Leigh M. Johnson

Quiet Desperation

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Film, Film Reviews, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 4 Comments

The new film Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman of Juno and Thank You For Smoking fame, has gotten a lot of buzz lately, most of it surrounding George Clooney’s performance as a “corporate downsizer” (he fires people for a living) and for-all-intents-and-purposes homeless, constantly “up in the air” business traveler (his greatest…

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When Growing-Up Is NOT “The Bomb”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on When Growing-Up Is NOT “The Bomb”

It’s been a while since I’ve recommended a book on this blog, the last one being Junot Diaz’s tragic and beautiful The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Part of the reason for the absence of good fiction here is because I went through a bit of a literary drought recently, reading several books that…

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The Peter Principle

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 2 Comments

I just read an article in NewScientist about the “Peter Principle” (based on the theory put forth by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1998 book The Peter Principle: Why things always go wrong). The Peter Principle is a fundamental law of “Hierarchiology” that states: In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to…

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Follow This Blog!

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, RMWMTMBM Archive 3 Comments

As my first post for the new year, I want to send out an invitation to all of you lurking readers of this site to scroll down the column to your right and choose “Follow This Blog.” I’m entering my fifth consecutive year here at readmorewritemorethinkmorebemore and, like most blogs, this site has its regular…

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Mulligan?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Mulligan?

One of my favorite stories ever was told to me by a colleague of mine in the Psychology Department, Dr. Julie Steel. Frustrated with end-of-the-semester appeals for better grades by wayward students, she figured there must be a better rejoinder than simply sighing in exasperation and staring-back with incredulity. So, when students ask that oh-so-familiar…

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Happy Holidays, Blogosphere!

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 1 Comment
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Dr. J’s Top Stories of 2009

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Human Rights, Memphis, Music, Obama, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 7 Comments

What a long, strange trip it’s been! It’s almost time to bid adieu to the last year of the first decade of the new millineum. In case you weren’t paying attention, here are a dozen of the highlights (and lowlights) of 2009: 12. Sarah Palin Goes “Rogue” The Grand Dame of the Illiterati wrote a…

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“This Country Was Not Built By Men in Suits.” (So Say the Men in Suits)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 3 Comments

I’ve been fascinated recently by the obvious change in tone of many television commercials. We’re in an economic downturn, in case you hadn’t heard, and so many of the major ad-men seem to have been forced to acquiesce to the hard fact of hard times. There’s a lot more emphasis on product “affordability,” a lot…

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Philosophy, Done Another Way

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Thinking in Images Comments Off on Philosophy, Done Another Way

As I mentioned a little while ago on this blog, I gave students in my Existentialism course this semester the option of making a short film for extra credit. The motivation for this was my frustration, in previous iterations of this course, with what I viewed as a deficiency on my part of adequately capturing…

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Friendly Fire

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 3 Comments

The disagreement between AnPan and I that has been taking place on our blogs (here and here) has reminded me of why I feel fortunate to have good friends like him. As it just so happens, this also is the time in the semester (at my instiution) when most of the first-years are deep into…

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