Mea Culpas
Posted on July 16th, 2009 in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »
My apologies. As a blogger at the moment, I make a great slacker. It all has to do with the diving schedule. Early to the boat, then in the water for a deep dive, then a surface interval of a couple of hours, then the shallow dive (80 minutes for me two days in a row, and yes, I’m pretty darn pleased about that), and afterward the boat returns to Caleta, the nearby harbor.
One of the effects of all this time underwater (about five hours in two days) is that it leaves you quite tired.
But I will be posting more soon—I’ve been saving up!
Meantime, I have a question for the commenter who doesn’t see the value of this blog for sharing and discussing Harvard issues: Do you work for the administration? Because it kind of sounds like it.
12 Responses
7/17/2009 11:55 am
Are you planning to write a book about sea creatures, RB?
7/18/2009 9:38 am
Maybe your critic works for Verizon, or the Red Sox, and is trying to distract you from those screeds.
7/20/2009 3:58 pm
Sounds like Cambridge PD are going to be offering a big mea culpa of their own ASAP: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/harvard.html
I’m not sure if this is a family blog or not, but holy shit.
7/20/2009 4:55 pm
Bandwidth for defending Cornel West on the Internet after his two-way miscommunication with a genius economist: $.04 .
Opportunity cost for defending Cornel West on the Internet (vs. playing poker at say .2BB/100hands): $36.
Enjoying a catered meal of ribs and collard greens made by Skip Gates’s barber’s wife, while wondering why the host doesn’t identify her business instead of identifying her husband’s haircut customer (himself): $11 profit.
Failing to pursue opportunities to do piecework assignments for the Encyclopedia Africana under Skip Gates, when a graduate student: $1300, probabilistically discounted.
Doing one’s best to provide financial assistance over eleven years to people trying to start things from scratch, with Cornel West as a role model: $180.
Being a very good tipper for life, with ditto: $5800.
Reading of Skip Gates embarrassing himself during a two-way miscommunication with a city cop, going so far as to reply without apparent irony to a request to step outside by saying “Yeah, I’ll speak with your MAMA outside”: PRICELESS.
Standing Eagle
PS. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Skip is a good tipper too. But he cares very little for the working man.
PPS. Also don’t get me wrong: Boston-area cops are more racist than many other demographics. But read the police report, for God’s sake, people. Skip is being a BUFFOON.
—-
Maxim: Given a choice between a bony Marxist intellectual hero in a cravat and a charismatic, jovial builder-of-departments intellectual hero who cheerfully announces “Some people do coke, I do cars” — go with the Marxist. Every time.
7/20/2009 5:47 pm
My dear SE, a police report is not gospel.
7/20/2009 6:08 pm
A good point, Feste, and one always worth remembering — but if Gates is still indignant and not abashed about his behavior, why isn’t he or Ogletree in public today setting the record straight?
Also, no way the cop made up the line about “I’ll talk with your MAMA outside.” That’s pure Skip.
I have an instinct to be alert to classism as a factor as well as racism, and I think this cop was pegged FAR too quickly as a racist because his collar was blue. When I hear the other side of the story I might change my mind, but I doubt it. Cops have to do their job, and if someone calls in describing two people “breaking into a house” they have to follow up at least a bit.
SE
7/20/2009 6:27 pm
Fair enough, SE, but there’s no way you can defend the cops ARRESTING Gates. That was totally unnecessary, even if he was being a ninny. Class attitudes cut the other way, too; maybe the cop felt this uppity guy needed to be taken down a peg.
7/20/2009 6:33 pm
A good point. But if you use the word ‘uppity’ you’re not accusing the cop of being classist (against snobby profs), you’re accusing him again of being racist (against black people who don’t ‘know their place’). With that amendment I acknowledge your interpretation as valid.
But I don’t agree that the arrest CAN’T be defended: disorderly conduct, especially when someone is berating a cop, undermines public confidence in the integrity of the commonweal, blah blah blah.
Arresting Gates was indeed probably unnecessary.
7/20/2009 7:50 pm
I think you can use “uppity” to describe a class attitude. It applies to anyone judged to be acting too important for their appropriate station and is usually indicative of resentment on the part of the person using the word. That, at least, was the sense I meant it in.
And yes, sure, the arrest can be defended — look at the cesspit of the Globe’s website for a few attempts — but I meant quite specifically that YOU can’t really defend it in good conscience, SE, despite your glee at Skip’s comeuppance.
7/20/2009 11:23 pm
‘Comeuppance’ is too strong a word — and no one deserves to be arrested for being confrontational. But I do think the incident reflects badly on Prof. Gates. The status-consciousness and failure to communicate civilly put him in the same category in my book with this guy:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/03/report-of-vitter-in-airport-rage-do-you-know-who-i-am.php
7/21/2009 7:46 am
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/21/racial_talk_swirls_with_gates_arrest/
3/30/2013 6:15 pm
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