Archive for October, 2006
Brief Aside on Collection Tactics
And the logical fallacies! Get a lawyer, they said. We don’t want to talk to you, that implied. What would you know? Pay a lawyer $1,000 (to start) in order reduce the bill to some amount I could not pay and didn’t owe?
So at one point I offered $1,000. They told me That’s not enough! […]On the previous Aside
The point is, the feeling I had, after the fact, and after the oral exam. How DARE they, after all they’ve put me through, demand that I go through this hour of examination of how much I’ve kept up with my field, when they did everything they could, through the lawsuit, to take away my […]
Aside
Yesterday, October 24, 2006 I had an oral examination to satisfy a new requirement for Ph.D. candidates, to recertify that they were still on top of their game in their field. In that sense, for that purpose, it went okay. On the other hand, I wasn’t very satisfied with where I came out in my […]
Setting the Stage
I sat in my wheelchair in the front row of the audience at the very rainy 250th Commencement of the University of Pennsylvania. Occasionally my eyes met those of Jodie Foster, who bravely endured the rain, and talked of her acting as “telling stories.” I fantasized about writing a story that would turn into a […]
Opening Remarks
Had a Brain (as in “if I only had a brain” from The Wizard of OZ) is material for an “achievement despite obstacles” memoir, with a twist. In short, I earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania despite head trauma and assorted other physical injuries sustained when I was hit by a car. That […]