AI for effort

I don’t really want to read another article about how generative AI is changing everything. But I do read many of them out of a sense of obligation. Working in higher education, overseeing several academic programs, I feel I would not be doing my job if I wasn’t at least familiarizing myself with the discourse … Continue reading AI for effort →

Practical

I’m a very casual gardener, and when a pest eats a seedling I’d just planted or when the lettuce seeds I sowed never sprout because of heavy rains, I think, “thank the gods I don’t need to actually grow enough food to feed us.” My thoughts wander: what practical skills do I have that would … Continue reading Practical →

Yes, chef – learning craft on “The Bear”

I, like many fans, really enjoyed season 2 of "The Bear," in which Carmy and his ragtag crew try to open an upscale restaurant in three months in the old Italian beef eatery Carmy inherited from his older brother Michael. I jokingly called this season “Bad News Bear” and “School of Bear,” where (as in … Continue reading Yes, chef – learning craft on “The Bear” →

Gardening lessons

I think it was anthropologist Mary Douglas who wrote, “dirt is matter out of place.” Such a pithy way of explaining the importance of cultural context in defining the boundaries between the pure and impure, the clean and unclean, and the ways whole societies organize themselves around those definitions. This is what came to mind … Continue reading Gardening lessons →

#17 – february 8: the tyranny of normal

2019. I look back at photos from that time with a bit of wonder. My 50th birthday celebration at a Chicago restaurant with friends who’d traveled from other cities. Our spring break trip to Korea with my mother. The kids’ birthday parties at one venue or another. Our then-6th grader’s first middle school dance. One … Continue reading #17 – february 8: the tyranny of normal →