in case you were wondering....

So I have this love of television. I'm a grad student in English Language & Literature and I understand that The Thing To Do is to pretend I'm so above television and all...I knooooow. But the thing is...I really do think it's a venue for some of the greatest storytelling the last century has seen. Definitely the last couple of decades. And we are a resilient species when it comes to finding outlets for our artistic impulses and we will infest this planet with art if we don't get in our own way too often.

My point is that television is great. I have cried, I have laughed, I have done both of those things at the same time, and I have done gradations of every emotion on the spectrum between them. It is a great medium. Dickens would, if he were alive today, so be writing for television. He'd be all like, "Dudes. I liked the novels--don't get me wrong. But TV is what I'm talking about."

And of the TV shows I have loved most--and there have been some intense relationships with shows in my life (I'm looking at you, Firefly)--I have to say...Aaron Sorkin sorta kinda makes my heart strings play beautiful, beautiful melodies. In five part harmony. It is a Big Deal.

And I saw West Wing first. It will have my heart till the day I die. A good chunk of my obsession with bad take out comes from the romanticism of their late night planning-to-make-the-world-better-and-pass-me-the-dim-sum sessions. Then I saw Studio 60. I KNOW that I am nearly alone in this but YES. I love that one too. The episode where the dude who got ousted during McCarthyism comes back all amnesiacally? GOLD. PURE GOLD.

But I had never seen Sports Night. I just resisted it. I thought, nah, that can't be for me. It's about sports. And...just sports. And Felicity Huffman.

BUT GUYS. I WATCHED THE WHOLE THING IN THE LAST DAY AND A HALF. IT IS ONE AM AND I JUST FINISHED. IT WAS GLORIOUS. I FEEL CHANGED. I HAVE...SO...MANY...STRONG EMOTIONS DIRECTED TOWARDS THAT SHOW.

Just...so many. So, so many.

( Also: a product from the past week's late night sleep deprived madness. Five Reasons You Should Never Offer Me A Dictatorship. )

Yet again...this is why I need a "i make weird choices" tag. Because...my choices. They are weird.

PS -- in real life news...the presentation happened. It wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst. And I fly home--home, sweet Jersey, home--on Friday. [insert exclamation of joy that is up to the task of expressing the enthusiasm I feel for Jersey and my fam--honestly, I don't think language has caught up to my emotional state yet]

This message brought you by the letter "P" (for PROCRASTINATION)

That is all.

my head hurts from reading dialect

I am waiting in the grad lounge for the last of my students' final projects. The majority have come in already--only two haven't.

But I am working on my own paper while I wait and guess what I found in the May 22nd, 1860 issue of Harper's Weekly? A column about the Japanese delegation to the US written in crazy dialect. I kid you not. Enjoy a sampling:

"While we wos a waitin' I spyd wun ov Mr. Harper's artists a sketchin' away like phun, makin' a pictur ov the yard, and ov the peeple, and ov the white-washed plank-walk for the Jappyknees to cum ashoar on, and the sogers, and the stemeboat we wos on, Jappyknees and awl, includin' me. But awl at wunst he seed sumthin' on the bote, and stop'd drawin', and begun to larf like phun. I looked tew see what on airth he was a larfin' at, and thair was a Jappyknee oppositioner a sketchin' away like phun tew. I deon't wundur Mr. Harper's artist was kinder knocked aback tew see this feller, and I would like tew see the tew picturs, side by side, jist tew see which feller was best."

"Littel Count Videpocke worn't know where, and he sed, seys he, “Sare, I sink se Japonais be von gr-r-r-r-and hoombug!” I thort tew myself, but didn't say so, “You're a little humbug, and eklips'd, young forrynur.”"

And--the pièce de résistance--this gem of irony:
"He's a sort of Brigaid-Major tew the Prince ov Boozy and the crowd, and spekes English sort ov tollerble well."

I honestly don't know what to do with this. It is going in my paper--obviously--but seriously. WTF. I'm just asking.