[…] after changes upon changes we are more or less the same;

After changes we are more or less the same. — Paul Simon, "The Boxer"

            I didn't go out of my way to bring up the topic, but now and then I scared my co/… Read full post »

I have a new fantasy.

The corps of sex slaves is out; what I want is a staff.

A secretary to answer the phone and put through only actual, human people I want to talk to. An administrative aide to go through my mail and pass on to me only… Read full post »

Either/Or: False dilemmas, false dichotomies, and such: Back to Basics #31

            I've never been asked, "Are you a stay-at-home-mom, or do you work?"… Read full post »

For everything there is a season and a time for

every matter under heaven. (Eccl. 3.1)

            After thirty-five years teaching at Miami University in Oxford, OH, I retired in 2006. My retirement was my choice; colleagues ha… Read full post »

Just a decorously quick note: Reading is far from dead in contemporary (spring of 2012) US culture. It's just been warped into "scanning for content," of which there is an ever-increasing burden.

For a personal example, it may be taking me over a month to re-read Vernor Vinge's Rainbows… Read full post »

            Yo, social conservatives! I've got a proposal for you.

            This isn't an ironic "Modest Proposal," but I do have an agenda. I understand how clarity isn't always… Read full post »

                  A good argument for the "interrobang" mark of punctuation is the sentence, "Where's the outrage?!"

                  It's not a question, real… Read full post »

Back to Basics #30

       With the passage of new laws in Louisiana and Tennessee, the debate over teaching evolution is back, this time with the addition of teaching climate change.

         I come at this de… Read full post »

         Before the Monica Lewinsky affair at least, Bill Clinton was known in some circles as not just the first Baby-Boomer president but also the first SNAG: "Sensitive New Age Guy," someone capable of saying, "I feel your pain" and actually kind of meaning it.… Read full post »

         I'm writing this blog in April of 2012. This year's NCAA Basketball Tournament is over; people are starting to recall that collegiate athletic programs have colleges and universities affiliated with them, and references to college ranking, for a while, have an academ… Read full post »

 Evil Grandpa Repeats Himself: Back to Basics #28.2

             What's posterity ever done for us?!

            That's the crucial question, and to ask it is to answer it. What have they done f… Read full post »

Back to Basics #29

            A fair number of people are familiar with the idea that you really can't have a useful argument over tastes ("De gustibus non est disputandum"), and a quick check of what people think neat to put up on YouTube — or a q… Read full post »

Question: Mannners issues aside, if you can stay constantly in touch with your job, family, friends, and all, should you feel obligated to do so?

         My introduction to the "constant contact" life came in the late 1990s on a trip to a major city in the Easter… Read full post »

The movie 21 JUMP STREET can be watched on television, if watched carefully, so if you miss(ed) it in theaters, don't be too concerned.

Do, though, try to see it, if for nothing else a Mark Twain-ian suggestion on the power of fashion and the cycles of fashion. So watch… Read full post »

Back to Basics #28: Posterity don't vote

            Among other political things, I'm in part a very old-fashioned conservative. I believe in the Edmund Burkean idea of «The Continuity of the Gene… Read full post »

Back to Basics #27

                 If "All life is sacred," I'm a serial mass murderer, and there's an excellent chance that you are too.

            When I was in college, I worked s… Read full post »

            Let's cut Mitt Romney this much slack: when he said, “Corporations are people, my friend,” he meant in part that corporations are composed of people. Since he quickly moved to “Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people… Read full post »

Back to Basics #26

The first [invention facilitating a near-future, temporary Golden Age on Earth] was a completely reliable oral contraceptive: the second was an equally infallible method — as… Read full post »

We have news for the beautiful people. There's a lot more of us than there are of you. — Lewis, Revenge of the Nerds

    One time in the bookstore at Miami University (Oxford, OH) I was told by a clerk that they couldn't do something. I asked, "Could you do it/… Read full post »

A quick thought upon reading stories of members of the US armed forces in the Afghan War urinating on dead Taliban and throwing out for burning copies of the Koran: American arrogance and (Christian-)American feelings of superiority may be dangerous for our national security.

The reasoning goe… Read full post »

Back to Basics # 25

            As we enter the 2012 election cycle, let's talk a bit about a key passage from that most basic of political advice books, Niccolò Machiavelli's 1532 classic, The Prince, from Chapter 18, "… Read full post »

         In a feisty and useful column from Scripps News Service, Dan K. Thomasson asserts that, "Whether the [Roman Catholic] church's policies on sex and propagation belong in the 21st century is not for me -- or, for that matter, other non-Catholics -- to sa… Read full post »

    Stephen Colbert's TV character, "Stephen Colbert" sometimes rants at guests to demand a response to whether they would want Saddam Hussein still in power in Iraq, "'Yes' or 'No'! 'Yes' or 'No!"… Read full post »

Back to Basics #24

              This will be a quickie, so to speak, recommending four works of importance about the environment and politics:

                  &n… Read full post »

            I spent forty years teaching college undergraduates and living in college-student neighborhoods; and for thirty-five years I lived down the block from a consolidated high school.

            So if… Read full post »