It's funny because it's true

By Heraclitus

Well, it's that time of year again. As some of us drain the academic year to its bitterest dregs (or something), I feel the noose of impending unemployment drawing ever tighter around my neck. Like Tuco at the beginning of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I sit here on an indifferent ass that has seen better days, waiting -- or, more accurately, hoping -- for some obliging department to come along and shoot through the rope before I'm left hanging. At this point I'd gladly take a 6-6 at Cal State Fullerton teaching political theory, American government, criminology, Japanese politics, environmental theory and policy, computer programming and an evening class in calligraphy. Hell, I'd just teach Kafka in all of them. "Professor, this is Constitutional Law. Shouldn't we be learning about habeas corpus or The Bill of Rights or something rather than reading The Trial?" "Look, kids, your naivete is touching, but those things aren't going to be around by the time you graduate. Trust me, this'll be much more useful in the world you're going to be living in."

So, do I have a point here? Not especially, though I do want to warn any of our readers who may be considering the folly of graduate school (*cough* Lily *cough*) just how dark their future is. (While you're fearing for your sanity a few years down the road, definitely read this as well.) Actually, that's not even true. By the time those just beginning graduate school leave, that whole generation of baby boomers should be retiring, or at least dying off. So, really, I just wanted an excuse to post this cartoon, which is quite droll.