Comments on: The higher learning http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/ Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:32:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: sarah http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8210 sarah Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:59:15 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8210 Eric,
Yeah, as a writer I’m dealing with a house who simply won’t give me the rights back, though the series is out of print and they’re no longer sending me statements (though still selling ebooks.) It’s in direct violation of contract, but … It’s going to come to lawyers.

]]> By: Sean http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8183 Sean Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:19:50 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8183 For not altruistically coughing up more money than the property was worth? That’s hilarious! Probably not all that atypical anymore, but hilarious.

]]> By: Eric Scheie http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8181 Eric Scheie Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:10:53 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8181 People not only think they aren’t bound by contracts, they see contracts as instruments of oppression.

Convenient, isn’t it? (I know a couple who sold a house at a loss, and blame the buyers.)

]]> By: Mark Alger http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8164 Mark Alger Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:17:56 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8164 Looking over my comment, I see I left something out. That essay by Heinlein should be in his Expanded Universe collection, if memory serves, and it should reveal both how far we’ve come in the intervening decades, and how depressingly short a distance “how far” really is.

M

]]> By: Sean http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8160 Sean Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:03:11 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8160 Good to see you, Mark! Agreed on everything. I was fortunate to have one of the counselors in the career office who were really great—enthusiastic about helping you find something that suited you but realistic about what was marketable. What she told me was “Your Japanese study will be a real asset, but you’re going to have to work until you’re really good at it.” And she was right. Well, I think there actually were plenty of jobs for people who had just-passable proficiency, but being able to read and write definitely helped. And it kept me in play for consulting and freelance work when I came back to the States just as the economy was going haywire in 2008.

BTW, if you have the stomach for yet round of the another but-the-little-darlings-learn-critical-thinking! defense of humanities programs, Salon (‘ulp!) had one a few days ago.

]]> By: Mark Alger http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8146 Mark Alger Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:07:14 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8146 It’s been a LOT longer than 24 years, Sean. Forty years ago, when I was thinking about college, there were warnings that humanities degrees were worth — maybe — the parchment the diploma was printed on. About that time, Heinlein took a jaundiced look at a college catalog in (one presumes) the University of California system. This is not, of course, grad school, but still…

The value of a college education was overstated then, and it hasn’t been enhanced any since by stuffing everybody and his dog into the system. You’d have to be, IMHO, singularly tone-deaf to think otherwise. And Mystal must have had SOME inkling of that, since he chose law.

Or maybe not, considering the glut of lawyers here lately.

M

]]> By: It’s Not My (De)Fault | Professor Mondo http://whiteperil.com/2011/06/17/the-higher-learning/comment-page-1/#comment-8145 It’s Not My (De)Fault | Professor Mondo Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:43:45 +0000 http://whiteperil.com/?p=3091#comment-8145 [...] the thing is, as both O’Connor and others note, it’s disingenuous of Mystal to claim he wasn’t aware that 1) Big-time law is not [...]

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