February 21, 2003: Arnold found a book in Monterey called Cats on the Counter, and since our cats prowl the counters and everything else in the house, he presumed the book felt as we did about cats and dogs. Then he read the section on separation anxiety, and since we'd left King Tut and Queen Cleopatra with Pat, he suddenly understood how we could have seriously damaged them emotionally, when they were so used to our loving presence. I mean, there was even this technical psychological term for their distress: separation anxiety. And then there was the suggestion that they might need medication for the effects this syndrome could have on them: prozac. Concerned, he handed me the book, which I, of course, read, and howled.

I'll tell you what the book says later, but here's my first version of King Tut, resting atop our microwave, which is atop the counter, of course, recovering from devastating separation anxiety WITHOUT prozac! jeanne

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Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

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NEW for the Weeks of February 24 and March 3, 2003
Previous Issue: Weeks February 10 and 17, 2003

Announcements:

March 9, 2003: Put up the Home Page for Sociology of Reality Uploaded Sunday, March 8, 2003. jeanne

March 2, 2003, added submission choice on March 7, 2003: See the Syllabus for Sociology of Reality.

February 22, 2003: The Good news is I'm feeling much better. The Bad news is that my e-mail is really screwed up. It's partially my fault. I tried to fix it before I left; that backfired; then Earthlink tried to fix it; and now I'm not getting any e-mail at all. They tried to convince me that I'm just unpopular, but somehow I think I'm going to need to spend a couple of hours with a tech. I'll try to get it fixed by Monday. Meanwhile I gotta go get my sunglasses fixed. Doctor says I mustn't drive without them. More up soon. jeanne

• February 23, 2003: Some computer practice: Searching for Lost Links Try this. It's fun, and it should help improve your computer skills. jeanne

• February 22, 2003: Reminder. Practicum Contract for Sociology 596 S Those of you enrolled in Sociology 596 S must be sure to provide the Director of

  Graduate Studies, Professor Blischke, with a signed copy.

TOPIC OF THE WEEK:
Over-Reacting to our Own Over-Reactions

Communication is tough, folks. You gotta work at it. But you gotta throw out an occasional psycho-physical anchor into reality and keep a sense of proportion. I didn't take Arnold's concern for the cats this week-end seriously at first. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. Cats on the Counter has a cute cover, and lots of what it says is reasonable if you re-interpret it to fit your own situational reality. But that section on separation anxiety really scared him. King Tut is a sweet, loving, mischievous, normal teen age cat, who simply adores Arnold. So Arnold imagined his poor sensitive sweet little cat, with whom Pat was staying, by the way, as pining away in search of Arnold, who had disappeared without adequate cat explanation.

The best theory for me to describe this is Kurt Lewin's psychological life space. When Arnold and I left L.A. for Monterey the big problem in our life space was that long drive, and packing, and getting out of the house. When Arnold saw Cats on the Counter we were already in Monterey, had a short break between sessions, and the image of those adorable cats on the cover brought Tut to the centr of Arnold's life space. We used to explain this as "valence." Some items in our life space have a "higher valence" than others. That means they carry a greater emotional impact in that space at that time. At a different time and space they might carry a lower "valence." That's what happened to King Tut in Arnold's life space: a relatively low valence as we prepared to leave town; a very high valence as Arnold missed the cat in Monterey, and the book reminded him of Tut.

Think about it. The valence of objects in our life space changes continually with time and space and external reality adjustments. And this is a major problem when you try to listen to another in good faith. Not only must you try to understand the situatedness of the Other's comments, but you must also account for the valence of the objects in the Other's life space.

Theoretical concepts that relate: Gordon Fellman's mutuality paradigm, and Maria Pia Lara's illocutionary discourse. Caring about an "other" causes to listen to that other and try to respond to what we can best imagine as his/her life space. In this sense, our relationship develops interdependently instead of on parallel tracks where we each pursue our own ends. And listening to that other helps us to see that "other" in terms of an actual independent life whose needs and agendas interact with ours within the environment we share.

Will continue later . . . jeanne

Another piece of this story is at Therapy, Sociological and Psychological Against Complex Social Settings

Theoretical Musings for Us by Us

• Classical Theory

  February 28, 2003: Wikipedia Sociology section. "Wikipedia is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate open content encyclopedia. We started on January 15, 2001 and encyclopedia. We started on January 15, 2001 and are already working on 107387 articles in the English version. Visit the help page and experiment in the sandbox to learn how you can edit any article right now." Check it out. jeanne

  February 28, 2003: Sociological Snippets by Dan Brook. Helpful resource on sociology. Check it out. jeanne

  February 28, 2003: Anthony Giddens at www.theoery.org.uk. Good site for those of you seeking help in studying for the comps. Check it out. jeanne

  Robert K. Merton, Photo by Michael Schvel, 1995.

  • February 24, 2003: Robert K. Merton Essay in his own words. With explanations of some of the key concepts he gave sociology.

  • February 24, 2003: Robert K. Merton, Versatile Sociologist and Father of the Focus Group, Dies at 92 By Michael T. Kaufman. New York Times. Obituaries. Monday, February 24, 2003.
  • February 24, 2003: On Social Structure and Science Robert K. Merton. University of Chicago Press. Table of contents included.

    Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

  • February 24, 2003: Good or Bad, What Teachers Expect from Students They Generally Get! Kids and Teachers and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. KidSource Online.

  • The Hawthorne Experiments

• Criminology

  Restitution for Art Stolen by Nazi Regime

  • Egon Schiele and Restitution

• Death Penalty

  • February 18, 2003: Death Penalty Index

• Ecological Fallacy Ecological Fallacy Think it needs clearer definition. Nag me to put it up. jeanne

• Education

  • February 23, 2003: Digital Library to Inrease Access to Educational Materials.
  • February 23, 2003: Schools Have Different Status
  • February 23, 2003: Measuring the Status of Schools

  • February 23, 2003: Educational Reform from Left and Right Discussion Questions included.

• Health

  LA Times photo by Carlos Chavez.

  • February 24, 2003: Steeped in Science Recognition of health benefits in drinking tea. Los Angeles Times. February 24, 2003. In Health Section, at p. F 1. Article by Shari Roan. Backup.

  • February 24, 2003:Special New York Times Health Section on Obesity

• Illocutionary Discourse

  • March 1, 2003: Mr. Rogers is gone. I felt such sadness to hear that. When I suffered a C2 fracture in the mid 90s, and lay dispiritedly abed in a halo hardly akin to the kind that angels sport, Mr. Rogers greeted me each day, and made me feel welcome. I was in my 60s. Go figure. But there I was, with all the little kids, waiting for Mr. Rogers to assure me that I was OK. Thanks, Mr. Rogers. I, too, figure you've earned your wings.

    My Sanctuary, in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood To the Editor: Re "Mister Rogers, TV's Friend for Children, Is Dead at 74" (front page, Feb. 28). Letter by Karen Shaw. Charlottesville, Va., Feb. 28, 2003. Backup.

• Sports as a Tool for Illocutionary Discourse Discussion questions included. February 28, 2003.

Job Market

Backup of Chart on Survey of Feelings about the Job Market,
New York Times, Business Section, March 1, 2003, at p. B1.

• Interpretation of Chart on Job Market Discussion Questions included. Link added March 1, 2003.

Oil, Gas, Power and Gasoline Prices

• Oil and Gas Link added March 5, 2003.

Poverty

• February 24, 2003:Are the Poor Suffering From Hunger Anymore? By Leslie Kaufman. New York Times. Sunday, February 23. Week in Review. Backup

Poverty

• Public Agenda Graphs for Analysis Link added March 3, 2003.

Lived Experience: Emancipatory Narratives

• COLUMN ONE: Rescuing a Boy From the Streets By Sandy Banks. Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, February 26, 2003. At p. A 1. "A policeman's decision to help a 9-year-old instead of taking him into custody transforms both lives in ways they didn't imagine." Backup.

  Excellent article on a policeman's development of illocutionary understanding with the youth in poverty areas, and his move to practice on the basis of that understanding. Notice that practice, especially as we are developing understanding, starts out as one on one. What does this tell us about our society's infrastructure for aiding children when they are denied access to basic care and education?

Art Shenanigans

• March 6, 2003: . . .
  Red Shoes Series by monika jm.lin

  The Kidder Smith Gallery apparently keeps one current exhibit up on the site. I found the first painting as an advertisement for the gallery in Art News for March 2003. I ventured to the site to see if I could find out more about the artist and her work. I like the gallery site. You can see larger images by clicking on the image titles in the left-most frame, and you can run through the thumbprint images by just moving your mouse down the list of paintings in the left-most column.

  I would like you to pay particular attention to the artist's explanation of her work: "Using the central motif of a girl already having made her decision, I examine how perception and expectation are woven into the fabric of our social systems and beliefs through popular culture and storytelling." Do take the time to explore this exhibit. jeanne March 6, 2003.

• March 4, 2003: In a run through the think tanks for material on oil and gas economics, I came across the work of Naul Ojeda of Uruguay:

  Link to image for enlarged view on Ojeda's site.

  “In fact, he is a Latin American Chagall, whose tender floating reveries of home, of separation, displacement and reunion give unique and poetic visual form to the late 20th century immigrant experience - something most of us remain woefully oblivious to.”
  Jo Ann Lewis, The Washington Post

  From Naul Ojeda's site I found International Visions - the Gallery and the Art of Turkey: I fell in love there, too. jeanne. March 4, 2003.

  

  The Art of Turkey
  Featuring paintings by Cino Kanelli and Somnur Kurt. Inernational Visions - The Gallery. Washington, D.C.

  Seated Girl by Egon Schiele, on the ArtChive.

• February 27, 203: Many exaples of Egon Schiele's work are avaialable on the ArtChive. There's also an article on his work.

  February 27, 2003:The Neue Gallerie New York. The museum where Lauder's collection hangs. Good examples, plus an article. Do visit. You should at least recognize the names of these artists.I'll put up some discussion questions later, linking the Fauves to German Expressionist Art. jeanne

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• February 27, 2003: Big Ben, by Andre Derain

  February 27, 2003: Trees, by Andre Derain.

  Andre Derain: the Fauves Notice that the Fauves focused on outdoor paintings. The German Expressionists took this color palette indoors.

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• February 27, 2003: The Neue Challenges Article on the Neue Gallerie by Donald Kuspit, art critic. On Artnet.com site. If German expressionist and the fauves intrigue you, do read this article for more information. Their color palette captivates me. jeanne

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• February 23, 2003: Stuart Davis, Aschcan Artist An artist from the early part of the Twentieth Centurywho shaped some of the direction of American Art. I've got the connection with socialism up, but still need to put up his battle with Thomas Hart Benton and regionalism. Soon. jeanne

Wonders in Iraq.
Photo by John Malcolm Russell, Massachusetts College of Art. NYTimes.
"The ziggurat of the temple of Enlil, king of the gods, in Nippur, a city at the heart of Babylonia from about 5000 B.C. to A.D. 1000. At top is a dig house from the 1890's."

Do you know what a ziggurat is?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

Do you know where Mesopotamia is? Mesopotamia

This article and series of slides and maps at the New York Times gives us some sense of real costs in terms of humanity of the threatened war with Iraq. Cities like Ur, Babylon, Nineveh, names most of us are familiar with from Biblical history, are sprinkled throughout Iraq. Review the article. Consider how many archaeological and art teams have abandoned their searches in the charged atmosphere of war. Consider that cost to human history. War in Iraq Would Halt All Digs in Region By John Noble Wilford. New York Times. Tuesday, November 25, 2003. Exposure to the great archaeological and historical sites of the world is an essential part of liberal arts education. Such exposure contributes to illocutionary understanding in making the culture of Others real and meaningful beyond the soundbites of economics and politics.

Backup of Map of Iraq's Archaeological Sites

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