Not of General Interest

Gene Autrey’s voice is singing this song is in my head as I write this, so here’s to riding the range once more with reminders I’ve forgotte...

1. New College in Florida is dismantling its Gender Studies program, and West Virginia University is carrying out the draconian cuts promi...

It’s summer, it’s hot, and it’s going too quickly. Although they’re pretty, I always dread seeing Queen Anne’s Lace flowers because they mea...

It's June! This is the time of year when the apple & plum blossoms turn to tiny green fruit, when the butterflies entice the cats in...

Over at The Chronicle, Kevin Dettmar answers a department chair's question--"How do you get professors to respond in the summer?...

 For academics, it’s natural to think of the beginning of May as the end of the year, because, well, it is.  Was it a good year? Pretty much...

 Mostly working hard. I've completed some writing & received editorial compliments on a forthcoming article, which makes me happy. J...

 I recently returned from a conference in a field that I love (think: flying dinosaur studies ) but that I don't publish in as much. It...

AI writing (ChatGPT, etc.) is supposed to be transformative and all , the Washington Post tells me.   The New York Times  worries about job...

[Sorry! I was trying to get rid of a dead link in this old post and it posted as a new one.]    The Washington Post has an article, "Th...

Quick midday post: the newly consolidated Vermont State, the latest college to kill the libraries , is really, really committed to it:  http...

 First of all, happy February! January's over, and you got through it, so yay! I'm still hoping that the cloud cover clears so that ...

Figure 1. Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.  Happy New Year! It's time for the (somewhat) annual MLA roundup. The last MLA I attended i...

 It's nearly time for MLA er, New Year's Eve, and I'd prefer to look ahead than to the land of little work that was November an...

Happy fall! How's everybody doing? In no particular order, some thoughts:   Twitter : There's a lot going on over there, including p...

As you've probably seen, the writer David McCullough has died at age 89 . I mentioned his sonorous tones in Ken Burns's The Civil W...

 I've been fascinated recently with this article about a writer on the show Grey's Anatomy, who (necessary disclaimer--"alleged...

 As new academics, we're taught (or do we just internalize?) the need to make things right. Or maybe this: as women who are new academic...

 First, here's the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/opinion/college-university-remote-pandemic.html .   The TL;dr on this is ...

 First of all, I do love teaching.  Second, I believe in flexibility, and my syllabus has all kinds of alternative assignments, escape claus...