Comments on: “Mom, all I wanted was a Pepsi!”

By: Raquel

Raquel — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:08:03 +0000

I had the Jellybeans record too!

By: Karlbass

Karlbass — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:45:23 +0000

Historiann, I’m an occassional reader who has long been jealous that you live in Ft. Collins, home of the Descendents and ALL.

As the Descendents once intoned,in their 1986 classic “Kids on Coffe,” “Thanks to modern chemistry sleep is now optional.”

And if you are looking for good music, be sure to look for Karl Alvarez (Bass player for Descendents and ALL)playing with his 60s soul band, The Vextations, around Ft. Collins.

ALL Best,

A history professor in the East

P.S. Jello Biafra surely warped my yopung mind as a teenager.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:53:41 +0000

Shane! Come back! Sorry--couldn't resist. Do you still have the Jellybeans album? I think mine was lost or stolen by a vindictive ex-boyfriend in the late 1980s.

By: Shane in Utah

Shane in Utah — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:46:06 +0000

Hey, I had that Jellybeans record! (The title is a jab at Ronald Reagan…) That was good stuff.

I caught the Suicidal Tendencies reference immediately, but I hadn’t heard or thought about that song in many many years. Fun.

By: Fratguy

Fratguy — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:54:50 +0000

That is exactly how they work. They provide stimulation to the executive organizing areas of the brain that would otherwise require daydreaming, running around or fidgeting to run given the lack of the intended natural stimulating chemicals. It looks physically painful for these kids to force themselves to sit still

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:33:01 +0000

Mother of ALL–that’s how I think Adderall et. al. work–they’re actually stimulants. Kids with ADD/ADHD are under-stimulated, so they move around and interrupt others as a means of keeping themselves interested in what’s going on.

I hope your daughter settled down!

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:31:08 +0000

Sis, my experience with essays is very similar to yours. That is, I *wish* my students were interested enough in getting good grades that they’d juice themselves. The essays I read for the most part show evidence of laziness and inattention, and once they hit the minimum number of pages, they wrap it up whether or not they’ve really completed their analysis.

John S., a former roommate of mine (who was herself a Chicago alumna) used to say all of the time that Hyde Park’s zip code was the zip code with the highest use of antidepressants in the U.S. In my posts on bullying last spring and summer, it became clear to me that one of the typical “stations of the cross” of Assistant Professors was a trip to therapy and a go-round with antidepressants (Paxil, Wellbutrin, Prozac, Zoloft, etc.) Those aren’t ADD/ADHD drugs, but rather another angle on your point about the medicated academic brain (although possibly a similar point about the depressed and overextended academic brain). (But drugs or no, I’m sure that you’re not the only person who can say that “my earlier publications and my dissertation reflect a great deal of verbosity and numerous examples of what one friend called the ‘over enthusiastic footnote.’” Who among us is innocent of these charges?

By: Mother of ALL

Mother of ALL — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:29:05 +0000

When my daughter was a toddler in the late sixties/early 70′s I was concerned that she was “hyperactive” as she was so busy and into so many things. (The term above was used but never just hyper. That came in about the late 70′s I think.) Anyway, the doctor assured me she wasn’t after asking a great many questions about her daily activities. I do recall that there were some boys in my childrens classes who were termed “hyper” and were on meds. Someone suggested at the time to just give them a cup of coffee before school as it would have the opposite effect on them that caffeine has on adults. Don’t know how scientific that is.

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:58:04 +0000

I love that song!

And Fratguy, at one point I had that Dilbert cartoon stuck up over my computer monitor!

For the papers …. I would need to be handed an example paper. Most of the “so-so” papers I get have a weak, basic argument, run along that track fairly well, and then, with about a page to go, go completely off track adding random biographical info about the author, for example, and then have a bizarre, meaningless conclusion that isn’t tied to their (pretty obvious) thesis.

I always took that to mean that my students finished their arguments (because the initial thinking-through was undeveloped and too basic) before they hit the paper requirement, and instead of trying to revise or rethink their outline, they start padding (this is the paragraph where I see plagiarism too).

When I make fun of this tendency in class on their peer review days, I get fewer of them, so I’m thinking it is a case of laziness/unwillingness to really commit to the writing process instead of being medication-related. But I’d be interested in seeing some examples of self-declared Adderall papers.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:51:02 +0000

Earl, I stopped listening to rock music sometime after 2000, when the strummy guy bands that all sound the same took over (except for the White Stripes), and most of what I still enjoy today was made from 1977-1992. It’s pathetic, but “punk” is basically an oldies genre, isn’t it? (My favorite album from the era in which they were called albums: a compilation called “Let Them Eat Jellybeans,” where I first heard of the Dead Kennedys, the Bad Brains, and Black Flag, etc.) Loved the DKs. They were very meaningful to alienated suburban youth in the 1980s.

And Fratguy: thanks for the Dilbert memory. Is that along the lines of 1,000 rooms with 1,000 monkeys typing in them? (“It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times?!?! You stupid monkey!!!”)