—Bunch and Campfield are unhappy about royalties. This made me laugh out loud about three different times this morning. One because they’re attacking academics’ royalties. Oh gosh, boys! Some people who take a penny never leave a penny! You’d better write up some legislation about that, too. Two, because “required” doesn’t mean “legally obligated to.” A “required reading” in a class is one that is central to the class. You don’t have to buy it, right now. They can’t make you. But it’s going to make it very hard for you to take the course. Which got me thinking, who is this person who is signing up for a class with a person he thinks so little of that he then resents having to buy that person’s book? Could you imagine if Toni Morrison were teaching a class in Contemporary American Fiction over at TSU and some dumbass felt fucked over because he had to buy Beloved? Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Are textbooks expensive? Yes they are. But by god, if that doesn’t sum up the Republican mindset in our state, I just don’t know what does. “Textbooks are expensive so let’s screw over the dudes who write them, who make about a dollar a book, instead of addressing who all gets the other $99 or $199.”
–Rex Noseworthy does something so douchy that I refuse to link directly to it. Here’s Kleinheider’s reporting on it. If Frizzell made his own joke about it, then you need to be damn clear that that’s the case. But the idea that anyone would joke about a veteran being jumpy about loud noises who is not that veteran himself? Fucking gross.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Little late to the party here, but I had to ask what made you so upset about Rex’s tidbit. I thought the quotes made it obvious that Frizzell was the one doing the joking. As I read it, Rex was just relating what happened. Why so outraged?
Dude, folks are still pissing and moaning over a post I wrote about Paranormal State back months ago. Clearly there is no such thing as “late to the party” here.
Anyway, I hope you’re right. To me, it wasn’t obvious that Frizzell was doing the joking. Looking at it again, it seems in-line with a kind of joke he might make about himself.
But it also sounds like the kind of thing some catty asshole might say about Frizzell.
To me, that puts an obligation on Noseworthy, if he’s going to retell the tale, to be utterly clear about the context. Was he hearing from Frizzell or from some jerk? And I don’t think it’s clear.
The fact that it’s not clear bothers me because it says to me that Noseworthy was more concerned about telling the story and proving that he has insider knowledge than telling it right.
It raises my hackles because there’s already this stereotype that combat veterans are all so damaged by what they’ve been through that they make shitty employees. And I think retelling this story without being absolutely clear that it’s Frizzell telling it walks right up to the edge of insinuating that Frizzell might be too shell-shocked to really have his job.
And I don’t like that.