Our chief administrator just rubs me the wrong way, folks. He sends out these long and confusing missives that are impossible to decipher and make no sense at all.

Take the most recent example of his poor command of the English language. It looks like today the verdict might come in in the case of a black man killed by a white cop in St Louis. This isn’t like the Michael Brown murder because here the victim was armed, he was fleeing the police, and he had firearm convictions before. I’m not offering an opinion on the case, though, because I haven’t been following it. 

What bugs me is that the top administrator in question sends out an email to faculty members saying that in view of the verdict coming in soon, he urges us to “recommit to treating everybody we meet with courtesy.” There is no explanation whom we didn’t treat with courtesy in his opinion and how the courtesy habits of a bunch of professors are to prevent cop killings in St Louis. He has no idea how to lead or what to say, so he copy pastes some silly admin stock phrase without even trying to make sure it relates to the actual events he’s trying to respond to.

In the meantime, there are reports from our black students who have been finding racist notes taped to their dorm doors. Does he have anything to say about that? Is there an investigation? Is he promising to punish the fuckers who did this? No, he keeps mum on the subject. 

My husband’s alma mater has gone utterly bonkers, in the meanwhile. See how they propose to “fund students’ education.” Pay attention, especially, to the cloying, idiotic language of these administrators. And these illiterate, greedy, ridiculous dumbasses are running (or, rather, ruining) one of the country’s leading schools. 

For everybody who doesn’t work for my university things have gotten better:

In 2015, median household incomes rose by 5.2 percent. That was the fastest surge in percentage terms since the Census Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s. Women living alone saw their incomes rise by 8.7 percent. Median incomes for Hispanics rose by 6.1 percent. Immigrants’ incomes, excluding naturalized citizens, jumped by over 10 percent. The news was especially good for the poor. The share of overall income that went to the poorest fifth increased by 3 percent, while the share that went to the affluent groups did not change.

I’m glad for everybody else, of course, but we are such an outlier at my school. At the height of the recession, we were hiring aggressively for TT jobs and had our best years. And now that everybody is doing well, we are in the toilet, the hiring is dead, the compensation stinks, etc. 

This goes to show that having a consistent philosophy of development and smart leadership is stronger than a recession. And having a dumb, rudderless leadership is stronger than any positive trends in the economy overall. 

Out of these beautifully observed student types, I passionately detested pastel when I was a student. People with anal issues really annoy me. I mean, why can’t they have some serious issues instead, like the eminently respectable oral ones?

As for the type I was, covfefe is the closest. 

You know what’s delicious? A toasted whole-grain bagel, whipped cream cheese, a little white onion, and sardines canned in water on top. The ones from those tiny Portuguese boxes. Heaven. 

I miss bread.  

​Many Republican voters, including self-identified strong conservatives, are ready and willing to shift to the left if they’re told that that’s the direction Trump is moving.

That’s good news. Trump already seems to be moving to the left on DACA, praising the recipients and saying nobody can possibly want to deport them. I hope the Dem leadership manages to build on this and motivates him to stay in this good, productive place. The cost of this great development will be the harmless, useless wall he desperately needs. He should totally get the wall. What’s an expensive yet harmless symbol compared to the well-being of 800,000 scared young people? 

Feedly is back up – yay – and I’m hearing that Trump made a deal with the Democrats that he won’t deport DACA recipients in exchange for the possibility of the border wall. This sounds really great. Of course, I’m in favor of scrapping DACA and naturalizing the kids but that’s too idealistic. In terms of what’s actually possible, I’m seeing no downside to this plan.

I’ve been immersed in work lately and had no time for a lot of news. How come I keep hearing about these very reasonable agreements Trump is reaching with the Democrats? Has he found his new best friends? 

Irma has been handled well, too, it seems. Obama’s nasty “Dear Colleague” thing is about to be repealed. 

Weirdness. 

My Feedly is down and hasn’t worked for days. This means I have no access to my news feed. As a result, I have to rely on whatever people are kind enough to post on Facebook for my news. Here are the links I have filled out for you as a result:

Or you could, you know, just teach. 

An important article on how Obama screwed over higher ed institutions. If only the author could stop mentioning Trump like an obsessed bunny, it would be a great piece. The good news is that DeVos is trying to roll back the crazy and make it a bit harder to victimize people over hot pink postits. And that’s a good thing, irrespective of all the drama on the subject.

After this, it’s insane to argue that this isn’t an extraordinary opulent society. 

People are freaking out about this anti-bodega conspiracy and I have no idea why. If bodegas are so crucial to people, they’ll continue to use them. I’m tired of endless drama about this and of seeing these rants forwarded and retweeted so much. 

Rebecca Schuman is going back on the academic job market!  

Free online courses on the early middle ages from Yale! I’ll definitely be watching. It’s my favorite time in history.

Lettuce, tomatoes, balsamic, and a dollop of hummus on top. Two minutes to assemble.

I’m glad I finally abandoned the Soviet habit of making every salad insanely complex. Simple salads make much more sense for breakfast when you have no time to create a 15-ingredient thing. 

“I have a question,” a student said. “I was reading the New York Times this morning and it said…”

After that I disconnected and didn’t hear the question. A student! Reading! A newspaper! In the morning! My brain couldn’t process so much good news at once.