Mind Games

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH For most diehard American soccer fans, there is little consolation for the men’s team’s failure to qualify for the next World Cup. But for those of us in higher ed, particularly those of us in the humanities, the following Monty Python skit titled “Philosopher Football” may not make the U.S. team’s…

Wordplay III: Politics Edition

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH   In this series, I have highlighted headlines that are cleverly expressed, making use of puns, irony, figurative language, or unexpected word choices to grab a reader’s attention. Not surprisingly, the Trump administration has so unabashedly flouted all sorts of political conventions that headline writers have felt freer to write headlines…

Poems for the 4th of July

  POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Here is an inspiring rendition of a Langston Hughes poem produced by MoveOn.org:   And here is a more cautionary poem that is probably more at the level at which most of us celebrate the July 4th holiday: Independence Day, 1971   He forced half a watermelon like a tight…

Father’s Day Poems

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH My Father at Work My father was a union man. For most of his last twenty-seven years, he worked in a munitions plant. High on the long brick building there were yellow letters– A M M U N I T I O N. The plant was located on a cliff above…

Another Trump Playlist

BY HANK REICHMAN Back in November, about three weeks after the election, I posted “A Playlist for the Trump Presidency.”  It got a pretty good response, so now that we’re a bit more than two weeks into that presidency and the need for “solace, inspiration, and fortification” seems greater than ever, I thought I’d post…