Tag Archives: mental hygiene

Prime Yourself

Posted on May 6, 2022 by Robert Basil

There needs to be two of you: you and “you prime.” The latter is an heuristic entity brought into being by you for the purpose of protecting and orienting you. Your “you prime” makes the hard decisions – saying no to … Continue reading →

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Alas

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Robert Basil

“Critical thinking isn’t contagious.”

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Get smart

Posted on September 16, 2021 by Robert Basil

To welcome humbling moments is part of good mental hygiene. There is, at any rate, no way around these experiences when you teach social and digital media to university students. On that note: Here is another amazing Overdrive Interactive graphic; … Continue reading →

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Pacing yourself

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Robert Basil

Even before my senescence began blooming, I enjoyed reading obituaries. The well-written ones are edifying distillations of character and action; their omissions are bolder than doomsday. James McMeel cofounded the Universal Press Syndicate, which distributed Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” and the … Continue reading →

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“immortal words”

Posted on June 27, 2021 by Robert Basil

Allen Ginsberg “finally sat on the edge of the couch and said, ‘Well, Dr [William Carlos] Williams, here we are [Jack Kerouac, Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, and AG], all assembled. What immortal words do you have for us?’ So he … Continue reading →

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The mess of thinking

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Robert Basil

Inaccurate interpretations of a particular data-point can nonetheless provide metaphors that describe a lot.

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Detail

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Robert Basil

I seem to have come to the point where I no longer recall the exact word but I do recall exactly why only that exact word will do.

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Keep your promises, keep your confidences, and keep your appointments.

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Robert Basil

The prefix para means “beside” or “beyond.” Paralinguistic or paraverbal communication usually refers to *how* one’s words are conveyed: through tone, body language, speaking speed, or even through one’s wardrobe. In both workplace and social environments, though, beside and beyond … Continue reading →

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Good scholarly habits

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Robert Basil

My dear friend Tierney Wisniewski, this website’s cofounder and coeditor, has started up a new blog devoted to her scholarly work and how she gets it done. I love her inaugural piece, “Good Scholarly Habits.” Tierney writes with great clarity and … Continue reading →

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Don’t think with your fingers

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Robert Basil

Biographer Robert Caro’s books are marathon-long, though very much worth the time it takes to read them. His laceration of Robert Moses, “The Power Broker,” is almost 1300 pages. In a wonderful interview published in The New York Review of … Continue reading →

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