Mary Beth Willard
@mbwillard.bsky.social
Philosopher, writer, teacher. Spy?
From recent events, why would they need to make the trains run on time rather than simply lying and saying they did?
Even now, when I watch that Star Trek ep with the Nazi planet and the dying old man says of Hitler's Germany "most efficient state...earth ever knew" I yell at the TV.
I even footnoted it in a book:
I even footnoted it in a book:
July 7, 2025 at 8:07 PM
From recent events, why would they need to make the trains run on time rather than simply lying and saying they did?
How would wearing a mask prevent an assault?
I asked ICE where the “413% increase in assaults” justification for its officers using masks came from. They didn’t answer. So I dug into it, and what I found … did not boost their argument.
Gift link: wapo.st/4l7a1ch
Gift link: wapo.st/4l7a1ch
Opinion | Parsing ICE’s mixed-up, hard-to-believe assault claims
ICE officials keep touting a 413 percent increase in assaults on officers to justify officers masking their identities.
wapo.st
June 19, 2025 at 1:14 PM
How would wearing a mask prevent an assault?
For my non-Utah friends, this is kind of a big deal. The Desert News is an LDS-oriented paper.
Hope springs eternal.
Hope springs eternal.
The editorial board of a publication in Sen. Mike Lee's home state of Utah called on him to apologize for his posts about the Minnesota shootings, writing that they “were unacceptable for anyone, let alone from a member of the Senate.”
Deseret News condemns Lee’s posts about Minnesota shooting
The editorial board of the Utah-based publication said the Utah senator cast a “poor light”’ on the Beehive State.
www.politico.com
June 18, 2025 at 8:18 PM
For my non-Utah friends, this is kind of a big deal. The Desert News is an LDS-oriented paper.
Hope springs eternal.
Hope springs eternal.
It's the entire game.
developing an ear for the cadences and music of language is a difficult and worthwhile thing.
I took a lot of creative writing poetry classes. All that time thinking about word choice, line rhythm, and economy of expression made me a much better writer.
December 19, 2024 at 2:18 AM
It's the entire game.
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
The Greeks absolutely had it right when they included a chorus in their plays. They knew audiences are dumbasses who need to be told “THIS MAN IS BAD. HE IS HERE AS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT *NOT* TO DO. WOE TO THE BUMPTIOUS FOOL WHO WOULD IDOLIZE HIM. YOU ARE NOT, NOR DO YOU WANT TO BE, ALEX DELARGE”
December 9, 2024 at 4:12 PM
The Greeks absolutely had it right when they included a chorus in their plays. They knew audiences are dumbasses who need to be told “THIS MAN IS BAD. HE IS HERE AS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT *NOT* TO DO. WOE TO THE BUMPTIOUS FOOL WHO WOULD IDOLIZE HIM. YOU ARE NOT, NOR DO YOU WANT TO BE, ALEX DELARGE”
At my institution, the faculty senate executive committee has seven women (of nine members), five who are also simultaneously department chairs.
This article is about the US, but one cannot overestate the deep, deep misogyny of academic life, its hatred for and rejection of family and caring responsibilities, or the way in which admin/ service roles are dumped on women. A hostile ecosystem. www.science.org/content/arti...
Women faculty feel ‘pushed’ from academia by poor workplace climate
The gender gap in faculty attrition worsens after tenure, according to a new study
www.science.org
December 9, 2024 at 10:47 PM
At my institution, the faculty senate executive committee has seven women (of nine members), five who are also simultaneously department chairs.
I must be missing something because the UCLA prof with the AI textbook is... not using it to replace TAs or de-skill the class or using it so she doesn't have to teach.
December 9, 2024 at 9:12 PM
I must be missing something because the UCLA prof with the AI textbook is... not using it to replace TAs or de-skill the class or using it so she doesn't have to teach.
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
Yes! This story needs to be told. Dumping of history majors is incredibly short sighted. When administrators do this, they're revealing their ignorance of the discipline and its value across careers.
Moderating a panel of past History majors, telling our current students about the career paths they took — from politics and law to cultural work and consulting. Really impressive, and that’s with a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter missing due to being sick.
History: Just Do It
History: Just Do It
December 4, 2024 at 1:16 AM
Yes! This story needs to be told. Dumping of history majors is incredibly short sighted. When administrators do this, they're revealing their ignorance of the discipline and its value across careers.
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
Is there anyone that I know what would be interested in proposing a pannel with me for the 2025 ASA in Baltimore on the aesthetics of concerts and music fests? I think the paper that I'm working on about fests is going to be too long to send in as a paper...lol
December 3, 2024 at 8:25 PM
Is there anyone that I know what would be interested in proposing a pannel with me for the 2025 ASA in Baltimore on the aesthetics of concerts and music fests? I think the paper that I'm working on about fests is going to be too long to send in as a paper...lol
"the coup started and was over by morning coffee" is not something that I'd expect would have a democratic resolution
December 3, 2024 at 9:05 PM
"the coup started and was over by morning coffee" is not something that I'd expect would have a democratic resolution
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
Fascinating piece by @cherylmisak.bsky.social . I had no idea about the efforts of these brave philosophers.
aeon.co/essays/how-a...
aeon.co/essays/how-a...
How a Cold War underground university smuggled in Western ideas | Aeon Essays
During the Cold War, Oxford philosophers worked together to aid dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. I was one of them
aeon.co
December 2, 2024 at 11:40 PM
Fascinating piece by @cherylmisak.bsky.social . I had no idea about the efforts of these brave philosophers.
aeon.co/essays/how-a...
aeon.co/essays/how-a...
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
Roses are redde
Noble are the manatees
Yf we wante a bettir future
Teach artes & humanityes
Noble are the manatees
Yf we wante a bettir future
Teach artes & humanityes
December 2, 2024 at 7:26 PM
Roses are redde
Noble are the manatees
Yf we wante a bettir future
Teach artes & humanityes
Noble are the manatees
Yf we wante a bettir future
Teach artes & humanityes
Successfully got the kids to refer to my purse as the Bag of Holding
December 1, 2024 at 5:49 PM
Successfully got the kids to refer to my purse as the Bag of Holding
Yräm, a braided floor mat
Hi I'm Äkkep, a wooden door wedge.
Your IKEA product name is your name spelled backwards with an umlaut. Hi I’m Ërdried, I am a kitchen organizion system.
November 30, 2024 at 4:31 PM
Yräm, a braided floor mat
@thisishannahkim.bsky.social The Neverending Story just broke my kids -- fiction in a fiction...
November 30, 2024 at 2:32 AM
@thisishannahkim.bsky.social The Neverending Story just broke my kids -- fiction in a fiction...
Yesterday the kids made dinner and we watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving which was oddly on theme
November 29, 2024 at 2:20 AM
Yesterday the kids made dinner and we watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving which was oddly on theme
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
My 2016 book, Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception is now also freely downloadable at the Oxford University Press website:
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
November 27, 2024 at 1:05 PM
My 2016 book, Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception is now also freely downloadable at the Oxford University Press website:
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Reposted by Mary Beth Willard
When a philosopher turns out to be a sleazeball that’s a concept creep.
November 27, 2024 at 8:31 PM
When a philosopher turns out to be a sleazeball that’s a concept creep.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Education drives equity. Universities maintain our strategic supply of nerds and make sure future nerds can train.
The "demographic cliff" is a slow decline to roughly 1997 levels, a lie predicated on the assumption that Hispanic kids won't go to college. 1/
Education drives equity. Universities maintain our strategic supply of nerds and make sure future nerds can train.
The "demographic cliff" is a slow decline to roughly 1997 levels, a lie predicated on the assumption that Hispanic kids won't go to college. 1/
Rural students’ options shrink as colleges slash majors
As enrollments fall, rural-serving universities are shedding degree programs ranging from music to chemistry.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 26, 2024 at 1:10 PM
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Education drives equity. Universities maintain our strategic supply of nerds and make sure future nerds can train.
The "demographic cliff" is a slow decline to roughly 1997 levels, a lie predicated on the assumption that Hispanic kids won't go to college. 1/
Education drives equity. Universities maintain our strategic supply of nerds and make sure future nerds can train.
The "demographic cliff" is a slow decline to roughly 1997 levels, a lie predicated on the assumption that Hispanic kids won't go to college. 1/
Appreciating the proper use of the subjunctive in Jeremiah was a bullfrog
November 26, 2024 at 12:56 AM
Appreciating the proper use of the subjunctive in Jeremiah was a bullfrog
People who are wondering how the war on higher ed is going should pay attention to Utah over the next few months.
I stand a decent chance of losing my job because someone read a land acknowledgement at a different university, and that made the legislature mad.
The press calls it a budget cut.
1/
I stand a decent chance of losing my job because someone read a land acknowledgement at a different university, and that made the legislature mad.
The press calls it a budget cut.
1/
November 25, 2024 at 5:37 PM
People who are wondering how the war on higher ed is going should pay attention to Utah over the next few months.
I stand a decent chance of losing my job because someone read a land acknowledgement at a different university, and that made the legislature mad.
The press calls it a budget cut.
1/
I stand a decent chance of losing my job because someone read a land acknowledgement at a different university, and that made the legislature mad.
The press calls it a budget cut.
1/
We do not have a faculty lounge, unless you count the conference room with the non-working computer
November 25, 2024 at 12:51 AM
We do not have a faculty lounge, unless you count the conference room with the non-working computer
Also two weeks ago in aesthetics class one of us used Cormac McCarthy as an example of an author who wrote about horrible things and didn't do anything horrible
November 24, 2024 at 7:42 PM
Also two weeks ago in aesthetics class one of us used Cormac McCarthy as an example of an author who wrote about horrible things and didn't do anything horrible
After splitting open a pomegranate I have a kitchen that looks like a crime scene and a new appreciation for Persephone noping out after six seeds
November 23, 2024 at 4:09 PM
After splitting open a pomegranate I have a kitchen that looks like a crime scene and a new appreciation for Persephone noping out after six seeds
So corrupt they were the worst tyrants ever!
yikes, unfollowing now. I loved his work as as the founder of Western philosophy and one of the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. didn’t know he was corrupting the youth of Athens
November 17, 2024 at 7:12 PM
So corrupt they were the worst tyrants ever!