Frank Kavanaugh, who used to teach at UD‘s university (he seems to have been the executive producer on The Saving of the President, which won four Emmys), was a right-to-die advocate who shot his wife and himself in her Florida nursing home room yesterday.

He should not have had to end it this way, but only a few states allow a dignified exit.

UD‘s home state, Maryland, might be moving in the right to die direction, but not for awhile.

Great name for a landscaping business.

… for my unseasonably hot, early morning, two miles up and back, Rehoboth Beach boardwalk march.

Everybody on the boardwalk is old.

Rehoboth is a Quiet Resort – not as quiet as some, but definitely not noisy. A pallid Spring Break. No Floatopia. Rehoboth attracts tanned and well-turned oldies.

At the walkway’s midpoint, in front of a white bandstand, three starched nurses holding a STROKE AWARENESS poster have attracted a crowd.

Nathanael West could write this up, thinketh UD…

As UD powers by the nurses, she hears “Totally make relaxation time for yourself… long bath…”

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

Do retired people really need this advice she wonders, but what’s really going through her mind is Richard Dawkins, who she admires and who has had a stroke.

The thought of Dawkins sets her off, as she swings her arms and plants her heels, on God and not-God, which occupies her for the duration.

… to remain on the board of for-profit Devry. And a reminder of one of the many benefits of big-money university sports.

DeVry wants [Ann Weaver] Hart for the U of Arizona name and prestige, not for Hart herself. She brings nothing to the table, certainly nothing worth $170,000 a year. The University of Arizona name and its international distinction belong to all of Arizona, not to her for her private benefit or for the benefit of a private entity. (Alas, any moral force the Board of Regents may have had is long gone since coaches regularly appear on local TV as hucksters for businesses wearing their Arizona logos and even with the student Wildcat mascot in the background of commercials).

UD this morning leaves the absurdly massively blooming azaleas of Garrett Park for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. She will of course blog from there.

… she must state for the record that whether it’s Trump University or the University of Phoenix or Laureate International Universities or the Minerva Project, most of it ranges from lousy to fraudulent, and just as many Democrats as Republicans are happy to make money off of it.

UD has her own favorite examples of this greedy hypocritical activity…

But more immediately, keep in mind that thanks to Hillary Clinton’s warm relationships with several for-profits, she has made it easy for Donald Trump to defend his own shitty chiseling ed venture as pretty much indistinguishable from several similar ventures with which Clinton has been involved.

… come to UD‘s final lecture in her series of lectures on poetry at the Georgetown Public Library tomorrow at 2:00.

The library is steps from the cafes of Georgetown, and steps from the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks. With all of that, you could put together a really nice Saturday afternoon.

If you want to understand the University of Tennessee, one of America’s most depraved locations, watch this clip from An Officer and a Gentleman.

To understand why UT protects accused rapists, hires scummy coaches who arrive on campus trailing their scummy pasts like bright streamers, puts its athletic program in 200 million dollars of debt, and in every conceivable way craps on the word university, you have to understand that for UT there is nothing else besides field games. It has nowhere else to go. It’s got nothing else. Take away ball games and you’ve got a big gaping hole that owes money to every crooked coach in America.

Why, UD has wondered for years, do the citizens of Tennessee keep paying for this? True, they live in what has long been one of the most corrupt states in America.… So maybe they’ve given up. Maybe they don’t care that the money they work for doesn’t educate their kids but keeps dirty coaches in the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed. In a sane world, Tennessee’s residents would have generated a popular tax revolt or two. Instead, UD envisions them – much like the depressed vodka-swilling citizens of the former Soviet Union – motionless in their houses with the tv on to some shitty UT game, knocking back bourbon.

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

UD thanks John.

Why not dig up Paterno if you want to win some games? Huh guys? Am I right?

The people at UA ask why
Their president whores for DeVry.
“Oh, go lay a fart,”
Says President Hart,
“Fuck off, adios, and bye-bye.”

Sign the petition.

Somewhat out of focus.

But the most focused
one I was able to take.

Click on the image
for a bigger view.

These are the first felony arrests for a Georgia football player since Johnathan Taylor in June 2014 on domestic violence charges.

These are the second and third arrests of a Georgia football player this spring. Defensive lineman Jonathan Ledbetter was arrested last month on two misdemeanor alcohol charges.

First felonies since all the way back in… 2014! Things are looking up for University of Georgia football!

… really gone too far.

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

To mark this day in North Carolina’s history, the town of Morehead has been renamed Lesshead.

… her sister.

Will perform “Franziska” Liebkind in upcoming West End production of the The Producers.

… La Sapienza, Rome’s most prestigious university, is plagued by favoritism. In 2010, a third of the faculty counted close family members among their colleagues. Even university admissions are tainted by corruption: Two years ago, a box of university entrance exams at the University of Bari was tampered with before the test, leaving many skeptical of the fairness of the exam. This leaves the education and careers of young Italians up to a corrupt and nepotistic system…

In an interview with Brown Political Review, Beppe Severgnini, one of Italy’s leading journalists, explained that the main issue young people face in their education is a total lack of accountability. “It’s not even possible to translate this word [accountability] into Italian,” Severgnini joked, describing the way that faculty in Italian universities can treat their jobs and obligations with minimal care and face few consequences. Italian students lacking family connections must become independent and resourceful. “In a perverse manner, in those universities it becomes a sort of natural selection,” he said. “I’ve taught in the US, where, whether you’re a better student or a weaker student, there’s a wave that brings everyone out.” But once these talented students make it through the system, many of them leave — particularly those who have already made the jump from the South to the North, where the quality of higher education tends to be higher. “I call it the ‘triple jump,’” Severgnini said. “So they go from Palermo to Rome to Berlin. Or Bari to Torino to Boston. Bang; bang; bang.”