This is what happens to me when I get some down-time from the craziness of the semester. Yes, it’s recess and here I am geeking out on comp/rhet. From my perspective there’s a difference between just immersing oneself in reading, writing, and thinking about building programs and geeking out on the field. The latter includes decidedly non-academic identity building–a “brand experience” to conjure up Naomi Klein and/or Kevin Roberts (depending on your political persuasion).
And, well, there’s swag–ok, well, not exactly swag but it’s such a great word.
A few months ago I was messing around with cafepress.com to do some mock-ups of some APSCUF-KU designs I was working on. We were considering printing t-shirts and bumper stickers for PR and fundraising. I wanted to show people more than the designs…I wanted people to see what the actual item would look like. Cafepress.com is perfect for this kind of task. Anyway, while I was doing that I came up with a couple of designs for the comp/rhet geek in me. One design stated: “i’ll take my gorgias over your socrates anyday.” Another one said: “rhetorical question: you talkin’ to me?” You get the picture.
Ever since then I’ve been playing around with different ideas. Today I geeked out and (re)built my cafepress store: Comp/Rhet Spot. And, yes, you can actually buy the items in the shop. And, for the record, I will not get rich on this project. All proceeds from Comp/Rhet Spot will go to help fund student scholarships through our faculty union APSCUF-KU. I don’t expect Comp/Rhet Spot will generate huge contributions to the scholarship fund, but it was the only way I could justify actually selling this stuff (if comrade Stu is out there, I am sure his anti-capitalist meter is red-lining) 
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So, I think I’ll add a page to Cooking with Dionysus as well…so you can always find your favorite site for comp/rhet swag.
