Author Archives: Fenster

About Fenster

Gainfully employed for thirty years, including as one of those high paid college administrators faculty complain about. Earned Ph.D. late in life and converted to the faculty side. Those damn administrators are ruining everything.

Sucker Punched

Posted on July 10, 2017

Fenster writes: I wrote here about the many relatively reputable news outlets that got suckered by a bogus story about a public masturbation booth in midtown Manhattan.  It seems like some stories are just too juicy to pass up.  Why … Continue reading →

Posted in Sex, Technology, The Good Life | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Lessons from Across the Pond?

Posted on June 12, 2017

Fenster writes: Are there lessons to be learned from the messages from across the pond?  

Posted in Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Realism, Race and Class Versions

Posted on June 7, 2017

Fenster writes: Elements of the alt-right consider themselves to be ‘race realists’.  Generally, this view relies on genetics as a partial way to explain human differences, and on the fact that  natural selection can operate at a fast enough rate … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Trillin X 2

Posted on June 4, 2017

Fenster writes: Two takes on Calvin Trillin.  Food and killing.

Posted in Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Sokal Redux?

Posted on May 30, 2017

Fenster writes: When making sense no longer makes sense it is very tempting to stop making sense, this urge itself a form of sense-making.  In 1984 the interrogator tells Winston Smith that two and two can equal five if the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Left, Right, Left, Right, Left

Posted on May 22, 2017

Fenster writes: Ah, the times in which we live.   Here is Michael Lind, once conservative, then a critic of conservatism, now writing an article not for Salon but for the Trumpist journal American Affairs. Is this a conservative piece? … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

What is the “Right” Take on Higher Education?

Posted on May 1, 2017

Fenster writes: My wife makes fun of me because when I give directions I tend to mix up left and right.  I don’t know why I do this.  I am a fairly hard “P” (perceiver) in Meyers-Briggs terms so it … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Politics and Economics | Tagged , | 1 Comment