In the first place, Wilbert Rideau and many other former prisoners and wardens, as well as a Federal judge or two, all deserve more credit for the reforms at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola there than does the dishonest and incredibly self serving current warden, Burl Cain. I am amazed at how Cain has … More On Bluffing
The LSAT differs from the GRE and other standardized tests I have taken in that the question is what is the flaw in the argument, not what is the point of the paragraph. This is difficult because the questions are written to be deceptive. That means you have to read very closely and my training … More Pasodoble
In General Relaxing evenings, getting up early, time in the gym and at the pool, some sort of nature time maybe, except that I will not try to pretend I enjoy Louisiana nature if I do not. I will not force anything but I do want to see natural water every and I remind myself … More My Summer-to-Fall Plan
1. As the astute reader knows, I have this blog because I do not have an analyst. I spend a great amount of time writing myself through emotional pain, pain I might not suffer if I simply changed my life, but which I must get control of in order to be able to change my … More Progress
As we know, I am fascinated with Working It Out. I need to put this volume aside, though, so as to pore over other things. I also think I will see some things in it more clearly still if I come back to it later, yet I do not want to leave it unfinished on … More Miriam Schapiro, Celia Gilbert
I am becoming myself again at long last; I can feel my life flowing back to me. On the radio they are discussing managing your (musical) career “as though it were a work of art itself” and I like the concept. * I am still reading Working It Out which is a really epoch making … More Adrienne Rich
In the late 1950s Evelyn Fox Keller, then a PhD student, was the object of a rather successful demoralization campaign in the Department of Physics at Harvard University (Working It Out, 77-91). Why she was admitted to the program if her abilities were not in fact trusted is a fair question whose answer, I wager, … More Evelyn Fox Keller
Research for the present, frivolous post led me to a marvelous quotation: “Do you know the sum total of my ambition? It’s to have an intelligent, well-read man shut himself up with my book for four hours and to give him an orgy of historical hashish. That’s all I want.” –GF, January 1860 (apud Henri … More Gustave Flaubert
I was born already tired of hearing about Tillie Olsen because in graduate school, the older students would insist she be included on every woman related syllabus, and they evinced some sort of secret knowledge that she was the answer (she was always to be assigned as the final reading in the course, the period). … More Tillie Olsen
Marilyn Young has had a very interesting career. In her essay in Working It Out (213-227), you can see that she thought of herself as a professional historian far sooner in life than I or most people I knew in graduate school in the eighties did. I do not really know why this is or … More Working It Out: Marilyn Young
coldhearted scientist وداد 