The Best Background Music for the Occasion.

I know that many people have their own personal soundtracks -- background music for the many things they do with their lives. Music played on an ipod, or perhaps just recalled while humming along.

Well, I've just discovered the best background music for grading hundreds of calculus exams: Thelonius Monk. (In particular, Brilliant Corners.) No doubt.

Uh Oh.

This is bad news. But not surprising.

Computer Assisted.

I have frequently pondered just how much easier scholarly research has become with the rise of the internet, digital databases, and search engines. In particular, if I want to find out what has already been written on almost any given topic, I can now do a fairly complete search in a only few minutes. Such a search would take many hours of dull library work before the present age of the internet.

More recently I thought: If ``library'' research is now essentially instantaneous, has there been a corresponding increase in academic output? Are more papers being published per year per scholar? Are better papers being produced?

And then it hit me: Why don't I check the web! Indeed, a Google search on ``internet scholarly output'' produced the following hit:

Bibliometric analysis of the impact of internet use on scholarly productivity, Noam Kaminer, Yale M. Braunstein, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Volume 49 Issue 8, Pages 720 - 730. Published Online: 7 Dec 1998.

I immediately felt so productive, and efficient, that I called it a day and went to sleep.

Not Recommended.

I had to send several letters of recommendation out Friday, for students applying to graduate school, in advance of February deadlines. (It seems that in the current ``no planning ahead'' culture it's perfectly acceptable to ask your professor for a letter less than two weeks before the deadline.) In any event, I liked the students for whom I was writing, and I was happy to be of service. As is my practice, I put in a couple of hours of work into writing each letter. But what I found frustrating was how long it took to submit these letters over the web. I was (not literally) tearing my hair out. I thought computers were supposed to make life easier.

I eventually figured out (I think -- I'm not sure) that my main problem was in using the Mac Preview program rather than, ahem, that other .pdf viewer. The .pdf forms I was filling out would not save properly, and I had trouble previewing my uploaded files before final submission.

But I've learned my lesson. And maybe I'll be able to do this all more easily next year. Unless everything gets changed again.

Recent Reading Roundup.

First, I finally finished James Ellroy's ``L.A. Quartet:'' The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. Astonishing. (Although I admit that White Jazz required some patience on my part; I'm still used to sentences having verbs.) Ellroy has claimed himself to be the best crime fiction author alive, and it's hard to argue with him. His intricate but perfectly synchronized plots, together with ultra-hard-boiled prose, place his work apart from anything else I've read.
[Warning: These books are not for the timid, and it's possible that no one under the age, say, of 40 should read them.]

Second, I most recently finished Walter Mosley's, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. It is possible that I've read a better book in my life, but I can't think of one. A story of redemption, one small step at a time, through the eyes of a man newly freed from prison after serving 27 years for a brutal double murder. A beautiful book. A perfect book.

Public Intellectuals.

Having seen my own Ph.D. students struggle to find academic employment, I sympathize with the following proposal that the US government should provide jobs for new Ph.D.'s not able to find work in the academic marketplace. But universities have been producing more Ph.D.'s than can be employed in academia for some time now, and -- just as with the US auto companies -- a permanent solution to this problem will have to involve a substantial restructuring of the ``industry'' itself.

The Inauguration.

The provost of my university sent out an e-mail that we should feel free to cancel classes Tuesday, January 20, so that students may watch the inauguration. So I can honestly say that I have already received a concrete benefit from the new administration. Thank you.

More seriously, I can only hope -- along with most of the rest of the US and the world -- that the future will indeed be brighter.

Festival of Light (Bulb Jokes), #1

How many Orthodox Jews does it take to change a light bulb?
Ask your rabbi.

Festival of Light (Bulb Jokes), #2

How many Conservative Jews does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one, but it takes three years.

[Note: If you don't get this joke, Google the following words: triennial cycle Conservative Judaism.]

Festival of Light (Bulb Jokes), #3

How many Reform Jews does it take to change a lightbulb?
We believe that light can be experienced in many ways,
and that the bulbs themselves are no longer necessary. However,
if you find the lightbulb personally meaningful, you may
change it yourself.

Festival of Light (Bulb Jokes), #4

How many Reconstructionist Jews does it take to change a lightbulb?
We reject this medieval prejudice against the dark.

It's a Wonderful Life (Reprise).

For the holiday season, a reprise of my first post.

The Dove.

Over dinner with friends the other night, I was reminded of this 1968 parody of Ingmar Bergman's films. Enjoy, courtesy of google video (and my wife, who forwarded to me the link).

Spam of the day.

Date: Tue 16 Dec 12:21:17 EST 2008
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Subject: $4M MERIT
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Thought for the day.

"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
-- Henry Kissinger

Kinda makes you think, huh?

About six months ago, in my little neck of the woods, gas sold for about $3.50 per gallon, and I could buy tomatoes for about $1.50 per pound. Right now, gas sells for $1.50 a gallon, and tomatoes cost $3.50 per pound. So I suppose higher fuel costs don't always drive higher produce costs.

Overheard Conversation.

Earlier today, in a campus coffeehouse:

Young woman to young man: How was your concert Saturday night?
Young man to young woman: It was really cool. Benny Golson sat in with us.
Young woman to young man: Who's that?

And so America's greatest cultural contribution to the world, jazz, continues on, invisible.

After the young woman left, the young man and I were both waiting for our coffees, and I started an ``I couldn't help overhearing...'' conversation with him. Clearly, playing with Golson was a major high point in his life so far.

Strange Correlation.

If you earn $25,000 per year you're most likely poor, if you earn one dollar per year you're most likely extremely wealthy.

How the Attack on a Chabad House Hits Home.

First of all, let me note what should be an obvious point: It is an atrocity whenever and wherever noncombatants are deliberately targeted for torture or murder simply to promote political, religious, or national agendas. Whether in Mumbai, Pakistan, Congo, Rwanda, Baghdad, New York City, Oklahoma City, or Jerusalem.

So when I also note that the attack on a Chabad center hit home for me I do not mean to diminish in any way the devastating sufferings of so many others.

But indeed, the attack on the Mumbai Chabad House did hit close to home, for me.

Anyone, such as myself, who has to occasionally travel for professional reasons to various out-of-the-way places, and who also is a Shomer Shabbos (Sabbath Observant) Jew, knows to seek out the nearest Chabad house for stay over Shabbos (Sabbath). I have on several occasions enjoyed the wonderful, open, hospitality of Chabad Rabbis and their families, who have made space for me in their homes and at their dinner tables.

Frankly, I have felt more at home, and spiritually refreshed, enjoying Shabbos in a Chabad house with people I've only known a few hours than I've sometimes felt in the company and homes of people I've known for decades.

And for those who have enjoyed Chabad's hospitality, it comes as no surprise that the Mumbai Chabad Rabbi and his wife, Rabbi Gavriel & Mrs. Rivkah Holtzberg (may their memories be for a blessing), were kind, lovely, beautiful, people.

Moreover, in the US, while so many Jews wring their hands over the assimilation and imminent disappearance of the American Jewish Community, the Chabad movement has actually accomplished something: They have brought thousands of Jews back to their culture and faith. Chabad accomplishes this through their warmth and the simplicity of their direct spirituality.

Chabad is, in fact, an acronym: Chachma (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Da'as (Knowledge).

To attack a Chabad house in India is to attack Jews simply for being Jewish. To attack the very idea that Jews have a right to live.

Responding to Terror.

From the November 28 mass email announcement from my local Chabad Rabbi, responding to the atrocities in Mumbai:

My emotions are raw and numb and I don't really have any words to describe my feelings. The only thing which comes to mind is, let's fight terror by increasing in our good deeds. Let's just do random acts of kindness. Even though we may not feel like it, let's do extra mitzvos.

Light candles, study torah, go to shul, give charity, say a prayer...whatever. Let us become just a little better for the memory of Gavriel, Rivka, and the other terrorist victims.