At Mother Jones, a 1985 clip in which Mitt Romney speaks of the work of Bain Capital as a matter of investing in and managing companies before “harvest[ing] them at a significant profit.” If companies, like corporations, are people, my friend, this metaphor is one bloody mess.
Related reading
Other posts mit Mitt
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Happy harvest
SiteSucker
SiteSucker is available from the App Store or from the developer, Rick Cranisky. The app is a bit tricky to figure out. When I e-mailed with a question, Rick sent back a file with settings for downloading a year-by-year archive of Orange Crate Art. Good deal!
On the virtues of “site:”
BrownStudies explains the virtues of “site:” and points to a handy bookmarklet: A shortcut for Googling the current web site.
Orange Crate Art has a “site:” search box in the sidebar. Here’s how to make one.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Stuyvesant students speak
“You could study for two hours and get an 80, or you could take a risk and get a 90.” It seems that for many students at New York’s Stuyvesant High School, the choice was easy: Stuyvesant Students Describe the How and the Why of Cheating (New York Times). This article describes a school in which cheating is rampant and consequences minimal.
I am happy to know that barring some exceedingly strange sequence of events, I will never see one of these students in my classes.
Related posts
Cheating at Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant principal resigns retires
How to fix a Mighty Mouse trackball
For anyone still using Apple’s Mighty Mouse:
When your trackball no longer scrolls, dab it lightly with a disposable lens-cloth. Then turn the mouse upside-down and roll the trackball on a clean index card. Roll in every direction. Be vigorous. Be very vigorous.
I have tried other fixes for the trackball problem without success. The lens-cloth fix — which I just made up and tried out — works. It really works. I was mildly astonished by the amount of gunk set free.
Details: I used a Zeiss “pre-moistened” lens-cloth. It’s available from Amazon and other sources.
For use in “seemingly
intolerable situations”
David Rakoff, from an essay on working as an assistant in publishing:
Sheila taught me a survival technique for getting through seemingly intolerable situations — boring lunches, stern lectures on attitude or time management, those necessary breakup conversations, and the like: maintaining eye contact, keep your face inscrutable and masklike, with the faintest hint at a Gioconda smile. Keep this up as long as you possibly can, and just as you feel you are about to crack and take a letter opener and plunge it into someone’s neck, fold your hands in your lap, one nestled inside the other, like those of a supplicant in a priory. Now, with the index finger of your inner hand, write on the palm of the other, very discreetly and undetectably, “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you . . .” over and over again as you pretend to listen. You will find that this brings a spontaneous look of interest and pleased engagement to your countenance. Continue and repeat as necessary.I believe that hatred is a waste of emotional energy, but I think that this technique is more about endurance than hatred. And I’m sure it will prove useful to someone.
“Lush Life,” in Fraud (New York: Doubleday, 2001).
David Rakoff was a funny guy.
Related listening and viewing
David Rakoff on This American Life
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Domestic comedy
“I haven’t been living under ‘some rocks.’”
Related reading
All domestic comedy posts
[Used with permission. Context here.]
New directions in nuisance calls
I am happy still to have a telephone — a landline. Without it, how would UNKNOWN CALLER get in touch?
We’ve had two calls in the last two days from UNKNOWN CALLER purporting to represent a “research and development firm” in Pennsylvania. The first came in the form of a message, asking to speak to Elaine about a proposal she supposedly submitted. The second call came today. I recognized the number and couldn’t resist picking up. I asked the guy what the proposal was about. “That’s what we want to find out!” said he. Research and development indeed.
“The Writing Revolution”
In the October 2012 Atlantic, Peg Tyre reports on an effort to reimagine the teaching of writing at one Staten Island high school: The Writing Revolution. One brief sample:
“We spent a lot of time wondering how our students had been taught,” said English teacher Stevie D‘Arbanville. “How could they get passed along and end up in high school without understanding how to use the word although?”This article should be required reading for anyone who cares about public education.
[Students also end up in college without understanding how to use although, which is a subordinating conjunction, not a conjunctive adverb.]
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