"Walter, Where Are You When We Need You?" Hector from Harlingen Sends Out a Holla!

Have you seen
this man? Is he
still mad at us?

I can't explain why I love you so. I don't understand how a place that is so insane actually makes me feel sane. I do know that without RYS every day I could barely get across the threshold of my classroom. I love and appreciate all that you do, and would never presume to tell you how to run the site...

But I do have a request: can you call Walter up and have him come by every once in a while?

I know he's a nutcase, and that he probably sent you more material than you could ever use. But on those VERY rare occasions when he'd let loose, I'd feel that there were academics out there worth knowing, actual living and breathing carbon forms who you could imagine having a beer with and talking about something other than what the fat Dean said about the thin Dean.

Have you ever had to spend all day with academics? Oh God. Why do you think I come here, because the writers you feature let it all out. (It's why I stopped going to the morgue they call the Chronicle Forums, for instance.)

Here, the sun burns red in the sky. Here, the coyotes howl. Here, I feel as if I'm surrounded by people who won't flinch when I say, "FUCK THOSE FLAKES!"

Because our hearts and minds are still active, still real, not tied up in the soul-crushing embrace of academia.

God bless RYS and God bless Walter. Tell us the embargo is over. Get on the phone. Hell, I'll do it. At least I live in a free country - Texas.

Walter, where are you when we need you?