Victor Luftig

If he said the same stuff with a bottle in his hand he'd sound like a guy in a Jimmy Buffett song.

Take 5 minutes to get AI to develop an app for you to sell the univs. and you can triple your income--not just for the app. sales but charging them for pointing out and half-fixing its flaws.

Conference. But it's good here.

Call yourself a consultant and you can command triple figures just for breathing near the univ. admin buildings.

I understand that it’s provincial of me to think everything sounds better in French, but…

Montreal, unsurprisingly, outwinters the most wintry Virginia winter

Easy mistake: Ozzie Smith was such a great player it is sometimes hard to remember he wasn't fictional. (I say that as a Mets fan who rooted hard against him in the 80s.)

Former Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim dies at 63 - Navajo Times Former Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim, a naat’áanii, poet and hataałii who spoke eloquently in Diné Bizaad, has died. He was 63.

I had the honor of knowing Rex Lee Jin, former VP of the Navajo Nation and contributor to the UN Decl. on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a bit at the Bread Loaf School of English: a remarkable, capable, inspiring humble man who'll be greatly missed, gone too young. navajotimes.com/reznews/form...

This squad includes some of the most impressive scholars I know, doing great educational work.

Schools that pay for their teachers to attend www.middlebury.edu/school-engli... benefit greatly. But not the same as paying teachers--NEH seminars and institutes have done that. Gilder-Lehrman has travel stipends for history.

Here in Virginia, we had snowdrops bloom in the garden this week, but they are barely visible today in the snow. I hope the storm's not too rough up there--a minor one down here this time, though the ice from the previous one isn't entirely gone.

“we strongly urge the newly-reconstituted Board to rescind the appointment of Mr. Beardsley, form a search committee with more than token faculty representation and begin anew the…search for a president whose scholarly record, professional experience and personal attributes better qualify them.” 🔥🔥🔥

One of the most powerful events/protests I've been to at McIntire and Preston was a few months back when local unions described their recent achievements--which were many and major.

Was this really written by someone whose job is doing marketing for Anthropic? Not a lot of credibility for advocating for writers if so.

5 authors by whom I’ve read at least 5 books:

Virginia Woolf
EM Forster
John Le Carre
Roddy Doyle
Moya Cannon

whereas the damage you have done to faith in the court’s independence, fairness, and morality will take generations, or, as I hope, a complete recasting of the Court, to repair.

Though some coverage of this week’s tariffs decision is celebrating it as an indication of the Court’s return to its proper independent, non-partisan role, I assure you that such reactions are in the minority and will be fleeting,

In an age of AI harvesting, re-posting, and screenshots, headlines like this are irresponsible--conspiracy fodder. Save the glib irony for the body of the article.

"...the bill’s preamble states: 'Education should cultivate a neutral or patriotic disposition...without compelling total ideological allegiance.'” OK, then, to compel _partial_ ideological allegiance--eg to force a third grader be a Maoist as long as they remain committed to the values of the MCU.

"Other: 'The condition, is, overcoming: which implieth, 1. a fight with a world of enemies and corruption. 2. A serious fight and constant war, as for life. 3. A difficult fight. Yet, 4. a victory and overcoming of all these enemies before there can be an obtaining of all things.'"

And equally gross when college faculty disrespect their students' decisions to going into high school teaching.

The 2026 Elections: Resisting the Rigging - The American Prospect As Trump becomes more desperate, citizen resistance only grows.

Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, a leader in organizing college presidents, has proposed Democracy Summer 2026, evoking the heroic Freedom Summer of 1964 that aimed to advance voting rights in Mississippi, now employed to safeguard the midterm elections. From Bob Kuttner:

YouTube video by UVA English What Can You Do with an English Major?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZfL...
Splendid clips of UVA English alums talking about the impact of the major on their lives and careers

www.instagram.com/reel/DU1-DrF...

Amazing Presidents' Day dance tribute to Renée Good and Alex Pretti by The First Amendment Troop.

Yes. Another is when they proceed as if faculty are the ones who shape higher ed admission decisions. One could probably assemble a substantial list of these giveaways (and find them with dispiriting frequency in NYT op-eds, etc).

The comparison to listening to folks blather about fantasy teams is apt: this must be driven partly by online gambling (and fantasy), letting people focus only on the details of the game they have a stake in. Eventually sports events will be casinos: gambling with a little entertainment on the side.

I'm very grateful for what you're doing--thank you so much--but I'd think little of bills that exclude faculty and student voting (leaving the boards fully in control of wealthy business folks, as remains the case at UVA) and appointment of independent counsel. Please do keep pushing for more!

Time to change your bio on here, Attorney General Jones: you're no longer AG-elect, but, thank goodness, our AG.

Absolutely right. Could be @jonesjay.bsky.social too.

Joyce, "A Painful Case"