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…
Read MoreI 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…
Read MoreAs 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…
Read MoreOne 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…
Read MoreI recently had occasion to read the application for a (to-remain-unnamed-for-now) reality television show. Most of it was pretty much what one would expect, namely, questions designed to identify potential candidates’ idiosyncrasies, fears, hopes, delusions of grandeur, pet peeves, and anything else that might make for interesting TV. Also as expected, there’s a lot of…
Read MoreWhat 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…
Read MoreThis following is the soundtrack of my life these days: Ennio Morricone’s The Mission: This is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. Quite simply, some of the most breathtakingly beautiful music ever composed. This album made me love the oboe. The emotional rise and fall of the compositions carries its listener from…
Read MoreWhenever I’m grading papers at the end of the semester, there always comes a point when I am reminded of that peculiar conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty (from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass). After noting that there are 364 days of the year that one can receive un-birthday presents, Humpty Dumpty says to…
Read MoreIt’s no secret that one of my guilty pleasures is reality television. I was an early convert to this genre of entertainment, having come of age around the same time that MTV’s groundbreaking series The Real World was in its prime. (The first season of that show was broadcast in my freshman year of college.)…
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