January 2010
42 posts
The Woes of Tenure →
“Dr. Jones’s interpersonal skills and relationships are no better. By Dr. Jones’s own admission, he has repeatedly employed an underage Asian boy as a driver and “personal assistant” during his Far East travels. I will refrain from making any insinuations as to the nature of this relationship, but my intuition insists that it is not a healthy one, nor one to be...
2 tags
Get a Life, Holden Caulfield →
…..In response to the melodramatic Salinger love-fest that’s overrun the internet. It’s especially bad on Tumblr. God save Tumblr when Chuck Klosterman dies….I’ll probably throw in the towel and get a WordPress account.
“No one who is dependent upon the good-will of others (and even headmasters are...”
– W.H. Auden [via lukescommonplacebook]
I’m very tempted to send this quote to the headmaster of the school where I used to teach.
3 tags
if:book: reading vs writing →
Ted Genoways, the editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, has an essay up at Mother Jones with the alarmist title “The Death of Fiction?”: he points out, to the surprise of nobody, I expect, that the magazine component of the fiction industry is in bad shape right now. He examines the systemic failure that brought us here: part of the problem is the over-supply of reading. The way...
10 Best Songs about Libraries and Librarians →
via alaina via NY Public Library
2 tags
The Other Detroit →
Jeremy Levine on Detroit’s North Rosedale, which has a median household income of $90,000 per year and is not an urban wasteland.
“When, one evening in 1976, Philip K. Dick invited Tim Powers to his Fullerton...”
– Scott Timberg in the LAT, via 3QuarksDaily
1 tag
Most Unnecessary Footnote?
Text: “There were hardly any cars then, just some women floating silently in their head-to-toe burqas.*”
Footnote: “*A burqa is a head-to-toe garment worn by women”
From “The Forever War,” by Dexter Filkins
[via Matt]
“During question-and-answer time, Mario Fratti, a playwright who is probably best...”
– Gym. Tan. Laundry. Discuss. The NYT’s article on the recent Queens College symposium on “Guido Culture” and The Jersey Shore.
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Is it just me, or is the new tumblr directory... →
4 tags
Stanley Fish on Science and Religion →
Stanley Fish has an interesting review of Barbara Herrnstein Smith’s Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion. “Must There Be a Bottom Line?” makes some helpful points regarding the (ridiculous project that is the) culture wars. But ultimately, the essay reads like Pragmatism for Dummies. Here’s a snippet:
The assumption she challenges — or,...
1 tag
“Hume’s framing of his altar call to the wayward golfer raises at least two...”
– David Gibson via Patrol
Some thoughts on the map [above]
donecrequiescatinte:
Click on the map and download the large resolution version, and then look at it. All of the major themes of American identity are visible here, from colonization to the North/South divide to expansion westward and 20th century “filling in.” The great cities are all here too: Boston, New York, Baltimore, Charleston, Jacksonville; Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City,...
3 tags
Artist Series: The Swimmers →
The Swimmers talk about their new album, People Are Soft, and play a few songs.
1 tag
companies that have screwed me over today
Wachovia/American Education Services—seriously, if you can get a student loan through someone else, do it.
Vistaprint—The free business cards they advertise? Yeah, there’s no free lunch. And their customer service can only change one aspect of the order at a time.
“THE ORDER CANNOT BE CHANGED AT THIS TIME.”
“But, you just changed it….?”
“TO CHANGE...
The Americanization of Mental Illness →
[via sarzha]
“The tendency to take offense at freewheeling religious debate is widespread....”
– Ross Douthat: Let’s Talk About Faith (via ayjay)
Map of Netflix rental patterns by neighborhood →
[via Kottke.org]
“Arthur Rimbaud–that great adventurer and mediocre poet”
– from Ryan Ruby’s essay on Wallace Stevens
Watchnplusonemag:
Xmas present: Video of the evangelicals panel with Caleb Crain, Malcolm Gladwell, Christine Smallwood, and James Wood. (New School, New York City, Dec. 8, 2009.) Video quality: Medium. Discussion quality: High.
kottke.org's best links of 2009 →
1 tag
We're getting interactive here.
No, I’m not using tumblr’s new bullshit “Ask the blogger” feature. (You can email me any questions you might have.) I want to ask you a question. Get excited.
A friend of mine may have this opportunity, so I thought I’d pose the question:
If you could travel around the country for two months to film a documentary, what would your subject matter be?
“Building a bigger stadium for Jacksonville football fans would be like building...”
– here
“‘And what did you do today daddy?’ 3 paragraphs. And to think this...”
– Alain de Botton [via Alex Massie’s Twitter]
What Would Today’s NBA Jam Look Like? →
EA Sports is bringing back NBA Jam. As Will Leitch said, “We haven’t stopped reliving those lonely weeks locked in the basement our youth since [the story] broke.”
2 tags
An All-Ikea Meal →
In the past month, I have found myself making three trips to Ikea to buy food for my mom, who immigrated from Sweden. These sort of meals happen at my house on a weekly basis. (I’m not necessarily happy about that.)
Franz Wright, "Pediatric Suicide"
Being who you are is not a disorder.
Being unloved is not a psychiatric disorder.
I can’t find being born in the diagnostic manual.
I can’t find being born to a mother incapable of touching you.
I can’t find being born on the shock treatment table.
Being offered affection unqualified safety and respect when and only when you score dope for your father is not a diagnosis.
Putting your head...
“The most significant fact about American higher education as a system is that it...”
– Louis Menand (via ayjay)
“Maybe the most worrying trend the past 10 years can be found in this phrase:...”
– Peggy Noonan (via ayjay)
“And in a class called “The English Major in the Workplace,” at the University of...”
– Making College ‘Relevant’ [via NYT via Erica]