The Lists that Govern my Life

Random Human: "So what is it you do again? Just keep learning German?" Me: "No, I already speak German. It's more like a study and analysis of LITERATUREPOLITICSPHILOSOPHYHISTORYCULTURETHEORY from the German-speaking peoples of this lovely world." Random Human: "....so what is it you do again?" Me: "I read a million books and write things. Oh and I make German puns like no one's business." Grad school is a strange place (potentially located in the fourth dimension) and I've come to realize that since I didn't actually know what Germanic Studies would entail when I applied to programs ( I know, I'm the worst. Insert public derision by other academics here ), most normal people probably don't know what the field "Germanic Studies" entails. Surprise: it's lots of things. The most general of categories are either  literature/culture and  linguistics within a language/area field. And I'm defini...

Once upon a time, a friend who loves puns as much as I do (I know, you didn't know this person existed) asked if I wanted to put on signs that said " LIFE " and hand out lemons and limes on BYU's campus. This was after I said we should catch ducks and go give " INTRODUCKTIONS " to strangers, so since clearly his plan violated fewer animal rights, we went with that one. For the most part, it was a great success and we felt good about life and people giggled and asked if they could take pictures of us and yeah basically this is something that is only acceptable on a college campus or in a Buzzfeed article. But here's the thing: people were delighted to receive citrusy fruits from us only because we didn't pelt them with 487 lemons and scream " BET YOU CAN'T MAKE THAT MUCH LEMONADE!! " Okay, that was too broad of statement. They were enchanted with our practical application of word play AND we caused them no harm by throwing ...