Fenry Honda

Burns: Beep! Beep! Out of my way! I'm a motorist!
Chief Wiggum: That's some nice reckless driving, Mr. B.

Big things happening here. Seems I've once again thrown myself out of the comfort-zone I had found here: I've just bought a car, now I just have to learn to drive the thing! Not only is the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car and all the cars on the wrong side of the road but it's a manual and it's been a few years since I drove one. So while learning to keep to the right and indicate with my left hand, I have to remember how to change gears with my right. The state of Indiana wouldn't give me a licence automatically based on my Australian gold licence so I'm back on my Ls for at least 60 days. But I don't need to obey those rules, I can still drive myself around because I have an international driver's permit.


The car I've bought is a 1989 Honda Civic LX. As you can see it's a small 4-door, in less than mint condition. But it's good enough for my purposes. (N.B. That dent is from one of its previous owners, I have not hit anything yet!) At 1.5L, I'm hoping it will run on the smell of an oily rag. I bought it from another grad-student here who's just finished his degree, another Australian philosopher, would you believe it? I'm told the name is Fenry, a spoonerism. I can't think of anything wittier so I guess I'll keep the name.

This morning I tried to drive it to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to register it (with Patty and Selma). I was told that the wait would be shorter at the Ellettsville branch, only 5 min further to drive. So I looked it up on the map, seemed straightforward. Except that it's pouring rain here today. I had the wipers and demisters all going so it was very hot inside and my visibility was pretty low. I aquaplaned right in front of the cop-shop and spun the wheels at a few lights with my less-than-smooth first gear starts. But I am getting better; the gear shifting has come back to me, now I just need to get used to this clutch and this engine. It was very stressful and quite disappointing that I didn't even get there on time! At least I did get back home, without getting too lost or hitting anything. Will have to try again Monday or Tuesday.

A leather jacket with tweed patches on the elbows

I just taught my first philosophy class today. As mentioned before, I'm taking two discussion sections for Lisa Lloyd's "Evolution, Religion and Society". The undergrads are slightly more formal here so I made a point of referring to the lecturer as "Professor Lloyd", even though I always address her by her first name. That already had me feeling quite the school-teacher when I returned to my computer to find an email addressed to "Mr. Best"! Ah, freshmen, they look at me and see a grown-up. Scary!

I think both sessions went pretty well. Unfortunately there's about 30 students in each class, quite an unwieldy number for a discussion class, so they discuss things in small groups and then relate to to rest of the class their answers. All I need to do is elaborate on those and explain the subtleties like the differences between theories, hypotheses and facts. We've been given a large list of study questions related to the readings, which I used to guide the discussion. There are more questions than we can get through but that just means we concentrate on the good ones. They seemed relatively well-engaged with the material, so I think it's going to get better as the semester moves on.