Sunday, September 17, 2006

I'd like to thank Amazon.com...

...for making me laugh today.

I have no freaking idea how, but my old 1988 undergraduate honors thesis is listed on Amazon. What a hoot!

As far as I know, there are precisely two copies of that in existence - one on my bookshelf and one collecting dust in the stacks at Macalester College. I wonder if my honors committee folks ever really tortured themselves by reading it. I know I never read it. Hell, I don't think I even proofread it, honestly. That was before Word. I wrote it in some homemade word processing program on some stranger's Zenith home computer (it was barely more than a typewriter.) And it's all in Courier font.

But, truth be told, I did graduate with highest honors thanks to that sucker. Of course, that meant I drank far too much coffee, gained a ton of weight just sitting in front of that Zenith, and had no social life whatsoever my final semester in college. In retrospect, I would have traded those honors distinctions for a boyfriend and fewer caffeine jitters. Live and learn, eh?

Thank you, Amazon, for reminding me that I once wrote academic theses instead of posting photos of semi-obscene Burger King signs. Frankly, I'm having more fun with the Burger King signs.

6 comments:

Claire said...

Oh look, you can make it an e-book... but maybe don't do that on my account. ;)

And what's wrong with Courier? It's de rigueur in the world of film.

Still, that's kinda cool.

Anonymous said...

heehee. NICE.

and I think I'm having more fun reading your thoughts on semi-obscene Burger King signs than I would your academic theses. :)

Mary A Brown said...

What a hoot! Maybe my PhD thesis could be next. I bound mine with a yellow cover (not my favorite shade of it but oh well). What color is yours?

Merujo said...

Neil - definitely! Let's make the invisible book a best non-seller!

Claire - if only this sucker was compelling, scriptable text. It could put a Starbucks-crazed yuppie to sleep.

Suze - I'm there with ya, sistah. Totally. :-)

Aoife - I had no choice on the binding. It's a tastefully black hardcover embossed in gold. The college paid for that. I wonder if the pages have rotted out of the college copy yet... I'll be watching for your thesis! ;-)

Heather Meadows said...

Wow, I wonder how it got on there? Did they get a catalog of theses from various schools?

Anonymous said...

Hi, I got to your blog via the Michael Penn list..... I've been enjoying all your posts. I sincerely hope your eye problem is getting better. My son went to Macalester College! Small world huh...... Take care Joyce