February 24th, 2026
‘She’s forthright with her interest in depravity, and as such, her films make no effort to conceal their degeneracies or shock the viewer.’

Emerald Fennell’s wondrously sicko “Wuthering Heights” is a real-time aesthetic parallel to the ever-elaborating Epstein/Mountbatten epic. She couldn’t have timed her exploration of our darkest urges more brilliantly: Her film pulses with the power of perversity, but does its thing playfully, as art will.

In the real world we cluck and cluck about famous greedy depraved self-destroyers. We pretend astonishment at each new twisted twist.

As in:

The Nurse Racheds among us gasp to find ICE Barbie melting in the arms of her sub! Before this, she was a perfectly normal person who shot puppies (Heathcliff hanged them).

February 19th, 2026
‘A political scientist … says he was instructed to teach game theory “from an Indigenous perspective.”’

Canadian doo-doos are now deep in doo-doo.

February 17th, 2026
Off-Piste PLUS Red Avalanche Alert.

The phrase ‘courting death’ comes to mind.

February 12th, 2026
‘Ms. Ruemmler, in addition to being Goldman’s general counsel since 2021, was a partner and vice chair of its reputational risk committee.’

Can’t make this shit up.

February 8th, 2026
Sure, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done well.

Predatory journals take your two thousand bucks and publish anything you send. We all know this.

But Pascual Diago, a math professor solicited by a predatory ob/gyn rag, decided to go there. His abstract:

In an unprecedented quantum leap in interdisciplinary research, we introduce the concept of ‘Gyneco-Obstetric Algebraic Didactics’ (GOAD). This paper explores the impact of teaching mathematical models using obstetric metaphors on the cognitive flexibility of third-trimester patients and first-year mathematics students alike. Through the introduction of the Ovary-Function Theorem (OFT) and the application of the Cervix-Dilation Equation (= √πr2), the study reveals that explaining non-Euclidean spaces through pelvic retroversion significantly improves calculus test scores and reduces birth anxiety by 13.7%. A case study with pregnant mathematicians and aspiring gynecologists demonstrates that integrating the Fibonacci sequence into labor progression charts induces spontaneous appreciation for abstract algebra and mild cravings for prime numbers. These findings challenge the traditional boundaries between prenatal care and set theory, suggesting that mathematical didactics and obstetric gynecology, when merged, can birth new paradigms in both fields. Further research is encouraged, especially in the context of cesarean matrices and post-partum group theory.

Of course they published it.

February 7th, 2026
‘The timing comes just one week after [Dan] Ariely was named hundreds of times in connection with Jeffrey Epstein in the documents released last Friday through the Epstein Files Transparency Act. However, Duke has said the two are unrelated.’

LOLOLOL

February 7th, 2026
From Hot-for-Hitler Edward to Arsewipe Andrew…

… we Americans have followed the modern history of the British monarchy with confusion (why does it still exist?) and amazement (did King George really let the Romanovs be shot to bits?).

While we’re vaguely aware that the current Norwegian royal family is just as stuffed with morons and degenerates as the British, we’re less interested because, I mean, history… But the fact is, we remain baffled by the behavior and also the continued existence of The Crown.

*****************

The Guardian has a nice insider’s take on it all, from which maybe we can learn. Let’s see…

The royal family’s defenders claim that they were once the country’s moral anchor. That was rarely, if ever, true. But the Epstein files reveal where entitlement without restraint, and privilege without responsibility, can lead.

Yeah but if it was never true… And if – call it regal evolution – descends ultimately to Andrew (and hey it can always descend lower!), then why…

Public anger is brewing against the monarchy – a keystone of a political order in urgent need of radical reconstruction, along with the electoral system and the upper house. It would seem absurd for the prime minister to ask Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to give evidence to US lawmakers, but not to MPs. The monarchy is not accountable to parliament. Commons rules bar “reflections” on the royals, rendering meaningful debate taboo. In 2011 David Cameron relinquished MPs’ oldest check on royal power: control of the purse. His government replaced annual scrutiny of palace finances with an automatic transfer of crown estate revenues.

Um. Seems to be going in the wrong direction, what?

February 5th, 2026
Massif…

fraud.

February 3rd, 2026
We’re up to 13% on Forbes’ ‘Dirty Under Thirty’ List.

Or uh make that Thirty Under Thirty, its exclusive compilation of the most amazing young entrepreneurs.

Already four of the thirty have gone to jail or are on their way. Stay tuned for more!

January 30th, 2026
Can’t wait to see who’ll be NEXT year’s Bostonian of the Year.

Hard to see how you beat Monica Cannon-Grant’s achievements.

January 23rd, 2026
“She claimed that because … a ‘no trespassing’ sign wasn’t posted, she could not be certain she was unlawfully present.”

A ‘thesda tale from UD’s neck of the woods…

Yesterday a woman in a $2.3 million house exited her three-car garage in a black Porsche Cayenne ($100,000 – $190,000 value) to defend her right to the house, in which she’d been squatting for nine months.

In her defense, she pointed out the house lacked a no trespassing sign.

“We need to post one of those in front of our place pronto,UD advised Mr UD. “A big one.”

January 23rd, 2026
‘Amarasekare – who is from Sri Lanka – alleged in her lawsuit that the UC retaliated against her on the basis of her gender, race, color, ethnicity, ancestry and national origin.’

That’s only a half dozen. She couldn’t think of a few more? Religion? Sexual preference? Body shape? (Moving toward a dozen here… Hold on. Lemme think.). Physical disability gets us to ten, but I’d love to get to twelve…

Age and genetic information. Tada!

January 22nd, 2026
Euroweenies hide their Hitlerism inside train conductor …

cabins, but here in America we come right out with it.

At a Miami nightclub called Vichy… I mean Vendome! … some of the country’s highest profile fascists ordered up a Nazi rap song the other night and sang and saluted along with it. A fine time was had by all, plus they’re getting a lot of attention.

As for UD – meh. Millions of people love fascism in one or another of its forms, and she’s having trouble being scandalized by singing Hitlers.

January 14th, 2026
‘Take features like home theaters, formal dining rooms and game rooms. These often turn into expensive dead zones — pricey square footage that is very rarely used. Rather than social hubs, they serve as glorified storage for our stuff.’

More thunderingly obvious truths are offered about McMansion Melancholia, this time in the Washington Post… Study after study demonstrates that, if your pointless excess rooms function to hold your pointless excess purchases, you are likely to be unhappy about it.

Gazing at the shit-stashes all about you, you may find yourself toppling over into larger terrains of sadness… As in … ah, the pointlessness of it all!

UD has already described the nothingness of her aunt and uncle’s Potomac MD McMansion, a house intended mostly for status display.

Which display certainly worked, because they were robbed of their jewelry more than once.

January 8th, 2026
‘He now signs his name: “Dr Ankur Khajuria, BSc (Hons) MBBS (Dist.) AICSM FHEA FRSPH MRCS (Eng) MAcadMEd. MFSTEd. MSc (Oxon) PhD.”’

Veteran UD readers know what to make of people who, like the Wizard of Oz and Harold Hill the Music Man, are always tossing around advanced degrees. They are almost invariably con men.

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UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

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