what he did. We don’t know anything about her situation.
DeleteIt seems irrational to some people that Republican voters still think Trump really won the 2020 Presidential election. But that is because they haven't spoken with Republican voters. Once you speak to Republican voters, it doesn't seem that irrational at all. They really, really wanted the bigot to be re-elected President. Put yourself in the shoes of "the Others", and you will begin to see it's really just wishful thinking, which is common to both, political and apolitical, people.
ReplyDeleteWe need to focus on our commonality (wishful thinking), instead of the things which divide us (the Right's love of bigotry).
ReplyDeleteImho, ordinary liberals are just dumb. And liberal university professors are outright psychos. That's all.
"Imho, ordinary liberals are just dumb."
DeleteIs it because they think black people's votes should be counted in elections?
That's not the only thing wrong with liberals, but it's a big part of the problem.
DeleteIt's because they don't think. Only repeat their politburo's dumb talking points.
Delete3:57,
DeleteLOL.