Live on-the-scene coverage

i'm at the tail end of a Grand Whirlwind Graduate-School-Visiting Adventure (i think disneyland may be basing a ride on it). i'm on my fifth state and counting, running through a montage of airplanes, trains (note: even though train lines back east are basically the same as the caltrain, they have much more romantic signage, saying things like "South Shore Line" and "Northeast Corridor", and much, much more impressive train stations), buses, subways, cars, and an Authentic New York City Taxi Cab.

interspersed with the travel, i've been visiting friends, strangers, and philosophy departments. if you can overlook the sleeping on floors and futons for two weeks (i certainly can), it pretty much rocks. i ran around chicago with michele a bit, and in new york (where i stayed for a couple days with a friend of a friend of a friend of somebody who used to go to my church--score.) i got to traipse about central park and see really big buildings and help serve dinner at a soup kitchen.

as for the schools--well, for the first time i have a really good sense of what it means to be wined and dined. oh, the dining. and oh, the wining.

(though i've been told by several people: enjoy it. this is the last time in a philosopher's career when they are sought after. ever.)

while we're on the subject, here are three things that seem to be much more common among philosophy grad students (and faculty, too) than they are among the greater population: (1) alcohol. (2) gossip. (3) facial hair. so there you have it.