Jane Haddam

One of the things I’m doing this term is teaching an adult speech class at night–it’s a requirement for graduation where I am, and there are a lot of people who have work and family obligations that make it hard for them to keep a full time schedule, and they end up suddenly with one…

For those of you who never watch television, I understand–I rarely watch it either, and until very recently, I hadn’t had a show I checked in on regularly since grade school. The show that brought me back was a Fox production called House, starring Hugh Laurie, about this absolutely off the wall out of control…

Or something like that. One of the things I have hanging around the house is a tiny litte paperback book entitled Liberalism is a Sin. I don’t remember the author off the top of my head, but the book was written originally in, I think, French, and published near the beginning of the 20th century.…

Well, I really hope the link I posted yesterday was to James Lileks’s criticism of the Guardian “what it’s like in America” piece, and not to the Guardian piece itself, but Mab’s post made me remember the one article on the subject I was ever really impressed with.  Or maybe impressed isn’t the right word.…

A coule of days ago I wrote a post reflecting the kind of thing I  feel at the start of every term these days–and I really wish I had kept a link to the New Yorker article that explained the way teacher tenure works, for Mab, because although it’s much worse in NY than in…

For Mab–most of the kids I teach would not be in university (or even in high school beyond a certain level) in most countries in the European Union.  I don’t know what Russia is like.  But most American college students would not be admitted to university in the EU, not just my remedial kids–they’d never…

So, a few notes– First, I thank Mike for worrying about my computer, but my guess is that it’s less my computer that’s at issue than my Internet connection, because I’m probably the last person on earth to have dial-up.  Yeah, yeah.   I know.   I get that argument whenever my son goes to college.  But…

So I was going to access a good computer today, so I decided to wait to post this.  I like it when I can just sort of do it and not have to struggle with the one I’ve got a home. Instead, I’m struggling with something else, and it’s more and more an issue in…

I need to start this post today with a clarification. I thank all of you for your condolences, and they are very much appreciated, but I wasn’t actually depressed or despairing.  I do get depressed and despairing, but not usually off this kind of thing.   For better or worse, what really gets me depressed is…

So, I’m at that part of the week where I’m so tired I could just fall over, and I’ve got to get through today before I can just relax. And I must admit that I admire the hell out of the restraint of some of the posters here, who did not jump all over Mab…