Spoiler alert.......

Has Jez been covering Prince Harry and Meghan Markel? I don’t even know why I’m interested. Her character is boring on “Suits” and I don’t know much about her outside of that. I like him well enough. I won’t be convinced that they’re dating, though, until I see pictures.

Oh goody. It’s time for another episode of “Let’s take a one-second reaction from a person and extrapolate from that how she’s feeling.” Most likely it is b/c her father just died. But it could also be because she’s hungry. Or she’s trying not to sneeze. Or because you could take everyone’s look at one moment and…

The 25th Hour was fantastic.

So people are confused why the city’s papers would focus on the player of the NBA team of that city and not so much on his wife, who was never an athlete for that city, and is not even a current player?

Thanks!

I’m thinking of cutting my landline, ditching my unsmart cell phone, and getting a smart phone. I have an Apple computer and an ipod Touch, so is the natural choice an iPhone? How hard is it to listen to podcasts/music from on iTunes on an Android phone? I assume my apps from iTunes won’t transfer to an Android phone,…

I think you’re conflating legal agency with agency. Of course they didn’t have legal agency. To me, that doesn’t mean that they had no agency. Thanks for the conversation.

Slaves had agency all the time. That’s why they could meet in secret even though congregating was illegal. That’s why they taught each other to read and write, even though that was illegal. That’s why they ran away, even though they were supposed to be bonded to their owner/plantation, and weren’t allowed to travel…

I combined two issues - age and her position as slave - when I didn’t intend to. Obviously a minor can’t consent. But I’m not sure if adult slave women couldn’t/wouldn’t consent to having sex with an adult white male, even if he was her master. I’m not speaking of a legal right to consent, in the way that slaves…

I’m not sure that just b/c she was a slave meant that she couldn’t consent. Obviously, as a slave, she couldn’t refuse. But that’s not quite the same as not being able to consent, is it? I don’t know anything about how Hemmings felt about Jefferson, but where does the notion of desire fit within a relationship of…

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned The Rewrite yet. I caught the movie on some cable channel free weekend and liked it so much that I watched it a second time, then bought it. He and Marisa Tomei played off each other well, and Grant’s character was sort of an adult, while still being sort of a short-term cad.

I watch Wendy the same way I read Dirt Bag here on Jez. I don’t take things seriously; she simply repeats what gossip mags say and gives her opinion. It’s entertaining and nothing more.

She’ll always be Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live to me.

I mostly understand the criticism in posts like this (and blogs about this in other places). But it also often sounds like a bit of Western infantilizing. “Oh, brown people/non-Americans, let me, a Westerner, tell you how you are being mistreated/misrepresented, and why you should be offended by this.”

Ah! So maybe like how getting tenure - or becoming a full prof - makes it hard for you to go to another academic job, unless you want to go in w/o tenure or you don’t mind going back to associate?

What does “path dependence” mean? I’m an academic as well, and have considered leaving for lots of reasons. Sunk costs isn’t really one of them, and I don’t think I’ve heard the term “path dependence” before. Good luck with the move!

Thank you!

Is passion overrated? Underrated? I would say that I’m not really “passionate” about anything. I like lots of things; sometimes I like them a lot. But I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever been passionate about, say, a boyfriend. (But I was in love with my boyfriend.) I’ve never been passionate about a hobby, either. But I’m…

Oh, you’re absolutely right. I guess that, at least in the beginning, I was surprised that the students just stopped at “I liked/hated it.”