Who Moved My Cheese? Sociology Program Enrollment

There is an excellent new paper out[1] on strategies for sociology programs to increase major numbers, a topic of the utmost timeliness for my own program. It's a great read. There is a gem at the end, though, that I had to share:

If students' selections of college majors are accurate reflections of current values, it is hard not to conclude that students now find mice to be more interesting than human beings (14).

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[1] Sweet, Stephen. 2015. "Hans O. Mauksch Address: How Departments Can Respond to the Changing Popularity of the Sociology Major" (PDF). Teaching Sociology 44(1):3-16.

h/t Stephanie McClure

The Strange World of Academic Lingo

We academics have a knack for using terms that normal human beings use in fairly mundane ways in odd and confusing ways. Take for example two common terms used in the journal manuscript submission process.

"Conditional Acceptance" does not mean that we are somehow less than giving with our love of other human beings.

"R&R" does not mean "rest and relaxation"; ironically, an R&R typically means that one will have to forgo a great deal of rest and relaxation.

Polite Right's Violation

I'm back from a few weeks off over the holidays. I wanted to share this travel tidbit with you all. When my wife and I returned home from a week and a half away visiting family, we found the flyer pictured below in two of our checked bags:

At least the TSA was polite about violating my civil rights.

"If Peeing in Your Pants Is Cool..."

I couldn't resist sharing these. Funny? Creepy? Blasphemous? All of the above?

More here.

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h/t Religion News Service

John 14:6 According to Xtranormal

Check this out:



Love it! My only critique is that not all Christians believe like "Christians," that is, there are many Christianities, each of which has beliefs that are quite disparate. I, for one, do not care to be lumped in with my Evangelical brothers and sisters--and I'm quite sure many of them don't care to be lumped in with a Mainline Protestant like me--and, yet, we are all "Christian."


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via The Huffington Post via Dr. Doug Keith

Obvious Observations: #1 Southern Exposure

People in the South cannot tell the difference between water and ice. I have heard multiple stories this week about people falling, some with disastrous results, others just humorous. Sure, people fall in the North, but there's a lot more opportunity up there. I guess that explains it.

DADT Humor

Peter Sagal of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me:

The only resistance remaining to changing the policy [Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell] comes first from the Marine Corps because there’s nothing at all gay about really muscular guys with short hair and tattoos and a thing for travel.