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In Which DCAT References Poop and Bill Simmons

Probably because I am immature, I found the following funny, as in beer bubbling out the nose funny. I don't know why, and I don't know if I want to know, but an email from Sportsguy's latest Mailbag made me laugh for about five minutes:

Q: In your previous mailbag, Bob from Atlanta states that your book is 189 poops long. I have to call BS on this. First of all, who keeps track of such a stat? But beyond that, your book hit stores Oct. 1, 2005. That's only like 150 odd days. And I doubt he read at every stop. Plus there's no way he double dipped on enough days to cover the difference. This guy is the James Frey of poop stories. Take your 189 poops and go home Bob.
-- Kris, Franklin, Mass.

If you are not laughing out loud right now, I do not want to know you. A well crafted poop story is always worth the price of admission, especially when it is a story in which the very legitimacy of someone else's poop is in question.

(By the way, why is it that we all have something to say about the regional variances in how someone refers to carbonated beverages -- "coke," "pop" "soda" [the last being the only acceptable usage -- ED.] -- and yet I am always a bit shocked when my girlfriend says "doodies"? I grew up in a doodie-free zone. The prevalent word for me as a kid was always "caca" which stems from some Romanian derivation -- my Papa had a scatological streak in him, as one of our dogs on the farm, my little brother's nickname, and of course any of his responses to one or another dubious assertion any of us ever made resulted in one of an apparent cornucopia of Romanian words for "s#!%")

I am pretty certain that no one in the blogosphere has been as big a Simmons advocate as I. But I also have to admit that I think that he is losing his fastball a little bit. The very writing style that can make me giggle like a school girl also can grow tedious. Bill Simmons is an entertaining writer. But the more of him that I read, I'm not convinced that he is a GOOD writer. He has a discernible style, yet he is not a great stylist. His pop culture references have not only grown to feel perfunctory, but he has spawned a generation of followers who think that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I nudge because I love -- when he is on, Simmons is as good as there is. But in the last two years, we have seen a lot less of the good Sportsguy and a lot more of the one who thinks that a well-timed Shawshank allusion substitutes for substantial content.

Shocked. SHOCKED!

Apparently Baltimore Orioles pitcher Kris Benson and his wife, the hot but not as hot as she thinks she is Anna Benson, are getting a divorce. Let's see, when he was with the Mets she publicly announced that she would sleep with every one of his teammates if he ever cheated on her; there are serious allegations that the Mets traded Kris because his wife is such an unpredictable nutjob (think of it -- the team that weathered Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry traded a guy because his wife is unstable - what's that say about Anna Benson?); soon after the trade to the O's was consummated, Anna publicly announced another desire to consummate, this time in the parking lot of Camden Yards. Is there a sentient being on this planet who could not see this coming?

On Cleveland Sports

It's about freaking time. Tom has finally posted something over at Cleveland '64. I honestly think he should be a lot more enthused about the Indians than the Cavs, but I'll give the man a break because at least the Cavs are in the postseason and his long national nightmare is over. The Indians are going to be good, and though these sorts of predictions tend to be meaningless (and best forgotten almost as soon as they are made) I think the Indians make the postseason this year. As for the Browns, well, we'll wait until after mini-camps to start worrying about them.

The Duke Lacrosse Fiasco

These are dark days for the Duke University athletic department. Let's forget about performance on the field and the courts. Several lacrosse players have been accused of a host of crimes, the worst of which include rape and assault, against exotic dancers hired to work a party hosted by much of the lax team. To make matters worse, there is a racial dynamic that plays a major role in the case. If you are unfamiliar with the story as it has played out so far, go here and here.

The Thunderstick is a Duke alum and a former Blue Devil athlete. Here is his take:

Of course, the Duke stuff is big news. I hate the lacrosse guys. When I was at Duke they were your standard lacrosse players, but I think they've gotten [. . .] worse. When we go down every year for a football game, we see them because for every football game they show up dressed in leather and all this S&M gear. It's really fucked up. The first time we were down there, a bunch of them [. . .] were bombed [and] came by our tailgate and tried to steal our beer. So I'm not shocked to see those assholes do something like this. At least it seems the general consensus is that the university is handling this well by letting the investigation take its [course] before deciding on the guilt of the students, which I think you have to do, but they pretty much suspended the lax season to send a strong message that even if this didn't happen, the behavior that led to this even becoming a possibility isn't acceptable and deserves serious repercussions. The flip side of this is that now we get bombarded with the annoying fembots that are going to be a huge pain in the ass and won't be happy unless the [blood of the] people that did this [. . .] is spilled. One of those women was on the Abrams report or something and she said she was appalled by the university's response and the guy said "they've pretty much cancelled the lax season and are waiting for the investigation to take place--what more do you want them to do?" and she couldn't offer [anything] and just babbled for another 4 minutes about how there's not enough awareness about sexual offenses. Those people drive me nuts as well. I guess I'm always one of these people that says let the investigation take place and then kick whoever is guilty out of school and send them to jail for a long, long time, but don't sit there screaming about punishing people when you don't know what went on yet.

While I might quibble with a few of his points, I think TS is spot-on in terms of how he addresses the major issue.

First off, let me be clear -- I know it may not be fair, but I have never quite understood the inflated sense of self-esteem that the vast majority of lacrosse players on elite college campuses (pretty much the only places it is played collegiately) seem to possess. Lacrosse has always struck me as affirmative action for affluent white kids from the suburbs of Mid-Atlantic States. They are the best spring athletes who don't play baseball, run track, or in some states play soccer, that money can buy. (Lacrosse is largely -- overwhelmingly -- a prep-school sport.) There is nothing wrong with any of this, per se, except that in coming from this cloistered world, many college lacrosse players do have an inflated sense of both entitlement and their own self worth.

I also tend to agree with TS about the rush to judgment and the outrage that some people are expressing that something isn't being done RIGHT NOW. It seems that some people are pretty selective in their concern for fundamental rights, such as due process. Whatever my criticisms of lacrosse, I do not believe that the vast majority of them would ever engage in felonious activities. Most are not racists or rapists. Yet those who want to accelerate a process that in reality has moved at an incredibly fast pace, apparently want to tarnish everyone affiliated with Duke lacrosse. Every white player in the program -- and there is only one black player (let that one sink in if you deny my characterization of the demographics of lacrosse -- 46 of the 47 members of the Duke men's program are white) has already taken a DNA test. Even the most extreme allegations only point to the involvement of a handful of players. It is one thing to be upset, and to recognize that even on college campuses we have much work to do with regard to matters of race and sex; it is quite another to vent your righteous outrage simply because you can. Duke is pretty much a bastion of liberalism and in some cases radicalism. It is pretty hard to take someone seriously who tries to argue that the leaders of the institution are somehow retrograde. This speaks to the larger sense of priviledge at a place like Duke -- an out of touch sense of where life on an elite campus fits into the larger world, a mindset to which in many ways the lacrosse team also fell victim.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of all of this is the racial dynamic. In the world of liberal elite privilege, these things are not supposed to happen. The fact that the victims were black and had been picked out by the guys who threw the party, the rampant use of racial epithets, the violence that ensued -- this is maybe most alarming of all. And it should remind us of how far we still have to go with regard to race in America. Furthermore, those unfamiliar with the Duke demographic should be wary of sloughing this off as merely retrograde behavior by southern students. Duke is in the South; it is not of the South. In other words, Duke is a school in the South. It is not a Southern school. In fact, the university's makeup is pretty close to that of most lacrosse teams, but with more consciously honed racial diversity. Once the bombast fades and the righteous vent their spleens, the university community will have a lot of questions to answer. But Duke is certainly not alone -- this event happened at Duke; it likely could have occurred just about anyplace.

Charles Taylor, War Criminal

Some say revenge is a dish best served cold. I have always found this to be a rationalization for people seeking revenge but who cannot exact it immediately. Most of us more realistically believe that vengeance served cold is better than no vengeance at all. After all, Milosovic's recent death was a classic example of revenge almost being served cold, but then the former dictator died, outcolding the avengers, as it were. "Revenge: get it while it's hot!" is probably a motto that would win more votes in a bumper sticker simplification-off.

Yet another of the world's vicious late twentieth century dictators is about to get his comeuppance. Charles Taylor, the former rebel leader-turned president of Liberia has spent the last two-plus years in exile in Calabar, a city in southern Nigeria. (I have written reproachfully about Taylor's exile here.) Taylor is just one in a long line of rapacious murderers, kleptocrats, and all-around bad guys who have led Liberia, the African state that most bears the American thumbprint. When a peace deal forced Taylor out of power and into what appeared to be a tyrant's golden parachute, it seemed possible, if not likely, that Taylor would never have to account for his reign of terror.

Not so fast.

Liberia's newly elected President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a glimmer of hope in that West African nation, recently called forTaylor's extradition and eventual trial on charges of committing war crimes for his role in fomenting Sierra Leone's civil war, which merely touches the surface of Taylor's crimes against humanity. Johnson-Sirleaf clearly aimed her demands in the direction of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. (The New York Times' story is here).

Johnson-Sirleaf's courageous call proved to be a catalyst. At the behest of the administration, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said, "He needs to be brought to justice." The usually tepid Kofi Annan echoed the American demand, issuing a statement declaring that he "calls on all countries in the region not to give refuge to Mr Taylor, but to execute the warrant for his arrest".

Apparently Taylor could feel the noose circling his neck. He disappeared. Nigerian officials, no doubt aware that the world was watching and expected action, and clearly feeling pressure from the US, caught and arrested the warlord-turned-president-turned-exile-turned-fugitive.

This will be revenge served neither warm nor cold, but rather, I suspect, lukewarm. There comes a time when a dictator's atrocities so outpace any possible consequences he might face that all revenge seems cold. Nonetheless, this is good news, and the lion's share of the credit ought to go to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the latest in a long line of African leaders who have inspired hope. Perhaps this will be one of those times where that hope is justified.

Pedro Martinez: Greatest Ever?

Back at my old blog I wrote a post titled "Pedro. Is. God." in which, in addition to ascribing sacred powers to the Dominican Dandy, I also posited that he might be the greatest pitcher ever. In addition to engendering what was quite possibly the best discussion we had at Rebunk (the comments are absolutely worth your time) publishing that post also gave a jump start to Bleeding Red, as once my daily diary of the 2004 season had an audience, it seemed real. After he read that post, Dave over at Ephblog asked me to publish my daily ruminations (and sufferings) and things accelerated from that point.

In any case, I reference this blast from the past because over at Sons of Sam Horn, there is a pretty good discussion (make sure to read all of the pages) about Pedro Martinez and the Hall of Fame, but specifically with an argument that is central to ones I made in the conversation in 2004 -- whether or not placed side by side, Pedro is better than Sandy Koufax. Of course I argue in the affirmative. This debate is an offshoot of another ongoing SOSH discussion about whether my favorite player as a kid, Jim Edward Rice, belongs in the Hall of Fame (and whether Dewey Evans ought to go in alongside him). The weight of evidence and argument points to "no," that both belong in the "Hall of the Very Good," but I disagree. With opening day around the corner (yes, I'll be in Arlington to see the Sox face off against the Rangers) it's time to start thinking baseball . . .

Israelis Go to the Polls

Unreconstructed terrorist organization Hamas wins elections in what will someday become Palestine. Ariel Sharon suffers a stroke that shakes Israel, indeed the entire region, to its core. In his wake he leaves a new political party, Kadima, in something of a state of identity crisis. It is odd, then, that the pending elections have been so uneventful. Etgar Keret's Op-Ed in today's Times is self-indulgent, containing as it does an anecdote about his father trying marijuana for the first time by way of a barely germane illustration, but it does make something of a compelling case for a low-key election. Over at The New Republic, Yossi Klein Halevi less sanguinely attributes the mood in Israel to "despair." To wit:

These are Israel's saddest elections, the first with barely a mention of peace. In the past, even right-wing candidates had to hold out the promise that a hard line would bring a more trustworthy peace than the left's concessions, that "peace for generations," as one right-wing slogan went, would be more durable than peace now. Few really believed in 1996 that Benjamin Netanyahu would manage "a secure peace," or that "only Sharon will bring peace," as the 2001 Likud slogan put it. But failure to pay lip service to peace meant damning yourself as an unelectable fanatic.

Whatever your take, you can find the best election coverage at Haaretz and The Jerusalem Times.

On a related issue, I have been hoping for a couple of weeks to mention Irshad Manji's recent Times piece, "How I Learned to Love the Wall" (Behind the noxious Times Select firewall, alas.) The headline is awful, and reminds me of how almost every editor I have had for any sort of opinion piece has managed to provide a worse title than the one I always offer. Nonetheless, the piece is fantastic, revealing deep ambivalence but ultimate support for the wall, the very existence of which is unfortunate but necessary. I have a hard time excerpting just a part of it for flavor, and the piece is so good that there is no "money abstract," but this seems to capture manji's feelings fairly well:

After all, this barrier, although built by Mr. Sharon, was birthed by ''shaheeds,'' suicide bombers whom Palestinian leaders have glorified as martyrs. Qassam missiles can kill two or three people at a time. Suicide bombers lay waste to many more. Since the barrier went up, suicide attacks have plunged, which means innocent Arab lives have been spared along with Jewish ones. Does a concrete effort to save civilian lives justify the hardship posed by this structure? The humanitarian in me bristles, but ultimately answers yes.

As does this:

For all the closings, however, Israel is open enough to tolerate lawsuits by civil society groups who despise every mile of the barrier. Mr. Sharon himself agreed to reroute sections of it when the Israel High Court ruled in favor of the complainants. Where else in the Middle East can Arabs and Jews work together so visibly to contest, and change, state policies?

And this:

Like all Muslims, I look forward to the day when neither the jeep nor the wall is in Abu Dis. So will we tell the self-appointed martyrs of Islam that the people -- not just Arabs, but Arabs and Jews -- ''are one''? That before the barrier, there was the bomber? And that the barrier can be dismantled, but the bomber's victims are gone forever?

It is far too early to tell if tomorrow's elections will be epochal or simply another transitory moment. But the reality is that whichever party or coalition carries the day will face ongoing difficulties that have not much changed, and with Hamas' ascent may have gotten worse. Until that state of things changes, the wall may continue to be a sadly necessary manifestation.

My First Review

Bleeding Red has gotten its first official review over at lection. Tim Morris is a literature professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and writes extensively about sports and literature. (I have never met him, though we have now exchanged emails). His review is gracious and fair, I generally agree with his criticisms that reading the daily accounts can be difficult (I'm STILL shocked that people have read the whole thing and am even more shocked that they like it) and if all of the reviews are this kind, I'll be more than happy.

The Virginia Festival of the Book has been wonderful. My panel was well received, and Warren St. John and I make for a good pair -- we ought to do a road show.

The Weakest Link

The latest issue (#21) of Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies is now available online. It is a special issue devoted to the 25th anniversary of the publication of George Fredrickson's seminal 1981 book White Supremacy: A Comparative Study of American and South African History. The contributors, with one notable exception, include scholarly giants: Fredrickson, the University of Cape Town's Chris Saunders, Yale's Howard Lamar, the University of the Witwatersrand's Ran Greenstein, Lewis Baldwin of Vanderbilt, a brief introduction by Safundi editor Andrew Offenburger, and a contribution that fits into the category "which of these figures does not merit inclusion with the others?", my own essay "The Comparative Imagination: George Fredrickson and New Directions in Comparative and Transnational History." George Fredrickson is arguably the premier comparativist alive today and is one of our finest practicing historians. I just hope this issue, and my essay, does justice to his contributions to the field and the profession.

Zimbabwe's Coca Cola Drought

One of my favorite stories from my experiences in Africa comes from when I was in Botswana in 1997. We left the town of Maun in the north of the country, drove out into the veld for 45 minutes or an hour where we met some African men in an isolated spot in the Okavango Delta. Those men took us out on the Delta in hollowed out canoes called "Makoros" which they pushed along with long poles. (We were promised that the water was fully potable, and over the three-plus hours on the Delta as we progressed deeper into the wild we liberally filled jugs and drank; at one point a couple of hours in, we rounded a corner and not more than 30 feet away was an enormous elephant in our path letting fibrous nature work its course directly into the water -- let's just say that elephants eat vast amounts that later they expel freely.) After our time in the makroros we set up camp in a pastoral setting that had nonetheless just been ravaged by another enormous, and this time angry, bull elephant. After setting up, we went for a hike across miles and miles of veld. Elephants everywhere, other wildlife similarly ubiquitous, we walked until we hit a tiny village. The children there were fascinated by us, and some of my favorite pictures are of those children, and of me playing with them. Tired and hot and thirsty, we were amazed to find that in that village was a stand, and in that stand an old woman sold goods that came in once a week or so from rugged trucks that pass through this isolated spot a long, long way from Maun. And at that stand we could buy Coca Cola. It was a remarkable revelation about globalization and Coke's penetration into the world -- forget about McDonald's; this was an example of a corporation with a foothold in the entirety of the globe.

I thought of this wonderful memory when I read this story in today's Mail & Guardian detailing how Zimbabwe faces a dire shortage of Coca Cola for the first time in four decades. One need not be a rampant capitalist to understand that this, as much as anything, brings home to roost the recklessness and callousness of Robert Mugabe's morally, politically, and apparently literally bankrupt regime. When Mugabe led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, Tanzania's independence leader Julius Nyerere told Mugabe that he was inheriting a "jewel" in Africa. Now that jewel cannot even maintain supplies of a commodity that one can find in the most isolated reaches of the Okavango Delta.

Kevin O'Connor: Superstar

Kevin O'Connor, former grad school colleague and friend of dcat, is a superstar. This week two (2!) of his book are being published. Lexington books introduces
Intellectuals and Apparatchiks: Russian Nationalism and the Gorbachev Revolution, which Lexington's publicity machine describes thusly:

This book traces the origins and activities of an alliance of conservative Communist Party authorities and Russian nationalists during the late Soviet era. Specifically, it examines how and to what extent hitherto orthodox Communists sought political allies in the Russian nationalist movement in order to garner support of halting the reform program and saving the Soviet state from collapse. Focusing on the perestroika period, Dr. Kevin O'Connor explains in detail how Marxism-Leninsim receded into irrelevance, forcing orthodix Communists to abandon their Marxist principles in favor of great Russian nationalism.

Simultaneously, Greenwood is releasing Culture and Customs of the Baltic States in its "Cultures and Customs of Europs" series. Greenwood describes the book:

The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are thriving after hundreds of years of German colonization, numerous wars of conquest, and demographic Russification. Their cultures have survived, perhaps through a conscious effort to sustain many of their most ancient customs and traditions. Though the Baltic States are responding to modern and postmodern international trends, contemporary developments in the region's cultural life are part of an ongoing conversation about the way in which the Balts understand their own histories, destines, and national identities. This timely overview of the reemerging states portrays the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as they see themselves--through a historical lens.

The approach in each of the topical chapters is to generalize what is common among the three states and then to focus on each country in turn. Chapters on the land, people, and history; religion; marriage, family, gender, and education; holidays, cuisine, and leisure activities; language, folklore, and literature; media and cinema; performing arts; and art are a superb introduction to the Baltics and to the unique aspects of the countries. Lithuania's culture has been heavily influenced by Poland, and the capital, Vilnius, was a thriving center of Jewish learning until the Nazi years. Latvia is the most ethnically diverse and Russian-influenced. Estonia sees itself as a European country, indeed, Scandinavian.

These mark Kevin's second and third books. We hate him.

The Danes are Pikers

The blog Muhammed and Me courts intemperate wrath by depicting "Muhammed and Me" in a whole host of banal situations (shaving; trying to hook up with girls). I won't post any of the pictures (all of the entries are in the form of comic-strip-like artwork) because there are some legitimate questions that this might be offensive, but once people started precahing violence, they opened these doors. Plus, I support the right to offend and the responsibility to be willing to be offended.

Live Free or Die

The New Hampshire legislature strikes a blow against bigotry. I am very proud of my home state right now.

Peretz on Friedman and Dubai

Martin Peretz stomps a mudhole in Tom Friedman and in the process makes some decent hash out of the nonsensical idea of Dubai as a benign victimized ally desirous of a simple trade agreement with the United States and its ports.

Charlottesville Bound

It figures -- just as Blogger gets back online (Technical glitches explain the relative silence of late here and elsewhere on Blogger-affiliated sites) I am about to head out of town for a few days.

I am heading to Washington, DC and Charlottesville, Virginia for the next several days. I have been invited to participate in the wonderful Virginia Festival for the Book in C-Ville, where I will return to some of my old haunts from when I was there for a few months in 2004. I am participating on a panel, "For Sports Fanatics," on Thursday, March 23 at 2:00 at the Student Bookstore on the Corner, 1515 University Avenue. I will be appearing with Warren St. John, who wrote his own wonderful book about sports obsession, Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer. Of course I will be talking about, and hopefully signing, Bleeding Red. It should be a fun panel. We'll both talk for a while, answer questions, and sign books. If you are going to be anywhere in the vicinity of Charlottesville, please stop by.

The Arroyo Trade (OR: Ask and Ye Shall Receive)

Today the Red Sox cosummated a trade with the Reds that brought Wily Mo Pena in exchange for Bronson Arroyo and ambrosia for small market teams: Cash. Here are my initial responses:

Obtaining Wily Mo Pena (No relation, as far as I know, to Wile E. Coyote):

Pluses:
He is 24 years old and can seriously mash. His power numbers reveal the ever-popular upside -- in just over 300 at-bats last year, he hit 19 dingers and drove in 58 runs. His slugging percentage was over .500 and most assume that he is heading into his peak. He should be a servicable platoon with Trot Nixon, and the odds are pretty good that he'll have plenty of opportunities to accumulate at-bats. He is a dead pull hitter, a righty who might dent the Monster when he isn't clearing it. Among the "ten players he could be most like" are names such as Frank Howard, Willie Stargell, and Jessie Barfield.

Minuses:
Let's say that Wile E. is not especially patient, with a laughably low on-base percentage and a disinclination to walk. He also hit below .260 last year. So if his slugging percentage drops, what we have here might be less Willie Stargell and more Dave Kingman. That ain't good. And by most accounts he ranges from mediocre to a butcher with the glove, a fact that will be exacerbated by the fact that the corner outfield positions at Fenway are not especially friendly to fielders. He also hinted at being a malcontent last year when he was not playing enough. There is no guarantee that he'll surpass last year's at bats, though Nixon is fragile and is good for at least a couple dozen missed games due to injury, and Nixon cannot hit lefties, which will open up more at bats.

Parting With Bronson Arroyo (Who earned the nickname "Saturn Nuts" on the Sons of Sam Horn website after Curt Schilling declared during the 2004 pennant chase that Bronson "has nuts the size of Saturn" -- referring to big-game cajones, and not to some bizarre form of elephantitis, we were all led to believe):

Minuses:
Is it ever a good idea to get rid of productive pitchers, especially swingmen who can both start and come out of the pen? And while there has been lots of talk about the Sox having too many guys for too few slots, I look back on 2004 when we started the season with a similar surfeit, only to have Byung Hyung Kim come up lame, and possibly insane. Furthermore, while emotion may have no place, Arroyo took a serious hometown discount this offseason to stay with the Sox because this is where he wanted to be. It seems lame to send him away like this, the sort of thing that comes back to bite you when things are not going quite so swimmingly. Plus there is the whole Saturn Nuts thing. And somehow we are also giving up cash, which is crazy.

Pluses:
You have to give value to get value. At least for now we DO have too many guys for too few slots, and Arroyo has been unimpressive in camp -- in his latest start he went five innings in which he was not scored upon; this performance LOWERED is ERA to just over 10.00. Last year it looked as if the league had caught up to him. And he cannot get out lefties -- not a good thing in the American League, and especially when the season is yet again likely to come down to a confrontation with a lefty-stocked Yankee lineup. Arroyo was one of the 25, and we'll always remember him for that, but his VORP will never be all that high, and the fact remains, Wily Mo has that upside.

In Sum: I hate to do it, but on the whole this is a trade that might bear out this year, but more importantly, it might yield serious fruits in the years to come. I do not deny that we might lament this move, but in the end, you have to give value to get value, and Bronson might have been the odd man out in the Sox rotation. We filled a need. It might backfire on us, but I give the trade a thumbs up.

An Homage to Irish Pubs

Today's Boston Globe has a brief essay, adapted from a forthcoming book on the Irish Pub. I think Eileen McNamara, a Globe columnist who provides the text for what appears to be a coffee table book, The Parting Glass: A Toast to the Traditional Pubs of Ireland, overstates the argument that the traditional Irish pub is disappearing in favor of megapubs. I have spent a lot of time in Ireland and have covered most all of the country extensively, and I can assure you that the traditional pub is alive and well, even if in the cities and larger towns it faces competition. Nonetheless, with St. Patrick's Day just passed, an homage to the traditional pub, a place of warmth and friendship and whiling away the time over a pint or two, seems appropriate.

President Bush Speaks at FDD

Last Monday, March 13, President Bush gave a speech at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. I am very pleased to see FDD continue to play a vital role in the conflicts we now face. One of the pleasures of my affiliation with FDD is that it allows for ideological variation on a host of issues -- FDD President Clifford May and I agree on relatively little politically, and we have had it out several times on email over things he has written, but in terms of questions related to the struggle against terrorism we, like so many Americans, have found common ground.

May gave the brief introduction to the President who then went on to focus on Iraq, to preach patience, and to call for compromise among the Iraqis. The speech received coverage from the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Post among others.

Whatever one thinks of President Bush and his approach (and I am firmly in the camp that argues that this administration has been almost criminal in its negligence, incompetence, and arrogance) his presence at the FDD is yet another validation of that organization's important work. The Foundation has placed its annual call for applicants to its Academic Fellowship Program. If you are a college professor or instructor working on or interested in these issues, I would strongly encourage your application. I was a member of the first group of fellows back in 2003 and it was a transforming experience. Please feel free to say that you heard of the program through me.

In Defense of Lecturing

Today's Times has what is, to my mind, both a telling and a vindicating article, "In the Age of the Overamplified, a Resurgence for the Humble Lecture." The lecture has a bad reputation for reasons I do not quite understand. I think part of the problem is this mindset of students as consumers, this belief that it is our responsibility to keep them entertained and happy, to give them what they want rather than what they need. A student-evaluation-driven system of teaching assessment does not help, especially when it seems pretty clear that there are ways to improve one's evaluations while at the same time making one's classes significantly less rigorous. The idea behind student evaluations is that students best know what they want and what they need. I challenge that mindset: Sometimes students LEAST know what they need even if they know precisely what they want. I will categorically assert that undergraduate college students are unqualified, maybe even uniquely unqualified, to judge much of what goes on in a university classroom. This is not a call to abandon evaluations, which have their place, but rather to de-emphasize them.

(As a caveat: My evaluations are very good and my teaching at UTPB has been lauded in my merit evaluations so far; that said, I know I will likely never reach the absolute highest level of student evaluations at least in part because of my expectations for how much reading and writing they must do, the rigor with which I grade, and the fact that I do not embrace this idea of the student as consumer. Students pay for the opportunity to take my classes. they pay for the chance to succeed or fail. They do not pay to have their way, they do not pay to judge the quality of the books I choose to assign, and they do not pay for Romper Room.)

One of the reasons the lecture seems to have fellen out of favor is because of educational theorists who prattle on about "multiple learning styles" that are useful for what they are, but that are not all that telling. That students learn in many ways does not mean that all ways of learning are equal, or that all ways of learning are even equally valid. Students love movies; they rave about movies on evaluations; but movies are not necessarily the best way to run a class even if they are the most popular medium. I show movies as much as the next professor and more than some, but I do so to supplement the things I have to teach my classes, not merely to keep them engaged. A good lecture still not only has its place, but deserves to have pride of place in most any curriculum. A good lecturer can engage, can convey ideas, can illuminate, and, yes, can show off. A good lecturer allows his or her expertise to play out in the most effective way. That some students find this approach "boring" should be of no moment. Catering to student boredom is catering to the least engaged students.

Furthermore, students love Powerpoint. But they love Powerpoint because such presentations distill the complicated into the simplified, and allow them to ingest their material in bite-sized little chunks that do not require them to chew. In the hands of some professors, I am sure that Powerpoiunt is a wonderful tool. I just swear that I have rarely seen Powerpoint lectures that were not more distracting than illuminating. This idea that we must bring technology into the classroom rather than use technology where it will demonstrably help is another trend that has gone far enough.

The good old fashioned lecture has been on the defensive for too long. It is about time that some of us take the offensive. The best teachers I have ever had are also the best lecturers. that is not a coinsidence. But then again, as a student I never saw myself as a consumer, and I never saw my desires as the driving force behind what went on in the classroom. It is nice to see that both inside and outside of academia, some people are beginning to recognize what is so right about the simple power of someone who knows something speaking to those who know less.