Possible South Florida Meetup, Saturday 28 September

La Vallée-de-Jacmel, Haïti

If all goes well, I will be arriving at MIA on American 1665 from Port-au-Prince at 3:35 PM local time this Saturday. The plan, such as it is, is that I call Jonathan once I am through customs. I somewhat inappropriately made reservations for lodging much closer to FLL, just because I like the place (Villa Europa in Hollywood) and haven’t had the chance to stay there in a while. So anyway, southern Floridians interested in a probable wide-ranging and somewhat ethanol-assisted discussion (#civilsociety #crisisof2020 #statefailure #younameit) are encouraged to contact Jonathan and … figure something out. Hey, I have people for that.

Rendezvous

(Ref this earlier post.)

Saturday, 4 PM CDT, 171 W Randolph (lobby of the Allegro Hotel). Wear your official ChicagoBoyz attire for prompt recognition. Agenda:

  1. introductions
  2. walk to Millennium Park (3/8 mi E), take pictures
  3. walk to Blommer Chocolate factory (W to Canal, N to Kinzie, W 1 block; just over 1 mi from Millennium Park), take more pictures (this spot recommended by Jonathan)
  4. sunset, 6:04 PM
  5. eat someplace
  6. proceed to Buddy Guy’s Legends (E to Wabash, S to venue; 1¼ mi from Allegro); artist info

Forecast is for sunny and 60° F at midafternoon, winds ENE at 8 mph. Hit it!

Pathological Personalities

Continuing with my re-posting from my old blog: in case anyone thought I was being a little harsh on Academics in that last post, go read the Mobius Stripper’s description of her interactions with her first advisor, the Eccentric Genius. Here, I’ll excerpt a little from the comments:

Jess – ah, the dread of meeting with the advisor. I don’t think mine bad-mouthed me behind my back – my EG was a man of few words, whose MO was to stare at me for long periods of time whenever I asked a question. He might have been thinking that I was an idiot; he might have been thinking about his (unrelated) research. Hell, he might have been thinking about what he was going to have for dinner. Who knows? I sure didn’t.

Just who taught that jerk that this was a way for one human being to communicate with another, especially a subordinate? I’ll tell you who. Every teacher or peer who ever excused his rudeness because he was brilliant. Every administrator and department head who excused poor behavior because they didn’t want him to go somewhere else. A grad school colleague of mine (a former Marine) used to be fond of saying, “if you can’t be smart, be nice”, but in Industry, smart is necessary but not sufficient if you want to get ahead. In the Academy, it’s necessary and sufficient. Hence we get Eccentric Geniuses who could have also grown a real human personality, but missed the opportunity because of the special environment in which they operate. And lest you think that MS’s experience rare, I’d say that this kind of interpersonal interaction is well within one standard deviation from the mean that I have observed in the Academy. Well within.

Read more

C-Span (times e.t.)

A favorite of many on this blog, Historian David Hackett Fischer delivered the Irving Kristol Lecture at the American Enterprise Institute’s annual dinner in Washington, DC, after receiving the Institute’s Irving Kristol Award for 2006. His speech will be shown at 8:05 EST on Sunday, BookTV, C-Span 2. In “American Leadership: The Invention of Tradition,” Mr. Fischer describes George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt as three great leaders. He argues that the open and flexible leadership skills of these men were the key to their success.

Shelby Steele is the guest on the 3-hour In-depth, beginning at noon e.s.t. on Sunday.