Superheroes and Cubicle Cursing

This is a great Michael Chabon article from The New Yorker on the nature of Unitardian superhero costumes and why they appeal to us:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/10/080310fa_fact_chabon?currentPage=1

Its worth the read for all of you aspiring superheroes, like myself, who have occasionally donned the cape just to see what it might feel like.

Now for something else entirely. I'm sitting at work in my cubicle (doing the grunt work of media research for Communication professor at George Mason University), generally slacking off even more than usual because my boss is out of town for the week*, when I hear the angry and intensely punctuated whispering that means Tamara, my fellow researcher but not fellow student, has arrived. Unlike myself, she actually has a specific cubicle to call her own, while I have to fight for a new one each day with the other student workers - hoping I can arrive early enough to get the one where my boss can't constantly look over my shoulder. Tamara's seniority as a seasoned "coder" guarantees here this, as well as a salary from the research institution instead of tuition credits from school.

All day she mutters to herself. Although sometimes I think she's on the phone, but its very hard to tell the difference. We document the news, so its not as crazy as it sounds - she could very well be simply commenting on what she's watching. I do it sometimes, especially when I'm logging jokes - which means covering shows like The Daily Show, or Letterman. So I laugh when they say something funny. Most of the comments I get floating over the grey walls of my cubicle are more like: "Yeah right, fucker." "You dumb son of a bitch" "Who the hell do you think you are?" "Oh that's just stupid. Fuck you."

Or just more angry whispering that is just barely audible and incredibly annoying as somehow its pitched at the right vibration to penetrate my headphones and be distracting. I can't wait to get out of here.

*One thing that's nice about not really having a readership - it makes it much less likely that your boss is going to stumble onto your blog. The fewer people that read my blog, the fewer edits I have to make when I make fun of them.