Dancing in the Middle of Nowhere

I am so proud of my friend and colleague Rhonda Garelick, and the Chronicle of Higher Ed is impressed with her, too!  Tomorrow, I'm taking Amara, my "Little Sister," to the dance performance mentioned in the article--and we'll see Joan Acocella speak afterward.  Is that not the coolest?  Cannot wait. 

I had to laugh, because the bleak, hilarious, all-too-accurate video that's gone viral among academics--you can see it here, on Tayari's blog, if you haven't had it forwarded to you a hundred times already--has the dour, burned-out professor saying she's in Nebraska, i.e., nowhere, i.e., career and cultural suicide.  (When I got home last night, the HH asked, "Did you write that?"  I could have been moonlighting as a secret animator; it's that close to home.)  The video's so painfully funny and awful and true, I almost hurt myself laughing.  (Thanks to John Robinson, the first friend who sent it to me.)

Despite Nebraska's anti-immigrant and anti-affirmative-action weirdness, I'm bizarrely happy here.  Thanks to Rhonda Garelick for making it an even better place to be!