Columns

The death of the university

Too many modern universities — for centuries hallowed halls that encouraged passionate debate — have lost their way. The first universities, Plato’s Academy (387 B.C.) and Aristotle’s Lyceum (335 B.C.), were built on Socrates’ conviction that truth emerges from passionate, open debate.

‘Lived experience’: Is it right for you?

“I’ve looked at life from MY side now…” I can imagine Joni Mitchell singing those modified lyrics every time I encounter one of today’s most grating phrases. The phrase: “my lived experience.”

We missed more than sugar in wartime

We know that people complained about sugar rations and the lack of rubber for tires during World War II. Those and other shortages were made even more painful because it was tough to drown the wartime anxieties they were constant reminders of.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk murder, you see who has ‘sickness of soul’

When Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home was firebombed this summer, at no point did I say or write, “I hate Josh Shapiro’s politics, but … .” And I certainly didn’t say “Well that’s karma.” Sadly, some people expressed exactly those two emotions.

That frantic 9/11 day!

I have watched through a window a world that has fallen. – W. H. Auden It has been twenty four years since terrorists attacked the Twin Towers in New York City. I was there last week to commemorate this terrible event in America’s history. The date, 9/11, turned into the frantic dialing of 911.

Did oysters on half shell lure ancients?

If we think at all about the earliest inhabitants of south Louisiana, we tend to think of them as living on the higher and drier places away from the coast.

The new golden age of the automobile

Flooring the accelerator of Donny Krieger’s ‘69 SS Chevelle was one of the great thrills of my life. I was only 15 when I slammed the Chevelle’s four-speed Hurst shifter into second and stomped on the gas.

Are you guilty of ‘weekend rentals’?

“And if it comes back the very next day, well, then I’ll go bankrupt…” — apologies to Elvis. It started with “wardrobing.” Unscrupulous shoppers would buy expensive outfits for a special occasion and return them to the store the next day. (“I guess I just trusted this once-great store too much.

Rocky Mountain sigh

(Warning: unfair, but hilarious, Colorado stereotypes ahead!) Well, it finally happened. My eldest and most expensive daughter truly left the nest this time.

Curtailing election fraud in Louisiana

Paper ballots and limited absentee balloting in our election? That’s what the president is calling for. Does he have a point? The overwhelming majority of democratic countries require paper ballots in their elections.