25 years old and deep in debt

[garbon]

Cleveland is just very dull.

[Ed Anger]

The most common reference heard outside the US to Cleveland is in the phrase "Cleveland Steamer". 

I had to look that up.

Now lookup ' Cosby Sweater'.

[derspiess]

Well, we told you several times that we were driving through there this summer, but did you offer to meet up? Noooo..... So you have only yourself to blame for my having missed the "good" parts of Cincy.

You told me no such thing!  I read where you were passing through Calville, but not Cincy. 

[derspiess]

Cleveland is just very dull.

The only thing that could draw me back up to visit Cleveland again is Great Lakes Brewery.

[alfred russel]

"This litigation strategy you have proposed is clever and audatious, but doomed to eventual defeat. It will give the client hope, and when your unexpected preliminary motions hit you will be seen as a saviour; your request for interlocutory injunctions may well succeed; but in the end the other side will win and get their costs on an indemnity scale.

It's the Bar Kokhba revolt of litigation".

 

"I don't know...sometimes when things are dragged out, the unexpected can happen...For example, Frederick the Great's campaigns in the Seven Years War began much like the Bar Kokhba revolt, with unexpected early success against great odds. But just before he could be ground down, Peter III became czar and changed the political landscape, and Prussia avoided defeat and was able to consolidate its gains in the War of Austrian Succession."

"That is a good point, but bold gambles can lead to spectacular failures. I can't help but think of the Second Punic War and the Battle of Cannae. The Fabian Strategy wore down Hannibal, and I think pursuing our aims through a series of smaller lawsuits that we will win is the course we should take."

At this point I imagine rest of the conferrence room is completely bewildered and can't figure out what is happening.

[merithyn]

Well, we told you several times that we were driving through there this summer, but did you offer to meet up? Noooo..... So you have only yourself to blame for my having missed the "good" parts of Cincy.

You told me no such thing!  I read where you were passing through Calville, but not Cincy.

Most certainly did. We said exactly where we were driving through from the camping outside of Pittsburgh AND on our trip back from Rhode Island.

I just figured you didn't want to meet me because then you've have to be nice to me in person.

[merithyn]

I had to look that up.

Now lookup ' Cosby Sweater'.

No.

[merithyn]

"This litigation strategy you have proposed is clever and audatious, but doomed to eventual defeat. It will give the client hope, and when your unexpected preliminary motions hit you will be seen as a saviour; your request for interlocutory injunctions may well succeed; but in the end the other side will win and get their costs on an indemnity scale.

It's the Bar Kokhba revolt of litigation".

 

"I don't know...sometimes when things are dragged out, the unexpected can happen...For example, Frederick the Great's campaigns in the Seven Years War began much like the Bar Kokhba revolt, with unexpected early success against great odds. But just before he could be ground down, Peter III became czar and changed the political landscape, and Prussia avoided defeat and was able to consolidate its gains in the War of Austrian Succession."

"That is a good point, but bold gambles can lead to spectacular failures. I can't help but think of the Second Punic War and the Battle of Cannae. The Fabian Strategy wore down Hannibal, and I think pursuing our aims through a series of smaller lawsuits that we will win is the course we should take."

At this point I imagine rest of the conferrence room is completely bewildered and can't figure out what is happening.

[derspiess]

Most certainly did. We said exactly where we were driving through from the camping outside of Pittsburgh AND on our trip back from Rhode Island.

I just figured you didn't want to meet me because then you've have to be nice to me in person.

You didn't say anything about Cincinnati!  I remember you mentioning you were going to be "outside Louisville" or whatever & I was going to post something snarky about being too good to come here.  I'd have shown you guys around.  A few years ago there wouldn't have been much to see, but nowadays with the OTR revitalization and a new brewery opening every week, there's tons to do and see.

[MadImmortalMan]

Is it weird that I pictured that exchange in my mind as a Far Side cartoon as I was reading it?

[Ed Anger]

I had to look that up.

Now lookup ' Cosby Sweater'.

No.

The sexual act of eating Fruit Loops, Fruity Pebbles, Trix, and Boo Berry- or any other 'bright, colorful' breakfast cereals- and then vomitting the tacky, dazzling mixture onto your partners chest. The result should look similar to the incredible sweaters that Bill Cosby wore during his highly successful 1980's sitcom "The Cosby Show".

Nicole was overjoyed to receive "a Cosby Sweater" for her birthday.

There is no 'NO'.

[Valmy]

How exactly is that a sexual act?

[garbon]

How exactly is that a sexual act?

Well if it part of your sex play...

[Phillip V]

College Grads Dropping Out Of Labor Force

'The labor force participation rate among people with bachelor's degrees fell by more than a percentage point from a year ago. In contrast, the rates for those without high-school diplomas held nearly steady in the past year.'

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/06/why-is-u-s-work-force-shrinking/

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/college-applications-internet-essay-192818788.html

How the Internet is killing the dreaded admissions essay

Five years ago, Tufts University was among the first higher-education institutions to accept short-form videos, perhaps shared with the school via YouTube, as an alternative or addition to a written application essay. Lee Coffin, the school's dean of undergraduate admissions, recalls that there was some drop-jawed skepticism about the legitimacy of this option at the time: To some the notion sounded not only less than credible, but downright silly.

But in 2013, it seems clear that technology shifts are reshaping the parameters of venerable admissions rituals at many schools. George Mason, William and Mary, and St. Mary's College of Maryland have all accepted video and multimedia materials; traditional essay-question prompts are changing to reflect the reality of Internet culture. The University of Virginia this year asks: "To tweet or not to tweet?" MIT recently heralded the opening of its current online application form with some snappy GIFs. And applicants to Tufts grappled with a question linking the ancient Roman notion of carpe diem with a more contemporary idea: "What does #YOLO mean to you?"

Of course, the intersection of Web culture and higher ed aspirations hasn't always been pretty. The discovery of a Google doc collection of Columbia University application essays became fodder for Gawker snark. And arguably the most viral bit of college-admission content ever was an op-ed earlier this year from a high schooler complaining about (or lampooning) the gap between university and applicant expectations.

The whole notion of new media incursion into the staid realm of the application essay may sound a little fishy to you. But the reality is almost exactly the opposite of the knee-jerk stereotype.

The influence of technology on the application process is more subtle; nobody is getting into a school because of a good tweet. The University of Chicago uses its alumni and student email networks, for example, to crowdsource its famously clever essay prompts. And the vast majority of applicants even to new-media-friendly schools still opt for the traditional written essay. And that's fine, says Tufts' Coffin. The point isn't to force potential students to play by a new set of rules, let alone provide them techno-shortcuts. The point is to acknowledge that there is more than one way to identify promising students.

Interestingly, Coffin says that at Tufts the decision to accept video or Web-based material had decidedly analog roots. Some years ago, Robert Sternberg, then the school's dean of arts and sciences, pushed for new ways of exploring "conceptions of merit" among applicants — by including in the admissions process a challenge to "do something with an 8X11 piece of paper." This experiment yielded compelling responses from art, architecture, and theater hopefuls that demonstrated "demonstrations of student merit that you don't necessarily capture if you only let them write an essay," Coffin recalls.

Building on that insight is what led to trying out videos and other Web-based material — not as a replacement to essays, but as an option. And as it happens, this more tech-forward approach played into broader trends.

"It seemed consistent with the way teachers are developing their curriculums in high school," Coffin adds. "The pedagogy has shifted; it's not just a chalkboard anymore."

The mere willingness to accept new-media application material, assistant director of admissions Justin Pike suggests, bolsters Tufts' image as a school that's in tune with the Internet era: Even students who submit traditional essays often note their appreciation of the school's recognition of new-media alternatives as perfectly legitimate.

And that was true even back in 2009, when Betty Quinn was among the earlier Tufts aspirants to supplement her application with an impressive stop-motion video — which racked up tens of thousands of views as a result of media coverage at the time. Turns out that while then-Virginia-resident Quinn was accepted, she ended up going to the University of Virginia.

But from what she told me recently, making that video for Tufts seems to have had a much more lasting effect than most essay-writing exercises do. At the time she was thinking of pursing a journalism or pre-med degree, and had never made a video. "Telling my story in a completely different media" was an eye-opener, she recalls, and ultimately she shifted her focus to the creative side of marketing, particularly film, animation, and interaction design; today she's in grad school at Parsons. And people still randomly bring up her Tufts video.

"I loved the entire process," she says now — and when you consider that she's talking about the process of applying to college, that's a pretty remarkable statement.

I'm envisioning the application video from Legally Blonde.