By a few weeks into the semester, I can do the same thing. I’m so terrible at names, but I get there eventually. I need the sign-in sheet at least for the first few weeks. Then I can take a mental account of who’s not there, and compare it with the sign in sheet after class ends.

Well, I do like to think that my classes are interesting, seeing as how I spend hours each week thinking about how to sequence the material, present it to students, engage them, and assess student learning. But I’m never going to get 100% of my students to think that the class is great and interesting, particularly…

You would think, but no. Many students tend to view attendance as totally divorced from their course grade, even after they’ve bombed a midterm or final. I don’t think you can do very well in my class without attending, and students’ essay and exam scores generally bear that out. But students don’t really learn that…

I’m so sorry, Rich. Pets become family members in a way non-animal lovers can never quite comprehend.

As someone who owns an incredibly annoying, vocal, face punching, smothering, Siamese cat...I feel you so hard right now. She is the absolute worst and we call her bitch kitty. We love her...and can’t stand her. We adopted her, and love her, and pledged our lives to her so she’s going to be with us until the day she…

How painful that you couldn’t be there at the end. But your writing is wonderful. Give yourself some downtime; it takes the pain a long time to lose its sharp edge, but it really never goes away.

I have often said, when the time comes for my pets and others’ to leave us, that the only consolation is that life gets so much easier. It doesn’t make us miss them less, or have loved them less. I understand the relief. They enrich our lives while they’re with us, and they free us when they leave us. It’s possible to…

I’m so so sorry. I’d been a dog person my whole life until I met my girlfriends cat Dash. He was a rescue found living in the foundations of an Ulta in the middle of winter. I love him to death. People without pets don’t understand that they become more than pets, they become family. Losing a pet is like losing any…

Pictured: Tommy’s star player staring down the opposing line

33 Points. Not bad at all for Team Floppy

Pretty fuckin’ terrible.

Mine started out poorly, fumbled the ball a lot, and then threw up in my shoes after the game. I named him lil' Cam.

Hi. This is the woman from Memphis mentioned in the article. If you’re interested in supporting an organization that actually helps victims and pushes for positive changes in public policy, check these people out:

Um...yay? [Sobs internally]

Is it a sign of progress that this man was a victim of poor police training, rather than killed for being transgender?

I used to be a debater. I can see that he is very good. The winning debater is not the one who makes the best arguments, it’s the one who can read the judge(s) and make the argument that will most appeal to him or her. I used to be an OK debater, but I got really good once I learned this. I stopped trying to make the…

That the ignoble cretin Ted Cruz has managed to slink his way up to this level of prominence in society is truly an indictment of society’s hierarchical system. That, and I really hate his odious demeanour. And face. His face is rather punchable.

A fellow debater who often traveled to debates with Cruz described him, witheringly, as “an extreme fan of the Les Misérables soundtrack.”

I’m really standing by my human Gollum comment. I’ve never heard of a more unlikable man. That shouldn’t matter but it doesn’t sound like he’s even a nice guy. Calling a girl’s mother a whore and making her cry. My god.