Pamdanistan, an evening

Oh, it's just another whacky evening in Pamdanistan.

The duck's neck is, well, unstuffed, suggesting not such a good duck state - however the quacker is still in good form, so The Dan feels the need to keep it with her at all times...which often means getting her nose and her duck as close to the cat as possible.  (The cat obviously feels that if she doesn't make eye contact with The Dan, that perhaps he will simply go away.  The cat is always right).

~~~~~

Back in the lab today, a salsa-dancin' doctoral student successfully defended her proposal for her dissertation research in front of her committee - a 50 minute seminar followed by almost two hours behind closed doors with her committee.  It's a critical few hours for a student - marking their successful transition from being a doctoral student to being a doctoral candidate...another step in the centuries old tradition of conferring the doctoral degree.  The student works hard to prepare - the lab works hard as well, reviewing presentation materials, asking questions and more questions, sitting in on practice seminars, and scrutinizing her materials to the last detail for typos or grammatical errors - rearranging the presentation's overall organization or even the wording on a single slide.  By the end of our many practices, I often feel that anyone in my group could get up and give the talk - and I like that sense of community, of one person's goal becoming a goal that we all share.

So while the salsa-dancin' student was frantically preparing at the last moment, the group met for their weekly laboratory meeting - with Katherine, the lab's poet laureate beginning a discussion on her community-wide evaluation of the antibiotic resistance and susceptibility profiles of her coral isolates.  The lab rambled on for awhile first, ordered a cheese pizza, and then:  the eclair-making postdoc, who often is referred to as Mr. AngryPants, accused one of the graduate students of 'harshing his mellow' -  over the past week the eclair maker has managed (after many months of struggling) to develop what is looking like a reliable protocol for obtaining good quality DNA from coral mucus.  (If this doesn't mean anything to you personally, just trust me on this one - it should).  After months of being cranky (as you might imagine a Mr. AngryPants could be) - he has been smiling, not groaning, making progress, and almost appearing, dare I say...optimistic?   All-in-all its a good thing, and we're happy.  Breakthroughs!  Successful defenses!  Nobody could do any of that harshing our mellow today, no way.  We'd dare them to even try. 

~~~~~

So, back in Pamdanistan, The Dan and The Stan are presenting a somewhat solidified front: 

'We are dogs, we might even be spoiled dogs, and we'd appreciate a large-dog sized greenie each evening after dinner.  It's the least you can do, since you abandon us for long periods of time each day.  As dogs, we feel that we are not intuitively connected to the plight of the coral reefs or instinctively interested in the upper respiratory tract microbial communities of the bottlenose dolphins, and we are, quite frankly, sick of all of the background chatter about corals and dolphins.  *yawn*  As dogs, we're thinking that adding a few pheasants or quail to the place would do it a world of good.  And while you're at it, if a heron could land inside the fence just once or twice a week, we'd really appreciate it.  But first - let's start with those greenies.  Because it's tough being a dog - dealing with the cat and all of her personality quirks, putting up with your ups and downs of having a life in science - and hey - the guest bedroom ceiling has caved in.  We're dogs, but we have our standards.  We can't get a driver's license - so come on, greenies aren't asking for much.  And stop harshing our mellow while you're at it.'     

Comments

[Benjamin]

Gosh, I wonder what people call me these days--Mr. Misanthropic Recluse? I found out in college, while being an editor on the lit journal, people called me "the hater" because I let so little make it to the editorial meetings. Hey, it was all crap. Anywho, this evening my wife had class with a 1st year PhD I don't know--I know no one anymore, this being my 5th year. He said he recently found my work and likes it, but wonders why he never sees me. Because I despise grad school now after 8 years of it. Because I have a dissertation to write. Because people tend to bug me more than plants, so I garden. Because people call other people names and I'm stubbornly hiding, hoping for a really good one before making an encore appearance.

[The County Clerk]

Wait... I thought this "Benjamin" chap was the eclair guy? While 'Mr. Misanthropic Recluse' does, in fact, harmonize with 'Mr. AngryPants', I'm not seeing the continuance to "harshing mellows." What am I missing?

That said, gosh it is terrible thing to "harsh" a good "mellow." A good "mellow" is, in my opinion, one of the 7-wonders of being alive. YOU run the lab. There ought to be some kind of... well... if not Rule at least Custom that protects the "mellow." For God's sake, TAKE CARE OF THE MELLOW!

And appropos of nothing at all, isn't it wonderful how adjectives can migrate to nouns and verbs?

As for the PamDaniStan zoological collection (a non profit organization) (I'm including the artificial duck and wished for game): I bet a good "mellow" is a rare treasure which should be traded for greenies. I say do it.

The photo of the mellow dog and insouciant cat is priceless.

[The County Clerk]

Misanthrophy. Anthro=Human (the Greek).

How can such a quintessentially human condition wear such a name?

[Pam]

Benjamin, just to clarify: the eclair-making postdoc has given himself the name 'Mr Angrypants' (this is by no means a 'behind-the-back' scenario). Actually, he is quite hilarious and creative, and comes up with all sorts of funny names to summarize his state of mind during any one day in the laboratory. He has been struggling for a solid year on a DNA extraction approach that should have been much more straightforward (we foolishly thought) - but, as is generally the case, is not - and this recent breakthrough is huge. Now he is coming up with new names and new phrases to describe this state. Yesterday afternoon, as I was leaving the lab to go to my office, I said 'wow, you look almost...happy' and he said 'well, perhaps it's because this is the first week that I've actually started working on the data I was hired to obtained'. Please don't think that this is unkind laboratory shenanigans - because it is not, and if I am proud of anything, it is how supportive members of my laboratory generally are of each other.

County Clerk, I'm with you on taking care of the mellow. Geez, on some days, it's all we've got. And yeah, I'll get the greenies. On the way home tonight.

[Layanee]

That is a great term, 'harshing the mellow'! Some people make that a way of life! Love your dog/cat picture. Contentment on each of their own terms.

[Kim]

Oh please. I can spot a dog trick a mile away! (I just can't resist them, that's all.)

Those two dogs? No WAY you're harshing their mellow, Pam. They're the picture of relaxed. *grin*