patrick.net

curious2 says

"beck and call."

Is this like the usage of "Irregardless", with a heavy Boston accent :-)

Rin says

Is this like the usage of "Irregardless", with a heavy Boston accent :-)

Yes, I suppose that blight upon the language may have arisen as a kind of cosmic balance to offset the deliberate clarification from "inflammable" to "flammable", maintaining a constant and perhaps necessary level of linguistic chaos.

I appreciate your comments and insights, and probably I should not have responded at all to the "call" usage, but it surprised me like hitting a pothole in what had so long been such a smooth road. If the Captain Who Should Shuddup had written it, I would not have noticed, in fact by his standards any even marginally intelligible phrase would be better than average.

I like the Hispanic/Latino version of "regardless" that sounds something like "Lee-god-less"
Just makes me giggle every time I hear it!

curious2 says

Captain Who Should Shuddup

:-)

I realize that had I been born rich, I would have been an adult prodigy.

This article on the 11 year old, attending college, gave me the cue ...

http://patrick.net/?p=1228728

You see, a middle classer is conditioned to think like a loser... look good in front of others, gain classmates' approvals, pursue interests so that you fit in, etc. Well, after years of that, you don't trust your intuition and rely on systemic thinking to get through your years. In the end, you graduate with a so-called STEM accolade, "BS Applied Chemistry", tagged with some internships to impress recruiters, but then find yourself working on stuff, which you could have done as a high schooler had HR depts of corporate America not existed.

If I simply chucked all of the above, mostly relied on my intuition, chances are, I would have been a rich kid with a lot of know how and abilities.

And for Dan, yes, you can be rich, an intelligent person, and be a VIP at an top end brothel. The two paths, one for the mind and the other for the body, don't have to diverge.

Rin says

but then find yourself working on stuff, which you could have done as a high schooler had HR depts of corporate America not existed.

I know the feeling. ;-)

Ok, the following article isn't STEM.

And although it's an extreme case, with a hint of muckraking, it does point at the plight of academics these days ...

http://news.yahoo.com/adjunct-professor-death-190047241.html

This person should have been told years ago, that she should have come from a well off family, if she wanted to be an academician.