Accomplished Robins

Melinda Robins is Mama's friend of long-standing. They met in the 1980s [the old days] in Madison, Wisconsin, shared exciting classes & [even more exciting] confidences.

All well & good. Now here comes the cautionary note. About Mama, Melinda, and small dogs. Before I moved into the Roushanzamir home, pauvre Mama shared her love with Stuffed Doggies.

For example, this shot shows Little Doggie and Little Baby Puppy Dog. Yes, pathetically, those are their given names.

Mama endowed them with high squeeky [highly annoying] voices & dismal personalities which she insisted on "sharing" with friends & family.

Melinda, to mention only one friend/family member, rebelled. I'll pass over her attempt to choke Little Doggie; after all, it was, on her part, a frenzy of sheer annoyance. Understandable.

But, Live & learn. Taking her predilection for, what seems on the surface to be the short fuse, I plan [should Melinda travel to Athens, GA from her current home in Boston] to entertain Melinda and divert her attention from my own status as a little dog [albeit not stuffed], immediately opening my toy box to her and sharing any toy she cares for.











Proceeding to Mama's intentions [see 12/01/06 entry] for the content of VIP entries:

Melinda Robins, Associate Professor, Emerson College, wrote a dissertation about Tanzanian professional women, special focus on journalists. An innovation: her use of methodology based in ethnography & the manner of presentation: 2 1-act plays. Mama & Melinda traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia together where they worked helped establish a journalism & communication program at a local university. [to read more about their experiences in Ethiopia go to: www.grady.uga.edu/coxcenter/ and search the site for Ethiopia]

As a long-time friend & Mama's very 1st advisee to earn a Ph.D., Melinda holds a special place in Mama's life & heart; Mama smiles when she sees Melinda's smiling face.

Pauvre Mama

I have told you quite a bit about my life with Mama et Papa. Now I shall share a little bit about Mama.

She earned a Ph.D. [Mass Communication with a minor in African Studies] from the University of Wisconsin-Madison & had previously attended the University of Michigan [M.A.] and Duke [B.A.].

Thus one might assume she is well read, knowledgable across the social sciences and humanities. You'd think her mind was occupied with the weighty issues of class, race/ethnicity, gender & sexual orientation in a global society & the relationship of mass communication to those variables. Some of her favorite authors might be Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, Roland Barthes, Eric Hobsbawm, etc. Her heros, one might justifyably assume, would include Herb Schiller, Hanno Hardt, & Bob McChesney.

How wrong would be your assumptions.

See the picture above for her 2 favorites: Jerry Seinfeld [the comic who does those meaningless routines such as-- "have you ever noticed that when you're getting ready to move all you can think about is boxes?...] and Superman [a cartoon, albeit one pledged to defend our free & democratic way of life-- and he can fly!]. And here they appear together for their interview on The Today Show.

Pauvre Mama. [does this strike any of my loyal readers--as I must admit it does me-- as slightly pathetic?] But at least her preferences are related to mass communication.

Now, for an example of how I occupy my time, see the book review below.