COMICAL ACADEMIC MEANDERING: Medical schools and pharmacy schools have these big centralized application services; you give them your information, they pass it on to whichever school you want to consider your application. Nicey nicey, right? Basically, yes. But they do make you add, individually, into their database, every single college class you ever took. Even though they just go ahead and "verify" the transcripts themselves--which I think means they go through them all themselves like I'm doing--they still want you reliving every course you ever took. The goal is humiliation, obviously. To make you relive those goofy courses you took when you took classes because they were fun to take. Such as:

DEBATING EVOLUTION. Taught, of course, by a history department (history of science and medicine or something.) This was the one where my self-image as someone who was in control of how he appeared met cruel reality. See, our professor gave us the option of a paper or a talk. At the time I did not quite understand the difference between speaking well and writing well; they appear to be separate skills. And yet, within my head, I could command that room. So I stayed up and knew my material and got to class and of course I died in that room. There's nothing like having your professor say, when you're done, "Okay, first thing: from now on you have to write a paper." Eeyeargh.

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF TIME AND SPACE: I don't remember too too much about this one, but I would think the title would explain everything.

FILMS OF THE SEVENTIES: Look, we saw some really good movies in this class. The Godfathers, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Klute--well, Klute wasn't that good. And we didn't get to watch Star Wars, an essential 70s movie. The point is, I actually took a class about the films of the seventies and I don't know how I got away with it or how my parents let me get away with it. Well, them I understand; they're like, "He's working hard. Let him take the occasional film class." But I can't forgive myself for the things on my transcripts.

ELEMENTS OF KOREAN: Remember the Monty Python sketch about the Italian class populated entirely by Italian speakers? That's what this class just about was. "Well, I kinda know Korean, but I don't know how to write it and I was never _formally_ trained...."

NATURAL & ARTIFICIAL: I don't remember this one at all. It was probably about sugar vs. Xylitol.

There's nothing like a Lakers loss where Derek Fisher takes a beating AND Karl Malone gets ejected.

This Chalabi stuff is pretty interesting, isn't it? Check out Randall Parker for the links, Steve Sailer for the distaff conservative moral outrage and Laura Rozen for the total Chalabi obsession experience.

I was hoping the girl behind this whole Washingtonienne thing would turn out to be a little beastly, so I could say to myself, "Look at these cretins in Washington, getting played for suckers by somebody who would not be turning heads anywhere but the halls of Congress." But she's actually strangely cute.

Jim hipped me to the Washingtonienne thing, by the way.