Monthly Archives: December 2022

Year-End Awards

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Fabulist. Trump and Putin started the year with a HUGE lead, but Bankman Fried and George Santos closed FAST. Tie. Women are notably underrepresented, but honorable mention goes to The Good Wife who said I looked “sexy” a few days ago.

  • Trump
  • Putin
  • Bankman Fried
  • Santos

Worst Billionaire

  • Elon Musk

Athlete. Tie.

  • Katie Ledecky
  • Roger Federer
  • Gustav Iden

Song

  • Kate Bush, Running Up That Hill

Car . Don’t take it just from me.

  • Rivian R1S

T.V. show. Tie.

  • White Lotus
  • Grand Design

Personal Tech. Tie.

  • AirPods Pro
  • Apple Watch Ultra

Life Affirming Twitter follow. And I’m not even a “cat person”.

  • Patrick Skinner @SkinnerPm

Animal

  • Nutria

Podcast

Movie

  • Banshees of Inisherin

Investment

  • Cash

Bike Ride. Tie.

  • McKenzie Pass, Sisters, Oregon
  • Victoria coast with the daughters

Person. Tie.

I need to keep better track of my reading because I can’t recall my favorite books of the year. In the non-fiction category, The Power of Fun by Catherine Price.

Time to Pivot

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This fall I taught three classes with a total of sixty students. Only a third made the time to formally evaluate me. Fortunately, the feedback I received from 17 of the 20 was either moderately or extremely positive. However, in each class, there was one person who took the time to express moderate to extreme displeasure. In one instance, a student was convinced I was way too hard of a grader. I was surprised by how unhappy the other two were since they masked it well. I wish I had understood their unhappiness during the semester.

I do my best to take my students’ thinking seriously. One of the dissenters dropped this bomb in the comments, “The instructor is ineffective at teaching this subject and should consider pursuing a different career.”

My initial reaction was to be defensive and say to myself, “What are they talking about? They should see their peers’ feedback.” But that’s not respecting the student’s point of view, which is the foundation of my teaching philosophy.

So, upon further thought, I am considering the following:

• Professional golfer

• Subsistence farmer

• Constitutional lawyer

• Hip-hopster/rapper

• Cult leader

• Ski lift operator

• TNT NBA studio host/analyst. . . when EJ retires

Additional suggestions welcome.

“A Staggering Loser”

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Like lots of news organizations today, the Los Angeles Times is digging into the Former Guy’s tax returns:

“The picture that emerged showed that for all Trump’s claims to be a great businessman, his core businesses — a sprawling network of hotels, golf courses and other properties — have lost millions of dollars year after year.

‘He’s a staggering loser,’ said Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.”

If he lied about his business acumen, what else might he have embellished?

Land of The Free, Home of The Gullible

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Before the Former Guy, I had a friend who thought all the (dis)United States needed was a successful businessman to straighten everything out. Not a businesswoman, a businessman who had taken risks, created jobs, and balanced budgets.

And when the Former Guy materialized, this friend was convinced our capitalist savior had arrived. And he wasn’t alone. Large swaths of the country believed the Former Guy was a successful businessman.

But his tax returns show tens of millions of dollars of business losses over several years. I’ll give the Former Guy this, he’s been incredibly consistent. All of his businesses have failed. That will probably change with the Trading Cards though.

Based on what’s been made public this week, in the last 5-7 years, the only times the Former Guy has reported any income were years when he received payouts from his dad’s estate. . . over twenty years after his death. The Former Guy is the quintessential nepo baby.

I’m not sure which is more disheartening. The number of people who can’t accept that the Former Guy is a disastrous businessman; the extra taxes hard working, law-abiding Americans have had to pay to make up for the Former Guy’s (alleged) fraud; or the Internal Revenue Service being afraid to audit him.

Tie goes to the losers.