Author Archives: Robert Basil
“Pre-Planned Feelings”
We have discussed our friend Clarissa‘s opinions on American academia and other topics in the past. She is an Hispanic Studies professor at a midwestern public university whose blog is always vividly written (and is contentious by design, I would … Continue reading
“Overlords at the Easel”
The brilliant, prolific, and combative political cartoonist Ted Rall has been spreading warnings about the ways AI can and will rob artists of rights to – and earnings from – their work. This week: As a cartoonist of the early … Continue reading
Merry Xmas!
From the great Bryan Garner: You can buy the new, 5th edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage here.
This can go a long way
This semester I asked a student of mine who’s in my university’s HR program whether human resources professionals needed to actually like people. (I wish I remember why I asked!) She told me nobody had ever asked her that question … Continue reading
Christmas season comment
I will never get used to the term “anti-woke.”
Anniversary
This month we begin the eleventh year of No Contest Communications. Tierney set the tone and the theme with her inaugural posts. I especially like “On Being Forgiven.”
Apropos The Georgia Straight
Dan Savage was not exaggerating the problems faced by alt-weeklies in recent years. From The Tyee last week: The crew at the Georgia Straight wrote until the bitter end, filing stories and chronicling Vancouver’s culture after the paycheques stopped flowing … Continue reading
Savage Love
The prose of Dan Savage is bold and crystal clear – and edifying to a profound degree. It always has been. I started reading his column in the San Francisco’s alt-weekly back in the early 90s and kept up that … Continue reading
If you hadn’t noticed …
Here we go again. — Liberals loathe the political Right’s hypocrisy and unfairness. Conservatives loathe the Left’s immorality and delicacy. The groups’ estimations of their own qualities, though, are less precise. The question of “hypocrisy” is particularly interesting. La Rochefoucauld … Continue reading
Looking for new colleagues
Kwantlen Polytechnic University is a vibrant and splendid place to work. My own department – Applied Communications (in the Melville School of Business) – is looking for two new instructors. We’re a good crowd. Apply here.
