I haven’t been blogging much because, well, I’ve said what I had to say and was pretty much right about everything. My nine readers got their money’s worth. (Hi mom! Hope the trip to Boston is going well. Say hi to Rachel!) But let me continue my long reign as master of the obvious and sculpt […]
A mere two days ago I wrote the following about the ease of blaming “Faculty!” for everything, while ignoring the real issues harming the UW: Maybe someone will finally pick this up, but I think I’ll just wait for the next easy editorial piece decrying “Faculty!”, the real world, and so on. And, right on […]
Once, after an amazing plate of sweet-and-sour pork, I cracked open a fortune cookie that read, “Soon you will shit yourself. Lucky numbers: 3, 9, 12.” I think back to this vicissitude of life not for its absurdity, but for how, in its moment, how expected and normal it felt. (Of course I will!) Which takes me […]
So many people are writing about what is happening in Missouri, and rightly so. Many familiar contexts are playing out—what it means for sports, for universities, for protest and how quickly the powers that be can neuter it—but as an observer from afar, I will only attempt to make the loosest of connections here. If I could […]
If you are one of my nine readers (Hi Mom! Love you!), or you have been following the UW struggle at all, you know that “post-tenure review” is our most pressing issue… even though it has nothing to do with state divestment in higher education. But let’s just say for a moment that post-tenure review, once […]
In order to understand this post, you must accept the fact that faculty are always the problem. No matter what is happening in the UW, just yell “Faculty!” loudly enough and newspaper editorials will begin falling from the trees like decaying leaves. Also, remember: if a place like UW Madison is worried about recruitment and […]
Talk about timing. As I head to UW Milwaukee to connect with some awesome people that I’ve been dying to meet, this dose of “Well, no shit, Watson” dropped today in the Cap Times. In short, as Rebecca Blank’s email confirms, we whining, complaining, alarmist, privileged, spoiled, lazy, out-of-touch ragamuffin rapscallions were right all along. […]
As I sit down to write this quick post, my wife is driving to her unit-level review for the rank of Full Professor. This meeting should be entirely celebratory. The gods and heroes demand it. As someone who has seen her entire career unfold up-close, I can say with ample support that the UW is lucky […]
As all nine readers of this blog know (Hi mom! Love you!), I recently wrote about my fears and objections about allowing concealed weapons into campus buildings in the UW System. Understanding exactly what I was getting into, I took in all of the reactions without offering responses of my own—basically, I allowed myself to be […]
Click for Jim Steineke theme music: Writing about guns feels like a Herculean task, and I’ll certainly write a post in the future about what I’ve learned so far. Spoiler and big surprise: it will be about language and its failures. That being said, during yesterday’s carpet bombing of negativity, threats, and personal attacks, one minor point bubbled […]
