Comments | noblerot: In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

noblerot

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

Jul 18, 2006 00:55

What fresh hell is this? I entered my name in Google's book search engine just, y'know, on a lark. To my astonishment, I find I'm cited and/or quoted in 14 publications ranging from a 1998 paperback called Sheroes: Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena to a hardcover published last year titled Divided We ( Read more... )

Comments 41

lolaraincoat July 18 2006, 11:26:01 UTC

The last time I googled my real name, I found a blog about art in which was described (in quite flattering terms too) a painting I had made and sold in ... oh ... 1985 or so, back when I was trying to be a painter, and had subsequently utterly and completely forgotten. So that was a little spooky.

Otherwise it's just the regular academic stuff, plus one company that sells an essay reviewing my first book (which got used in a lot of history courses, I guess) to university students. Slimy but not really surprising.

I was about to answer this last night when the power went out! so that was exciting, if you were here. Otherwise perhaps not so much.

noblerot July 18 2006, 17:51:34 UTC

Hee. Please don't think I'm Teh Stalker, but I've googled your real name, too. You get around, darlin'.

Actually, I was going to e-mail and ask if you'd ever heard of one of my mama's friends here at the retirement home... does the name Teresa Salas ring a bell? She's Chilean and was a professor of Latin American literature at SUNY Buffalo. Co-edited an anthology of Latin American women's literature. Well. She's having computer troubles and I'm trying to help her download a farewell e-mail Gabriel García Márquez sent all his colleagues. It was an attachment, and she did something strange with it because, y'know, she is Ye Olde. Apparently he has leukemia. I didn't know. :( But I'm dying to have her translate it.

lolaraincoat July 18 2006, 22:17:32 UTC

Hee! You're not a stalker, you're just very, very bored. But not all those my-real-name people are me, you know. For example that scientist working on something to do with the Negev Desert is someone else. And so is the person with half a foundation named after her (alas.)

Yeah, I think I know that anthology, though I've never met your mom's friend. You should tell her that the GGM farewell -- it's full of sentimental, not terribly Marquezian advice, like "spend more time with your grandchildren! look at rainbows!" -- turned out to be one of those internet pointless lie thingies, like the eternally circulating "save NPR! Congress cut the funds!" that one still sees around. Or at least it was when last I heard of it, back around 1999. Who knows. By now, maybe GGM is dying, and won't my face be red.

noblerot July 19 2006, 00:34:57 UTC

I love that you replied anonymously to my stalker comment. So yeah, I looked up the Marquez hoax. Very strange! Also strange that this poor lady is just now getting it, seven years after the fact. Perhaps time does not speed up as we age, after all. Perhaps it just loses its linear trajectory.

Now I want to make a GGM "Not Dead Yet" icon.

bethbethbeth July 18 2006, 12:11:19 UTC

My name sometimes comes up as the professor on papers that former students have uploaded to essay cheat sites. :)

And there's an equal number of hits on sites where former students are saying "I had this really cool professor named XXX"

*g*

noblerot July 18 2006, 20:57:43 UTC

Awww! Your students love you! Who knows how many young minds you've steered down the path of righteousness?

I always thought the scariest thing about being a prof would be student reviews and those rate-your-professor websites... "Nice lady, but she should really do something about her halitosis.." Yow. Ouch.

bethbethbeth July 18 2006, 21:25:15 UTC

I end up on those sites regularly. I get high ratings, but apparently I've been known to talk about, um...Harry Potter.

Heh.

_hannelore July 18 2006, 12:18:31 UTC

My name usually is overwhelmed by the numerous entries about an African-American TV star.

Most of the entries I dredged up were posts to a Shakespeare mailing list when I was a sophomore in college. :D Somewhat embarrassing.

noblerot July 18 2006, 21:02:53 UTC

Hee. You gotta love the character descriptions: "spunky daughter"; "bigger-than-life mom." And yet, somehow, I'd prefer being referenced on the Shakespeare mailing list... fewer adjectives, you know?

(The comment has been removed)

noblerot July 18 2006, 21:05:06 UTC

And for some reason, this paper out in San Francisco turns up a hit or two...weird.

*coughcoughcoughcough*

Well, I wouldn't know anything about that.

laurelwood July 18 2006, 14:18:58 UTC

Searches using "Laurel Wood" (maiden name) brings up nothing but elementary schools, townhome developments, and a very popular brewery, but nothing but the occasional random LJ quote regarding me. If I put in my married name, I still even less, but man, there are a disturbing number of women with my same name, especially considering that neither "Laurel" nor my married surname are all that common.

"Sheroes"... there should be a breakfast cereal with that name, shouldn't there? Fortified with evening primrose oil or something?

noblerot July 19 2006, 00:40:46 UTC

"Sheroes"... there should be a breakfast cereal with that name, shouldn't there?

Sheerios, with a hole in the middle.

When I googled "Laurel Wood," I found many pictures of chairs. Very lovely chairs! Chairs made for bunnies and piglets to sit on, and so forth.