Starting on Saturday, I began blogging a summer-work-week in the life of an academic – specifically, me.  We are now up to day 5.  The goal is simply to show – in as much detail as I can – precisely what I do in the summer. Indeed, if all academics who have a blogs did this,…
It’s hard to imagine that this is even slightly interesting to read, but it does (at least) make visible the work that academics do in the summer. Â Or this academic, at least. Â If you’re just tuning in today, I should say that this week — and this week only — I’m keeping track of what…
The week’s ongoing experiment in trying my readers’ (or “reader’s,” singular?) patience continues. Â In a (possibly misguided) attempt to make academic labor visible, I’m documenting how I spend my days during this first week of summer, when academics are allegedly “on vacation.” Â Here is day 3. Monday, 14 May 2012. 12:00 – 1:55 am. Â Caught…
Continuing what I started yesterday, I’m continuing this week’s chronicle of what a professor does in the summer. As noted, it’s an attempt to make visible the work that academics do when most people think we’re on holiday. So. If you found yesterday’s post dull and yet slogged through it anyway, then you’re in luck:…
In honor of Mother’s Day (May 13), here’s some footage of Bruce Springsteen dancing with his 90-year-old mother. Â The clip, recorded on March 29, comes to you here courtesy of Springsteen fan TheMagikRat. Happy Mother’s Day!
For a week in February of 2011, I blogged exactly what I did each day – the goal being to show precisely how academics spend their time. Starting today, I’m beginning the summer edition of the same experiment. From today through Friday the 18th, I will publicly keep track of how I use my time…
Fitting that the passing of an artist should inspire so much art.  Here are a few tributes to Maurice Sendak that I’ve enjoyed. (I’ve assembled links to prose tributes at the bottom of my reminiscence of Maurice; The Comics Journal has its own page of mostly prose tributes, too.) Pat Bagley This is easily my favorite,…
Graphic genius Chris Ware designed the cover for my Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature (due this September from the University Press of Mississippi). The front cover is above.  The full, wrap-around cover is below.  Click on it for a larger image.  Trust me: you’ll…
But the wild things cried, “Oh, please don’t go– We’ll eat you up–we love you so!” And Max said, “No!” –Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (1963) In June 2001, I went to hear Maurice Sendak speak at Yale University. A couple of years earlier, I’d started working on a biography of Crockett Johnson,…
David Bowman – the writer, not the character in 2001: A Space Odyssey – died on February 27. Â He was 54. Â His obituary ran in this past Sunday’s Times. Â He and I have had an on-and-off correspondence since the fall of 2000. Â Upon reading his obituary, I realized (guiltily) that I’d failed to answer his…
