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Arranging Art and Images
My posts last summer focused on my art collection. Some of the works hadn’t been hung or were hung in the wrong places. In the fall, I planned where to hang everything, and I executed my plan with the help of the Toronto-based art installation firm Artstall. Artstall does excellent work, using professional methods such […]
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Don’t They Know it’s Hanukkah?
Canada was once a white Christian country that has become racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse. The Prime Minister routinely recognizes diversity in the messages he posts about every religious holiday observed by Canadians. Since 2017, Canada Post, a federal government agency, has issued a stamp celebrating Hanukkah. Similarly, the UK was a white Christian country […]
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Leonard Cohen at the AGO: A First View
I was just at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s exhibit Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows. It’s not quite a retrospective, a standard gallery exhibition format for visual artists. It is rather a primarily visual biography with a great deal of written memorabilia. To begin with visual impressions. The AGO’s visiting exhibit gallery is a large space. […]
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Recognizing Excellence, Building Community
The Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) has just announced the competition for its first-ever excellence in research award and its annual DeCelles award for excellence in teaching. What is CAPPA and why do these awards matter? As discussed in a previous post, CAPPA represents the common interests of college and university-based public […]
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Alight Solutions is the Problem
This post is about a service complaint. It is directly relevant to fellow retirees at the University of Toronto, who like me must deal with a a Chicago-based company called Alight Solutions. But it is also relevant to readers who in other contexts have encountered companies with corporate cultures as dysfunctional as Alight Solutions’. First, […]
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I Was Captivated
Initiating a venture is challenging but bringing it to fruition is no less so. Two months ago, I posted about the launch of the UTSC Management Department’s first Captivate digital storytelling competition. The actual competition was held a few days ago. Of the thirty students who were initially interested, ten ultimately submitted digital stories of […]
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She Said: Investigative Journalism Redux
Three years ago, Beth Herst and I published an article about investigative journalism films predicting that the sheer volume of investigative journalism about the Trump Administration’s malfeasance and misfeasance would engender a renaissance of that subgenre. So far, we are wrong. However, a major new investigative journalism film, She Said, has just been released. It […]
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Election Week in America Seen from Abroad
Once again, we are watching the spectacle of American vote-counting in super-slow motion. CNN’s vaunted Magic Wall is augmented by John King transcribing the latest results with a digital magic marker,a process that appears makeshift and amateurish. Tired, harried, and sweating election officials are telling the media that they are doing the best they can. […]
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Ford’s Failed Strategy
The Ford Government’s promised repeal of Bill 28 (The Keeping Students in School Act) illustrates the German military strategist von Moltke’s maxim that no strategic plan survives contact with the enemy. I think the Ford Government actually had a strategic plan for labour relations in the schools and I will outline it. Then I’ll summarize […]
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Back to Stories: Brooks, Tucci, and Mitre
Once upon a time, I studied and wrote about narrative. Recently, I’ve blogged about many other topics: art, architecture, the British monarchy, intellectual property, and Wordle. But I’ve still been pursuing my narrative interest in the background. In this post, I’ll deal with three recent narrative works: the literary scholar Peter Brooks’ latest book, Seduced […]
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Competing with the WordleBot and Wordlers
Wordle has now joined Spelling Bee, which I posted about two years ago, as part of my top of the morning mental fitness routine. My go-to place for Wordle is New York Times Games. For those who haven’t played, Wordle gives you six chances to guess the day’s five-letter word. The Times maintains a list […]
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Our Long Economic War with Russia
It is easy to imagine that when western central banks raise interest rates, stock markets tank, and economic growth slows, there are feelings of elation in the Kremlin that go far beyond schadenfreude. Indeed, one could imagine Russian state investors gleefully shorting western indexes and individual stocks. (In this post, I will use “west” or […]
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Yashar Koach, Moshe Safdie!
Because of my longstanding interest in architecture, the topic of a recent post, I grabbed Moshe Safdie’s autobiography If Walls Could Speak as soon as it was released. I read it quickly and was inspired. In the Right Place at the Right Time The book is easy to read. Safdie is a superb writer, eloquent […]
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Cutting the Thumbnails: An IP Story
Recently my website went down because of problems with the outdated version of WordPress I’ve been using. In the process of refreshing the site, I’ve made one major change, eliminating the thumbnails I have been using on the homepage and when posting my blogs on Twitter and Facebook. Why I did this is a story […]
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Better a Prince or a King?
Now that Queen Elizabeth has been buried, the British monarchy has disappeared from the headlines. It’s not surprising, given all the other urgent issues: tropical storms, Russia’s sham referenda and nuclear threats, and Liz Truss’s voodoo economics, among others. This blog isn’t about chasing the headlines, however. Prince as Policy Entrepreneur I just completed reading […]
- I am Professor of Public Management Emeritus at the University of Toronto, having retired in July 2020 after a 45-year academic career.
- I continue to be engaged in research, writing, and giving professional presentations. With my co-author and spouse Beth Herst, I am completing a book on narrative and politics.
- On this website I post blogs about politics, narrative, and my life experiences.
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