an open letter to the prof who has a tramp stamp as his desktop image

dear friends,

like a good little grad student i spent my friday in an all-day workshop on issues of social capital, trust and the welfare state in canada and the us. i was mostly there as a canadian and as political sociologist, but also because the sifps was presenting and the domestic insurgent on my generals committee set it up. on the panel was a prof who i knew of from my former institution. he's in that other department i took classes in. although short, he is quite beloved by the undergrad ladies there and when you catch him and his little ipod and his genius dork glasses rockin' his way back home to the vendome metro, you can't help but acknowledge he's a little spicy.

all of this is just preamble to introducing what i hope is not a full fledged social phenomenon. projected via lcd from his mac (of course) for all the sfips and grad-students to see was his desktop background. random asian characters. like the ones that people think mean 'earth' or 'love' or 'feng shui'. that's right friends... it was like watching a presentation with brief glimpses of some girl's lower back. i am not sure what is the greater offense-- having a ridiculous desktop image projected during a professional presentation (he was a small fish in a big pond and did not bring his game) or lower back tattoos. when discussed with another student who knows the players, it was suggested that one might only be able to take so many undergrads trying to get in your pants before it starts to affect you. this makes me wonder what my undergrad thesis advisor uses as his desktop. i think it might be the above.

i wasted some time google image searching and could find neither his desktop nor a good asian character example for a side by side. but i did find that, which i also hope someday to make the cover of one of my books on women and religion.

if you would like to check out more on tramp stamps, visit the urban dictionary-- this week alone the ol'ud has helped me learn what "afo" and "what it do ma" mean.

unstamped with love,
cam