MCM and The Phallus

So, in all honesty, as much as I like to think that I have always been "in the know," I had absolutely no idea at this time last year that the phallus was so important in studying literature.  There is a difference between having the phallus and being the phallus and there is even a lesbian phallus.  I'm still trying to get my mind out of the gutter and into the abstract to understand it all, but the point of this posting is that I've been thinking about the phallus more than usual...and more theoretically than usual because of preparation for comps. 

Yes, it is totally relevant to the MCM, believe it or not.  Imagine my surprise when I went to check out the Marine Corps Marathon course map today to think about my many friends who will be running this year and to ponder whether or not I will be able to make it out to the course or not in the stupor of post-comprehensive examdum...and I all I could see were several phalluses on the map indicating the route.  You can see for yourself what I'm talking about:
http://www.marinemarathon.com/MCM_Runner_Info/Course_Maps_908.htm

In some ways, I think this gives me my answer.  My head might very well explode if I go out there because of the time-space compression of theoretical knowledge, geography, the exam itself, and the fact that a number of required texts for the comps trope on the theme of maps.  (Which, by the way, includes the book entitled Maps by Nuruddin Farah, and I highly recommend it to all of you)