Legal niceties
This is (or was when I photographed it in January 2011) the brass plate of an august Dutch law firm in The Hague. It brought to mind Private Eye’s cod London law firm, Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Run, of blessed memory.
Quote of the Day
”Everything is controlled by a small evil group to which, unfortunately, no one we know belongs.”
- Woody Allen
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Duke Ellington | I’m Beginning To See The Light
I’m glad someone can.
Long Read of the Day
Kim Jong Trump
Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the date of the unconditional surrender of Nazi forces in Europe on May 8, 1945. The historian Adam Tooze had a nice piece (Gift article) on anniversaries in the Financial Times. But he didn’t anticipate how Trump would exploit the anniversary, so he’s written an interesting Substack post as a follow-on.
Basically, Trump has decided to appropriate not only VE Day but also Armistice Day (November 11) for his own purposes!
Screenshot
This isn’t just trolling, but also historical revisionism on steroids. Tooze does some nice work on itemising the extent of Trump’s authoritarian delusions, and both of his pieces are worth reading.
Also, just to underline what Trump learned from Kim Jong Un in his first term, there is going to be a huge military parade in Washington on 14 June, which happens to be the US Supreme Leader’s birthday!
My commonplace booklet
Screenshot
Matt, the Daily Telegraph’s cartoonist is a genius. He’s also just about the only reason for buying the paper.
Linkblog
Following the Trump Administration’s new-found interest in managing universities, Ryan Weber, has been getting on board with the new reality
Introducing Our University’s New, Totally Reasonable Criteria for Promotion and Tenure
Teaching
Teaching is a cornerstone of this university, as evidenced by the mission statement posted on our website, which currently leads to a 404 error page. We have no idea how to evaluate teaching, so to receive tenure, you must accomplish all of the following, plus several additional things we haven’t thought of yet:
Lose a month of sleep over one negative student evaluation despite receiving thirty-seven positive comments from the same class.
Win at least three teaching awards from our university and at least one teaching award from another university you don’t work at.
Get students to embrace at least three disappearing cultural touchstones from your youth, such as Rocko’s Modern Life, the Cabbage Patch dance, that “Summer Girls” song by LFO, or the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito film Twins.
Inspire at least twenty students to throw their lives away by going to graduate school…
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