Thus Spake Zuska

Yes, it's Scientiae Carnival time again! FemaleCSGradStudent has asked us "How We Are Hungry", and has collated and contextualized a most interesting set of responses.

Maybe you want to go visit Kat on a Wire and leave her a comment. Online communities can be very, very important for those of us deprived, for whatever reasons, of that community in the meat world.

Addy wants to be taken seriously. I swear, when I read this:

I was recently introduced to a professor emeritus in another department and he asked "are you a grad student?"

My first reaction was, "Hey, why is she writing about my experience?" Be sure to read the comment thread. You'll laugh; you have to, or you'll cry. I suppose we all have to be presumed to be graduate students and/or secretaries until we are, oh, say 57 and dressed in power suits. I have a dear friend at Kansas State whom I've never seen at work in anything less than a very tailored suit, stockings, and heels. At first I used to wonder why she couldn't just "relax" a little. Now I have more appreciation for the fact that she made her way through the tenure ranks in electrical engineering, of all freaking departments, and is now in central administration. That woman has a spine of steel. You. Do. Not. Mess. With. Her. And part of the way, early on, that she learned to help convey that message, I believe, was by how she dressed. It's as much a uniform that says who she is and what her station is in life, as the clothes worn by a janitor convey who he or she is and what his or her station is in the pecking order of the university. Anyway, read Addy's post, and be sure to look out for the tip about the tie!