This post on the site “stuff white people like” is just so dead on that it’s hilarious. Not the whole “white people” part of it (I’m not white), but everything else. One of the best quotations:

At this point, they can feel superior to graduate school and say things like “A PhD is a testament to perseverance, not intelligence.”  They can also impress their friends at a parties [sic] by referencing Jacques Lacan or Slavoj Zizek in a conversation about American Idol.

That’s (embarrassingly?) exactly how I feel about a PhD. And what’s even sicker? (No, no, I haven’t invoked Lacan when talking about Idol… or any reality show.) Today we had a middle and upper school “instrumental” (which means that the school’s various musical ensembles performed for all of us). And I was sitting next to one of the dance teachers. And she commented on how much the conductors’ movements were like dances — expressive and distinct for each one. And I, appropos of the quote above, responded with a comment about “embodied knowledge.”

Working towards (and deciding to stop working towards) a PhD has forever transmogrified me into an intellectual snob.  —He says, as he glances over at the book (Tom Clancey) he’s reading, the DVD case (Gilmore Girls) of what’s in the DVD player, and the giant red plastic lobster that’s on top of his bookshelf.