When I was a kid, Dad and I used to watch movies together. Our favorites were James Bond flicks, but we also got in the occasional western, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Silverado. I mean, what American male doesn’t love a good western? What could be more of an archetypical symbol of [...]
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Cut It Out
Talk of massive state budgets cuts for higher education has preoccupied everyone on campus for the last week. Ever since the state legislature decided that it might be a good idea to make up a budget shortfall of $1.1 billion by crippling the university system’s funding by $600 billion, the only business being done centers [...]
Ha Ha?
This cartoon by Mike Luckovich was forwarded by our VPAA today, on the cusp of announced budget cuts. I wish I could say it’s funny. I think I know what tomorrow’s blog post will be about.
Cold Day
When will this cold weather end? Spring Break is next week, and it’s still getting into the thirties every night. This Florida boy gets pretty cranky when exposed to the cold for too long. Besides, we want to begin planting our garden. Yesterday, in my New Media seminar, we began talking — perhaps a bit [...]
Musée des Beaux Arts
[Reading Auden today for my 20th-century British Poetry and Prose class. I was particularly struck by this poem and its matter-of-fact tone. It seems to point out the indifference of the world, the universe, and other humans to individual suffering. And not only suffering, but the mundane aspects of daily life make us miss the [...]
Not a Business
In a meeting on campus the other day, someone said to me: “The college is a business.” I responded: “No, it’s not. There might be business done in the college, but it is an institution of higher education.” I know that many in this state — and perhaps around the country — are trying to [...]
The Switch (Kind Of)
I’ve been a Mac user since the late-eighties. Yet, today I bought my first PC (sort of). The Mac OS and Apple computers is still my platform of choice, but I am an all-around computer enthusiast. I don’t mess with M$ Windoze (an inferior product mixed with a corporation’s questionable business practices keep me far [...]