Unreadables- June 30, 2008 At the London Times, critics and authors undertake the heretical--and thus quite necessary--work of revealing their least favorite (most despised) books. Appearances are made by Dostoevsky, Rushdie, Tolkien, Mailer, Woolf, Lawrence, Dickens, James, Lessing, and McEwan. Reasons given ranged from flat characters (Dickens) to pretentious style (Woolf gets top honors for making the list twice over with Orlando and The Waves) to crushing negativity (Dostoevsky) to abandonment of the implied contract.http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/unreadables.html Reading the marriage market- June 26, 2008 My review of Rebecca Mead's One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, is up at KnowledgeWharton. An excerpt: ... enhanced patterns of consumption may be the most lasting commitment most modern marriages produce. Engaged couples, Mead tells us, registered for $9 billion in gifts in 2006; brides-to-be also spent far more money than their unbetrothed female counterparts. And wives stay the consumerist course: Studies show that 85% of women who register with a particular brand will...http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/reading_the_mar.html Who's profiling you- June 25, 2008 It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway -- ideologically biased hiring and promotion practices are wrong no matter what the nature of the bias is. I was appalled, but not terribly surprised, to read about the Justice Department's report on its own skewed, anti-left vetting practices: Justice Department officials illegally used 'political or ideological' factors in elite recruiting programs in recent years, tapping law school graduates with Federalist Society membership or other...http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/whos_profiling.html The new anger- June 23, 2008 If you are like me, you keep up with the news, and you read (and perhaps write) blogs, despite the extreme ambient anger that circulates in the media and the blogosphere. I want to know what's going on, and I want to see what people think about events and art and ideas, and so I put up with the nastiness that often inflects reporting and commentary today. But the fact of the nastiness itself suggests that there are a great many people who enjoy it very much--and who seem to regard it as a...http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/the_new_anger.html Revealing Chicago- June 19, 2008 The University of Chicago is gearing up to launch a $200 million economics research center, to be known as the Milton Friedman Institute. Building on the university's historical ties to one of the most important economists of the twentieth century, Chicago anticipates that the Institute will "build on the University's existing leadership position and make the Milton Friedman Institute a primary intellectual destination for economics by creating a robust forum for engagement of our faculty and...http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/revealing_chica.html Know your rights- June 18, 2008 I have long thought that instead of sensitivity training, colleges and universities should be offering--and perhaps requiring--training in First Amendment rights as well as the rights and responsibilities of academic freedom. Everyone on campus needs this knowlege--students, faculty, administrators, trustees, staff. And too few have it. The resulting mess keeps FIRE, ACTA, and a small but critical cluster of similar groups in business--and also seriously undermines the quality of American...http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/know_your_right.html Civics quiz- June 18, 2008 To become a U.S. citizen, you have to pass a test on U.S. history and civics. That test is currently being redesigned. Here are some questions from the new version, which will be launched this October: 1. How many amendments does the Constitution have 2. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful 3. The House of Representatives has how many voting members 4. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them. 5....http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/civics_quiz.html Summer reading- June 17, 2008 Over at The Valve, they are reading George Eliot's Adam Bede. It's an open discussion forum, and will continue for several weeks, with readings paced reasonably throughout. This is the first week of discussion, with commentary centering on the first several chapters. If you have a little bit of free time--or a willingness to make same--check it out and take part. George Eliot is one of my absolute favorites. She's a bit of an acquired taste--her prose can be a bit heavy at times--but she's...http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/summer_reading_3.html If ...- June 16, 2008 ... you could be any literary character, who would you be Michael Dirda says he would be James Bond.http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2008/06/if.html |