This and That

A few more things that are too short for their own post:


One of the new interns at the Undergraduate Writing Center thought I was in charge. As in, in charge of the entire center. I smiled for three days when I heard that. I've chosen to believe it's because I have a note of authority in my voice, not because I look like I'm 12 years older than they are. (Apparently there was some shock when they found out I'm an undergrad... but that's nothing new.)
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Just like the real thing, only smaller.
Source: Ertl.

I got into an amusing chat with Megan Bickel on Twitter a few weeks ago about John Deere. Megan and I are both born & bred Hoosiers, although my Indiana-ness has been diluted by 12 years of Texas. There are plenty of things that I still think of as being particulary "Indiana", though, and tractors are among them. (Yes, I know other states have tractors, too. It's a brain quirk thing.) 


So I mentioned the thing that really makes me think of Indiana are Ertl tractors. They had great adverts when I was growing up in the '80s, including at least one that was filled with pathos: kids (boys and girls! How progressive!) playing with Ertl tractors, and the voiceover saying, "The farmers of tomorrow are here today." I gotta tell ya-- my parents aren't farmers, but they live on half an acre of land carved out of the fields that surround them. They're as close as you get to farmers without actually farming, so I have a serious heart for farming families. Toys that encourage kids to follow their parents into farming? Where do I sign up?


Here's the real kicker: Ertl isn't even an Indiana company. They're based in Iowa. The ads that say "home" to me more than anything else are really in someone else's home. I don't really mind.
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On Easter we went to Torchy's Tacos with some friends. I tweeted that it was crowded on Easter Sunday. JE Fritz answered, "I had no idea tacos were an Easter food." Hee hee... here in Texas, tacos are always appropriate. Easter, birthdays, Tuesdays... you name it, we have a taco for it.
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An email message went out on the listserv at one of my jobs asking about a magazine that had disappeared from the bathroom. Really? Emails about reading material in the loo? I think we've reached a new low.


How about you? What's on your mind today?