Friday, December 08, 2006

Into the Cold

Two of my students have disappeared from class for the past two weeks. I emailed both last week, and neither has responded. (My note basically said, "You haven't been in class and I'm concerned. Are you okay?")

I don't have drop information about either, so I really don't know what's happening. And I'm concerned. My concern is somewhat allayed because when I asked in class, other students said they'd seen the two around. So at least they haven't disappeared into the cold.

The parent of a colleague apparently got confused and went out for a walk on a cold night recently, only to be found dead at some point in the morning. Much sadness, as you can imagine.

Cold scares me. Around here, people sometimes disappear into the cold. Sometimes students drink and think they can cross thin ice or go for a swim, but don't succeed. Sometimes hunters get lost. And sometimes elderly folks get confused and try to take a walk.

I don't think I'm the only one who's weirdly scared of freezing to death; CNN dot com has been covering James Kim's death in Oregon as its main feature for a couple days now. I'm sorry he died and all, but focusing the main feature on his death for a couple days makes it seem like there's no other news, nope nothing we need to be aware of or think about, no political decisions to be made. Of course, we could focus on the president's catchy new catchphrase (but I'm not watching the CNN video to see what it is).

3 comments:

  1. The cold is scary up in the north woods. There is a book out about two different hikers who got lost in the woods near my mom's..

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's such a horrible story about your colleague's parent! Cold is so scary precisely because you don't have a real sense of when it's getting really dangerous. Especially if drinking is involved, etc.

    Hope your students resurface soon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7:03 PM

    The 'new catchphrase' is "The Way Forward", which he used at least 10 times in that press conf with Tony Blair. So good was it that Tony even started saying it. Too bad they cribbed it from the subtitle of the Iraq Study Group Report. It beats "Stay the Course" I guess, but is essentially equally meaningless.

    The video IS amusing to watch, however.

    ReplyDelete