"You are nominated for a Ph. D."

That's the promising title of an email I found in my inbox this morning. Unfortunately, it was spam:

WHAT A GREAT IDEA! We provide a concept that will allow anyone with sufficient work experience to obtain a fully verifiable University Degree. Bachelors, Masters or even a Doctorate.

Maybe I'm going about this all wrong -- years of work, supervision, and learning. All wrong! I could be earning money at "work experience" and also inching closer to a doctorate!

Today I signed more paperwork and received an assignment from one of the department secretaries: assemble my Ph. D. committee. I have to have an oral exam soon. Yikes.


This post's theme word: maugre/mauger, "in spite of." It's a preposition, as in, "Mauger all the solicitous emails, I have decided to get a[nother] degree the hard way."