Friday, April 28, 2006
Friday Random Thoughts
by Tom Bozzo
- Economist frame watch! Amid all this blog discussion of sociologist malaise, I admit that what was going through my mind was information from Jeremy on starting assistant professor salaries at the UW's department, which aren't bad in comparison to, say, my mid-nineties starting pay. (Supply of jobs may be another matter.) Plus, economists are ripping off sociology for material left and right.
- In the economist version of Kim's joke, an econometrician takes the place of the quantitative sociologist. Other joke details are basically the same. Maybe the extra three syllables versus "sociometrician" are holding them back?
- That UW staff budget detail is addictive, and the economists are doing quite well. You'd almost think every elite-school PhD who took the time-honored 'little angle on famous adviser's research project' approach to the tenure track would otherwise be running a hedge fund. The middle ranks are remarkably thin, though.
- Over at the very busy orgtheory.net, Brayden King also is confused by the Lay defense strategy. As Dane County D.A. Brian Blanchard might say, it's not a defense, but a confession.
- There are stupid things about the Republican gas tax rebate "plan," but that it's a lump sum rebate isn't one of them. I'd side with this DeLong commenter.
- Would this post at Conglomerate have existed had "France" and "nation's youth" been relaced by "university" and "professors"? In any event, it's cheeky for someone on the tenure track to pass judgment via approving blog quotation on others' preferences over job availability vs. employment security. Not surprisingly, I can finish this part of the post by linking the Most Dangerous Professor in America. (Note, I don't have a quarrel with Christine Hurt's primary point about hard-working U.S. immigrants, legal and otherwise, deserving better treatment.)
- In local news, the battle over the Whole Foods relocation goes to the Madison city council next Tuesday. Council should overturn the Plan Commission for reasons partly expressed here. More over the weekend. The theme will be "good ideas don't require bad justifications."
- After 186 double-spaced pages of writing in the last month, I see some light at the end of the tunnel. However, I have reason to believe that it is a couple of GP-38s briskly pulling a long train of intermodal cars. Many thanks to my co-bloggers for keeping this a much livelier place than it otherwise would be. Keep up the good work!
