Fun Facts to Know & Tell about ME!!!

• I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio - and darned proud of it
• Every school I attended, from 1st grade through to my PhD, was private and religiously affiliated; I have never attended a public school
• I once avoided getting into a bar fight on the island of Santorini by singing the Canadian national anthem in French
• I have 2 brothers; all 3 of us were history majors in college
• I am the second doctorate in my family
• Nearly all my genes, apparently, are native to a 63mi (1013km) long area of eastern Slovakia, from Kosiče, where my mother's family is from, to Nova Lubovna, where my father's family is from
• I was a Benedictine monk for 13 years
• I do not understand how to read music, nor do I understand how anyone is capable of doing so
• I write with my right hand and eat with my left; it's called cross-dominance, or mixed-handedness and runs in my mother's side of the family

Last night

 View out the window (colored spheroids are reflections of lights off the double panes)...

We Now Pause for a Brief Intermission

Please feel free to step out to the snack bar in the lobby for popcorn and your favorite soft drink...

Flowers

Weekend Depression Collection

 

Portugese Kings

As a devout monarchist who takes frequent meanderings through the info world seeking curious facts, I have discovered that Portugal easily has the coolest epithets for its rulers. For example:

• Sancho the Populator
• Peter the Vengeful
• Ferdinand the Unconscious 
• John the Man
  
• Manuel the Grocer King
• Sebastian the Virgin King
• Philip the Oppressor
• John the Nuns' Lover.

Now you know…

 

 

 

Because... Why Not?

 

 Carmen Miranda - Week End In Havana (1941) - "Rebola a Bola" & "When I Love, I Love"

 

 

Science Marches On!

I like to be an early adopter of new technologies. Even though I'm 70 (yes, I know I look 20 years younger than that; thank you!) it's important to keep up with developments that have a direct impact on my life. As such, let me share with you my latest foray into the world of tomorrow...

Charmin has developed a new, wavy perforation on its toilet rolls that appears to unfailingly tear smoothly and evenly. Having personally tested this breakthrough, it can attest to its effectiveness and worth. So, if you have issues with uneven or ragged tearing -- especially if your dispenser is mounted vertically as mine is -- then this product is for you. It has certainly reduced stress and tension and has improved my quality of life. 

  

Randomness

 Metro shots from yesterday’s foray:

On Ambition -or- What's Wrong with American Higher Education

This is something I've been wanting to write for I guess some 15 years now. It started as a rant against all that was wrong with American Higher Education--and there is a lot that is wrong with it--but over the years one element of that rant came more and more to the fore, and that turned out to be probably the most important step in self-knowledge of my entire life.

Academic life is very weird. In the "real" world--or what passes for it these days--people will go "Oooo, you have a PhD!" and "Wow, you published a book!" whereas you work in an environment in which everybody has a doctorate and everybody has published at least one book. That's just the bare minimum for keeping your job (i.e., getting tenure). The accomplishment is largely meaningless. For those outside, it looks  like the world of the ultra-rich looking down on mere multimillionaires because they haven't yet become billionaires. How many articles have you published in the last 2 years? How far along are you in the next book? What grants and fellowships have you applied for... and will they bring us any money in indirects? Note that I've made no mention of teaching--likely another surprise for those outside the profession. Much lip service is paid to teaching: student evaluations, teaching awards, teaching workshops, etc., etc, all largely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I know of no one who had an exceptional research profile ever being denied tenure or promotion because they stunk in the classroom (and several have).

I followed the expected path. My dissertation was turned into a book published by a major university press, I published articles in leading journals in the field, I got a prestigious national fellowship the first time I applied (when I notified the dean he replied with the bureaucratic procedures for dealing with the financials; he later sent a second message which read "Oh, and congratulations"--an extreme case of so what have you done for me lately. I started working on my second book. As all this moved along, I became less and less happy with what I was doing. One thing no one tells you is how much the leadership and culture of the university and the nature of the colleagues you work with in your department affects your productivity. My college and university mostly had miserable leadership (yes, I specifically mean you, you clueless and evil-minded associate deans of this that and the other thing). I had a small group of colleagues who were so intent on their agenda, they thought nothing of lying, cheating, and duplicity if it involved getting their way.  There are some who remain highly productive in these circumstances, mostly by ignoring the immediate environment and being adequate enough in their teaching to avoid getting a bad rep.

I couldn't be that way. The editors, reviewers, and professional conferences were remote; "God is in heaven and the Tsar is far away" as the Russians used to say. My department and especially my students were always right there; I was not capable of just shutting them off.

So I was not as productive as the system wanted me to be; the people I talked to kept telling me I wasn't quite ready to go up for promotion. The editor of my second book, who was actually the same person who edited my first book, stopped answering my emails, despite his initial enthusiasm and my dutifully complying with his requests for revision. I not only was dissatisfied with my job, I felt as was failing at it.

Then one day it happened. I asked myself why I got into the profession; what did I want to get out of it? The answer threw me for a complete loop. I wanted to prove that I was really good at this stuff, as good as anyone else. Then I realized I'd already accomplished that. Some of the best people in the world admired my work, several were friends of mine. I was published, invited to speak at conferences, asked to contribute to publications. To a certain extent, I was dissatisfied because I had already succeeded; I had achieved what I subconsciously wanted to achieve. I was a great success, but by my own measurements. Who cares what American Higher Ed, or my college and University said I should be doing? Why should I chastise myself for not climbing their silly ladder? Moreover my students really liked me (not that it counted for anything). They said I was a great teacher and, what was really touching and sad at the same time, they said I was one of the few professors that seemed to care whether they learned or not. (BTW, I never got any of the teaching awards.) I'm friends with a number of my former students to this day.

With that, I sat down with my dear and very knowledgeable husband, did some financial calculations, and applied for early retirement as soon as I could. I am the better and happier for it.

College Hoops

As March is just around the corner, and since I am a devoted alumnus of Villanova and Duke, I thought it might be worth mentioning some amusing organizational peculiarities of NCAA basketball.

• The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is nowhere near the Mideast
• The Big 10 has 18 teams
• The Big 12 has 16
• The Big East Conference has 11 members; all but 1 are Catholic institutions (I was hoping they'd call it the Pontifical League) and the "East" stretches as far as Nebraska (big indeed); all but 1 school have blue as one of their school colors
  
• The Atlantic Coast Conference includes, in geographical order, Notre Dame, Southern Methodist U, Stanford, and the University of California

Random Thought of the Day

We have gone to the moon; we have sent probes out beyond the solar system; we have harnessed the power of the sun. Why can't we create an Elmer's glue bottle that doesn't clog?

A Fine Representation of my Prevailing Psycho-Social Disposition

 

DC Tidbit

The presidential helicopter detail takes regular, daily practice runs up and down the Potomac from Joint Base Andrews just outside of DC. I've noticed that the past couple of days, they been flying (low & loud) over our condo complex. My guess is that helicopters are avoiding the river and the approaches to Washington National Apt. No big surprise there...

A Superb Visual Representation...

 ...of last November's electorate.

Abby Normal

   

See: "Young Frankenstein" (below)

 

Jollities (with maybe just a touch of sarcasm)

 

 

 

Carl Sagan Speaks a Frightening Truth

☞☞☞ There are two kinds of dangers

Good Morning

 

On Stoicism

I have mentioned my devotion to Stoicism and the benefits I find in it for the times we live in, so I thought I should say something more about it. I'll just give a bit of historical background first, 'cause that's how I roll, but my aim is more to talk about what I find in it.

 

Stoicism was founded in the ancient Agora (the public square) of Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. From that start, Stoicism boasts some 700 years of continuous evolution, most importantly in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, Stoic teachers spread the philosophy to Rome where it soon became favored by the aristocracy. It remained predominant among aristocrats and intellectuals of the empire for centuries to come, boasting Cicero and the emperor Marcus Aurelius among its adherents. In what can be called its Roman form, Stoicism placed a heavy emphasis on the practical issue of how best to live a serene and ethical life in a world that seems to militate against such an endeavor. In this, the chief figure is Epictetus (c. 50 – c. 135 CE) whose writings form the body of Stoic philosophy that has come down to us.

We can sum up Epictetus' philosophy in just two simple maxims:

-- Only seek to control those things which are under your control.

-- Nothing external to ourselves is under our control; the only thing under our control is how

    we react to things external to ourselves.

There you have it. What makes us miserable is not the events of our world and life, but rather the destructive emotions we conjure in reaction to those events. Overcoming destructive emotions, "to be free from anger, envy, and jealousies" means realizing that such passions are a disturbing and misleading force in the mind, which occurs because of a failure to reason correctly. Life hasn't been fair to me; whatever made you think that life was supposed to be fair? My boyfriend dumped me; isn't this something that happens all the time around the world--what makes you think you're exempt? I'm sick; you thought you had some sort of guarantee of perpetual health? The president is an idiot; has any society created a safeguard against bad leaders? It is not the events that cause us distress; it is our reaction to them that causes us pain. And our reaction to events is the one thing that IS under our control. Some of you may recognize that some contemporary psychological therapies are built on exactly this principle: the work of Albert Ellis, who developed rational emotive behavior therapy (RET), and Aaron T. Beck who is regarded by many as the father of early versions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and many other works of recovery literature also echo these principles. As the common consolatory adage goes: "It's not the end of the world."
 

It's important to realize that, contrary to the common understanding of the word, a Stoic does not attempt not to feel, indeed the Stoic is expected to have very strong feelings. What the philosophy offers is a way not to be overwhelmed by feelings. 

The Stoics realize that though this sounds simple, it is not easy to accomplish. Indeed, the Stoics believed that perfection in achieving this goal is impossible, and the ancient Stoics referred to themselves simply as "those who are making progress" (you may get a whiff of Buddhism in this; you wouldn't be the first to note similarities). Philosophy for a Stoic is not just a set of beliefs or ethical claims; it is a way of life involving constant practice and training, an active process of constant practice and self-reminder. What might be called "spiritual exercises" are required. Epictetus himself wrote a short handbook of meditations for this purpose called the Enchiridion (the Greek word for Handbook). If you're interested in Stoicism, this is a great place to start to familiarize yourself. A very accessible translation is on line at https://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html and there are all sorts of translations and editions on Amazon for only a few bucks. Marcus Aurelius himself also wrote a book of Stoic exercises called the Meditations, also widely available. On Stoicism generally, there's Wikipedia, which has a decent entry; likely better is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/).

 

Hope I didn't bore you too much!