Jacob Bender's Blog, page 14

In Praise of November Holidays

Back when I interned as a reporter in Guadalajara, Mexico, my editor (this charming yet cheeky Englishman from east London) wrote a breezy little op-ed about how all his favorite holidays are the November ones.  Now, I can scarcely  remember even my own articles I wrote that Fall (newspapers are written to be forgotten, after all); but for whatever reason, that little op-ed has stuck with me all these years.

The gist of his article was that, for whatever reason of random statistical...

My Very First Rally--Also, On the Irony of Millionaire Marxists

[You can see my head hunched over a typewriter in the lower left-hand corner].
I've always wanted to be in a rally, so scratch that one off the bucket list.

The Background: Recently, the Iowa Board of Regents proposed to once again raise tuition and grad student fees.  Hijinks ensued.

Things weren't helped by university president Sally Mason, she of the perpetual foot in mouth (just last year, she said that aiming for zero campus rapes was probably unrealistic, given "human nature." ...

One More Academic Rant

Re: those commentators who equate academics complaining about the adjunctification of their profession to starving, aspiring musicians, artists, athletes, etc; and worse, justify supply-and-demand as intrinsic goods.

Unlike musicians, artists, athletes, etc, our economy and society actually needs college professors to function and survive.  We've made a BA a necessity in our current economy, which means record numbers of people have to attend college, which means we need more qualified pr...

Of Now Done Darkness pt. 2

The working title of this text was initially "A Portrait of a Prayer," before I thought better of the Henry James/James Joyce allusion.


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Of Now Done Darkness pt. 1.2

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Of Now Done Darkness pt. 1

Today likewise marks a Decennial since my Mom's passing, a scant few days after my return from Puerto Rico.  I knew she had rapidly worsened in the past few months, but I hadn't realized the full extant thereof till I stepped off the plane. Here is part 1 of an account I once wrote about it...

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Against Digital Humanities

English academia is perhaps second only to the clothing industry in being beholden to trends, fads, and flash-in-the-pan fashions.  It may seem strange for a field that focuses so much on classics and long-dead writers to care so desperately about appearing "cutting-edge," but here we are.  The current big buzz-word in the discipline is the "Digitial Humanities."  As flashy as that may sound, it's basically just another mode for transforming critical-thinkers into clerks, trick...

Mold! at the EPB!

In their infinite wisdom, the University of Iowa administration decided that a nifty way to "go green" and save money this last summer would be to shut off the A/C in the English building on early mornings and weekends.  Somehow the administration neglected to consult the many scientists that literally work for them--or even just the native Midwesterners that surround them--because they somehow spaced on the rather obvious fact that summer-heat-and-humidity+poorly-ventilated-spaces=wicke...

On Ferguson, Belatedly

[A scene that is unfortunately not from Ukraine or Syria]
When you purchase a new vehicle in the state of Iowa, the dealership does not issue you a temp tag, but instead just transfer your old plates to your new vehicle until the new plates arrive in the mail.  This is not common practice in most states, which I learned the hard way this last summer while house-sitting in Utah.

I accidentally backed into someone you see; we exchanged insurance info, called the cops to file a police report,...

They Built It And We Came: Field of Dreams Revisited

"People will come, Ray.  They'll come to Iowa, for reasons they can't even fathom..." (Well, that part's certainly true!)

So one of the first things I learned upon my arrival at University of Iowa is that the much-loved 1989 Oscar-bait Field of Dreams was in fact filmed just up the road in Dyersville, IA.  ("Is this heaven?" "No, it's Iowa.")  What's more, the baseball field is still there--as is the white house--and the stadium lights--and the wooden bleachers Ray's daughter fa...