Gifts Outright

"Chocolate Stripe, Dester, Pink Brandywine, Chocolate Cherry, Cherokee Purple, German Orange..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:23:53 -0500

“Chocolate Stripe, Dester, Pink Brandywine, Chocolate Cherry, Cherokee Purple, German Orange Strawberry, Yellow Pear, Beauty King, Jujube Cherry, Tess’s Land Race Current, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Granny Cantrell, Cream Sausage, Striped Roman, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Golova Negra, Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, Pink Bumble Bee, and Rebel Yell.”

- Varieties of heirloom tomatoes planted by my mother.

Heirloom tomato names are pure Americana.

My own small garden holds Kellogg’s Breakfast, Pink Brandywine, Carbon, Black Krim, White Tomesol, Black Cherry, Purple Calabash, and Cherokee Purple. My Yellow Riesentraube, alas, died.

"In other words, the Midwest—yes, that “archaic” and “backward” region sandwiched between the coastal..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:23:23 -0500

“In other words, the Midwest—yes, that “archaic” and “backward” region sandwiched between the coastal divine—has its own history and personality. Each culture, whether it is the sophisticated populations of the social elite or the grounded traditions of rural society, is distinct. In the distinct there is beauty. And rather than stifle those rural and sometimes rustic cultures, embrace them. They are America. They matter.”

- “The Significance of Midwestern Personality,” The Mackinaw Valley Institute, which needs to have a RSS or Twitter feed or an email subscription or SOME way of keeping up with them.

" But why is the investing in such amenities problematic? Because colleges borrowed heavily to create..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:42:00 -0500

“

But why is the investing in such amenities problematic? Because colleges borrowed heavily to create them at a very bad time to go deeply into debt, and in the naïve belief that their amenities would be uniquely wonderful. But if everyone is doing it, or has already done it, then the amenities cancel each other out, leaving schools with the old problem: how do we distinguish what we have to offer from what everyone else has to offer?

How about this? Maybe someone could have the imagination to say: By the quality of our teaching. I am waiting for some bold college president to come forth and say, “You won’t find especially nice dorms at our college. They’re clean and neat, but there’s nothing fancy about them. We don’t have a climbing wall. Our food services offer simple food, made as often as possible with fresh ingredients, but we couldn’t call it gourmet eating. There are no 55-inch flat-screen TVs in the lounges of our dorms. We don’t have these amenities because we decided instead to invest in full-time, permanent faculty who are genuinely dedicated to teaching and advising you well and preparing you for life after college. So if you want the state-of-the-art rec center, that’s cool, but just remember that the price you’ll pay for that is to have most of your classes taught by graduate students and contingent faculty, the first of whom won’t have the experience and the second of whom won’t have the time to be the kind of teachers you need (even when, as is often the case, they really want to be). Our priorities here are pretty much the reverse of those that dominate many other schools. So think about that, and make a wise decision.”

”

- Alan Jacobs.

My two undergraduate alma maters are both well-positioned to make this sort of move if they wanted, because as small, Midwestern religious colleges they will never, ever compete on gleaming amenities. They could even make a related claim about fostering really excellent community, as small colleges. Yet although it’s true that these schools don’t rely on adjuncts nearly as heavily as research universities, I don’t see either making anything like this appeal.

"E.O. Wilson recently complained that the humanities offer an “incomplete” account of culture, ethics..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 10:19:54 -0500

“E.O. Wilson recently complained that the humanities offer an “incomplete” account of culture, ethics and consciousness (and kindly offered to complete the account by removing the humanities from the picture completely). What Wilson sees as a bug is in fact a feature. The humanities are and should be incomplete by design—that is, there should be no technology or methodology which we might imagine as a future possibility that would permit complete knowledge achieved via humane inquiry nor should we ever want such a thing to begin with.”

- More from Timothy Burke.

This whole post is gold, really.

"First, let’s leave aside the rhetoric of ‘crisis’. Yes, if we’re talking about the humanities in..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 10:17:25 -0500

“First, let’s leave aside the rhetoric of ‘crisis’. Yes, if we’re talking about the humanities in academia, there are changes that might be called a crisis: fewer majors, less resources, a variety of vigorous attacks on humanistic practice from inside and outside the academy. Are the subjects of the humanities: expressive culture, everyday practices, meaning and interpretation, philosophy and theory of human life, etc. going to end? No. Will there be study and commentary upon those subjects in the near-term future? Yes. There will be a humanities, even if its location, authority and character will be much more unstable than they were in the last century. If we want to speak about and defend the future of the humanities with confidence, it is important to to concede that a highly specific organizational structuring of the highly specific institution of American higher education is not synonymous with humane inquiry as a whole. Humane ways of knowing and interpreting the world have had a lively, forceful existence in other kinds of institutions and social lives in the past and could again in the future. To some extent, we should defend the importance of humane thinking without specific regard for the manner of its institutionalization in part to make clear just how important we think it is. (E.g., that our defense is not predicated on self-interest.) Even if we think (as I do) that the academic humanities are the best show in town when it comes to thinking humanely.”

- Timothy Burke on the “humanities crisis.”

I don’t actually agree with him that the academic humanities are “the best show in town,” and therefore support this point all the more fully.

"Sure, we’ve got dozens of astronauts, physicists, and demolitions experts. I’ll be damned if we..."

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:33:34 -0500

““Sure, we’ve got dozens of astronauts, physicists, and demolitions experts. I’ll be damned if we didn’t try to train our best men for this mission. But just because they can fly a shuttle and understand higher-level astrophysics doesn’t mean they can execute a unique mission like this. Anyone can learn how to land a spacecraft on a rocky asteroid flying through space at twelve miles per second. I don’t need some pencilneck with four Ph.D’s, one-thousand hours of simulator time, and the ability to operate a robot crane in low-Earth orbit. I need someone with four years of broad-but-humanities-focused studies, three subsequent years in temp jobs, and the ability to reason across multiple areas of study.””

- McSweeny’s (via portraitoftheartistasayoungman)

What Didn't Make It Into The Bible?

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:15:07 -0500

What Didn't Make It Into The Bible?:

invisibleforeigner:

I clicked the link and it turned out to be Bart Ehrman. Of course.

“For anyone interested in knowing what the earliest Christians thought about Christ, and God, and many other things, these books are indispensable. On top of that, they can be terrific reading.”

This is what I like to see: Ron Swanson smacks down Bart Ehrman.

"Most game theory, he noted, treats players as equally “rational” parties sitting across a..."

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:44:00 -0500

“

Most game theory, he noted, treats players as equally “rational” parties sitting across a chessboard. But many situations, Mr. Chwe points out, involve parties with unequal levels of strategic thinking. Sometimes a party may simply lack ability. But sometimes a powerful party faced with a weaker one may not realize it even needs to think strategically.

Take the scene in “Pride and Prejudice” where Lady Catherine de Bourgh demands that Elizabeth Bennet promise not to marry Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth refuses to promise, and Lady Catherine repeats this to Mr. Darcy as an example of her insolence — not realizing that she is helping Elizabeth indirectly signal to Mr. Darcy that she is still interested.

It’s a classic case of cluelessness, which is distinct from garden-variety stupidity, Mr. Chwe argues.

”

- Jane Austen as Game Theorist.

EDIT: I shouldn’t post dismissive comments about a book based on an NYT profile, so *poof.*

"It is not possible to come up with an adequate “defense of literature,” because “literature” doesn’t..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:27:06 -0500

“

It is not possible to come up with an adequate “defense of literature,” because “literature” doesn’t exist: too many wildly different kinds of plays and stories and poems and songs fall under that useless rubric. Defenses of specific works, or specific authors, or even specific ways of reading specific works or authors, might be possible and useful; but nothing broader than that.

And maybe we should remember also these words from George Orwell: “There is no argument by which one can defend a poem. It defends itself by surviving, or it is indefensible.”

”

- Alan Jacobs, “Can Literature Be Defended?”

Cosign.

"Further, in this method of preaching only three statements, or the equivalent of three, are used in..."

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:31:53 -0500

“Further, in this method of preaching only three statements, or the equivalent of three, are used in the theme—either from respect to the Trinity, or because a threefold cord is not easily broken, or because this method is mostly followed by Bernard, or, as I think more likely, because it is more convenient for the set time of the sermon. A preacher can follow up just so many members without tiring his hearers; and if he should mention fewer, he would occupy too little time.”

- Robert of Basevorn, The Form of Preaching (1322), trans. Leopold Krul O.S.B.

There you have it, folks: three points to every sermon as far back as the Middle Ages. (Also, I love how candid Robert is about the real reason why the preacher should use three points.)

"To be alive: not just the carcass But the spark. That’s crudely put, but … If we’re not supposed to..."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:54:17 -0500

“To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That’s crudely put, but …

If we’re not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?”

- Gregory Orr

A poem I remembered today, at the end of a really, really long and difficult week.

(via invisibleforeigner)

alissawilkinson: The Lamp I write in order to comprehend not...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:41:36 -0500

alissawilkinson:

The Lamp

I write in order to comprehend not to express myself

I don’t grasp anything I’m not ashamed to…

View Post

This is lovely.

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:26:00 -0500

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

- - Ralph Waldo Emerson (via theladycheeky)

Man, Emerson was an idiot. I’m sure there’s some context to this quote that makes it sound less like New Agey pablum, but … you know, nah. There probably isn’t.

EDIT: Knowing the Internet, it’s possible that Emerson never said this. While acknowledging the possibility, I’m not going to take the time to find out, because I’ve read “Self-Reliance” and therefore don’t really need further proof of Emerson’s idiocy.

"The Medieval Latin word universitas has no reference to the scope of the curriculum of studies; it..."

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:08:29 -0500

“The Medieval Latin word universitas has no reference to the scope of the curriculum of studies; it stands for the whole gathering, the whole body, of a particular class of persons, and indeed stands very near in meaning to the modern ‘union’ in the term ‘trade union.’ It is all but synonymous, for legal purposes, with the Latin term collegium, and for social comparisons, with the old English word guild. The universitas was first of all the whole body either of the masters or of the students, and then very naturally came to mean their self-governing guild or society. The word did not gain its local or educational connotation till the last phase of the middle ages.”

- David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (1962)

onlyfoolsandvikings: Motivational Megafauna, they’re extinct...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:07:03 -0500

onlyfoolsandvikings:

Motivational Megafauna, they’re extinct but they are proud of you.

"So I am here now, far from home, an iPhone my only tricorder, on a planet with no regard for the..."

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:29:31 -0500

“So I am here now, far from home, an iPhone my only tricorder, on a planet with no regard for the comforts of Class M. I do not love it anymore than I loved New York, than I loved learning to swim, than I loved learning to write, than I loved my folk. I hate being alone. I hate the unfamiliar. I want burgers, fries and beer. And I want it English. Somewhere, I am convinced, that there is a man who lives just like that. But all my baptism are bloddy [sic], and I know now that whether I love is pointless. I know that I could, because I’ve loved difficult things before. Even now part of me is blooming, leaning toward another language, angling against home.”

- Ta-Nehisi Coates on visiting Paris. What a beautiful piece of writing on the joys of discomfiting oneself.

pleasetipus: You Too | Read more aprons:...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:09:42 -0500

pleasetipus:

You Too | Read more aprons: http://bit.ly/1573r9y

I DO THIS. And feel instantly embarrassed.

johnthelutheran: Bayeux Tapestry/Winnie-the-Pooh mash-up. I can...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:01:58 -0500

johnthelutheran:

Bayeux Tapestry/Winnie-the-Pooh mash-up. I can die now.

/ht @holland_tom

"Nothing is so beautiful as Spring— When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; ..."

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:01:18 -0500

“

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy,

Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

”

- Gerard Manley Hopkins (via settledthingsstrange)

My favorite Hopkins poem.

"I spent a lot of years trying to turn myself into a brand because they told us self-branding is a..."

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:09:10 -0500

“I spent a lot of years trying to turn myself into a brand because they told us self-branding is a way to success. And I kind of believed the hype. It’s just not true. To this day, I see writers publishing their first book or their second book and I can just see them going overboard with the marketing and getting all hyped up about it. You just have to write. If something good happens for you, post it on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest or wherever you make your social-media home, but don’t overdo it. Enough with the marketing! Enough with the goddamn marketing already! I’m sick of it.”

- Neal Pollack, via @ayjay.