The Cranky Professor: May 2005 Archives

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May 31, 2005

Contemporary History

Here's an amusing little article about Deep Throat by Timothy Noah -- Deep Throat, Antihero. It seems that Deep Throat hated Nixon for all the wrong reasons.

further:Professor Bainbridge expresses it well in the conclusion to his post on Noah's piece:

What Noah fails to consider is the possibility that those discrepancies might reveal a deeper truth: Maybe Deep Throat was really a composite character all along. We don't know because we tolerate a culture of anonymous sourcing and journalistic dissembling.

Or there's Big Arm Woman. More succinct.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:56 PM

Tuition up 27%

No, you didn't read the headline wrong. The University of Richmond is raising tuition by 27% for future students (current students will only go up 5%, which is high enough in a single year to provoke howls, but compared to 27% who'll complain? Just think of the money they're saving!). Inside higher Ed has the story. The most beautiful thing is the president of the U of Richmond comparing college education to a cappuccino machine. Really. It makes me happy to be involved in the education industry, it does. I'm sure his faculty love and respect him, too. Here's his about page. It doesn't make him look like the director of marketing for Crate & Barrel.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:54 AM

There may always be a France . . .

I wonder if there's been a semi-popular book on the work of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française of the sort so popular about the Oxford English Dictionary? This New York Times story (along with a picture of that great formal uniform of the Academicians) makes their process sound rather interesting.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:27 AM

Kodak - End of the World for some

My world has already started to assimilate the idea that there will be no more Ektachrome, but the Super-8 world is protesting. The New York Times story is interesting. Passages like this may explain why Kodak is no longer the largest employer in Rochester:

"I just showed one of my films at a small gallery out in Williamsburg," said Stephanie Gray, a 33-year-old filmmaker from Queens. "It was actually the backroom of someone's apartment." Ms. Gray, who bought her Super 8 camera for $25 at a flea market, said the medium lends itself to a poetic, personal kind of filmmaking that cannot be achieved with digital filmmaking.

Art's all well and good, but it doesn't keep folks employed in Upstate New York. In fact, art doesn't even make for a profit at the processing plants. An era has passed and people who debut their films in back rooms in apartments are not enough to keep a legacy product in distribution. All the art history departments of America weren't enough to save Ektachrome, and we feel much the same way about its color qualities as you'll read about Kodachrome Super-8.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:10 AM

May 30, 2005

The Burnt Over District at its finest . . . Phrenology!

Phrenology is back! This is a story from Geneva's immediately neighboring village, Waterloo, NY, home of Memorial Day. Really. They claim to have invented it there.

Further: Sorry - I had to run upstairs to the balcony to watch the Memorial Day parade and ceremony - I live across the street from where they set up the speakers' platform every year. Geneva, in the best Burnt Over District fashion, has an octagon house. Here's a view of the house, here's an index of the octagonal, hexagonal, and round houses in New York State. The man who popularize octagonal houses was also a leading phrenologist, Orson Squire Fowler. He's an excellent 19th century example of the all-too-common species of architectural moral prescriptivist: build this way and the world will be a better place. My favorite diagnosis of the type is from David Watkin, Morality and Architecture: The Development of a Theme in Architectural History and Theory from the Gothic Revival to the Modern Movement. Good book - well worth reading (though if you're going to buy it, buy the revised edition, Morality and Architecture Revisited).

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:30 AM

May 29, 2005

Education Next Out

The summer 2005 issue of Education Next is online - yay! Go browse and learn . . . so far I've read an article about reading instruction in Great Britain which seems to help boys a lot and an article about what principals learn and don't learn in education administration graduate degree programs.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:28 PM

Pastoral Posting

Good news on the Geneva/HWS front - Fr. Fennessy will be staying for another year!

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:20 AM

Pollacks and Authenticity

It's not only old art that's difficult to attribute and not only Rembrandt has flocks of copiers -- read this article about Jackson Pollack paintings. Are they real? Experts disagree (for all kinds of reasons). Is it important? Well, if 32 real Pollacks hit the market it would be very interesting.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:43 AM

May 28, 2005

"I know you're Ward Crutchfield, and I know you're a senator, and I know you're good, and I know this state needs you"

Did you read my Tennessee corruption entry the other day? This story from the Nashville Tennessean is too wonderful -- here's the first paragraph:

The legislature largely closed ranks around its indicted members yesterday, starting with a prayer by Lt. Gov. John Wilder condemning the tactics of federal agents who arrested seven people in the Operation Tennessee Waltz sting.

Or a little further, we have an "on the one hand / on the other hand" situation:

On one hand, Wilder defended the elected officials who were indicted after the FBI formed a fake company to seek state recycling contracts and paid bribes for legislation to favor the company.

On the other hand, other lawmakers seemed to acknowledge that the ethics legislation they passed earlier this session was not enough.

It couldn't happen to a nicer legislature. Read the story -- it's a great example of the way government works.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:31 AM

May 27, 2005

Docents Back on at National Gallery -- Schoolchildren NOT relegated to what their teachers know about art

Update on earlier entry: I blogged not terribly long ago about the National Gallery's decision to suspend docent-led tours for school children for 18 months while they thought about what to do instead. I thought that was stoooopid.

Good news - the museum reconsidered and won't cancel the program. Somehow they'll soldier on and run tours and consider other options at the same time!! Your tax dollars very, very hard at work. Pffffft.

via ionarts

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:13 PM

Do you have a license for that long, pointy kitchen knife?

You knew it was coming. A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing..

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

The only moment of pull-back is this:

A spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "ACPO supports any move to reduce the number of knife related incidents, however, it is important to consider the practicalities of enforcing such changes."

Kitchen inspections. That's what it will call for. With confiscation of unlicensed knives.

via Samizdata

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:19 AM

The Abecedarian Project

It's always heartening to see follow-up to educational experiments. Joanne Jacobs provides a link to the the Carolina Abecedarian Project age-21 follow-up. The question - does early intervention with EDUCATIONAL pre-school do anything? The answer looks like "yes."

The problem I always see is that these are carefully designed, university-run day care centers. So how do you extend the "best practices"? By forcing day care workers to get education school certification? By requiring them to be literate? What? For every requirement you add you've just put your day care out of the reach of a lot of people. Are you going to make it free? With what pot of cash?

There's a really disturbing verb in the Executive Summary under "Policy Implications"

The Abecedarian study began treatment in early infancy, emphasizing the importance of providing a learning environment for children from the very beginning of life. my emphasis

"Treatment?" Oh, dear.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:51 AM

Clowns. Jugglers for Jesus. "Low" Mass?

I'm usually pleased to say that Hobart College has a special relationship with Trinity Church, Wall Street; Bishop Hobart was the rector of Trinity Church, and the support of the Trinity Vestry was very helpful many times in the first 40 years (at least) of the College. From my professional point of view I enjoy the connection because it's one of the most significant Gothic revival churches in America (there are almost no photographs of the building on their own site, so I link to Wikipedia), designed by Richard Upjohn. Hobart and Geneva have a long relationship with the Upjohn family, too (at least 5 credited buildings in town, and the firm did work for us as late as World War II).

This week I'm distracted from all that by their clown ministry. There's the Clown Worship on Trinity Sunday Then I go to their own site and see the photo set of Bom Bean, the Parish Clown. A Clown-in-Residence? On Wall Street? How - umm - pastoral. He's the celebrant at the Clown Eucharist.

The saddest thing is the solemnity on the faces of most of the celebrants. I mean, if you're going to wear a pair of horns to the altar you should at least look like you're enjoying it. And if you don't enjoy it, why not stick to the fancy get-up that I can only imagine one of the richest Episcopal parishes in America must own.

Oh, and let's not justify this with the Juggler of Nôtre-Dame -- he did his act at night and (he thought) alone. Someone was watching, but he wasn't performing at the Mass. Not a precedent. Besides the fact that the "Juggler of Nôtre-Dame" is a nineteenth century short story. I'm not aware of a medieval source.

I guess I don't mind a clown ministry per se, though if a pastor dressed as a clown ever comes to my hospital room I'm not asking him to stay. I think this is the worst sort of liturgical experimentation, though. Well, not the worst. It's tied with liturgical dance. And, like liturgical dance, seeing is understanding. It's bad enough that so many of the clergy can't sing, but we know they won't be able to shake it or waka-waka-waka.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:05 AM

The World of Surrogacy

In their best non-judgmental way they report, we wonder -- the New York Times on women who bear children for gay couples. Specificially male couples. There's a woman reported who did one for a lesbian couple but didn't like them. That didn't stop her from "surrogating" again.

The typical surrogate, according to the Center for Surrogate Parenting, is a woman of 21 to 37, who has had two children and 13 years of formal education. In many cases, she is motivated by a desire to be pregnant, as well as by a desire for attention.

Working with gay couples, psychologists say, minimizes the need for a certain kind of emotional vigilance that can displace the surrogate's own needs from center stage. "Surrogate mothers who work with heterosexual couples need to be incredibly sensitive to the loss and trauma that the infertile woman has suffered," Dr. Hanafin said.

Some surrogates also say they find the sense of defiance in providing gay couples with children meaningful.

Here's a weird side effect of surrogacy:

And Ms. Buras remains committed, and plans to return for another attempt in June, despite the limitations their efforts have placed on her intimate life. According to her contract, Ms. Buras cannot have sex with her husband from one month before the transfer to one month after. Though her husband has been very supportive, she explained, "I can't say that it doesn't bother him, because it does."

So could her husband sue the gay couple for alienatin of his conjugal rights? That's 8 months of their married life (she's tried three times already and is gearing up for a fourth) that they are not having sex in order that . . . . The world is a very odd place.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:25 AM

May 26, 2005

The Perpetual Election

I know they're always running for office, all of 'em, but someone's* about to announce for Hillary!'s senate seat, which means she'll begin the campaign for 2006 soon, to be followed (probably) by the presidential campaign for 2008. SIGH. Living as I do in a hotbed of Hillary!ism I'm sure we'll see her at least once in the next 18 months.

*some deeply unimpressive Republican who's larger claim to fame than his public service is the fact that he's Richard Nixon's son-in-law. Charming. At least her last opponent, the one who looked like a teenager, was actually a member of the House of Representatives. He still has a website up, by the way.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:13 PM

Reading as Self-medication

Miss Dashwood's book list refers to certain kinds of books as self-medication. I agree -- and while Wodehouse is good for a tonic, I'd include my copy of the Complete Father Brown mysteries as an analgesic. You know -- books that make it back to the shelf, but which you can find without having to switch on the light in that room.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:17 PM

Gulags. Holocausts. Proportion.

I wonder how many of my readers know personally (not just have heard speak in public) a Nazi concentration camp survivor or a Gulag survivor? Someone who came through the Laogai? The owner of our neighborhood grocery store (throughout my childhood), who was the parent of a teammate of my sister (gymnastics) and the father of two boys just far enough ahead of me in school that I barely knew the younger one had a tatoo on his forearm. Dachau, if I remember correctly.

You?

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:35 PM

Gulag? Oh? Hmmm.

The Gulag of out times is North Korea. The Laogai are the Gulag of our times. The camp at Guantanamo Bay is bad, but it's barely even as big as a good-sized county work farm. Ever seen Cool Hand Luke? I'm not sure that camp wasn't bigger.

Of course, I'm a medievalist, so I really shouldn't be carelessly drawing analogies to modern history, but I've read Solzhenitsyn (all of the fiction - honest) and Courtois's The Black Book of Communism. I've visited Auschwitz. I've been to the Fosse Ardeatine.

According to this site it's population is in the 520s. Amnesty International has no sense of proportion. But then I don't expect anyone to have one of those any more.

via Michael Totten

Mr. Wretchard at the Belmont Club had this to say about it:

I'd have to say that Amnesty International's Report claiming the US is the world's worst human rights violator condemns itself far more than it does the United States. Anyone who has lived in the Third World or any of the places which Amnesty International purports to care about knows -- and I mean knows for a fact -- what police abuse, torture, arbitrary detention, etc. really are and that it cannot be compared in any wise to the "Gulag" in Guantanamo Bay. Moreover, anyone who has lived in such places knows that the last place where victims can find practical help is from Amnesty International.

Let's not blame Amnesty International for being impractical -- after all, they mean well. Let's instead ask them why they wish to ally themselves with such silly falsehood?

Please don't begin any comments with attacks on me. I don't think the camp at Guantanamo Bay is a good thing. But I believe that the Gulag was a considerably worse thing by so many orders of magnitude that they are not comparable, especially for the political and fund-raising purposes of an annual report.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:56 PM

European Affairs

Do you read The North Sea Diaries ever day? If you think contemporary Europe is of any particular interest you should. I do. I intend to go on visiting Europe without having to carry side arms for the rest of my life. Some days he causes me to wonder if I should make plans that far ahead.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:17 PM

The Brave Counter Demonstrator

Darren at Right on the Left Coast attended the union rally (made easier by many schools teaching only a half-day yesterday so that teachers could go protest ) in Sacramento. He carried a sign that said I'm a teacher and I vote Republican and was harassed by someone wearing a police union t-shirt. Lovely. He says A.N.S.W.E.R. was involved. Lovely. Revolutionary Socialists and the CTA -- what a combination.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 4:57 PM

The New South - Bipartisan, Racially Diverse Corruption Indictments

I misremembered Representative Harold Ford's relationship to State Senator John Ford earlier in the month, but I have high hopes that today's news won't help. I like Mr. Hobbs' headline, too -- NEWSFLASH: Passel of Legislators Arrested!

At least two and possibly three members of the Tennessee legislature were arrested hauled out of Legislative Plaza in handcuffs this morning and my sources indicate it may be based on allegations that they accepted money to sponsor legislation.

Even better news -- there's a member of the Hamilton Country school board involved -- my mother's least favorite elected group in the world lately.

By the way, this is a bipartisan and racially diverse scandal. See how far we've come in the New South?

update: I couldn't resist changing the title to what appears now. My heart swells with pride in the progress of the New South . . . .

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:44 PM

Free Speech in Europe?

Prof. Volokh notes an example of the difference between European and American approaches to "speech that conveys disfavored viewpoints" -- Orianna Fallaci is being prosecuted for hate speech. Remember -- this is a continent-wide approach. A big chunk of our continent might do so as well. Mr Newman (the blogger of the last link) thinks La Fallaci is eager for martyrdom; I can't say that I disagree. She's certainly a woman of the broad gesture.

By the way, Adel Smith, the Italian Muslim making the allegations (his father was English, hence, Smith) is best known in Italy either for (1) suing to get the crucifixes removed from classrooms in Italian schools or (2) getting beaten up on an Italian talk show as though he were on Geraldo or Jerry Springer. I actually think that #2 is more widely known. Highlight clips are certainly shown frequently.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:05 AM

Beautiful Old Things? Hush! I'm Bidding on Toast in the Shape of the Virgin Mary on eBay!!

Fascinating speculation on the future of the antiques market and marketing at Cronaca. With all the money sloshing around in "collecting" you'd think antique dealers would be riding high -- but read and see.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:17 AM

May 25, 2005

It's all a matter of opinion, isn't it?

Students have always deluded themselves, of course, and hope has always sprung eternal, or at least until final grades appear. And at least some in my classes really do eventually master the material. But confident placidity in the face of error seems to be on the rise.
Maybe it's all that self-esteem this generation of students was inculcated with as youngsters, or maybe it's the emphasis on respecting everyone else's opinion, to the point where no answer, even a mathematical one, can be truly wrong because that might offend the one who gave it. Maybe they think they should never let me see them sweat.

All anecdotal, yes, but I know far too many people who tell the same sort of story for my comfort.

via Joanne Jacobs.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:58 PM

"Historic" Preservation Meets Museum Space

The Whitney pulls back a little from its plan -- go here, and be sure to click on the pictures.

Yet the artist Chuck Close, who sits on the Whitney board and attended yesterday's hearing, said he was "disappointed that we couldn't build the best building that we could have built."

He said he found it "outrageous" that 2 Columbus Circle, a building from 1965 designed by Edward Durell Stone, will be reconstructed without even a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing, "while we're not allowed to take down one crummy brownstone."

Well, Mr. Close, there are people who like Edward Durrell Stone, too (I hasten to add that I'm not one of them!). This is a triumph for silly salvationism. The Whitney is going to tear down one brownstone, shave off the back half of the other, and juxtapose the remnant with a glass Renzo Piano box entrance.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:35 PM

Want to be a K-8 Principal of a Catholic School in Seattle?

Go west, young person! Well, certified person who is a strong Catholic leader with teaching experience. I think a speaking knowledge of Spanish would help, too. Details at Open Book.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:26 PM

No Such Thing as an Unopposed Judge

The folks at the Volokh Conspiracy are trying to think of someone who would pass the Senate 100-0. Here the most recent post on the topic, though I'm sure there'll be more. They're failing. The discussion shows how even the well-informed professional can be oblivious to the political reality of advise and consent, and the number of groups drawn up on either side whose only interest is blocking every judicial nominee from the other side.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:52 AM

Two Favorite Genres Collide - Murder Mystery and Blogging

This is beyond creepy. Read this blog entry. Then this newspaper article. Blogging about your own murdereer!

And Patterico thinks about how to Law'n'Orderize this story!

via the Volokh Conspiracy

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:45 AM

May 24, 2005

Ah, Fabliaux - Dirty Stories in Foreign Tongues

One of the only consolations in this April-of-a-late-May has been reading fabliaux. I just finished powering through Gallic Salt, a great side-by-side English and Old French book. That way I can read the bawdy tale in English and check the French whenever it gets interesting.

I've blogged on this already, but the material is delightful -- full of grotesque bodies and philandering bourgeoises and clueless knights. Great stuff. On to Guillaume du Machaut! Le jugement dou roy de Behaingne is a great example of a querelle -- this one a question of "who is more miserable" between the Lady whose lover died and the Knight whose unfaithful lover deserted him. Don't tell me how it turns out! (Actually, I already know that it ends with a particularly luscious description of gifts given to the two quarrellers by the King of Bohemia after he renders his decision. I, of course, shallowly only really care about the jewels.).

Ah, the middle ages.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:20 PM

Finland? Really?

Who had any idea? The Washington Post has people wandering around blogging about Finland, because, well, they think that "Finland just might be the world's most interesting country that Americans know least about." I'm sure lots of people will take that sentence all kinds of different ways, but there you have it.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 3:21 PM

Charter School Successes

Joanne Jacobs relays some news on NYC charter school test scores. One hopes the New York Times notices.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:15 PM

Derek Lowe on Intelligent Design

Derek Lowe points out that we can get around some of the biological arguments about the origins of life with some chemistry. And stinking meteorites.

This, to me, is one of the major stories of the last few decades. Starting hundreds of years ago, astronomy gradually moved the Earth out of its supposed spot in the center of the universe and placed it in the huge (and hugely strange) context of the universe that we now know. Now chemistry is moving us away from the view of life as a strange and precious anomaly - granted, perhaps, by a divine being? - to something that could be everywhere and may well start of its own accord. The building blocks are ubiquitous, and if you give them half a chance they start to stack themselves up.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:06 AM

Sex Offender Viagra

I'm certain this example of blatant discrimination will be litigated and lost.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:01 AM

On a Married Latin Rite Clergy

It won't happen soon.

A commenter on my priestly numbers post brings up a married and female clergy and the Episcopal Church. I'm going to set the ordination of women aside (and ask that anyone interested in that topic read some serious institutional history of the Episcopal Church and learn how that process actually took place in the 1960s and 1970s before coming back to talk about it here). I pointed out to him that:

...1. the education track to the Episcopal clergy is (for many of them) more like that for deacons in the Latin Rite -- part time study for people with first careers (like my parents' opthamologist).

...2. the Episcopal Church may not be a useful comparison -- despite a certain shared history it's tiny (the figures are a mess, but it's often reported to be about 2.5 million, about the same size as the Catholics on the rolls of the archdiocese of New York.

...3. He points out that we've only had this arrangement for a millennium. I'd point out that we've had this arrangment for a thousand years. That's about half the time-span of the whole church -- which side of a balanced equation wins?

...4. In all my discussions about this I say "fine, I don't mind a non-monastic clergy." Because, you see, I don't. I even know some pastoral provision priests who ARE married!! Do you? One of my godsons is the grandson of one of the first of 'em. However, let me ask what I think of as The Question:

How much more money per week will we have to give in order to support a married clergy? That entails an expansion of housing, health-care benefits for families, automobiles, retirement benefits for spouses who outlive the harried priests, and so on.

Let's see - our Roman Catholic Community of Geneva, NY reported on Sunday a deficit of $21,922 for the year-to-date out of a budgeted-to-date $581,884. I guess the year's budget for us is about a million dollars. How much more are we talking about? I don't know, but I hope someone does. One of the main problems in the middle ages with a married clergy was the alienation of property (and remains so in churches with married clergy today - we have it in the Latin Rite church, but on a purely anecdotal level I hear much less of it than in the almost entirely Protestant city of my childhood). That is to say, the diversion of what is properly Church money and property into the hands of the immediate family of the priest. The problem may be more pronounced when the priest has children to finance. See the Borgias.

What about the role of clergy spouses? Believe me, it's a real problem. I have a childhood friend whose father was a radiologist/priest in the Episcopal church. Her older sister married an Episcopal priest. She chose to attend an Episcopal parish in Nashville other than the one at which he was an assistant pastor, because she decided not to be a clergy spouse. The Orthodox and the Eastern Rite have some ideas about this, but we in the Latin Rite don't!

Which leads to the question of clergy divorce. Google produces 294,000 hits (lots of them irrelevant, I'm sure) on clergy+divorce. The relevant question isn't "do we allow a divorced clergy," but "do we allow a divorced and remarried clergy?" Believe me, it's a problem. Indeed, the remarriage question was the last straw for some of the early partakers in the Pastoral Provision. They asked "what can a church mean by "sacramental marriage" if it allows its own priests to remarry without even a form of annullment?"

Talk to some clergy spouses and see how things go for them. Then decide if a having a married clergy will solve more problems than it creates. I am not convinced that it would. Again, I'm not opposed to a married clergy on other than utilitarian grounds -- but those ugly utilitarian arguments are important.

Does anyone have a good idea of the priest/parishoner ratio in the Episcopal Church? We can include the part-timed here, because Lord knows the Annuario Pontificio does for us.

Further: Here's a quite interesting comparative article from America. The author asks the age-bracket question that I ask in the comments below and agrees that other denominations are also having the late-vocation situation (with some attendant problems).

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:44 AM

History Rewritten as Intramural Flag Football

The organizers of this smarmily PC version of the Battle of Trafalgar hadn't read that article about adjectives to describe the French.* Only the French would've been insulted. The rest of Europe would've been amused. Somehow the "red team" and the "blue team" just doesn't cut it.

*argh! Can't find it. Wasn't it just last week?

via Marginal Revolution

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:38 AM

May 23, 2005

The Most Horrific Living Painter

There's an interesting summary of all the anecdotes about Lucian Freud available from the Times. If you find "life of the artist" as tedious as I do (I teach art without names, as Heinrich Wolfflin used to dream of it), here's the most important sentence: He has remarked of his sitters: "I'm interested in them as animals."

Still, if you think there's something to the idea that painting is all about the application of pigment in medium to canvas and you prefer a recognizeable referent in the painting, Freud's your man. He's a genius. Go look.

Me, I don't much like biography; I prefer fiction. Patrick White's Vivisector.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:41 AM

May 22, 2005

More Chortling

Another frabjous day! Mr. Shelton Clark, a complete hack, returns to blogging.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:21 PM

Priestly numbers

Thanks to Anthony I have access to Catholic Statistics again - and it's worldwide! Yay! Thanks, Anthony. And this marvelous information site uses the Annuario Pontificio.

So, crisis in Rochester?

Well - look at it this way -- compare Rochester and Atlanta in this sites 2002 figures:

Rochester - 7,107 sq miles
Catholics/Total Population.....340,000/1,490,891 -- 22.8%
.....diocesan priests -- 258
.....religious priests -- 64
.....total priests -- 322*
.....Catholics per priest -- 1,055

Atlanta - 21,445 sq miles
Catholics/Total population 321,978/5,300,006 - 6.1%
.....diocesan priests -- 161
.....religious priests -- 64
.....total priests -- 225*
.....Catholics per priest --1,431

*This Total Priest number is tricky, because as anyone who's looked at the numbers in Kenedy's Official Catholic Directory may remember the TOTAL number of priests includes those retired, on service outside the diocese but incardinated in the diocese, and those -- umm -- otherwise indisposed. You know, at a monastery in the desert, we hope. Of course, we in Rochester found out that one of those folks was serving in a big suburban parish, but you know. Things are tough here. We have so few priests.

I'll try to be less snarky -- there's every chance Rochester's average priestly AGE is much higher. After all, Rochester, as I mentioned below, may be ordaining fewer than 10 per decade, while Atlanta is ordaining that many per year on average lately.

One of the biggest problems up here, as I have said repeatedly, is the number of church buildings. When I came to Geneva in 1999 there were still 2 parishes and 4 priests (they had been "the Italian Parish" and "the Irish Parish" at some point in the past). They are, respectively, a 5 minute and a 15 minute walk from my house. You can see from one to the other in winter time when the trees are leafless. They are now one "Catholic Community" with 1 Saturday evening Mass, 4 Sunday English Masses and 1 Sunday Spanish Mass staggered between the two buildings (which we still call "parishes"). During the school year there's a Sunday Mass in the College Chapel (which is threatened with every change of parochial vicars with extinction, since we are truly an extra). We are far from uncommon in the area, and the city of Rochester is FULL of churches dating back to ethnic-parish days.

Unfortunately for Geneva, the smaller and older parish did a major renovation just in time to forestall closure. Someone with no sentiment and an iron fist (say a bishop quite different from Bishop Clark) might do something about the situation. Until then the priests of the diocese of Rochester will continue to feel that they are fatally overextended with their 7,000 square miles and 1,055 Catholics per priest. The Archdiocese of Atlanta just feeels different to parishoners and priests, despite having 3 times the area and almost half again as many Catholics per priest.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:58 PM

Readers of the World, Unite!

So what's going on with Google and the EU? Read this Wired article and find out a little more.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:41 PM

Catholic Statistics Bleg

Sometime in the last few years I've found webpages with piles of statistics liftend (probably) out of the Kenedy Official Catholic Directory. I was trying to come up with an accurate figure for the number of priests in the Diocese of Rochester (you know, active, retired, on leave, etc) and had trouble. Anyone have a good source?

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:45 PM

Shrinking diocesan priesthood + shrinking religious order = parish consolidation

The diocese of Rochester will ordain a priest this year! A priest was ordained last year! The parochial vicar of my parish was ordained in 2002! The last time I looked there were about 200 priests in the diocese. This is not a formula for replacement.

Meanwhile, there's the St. Anthony of Padua province of the Franciscans (OFM conv), who have announced that after 80 years they are pulling out of St. Hyacinth's, Auburn, NY.

Meanwhile, I read on one of the CARA pages I was glancing at today that Atlanta expects to ordain 19 this year.

A commenter points out that Syracuse will ordain 3 this year, and Buffalo (horrible frames based website - no link allowed) will also ordain 3. So it's not that there are NO vocations in Upstate New York -- only that they're fewer and further between than we'd like.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:01 PM

May 21, 2005

Callooh! Callay!

Oh frabjous day!

Doctor Weevil resolves his domain-name problems!

I'm chortling in my joy.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:02 PM

Renovating a Cathedral -- Bring out the Partisans, Elide Ends and Means

I fear that Amy Welborn has closed the comment thread on the Rochester, NY, Cathedral renovation. I don't blamer her - it's at the pointless stage. She had noted commentary on the situation from Irish Elk But I have my own blog, so I can go on repeating MYself. (update - Typepad was having problems)

*sigh*

People have always renovated. Let me show you some examples:

Take a look at this 17th century painting of the interior of St. John, s's-Hertogenbosch, by Pieter Saenredam.

Was it a desecration when someone took the Gothic altarpiece of St. John's, s'Hertogenbosch, out (and probably sold it for scrap) and put in a Baroque altarpiece? What Saenredam is painting is the contemporary building (more or less - it's actually a little bit of an inside joke - read the "information" page). The altarpiece with its painting was created by a friend of Saenredam. The church was late Gothic. The stained glass had been removed by Protestant iconoclasts (but, by the way, might not have been very colorful -- there was a great craze for grisaille in the 15th century - glass in yellows and greys and silvers).

Or look at Notre-Dame. Really -- THAT'S what Notre-Dame, Paris, looked like for about 200 years, from the Baroque (I think it happened under Louis XIV, but it might have been under the Regency) until the renovations of the mid-19th century Gothicked it all up again by taking off the big marble sheets that were encasing the gothic columnar piers (the current high altar is gothic revival flanked by some lamentable baroque statuary, combining the worst of the 19th and the 17th century). Yes, the Eldest Daughter of the Church didn't respect their own Gothic buildings. Was that a desecration, or change of style? Was it illegitimate? What about music over the same time range? Is change good in itself, evil in itself, or just change?

Now what annoys me isn't renovation, but the triumphalist language of the renovator or the architect which so often promises transformation in worship -- and Thomas Gordon Smith is just as guilty as Richard Vosko in promising that HIS arrangements will somehow make it easier for us to get to heaven. I think they're both usually wrong. I prefer Smith's (and Duncan Stroik's) buildings, but really, now. Thinking that worshipping in a Duncan Stroik building will make it easier to get to heaven is like thinking that there won't be problems of abuse showing up in traditionalist groups or conservative orders -- a disconnect between end and means.

Oh - the funniest thing? The renovations of Vosko and the buildings of Stroik tend toward chilly colors -- cool greys, whites, very pale rose, yellows. Neither of them seems to have the slightest feeling for medieval styles (not that I'm in favor of unilateral revivalism of any sort), but it is a pity that Vosko has gotten to renovate so many Gothic revival spaces. They both exemplify what my dead advisor used to call the Bauhaus spirit in many modern architects who would deny the connection to capital-M-modernism.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:27 AM

May 20, 2005

Corcoran MAY scale back plans and NOT build yet another Frank Gehry wing

Sometimes financial crises are good things - like the Corcoran's. The Washington museum may not be able to afford a new wing by Frank Gehry. Museum-folk, repeat after me -- what is the core purpose of a museum: showing art, or showing off? Are you building a new wing for wall space? Look at the pictures provided and tell me that there was any particular reason to build the Gehry design.

The hope was that adding a wing by the celebrated Gehry -- whose undulating, titanium-skinned Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, had grabbed so much attention that people began referring to "the Bilbao effect" -- would turn the old, gray Corcoran, with its small but choice collection of primarily 19th-century American art, into a must-see destination. It would raise the museum's visibility and attendance while doubling, Levy said, as "maybe the greatest piece we have in our collection."

If you can't afford a "museum as sculpture," perhaps you should refocus on the art you own.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:38 AM

May 19, 2005

The Green Grass on the Other Side

I have a few months left of leave, so I should probably stop feeling so guilty about spending so much time reading Old French literature (mainly in translation and with the original at hand to check the word choice - my OF is slow nowadays). One of the great joys is that the plays are so short! Lots of the material is lost (yay, Medieval Scholarship of Loss!) and much of it goes quickly. So last night I reread Rutebeuf's Le miracle de Théophile* and Adam de la Halle's Le jeu de Robin et de Marion and found a brooch! A badge! A buckle?** Yay! And said brooch/badge/buckle is part of a lover's gift exchange -- double yay! I'm spending some time looking at all sorts of evidence (mainly literary at this point) for how people wore the little cast metal bits. Fun, fun, fun!

*which I'm teaching in the Fall anyway in European Studies. Don't know it? Ah! It's a pre-Faust! Theophilus is a recently-fired cathedral chapter official who makes a pact with the devil to get his job back (note that the Devil offers not a woman, but preferment -- you can tell it's medieval rather than "early modern" because sex was too easy to make a pact with the Devil over). 7 years later he prays to the Virgin and gets out of the deal. A useful tale of intercessors and the politics of patronage -- and the story turns up on the tympanum over the door to Notre-Dame, Paris, closest to the Canon's residences. Literature, art -- natural choice for Eust 101. And they'll read some version of Faust in Eust 102 and won't think it's an utterly new trope. I've talked about this recently and found one illustration on line.
** Vous averés ma çainturete,/M'aumosniere et mon fremalet,/Bergeronnete, Robin sings to Marions (in the Pléiade edition, Jeux et Sapience du Moyen Age, ed. Albert Pauphilet. Paris: Gallimard, 1951. p. 170. The translation I was looking at puts it between lines 170 and 183 in the Paris B.N. fr.25.566 ms). Unfortunately, "fremalet" may mean "belt-buckle," since Robin is giving Marions his belt and the pouch that hangs from it. Still, it's still a small, metal love gift. It's what we call "a start."

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:45 AM

Worse, not Better -- MORE Adjunctery

Inside Higher Ed shows us some numbers reflecting the Fall 2003 hires:

Between 2001 and 2003, the number of full-time faculty jobs at degree-granting institutions rose to 630,419, from 617,868 — a gain of 12,551 jobs. But the number of part-time jobs rose to 543,137, up from 495,315 — a gain of 47,822 jobs. And as a percentage of faculty jobs at degree granting institutions, part-time positions increased to 46 percent, from 44 percent, over those two years. Anecdotal reports suggest that the increase has continued since then. (my emphasis)

The system is broken. Change is coming, and I don't think that faculty governance will have much to do with it, except at little places like these Colleges. And note this bullet-pointed factoid if you think things are better at private schools: Full-time faculty members are most likely to be tenured at public institutions (48 percent), followed by private nonprofit institutions (40 percent) and for-profit colleges (3 percent).

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:35 AM

How to improve test scores by 10% in just a few weeks.

Chris Corea on one way to improve test scores practiced by the state of Michigan -- redefine proficiency after the scores are released!

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:52 AM

Manolo Covers Eurovision

The Manolo files his story under "Celebrity," "Ayyyy!" and "Music." He provides pictures. You should go look - but not until after the 2nd cup of coffee.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:18 AM

May 18, 2005

Book Tag

Oh, dear. This is difficult. Fr. Tucker passed one of those horrible "tell us a little about yourself" things on to me. I usually refuse to play, but my inner clericalist makes me say "Yes, Father."

Total Number of Books I've Owned: I really can't help you here. I must own a thousand or so; my office is full-to-overflowing and the back bedroom is getting to be frightening. I haven't unpacked all my boxes, even.

Last Book I Bought: Not counting my last Amazon shipment (which hasn't shipped, so I haven't been charged, so it doesn't count) I bought a stack of used books in Rochester last weekend - a book on the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters sounds most impressive, but I gave it away. I've already finished (see below) Starrett, Vincent, ed. Fourteen Great Detective Stories. NY: Modern Library, 1928. (I link to a current paperback edition!) I'm most of the way through Ivins, William M., Art & Geometry, a Study in Space Intuitions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1946 (I link to the unillustrated Dover edition). I also picked up Collected Stories of Reynolds Price. I've never read any of his short fiction. Oh, and Crusader figural sculpture in the Holy Land;: Twelfth century examples from Acre, Nazareth and Belvoir Castle -- the things you find in good used book stores! I was at Gutenberg Books in Rochester.

Last Book I Read: Yesterday I finished both the Starrett (see above) and Crone, Patricia and Martin Hinds, God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 1983.

Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me: This too is unfair. It's like asking "what's your favorite artwork?" I always respond "from what century?" What about things I've read over and over again, whether I need to teach them or not? Shall I include or exclude fiction? I've got at least 5 novels I read over about every 2 years! Here are 5 that mean a lot.
.....1. Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited..
.....2. Virgil, The Aeneid. sunt lacrimae rerum, et mentam mortalia tangunt
.....3. Richard Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture - this book (which I first read in the first edition hardback in the Reserve Room because it wasn't available in paperback. OH the things you used to be able to force college students to do!!) is a big part of why I am a professional historian of art and architecture AND a medievalist.
.....4. Peter Brown The Cult of the Saints : Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity - this book changed the way I thought about the world by exploding the high/popular distinction in religion. Great stuff.
.....5. Walker Percy, The Moviegoer. I guess. I could put The Last Gentlemen and be reasonably happy about that choice, too.

I think I'll pass this on, with the offer to refuse to be tagged, to my friend at Mirabilis.ca ; Prof. H.D. Miller; my friend at Blogenspiel, whose name is in flux but who has actually MET Prof. Miller; Dr. Julius Weevil, and Prof. Kimberly Swygert, Psychometrician.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:21 PM

Quick Guide to DC Graduations . . .

Want a quick guide to all the most exciting speeches in DC, Maryland, and Virginia? Go here to the chart prepared annually by the Washington Post of graduations and their speakers. Plan accordingly!

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 3:41 PM

File Under: Great Works of Art I've Never Seen

File Under: Great Works of Art I Teach But Have Never Seen -- the 20 year wait is over! The Westminster Retable is on display after restoration -- click for images. It's up at the National Gallery in London, but sometime later this year will be moved back to Westminster Abbey (which is one of the worst "church visiting" events of my recent experience, by the way -- paid admission, nasty vergers, and one-way only flow with no backtracking allowed).

The article (from the Telegraph) has some nice images -- it's well worth clicking. The first image on the story (before you click for details) shows a lovely full-length St. Peter (note the key) in a swaying pose typical of high Gothic figures, whether painted or sculpted. When you click to see the whole altarpiece you also get to see a detail of the globe in Christ's hand. You'll also see why British iconoclasm is so heartbreaking because you'll see how little of the originl painted surface we have left. If you're interested in the visible remains of Catholicism in Protestant England (for instance, how this object survived, even mutilated, when so little else did) you ought to read Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars : Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580. I'd love to lead a tour of England sometime in which we did nothing but this material!

I found the story via my friend at mirabilis.ca.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:55 AM

May 17, 2005

Respect Your Elders!

Professor Zywicki notices a conspicuous example of Supreme Court Codgerdom --

Today many Americans, paricularly those members of the yonger generations who make policy decisions, regard alcohol as an ordinary article of commerce, subject to substantially the same market and legal controls as other consumer products.
. . .
The views of judges who lived through the debates that led to the ratification of those Amendments are entitled to special deference. Foremost among them was Justice Brandeis, whose understanding of a State's right to discriminate in its regulation of out-of-state alcohol could not have been clearer.

That's Justice Stevens on whippersnappers who don't respect their elders. Prof. Zywicki asks

Is this a real canon of law? He cites no authority for this novel "respect your elders" canon of construction, so I am not sure what to make of it. Does it apply to statutes as well? If a judge lived through the enactment of the Clean Air Act, does that mean he is entitled to greater deference because he remembers Pittsburgh in the 1950s?

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:12 PM

All initiatives lead to new titles, don't they?

Dr. Summers said the money would be spent on a range of initiatives, including the creation of a new senior vice provost post to focus on diversity issues, improved recruitment, subsidies for salaries, mentoring of junior faculty members and extending the clock on tenure for professors who go on maternity or parental leave. (my emphasis)

Here's an interesting moment -- Several professors also said $50 million was not a particularly large sum for an institution as wealthy as Harvard. In recent years, its operating budget has been about $2.5 billion. Yes, but also: Last year, only 4 of 32 professors offered tenure in the faculty of arts and science were women. So we're talking about a $50 million "initial committment" spread across a small population of actual tenure-track faculty (though to have any idea how small we need to know how many people were denied tenure, too). I wonder if they currently don't have a clock-stopping provision; that'll be expensive, but an obvious help.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:20 AM

A little bracing whiff of incompleteness

I love reading Derek Lowe -- he reminds me how far we are from those 120 year lifespans. Like this fragment from yesterday's entry:

Those two examples show you exactly why we're not awash in those wonderful 90's drugs right now. The most important parts of drug development are not yet amenable to a rational approach. We simply don't know enough. If any of the companies developing oral IIb/IIIa ligands thought there was a good chance that they'd lose out to aspirin, of all the cheap competitors, they'd have run away screaming. But they didn't know, and the only way to find out was to spend the money and take the risk. No fancy graphics could have saved them.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:53 AM

May 16, 2005

A New University of California campus from scratch

I hadn't read anything about this before -- the UC system is starting a new research university and have already spent some $400 million at it. The article is an interesting read -- they're trying to work with divisions instead of departments:

Most radical, perhaps, is UC-Merced's decision to abolish the normal structure of academic departments. "If I had a department of psychology, I would have one that ranked tenth out of 10, and it would be that way for some time," Tomlinson-Keasey said. "That's not good for an institution that's trying to make its mark."

By keeping faculty grouped more loosely in larger categories such as engineering, humanities and natural sciences, the chancellor hopes to encourage cross-discipline collaboration and reduce the usual pattern of academic turf wars.

I'm skeptical about the good results of that effort -- turf wars are endemic to the species, I fear; it just moves them around to not have a structure called "departments." Prof. Burke has an interesting suggestion about non-departmental hiring that gets at a very different way to understand a non-departmental structure than transcending turf wars (that's sort of what it's about - go read it). Dissolving "departments" or "disciplines" is a reform well-worth considering, but it's also worth remembering that disagreement and factions and turf wars will soon enough crystalize around some other center.

Prof. Burke's suggestion revolves not around dissolving disciplines but around hiring people who cross disciplines -- I guess we can hope UC Merced has done that in its hiring, too.

I've experienced a little of the difficulty of advertising for discipline-crossers first hand. My graduate degree is from Emory's Institute of Liberal Arts. We (the students) always wondered how they (the faculty) would ever actually replace someone; everyone in the ILA was so -- umm -- different. You had the professor who had an M.Div., a Ph.D., and wrote mainly about postmodern short fiction. There was the professor who wrote comparatively about 18th and 19th century French travellers -- Custine in Russia and de Tocqueville in America, for instance. Then there's the anthropologist whose initial work was on Tibet but who became a psychoanalyst. I was never particularly privy to the conversations about how they advertised, other than that they still seem to be hiring interesting folks who cross lots of lines cheefully. Some of them are more integrated into disciplinary discussions in other departments on campus than others. Some Emory departments spun off the ILA -- Comp Lit, for instance, was a concentration inside the ILA when I got there and is now a freestanding program.

Now at a university the ILA provided an institutional structure for those who weren't in a department, per se. At a liberal arts college it's more difficult to encourage, review (for tenure and promotion), protect, and eventually replace people who don't have a specific departmental identification. I agree with Prof. Burke that this is the way small liberal arts colleges should go -- not to become bad little universities or be blown by ever whim of student enrollment but to try to find ways to understand their strengths and make them stronger by connecting them. I agree -- but I'm not sure how best to do it.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 2:40 PM

Wine Shipping - Lots of Happy Upstate New Yorkers!

If the decision really does allow unfettered wine-by-mail, there will be lots of happy Up Staters. The vineyard owners will be happy. Those of us who live here and would like to mail vinous presents to family and friends will be delighted (that's me). The UPS shipping folks will be thrilled beyond endurance -- I'd bet they'll have to expand the Geneva distribution center.

The Supreme Court has ruled on wine and commerce.

Out with the old, in with the new! Onward and Upward! It's 2005-2006 now, people!

Yesterday we waved goodbye and today they have to be out of all residences. On to more assessment! My next Art department meeting starts at 9:30 -- I have an hour and a half. Then a lunch meeting for European Studies. How exciting!

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:55 AM

May 15, 2005

Peasant Shoes. And not in a good way.

I do hate to say, but I prefer the Manolo's coverage of this archeological find to my friend at Cronaca for once.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:21 PM

The Sun! The Sun!

It's 8:03 in Geneva and the weather is warmer -- the thermometer says 58. And, finally, the sun has broken through. Knock on formica we'll have a lovely graduation -- Hobart's 180th and William Smith's 94th. I'm the Faculty Marshall and get to carry a mace. This may or may not be a good idea (medievalists sometimes go all funny when handed maces and have the urge to begin layin' 'em out like Archbishop Turpin -- bloodlessly, but well).

Yesterday's Baccalaureate speaker was Mary Gerhart, professor of religious studies, retiring after this year. This is an optional celebrations, but I agree with our Chaplain that ritual is important (see note of profession above) and almost always attend. I always attend any function at which Mary is going to speak. And then there's the chance to wear academicals and walk in line -- it's a threefer!

The weather was perfect for the little procession (faculty, trustees, the Chorale, officiants and officials only) and then all the milling around afterwards. Then it started to rain about 5 and rained at least until I went to sleep. I woke up to grey skies, but now the sun is out! Yay!

later the same day . . . the sun held up! I avoided hitting anyone (though I did get to bang the mace once in the library lobby to call the trustees back into their places)! Speeches were good and sweet and funny -- especially Dee Dee Myers (now Doctor honoris causa Myers.)! Now for the after-picnics! I've got 2 today and one I've had to decline for tomorrow (though maybe it's worth skipping yet another meeting on assessment to attend?).

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:03 AM

May 13, 2005

A Triumph of a Movie Review

Well. People who do stupid things and fail are called fools; people who do stupid things and succeed are called visionaries; the people who buy into this stupid binary are called consumers.

That's Dale Peck on Revenge of the Sith. You'll have to click to see what he calls it.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 2:24 PM

Why I'm all in favor of Alice Walton's new museum

I've been thinking about new museums since I blogged about the sale of Asher B. Durand's "Kindred Spirits" to Alice Walton.

Without billionaires like Miss Walton all the world's art will be sucked down by the irresistable maw of museums like the Met, the National Gallery, and (the darkest maw of them all) the Getty. With her kind of money she'll create another eddy in the stream -- an eddy which will suck down appreciable amounts of specifically American art, making for a kind of museum I'll want to visit someday but won't need to travel to specifically (though, since it will be in Bentonville, AR, I guess I will have to travel specifically to it -- I've never had reason to pass through the northeast corner of Arkansas before).

Nevertheless, if you want to talk about museums that already have too much art to show? See the list above. Feel free to add others.

I wonder if she's tried to buy the Terra collection, now that it's lost a permanent home? They have their whole Terra Foundation collection available online, which was an interesting solution to having to shut the building down.

They loan a rotating selection to the Art Institute and they still have a museum in Giverny to show Europeans that there is such a thing as American art. I've never understood why the Giverny museum is open only from April through September -- maybe it says something about actual attendence rates at museums in France? I don't know.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:54 AM

The Citizen-Journalist Kit

Not to imply that journalists aren't sometimes citizens, but . . . Prof. Reynolds is making spec lists for citizen-journalist kits.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:59 AM

No new email - Proceed with Agenda!

Nothing new in my school email box this morning but some listserve matter and the Chronicle jobs alert -- good! The final Faculty meeting of the year comes off this morning and I am delighted to see that no one is trying to get in touch with me at this stage with earthshattering business which MUST be considered. We can decorously vote on a few pieces of pending business, hear the Faculty Awards distributed, clap loudly at the news that the art department will have a new studio building (yay, us!), and adjourn to the President's house for brunch and speeches in honor of the four faculty members who are retiring this year. At least that's the agenda.

Oh - it's 40 again, but sunny, which makes all the difference in the world.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:15 AM

May 12, 2005

BIG Art News - "Kindred Spirits" Goes to Bentonville? Oh, my!

Alice L. Walton, the Wal-Mart heiress and one of the richest people in the world, bought an Asher B. Durand painting yesterday from the New York Public Library for what is said to be more than $35 million. She plans to exhibit it in a museum being built by her family's foundation that is scheduled to open in May 2009 in Bentonville, Ark., where her father, Sam Walton, opened his first retail store in 1951.

That's from the New York Times. Click and see - if you recognize much American art at all you'll recognize the painting. The New York Public Library tried to keep the painting in town, but Miss Walton outbid them. This is going to be an interesting museum -- a Safdie building and all that money to fill it with American art. If you read the description of the building you'll see why Miss Walton had to have "Kindred Spirits."

By the way, this is the second story I've blogged this month of New York institutions selling art to plow the money back into core enterprises -- here's the Diocese of Brooklyn selling a Murillo story.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:10 PM

And what is it about this week and meetings? Assessment woes.

Every single committee is rushing to get another meeting in this week - and I'm one of the lucky ones; I'm only a member of one department and on the coordinating committee for one program, so I only have 2 sets of meetings going on about Assessment.

Our Middle States 10-year review was positive but . . . they want to see us undertake the assessment thing. So we're breaking out all those mission statements (of which we have a pile) and making 5 column charts about how each aspect of the mission statement lines up with specific outcomes which then can be assessed. And no, grading assignments and assessment aren't really the same thing at all, so put that thought out of your head.

Here's a lovely example of the process - note who's driving it. Yes, Middle States. This movement in higher education is not self-generated. Here it is in a seminary setting. The University of Denver has an Office of Assessment

Lots of this will actually be useful and may even improve what we're trying to do. Lots and lots of it, though, is busywork. As a former member of my department said in a cover letter enclosed with copies of his current departemnt's assessment materials "the filing cabinets are filling up."

from the comments - here's a very thoughtful piece on assessment and grade inflation by Jonathan Dresner.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:04 AM

How to choose that lottery number . . .

I always wondered if anyone played the fortune cookie numbers.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:43 AM

The Healing Power of Literature

It's May 12th, 40 degrees, and overcast. I could console myself that at least we don't have snow on the ground ("the year it snowed on Mother's Day" is still fresh in everyone's mind around here). Instead, I got back into bed after my 1st cup of coffee and read Richard Harding Davis's In the Fog, a truly fine mystery story. It's a trick story, really, but I like well-done trick stories; this one cheered me up considerably this morning.

I used to own a copy in one of those anthologies of Conan Doyle's competitors edited by Hugh Greene, but I haven't seen the book in a while (it may well be in a box somewhere . . . ). I came across someone else's anthology of pre-World War I mysteries in a used bookstore last week and bought it in part because "In the Fog" was one of the stories in it that I had read (along with the endlessly annoying Jacques Futrelle. There's little accounting for taste, but I find "The Problem of Cell 13" an over-anthologized representative of the type, so much so that I can't reject a volume based on its inclusion.)

Davis turns out to have been an interesting character -- one of the yellowest of the yellow journalists.

Even though I've provided a link above to a Project Gutenberg e-book version, I can't read fiction that way. I buy books. For $4 I got 14 short stories, only 6 of which I had read before (pretty good odds for me in this genre), 5 of which I was willing to read again (damn Futrelle, taking up space). It helps pass the unseasonable return to winter.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:29 AM

May 11, 2005

Oh, the Stories we COULD Tell!

This story about the SMU adjunct-blogger explains in part why I never write about the good stuff. Bad stuff? Whichever. I'm not really anonymous, after all (though I don't throw my name around a lot), so I don't tell the stories I sometimes want to tell. I realized once I was about 3 months into blogging that I wasn't nearly anonymous enough to say anything about my colleagues, much though you might be amused by our antics. Nor do I go into negative detail about specific students; all of my whining is fairly generalized. You might have figured out that I link to horrific stories from other schools to get the urge out of my system.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:25 PM

Exam boost for pupils if pet dies

I read a horrific thing over at Cronaca just now. I didn't believe it. I clicked. Unless someone has hacked the BBC, it's true -- here's their story: Exam boost for pupils if pet dies

GCSE and A-level pupils in England are given 5% more if a parent dies close to exam day or 4% for a distant relative. They get 2% more if a pet dies or 1% if they get a headache. Critics say the system panders to an "excuse for everything" attitude.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:10 PM

'Tis the Season

Yesterday was the best day of my semester off. Why? Senior grades were due and I didn't have any to turn in. And later in the week - no non-graduator grades. Hah, hah! I just called one of my colleagues who needed to vent a little; I managed to restrain my "hah, hah!" until the end of the conversation when she asked me what I was up to.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:34 PM

May 10, 2005

Grading for Effort

Once again we watch and wonder what in the HELL the Nobel committee thought they were doing giving peace prizes for Northern Ireland.

Whilst Britain remains fixated on the aftermath of Tony Blair's unprecedented third term victory against their intellectually bankrupt and dependably inept opponents, it would behove people in Britain to pay a bit more attention to the electoral earthquake which shook Ulster which has resulted in David Trimble's relatively moderate Ulster Unionist Party has almost completely collapsing in favour of Ian Paisley Democratic Unionist Party.

Here's the BBC coverage.

via Samizdata.net

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 3:15 PM

Chimerism: News of the Science Weird

Now have I seen a Law'n'Order episode like this? Someone having two blood types because he absorbed his twin in utero? Ick! Weirdness! Go read!

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:51 AM

A Good Article on Badly Reported Science

Is it Bad Science, or just Badly Handled? How Medical Research Was Misinterpreted to Suggest Scientists Know More Than They Do is the subhead on this interesting article about aspirin and breast cancer. In part the article explains why I wish more math majors went into newspaper work -- why I think a major in journalism is about as useful as a major in education.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:35 AM

May 9, 2005

I Love History

Otis Ferry, son of Bryan Ferry, is a pro-hunt protester! He looks like his father, too - click and see. In his honor I'm listening to "Kiss and Tell" right now, and have "Slave to Love" and "Avalon" cued up. "Avalon" makes me cry, and I'm an anti-Arthurian.

Fight the Power, Otis! I'd sometimes rather live in the 18th century, too - but only if I could wear jackets like that (I have a serious thing for Humphrey Clinker). The last link is well worth clicking and reading.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:55 PM

Odd Blog Brushes

Mr. Reese has died -- oh, he was Dr. Reese or Chancellor Reese to other folks, but he shared an office with my father from the time I was born until I was 5 (I guess), and they remained friends. Somewhere in some cedar-scented drawer is a sweater Mrs. Reese knitted for me when I was a very small tyke, and I use the stocking she knit for me every Christmas. Their children and I played together a lot -- so much so that they are 2 of the only 3 names of other children I remember from Knoxville (the other being known in our house as "John B."). I've called my parents already, so I can type about it now.

Prof. Reynolds has risen in my estimation because he counted Mr. Reese as his mentor. I counted him as a great big funny man with a good family.

Further: If you google "Jack Reese" the 4th hit (today) is a speech given to the Knoxville Writers' Guild in his honor. My father is the man of Falstaffian proportions mentioned in third paragraph.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:29 PM

Lunacy

I kind of hate to admit this, but I have no interest in living on Mars. The Moon, on the other hand, is just my style. Gosh, I hope there's water.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 4:55 PM

And I thought canning tomatoes was a lot of work!

Even when one could find pasta on grocery shelves, a good cook always chose the homemade version. But very few made their own. The common practice was to hire a pastamaker and have a year's supply prepared at home. My mother had to schedule the pasta lady months in advance for a full day, provide a list of the varieties she wanted, and supply the flour and eggs.

Neat story of pasta-making in Hungary -- home-industry!

via Mirabilis.ca

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:08 AM

May 8, 2005

Early Modernists Hijack My Entry

Not that I mind -- there's no such thing as a bad link -- in fact, I'm flattered. But I hasten to point out that the carnivalesque isn't an Early Modern phenomenon, and my interest in it is entirely medieval. Still, Nathanael picked up my Natalie Zemon Davis post for Carnivalesque #7. Click and read for lots of historical interest, even if most of it is lamentably contemporary.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:53 AM

How to hang an addition on a crystal

This is an interesting article about a terrible problem -- so you own a building by a High Modernist. It has edges. Violating the edges destroy the concept. What do you do if you need MORE?

It looks like you hire the current chairwoman of the Harvard School of Design, Toshiko Mori, who has expanded a house by Paul Rudolph and built a visitors' center for a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Read about her - it's an interesting article.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:36 AM

May 7, 2005

Going to: Geneva

In the New York Times travel pages, Going to: Geneva. Hint - it's not my Geneva, Geneva, NY.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:37 PM

Jesuit Education -- Educate the Educators.

I'm very happy to see my neighbor-school sued on this one -- LeMoyne, a Jesuit University, expelled a man from their graduate education program for expressing an opinion. NOT for striking a student, but expressing the opinion that stirking a student MIGHT be an option. Now they're being sued for $20 million, which the Jesuits can ill-afford.

Don't they understand "teachable moments"? Scott McConnell's professor or department chair could have explained to him why they were troubled. Instead, someone gave him an A- on the assignment and reported him to a superior.

Here's the local paper's coverage.

She cited "grave concerns regarding the mismatch between (McConnell's) personal beliefs regarding teaching and learning and the Le Moyne College program goals."

Beliefs. If a Jesuit school is going to police "beliefs," they ought to do it before students enroll. I wonder if Christian belief is anywhere in their program goals. There's a Christian case to be made against corporal punishment (and Jesuits have been making it for 400 years, though they haven't always lived up to it), but does Le Moyne put it in those terms?

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:13 PM

May 6, 2005

The Long Goodbye

Last night was the first social gathering to say "goodbye!" to departing colleagues; we're losing several tenure track and recently tenured folks to other institutions. I refer to it as the "long good bye" because none of the folks who were there last night are leaving before late July - so we were also celebrating the end of the semester. And the defeat of Imperialism; I drank Coronas.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:57 AM

Lover in the Closet. Literally.

The woman told the court that she had been having an affair with Rafael DeJesus Rocha-Perez, 35, a man she only knew as Christian, and allowed him to secretly sleep in a closet in her home for about a month. She said she met Rocha-Perez on July 4 after going downtown to see the annual fireworks display.
Jeffrey Freeman, according to police, found Rocha-Perez after following the sound of snoring to the 2-by-8-foot closet in the couple's Mountain View home.

I have a hard time imagining an apartment big enough in New York for Law'n'Order to pull this story off.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:52 AM

May 5, 2005

It's Not Holy Girlfriend the Church

Ms. Shaidle has a thought on identity.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:21 PM

A Ringing M$-Word Endorsement

Smart men, experienced writers, formatting nightmares: Profs. Volokh and Lindgren. Shouldn't a high-priced and expensive program just DO things like this for us? Shouldn't it at least do things consistently? I keep toying with the idea of changing my whole life over to Mellel for word processing. I go through periods of using Bare Bones TextWrangler, but I need so much less than it offers (and just imagine how much I wouldn't use of BBedit!).

So, to student writers all over the planet going through end-of-term formatting nightmares -- it isn't you!! It's the software!

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:03 PM

Mild Paranoia -- Fit, Fitter, Fittest?

Remember my entry on word searches the other day -- things we have to do because we can because of computers? Well, I was looking at my referrer log (I know, I know - obsessive. That's me. So far it's been a socially useful problem, causing me to overprepare classes and always show up early for parties -- which allows me to help chop the crudités) and noticed that someone came to visit based on a google search on "michael + tinkler". Hmmm. What makes it slightly creepy is that it was at 4:01 a.m. And from a verizon.net domain name, which is utterly useless. I, of course, was especially curious to see if it were a colleague, but now only know that it was an insomniac.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:45 AM

Best Anti-Euthanasia Headline Ever!

Our Soylent Green is GM Free!

David Carr at Samizdata.net, a British group Liberty-Blog, spots a piece of euthanistic hubris -- on the eve of the elections in Britain the ational Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence released a guideline that refusing treatment on the basis of age was appropriate (though it stopped short of allowing the ending of treatment for the fat). Carr quotes the BBC search for balance (finding a charity to quote) and exposes it for the feeble grab for a shrub or tree root on the slide down the slippery slope it is:

BBC: Charities representing older people said the recommendations were outrageous and sent out mixed messages.

Carr: Wrong. The message is quite clear and will gradually become more acceptable. Within five years, people over 75 will be offered euthanasia when they get sick. Within 10 years it will be mandatory.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:24 AM

May 4, 2005

Tonight's Post-supper Playlist

Thanks to the Airport Express my laptop is playing this through the living room speakers:

...Gladys Night and the Pips -- "Midnight Train to Georgia"
...Chaka Khan -- "Ain't Nobody"
...Aretha Franklin & Luther Vandross -- "Doctor's Orders"
...Anita Baker - "Caught up in the Rapture"
...El DeBarge -- "Sexual Healing" (off the "Marvin is 60" album - really not bad!)
...Shuggie Otis -- "Inspiration Information"
...The Gap Band -- "Burn Rubber on Me" (complete with motorcycle noises!)
...Patti LaBelle -- "If Only You Knew"
...Macy Gray -- "Still"
...Al Green -- "Take me to the River"
...Al Green -- "Let's Get Married"
...Tina Turner -- "Nutbush City Limits" (the 90s version, sans Ike)
...Parliament -- "Flashlight" (one of the greatest songs of all time)
...Erykah Badu -- "Boogie Nights/All Night" (the shuffle generated "Tyrone", but I listened to that twice last week)
...Macy Gray (with Erykah Badu) -- "Sweet Sweet Baby"

an R&B evening in Upstate New York . . . .

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:02 PM

Recovery from Coma

Neurologists said yesterday that such remarkable recoveries for people with severe brain damage are rare - but perhaps not as rare as the medical literature suggests.
"This is a phenomenon that is being frequently reported," said Dr. Joseph Fins, chief of the medical ethics division at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital and an expert on the subject. "It may be just the tip of the iceberg, and the question is how deep is it, what is the extent, and what are the predictors of this kind of reclaiming of consciousness."

The article makes it clear that the studies are inadequate to make any sort of general statement. Perhaps a nice prolife millionaire would step forward and pay for one?

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:23 PM

Ending Mandatory Rape Reporting

This proposed Tennessee law strikes me as a bad thing.

Tennessee's colleges and universities would no longer have to notify police when a student reports being raped, under a proposed state law.

Some victims' rights advocates say the change will encourage more women to come forward by removing the intimidating influence of the criminal justice system and instead requiring campus officials to tell victims about nearby rape crisis centers.

The 2nd paragraph might be true, but I can promise you that some campuses will take advantage of this to be sure the incidents never get to the police and never get reported to the general public (including students and parents).

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:43 AM

This is why I can't take talk about Harold Ford seriously

Harold Ford for President? Let me put it this way -- he has more family baggage than Hillary!. Read this one about his father the state senator.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 2:43 AM

May 3, 2005

Doing Business in China

Doing business in China has its dangers -- this article goes over some of the not-yet-ready-for-world-investment problems. "Anderson was right about the demand for electricity. But he was wrong about his ability to recoup increased costs, and wrong about the protective function of his relationships with officials: Provincial authorities shot down his formal filings for higher rates."

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:07 PM

Word searches

I do love computers, but I'm in the middle of one of those since-you-can-you-must projects. I'm trying to figure out some things about the wearing and viewing practices of medieval badges. For that I have to have a clearer idea of what they were called in the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The most useless term so far is the French quincaillerie or "trinket," sort of. It's a pejorative term for jewellry, more commonly used in modern French for what we call "hardware." Not particularly specific and far too common, but sometimes that's the word in use. Bibelot shows up as well, though mainly in the usage biblotier. AND, of course, spelling wasn't particularly standardized. Oh, well.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 3:42 PM

Diocese of Brooklyn Unloads a Murillo "St. Augustine"

Well, "unload" isn't the right word when Christie's low estimate is $1,500,000. The only thing the story doesn't tell me is where these paintings are currently hanging. The collection was built up by a brainy bishop in the 30s and 40s (a great time to be buying baroque religious art, by the way -- see the Ringling Museum and Bob Jones University's collection) who preferred to build another high school than a new cathedral, at one point.

I think it's entirely appropriate for a diocese to have a museum about itself, or a museum of sacred art (though no one will ever go there! I can't tell you the number of otherwise informed people who miss the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus because it's in the fee-charging sacristy museum at St. Peter's). It is entirely appropriate to have old masters hanging over altars (so long as no one suspects that's what they are). However, a tiny collection of expensive religious art held in the chancery (and I don't know that's where it's been, since the article doesn't tell me) is better sold off and used to kick start an endowment.

via Amy Welborn.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:41 AM

May 2, 2005

See. They're COMMUNISTS

Chicoms, I tell you. THAT'S what the food fascists are. And their evil Hong Kong branch is trying to stamp out Dim Sum because it's bad for you!:

But based on laboratory analyses of 750 dim sum samples, Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department found high fat and salt and low calcium and fiber in everything from fried dumplings to marinated jellyfish. The report suggested that local residents eat these kinds of dim sum in moderation, and choose more dim sum like steamed buns and steamed rice rolls.

Regular dim sum diners should order plates of boiled vegetables to go with their meals, the report said, and should beware of some steamed dim sum for which the ingredients are fried, like bean curd sheets.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:06 AM

May 1, 2005

The Dyslexic Aspiring Doctor

Remember the question last year of giving students more time on the MCAT? Drexel has a 2nd year medical student who wants a fourth (4th) try to pass a test to let her into the next year of study. There's a name this time, which I find comforting. Should Ms. Baer ever finish medical school I could avoid allowing her to treat me. Erin O'Connor has the story.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:10 AM

Centralization of Lower Education in New York City

Well, New York City's experiment in get-tough-centralization doesn't seem to be working so far, Diane Ravitch suggests.

Integral to the reorganization was 1) a complete centralization of all authority; 2) the elimination of the policy making powers of lay central and local boards, which were replaced by toothless boards; 3) imposition of a mandated citywide curriculum for all but a select number of exempt schools; 4) creation of a Leadership Academy to recruit and train principals. (The Leadership Academy spent $25 million in its first year and produced about 65 principals.)

She has some numbers. She admits that the scores might go up in 2005, but note that they haven't, yet.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:08 AM

The Cranky Professor

You type, and I tell you why 4,500 years of written history shows you're wrong.

May 31, 2005

Contemporary History

Tuition up 27%

There may always be a France . . .

Kodak - End of the World for some

May 30, 2005

The Burnt Over District at its finest . . . Phrenology!

May 29, 2005

Education Next Out

Pastoral Posting

Pollacks and Authenticity

May 28, 2005

"I know you're Ward Crutchfield, and I know you're a senator, and I know you're good, and I know this state needs you"

May 27, 2005

Docents Back on at National Gallery -- Schoolchildren NOT relegated to what their teachers know about art

Do you have a license for that long, pointy kitchen knife?

The Abecedarian Project

Clowns. Jugglers for Jesus. "Low" Mass?

The World of Surrogacy

May 26, 2005

The Perpetual Election

Reading as Self-medication

Gulags. Holocausts. Proportion.

Gulag? Oh? Hmmm.

European Affairs

The Brave Counter Demonstrator

The New South - Bipartisan, Racially Diverse Corruption Indictments

Free Speech in Europe?

Beautiful Old Things? Hush! I'm Bidding on Toast in the Shape of the Virgin Mary on eBay!!

May 25, 2005

It's all a matter of opinion, isn't it?

"Historic" Preservation Meets Museum Space

Want to be a K-8 Principal of a Catholic School in Seattle?

Blogroll Revisions

No Such Thing as an Unopposed Judge

Two Favorite Genres Collide - Murder Mystery and Blogging

May 24, 2005

Ah, Fabliaux - Dirty Stories in Foreign Tongues

Finland? Really?

Charter School Successes

Derek Lowe on Intelligent Design

Sex Offender Viagra

On a Married Latin Rite Clergy

History Rewritten as Intramural Flag Football

May 23, 2005

The Most Horrific Living Painter

May 22, 2005

More Chortling

Priestly numbers

Readers of the World, Unite!

Catholic Statistics Bleg

Shrinking diocesan priesthood + shrinking religious order = parish consolidation

May 21, 2005

Callooh! Callay!

Renovating a Cathedral -- Bring out the Partisans, Elide Ends and Means

May 20, 2005

Corcoran MAY scale back plans and NOT build yet another Frank Gehry wing

May 19, 2005

The Green Grass on the Other Side

Worse, not Better -- MORE Adjunctery

How to improve test scores by 10% in just a few weeks.

Manolo Covers Eurovision

May 18, 2005

Book Tag

Quick Guide to DC Graduations . . .

File Under: Great Works of Art I've Never Seen

May 17, 2005

Respect Your Elders!

All initiatives lead to new titles, don't they?

A little bracing whiff of incompleteness

May 16, 2005

A New University of California campus from scratch

Wine Shipping - Lots of Happy Upstate New Yorkers!

Out with the old, in with the new! Onward and Upward! It's 2005-2006 now, people!

May 15, 2005

Peasant Shoes. And not in a good way.

The Sun! The Sun!

May 13, 2005