Posts by The Cronk of Higher Education
May 25, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Best Sellers on Campus, May 25, 2010
The most popular titles at college bookstores, according to a Cronk survey:
Butt-Kickin' Extremonomics, by Bob Clemens and Bob Jennings. Sequel to Extremonomics. Once again, the controversial University of Illinois economist and his journalist coauthor illuminate how the dismal science is not nearly as mind-numbinginly dull and incomprehensible as we think, and some of the counterintuitive conclusions it can lead to. This time around, they look at the unexpectedly cagey investment strategies of homeless people; why you really should be wearing a skirt, even though you're male; and how widespread use of birth-control pills in the 60s and 70s affects candy consumption and car engineering today.
The Creative Metropolis, by Dick Sarasota. Famed economist and lecture-circuit staple explains how artsy bohemians really liven up a town, and, what the hell, there are no real jobs for them...
Read MoreMay 21, 2010, 12:00 PM ET
Creationism-Curriculum Advocate Was Just Putting Us On
The Reverend Lowry Jenkins, president of Shepherd's Field College in Pallamie, Ala., is also director of the Creationism Alliance, which for a decade has pressed for Creationism to be presented along with evolution in K-12 and college science curricula as a viable and respected theory. Yesterday, however, at a specially called assembly, he revealed that his activism was staged as an elaborate piece of performance art.
Jenkins told stunned faculty and many of the small rural college's 1,800 students that he was actually a performance artist named Gregory Blanchard, from Babylon Town on Long Island. Prior to getting his divinity degree and MBA, the NYU theater graduate worked, Jenkins said, as an actor, nude model, filmmaker, and performance artist. The Creationism Alliance has raised $15-million, most of it channeled toward legal fees in curricular and textbook-content battles around the...
Read MoreMay 11, 2010, 09:00 AM ET
Best Sellers on Campus
The most popular titles at college bookstores, according to a Cronk survey:
The Girl Who Played Solitaire in Her Cubicle, by Niels Blixssenn. The latest installment in the thrilling Millennial Quartet by the famed Norwegian software programmer.
Gorgon Butt-Whoopin': Percy Jackson Meets His Match, by Rick Riordan. Definitely the final book in this acclaimed series, which is way too young for you college kids anyway. You think it's cute to read novels written for tweens? What's the matter—you stupid? Grow up already!
The Outhouse: A Spiritual Parable, by Earl Oldman. Where might you meet God? What would you ask him? Would there be room for both of you? Would you light an aromatic candle, just as a courtesy? These and other questions are provocatively raised in this meditative self-published breakout best seller.
The Post-It Note, by Nicholas Sparks. The shortest yet of his epistolary...
Read MoreMay 10, 2010, 10:00 AM ET
Professor Eaten by Student's Enormous Ego
In what was first thought a tragic mauling incident in the College of Ignatius zoology labs, investigators are now seriously considering the possibility of a rare case of egogurgitation.
"It appears that Professor H. Glenn Marks was engulfed by a student's enormous ego," said Crooks County forensic examiner Bucky Chalk. "The last person who saw Dr. Marks said he was talking to a grad student who refused to accept advice from the professor. According to the videos we retrieved from the zoology lab, the student kept saying, 'I know, I know' and rolling her eyes at the world-renowned scientist."
Police say the student being questioned in the incident has been extremely cooperative.
"Most students are nervous or suspicious when a uniformed officer knocks on the door," said one officer, "but when we explained that she was a 'person of interest' in this case, the student seemed flattered."
... Read MoreApril 28, 2010, 10:00 AM ET
Distraught Mourners Eulogize Campus Windbag
In a somber on-campus memorial service Wednesday, long-time Bottomley College employee Wally Lipscombe was remembered for his crotchety demeanor and his ability to tell whimsical and cautionary stories in nearly any situation.
Lipscombe joined Bottomley College in 1993 as director of IT implementation at the Duffy Center for Project Management. He stayed in that position until his passing on Sunday at the age of 65.
"You would see Wally wandering around the center almost every day," Professor Jon Smith, director of the Duffy Center, said. "He'd putter around on his computer for a couple of hours, yell at the screen about things he didn't like, then make his rounds. You could set your watch to it. He'd come looking for me in my office around 11:16 every day," Smith added. "There is a void now."
It was his life experiences that allowed Lipscombe to interject a long and rambling story in...
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