Monthly Archives: August 2012

Shooting in Old Bridge, New Jersey: 38.1 @MapQuest miles from #njpoet via @nbcnewyork #p2

 
 
 

MORE via @nbcnewyork

An ex-Marine, Terence Tyler, 23, killed two coworkers and himself Friday morning after bursting through the glass windows of a closed New Jersey supermarket with an AK-47 and automatic handgun, officials said.

A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said Tyler got into an argument with coworkers, and at about 3:30 a.m., he left the store, went to his car and drove away. According to Kaplan, he returned about 20 minutes later, dressed in camoflauge clothing and holding an AK-47.

Tyler shot an employee standing outside the store, and the employee ran inside to warn his co-workers.

Tyler proceeded into the store, firing his weapon, Kaplan said.

A manager “told everyone to run, for their safety for everyone to run, so they all ran to the back, hid for a while,” said Miranda Miranda, who has worked at Pathmark, but was not there at the time of the shooting. “When the coast was clear, they left through the emergency exit.”

Dragan Jovanovic, the manager of the Staples next door to Pathmark, said the employee who fled told him Tyler threw a shopping cart through the store window, and then started shooting. More»

The Pathmark in Old Bridge, New Jersey:
a 50 minute car ride from where my poetic ass is sitting right now.

And I’ve seen this kind of thing before.

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Homesick for Rutgers-Newark || #njpoet

 
 
 

Rutgers University’s most distinguished alumnus was born April 9, 1898, at Princeton. Paul Bustill Robeson was a man of many talents: scholar, actor, lawyer, singer and athlete. He received world acclaim for performances in Othello, The Emperor Jones, Show Boat and many others. Robeson was the first black football player at Rutgers and a two time All-American. But, even more than that, Robeson was a leader in the movement against racial discrimination. Robeson was the first black man to be valedictorian of his graduating class. He was also the recipient of numerous honors throughout his life, including the Springarn Medal of the NAACP, the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952, which also (1958), the Abraham Lincoln Medal, the Donaldson Award for “the best acting performance in 1944″ and the 1944 Gold Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Robeson also was named an honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory of Music.

Paul Robeson Campus Center is the heart of student life through its many student organizations and boards, venues for performances and conferences, free public art galleries, and leadership programs. And it wouldn’t be a student center without its lounge, game room, Raider Mart convenience store, and eateries.

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“You’re lazy, and so are your parents.” Notes on the RNC Theme Party from @MajorityFM #p2

 
 
 

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On the Edge of Truth! with Paul Ryan via @TPM #RNC #p2

 
 
 

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Tell Us How You REALLY Feel! Ann Romney’s RNC Speech via @MajorityFM #p2

 
 
 

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Rick Santorum “Hands” Down Steals the RNC Show via @MajorityFM #p2

 
 
 

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I watched the Republican National Convention last night. #njpoet #rnc #p2

 
 
 

I don’t know why. I told myself it was the responsible thing to do. After all, I’m told this is an important election. The most important election ever! Again.

So, I watched.

Ann Romney read her wedding toast much too fast. And there was a sex gaffe in there somewhere, I think. She muddled a few words. She loves her husband. He’s modest. We just don’t know him because he’s too modest to brag about how wonderful he is. But he won’t fail us. He won’t. And we should all just trust in their wealthy hearts, because it’s about love, and not taxes. Love.

“Nah! Forget love. This. This is about respect,” my governor gesticulated. Chris Christie jabbed himself playfully. A Sicilain Irish guy from New Jersey giving the keynote speech at the RNC? Get the hell outta here!!

He lamented his late mother. He thanked his attending father. He highlighted his accomplishments in the field of pot holes that used to be New Jersey. I hadn’t noticed this, but apparently things in my state are just great now. Oh, and the pride, and don’t forget respect, and USA! USA! God Bless America!! And Chris Christie is a household name. Christie for president in 2016: Whaddya gonna do? Oh, and don’t forget to vote for Mitt Romney. Because it’s very important. Almost as important as Chris Christie.

To be honest, I was still reeling from Rick Santorum’s creepy “HANDS” rant earlier in the program. Even the actors they hired to play the audience weren’t sure about applauding for that mess. So, by the time Christie was fully deflated, and right around the time Chris Matthews started making Churchill comparisons, I found myself wishing I’d watched the Bar Rescue marathon on Spike—which was my first choice. At least that show is about helping other people.

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Andy Zaltzman Solves All of the World’s Greatest Social & Political Problems via @ZaltzCricket #p2

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Diary of the Returning Professor

I’m writing a syllabus for a course that will pay $3800, eight bi-weekly pay checks of  $400—after taxes. I’ll be employed until the end of 2012. Then, we’ll see about next Fall.  My boss, one of them, has assured me that I will not be teaching in the Spring. Admissions are down at the university, and after the surge of new students in the Fall the need for faculty drops.

This has been standard at every university and college where I’ve been contracted to teach. Spring and Summer courses are for the full-time faculty and the few senior adjuncts. The rest of the part-time faculty apply for food stamps, bag groceries. Whatever.

You should take this time to write, one of my department heads suggested a few years ago. She was a tenured professor. She had just cut me down from three courses to only one—1/3 of the income I’d counted on for the semester. Sorry. Last minute changes.

She suggested I spend my unpaid “partial sabbatical” writing poetry. She said my work always reminded her of Lord Byron. She had a job for life. She made six figures a year and had excellent health insurance.

After our meeting, I sat in my car sobbing, panicked about how I’d pay my rent. Lord Byron? I thought. Seriously, fuck off.

Flash forward. My latest university of employ requires all writing professors to teach from the same textbook. On page 181 of this collection, a few pages into the essay “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, I found this:

It is immoral and unseemly to have a person teaching the same course as an ensconced faculty member but for one-sixth of the pay of his or her tenured colleagues down the hall.  Adjuncts should receive the same per-course compensation as an assistant professor, including health insurance and other benefits.

This in the textbook the adjuncts are required to teach from. Over three years I’ve been away from college classrooms, and U.S. academia remains, in the immortal words of George Carlin,  stunningly full of shit.

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Todd Akin, Rape & GOP Magical Thinking via @MajorityFM #p2 #njpoet

 
 
 

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