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Why Women (Still) Aren’t Funny 0
- Culture
- August 12, 2016
January will mark the 10-year anniversary of Christopher Hitchens’ famous (notorious?) essay, “Why Women Aren’t Funny.” In the impolite article, Hitchens, as only he could do, delivered a devastating exposé explaining the causes behind “the humor gap.” The article enraged female comedians and sparked a slew of indignant (and unfunny) letters to the editor. Looking back,
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‘Romeo and Juliet’ is not a Romance 0
- Culture
- August 12, 2016
Romeo and Juliet is not the only Shakespeare play that the modern world, modern critics and modern teachers get wrong. Truth be told, Shakespeare abuse is rampant. Just about every play is being mistaught and misrepresented. Romeo and Juliet is, however, taught more often than most, probably more often than any other of the Bard’s
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Why Grad Rates are Meaningless 0
- Education
- August 12, 2016
In a recent Intellectual Takeout piece, Daniel Lattier pointed out that colleges are now having to deal with incoming “book virgins”. To gain admittance to college in the 17th century, students had to be able to read and translate various Latin authors on sight. 100 years ago, students were required to have read various classical works
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C.S. Lewis’ theory on why so many modern marriages fail 0
- Culture, Family
- August 11, 2016
The last several years have seen a rise in articles sounding alarms about the decline of marriage. A Salon article and its accompanying graph from earlier in the summer are a perfect example. According to Salon, marriage rates have dropped roughly 30 percent since 1980, to 6.9 per 1,000 people, and everything from religious decline
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Salaries for College Presidents Are Swelling 0
- Education
- August 11, 2016
In a typical week, I get four or five inquiries from media relating to some higher education issue. Five years ago, perhaps five or ten percent of those inquiries related to university executive compensation, especially the salaries of presidents. Now, probably 40-50 percent of the queries are on that topic. The public is increasingly interested
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The American Republic and the Long Shadow of Rome 0
- Education
- August 11, 2016
“Beware the Ides of March!” Thus the soothsayer warned Emperor Julius Caesar on the 15th of March, 44 B.C. On that day, Caesar, who had overturned the Roman republic and made himself a tyrant, was assassinated by a group of Senators, including his friend, Brutus. In the eponymous play by William Shakespeare, the Senators begin
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