Jennifer Morton
@jennifermmorton
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philosophy professor @Penn , author of Moving Up Without Losing Your Way, 🇵🇪, 1st-gen, #guggfellows2023 , @CASBSStanford fellow 2023-2024,
Philly/Palo Alto
Joined May 2009
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I have accepted a position as presidential associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania starting in Fall 2021. I will miss UNC dearly but excited for new adventures in Philly.
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Korsgaard does it again. Her Dewey Lecture is what every philosopher needs to read and internalize right now. I'm so tired of defensive writing, of boring papers, and of work that is not intelligible outside of ever more narrow professional enclaves.
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I will be getting feedback for a brand new paper at the Stanford Political Theory workshop today. I argue that poverty is being in a context that rationally requires you to focus on the short-term at the expensive of planning and pursuing long-term ends. A paper thread (1/5)
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It's such an honor to be chosen as this coming year's
@Princeton
's pre-read. When I arrived on campus as a first-year student in 1998, I could not have imagined that I would write a book that would end up in the hands of every first-year Princeton student.
Announcing this year’s Pre-read for
#Princeton2025
🥁 ...
"Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility" by philosopher and
#PrincetonU
alumna
@jennifermmorton
'02!
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I appreciate analytical philosophy's standard of clarity, but the "necessary and sufficient conditions" standard makes so much of philosophy boring, unhelpful, and uninteresting, especially when it is applied to moral and political philosophy.
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I am so deeply honored, amazed, and grateful to everyone who helped & believed in me. I am part of the
#guggfellows2023
class.
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Going back to
@Princeton
today to welcome the class of 2025 and to talk about Moving Up. This is an honor that my scared and anxious first-gen self in 1998 could not have even dreamt up.
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In NC having smoked 100 cigarettes over your lifetime qualifies as a risk factor for the next phase of vaccination, so every one who attended Architecture and Comp Lit grad school in the 90s and/or watched Reality Bites one too many times will be eligible starting Wednesday.
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Today is my first day as a
@Penn
faculty member. I’m excited for this new opportunity & honored to join many amazing scholars, but I also have complicated feelings about leaving public higher ed. I hope to find a way to use this new position to keep advocating for strivers.
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I'm on Hidden Brain!
Want to be a striver?
If you come from a disadvantaged background, you might need to leave some things behind — like your friends, your community, and how you relate to the world.
This week, philosopher
@jennifermmorton
on the costs of moving up.
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Today, 24 years ago, I arrived to the United States from Peru and first set foot on
@Princeton
's campus. It was a moment that would change my life in ways that are still hard to fathom.
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Husband to 3-yr old: Pick up those cards from the floor.
3-yr old: You do it. I'm a philosopher.
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It finally happened, I missed my own Zoom talk. How's your day going?
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Life goal unlocked. Thank you
@ratemyskyperoom
!
Well angled setup. We are pro bracket shelf. Two plants. Add more books. 9/10
@jennifermmorton
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So we're hiring in Kant, but reading that WaPo piece now I'm thinking that means we're also hiring in CRT? Our pool just got a lot bigger.
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Charles Mills. So many of us would not be where we are doing the kind of work we are doing if it weren't for him. Heartbroken
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My paper with the amazing Sarah Paul was selected for the philosopher’s annual.
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So I won the Grawemeyer award for education. I still cannot believe I get to be in such fantastic company
@saragoldrickrab
@mcavoy_paula
Diana Hess Martha Nussbaum and so many others
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Just a reminder that you can donate to an educational institution you didn't attend. I'm a monthly contributor to
@citycollegeny
bc they're living up to the mission of providing opportunity for thousands of
#firstgen
and
#lowincome
students.
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Life goal: to be this joyous person my daughter sees in me
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If we are worried about maximizing academic freedom, then shouldn't we focus on reducing universities reliance on adjunct labor & on supporting grad students and non-tt faculty unionization efforts?
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Got a lovely email from my dissertation advisor today and remembered that picking him was the best decision I made in graduate school. Instead of going with the person with whom I thought I would work, I went for a genuinely caring and committed teacher and mentor.
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This view helps us see why we impoverish people when we undermine their capacity to focus on the long term. Means-testing programs, for example, require that recipients spend a lot of time/energy on jumping through bureaucratic hoops. This makes recipients poorer. (5/5)
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Once we understand this is in the nature of poverty we have a richer story to tell about why poverty is bad. This story is not just about material deprivation but about not being able to fully pursue ends that most of us care a great deal about. (3/5)
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What does the Dean of an Ivy League school know about the problems diversity breeds? No Ivy League school has anything close to a real diversity of students or faculty. Come to CUNY and ask us what our problems are—diversity is not one of them.
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Signing a contract to do something for which you are not getting paid is peak academia.
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The values, projects, and relationships that give our lives meaning over time often require that we plan and prioritize them in our deliberation. When we are focused on the short-term we cannot fully give them the deliberative attention they require. (4/5)
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Do those concerned with the leftist bent on college campuses realize that liberal professors like me spend a lot of our time playing devil's advocate for 'conservative' and 'right of center' views because many students arrive to campus with a lot of knee-jerk 'liberal' views?
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Teaching a graduate seminar on the moral psychology of poverty in the Fall. What should I add to my syllabus? Particularly interested in accessible work in economics, sociology, and psychology on preferences, reasoning, hope, and ambition.
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You think you've reached the bottom of the barrel of cruelty with this administration, but there is no bottom. Pitting the welfare and education of international students against institutions trying to save lives. I have no words.
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A new one: I won’t be coming to your talk, but on the basis of the abstract I have a question you should address in your talk. 😂😂😂
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A part of the final reflection for my first-year seminar, I asked students whether they had made a friend in class. Most of them said they had, not only a friend, but some had made a BEST friend. Given that a good number of them are 1st gen/low-income, I'm 😍about this.
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Asked my students to let me know if they are having trouble securing housing, meals, or internet during the remainder of the semester. For many, college is the only place where they can count on these.Thx to
@saragoldrickrab
and
@tony_jack
for calling this out long before today.
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Behavioral economists and psychologists have documented this effect in many places in the literature. I argue that this is not an effect of poverty but rather in the nature of poverty. What do we get by centering this aspect of poverty? (2/5)
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So, will a sociology department hire me? I have a ‘can-do’ attitude and a philosophy Ph.D.
Now is the perfect time for a big career switch, especially if you lack the right credentials but have a can-do attitude.
Employers are temporarily ultra-open-minded. Don't miss your big chance to bypass years of education!
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I lived in Peru when our president dissolved congress and used military force against civilians—threatening governors and civilians with force is a coup plain and simple. Seeing Trump address the nation tonight gave me chills of recognition. We should not let this stand.
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College has become a high stakes competition. Getting a degree is not just necessary for many career paths, but (often) for getting the sort of jobs with healthcare, paid family leave, retirement benefits, etc. Too much depends on this one educational bottleneck.
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My second philosophy class (cross listed with Psych) was a course on rationality cotaught by Harman , Shafir and Johnson-Laird. It was 🤯& I basically never stopped thinking about the questions we asked in that class. RIP Prof. Harman.
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2010: Staying up until midnight hitting refresh on a browser several times to get LCD tickets. 2020: Staying up until midnight hitting refresh on a browser several times to get Whole Foods delivery.
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"if dieting is a practice that causes a great deal of harm ... and rarely works to deliver the health or happiness it has long advertised, then it is a morally bad practice. It is ...obligatory for individuals to divest from it, to condemn it and not to teach it to our children"
In this piece, I write about my fatness, my shame, my weight loss, and the fatphobia of philosophy. I argue there is grave moral harm in being chronically hungry, as many of us with a history of dieting have been. In conclusion: down with diet culture.
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My grandmother (who raised me) broke her arm. Because I have an unvaccinated kid and because we’re in a pandemic, I cannot easily go to Lima to see her. We’re lucky to have family who can help her but it breaks my heart not to be there. The ethical costs keep adding up. 💔
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With so many great candidates, I'm surprised and humbled to have been elected to the
@apaphilosophy
board. I will do my best to represent the diverse interests of philosophers across the profession.
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For those who were curious about my graduate seminar on the Moral Psychology of Poverty. Here is a tentative syllabus. Special shoutout to
@kkthomason
@SereneKhader
and
@_rimabasu
who have agreed to make guest appearances.
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It's bizarre how when academics talk about racism in the academy, they seem to think that they can justify their claims solely by relying on their own experience and perception of the phenomenon.
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3yo: Let’s play pretend ice cream party!
Me: Great! What happens at this ice cream party?
3yo: We work and talk about how to change the president.
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Honored that Moving Up has been awarded the Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the
@aacu
@PrincetonUPress
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Some more thoughts on Korsgaard's Dewey lecture. In the discussion, it seems to me that stylistic/beautiful writing is being conflated with writing that aims to engage and provoke its audience. 1/
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So last time we saw this movie, many people seemed to agree that the last thing we should have closed were schools. And yet this time around the first thing we are talking about closing (again) is school while everything else is still open… 🤦🏽♀️
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Tried to explain to our kid the concept of charisma. So we say it’s a quality that makes people like you. She picks up a container of Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel and goes: does this have charisma?
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The great mystery of human rationality: how can you love someone who regularly wakes you up at 2am so much?
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My first day of in person teaching is CANCELED due to a tornado and historic storm ripping through Philly last night. 2021 just keeps bringing it.
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Had a great time talking about my work
@WakeForest
What a warm intellectual community! Thank you!
Great talk today by
@jennifermmorton
to our department
@WakeForest
, on her new work on defining poverty. Thanks so much for visiting us!
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Kid’s school asked us for her preferred pronouns. So I ask her if she identifies as a girl, boy, or neither. And I explain that some ppl don’t identify as either and go by they. Exasperated she goes: I KNOW MOM! 🤣👵🏽
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I wrote about one of the most glaring inequalities in higher ed. No, it’s not about who gets into Harvard.
@PhillyInquirer
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3 clusters at UNC in 6 days. Faculty elsewhere: use this example to push for fully remote. Cases had been stabilizing in our part of NC and now they're spiking again. This is no way to maintain good town/gown relationships or to keep staff/students/faculty safe.
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Wow. All of the labor that went into this. I’m so mad on behalf of our students, faculty, staff, and community. This should‘ve never happened.
BREAKING: One week into the semester, UNC-Chapel Hill announces that it is transitioning all undergraduate classes to fully online instruction, effective Wednesday.
Story to come. Check this thread soon.
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@kvallier
It’s probably because if you go to a political theory/philosophy conference and play the Rawls drinking game (a sip every time his name is mentioned), you’re going to wake up the next day cursing the whole field.
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“For Stanford to just give $25 million to Cal State–Los Angeles would be kind of weird, but it would also almost certainly be more efficacious than investing $25 million in racial-equity programs at Stanford.“
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As a Latina immigrant, I have never felt safe during the presidency of Donald Trump. As a new citizen, today I breathe a little easier.
BREAKING: Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States, according to the AP — narrowly beating President Trump after a turbulent race.
More here:
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Feeling all the hope of Spring. Working at a coffee shop (outside) for the first time in more than a year.
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Will the next theoretical shift in post-Rawlsian political philosophy help us theorize and understand the urban/rural divide? It seems increasingly consequential for democracies (and non-democratic forms of governance too).
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Me to 4yo: Don’t eat your boogers, it’s gross!
4yo: Don’t yuck other people’s yums.
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I wrote about how engaging with the public forces us to become more inclusive, less insular philosophers.
“What I’m suggesting here is… doing philosophy with the public not just because of what we think we can offer with our expertise, but because of what we think the public can offer philosophy.”
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Today after 20 years of living in the United States legally (not that that should matter), I became a citizen.
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Finally got around to reading this. Great piece
@lastpositivist
lots to think about. I agree with the main critiques, yet I'm still a liberal (for now?) because though I do see the arguments against, I have yet to learn of better alternatives.
I wrote a longish blog post on why I'm not a liberal. Ultimately of course the boundaries of any political coalition or ideology are fuzzy. But I hope this at least clarifies what I mean, and reject, and think you ought reject, in Liberalism.
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When you finally get around to reading the book your advisor recommended 16 years ago and find out that it is indeed useful. 🤦🏽♀️
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How about "Billionaire Megadonor Says He Will Stop Donations to Harvard and give them to UMASS instead"?
BREAKING: Billionaire Megadonor Ken Griffin Says He Will Stop Donations to Harvard
@HaidarEmma
and
@cam_kettles
report.
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Yesterday I caught a typo in one of my papers. Instead of 'highfalutin' I had written high flatulent. 😂😂😂It made my week.
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Me: Help me cleanup your room.
3 yr old: Not now, I’m on a pretend call with a colleague.
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I'm so excited to spend next year as a fellow
@CASBSStanford
.
ANNOUNCING THE 2023-24 CASBS FELLOWS CLASS
The class is comprised of 37 scholars and practitioners representing 22 U.S. institutions and nine international institutions and programs.
LEARN MORE:
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@EpiEllie
Saw a toddler crying in the middle of downtown LA because his 'family was too boring'. He then proceeded to ask strangers to take him to an orphanage. The mom just stood there looking mortified.
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@kate_manne
Thank you, thank you for writing this
@kate_manne
especially today when on top of everything else we need to manage as women in academia, we are also told we are supposed to be getting thinner & fitter, and to accept our bodies all at the same time.
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Our preschooler insists on wearing her mask in the car because the car smells like “car.”
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Amazing how philosophy as a discipline still hasn't moved from challenging accomplishments by philosophers from historically underrepresented backgrounds as being bc of 'wokeness' 'DEI' or 'diversity'. We know you're thinking it, you really don't have to say it.
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My first presidential election as an American citizen. Getting
@JoeBiden
@KamalaHarris
@NC_Governor
elected in North Carolina
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My paper "The Miseducation of the Elite" is out in the Journal of Political Philosophy. (Note: The affiliation is incorrect since I'm not at UNC yet. I fixed this in the proofs, but somehow it didn't get corrected. Working on getting this fixed.)
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For the sake of my sanity, I created a No Folder in my e-mail inbox. I struggle with the guilt of saying no even though I'm maxed out with commitments. It helps! Somehow moving the request into the folder after I decline turns the guilt into a check mark.
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"Their real agenda, which is molding young people less likely to challenge their authority. We lose that war when they capture Youngstown State while folks are too busy defending Harvard."
Only 0.4% of college kids attend the Ivy League, but it gets 80% of the headlines. Meanwhile, red-state GOPers are installing political hacks, hedge-fund dudes to crush key public universities
Why Youngstown State matters more than Harvard. My column ⬇️
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Apropos of nothing, 4 yo: Mom if you want to do something boring for your birthday, you can do it with dad ok? Not with me. I don’t like boring things.
My birthday is 9 months away but I‘m already so excited!
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Very saddened to hear of the passing of the inimitable Harry Frankfurt. His work was what first got me excited about philosophy as a career. He was also my first college philosophy professor. My favorite Frankfurt piece is his address as APA president.
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New forthcoming paper on Pessimism Traps. Check it out here:
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A silver haired gentleman came up to me after my talk last night and told me, I can’t believe at 70+ I’m still learning something new about myself.
#bestbookreview
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A Choose Your Own Adventure philosophy book where you modus ponens or modus tollens the argument to see where it takes you.
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My first-year students and I have been talking how the path to college shapes them and their experience of
@Penn
. One student said: Passions are no longer discovered, they are given to you early on. The rest of the class nodded along. 😢
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What I most care about is my students having well-considered views for which they have arguments, not for them to parrot views that they heard somewhere whatever their political bent.
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So this news made me ever so happy. Individual elite colleges will not change the unjust structure of higher ed, but for some they can be life changing. I was one of those lucky ones!
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After a full day of teaching, work, and solo parenting, I felt very tempted to take up my 2.5 yr old on her offer to correct some page proofs for me.
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Arrived at the office and the internet in the building is out, amazed and disgusted by how much writing I’m getting done because of this.
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Today I got a call from an administrative assistant at a university I no longer work at who just wanted to check in on me and my family. Made my day and I really needed it today. Do more of this self!
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How many copies does an academic book usually sell? Despite having written one, I have no idea.
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When you realize that the paper you thought was due on 1/5/2021 (and which you had not written yet) is actually due on 5/1/2021...
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