Weekend Wonk
Rainy Day
Jerome Shea June 1, 2008
Sometimes a wonk is right there in front of you, hiding in plain sight. I realized this as I was casting about for a proper wonk subject yesterday, driving up Second Street with my windshield wipers on “intermittent.” It was raining! That is why I was feeling so deeply satisfied! It was a genuine …
Descansos
Jerome Shea May 18, 2008
Descanso, in case the Spanish term is new to you, means “resting place.” In practical application, it refers to the embellished roadside crosses—shrines, in effect—erected where people have been killed in traffic accidents. One is tempted to say—and some would say it with angry conviction—that New …
Danny Boy
Jerome Shea May 11, 2008
Perhaps the best part of my rediscovery of Paul Robeson was listening to his rendition of “Danny Boy.” “I guess it’s not just for tenors anymore,” I mused. We all feel, I think, that Irish tenors have a lock on that perennial favorite. Not so. Basses have sung it. Groups have sung it. Women have …
Paul Robeson
Jerome Shea May 4, 2008
Last month I promised you a wonk on Paul Robeson, one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century. Only one (older) student in my UNM class knew who Paul Robeson was. If that survey is at all representative, I would like to try to remedy it in some small way. Robeson, the whole man, needs to …
Apologetic Mac
Dan Shea April 27, 2008
MY SOON-TO-BE-EX-COMPUTER SENSES THAT I’VE BEEN SHOPPING AROUND FOR A NEW LAPTOP To: Dan Shea From: Serious Mac Date: 02/14/08 Subject: Why Dan? Dan, This is your trusty desktop computer. You know, the big fat white iMac G4 on your desk (whom you’ve neglected to properly name in the last …
Drowning in the Danube
Jerome Shea April 22, 2008
So not long before E. D. Hirsch got his shorts in a bunch over the fact that the latest generation did not know the facts that they should know and therefore were in danger of becoming culturally illiterate, “Trivial Pursuit” hit the market and became an instant and enduring success. Is this a …
Danube Revisited
Jerome Shea April 13, 2008
Last week I undertook a half-hearted defense of E. D. Hirsch’s cultural literacy idea. In truth, though, it does have the odor of the flaky about it. For one thing, it points up how uncomfortable we are with the whole idea of so-called facts: what I know is indispensable knowledge; what you know …
On Not Knowing Where the Danube Is
Jerome Shea April 6, 2008
So last week I expressed dismay, to put it mildly, over the young woman on the quiz show who did not know where the Danube River was located. I promised—or maybe “threatened” is more apt—a follow-up wonk. This did not sit well with the Longsuffering Diana, who saw trouble ahead: her husband becoming …
Potpourri
Jerome Shea March 30, 2008
Yes, a grab bag, and I reserve the right to enlarge on some of these ideas and crochets in future wonks. So many things seem to be coming in, most of them absurd. For example, the other night I was channel surfing and stopped momentarily at a cheesy quiz show called “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth …
Staying Put II
Jerome Shea March 22, 2008
This idea of mobility is easy to oversimplify and of course is also a matter of degree. There are people who, for whatever reasons, move every couple of years and often over great distances; there are others who are born, live, and die in the same house in the same town. Some are proverbial rolling …