Write On, McDuff

Here I am again. For those of you who've missed me, thank you for your patience. For the rest of you, as I've told you before, you have no taste anyway.

I've been taking a graduate course in Rhetoric, required on the writing track for English Master's candidates at Trinity. The problem is that you have to read about 500 hours a week of involved explanatory and historical text on rhetorical subject matter, then write the equivalent of a James Joyce novel in an attempt to unravel the damn stuff. This is why no blogging (I haven't even been able to finish LAST term's paper).

I came away with two things from the course: (1) an apparent "Distinction" for a mark, and (2) once more a tremendous increase in respect for Trinity graduate students and faculty. As a Yale grad, I've spent most of my life feeling superior intellectually to all and sundry in my walk through life. If you've ever met an obnoxious Yalie (I qualify as such) you know what I'm talking about. Since I've been at Trinity I've discovered that there are some extremely brilliant people who have never attended an Ivy school and all of them are packed into my graduate program. I've also learned that creative talent can be found in amazing quantities in people who might have no intellectual aptitude elsewhere. One might ask why it has taken me this long to figure out these relatively obvious facts, to which I say that maybe MY perceptive aptitude lies elsewhere.

I have a ton of stuff bottled up from my month-and-a-half hiatus from my blog. Writing posts is such a cathartic experience for me that I've felt like a word-junkie without it. All this means is that you will hear from me soon and often.

See you----later.