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Holy shit IT WORKED

May 9, 2022 Luther M. Siler4 Comments

My student loans have been forgiven. They are gone. They are ex-loans. I am, at 45, done paying for my degrees.

If you work for a school district (even if you don’t teach; literally just if you work for a school district) or are in any way involved in public service at your job and you have existing student loans, click here and check the TEPSLF program out right now. (Note that to the best of my knowledge everything in that piece is still accurate except for the refund check, which I think only applies if you’re still making payments while they’re processing your paperwork; those specific payments will be refunded. I no longer think I get any of my excess payments back, although I’d love to be wrong.)

Close to 70 grand, y’all. Poof.

I’d like to issue a public thank you to the Biden administration.

Happy motherfuckin’ Monday.

On failed pilgrimages and also sandwiches

April 29, 2021 Luther M. Siler2 Comments

I told this story on Twitter just now, and after much searching discovered that somehow I have never told it on the blog. So:

I’m your huckleberry.

I went to college at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. There was a sandwich place near campus (still is, actually) called Dagwood’s.

Dagwood’s was very popular because 1) Delicious and 2) they delivered until the wee hours of the morning. https://t.co/mXzrUS8344
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

I lived off of Dagwood’s sandwiches for four years and in particular off of one sandwich called the Supreme. Picture a sandwich that might be called the Supreme, then double the meat. Add some sauce, I dunno what kind but I loved it. Best sandwich ever.
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

Fast forward many years. I live in northern Indiana and have not been to Dagwood’s in quite a while, although I still go when I’m in Bloomington and get the chance.

I hear through the grapevine that a new sandwich place is opening up downtown.

It’s called Dagwood’s.
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

When I tell you that I monitored every scrap of information about this new restaurant that I could get, I am not kidding. We were there on opening day, midafternoon. Strangely, the place is nearly deserted, and they have a very different decor style from “my” Dagwood’s.
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

But no matter! I want a Supreme. I need a Supreme. I’ve been thinking about this for weeks.

I scan the menu and … this isn’t my Dagwood’s. This is just a place called Dagwood’s.

I have been cruelly fooled.
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

The cashier behind the counter watches me, and watches this drama play out on my face.

I make eye contact with her. I am struggling not to lose my faith in the universe.

She looks me dead in the eye and says “Let me guess. You went to IU.”

This had been happening all day.
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

I ordered something, I don’t remember what. It was fine, I suppose. I couldn’t just turn around and *leave*, that would have been … coarse.

The place closed a few months later, having disappointed half the college-educated citizens of South Bend.

The end.
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

I take it back. One more tweet. This is a Supreme. This is the sandwich to end all sandwiches.

I have not had one in years, and I swear to you that my mouth is watering right now. pic.twitter.com/iVRx5HhAiK
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) April 29, 2021

I gotta drive to Bloomington now. Back tomorrow.

On the mighty Jordan River

September 29, 2020 Luther M. Siler1 Comment

Indiana University, my alma mater, has decided to remove eugenicist David Starr Jordan’s name from all campus properties. This includes the biology building, a parking garage, a street (they’re still working this part out with the city) and the mighty Jordan river, which cuts through campus.

Shut up. It is mighty. And it is a river.

Now, to be clear, 1) I support this decision, and 2) I couldn’t have told you David Starr Jordan’s first or middle names if my life depended on it prior to ten minutes ago, nor was I aware that he was a eugenicist. Not that it matters much, but apparently he got into that after ending his association with IU. I am not terribly pleased with the insanely boring choices they’re going with for new names (the Biology Building, the East Parking Garage, and the Campus River) but it does appear that they’re considering those names temporary placeholders while they work out better names for them. I can live with that.

This is not, however, why I’m writing this post. I’m not attached to Jordan’s name for the building or the street, and certainly not the parking garage. Rename those all you want. But I have just discovered something fascinating about the way my brain works, which is that despite knowing all four of those things were called the Jordan Whatever, and despite knowing at least vaguely that there was a biology dude who used to be affiliated with IU named Jordan, it never once occurred to me that the river was named after the same guy and not the river Jordan in Israel. Which, like, I’ve been calling that damn river the “mighty Jordan” for twenty-six fucking years as a mild little personal joke, with the understanding that people who I’m saying that to know we’re comparing it to the real one.

(Those of you who have never been to Bloomington: this thing is three inches deep at its deepest, and most of it you can jump across. For those of us not emotionally invested in it, it is a creek at best.)

I don’t know how my brain did that. You can damn near see Jordan Hall from the Jordan River and it never even once crossed my mind that they’d been named after the same dude. So, yeah, part of me doesn’t want the river renamed; I just want them to start lying about how it got named that, and insist that it’s always been named after the river in Israel, so I can keep making that joke.

Probably not entirely reasonable, I know, but I have to make exceptions for my own idiocy sometimes.

Okay, seriously now: am I watching the debate tonight? And if I am, am I liveblogging or livetweeting it? Decide for me:

VACATION DAY ONE COMPLETE

August 1, 2017August 1, 2017 Luther M. Siler

So we left on our vacation yesterday.

Today was a Driving Day; get from northern Indiana to Louisville, with a stop in Bloomington along the way. I haven’t been in Bloomington for years, so it was great to get back into town. Also, we got to explain what “college” is to the boy. We only really had time to eat lunch and tour the southwestern part of campus, but that’s where most of the fun stuff is so it worked out.

Wright Quad! The window to the left of the door there was my dorm room the only year that living in the dorms mattered. I considered trying to swing by my apartment my junior and senior year and then realized I probably couldn’t find it without thinking hard.

Some things never change; there are still shoes dangling from damn near every overhead power line. Don’t ask.

Some things do change: The Von Lee used to be a movie theater. The building is still there, and it’s still the Von Lee, but it’s apparently a Noodles now? Which I feel may be a bit of a demotion.

Sample Gates, the unofficial doorway to campus. My favorite Sample Gates story has nothing to do with me: my brother was going to propose to his fiancee (now wife) there, but had to rapidly abort and find another location when someone else was already proposing when they got there.

Most of the buildings on campus are made from southern Indiana limestone. I always enjoyed this quote, especially the odd hyphen in “master-spirit.”

My wife, a journalism major, poses with Ernie Pyle, an IU grad. The boy appears less certain about him.

The Student Building. It’s not called that for any clear reason that I was ever aware of, but I’ve always loved the clock tower.

Herman B. Wells and his Missing Cane. This statue and the flowers around it are new since I was there. The pained look on the boy’s face is because that’s a bronze bench and it was hot outside; to his credit, he allowed us to photograph him before remarking that he was partially on fire.

Immediately behind where the last picture was.

The mighty Jordan River! Shut up it is mighty.

I am aware, intellectually, that I have the sky and clouds at home, and that the sky at home is the same sky that I look at when I’m in Bloomington, but I swear the skies are prettier down here anyway. God, I miss this town.

We swung by my mom’s childhood house in Bedford at her request and I managed to stealth a couple of pictures of the house without the current homeowners noticing. I remember this hill being a lot steeper and taller, but that’s what 30-year-old memories will do for you:

I played on this rock a lot as a little kid. Couldn’t resist having the boy take a picture there.

WOO KENTUCKY.

Today, I shall pet a giraffe.

facepalm emoji

January 29, 2017January 29, 2017 Luther M. Siler9 Comments

Because shit is too serious right now: you may or may not be aware that my wife’s mother passed away a couple of weeks ago after a long illness. I alluded to it here a couple of times but I don’t think I ever actually came out and said it. Do not bother expressing your well-wishes in the comments as I am about to spend this post making fun of my deceased mother-in-law and your sentiments will feel inappropriate.

My wife spent part of her day today helping her dad clean the house out, and in the process of throwing out a bunch of newspapers and magazines somehow came across this. I am seriously considering getting in touch with the President’s office over at Purdue on the off chance that the letter this is responding to is still in an archive somewhere, because oh my God how batshit crazy must the letter this is responding to be: