@bobble That's unfortunate. Most academic types are very bad at staying on top of administrivia like signing off, but if you let them know that your PhD applications are being impacted, that might light a fire under them? Good luck with the applications!
In Trollope's Orley Farm we are told that Mr. Moulder was "furnished with a pipe and a supply of cold without." What does this mean? It appears a little later that Moulder also has a glass of brandy and water.
As a Chinese reader, I didn't find "The Great Gatsby" particularly striking. I know the era in which the novel is set—the Roaring Twenties in the United States and I can see Gatsby's tragic story examines the hollowness and corruption that can lie behind the pursuit of wealth and status. I can se...
I was chatting the other day with a friend who works in quantum computing and kept mentioning @PeterShor in tones of awe, like "you won't get anywhere working on such-and-such topic, unless you're Peter Shor". I didn't have the heart to flex that I regularly interact with Peter Shor, albeit pseudonymously from my side and in a non-scientific setting.