jasmine

“ • I ask them to turn them off and place them on the desk in front of them. The temptation is mighty, but it stops under-the-desk texting. If they need to use their phone, they can step out of the room like an adult. Which, you know, they are.
• Immediately ask them to leave and receive an absent for the day if they use their phones during class, even if we only have one minute left of class. How would you like to work all day and not get paid? Same thing.
• Remind them of monks that meditate for days/months/years without human contact, or the millions of people on the planet who have never even heard of Facebook. Perspective. Our class is less than an hour long. Twitter is eternal.
• Leave college in your teens, fuck up your 20s, have a bunch of jobs, say yes to everything no matter how ridiculous it sounds, live in a bunch of different places, and make rash decisions so that by the time you are in a position to teach your life is fucking RIVETING. Only advisable for some. ”

“ Domineering, vulnerable, imaginative, charming, manipulative, sensuous — the portrait that emerges grows harsher with Stark’s success. Gradually Geniesse’s empathy with Stark’s troubled childhood and adolescence turns to critical recoil from her professional ruthlessness and, above all, from Stark’s part in the destruction of the marriage that she had long courted. With the growth of self-confidence and self-seeking came the loss of some humility. Like other strong people, Stark was more sympathetic, one feels, when weak. ‘Her earlier insecurities and shyness,’ Geniesse writes, were being fast buried under a solid sense of her own importance — an exhilarating feeling that even she recognized might be a little dangerous.’ ”

“ Some of the purses shown in the movie were designed by Imperfect Indulgence, a Canadian handbag designer. ”