Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
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Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktGeorge Will cracked open his thesaurus again. Seems like a good word for the occasional comment thread.
pet·ti·fog/ˈpetēˌfôg/
1. Quibble about petty points
2. Practice legal deception or trickery.
That is all.
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Word of the day: Pettifog
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Fairlington Blade
All Things in Moderation 
Patrick Henry was called a pettifogger.
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They should just rename Will’s column “Dispatches From The Snuggery.”
My grandfather used to recommend reading William F. Buckley’s column as a vocabulary building tool. George Will is a poor, pale imitation.
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CONSERVATIVE, n.
A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
To take a stab at the daily quote I offer the above from The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
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OT, but not worth a thread of its own, my youngest daughter called me with some good news.
Background: Dara is 27, BS in chem, year working in a pharma lab, then decided to go to Pharmacy school for a PharmD. 4 year program, 3 years academic and one year in rotations. Pharmacists work retail, where you see them, or research, or academia, or hospitals or clinics,or in compund pharmacy where they make drugs injectable or sniffable or potable or edible from chemicals. They can lead research teams or Rx prescribe on their own given the right specialty training and the right position. A diverse field, with not much penalty for job changing, I’m told. Retail pays the best unless you are a lab manager or a specialist who is also an adjunct professor. Retail pay starts in TX at about $120K. Dara is completing her 3rd and last academic year.
So, this semester, a Dean who is a national expert on psychoactive drugs and their effects on children and youth is the lead of a national team rewriting standards for psychoactive drugs and youth. He asked Dara, who is another Prof’s TA, to be his RA, and she dropped an elective to do it. Yesterday, she had her first meeting with him after her first set of notes for him. He approved, and complimented her work. She reported to me this morning. Knowing that she has the luxury of not being in debt, she is currently thinking of becoming certified in psychiatric pharmacy, doing clinic work where she can RX and monitor the patients, herself. This requires an additional 2 years of residency at low pay after pharmacy school. She also likes teaching medical chemistry and would like to be an adjunct prof at a research U., either in neurosci or pharmacy, which she could do with the DPharm and certification.
So I told her she was one of the lucky ones who was doing what she loved, and who would be paid for it, no matter what. She agreed.
I also thought of LMS’ daughter, another of the fortunate ones. Two jobs Dara turned down with her BS in Chem were in the energy biz. One was in Houston in an independent lab, that tested flame retardants for the petrochem companies making them. One was with Uniden, testing coal stack emissions. Both jobs were ones I would have loved at 22, if I had the training. She thought both were cancer risks for her. I think it is clear that an undergraduate sci/tech degree is the way into the two boom industries of our time – energy, and biomed/tech/health.
Dara has also modeled, played the violin and the guitar, HS tennis, and loved Shakespeare’s plays, so sci/tech need not be all nerd, all the time.
If your kids are still in elementary school, convince them that math/sci is cool. Do what it takes.
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Good for her, Mark. What I love to do doesn’t pay worth a lick. So I’m one of the masses who *work* daily at something they utterly hate.
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And I’m one of the masses who can’t work at all. Lucky for MrJS, who needs 24/7 attention.
One of my nieces found exactly what she loved early on. The others are rapidly getting there.
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MsJS – I forget your circumstances sometimes and then wonder if I have written something insensitive. “Can’t work at all” is a whole different level of concern than “get your kids to like math and science”. Please forgive my exuberance about the latter.
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Mark, last Sunday’s NYT had an GOP ed on the failure of ritalin & other meds to any appreciable long term good, given the frequency of prescription. Perhaps right up dara’s alley.
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Sigh. Op-Ed, not gop.
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Mark – my oldest son (12) in really good in a number of things. He is a fairly good athelete (swimming, long distance running), musician (Ukelele, Sax, viola, and can sing really really well), straight A student in honors classes, and likes a lot different subjects. He is very competitive and a really hard worker. Being the goal oriented lad he is, he is thinking about college and what he wants to major in despite the fact that he is in 7th grade. He is good at sci/math but those are not his favorite subjects. He is worried about what jobs pay and being able to find one that pays well. I keep telling him that he is so good at so many things, his biggest problem is going to be deciding amongst them and selecting one. I think for someone like him, he will be successful regardless because of the type of person he is. I think that it is hard to go wrong with a Sci or Math degree but it is also critically important to pursue your passion and follow your dreams because nobody wants to be unhappy going to work – no matter how much it pays.
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Brian – thanks, I fwd’d the link to the op ed to her.
Dave! – I just want to add that your son will not miss out on any opportunity if he has a thorough grounding in sci/math. In other words, with good grounding, his choices don’t look like a pyramid, becoming fewer and fewer as he progresses. They actually stay wide open from MBA to MD to law to film to finance to software – nothing really closes up if he has a strong sci/math background.
And, yes, I agree: there is no reason to spend 1/2 of your waking hours in misery unless you have no choice whatsoever. I am big on choice.
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I’m in an interesting position here. Primo is utterly obsessed with mathematics. He’s working his way through a fifth grade work book while in kindergarten. This isn’t meant to brag (well, not much), but he has already decided which direction he’s going.
Secondo is doing pretty well. An early reader and his brother’s enthusiasm has clearly rubbed off on him. He also does some startlingly good drawings of things such as switches in railroads or highway intersections on his magnadoodle. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has talent in drafting.
I went to a liberal arts college. It’s a private amusement to me that I have a Bachelor of Arts and a Doctorate of Philosophy. Not exactly what makes you think of a bench scientist. Whatever labels are attached, I’ve had a great time over the past 25 years. Perhaps it’s time for another change.
BB
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Mark:
She also likes teaching medical chemistry and would like to be an adjunct prof at a research U., either in neurosci or pharmacy, which she could do with the DPharm and certification.
She might fit in perfectly at the Brain Institute here at the UU. I’m so thrilled to hear that she’s in a PharmD program–they’re (nationally) turning out some of the brightest young researchers these days. Brava for her!!
FB:
I’ve had a great time over the past 25 years
Yep! And it sounds like your kids, despite their extra hurdles they’ll have to jump, are finding a way to find joy in their talents, also. Here’s to them!
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Just heard today that I’m going to be detailed within NRL. It means pretty much that I’ll be temporarily reassigned to another group as ours is short on funding. NRL leadership decided to fund capital projects by jacking up overhead rates. That’s a good way to kill productive groups.
Time to crack open that resume.
BB
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