Just because today's a special day.  Not because I'm engaged in New Year's cleaning, or anything. 

Wow. Forget Triumph of the Will--it's the Hallmark Christmas movie that is the most powerful fascist propaganda!!  "None of this, of course, means that everyone who watches Hallmark Christmas movies is some kind of fledgling fascist."  When you've got to write this, it feels like you're well-advised to consider whether you're taking things too far (as academics, and opinion writers, are wont to do).

Maybe useful as a way of thinking about how truly "long-term" university planning should be.

This piece talks about a book on demographic challenges to higher ed, and suggests we are in a moment of real growth in attention to--productive attention to--"student learning." I hope it is true.

Cool beans--possibly the oldest illustrated book ever discovered: a guide to the afterlife of Ancient Egypt, for the newly dead.