Thursday 22 January 2009

Surf's Up

I don't have much to report this week, apart from the fact that I'm still coughing and making noises like a broken hairdryer, but I seem to be enjoying it more. Oh and I found some really nice coffee for a quid in my local Co-Op, thus proving that socialism isn't all bad.

I've been finishing off a project for a local firm and writing a report for a client up in the Midlands, and have been active on Twitter, trying to pimp my arse to Americans. So I watched the Obama inauguration on teh Interwebs and somebody said Obama was 'our first surfer president', which reminded me of an erudite remark Fathorse made a while back (that's erudite with a capital rude) about what a doss degree subject Surf Science at the University of Plymouth is.

Obama is the first Hawaiian president, and when he flashed a 'shaka' sign during the inauguration ceremony, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, " it caused chicken skin to ripple across Hawaii like a tidal wave of, well, rippling chicken skin." Phew, wow.

I have a neighbour who works at Plymouth Uni. He's a senior lecturer in Tourism Management and his specialist subject is social anthropology of surfing. Well, the dude's American, so he's probably an expert.

Except he's from Kansas.

Not noted for the quality of its beaches


Students who are not capable of the rigorous academic standards required of Surf Studies or Tourism Management can now go to Falmouth and do an honours degree in Performance Sportswear Design.

Hard-working students revitalising the SouthWest's economy


Yeah, right

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama and I - we're just a coupla rude boiz.

University degrees are meant to involve the student spending long, frantic hours in an over-heated, over-crowded library desperately scouring the shelves for the titles of books that no longer exist but are crucial to his/her essay research. They should culminate in lonely weeks of essay/revision-induced isolation in which the student does not have time to change his/her clothes, shower, or speak to other sentient beings. He/she emerges only to buy the milk necessary for the consumption of his/her tea, which is his/her only form of sustenance.

Surf science, from what I gather, involves surfing, which is an out-door, bookless pursuit involving contact with other people. Ergo, either it is not a degree at all, or it is a doss one.

I rest my case.

Mel said...

Well, then.......I take it you're feeling better. :-/

Gordie said...

Well enough to have a brain again, Mel, well enough to have a brain.