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At the end of college, I had a final interview for a job with a national consulting firm that had reserved guest rooms at a country club near campus. The rooms were tiny and - unfathomably - had no chairs. So, in the most awkward half-hour of my nascent professional life, both the interviewer and I sat uncomfortably...
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I got my first real job at the age of 15, as a bus boy at Oliver's Bakery Restaurant, one of Toronto's busiest brunch spots. I have so many intense Proustian memories from the strong smells (fresh-baked rolls) and tastes...
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Last month Purdue University captured the attention of the higher education universe by announcing it would acquire for-profit Kaplan University. One of the most interesting but overlooked elements of the story - aside from gratuitous ad hominem attacks - was the reaction...
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Throughout my childhood, David Letterman was a spectral gap-toothed presence. As my bedtime was long before Late Night with David Letterman aired on NBC at 12:30 a.m., I had only a vague sense of his antics like tossing watermelons off New York buildings. In the pre-DVR era, actual glimpses...
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My favorite movie about education isn't The Paper Chase or High School High or even Larry Crowne, Tom Hanks' love letter to the California Community Colleges System, but rather Real Genius. A 1985 film about a group of prodigy misfits...
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One joke we played in college has lasted nearly a quarter century. Senior year, we decided to turn the November issue of the tabloid newspaper we founded into a parody of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People." The issue featured photos of students posing like fashion...
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Among the many questionable things we learned in college was the art of the prank call. Because we enjoyed listening to them as much as we liked making them, my roommate Chris jerry-rigged a recording device, which also had the benefit of preserving our calls for posterity.
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It's a game I play every time I attend a higher education conference. It's kind of like tracking Bigfoot, or trying to find my 11-year-old son when he's used up his allotted screen time and is hiding somewhere with his mom's iPhone. It is, of course, the Hunt for Employers.
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It's human nature to think things were better in the Good Old Days. Even near-death experiences of yesteryear can be gilded with nostalgia. Like the time at dinner when my mom asked me to pass the mayonnaise. Inspired by the funky 70s-era combination she wore as she headed out for a night of disco dancing, I took it upon myself to slide the giant jar...
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In January, technology investor, bon vivant and now Trump supporter Peter Thiel sat down with Maureen Dowd of the (failing) New York Times for a profile that appeared in the Fashion and Style section.
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