No Kidding
Inside Higher Ed reports that the corporatization of the university compromises key values.
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Inside Higher Ed reports that the corporatization of the university compromises key values.
As if anything could really make up for the two and a half years of hammering self doubt engendered by the necessary evil of an academic job search . . .
but . . .
That flurry of e-mails saying "Welcome to the department! We like you and we think you'll like us!" is really nice.
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads!
I've gone ahead and set up TypeKey, so Spammers, stay away!
"Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too"
These lyrics (or rather, John Mayer's performance of the lyrics)just won a grammy.
OK, so no one says Mayer has to be a feminist or anything, but has anyone noticed that the reason that Mayer cites that I should be good to my daughter is so that she can enter the sexual-reproductive economy? And people have been eating this song up!
Here's why I'm gonna be good to my daughter:
Because she can be president
Because she can choose not to be a mother
Because she has a smile that lights up a room
Because she not only has her mother's eyes, but, one hopes, her brains.
Because I'm her father, and I don't need a reason.
Since Blacklist isn't really stopping the tide of spam, I'm turning off the comments for a bit. we'll see if a little break might take us off the radar for a while.
If you'd like to comment on a post, please contact me at my last name at gwu dot edu.
Punxatwney Phil--the most famous groundhog in the world--is at once a folksey, warm-hearted tradition that helps us anticipate the new birth that is Spring, or at least stay hunkered down for winter with good humor.
Two things I've noticed this year, though. First, (and I've noticed this before, as I'm sure you have) what sort of shadow does a groundhog see if he is flooded with the light of a thousand flashbulbs, and more importantly, what are we actually celebrating at his point? Are we celerating the tradition itself, or what the tradition represents?
Secondly, I was introduced this year to the figure of General Beauregard Lee, PhD, the weather-prognosticating groundhog from Lilburn, Georgia, who along with counterparts from Ohio and New York, compete with Phil to be the top (ground)hog. OK, so you're a groundhog, and you live in the south. Why do you have to be named General Lee and live in a manor house that looks like this?
Beleive me, I've heard the lines of argument about preserving southern tradition, and remembering history, but perhaps we needn't appear to celebrate the defense of slavery in forms that really have nothing to do with it whatsoever?