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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 […]
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Captivate: Brave New Social Media
Last week I attended the launch of Captivate: UTSC’s Digital Storytelling Competition, an event that left me with feelings of pride, gratitude, and wonder. Pride because I was the catalyst for the competition. Gratitude to the staff at UTSC’s The Bridge who designed the event and are managing the competition. Wonder because the competition involves […]
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Stuck with the Monarchy
I’ve never supported having the British monarch as Canada’s head of state. I’ve always wanted our head of state be a Canadian, chosen by Canadians. I posted to this effect three years ago, when Queen Elizabeth’s health was clearly declining. Our Country, their Realm I don’t support the monarchy for several reasons. It privileges one […]
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Learning by Observing and Blogging
A cool and rainy Labour Day weekend sends the inevitable message that summer is over. To complete my summer of art, I’ll review what I learned from posting 14 blogs about works in my collection. Composition For every work, the first thing I looked at was composition: balance among elements in different sections of the […]
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An Ji’s Idealized River Scene
I first visited China in November 1984, spending one week in Beijing and another in Tianjin, where my department had an academic exchange program. It was cold and it even snowed in Beijing; because it was slightly before the date the government allowed furnaces to be turned on north of the Yangtze River, the worst […]
- 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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