...the Queen, she can hold her own (very fashionable, too!)...
...but Pope Francis, he don't need no umbrella at all.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Brollies Galore
President Obama, he can't hold his own umbrella...
...the Queen, she can hold her own (very fashionable, too!)...
...but Pope Francis, he don't need no umbrella at all.
...the Queen, she can hold her own (very fashionable, too!)...
...but Pope Francis, he don't need no umbrella at all.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Word of the Day: Sodcasting
Knew there had to be a word for this, besides "being a jackass," naturally. From Urban Dictionary:
Verb - The act of playing music through the speaker on a mobile phone, usually on public transport. Commonly practiced by young people wearing polyester, branded sportswear with dubious musical taste.The British still have a facility with language, at least. And dragging in a random association with British slang, maybe someone can tell me why - outside DC, of course - Washington Nationals gear appears to be worn solely by young men whom, not to mince words, I would describe as "yobs." Some kind of Bryce Harper effect?
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Stuff Arethusa Is Sick of, Part I
This letter from Ted Turner's father to his son, blasting his choice of a Classics major*, becomes popular every few years among classicists, largely so they can dismiss the elder Turner's arguments as hogwash and boost their own self-image - "hey, look, Ted Turner was a Classics major, we're still relevant!"
Of course, Turner switched majors from Classics to Economics, and his entire career since then has been a fulfillment of his father's advice.
*Truest quote in the letter: "[Greek and Latin] might give you a community of interest with an isolated few impractical dreamers, and a select group of college professors. God forbid!"
Of course, Turner switched majors from Classics to Economics, and his entire career since then has been a fulfillment of his father's advice.
*Truest quote in the letter: "[Greek and Latin] might give you a community of interest with an isolated few impractical dreamers, and a select group of college professors. God forbid!"
Monday, April 15, 2013
I Realize I'm Linking Al-Jazeera...
...but on the terrible situation of adjuncts in American universities, they've nailed it. Or at least they have quoted a lot of sources who have nailed it.
Defending Justin Bieber
(First, a disclaimer: As with Britney Spears, I can't wait for him to be over. Unfortunately he seems to have given his career new life with his new identity as a yob.)
Bieber's in trouble for writing in the guest book at the Anne Frank Museum that "she would have been a belieber." Unbearably arrogant, yes. No sense of perspective beyond the self, yes. Typical celebrity, yes. Checkety check check.
But the Anne Frank Museum doesn't seem to have a problem with it, since they announced it on their Facebook page. And honestly, if you've read the Diary of Anne Frank (which I'm not saying Bieber has), you come away with a sense of Frank not just as a martyr in the Holocaust but as a very real girl interested in relationships, boys, and yes, what kids did in 1930's-1940's Amsterdam. I think there's every indication that she might well have been a "belieber." The tendency to place historical figures beyond the realm of humanity - beyond personal preferences, tastes, characteristics - does not serve them well and tends to alienate as much as it attracts future generations.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Wait, Cher Died?
Or so some people on Twitter think, misreading the hash tag #nowthatchersdead.
I've probably paid the most attention to Thatcher of the "Big Three" leaders who ended the Cold War. It's not that Reagan and John Paul don't interest me, but I never wanted to learn more about them and their thinking as much as I did Thatcher. It's been years since I read a biography of her - Withywindle is more current than I in that regard - but I remain fascinated. Perhaps because she is a woman, perhaps it's Anglophilia.
A number of eulogists mention that, although she probably did halt Britain's decline, it was for only a few decades at most. This is true, but I think it's important to note that Britain is now declining for different reasons than it was when Thatcher came into power.
I wouldn't have thought this just twelve hours ago, but Meryl Streep's statement on her hits the nail on the head the most in the personal sphere:
I've probably paid the most attention to Thatcher of the "Big Three" leaders who ended the Cold War. It's not that Reagan and John Paul don't interest me, but I never wanted to learn more about them and their thinking as much as I did Thatcher. It's been years since I read a biography of her - Withywindle is more current than I in that regard - but I remain fascinated. Perhaps because she is a woman, perhaps it's Anglophilia.
A number of eulogists mention that, although she probably did halt Britain's decline, it was for only a few decades at most. This is true, but I think it's important to note that Britain is now declining for different reasons than it was when Thatcher came into power.
I wouldn't have thought this just twelve hours ago, but Meryl Streep's statement on her hits the nail on the head the most in the personal sphere:
Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics. It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the UK at the end of the 20th century. Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others. There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty.But to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement. To have won it, not because she inherited position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving. To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas- wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now-without corruption- I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle. To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable.I was honored to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Another Purpose of an Ivy League Education...
...is to find a spouse as smart as you are while in college, at least if you're a woman:
If she means ultimately that it's hard to find a mate who shares your values (in her case, elitist principles) I can see part of her point, and it is probably (but not universally) true that anyone, male or female, has the largest circle of acquaintances they will in life in college/grad school. But surely some - I hope most - people are not looking for a carbon copy in a mate.
This raises all kinds of questions about the future of higher education. What do online students and distance learners do? Must all students at single-sex schools become homosexual? More personally, how did Patton's husband stand being married to her for twenty years or so?
[Susan] Patton, who graduated from Princeton in 1977 and went on to run an executive coaching business in New York City, said she spent most of her twenties focused on her professional life. At 30, she married a man who did not go to Princeton.She wrote that "ultimately, it will frustrate you to be with a man who just isn't as smart as you." The couple recently divorced.
If she means ultimately that it's hard to find a mate who shares your values (in her case, elitist principles) I can see part of her point, and it is probably (but not universally) true that anyone, male or female, has the largest circle of acquaintances they will in life in college/grad school. But surely some - I hope most - people are not looking for a carbon copy in a mate.
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