The Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Grand Central Publishing. 2002. Paperback. 626pgs. $6. I read as often as I can, as much as I can. In my younger years of the 1970s and 80s, in middle school and high school, I would push my dirty clothes against the bottom of my…
College basketball, both men’s and women’s, is my favorite sport. My Seasonal Affective Disorder becomes a mere annoyance closer to March Madness and NCAA Tournament time. The utterance of “bracketology” affects me the way “Christmas” and “Spring Break affects normal people. From December through March my moods follow the play of my favorite teams, teams…
I’ve been meaning to get this essay out for weeks as part of my contribution to Black History Month. I may make my self-imposed deadline of February 28th, but only by a few hours. During the month I ran across two comments which bothered me. One comment was from a white person. One comment was…
A Universe From Nothing. Lawrence M. Krauss. Simon and Schuster. Atria paperback. 202pgs. $15. Cosmology isn’t much different from geography. In fact, cosmologists are the universe’s geographers. Cosmologists study the traits, characteristics, and behaviors of our universe. To conduct such studies cosmologists must map the objects of our universe. Every galactic and intergalactic object has…
At times, I think my Announcements for my classes take on the tone of a blog post. My online students do not have the luxury of the 5-10 minutes I spend each class period harping on attitude, perseverance, discipline, and poor defense and shot-blocking in mid-major NCAA basketball conferences. I have to make up for…
“How To Be Black” by Baratunde Thurston. Harper Paperback. 2012. Kindle Edition. $3 I first ran across Baratunde on Twitter (@baratunde). I use Twitter for personal & professional development. When I declared Facebook bankruptcy years ago, I decided I could not abandon social media altogether. I decided to use Twitter to learn, and to follow…
I’ve taken flack for proselytizing too much on my syllabi. Over the decade-and-a-half or so of being in the classroom, I have taken to being more vocal about the problems I see in students attitudes toward their commitment towards their education. I want things to be congruent. If someone says “my grade is very important…
The notion “reading is studying” needs to be removed from everyone’s brain. Reading alone is not “studying.” Reading is part of the Process of Learning and Study. When a student tells me “I read the chapter” I say, “that’s a good start. Now go back and re-read it 2 more times, and this time, pay…
“Coyote Waits.” Tony Hillerman. Publisher: Harper Torch Fiction. 1990. Paperback. $8 In Navajo mythology the Milky Way was created by the trickster god, Coyote. Coyote also created the world and the Holy People. The Holy People were assigned the task of helping populate the universe with stars. The Holy People were too slow for Coyote’s…
I’m amending my post based on results from the 2012 Presidential Election. Comments by GOP pundits speak directly to my comments below. Both Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer exemplify the anti-rational memes I identify and discuss below. Krauthammer, in fact, argues the GOP platform needs no changes; the GOP simply couldn’t motivate the proper personalities…
Constant Geography 
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