orichalcum

Philadelphia has just decided to make a year of African-American history, typically in 9th grade, mandatory for graduation from its public high school system.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm an advocate of going beyond traditional "wars and politics" style history, starting in secondary school. OTOH, by focusing on African-Americans, it both sets up the normal history curriculum as a binary - White History and Black History - and neglects potentially the stories of many other underrepresented groups - women, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans immigrants in general, etc...

What do people think? Helpful or harmful?

Well, I just realized a fundamental problem between me and my advisor.

We have totally different definitions of the word "prostitute."

This explains why he's been criticizing a lot of my arguments.

The problem, of course, is that I think my definition is right. However, I'll just have to be very up front about this in the Introduction.

Why, every now and then, I fall back in love with the NYTimes:
( Vague War of the Worlds Spoiler if you don't know anything whatsoever about the plot. )

One of the few foods I have so far found difficult to find in NYC has just arrived. There's now a Meat Pasty store in Chelsea Market (inside the Bowery Kitchen Supplies store, oddly enough) called Down Under Bakery specializing in the Aussie and Kiwi version of traditional British meat (and vegetable) pies, 1 pie for 5$. You can also get them frozen in lots of 12 and shipped to you, I mention for the likes of julianyap. I'll let people know how they are once I try them.