Saturday, March 12, 2011

Short takes on the week

  • Marc C. Carnes's article on Reacting to the Past (history as RPG) is inspiring--really. I almost wrote "inspiriting," and it's that, too. It made me want to adapt some of these techniques for my own discipline. I already do some of this research-based and team-based role-playing as a learning technique, but this makes me want to do it more systematically.
  • Dr. Crazy has a good post about "The Path to Full" and takes on the secret fear of "am I stalled at associate"?
  • Tenured Radical has a good post about the practical dimensions of using research libraries.
  • Historiann has taken this fabulous picture of the sign to my secret bunker on her travels. I hope she is going to stop in and say hello to the Henricksons and have a glass of rebellious wine with Barb.
  • The Atlantic showers Nick Denton of Gawker with fanboy love for new media, albeit with a light dusting of skepticism, just as The New Yorker did a few weeks ago. It's a perfect subject because the old media gets to pull out the "journalism-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket" card while indulging in all the frivolous delights of new media journalism. Case in point: the media storm over Amy Chua, which The Atlantic got so excited about that it put BOTH of its women columnists (Caitlin Flanagan and Sandra Tsing-Loh) in the same issue instead of making them take turns the way it usually does.

3 comments:

Roxie Smith Lindemann said...

Isn't it amazing how Barb's glasses of wine manage to feel like the most transgressive thing you have ever seen on television? We will miss her so.

Annie Em said...

Wait, does Barb drink wine in the most recent season? I would have placed bets on Nicky doing that. Fabulous!

Thanks for the links, Undine. Just read the pair of articles in The Atlantic (yes, let's have our two women writers write about oh, that women's issue....). At least they both responded with some insight and humor...

undine said...

Roxie--as Barb would say, oh, my heck, yes! I especially love how the camera focuses on that glass of wine as though it's a crack pipe.

AnnieEm--this season is back to basics and very good. Yes, those writers did respond with some insight and humor, even though I hated myself for giving the "tiger mom" issue one second more of my reading time.