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I am writing from Raleigh, NC, where we are visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and two of my three nephews (the third is stationed overseas). My oldest nephew's fiancée is here, too. We have been talking, laughing, and eating nonstop. I am having a thoroughly enjoyable time. I am crazy about everyone in this family.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving, whether that meant flying home to see family, staying in with your friends, or just having the day off from work. This year, this is what we were thankful for in grad school.

A new correspondent writes: "I just recently passed the phone interview stage and I'm getting ready to prepare for an upcoming on-campus interview. The position is a full-time community college asst prof position, teaching online courses. The on-campus interview will require me to conduct a 10-minute presentation on content I've created for online courses. I was wondering if you might have any advice about this process?"

Almost before I pushed “publish” last week, the Library Loon responded to my gushy love letter to the stacks with an essay of his or her pseudonymous own, titled “On Hating the Stacks.” It’s a bracing reminder of why library stacks can be anything but inspiring.

As a result of some cosmic hiccup, I have to register my baby boy for high school this weekend. Then, one of his friends asked me to explain International Baccalaureate programs as I drove him home yesterday evening. Already in a state of middle-aged-maternal angst, I embarked upon a frenzy of IB research last night and this morning. The following paragraphs attempt to disambiguate my parental self-flagellation and pedagogical frustration from a fledgling proposal.

Orbitz and Expedia may have killed the travel agency business, but my family desperately needs a skilled trip advisor to plan our next vacation. (The number of travel agents has dropped from over 110,000 in 2001 to about 77,000 today).

Some of what I am thankful for this year.

“Meet me at the site.” “Ok I’ll log on.” “Oops, gotta go. My mom’s home and she’ll kill me if she finds me online.”