April 15th, 2019
Notre Dame…

… up in flames.

Nearly a thousand years of history going up in flames.

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

… Like a prodigious skeleton of fire
Leaving an immense void — twisted iron, indented
 clock wheels, broken muted bells.

   Foolish imposter doors which did not open
Hang in high galleries. Perforated the great
 roses — intense blues, purples,

   Reds so warm and vigorous which burnished
The rays of the midday sun. The gargoyles drip
 heavy tears. I hear the bells falling.

   Wind is raging among the naves and corpses.

— Daisy Aldan, The Destruction of Cathedrals.

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

From the Notre Dame School of Polyphony (1160-1250).

April 7th, 2019
The Full Safari Experience

Rhino Poacher Trampled by Elephant and Eaten by Lions in South Africa

March 12th, 2019
And in other news…

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality

February 9th, 2019
Brava. Every bit as good as ‘PRESIDENT FIGHTS ERECTION IN HARVARD SQUARE.’

A HuffPost writer comes up with the perfect Bezos/American Media, Inc. headline.

(The Harvard one.)

January 29th, 2019
‘Fu-u-u-ck dat! We gotta do something about our forty million football debt!’

U CONN DECLINES TO RETURN SACKLER FAMILY DONATIONS

AMID FUROR OVER OPIOID MANUFACTURER PURDUE PHARMA

January 25th, 2019
LOL

ITALY’S PRIME MINISTER PROMISES

TO CHANGE ITALY IN TWO YEARS

January 17th, 2019
Headline of the Day.

With Title-Game Prices Plummeting more than 90 Percent, Should College Football be Worried?

January 6th, 2019
Headline of the Day

KOHLER’S SMART TOILET PROMISES

‘A FULLY IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

December 21st, 2018
Headline of the Day.

Urban Meyer To Unironically Co-Teach A Class On Character And Leadership At Ohio State

November 21st, 2018
“Michelle Wolf responds to Trump trashing her comedy with a taunt about Khashoggi: ‘I bet you’d be on my side if I had killed a journalist'”

Nice comeback.

November 20th, 2018
‘UN audit finds environment chief spent $500 million on travel expenses’

UD thinks the Hindustan Times is off by a bit; the actual number seems to be $500K.

I mean, after all… the guy’s an environmentalist… $500 million would be an excessive use of resources…

October 13th, 2018
‘Man Run Over by Lawn Mower While Trying to Kill Son with Chainsaw’

‘Man Tries to Drown Girlfriend; Nearly Becomes Murder Victim Himself When She Tries to Saw Off His Head’

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

This is the sort of news UD likes to read when she feels herself getting too coastal-elitey.

October 1st, 2018
Il était encore …

en vie??

*********

She.

October 1st, 2018
Notes Toward a Fictional Supreme

On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.

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

My title comes from this poem.

September 26th, 2018
More for Sen. McConnell to Plow Right Through.

Her name is Julie Swetnick.

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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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