CNN, sheesh

Seen a few minutes ago, not in the ticker but in the chyron:

WH: TRUMP ASKING CONFIDENTS IF KUSHNER DID ANYTHING WRONG

From Garner’s Modern English Usage:

Until 1700 or so, the English word was confident (= a trusty friend or adherent), the correct French forms being confident and confidente. But early in the 18th century, English writers began substituting an -a- for the -e- in the final syllable, perhaps because of the French nasal pronunciation of -ent and -ente.

Today the forms confidant and confidante predominate in both AmE and BrE, though confidante is falling into disuse because of what is increasingly thought to be a needless distinction between males and females.

Dunning K. Trump may still have confidants, but very few people I know have ever been confident in him or in those around him.

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From the Saturday Stumper

A nice clue from today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Lester Ruff, 29-Across, four letters: “Sound of thinking.” No spoilers; the answer is in the comments.

The name “Lester Ruff” appears to be another pseudonym for Stan Newman, the Newsday crossword editor, though this name does not appear on a page explaining Newman’s pseudonyms. Lester Ruff = less rough. But this puzzle was difficult. And now done.

Molly Worthen on assessment

In The New York Times, Molly Worthen writes about assessment in higher education:

It’s true that old-fashioned course grades, skewed by grade inflation and inconsistency among schools and disciplines, can’t tell us everything about what students have learned. But the ballooning assessment industry — including the tech companies and consulting firms that profit from assessment — is a symptom of higher education’s crisis, not a solution to it. It preys especially on less prestigious schools and contributes to the system’s deepening divide into a narrow tier of elite institutions primarily serving the rich and a vast landscape of glorified trade schools for everyone else. . . .

It seems that the pressure to assess student learning outcomes has grown most quickly at poorly funded regional universities that have absorbed a large proportion of financially disadvantaged students, where profound deficits in preparation and resources hamper achievement.

Well, yes. At my poorly funded regional university, assessment fever rages. In my final year of teaching, faculty were directed to include a course-catalogue description and a list of thirty “University Learning Outcomes” in every syllabus — about 480 words of extra content. I managed that with a single-spaced page in 9-point type.

Worthen quotes a British academic, Frank Furedi, whose words apply to any number of American colleges:

“When kids come from backgrounds where they’re the first in their families to go to college, we have to take them seriously, and not flatter them and give them third-rate ideas. They need to be challenged and inspired by the idea of our disciplines. One of the horrible things is that many universities think that giving access to nontraditional students means turning a university into a high school. That’s not giving them access to higher education.”

See also this post on higher education as a two-tier system: “A fully realized adult person.”

[Thanks to Matt Thomas, without whom I would have missed this Times piece. I’ve put two separate comments from Furedi together for ease of reading.]

Yet another Henry gum machine

[Henry, March 2, 2017.]

Where would we be without streetside mirrors? Oh — in modern times.

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And still more gum machines
Henry : Henry : Henry : Perry Mason : Henry : Henry : Henry : Henry : Henry : Henry : Henry : Henry : Henry

Aldi coffee

An Aldi find: German Roasted Ground Coffee, 17.6 ounces for $4.99. The package says “robust & creamy,” and it’s true: this coffee is especially rich, with a thickness that makes me think of cocoa. Disclaimer: I’m not a fancy-pants coffee drinker. I don’t roast beans or use a scale or thermometer. But I like a good cup of coffee. Pairs well with UPC.

10p coins, A to Z

From the Royal Mint, ten-pence coins, celebrating British culture from A to Z. The art is sometimes off: F, for fish and chips, is ghastly. But at least T is tea. “Us Brits love a cup of tea,” says the Mint. (Really.) More here: “Q Is for Queuing” (The New York Times).

All Illinois is divided into three parts

I listened tonight to a radio debate among the Democratic candidates for Illinois governor. The most interesting of them, by far: Robert Marshall. Said he: “I have ideas that nobody has.” Though I’m not sure that’s what one might want in a governor.

Among this candidate’s ideas: dividing Illinois into three states. Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, the issues page of the candidate’s website makes no mention of this proposal. And clicking on the link Governor Race yields only the announcement “Content Coming Soon.” But an explanation of the three-state solution can be found in an “introductory news release.”

[Post title with apologies to Julius Caesar.]

From China to Washington

“Advice to Washington from Ancient China,” assembled by Eliot Weinberger. For instance: “A country that can be said to be lost is not one without a ruler but one without laws.”

NYRB sale

New York Review Books is having a winter sale, fifty books at half price. Of those fifty, I can recommend Hans Herbert Grimm’s Schlump, James Schuyler’s Alfred and Guinevere, and Robert Walser’s Berlin Stories. But really, I’d recommend anything from the list. Our household has had worlds of reading open to us via NYRB. See, for instance, the previous post.

From Beware of Pity

Fourteen pages ago, Anton Hofmiller was realizing the importance of meaning something to others. Now things are different:


Stefan Zweig, Beware of Pity, trans. Phyllis and Trevor Blewitt (New York: New York Review Books, 2006).

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