Did anyone catch Frederica Freyberg's interview of Biddy Martin on WI Public TV. How and why will she be running our flagship UW?
Very uninspiring and not very polished in this interview, one wonders what leadership abilities she has. Was she the best applicant? If she was, that truly was a sorry lot!
I imagine her term in office will be both short and unproductive.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Why Does This Feel Creepy?
I've had either good fortune or bad fortune lately to find two music artists that I really, really like. It is great these days because you can find these websites and on-line radio stations playing all different types of music and geared to unique musical tastes. For example, I'm sure if one looked hard enough one could probably find a website featuring ska-polka bands!
But here is my dilemma: two recent artists that I've found and like are dead! They weren't old when they died and both tragically died of cancer. In both cases, I heard them a few times on-line and they grew on me. Zip out to eBay and pick up some CD's, google the artists and BAM----they're dead and have been for several years.
It feels weird to really enjoy their work and to know that their body of work is finite. I can't really look forward to that new release 'cause there isn't going to be one. That is what feels creepy: I enjoy their music but unfortunately they met an early death and there is nothing to look forward to, it is just this finite body of work.
But here is my dilemma: two recent artists that I've found and like are dead! They weren't old when they died and both tragically died of cancer. In both cases, I heard them a few times on-line and they grew on me. Zip out to eBay and pick up some CD's, google the artists and BAM----they're dead and have been for several years.
It feels weird to really enjoy their work and to know that their body of work is finite. I can't really look forward to that new release 'cause there isn't going to be one. That is what feels creepy: I enjoy their music but unfortunately they met an early death and there is nothing to look forward to, it is just this finite body of work.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
NY Times & McCain
Hmmm….
The New York Times, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23263742/?GT1=10856, is running an expose on the premise that Sen John McCain was friendly with a lobbyist. It takes great pains to point out that while some of his staff have said there was no illicit romantic affair, they wanted to make sure that one didn’t happen. And nothing happened either, but they just wanted to make sure the public didn’t get the wrong idea. Mind you this was all eight years ago.
Elsewhere we find Sen Barrack Obama completing a sweetheart deal in 2005 with the now indicted Tony Rezko to buy his multi-million dollar house. There was no appearance of impropriety in the deal, there was actual impropriety. For what ever reason, The Trib is the only real media outlet that is covering this saga in depth, http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-rezko-arrested_webjan29,0,6857272.story.
Which one is the bigger story, the one about McCain not having an affair but gasp, looking like he might have an affair or the one about Obama doing a real estate deal with a now indicted lobbyist?
Yep, I guess we know the answer!
The New York Times, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23263742/?GT1=10856, is running an expose on the premise that Sen John McCain was friendly with a lobbyist. It takes great pains to point out that while some of his staff have said there was no illicit romantic affair, they wanted to make sure that one didn’t happen. And nothing happened either, but they just wanted to make sure the public didn’t get the wrong idea. Mind you this was all eight years ago.
Elsewhere we find Sen Barrack Obama completing a sweetheart deal in 2005 with the now indicted Tony Rezko to buy his multi-million dollar house. There was no appearance of impropriety in the deal, there was actual impropriety. For what ever reason, The Trib is the only real media outlet that is covering this saga in depth, http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-rezko-arrested_webjan29,0,6857272.story.
Which one is the bigger story, the one about McCain not having an affair but gasp, looking like he might have an affair or the one about Obama doing a real estate deal with a now indicted lobbyist?
Yep, I guess we know the answer!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Radio Obama
If I hear one more Obama radio spot……
Ya know the one, the one with “CEO’s who earn more in 10 minutes than the average worker earns in 1 year. Yep, that one!
Let’s do the math shall we:
$48,201 Average annual salary per US Census Bureau 2006
x 6 1 hour divided by 10 minutes
x 2,080 Annual hours worked
$601,548,000 Obama’s mythical CEO Salary
Exactly how many corporate CEO’s are earning this? Pretty much none. Look at the Fortune or Forbes data. To be sure, some CEO’s have cashed out stock options and retirement benefits that are mind-boggling but these folks are an exception rather than the rule. By the same token I’ve known some individuals who worked in R&D at a local consumer products company (guess who, they are out of Texas but used to be headquartered here until taxes made them flee south) who retired with about $2 million between 401(k) plans and other retirement money. They’ve worked hard for a 30+ year career and became successful. Want to nail them, too?
This Obama ad is pandering to the “stick it to the rich” segment and the “all corporations are evil” mentality.
It is going to be interesting to say the least.
Ya know the one, the one with “CEO’s who earn more in 10 minutes than the average worker earns in 1 year. Yep, that one!
Let’s do the math shall we:
$48,201 Average annual salary per US Census Bureau 2006
x 6 1 hour divided by 10 minutes
x 2,080 Annual hours worked
$601,548,000 Obama’s mythical CEO Salary
Exactly how many corporate CEO’s are earning this? Pretty much none. Look at the Fortune or Forbes data. To be sure, some CEO’s have cashed out stock options and retirement benefits that are mind-boggling but these folks are an exception rather than the rule. By the same token I’ve known some individuals who worked in R&D at a local consumer products company (guess who, they are out of Texas but used to be headquartered here until taxes made them flee south) who retired with about $2 million between 401(k) plans and other retirement money. They’ve worked hard for a 30+ year career and became successful. Want to nail them, too?
This Obama ad is pandering to the “stick it to the rich” segment and the “all corporations are evil” mentality.
It is going to be interesting to say the least.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Dick Clark
A post about Dick Clark? You've got to be kidding, right?
Mrs Glib Replies and me-self are at that age where New Years Eve is spent watching TV with a bottle of cold duck and a bag of beer nuts wondering and worrying where/what the little Glib Repliers are doing. That said, we happened upon Dick Clark tonight.
If you are a certain age you will remember Dick Clark and American Bandstand as something you watched on TV but didn't want to admit it to your friends. Kind of like Tony Palmeri watching Bill O'Reilly. We know it happens but it is best not talked about.
Anyway, let me be the first to congratulate him on coming back. He is a prime example, and this had been noted in the media extensively, of an aphasic stroke survivor. That is to say the stroke largely affected his ability to speak but fortunately, not much else.
I suspect there will be a few in the entertainment media who will say, as a result of his broadcast, that he should've packed it in. Screw 'em I say! Courage to come New Years TV? Ya, you betcha! You could see and hear him warm up and his delivery get better during his broadcast.
The broadcast media should be more representative of the general population and having Dick Clark on TV, during one of the most watched shows, with his aphasia is step towards that goal.
Mrs Glib Replies and me-self are at that age where New Years Eve is spent watching TV with a bottle of cold duck and a bag of beer nuts wondering and worrying where/what the little Glib Repliers are doing. That said, we happened upon Dick Clark tonight.
If you are a certain age you will remember Dick Clark and American Bandstand as something you watched on TV but didn't want to admit it to your friends. Kind of like Tony Palmeri watching Bill O'Reilly. We know it happens but it is best not talked about.
Anyway, let me be the first to congratulate him on coming back. He is a prime example, and this had been noted in the media extensively, of an aphasic stroke survivor. That is to say the stroke largely affected his ability to speak but fortunately, not much else.
I suspect there will be a few in the entertainment media who will say, as a result of his broadcast, that he should've packed it in. Screw 'em I say! Courage to come New Years TV? Ya, you betcha! You could see and hear him warm up and his delivery get better during his broadcast.
The broadcast media should be more representative of the general population and having Dick Clark on TV, during one of the most watched shows, with his aphasia is step towards that goal.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Going Home
I was able to visit my hometown over Christmas. While there, I was able to get in touch with a good friend from my high school and undergrad days. We hadn’t connected in about 8 years.
It was a bittersweet visit with him. As a young adult, the world was waiting for him. A natural and gifted athlete, he was out-going and made friends easily. He had a very marketable undergrad degree from a Big Ten School and he landed an internship that he parlayed into a great and lucrative job upon graduation. I was jealous of him then. I was still plugging away in school looking to become a social worker and he had this great job. As well, he had just gotten married and bought a house. He looked like a great success story and I used to second-guess my chosen educational and upcoming career path.
Fast-forward 20 years and boy oh boy how the times change.
He is on his third marriage now, run into some legal challenges for himself and he has stepchildren who are on a first name basis with the local DA. His once promising career evaporated years ago and he bounces around now in jobs that aren’t in any fashion related to his education, abilities or intelligence.
People making wrong choices, well, I’ve seen a ton of ‘em. I usually have a bit of que sera sera attitude when I see it professionally with colleagues or students. This one hits close to home and it makes me uncomfortable. I realize I shouldn’t be sad for him, or me either I might add. But, I still wonder what went wrong and wonder what could’ve been.
It was a bittersweet visit with him. As a young adult, the world was waiting for him. A natural and gifted athlete, he was out-going and made friends easily. He had a very marketable undergrad degree from a Big Ten School and he landed an internship that he parlayed into a great and lucrative job upon graduation. I was jealous of him then. I was still plugging away in school looking to become a social worker and he had this great job. As well, he had just gotten married and bought a house. He looked like a great success story and I used to second-guess my chosen educational and upcoming career path.
Fast-forward 20 years and boy oh boy how the times change.
He is on his third marriage now, run into some legal challenges for himself and he has stepchildren who are on a first name basis with the local DA. His once promising career evaporated years ago and he bounces around now in jobs that aren’t in any fashion related to his education, abilities or intelligence.
People making wrong choices, well, I’ve seen a ton of ‘em. I usually have a bit of que sera sera attitude when I see it professionally with colleagues or students. This one hits close to home and it makes me uncomfortable. I realize I shouldn’t be sad for him, or me either I might add. But, I still wonder what went wrong and wonder what could’ve been.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Home Schooled Students
Twas a few days after grades were turned and all through the campus not a professor stirred, not even the early tenure hopefuls.
My grades had been posted and several malt beverages had been toasted.
An what should appear at my door?
Was it Prancer, was it Dancer?
No!
It was that bore!
The one who was home schooled and taught by mom.
He had just found out his grade in my class had been a bomb.
This has never happened to me before, I've always done well.
I replied with a huff and a snort, I'm a teaching professional and not your mother.
I give credit where credit is due.
And unfortunately young man, the grade you've earned is true!
So away to the parking lot I did fly
And with a tip of my hat, I bade him good-bye!
(My sincerest apologies to the fine English faculty over in Radford!)
My grades had been posted and several malt beverages had been toasted.
An what should appear at my door?
Was it Prancer, was it Dancer?
No!
It was that bore!
The one who was home schooled and taught by mom.
He had just found out his grade in my class had been a bomb.
This has never happened to me before, I've always done well.
I replied with a huff and a snort, I'm a teaching professional and not your mother.
I give credit where credit is due.
And unfortunately young man, the grade you've earned is true!
So away to the parking lot I did fly
And with a tip of my hat, I bade him good-bye!
(My sincerest apologies to the fine English faculty over in Radford!)
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