Car Troubles

The switch for Fenry's brake lights has broken. Instead of the lights not working, they're on all the time. I guess on is safer than off, but it also discharges the battery.

We got a jump start from AAA at about 6 pm last night but when I thought about getting it fixed today I realised that the battery would just go flat again overnight. So I had to drive the car to charge it, turn it off, then unhook the cable from the terminal. It's not very convenient having to carry a spanner everywhere but it makes a decent kill-switch.

But it seems I got off lightly. Only $40 for the repair and I used one of my $10 oil-change vouchers at the same time.

La vie française

One of the ways I've been spending my summer is continuing my French.

I've been getting together with some other students from HPS and Philosophy to read some philosophical texts in the original French. (We had done something similar last summer but it's a bigger group this year and we're sticking to the task at hand much more this time.) Most of the others are beginners who are just learning to read (not write or speak) French. It's good for me to be forced to go through the text properly, where I might have just skimmed it and misunderstood the tricky bits if I were reading it on my own.

Also, the guy who organised our French table has moved overseas and left me the job of sending out the weekly announcements. (Cindy had done it before in his absence but when he critiqued her verbose messages she told him to give the job to someone else - me.) Last summer there were a few weeks when very few people turned up (maybe only one apart from me and Cindy). So this year I've started advertising through the university's online classifieds. It's been pretty successful, there's be a few new people come as well as enough of the regulars to keep things going.

Potter Madness

Yesterday Cindy and I bought our tickets to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We had heard that there would be a midnight session Tuesday so that we could watch it the day of its release (Wednesday) but when we went to buy our tickets there were none left for the 12.01 am, we had to get tickets for 12.13 am. In fact, that one has since sold out and now we see that the first six sessions are already full and they're selling tickets to a seventh midnight showing.

By the way, don't tell Cindy what happens in the movie, she hasn't read the book yet.

Update 1 - 7 pm, Monday night
The seventh screening is now sold out. They haven't added any more; I suppose they don't have any more prints to show.

Update 2 - Wednesday
The movie earnt $22.2 million in midnight sessions alone! That's a new record for midnight screenings, The Dark Knight only took $18.5M.

American Names

No, I don't mean names like Randy, Larry, Grover or all those misspelt Stevens. I mean "How do names work in America?" It seems a silly question as their names would seem to work the same way as ours - they don't have patronymics or surnames first - but by talking to Americans I've come to realise that they think about names differently.

The most common custom, which most people would have noticed:

• Rather than Hillary Clinton née Rodham, Americans prefer Hillary Rodham Clinton

I had assumed that this was a double-barrel surname without a hyphen. But I recently discovered that this is not always the way. Apparently many married women move their maiden name into the middle name field on forms. That's good to know. If that's the case, I guess that means I should put books by Mary Boas Hall next to her husband Rupert Hall in my bibliography. (But where does that leave things she wrote before she was married?) Still, I'm not certain that that's always the case.

Hearing that a friend of mine had two friends have done just that with her name, I started wondering how they can just shift a surname into a given name field. Apparently the distinction is less clear here. I think it might stem from the fact that use of the mother's maiden name as a middle name is more common here. But here's the strange thing, they both gave up their existing middle names in order to make room for her maiden name in the middle name box. I asked why she didn't just keep both but she didn't really understand because:

• Americans don't have given names, they have first name and middle name (and ne'er the twain shall meet)

When I mentioned the given names box on forms, they said they had never seen that. I think most of them have heard of multiple given names but don't really understand it. (Not that I love the idea either; it strikes me as a bit of an affectation but the concept is not foreign to me.)

I think that this is partly the cause of another phenomenon that I noticed early on:

• Americans are rarely interested in the whole middle name but they do want to know your middle initial

It seems a little strange that they don't care about the letters that come after. But this leads to another phenomenon peculiarly American:

• Some Americans have no middle name, just a middle initial

The most famous example being Harry S. Truman; Herman B Wells is another. (This leads to all sorts of debates about whether to use a full stop, as there's nothing to abbreviate. Truman usually added one so the punctuation is considered part of his name.)

Oh, oh and I must say something about ordinals. It's not just Jr and Sr! We've all heard of these Americans with "comma Jr" because they're named after their father. (I don't think I've ever met an Australian who used "Junior" in such a formal way, just one who used it as a nickname. It always seemed to me that most Australians named after their fathers use their middle name, which some Americans do too.) But here's the real difference:

• Junior and Senior can be part of your legal name (will appear on government-issued ID)
• They also use Roman numerals. You can be John Thomas Smith IV in America.

That last one always makes me laugh. "Where are you king of? Or are you a pope?" I'm not sure why they feel the need to give the exact same name or keep a track of how many there have been but forms allow for it so Americans take advantage of the opportunity. (H.L. Mencken already remarked on this but apparently the practice was just starting when he was writing in the '20s.)

Happy 5th of July!

Our plans for an Independence Day BBQ got rained out so we did it today instead.

I've mentioned before that fireworks manufacturers in America try to stir up patriotism for 4th of July celebrations. This results in some of the most ridiculous fireworks, like a tank that rolls (a short distance) and an "Exploding Bin Laden Noggin". Naturally I had to buy these two. My American friends don't buy into the jingoism but seeing me get excited about this made them want to enjoy them ironically. So we used the tank to set off Bin Laden. I didn't capture the moment but here's a video of someone else who bought the exact same sort:

Exploding Bin Laden Noggin Firework - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Minnesota

I spent the last week at a workshop/conference at the University of Minnesota (a Big 10 rival of IU).

All US airlines are charging to check luggage on domestic flights so I travelled light, only taking a cabin bag. That meant I didn't take a camera but here are some photos that I would have taken:
Minneapolis is on the Mississippi River. This is one of the nicer bridges, just for pedestrians and bikes now.

The river was strong enough for mills to be built here. One of the flour companies is still going strong, Pillsbury. This building on campus is named for them:

Folwell Hall is where our sessions were.

Bob Dylan started his musical career in "Dinkytown", the student quarter of Minneapolis before moving to NYC. He lived in this building when the ground floor was a pharmacy and upstairs was flats:

Grand Marnier

Today we went to the Grand Marnier factory. (They don't normally let small groups take the tour but they put the four of us with a bigger group of oldies. So it was enough, and it was free.)

First we heard about their products and the basics of the production process before taking a tour of the factory. We saw the bitter orange rinds they use for the flavour, the machines for processing them and the vats for maceration. They showed us the stills for extracting the orange flavour (and cherry, for their other liqueur) and had us smell the different fractions of the distillation. Apparently the good fraction is 90-92˙C (cooler than that is the orange oil they sell off as cleaning product).

We got to see all the huge oak barrels for first ageing the cognac, then ageing the mixed liqueur. That cellar smelt really good!

And finally they gave us free taste tests! We got to try their Cherry Marnier and vanilla Navarn liqueurs; they were ok but not worth the price. Then they gave us some of the Louis-Alexandre Grand Marnier; it tasted not much different from the standard Cordon Rouge, so not worth the extra money (30€64 /700mL vs 19€21 for Cordon Rouge). But lastly they even let us try the super-expensive Centenaire Grand Marnier (41€41); I could taste the difference with that one but I'm not prepared to pay twice as much for it, I think I'd rather have twice as much of the Cordon Rouge!

The only one we didn't get to try was the hyper-expensive Cent-Cinquantenaire (84€06). Cindy wants to go back next time we're here so maybe they'll offer us one then.

Belgium

We arrived in Brussels Tuesday night where we stayed with Cindy’s aunt.

The next day her cousin took us on a tour of the city. We went first to see the Mannekin Piss, a fountain of a little boy urinating. I had heard about it before but didn’t realise that he’s usually dressed for some occasion. When we saw him he was wearing the uniform of the Barcelona soccer team because of an upcoming match. They must have just dressed him because there was a crowd standing in front, holding a banner, singing something. After lunch Cindy’s other cousin took us to see the lesser-known counterpart to the Mannekin Piss, the Jeannkin Piss -- a more recent fountain of a little girl squatting. Freud would have a field day with Brussels!

We went to the building of the European Parliament but you can’t go into the chamber. There was an info office providing literature on the EU in all its languages so Cindy took a copy of the EU charter of rights in each language.

Cindy insisted on having lunch at Quick, a European version of Maccas, mainly because it’s so famous in France for being Belgian. It was slightly less greasy than Maccas and the burgers came on whole grain buns but it was still fast food. That evening Cindy’s cousin’s boyfriend asked me (in French that sounded like Dutch) if I had tried real Belgian pommes frites yet. He was horrified when I said, “Not really, unless you count Quick,” and proceeded to tell me about his friends who own a friterie and do it all by hand. I asked him about the mayonnaise thing and he replied that you can have ketchup or any number of other sauces and rattled off a list of creamy sauces, “Tartare, andalouse...”

He seemed to know what he was talking about so when he suggested we have dinner in Leuven we let him lead us there. Leuven is a very beautiful city, reminiscent of Florence with its restaurant-filled piazzas connected by cobbled streets.

Polyglot Families

After leaving Germany we went to stay with Cindy’s cousins in Holland, on the Meuse, near Nijmegen. In fact their house is on a flood plain surrounded by dykes. They have a big gate in the middle of the front dyke so they can drive up to the house so, when they hear that a big flood is coming, they install in that gap huge bars of aluminium with rubber in between, which apparently keeps the water out.

Cindy’s cousin is French but married a Dutchman so the whole family is bilingual. And because both of them work jobs that require some English and the kids also learn English at school, so they’re almost trilingual. Then the eldest daughter (20ish) explained -- in perfect English -- that she’d picked up German by having a German room-mate and spending time with her friends. Then I really started to feel that my language skills pale in comparison to people who grow up in northern Europe.

I found it a bit strange to be in this environment with so many choices of language. It was perfectly normal to hear the kids switching between French and English to talk to me (as this is what happens at French table all the time) but I also had an experience that I had heard bilingual people talk about. At one point Cindy’s cousin came up to me and asked, “Did you succeed in getting your computer onto the network?” I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with this question. It was obvious what she meant because it was not long before we had been talking about it but then I realised that she’d asked me the question in English whereas I had only ever heard her speak French up to that point!

Aix-la-Chapelle

After leaving Luxembourg we crossed (through a little bit of Belgium) into Germany where we stayed in the town that the Krauts call Aachen and the Frogs call Aix-la-Chapelle. I don't know what to call it but it was a nice town.

I thought we were going to see Charlemagne's grave but it turned out to be his relics. They had a stone sarcophagus where he was originally buried but it was empty. Apparently he was canonised a couple of hundred years after he died (news to me) and so they opened up his tomb and pulled his body to bits. That's reverence for you! His arm and his leg were in special boxes with crystal sides so you could see them. Apparently his skull was inside the big gold bust. And it wasn’t just bits of Charlemagne and his personal effects, they had quite a collection of reliquaries. They had a piece of Jesus’ sweat-rag, Mary’s belt and rib bones from famous saints (Peter, Paul, Stephen). I found the whole thing a bit macabre but that's mediaeval Catholicism.

I was a bit worried about travelling in a country where I didn’t speak a word of the language (except what I’ve learnt from Hogan’s Heroes). Cindy took German in high school for a couple of years (but has forgotten almost all of it) so I had her teach me the numbers at least. She was able to read the days of the week on a few signs but apart from that we were without any knowledge of the language. We found that, even though we were very close to the French border, the Germans of Aachen were not very good at French, most of them preferred to speak English.

After an abortive attempt to get an authentic German meal at a pub with a frazzled barmaid, we found a restaurant that had lots of flags in the window. There we were even able to ask questions about the dishes as the waiter knew the words for most things in English if he didn’t know the French word. I had the Nuremburg sausages with saurkraut and it was pretty good (there were caraway seeds in the saurkraut). I’ve realised that cabbage can be edible if it’s cooked in beer or wine or something nice.

Luxembourg

On the 15th we left Paris and drove to Metz (pronounced "mess") in Lorraine, on the Moselle. We had a walk through the park there and saw their canals.

We then moved on to Luxembourg, where we spent the night. There we saw the grand-ducal palace and some old caves where people would hide in war time. I started off thinking that it would be some tiny micro-state because I had only ever heard of it in conjunction with the BeNeLux confederacy and had heard something about there still being a Grand Duke. (It’s anachronistic enough to still have a king or queen but dukes-regnant are far more exotic!) Yet I found that it’s a bit bigger than it sounds: there are actually a few separate cities there with some space in between and it takes a few hours to drive across the whole country (that’s normal; it is Europe, after all!).

We ate a couple of meals at a fête that seemed semi-permanent; it seems they eat quite a lot of sausages and the Luxembourg speciality is potato pancakes with apple sauce, just like those Ashkenazi ones that I forget the name of.

Summer Travel

Cindy and I are in France visiting her parents again this summer. We arrived yesterday morning and will be here until the 29th.

Our trip here went quite smoothly. A friend drove us up to Indianapolis and we stopped at IHOP for a late lunch. This month's special is strawberries, as you can see from the crêpe.

Our short connection time at Cincinnati was no problem. We had an Air France flight number but it was actually a Delta flight. Cindy complained about the French announcements over the PA but I thought they were lucky to get any announcements in French on a Delta flight. Like most US airlines they don't serve alcohol for free any more, even on international flights. Except, I assume because they were carrying Air France passengers, that you could request wine with dinner for free.

We didn't see anyone wearing surgical masks but there was mention of swine flu. When we got on the plane they explained that the French government wouldn't let anyone disembark until everyone on the flight had filled in a certain form. The strange thing was that the form didn't ask where we'd been, just where we were going, so that they could get in touch with us if someone else came down with swine flu. (And at the airport I noticed that the gendarmes were carrying automatic rifles, presumably to shoot anyone they see cough.)

After a siesta we went shopping and picked up all the things on Cindy's list, including huge quantities of dairy products and some cider to try before we commit to buying a case of anything.

This morning we went to the market at Houilles, the neighbouring suburb. Cindy and her mum left before me because I got up late and was still eating breakfast (French style). I wandered over there, not really remembering the best route but seeing familiar landmarks. I promptly stumbled upon the market and started wandering through. Before long I saw Cindy and her mum walking towards me. They seemed slightly relieved because they didn't know where I'd been, telling me that I should have taken a mobile phone. I had told Cindy's dad where I was going and he had called them to tell them to keep a look out. I wasn't worried because I'd left my trail of bread crumbs but they weren't so confident.

Career Change

So for almost a year now I've been enrolled in a master's program through the Philosophy dept at the same time as the PhD though HPS. I had the opportunity to apply for a teaching position with philosophy this semester but I was already booked to teach my own undergrad class in HPS, so I didn't. But then yesterday I got an unsolicited offer to lead the discussion sections for an ethics class in the fall semester (September – December) this year. Again this time I'm already scheduled to teach my HPS class (for the third time) but for some reason the specific offer got me thinking that I should consider it.

I had a meeting with my committee yesterday afternoon and so I asked them, just at the end, what they thought of the idea. They both immediately yelled, "Take it!" I continued speaking, saying how I had already made a commitment to teach in this dept and they said again, "Take it!" Apparently HPS is very happy whenever anyone gets work somewhere else because it means they'll be able to offer my position to someone else who needs it. The only hurdle was that my class has been advertised because it's about Darwin and the university has been running a "Themester" for his bicentennary/sesquicentennary. But I derived no benefit from it being advertised like that and the Director of Graduate Studies was certain that they'd find a replacement.

In one way this other job might seem like a demotion - leading discussion instead of lecturing. But in every other way it'll be better. It will be a good career move to get a little experience teaching something different in another dept, particularly philosophy (I like to teach both philosophical and historical classes but had I done the Darwin class again it would just be more history, when it's philosophy experience I need more of). It will be about the same number of hours work but it'll be less stressful. And it pays about 25% more! In fact, I might even be earning a little more than Cindy next semester!

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

A few months ago Cindy and I were at a used book sale (the annual Monroe County Red Cross book fair) on flat rate per bag day. I noticed a number of textbooks that I recognised from taking French for reading knowledge classes. As it was a flat rate for as many books as I could fit in the bag, I picked up some of these books, thinking it would be worth trying to sell them on to the campus bookstore. They didn't want to buy them a few weeks ago but told me to come back during exam week. When I did they still didn't want one title and another had actually dropped in value. Still, I've managed to sell three to people in my dept. I charged them less than I would other students but I've still made back almost what I paid for all of them. I still have 3 left but I've contacted the instructor for the first half of the summer French class, asking her to tell the students that I'm selling books cheap.

Hopefully the next project will work out even better. Cindy and I were talking about how she loves French cider but not American cider very much. We managed to find some French cider at the international grocers but it was the one she likes less (brut, she prefers doux; I'll drink either) and it was selling for around $12. Cindy's parents found this surprising as there it retails for €1.25 for the cheap brand or €1.40 for the good stuff. So I said something like, "If it's so much cheaper in France, we should bring some back duty free. It's just a shame that we can only bring 2L into the USA between us, which is only two 750mL bottles." But then I started wondering, "What happens if we exceed our duty-free limit? How much would the duty cost?" It's a little complicated because you have to pay a percentage of the value as duty but also federal and state excise taxes on alcohol. But to bring a case of cider back to Indiana should cost less than $5 in duty and taxes. So our plan is to buy a case, check it like a suitcase (with "Fragile" stickers) and pay the duty. If all goes according to plan, we'll get a dozen 750mL bottles of Cindy's favourite cider for about $25. Fingers crossed.

Summer Work

Good news: I've found some work for this summer and next.

June this year I'm going to a workshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We'll be developing history of science teaching modules for high school science teachers.

Next summer I'll be going to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I've won a fellowship with the Chemical Heritage Foundation and will be working there for two months, using their library and writing a paper (which should also be useful for my thesis).

Update - 7th May
More good news! Along with my Chemical Heritage Fellowship, I've just been offered another fellowship from the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science. In fact, the Chem Heritage Foundation is a member institution, so I'll be spending a little more time as well as visiting libraries at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. They say that this one 'may be held sequentially with fellowships offered separately by PACHS member institutions but may not be held concurrently.' So I guess that means staying in Philadelphia for three months. I've heard that it's a nice city; I hope so.

Serving Sizes

Tonight we had dinner out with a few people from HPS and Philosophy. We took advantage of the nice weather eating outside at a little place without undergrads where the food's not too dear. After dinner someone suggested that we go to an icecream place called the Chocolate Moose, a Bloomington institution. Knowing that it was close, most of us walked and enjoyed the summer evening.

The Chocolate Moose is a small, free-standing kiosk, about 5 meters square with a high pointed roof with a sign with a moose on it. There's always quite a queue because the locals love it. It's not the best ice cream I've ever had but I don't mind going there because it's good value. Because of this I knew I wanted a small but I while waiting looked up at the cups they had on display. I thought that the largest looked like a pretty big soft drink but then I realised that the cup wasn't for soft drinks, it was for sundaes, "blizzards" and milkshakes. I read the sign and it said "32 oz"; that's 950 mL! (For only $4.20 when made with softserve.) And my "small" was 16 oz, 470 mL! I was quite satisfied.

Humble Pie

This week is my week for being told what to do.

Tuesday I had a class inspection for the first time. About a year ago they told the associate instructors that we would have to be observed at some stage. I was proactive and went to the professor who I thought was in charge of the course I was teaching but he said he didn't know anything about it. Then we hear again that we'd have to be inspected before the end of the semester, just two weeks away. I had already passed the fun part of the semester but managed to turn Tuesday's class into a pretty comprehensive lesson. I haven't received the report yet but he seemed happy enough with my performance.

Tomorrow I have to present my qualifying paper in front of the whole department. I've already heard from my two advisors that it has gaps and will need more work before it's accepted; I'm sure I'll get plenty more people wanting to pick holes in it tomorrow. My plan is to go in there describing it as a draft; hopefully that way they'll try to make most of the criticisms constructive.

Taxing Times

I just did my US tax return. Because Australia has a lousy tax treaty with the states I get no special treatment as a student (Cindy, e.g., gets to earn the first $5000 tax free). And worst of all, international students can't claim anything much as deductions (not books, fees or anything; not if you worked for the money).

So I have to send the federal government a cheque for $265.20. (Cindy has to send them 32c!) I'm going to get back $48 from the state of Indiana but that doesn't help much. I suppose it was the US government that paid me in the first place so I can't be too annoyed about having to give some of it back.

Warm Angry Rabbits

You can't get decent hot cross buns in America. They do have a couple of packets at the local supermarket but they've got a strange custard-coloured icing cross on top and they don't look too promising. And they certainly don't have chocolate one like in Australia.

So, last year I found a good recipe and had some success making them myself (having a bread machine helps a lot). Here's the recipe I use:

1 1/3 cups milk
1 egg (beaten)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons yeast
4 tablespoons cocoa
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Put all ingredients except choc chips into bread machine on dough setting. (Add choc chips when machine beeps.) When cycle has finished, shape into buns and allow to rise in warm place. Mix a couple of tablespoons of cornflour with milk. Score buns with serrated knife and drizzle cornflour mix over buns. Bake at 190˙C for 20 min. Serve warm.

That's what I did last year. I'm finding other recipes on line that are telling me to glaze them. I'm not sure that's necessary for chocolate ones but I might try it.

Australia Studies 101

Today I gave a talk to some American student teachers about Australia. They are participating in a Cultural Immersion Project where they travel to another country for eight weeks where they teach in a local school. I knew one of the past participants who got a lot out of it (she wants to go back to Australia eventually) so when I met the coördinator and she asked me I was happy to help.

There were more parents in the audience than students (they're about 21 years old but American university students get babied) and the parents asked at least half of the questions. Maybe the preparatory course the students are taking is working because the only very stupid question I got was from a mother. She asked, "Do you need to get your money exchanged or do they accept US dollars?" As I was picking up my jaw from the floor she continued, "Because they're very happy to accept US dollars in Mexico."

Well, I've got nothing in particular against Mexico but I had thought that Australia was in a better economic relationship with the US than they are.