* (One of my favorite grammar books is Patricia T. O’Connor’s Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. It’s the one I recommend to my students, as I think its approach is terrifically user-friendly.) Anyway, moving on.
It’s nearly December, which means: (1) MFA applications will soon be due, $; (2) holiday shopping, $$; and (3) for adjuncts like me, spring-term courses are likely to be scarce, which = FEAR OF GOD, which = How am I going to make $$$?
On the subject of item #1: Are you applying to MFA programs? Where are you applying? Why? (And how can we at Big Other help?)
On the subject of item #2: Do you put off all shopping until the last minute? (Mom, Dad, I don’t really do this!) Do you have difficult friends and family to buy for? (Mom, Dad, I don’t mean you, of course!) Do you have any great gift suggestions?
On the subject of item #3: What are we to do (besides collectively cry out, Oh, woe are we!)?