I’m so glad it’s Friday, and it’s a vacation day for me. I have some vacation time I have to take by the end of our fiscal year (May 31) or lose it, so with the exception of next Wednesday, I will be taking off every Wednesday and Friday through the end of May.
While I mostly plan to relax and read over the weekend, I have some work to do for my class. My students’ research paper was due yesterday, and I need to grade those. I also need to catch up on grading their journals and prepare the final exam. Next week is the last week of classes, and I also need to prepare my final lectures. None of these tasks are difficult, but time consuming.
I also need to do some housework and laundry this weekend. Thinking of all I need to do, it might not be that relaxing of a weekend, but I’ll try my best to set aside some time just for me.
I forgot to post an Isabella Pic of the Week, so here you go:
I really don’t have much to say today. It’s been a decent week with nothing too exciting. I’m still recovering from my illness that put me in the hospital, but every day, I’m getting better. I will need an ultrasound to check a few things further, but I’m not really worried about it. I just know that I need to start regularly exercising.
Today shouldn’t be anything exciting. I have classes to teach, but I’ll be the only person working at the museum today. I also don’t have any plans for the weekend. The most exciting thing (and it’s not that exciting) is that I have some vacation time I need to take or lose by the end of May, so I’ll take a day off every Wednesday and Friday through the end of May.
There’s just nothing exciting or interesting for that matter to talk about, and you know what? I’m just fine with some quiet boring days when I can just be lazy and read a good book.
The idealized male physique, often described as an “inverted triangle” or “V-taper,” features broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a strong, muscular build with low body fat, a physique seen in many male athletes, models, and actors. The ideal male body has evolved throughout history, with earlier periods valuing strength and athleticism, and more recent times emphasizing a lean, muscular look. Media and social trends play a significant role in shaping perceptions of the “ideal” male physique.
The idealized male aesthetic—emphasizing physical perfection, muscularity, and strength—has long served as a powerful tool for propaganda, shaped and reshaped to fit the political and cultural needs of various societies throughout history. This image of the “perfect man” functions not only as a model of physical excellence but also as a symbol of ideological values: power, discipline, dominance, and purity.
Augustus of Prima Porta
The roots of the male aesthetic ideal can be traced back to ancient civilizations like Greece and Rome. In Classical Greece, the male body was idolized in art and sculpture (e.g., Polykleitos’ Doryphoros), representing harmony, rationality, and civic virtue. Strength was linked to moral integrity and democratic citizenship. Rome adapted this, associating the powerful male body with imperial authority and conquest, as seen in statues of emperors like Augustus, who were idealized as youthful and godlike.
The Renaissance revived classical ideals, presenting the strong male body as a symbol of divine beauty and human potential. Artists like Michelangelo, with his David, reinforced the link between physical strength and spiritual or moral superiority. This era celebrated the “universal man”—physically capable, intellectually refined, and culturally elite.
Arno Breker, The Great Torchbearer (1939)
As nationalism surged in the 19th century, the strong male body became central to shaping national identities. In Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, propaganda weaponized the male aesthetic. Mussolini was often shown shirtless, working or posing, to convey virility, labor, and strength as core values of the state. Hitler’s regime promoted Aryan ideals through statues, films (like Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia), and youth programs, equating physical perfection with racial superiority and moral righteousness.
“Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” was made by Vera Mukhina in 1937 for the World Fair in Paris. It was meant to overshadow the Nazi German pavilion that was located opposite to Russian pavilion in the fair.
In Soviet propaganda, the male worker or soldier, muscular and stoic, symbolized the power of the proletariat and the communist state. These images weren’t just about fitness—they were loaded with meaning: loyalty, discipline, and the ability to serve the state.
Even today, the muscular male figure continues to be used in propaganda, especially in authoritarian regimes. Leaders are often depicted engaging in rugged, physical activities—Vladimir Putin’s shirtless horse-riding is a modern example—projecting vitality, control, and masculinity as signs of leadership and national strength.
“For Your Boy” was one of many posters issued during World War I to encourage support of the war.
In the West, while the use of male aesthetics has shifted more toward consumer and celebrity culture, it still has political undercurrents. Military recruitment posters, sports ads, and action films all reinforce a vision of the male body as capable, heroic, and dominant.
Throughout history, the idealized male body has served not only as a cultural aspiration but also as a political weapon. Whether sculpted in marble or splashed across a billboard, it reflects the values and anxieties of the society that produces it—always more than flesh, always a symbol of something bigger.
I have to return to work today. I can’t express strong enough how much I don’t want to go. I’m still really tired and don’t want to go back. I know it will do me good to get back into a routine, and it will probably give me more energy. Still, that doesn’t mean I’m ready to go back to work. However, I’m not sure I can put it off any longer. I did “work” Friday by going to the workshop I attended and did well. I didn’t feel like I got overly tired, and my energy level was good. So, maybe today won’t be too bad. At least my boss won’t be there. I’m not ready to deal with her strong perfume or loud voice. It should mostly be quiet in the front offices where my office is. I also have a ton of emails to catch up on and work to do for classes this week.
I have a workshop/one-day conference to attend in Burlington today. The size of attendance at the workshop is expected to be small due to everyone having budget cuts due to the idiocy of the new president’s administration. Many nonprofits are losing their funding, and if they haven’t lost it already, they expect to. That aside, I’m looking forward to today. After my hospital stay earlier this week, I’m sure this will be a tiring day (Burlington is about an hour away), but hopefully, an enjoyable one as well.
It was so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed last night. I had a wonderful group of nurses and LNAs taking care of me, and my hospital bed was comfortable enough. However, there is nothing like my own bed. I haven’t been able to say much about what happened not because I was keeping anything secret but because: 1) I did not feel like writing much and 2) I did not have a phone charger with me so I could only do so much before the battery was going to die. Luckily, I started feeling better, but also because one of my overnight LNAs offered to take my phone and charge it using her charger while I was sleeping.
Anyway, you are probably asking what happened. Friday night, I got a severe migraine, and when I woke up Saturday morning, I still had the migraine but my back was also hurting and I had a stomachache. The stomachache got worse throughout the day. I one point, the pain was bad enough that I could not move. I was on my side and tried to roll over onto my back and wasn’t able to because of the pain it caused. I was nauseated and vomitted at least three or four times during the day and had been running a low grade fever off and on throughout the day. At this point, I would normally would have gone to urgent care, but there were reasons I didn’t. We received 9” of snow over Friday night and throughout the day on Saturday. While roads had been plowed, I would have had to clean the snow off my car, and I was in no condition to do that. I was also in way to much pain to drive anywhere or to get up and do any of that. I took medicine that I hoped would help and alternated between my bed and the couch. I eventually fell asleep and mostly slept through the night not having been able to eat anything the day before. I had drank a cup of tea first thing, but that had seemed to take forever to get down, I had drank as much water as I could keep down, but it wasn’t much.
When I woke up Sunday morning, I was feeling better, but not a lot better. Susan convinced me to go to urgent care, which I did and was there just after they opened at 9 am. When I finally saw a doctor and told her what was going on, she examined me and poked and prodded me. I cried out in pain as she pushed down on the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. She said, let me make a phone call. She left the room and came back a few minutes later to tell me that she had talked to the doctor at the emergency room at the hospital and she was sending me there. She suspected it was either the flu or my gallbladder. She said that when I arrived to tell them she had sent me. Since I had driven to the clinic, they let me drive to the ER. The nurses in the ER thought I might have the flu and tested me for Covid and the flu. Both came back negative. They hooked me up to an IV because my blood pressure was very low, something like 90/56, and I showed signs of dehydration. On the weekends, the hospital apparently doesn’t have people who can do ultrasounds, so they sent me for a CT scan. What the CT scan found was that I had an obstruction in the small intestine, some minor kidney damage, and an enlarged spleen. They admitted me to the the hospital, and I was taken to a room.
While the nurses and LNAs had checked in on my regularly and taking my vitals throughout the days and nights, I only saw a doctor for about a minute Sunday night, maybe two minutes Monday morning, and another two minutes Tuesday morning. Basically, the only thing he told me was that the kidney damage and enlarged spleen on the scan was probably from dehydration, and if I kept feeling better and had no setbacks, he would begin progressing my diet, which he did. He told me if I did well on the progressed diet, that I should be able to go home. I was told by the nurses that the best treatment was to limit my diet and allow the IV fluids they had given me to get things moving again. The ER doctor had told me that surgery did not look necessary and that the most they might have to do is to send this thing down my nose and into my intestine which would then balloon up and push anything on through. She said it was an unpleasant procedure and would only become necessary if the rest and fluids did not work.
By Sunday evening, there had been signs of movement, but nothing to indicate that the blockage had moved, and I was only allowed ice chips. At this point, the only thing I’d had since Friday night had been some water, a little ginger ale, and some hot tea. I really did not want to eat. My blood pressure and glucose remained low and my temperature was still slightly elevated. I was miserable. Eventually, there were small signs of movement during the day on Monday, and I was allowed to be on a clear liquid diet starting that night. I still had some pain whenever I took in anything more than ice chips, but things did seem to be getting better. On Tuesday morning, they let me have a full liquid diet. I have never been so excited over vanilla pudding before. Around mid-morning, a nurse brought me the room service menu and told me I had been allowed a full diet and could order whatever I’d like. I ordered an open faced turkey sandwich with gravy, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and some vanilla ice cream. When the lid came off, I immediately got nauseated, but that passed and I was able to start eating. I ate maybe a third of it because it was making me nauseated, and it was very bland, which I had expected.
About mid-afternoon, a guy came in and said he was there to take out my IV, and I said, “I assume this means I’m going home.” He said that’s usually what it means. My nurse of the day came in, said she had some paperwork for me, went over the information about what medicines I’d been given and what I had not been given (they kept me off my blood pressure medicine since my blood pressure was so low), and asked me to sign another sheet of paper. I said, “So, I can go home?” She said, “Yep, you can go home.” I said, “I just get dressed and walk out?” She said, “Yes, unless you want a wheelchair to be brought up to take you out.” I told her I was fine on my own. I got dressed, and as I was walking done the hallway following the signs from the elevator, I saw my LNA of the day, and told her goodbye and asked if the elevator was just ahead. She said she’d walk me to it. We were talking on the way to the elevator and I told her I had to find my way around to get to my car which was in the ER parking lot. She said she’d walk me through the emergency department and rode the elevator with me and let me through the employee area to a set of doors just behind my car. I got in my car, sent some messages to different people telling them I was on my way home, and then drove home.
It was an ordeal, but thankfully it was not worse than it was, and I did not require any surgery or any more significant time away from Isabella. By the way, I did have a friend bring me a phone charger, but it was having some trouble which is why the nighttime LNA charged my phone for me. I told my boss that I would not be in this week. My coworker, who isn’t known as the most friendly person, texted on Monday to see if I needed her to go check on Isabella. I thanked her and told her that I had neighbors who would do that. My boss texted to check on me, sounding reluctant that she was doing so, at least it seemed that way to me. My cold and distant coworker sent a warmer message than my boss. I just can’t get that woman. Anyway, she should be working her ass off today with me not there. We are having an event that I’ve been planning for months, and she has continually added more and more for me to do and offering no help or assistance. Now, she gets to reap the rewards of her style of management that has everybody do only their job and nothing more. We are a three person staff, siloing jobs doesn’t work. Maybe she will learn a lesson. I will be taking a sick day tomorrow also.
I’m so happy to be back home. The hospital released me this afternoon. I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful group of people to take care of me when I was sick. I’m taking the rest of the week off work to rest and completely recover. I have a workshop in Burlington to attend on Friday, but I am looking forward to it and will get an early dinner up there afterwards.
I’ve been so busy this week with classes, preparing for classes, getting ready for another program, and what has seemed like a dozen other things. Have you ever been so busy that you can’t even remember everything that has kept you so busy? That’s how this week has gone. Next week is actually scheduled to be worse than this week because not only will I be scrambling to get everything done, I have a workshop to attend in Burlington on Friday, and I’m judging a History Day competition on Saturday.
Needless to say, I haven’t had time to “stop and smell the roses,” let alone do anything else for personal enjoyment or entertainment, if you know what I mean. At least there is nothing scheduled for the weekend.
I don’t think I posted an Isabella pic of the week last week, so here’s one for this week. I love this cat, even if she woke me up at 3:00 am to feed her (I didn’t get up until 4 am) and then turned her nose up at the food I gave her.
I had a migraine all weekend, one that was especially bad yesterday. Thankfully, I’m feeling better today because I have to go to work today. I need to prepare for this week’s classes. I also have a few things I need to work on for next week. However, because of my migraine and still feeling a bit foggy from my migraine medication, I don’t have much to say today.
This week has felt like a long, never ending week, but now it’s almost over. Today will be busy, but hopefully, not as stressful as the rest of this week has been. I have classes to teach today, but that’s not a big deal. It’s just that I try not to schedule multiple classes on the same day for different professors. These classes were easy to prepare for, so that’s not the issue. It’s more of a time thing. I have to pull the objects out of storage, so when it’s two different classes, that can be a lot of objects. After the classes are finished, I also have to put everything away. That might not sound like much, but the classes are in two different rooms on opposite sides of the museum with a small window of time between the two classes. Oh, and there is a third class going on at the same time as my second class, so I had to teach a coworker how to teach it.
When I leave work today at 4 pm, I will be ready for a relaxing and stress free weekend. 🤞
Joe
The Closet Professor 