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Also.

So it seems my Chronicle essay on cultural studies is making its way through the tubes.  Best response so far, and maybe ever: someone named “crypto” writing

Yeah, it rang true to me, in the sense that I read a lot of cultural studies stuff after I left college (in 1990, coincidentally), and by the mid-’90s I’d gotten bored with it—increasingly, a lot of the work felt like it was telling the same story over and over again. Like the kind of fan studies you describe: “Knock, knock!” “Who’s there?” “Subversion!” “Subversion who?” “Um, just Subversion, isn’t that enough?”

I have officially requested to steal this.

In more important and world-historical news, the young man who turned 13 five years ago today is turning ... ZOMG HE’S EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD!!!  TIME FOR THE BLACK MAMBA INITIATION RITE, MY SON!!

Happy 18th birthday, Jamie.  We are all so very proud of you.

Posted by on 09/16 at 04:55 PM

  1. Congratulations to Jamie, you and your family for raising such a good person.

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  06:22 PM

  2. Hsppy Birthday to the Amazing Jamie. May this coming year be as full of accomplishments as the last year!

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  07:47 PM

  3. Happy birthday, Jamie!

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/16  at  08:06 PM

  4. I suppose that sooner or later someone will point out that the snake is a silver maple and not a black mamba at all.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/16  at  08:23 PM

  5. Sounds like a perfect time to pull out an Alice Cooper drum riff.  Also, one hopes that the snake handler can read Jamie’s face as to when strangulation may be happening.  Congrats to all!

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  08:49 PM

  6. Are you kidding me? That’s obviously a juvenile reticulated python and Jamie was lucky to escape with his life. I’m surprised Hottie McNaturepants didn’t mention that.

    And ZOMG indeed! Eighteen? Happy birthday, Jamie!

    Posted by Orange  on  09/16  at  08:54 PM

  7. Ah, J was in no peril. Reticulated pythons are reticklish.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/16  at  08:57 PM

  8. Happiest of happy birthdays, Jamie and entourage!  Snakes not included.

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  09:05 PM

  9. Happy birthday to Jamie!

    Posted by A White Bear  on  09/16  at  09:09 PM

  10. Hey, happy birthday to Jamie and to me too!
    I’m older though.
    By, like, an order of magnitude or so. Almost.

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  09:43 PM

  11. Happy Birthday Jamie! You are one brave person. There’s no way I’d have a silver maple strun around my neck.said I hope you got some new clubs for the big day.

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  10:03 PM

  12. And a happy birthday to Sven!  Also to B. B. King.

    The pic, by the way, comes from that ecotour to which Jamie and I were treated when we visited LSU.  I believe I correctly identified the snake, at the time, as a black rat snake.  The next pic in the series shows what happened when Jamie said, “put it on my father!”

    Posted by Michael  on  09/16  at  10:17 PM

  13. And no, I’m not posting that one.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/16  at  10:17 PM

  14. Michael, certainly you know that by the mere act of your picture being taken digitally means it is already buried deep within some NSC file system…

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  10:25 PM

  15. Happy birthday Jamie!

    and indeed, the meaning of the python is what you do with the python

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  11:00 PM

  16. Best wishes Jamie and my most heartfelt hopes for many, many more for all the Berubes!

    Posted by Randy Paul  on  09/16  at  11:06 PM

  17. Wow - Happy Birthday, Jamie! Hope you have a fantastic year!

    And Michael, it’s about damn time you started promoting the Snake Handler agenda around here.

    Posted by  on  09/16  at  11:38 PM

  18. HB, J.

    If y’all ever visit my neck of the woods, I can show you which churches handle snakes. Surely, though they don’t talk about it, some of my students are from these churches. Just saying; if you wanna study culture, there is culture out there.

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  01:25 AM

  19. I suppose that sooner or later someone will point out that the snake is a silver maple and not a black mamba at all.

    Not enough branches.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/17  at  02:48 AM

  20. Happy birthday and initiation, Jamie!

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  07:19 AM

  21. dearest jamie, happy birthday! if you were here i’d grill sausages and steak.

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  09:45 AM

  22. Happy belated birthday, Jamie Bérubé!

    And Michael, it’s about damn time you started promoting the Snake Handler agenda around here.

    Chicka-Wow Chicka-Wow Wow!

    That’s obviously a juvenile reticulated python

    Pythons can carry drawstring handbags?  I think not.

    Not enough branches.

    See?

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  10:46 AM

  23. Happy Birthday Jamie (a day late, sorry)!

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  01:39 PM

  24. Happy birthday Jamie!  It was great to meet both you and Jamie for lunch at Grinnell, IA.  Cheers!

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  02:36 PM

  25. Happy birthday Jamie,

    And maybe a turtle for your 19th?

    Posted by  on  09/17  at  07:34 PM

  26. I was thinking desert king snake (but the markings are too large)..but rat snake? Sure. Lots of species out there, and an huge variety of markings even with related species.

    BTW, they’re constrictors, so around the neck is definitely a suitably-perilous coming-of-age ritual. Congrats, Jamie!

    Posted by  on  09/18  at  09:27 AM

  27. Happy Birthday Jamie!

    Posted by Clare  on  09/18  at  12:49 PM

  28. Thanks, everyone!  Now please please please let there be plenty of kids at his official birthday party at the bowling alley this Sunday....

    Posted by  on  09/18  at  02:44 PM

  29. Is that a Tar Heel shirt Jamie is wearing? I hope so! Happy birthday!

    Posted by Sally Greene  on  09/18  at  08:39 PM

  30. Even better—East Carolina!  Go Pirates!

    Posted by  on  09/18  at  08:44 PM

  31. Congrats to both of you for making it so far and in such splendid style.

    Posted by  on  09/18  at  11:28 PM

  32. Now please please please let there be plenty of kids at his official birthday party at the bowling alley this Sunday....

    No problemo: All WAAGNFNP Members (if you’re reading this you are a member) are hereby requested by the Minister of Justice to make any and all appropriate (or inappropriate, for that matter), offerings to Gojira in order to assure a well-attended and very happy gathering on Sunday.

    Oaktown Girl
    Minister of Justice
    WAAGNFNP

    Posted by  on  09/19  at  12:51 AM

  33. TANTI AUGURI A TE, JAMIE!!  I hope you had a great time at the bowling alley.  That snake looks really cool; my kids are very impressed. Bravi Berubes for raising such magnificent boys.

    Posted by  on  09/19  at  07:17 PM

  34. Happy 18th, James. But be careful, 18 years = 6*6*6 months and we already have all the Antichristing we can handle with the one in the White House.

    Posted by  on  09/19  at  11:54 PM

  35. Happy 18th Birthday, Jamie!! And how old is the black mamba? Happy nth Birthday, serpent!

    Posted by  on  09/20  at  04:48 PM

  36. Sorry to be late to the party, but Happy Birthday, Jamie!

    Posted by John Protevi  on  09/22  at  07:50 AM

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