Snow Day

I've worked at a breakneck pace to get ready to for the supposed start of the semester today. But instead of printing syllabi, meeting students, and all that jazz, I'm on house arrest.

Oh we tried to get out, but I guess I forgot we live in a place where nobody's heard of a salt truck. Doug made it to the end of the driveway, before spinning wheels put an end to his endeavor. I'm so glad we have food in the house!

Anyway, I've been struggling to build a new identity for this blog. Not that anyone who reads this thing would have noticed. Teaching evening classes hasn't lent itself well to the fresh-from-scratch cooking lifestyle I was recounting here. No kids means no cutesy-pukesy pictures, and I don't feel like my days and nights of Wii and whiskey make for very compelling reading.

But I have an idea I'm going to try. I'm teaching a class in media, culture, and society this spring, and I'm making my students keep blogs to track their term projects. The idea is to try and keep everybody on track, by requiring weekly think-throughs of their term project topics.

For my term project, I'm going to check out some media representations of food and eating. I'm hoping a bit of solidarity will motivate me to keep up with this blog, the way NaBlo helped me out in November.

So... Ideas...

• Food, Inc.
• Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (assuming I can get it on Netflix)
• One of Michael Pollan's books
• Some TV commercials -- like, Happy Meal ads versus healthy eating PSA's
• OMG! Real Food Has Curves! I love Mark and Bruce's blog. Time to get their book!

I'd love to hear suggestions from y'all -- especially on which Pollan book I should read. I'll admit, I kind of despise that guy. His NYTimes editorials reek of smug superiority. Raging douchebaggery, in fact.

Can I type that word on a site I'll let my students read? Surprise, kids. Teacher's got a colorful vocabulary.

I'll be back... No seriously. I totally will.

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