2021 Graduates
Graduates in the year 2021: What an interesting group, hailing (though not necessarily commuting!) from New Jersey to New York to Nepal. The diploma range is from a two-year degree to graduate school. Some of you took a straight-line route, some had a change or two along the way as you decided on your next step. […]
What if –
The secret to learning Reading had little to do with school — or the latest teaching techniques found on college education major syllabi — or insights delivered at workshops by expensive consultants. Instead, what if a positive attitude, curiosity, and learning Reading stemmed from a stable family structure, the inculcation of values, books in the […]
The Good American
For a period of several decades, ending in the early 2000’s, Bob Gersony was an “humanitarian contractor” to various agencies of the United States government. This is somewhat surprising, given that today’s profile of a private contractor to the government is that of a mercenary whose allegiance is to the connection between his kill count […]
Random Readings, Writings, and Rantings
*This is the one-year pandemic scorecard for New Jersey: 21,219 lives lost; 30% of local businesses closed, 56% increase in food insecurity; two million unemployment claims filed. *The pyramid of diversity and power, whether in corporate America or on the college campus, is consistent: greater diversity at the lowest rung (employees/students) than at the managerial/administrative […]
Gratification
In football, it is the bomb, the long pass for a touchdown which brings people out of their seats, a play made much easier to accomplish by multiple rule changes in recent years. In basketball, no longer is the nuanced skill involved in making a contested 15-foot jump shot of interest; the focus is completely […]
LABELS
While I waited for my call to a government office to transition from a dozen prompts to scratchy music to a live human (which is not necessarily redundant), I thought how the word “Labels” could be an acronym for Lost, Anxious, Befuddled, Enervated, Listless … Silliness. For sure, there is a long list of other […]
Lockdown File Cleaning
BOOKS READ Approximately 2018-2020, in order of least recent to most recent China’s Asian Dream: Thorough analysis of China’s goal of making widespread infrastructure investments throughout Central and South Asia and the many political and cultural ramifications of this series of plans. Why They Did It : Criminology and the criminal justice system, decision-making and […]
Demographics: Destiny and Drama
(Data are from various Wall Street Journal articles and Pew Center research publications, as well as government data sets, not all of which agree exactly with each other.) To get your attention, think of these stunning figures. The age which has the greatest number of people is 58 for Caucasians, 29 for Asians, 27 for […]
December Birthday Card
http://Bobhowittbooks.com??page_id=22 It’s December: a mishmash of conflicting circumstances in what is supposed to be a Holiday season. You want to socialize but the experts are telling you to stay in bed, pull the covers up, breathe only when necessary, and instead of counting sheep, cross off the days until a vaccine is widely available and […]
Holiday Missive
It is totally obvious: this is the most unique Holiday period in our lifetime. I hope you and your family are able to both enjoy the season and stay safe. Time for some random thoughts (Hey, I’m in lockdown mode too!) *For those who are anxious, stressed, depressed (aren’t we all to a certain extent), […]