Academic indulgences

[chronicle_moderator]

The Academic Life asked several scholars to share their secret (or not so secret) guilty pleasures.  For Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at Caltech, it's gambling in Las Vegas. For Laurie Fendrich, a painter and teacher at Hofstra, it's Yoga Toes. What are your own indulgences?
Read more... from Robert H. Frank, Deidre McCloskey, Anne D. Neal, and
Cass R. Sunstein ...

[musclememory]

I was struck by how "safe" all of these indulgences are.  What kind of profession is it where we feel naughty for watching "Lost" or doing yoga with our feet. 

Here.  I'll start.  I like playing Dungeons and Dragons; I have a regular game that meets.  And I play violent video games like Grand Theft Auto.  I have been known to post ridiculous false personals on CraigsList because I think it's funny.  I hang out with non-academics (not students though), and we talk about South Park and make offensive jokes.

None of this keeps me from being a damn good professor, TT at an R1.

Anyhow, what passes for "guilty pleasures" seems to be so goody-two-shoes that it comes across to me more like barely concealed smugness.  It's like the kid in class who sheepishly and coyly chides himself in front of others for only getting an A-minus.

[prokraz]

Vodka, HoHos (sooo much better than Yodels), Keno, pretty much any bad reality television or Real Estate program, cheesy "casual dining" restaurants like Chili's and Applebees, prokraz-tinating as an art form perfected in the era of the internet...

[dismal_sci]

I thought the responses by the two economists were especially geeky.  Woohoo, sudoku on an exercise bike!
One of mine would be reading People magazine from cover to cover.  I only do this when no one else is looking.  Another is watching this new show on the TLC network called Big Medicine, which follows the stories of large people getting gastric bypasses.

[procra]

Oh, fercryinoutloud, hiking with the kids?  Ripping out invasive exotic plants? 

Yeah, okay, you want to know my GUILTY PLEASURES?  I'll give you guilty pleasures: making pancakes with my kids and seeking out new places to safely dispose of used batteries.  When I really want to cut loose, I'll watch a home decorating show on TV.  Mm hmmm.

That's how I have a good time that I'm willing to confess on the pages of CHE.

[chemmens]

My (not so secret) indulgence is the music of Bruce Springsteen. I have seen him in concert almost 50 times, covering a period of more than 25 years. I own every CD and video he has produced, as well as several hundred concert recordings that are not "official" releases. I listen to him virtually every day, at work, at home and/or while running. I collect pretty much anything and eveything ever written or produced about him, from books to bumper stickers to cheesy coffee mugs. No black velvet painting as yet, but I'm keeping my eye out. I've even allowed my fanaticism to cross over into academe, authoring two peer-reviewed journal articles on his music and how it emboides the concepts of criminological strain theory. If that's not nerdy, I don't know what is.
Craig Hemmens
Director, Honors College and Professor of Criminal Jusitce
Boise State University

[navydad]

Hilary Duff movies. Not the newer ones, but the older ones like "A Cinderella Story." Actually this guilty pleasure is not current. I have a 12 year old daughter and when she was younger she watched Duff's movies and I would watch them with her. Now she is too cool for Duff so we don't watch them. No, I am not a pedophile, but when Hilary Duff was a teenager she had the most luminous and mobile face. I know she's not a great actress and the movies aren't very good unless you're a preteen girl, but I just loved to watch her face. I am prepared for whatever thrashing you all want to send my way. OK, I'll expand this a bit. I also enjoy other movies aimed at tweens. Freaky Friday, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Ice Princess, Princess Diaries, you get the idea. But since my sweet pea is getting too cool for this stuff (her most recent favorite movie was "The Devil Wears Prada"), I guess I'm done with this guilty pleasure.

Reading true crime is another one. I used to imagine that true crime readers were little old ladies looking for a bit of a thrill, but once I got started I got hooked. I've read every book that Ann Rule has written and I've even corresponded with her.

And finally, The Lord of the Rings. It's not so much that I like it, because after all it is an amazing piece of literature. It's just that I read it about once a year, sometimes more often (my total number of reads is well over 30). My daughter and I have done LOTR movie marathons. We watch the extended editions in one sitting (it takes about 11 hours). I've corresponded with Tom Shippey, too.

[finallyfullprof]

I guess I have not strayed too far from my roots. I love soaps and actively watch three of them. I even get a magazine to keep me caught up when I don't have time to watch. I am also a huge classic rock and metal fan. I still attend concerts and have even been known to take a personal day from work if one of my favorites comes to town (or even within a day's driving distance) during the week.

[historian]

My (not so secret) indulgence is the music of Bruce Springsteen. I have seen him in concert almost 50 times, covering a period of more than 25 years. I own every CD and video he has produced, as well as several hundred concert recordings that are not "official" releases. I listen to him virtually every day, at work, at home and/or while running. I collect pretty much anything and eveything ever written or produced about him, from books to bumper stickers to cheesy coffee mugs. No black velvet painting as yet, but I'm keeping my eye out. I've even allowed my fanaticism to cross over into academe, authoring two peer-reviewed journal articles on his music and how it emboides the concepts of criminological strain theory. If that's not nerdy, I don't know what is.
Craig Hemmens
Director, Honors College and Professor of Criminal Jusitce
Boise State University

You *go* Craig!  Don't have the collection, do have the love for the Boss though!  Nothin' guilty about that!

[historian]

Guilty?  I guess...I'm sure my office mate who ONLY watches PBS, the Outdoor Channel, and when they start it, "the 24 hour dissertation defense channel" would be horrified but I enjoy the following marginal pastimes:

steak 'em sandwiches with onion dip on rye bread (I'[m not even sure the stuff is *food* but I love it all fried up!)
slot machines whenever I'm in Nevada or near a Reservation! (I think a job at UNLV might not be the best thing for me)
smoke cigarettes like a fiend at home on the patio
swear like a sailor--a bad tempered sailor!
sing in the car--enthusiastically and with the satellite radio I just got: in a variety of genres!


Yeah, I'm just as wild as a monkey! A regular party girl!

[t_folk]

Tattoos. Totally addicted to tattoos.

[musclememory]

*ahem*

Faking citations, ignoring my Step-Rite
Bingeing and purging broadcast from my website
Outing my postdoc as someone who swings
These are a few of my favorite things

Skipping my classes to cruise for young gay dudes
Strip clubs and gun running, snorting crushed quaaludes
Stealing department chairs' gold wedding rings
These are a few of my favorite things

When the urge strikes
When the day's long
When I'm feeling caged
I simply skip off to my favorite things
And leave my TA's
Enraged

Ditching a conference to drink with a minor
Poison-tipped arrows I'll fire at a shriner
Undergrads — they're all just fodder for flings
These are a few of my favorite things

Grading by chance, to make students' lives tragic
Sorcery, witchcraft, and vampire blood magic
Parking on homeless folk, plucking off wings
These are a few of my favorite things

[jonesey]

Tattoos. Totally addicted to tattoos.

We really need to have a drink sometime.

[hmaria1609]

chocolate
Jean Plaidy novels

[jgcarroll]

My guilty pleasure is buying too many CDs. It doesn't matter that I'm a music historian, buying CDs has gotten me into the doghouse. I won't make up any stories about drinking (I don't...anymore) and debauchery (I can hardly spell it). I won't confess to reading People magazine (I do read it - no need to confess). I won't fret about telling you all that I watch TV at the end of the day to give my mind a rest. I'm not addicted to sugar. I'm attracted to my wife. I go to the playground with my daughter... Wait a minute... This is terrible! When on earth did I become satisfied with my life! Holy hell, even my guilty pleasure suggests that I am obsessed with my work! This is awful! Straight back to the therapist for me.