The Common Reader

4 weeks ago | commonreader.wustl.edu | John Griswold

I would call it a modest proposal, but Swift did not really mean his to be taken straight. I do think Harvard University, preeminent symbol of American education, intellect, striving, and continuity, should be prepared to go out of business. So should Columbia University, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, and dozens of others on the “hit list” of universities “under investigation” by the Department of Education for questionable reasons.

1 month ago | commonreader.wustl.edu | Jeannette Cooperman

https://commonreader.wustl.edu/app/uploads/2025/04/20250406-144646.mp3Weird, that this global-trade-war market-crash thing feels a lot like five years ago. The cause is entirely different, yet I am feeling exactly the same disorientation and stomach-clenching fear I felt with the spread of COVID-19. And, given the abruptness, magnitude, and destructive power of the change, the same vertigo.

1 month ago | commonreader.wustl.edu | Jeannette Cooperman

A journalist friend emails: “I’m not sure what to make of Pamela Paul’s decision (assuming she wasn’t forced out).” I stare at the message for a second, thinking only: who is Pamela Paul? A New York Times columnist, it turns out—and I subscribe. But lazily. I write back, saying that after skimming Paul’s goodbye column, I think I would have enjoyed her work.

1 month ago | commonreader.wustl.edu | Jeannette Cooperman

https://commonreader.wustl.edu/app/uploads/2025/04/poodles.mp3This is not the story of a sweet, smart, oft-maligned breed of dog, the sort of dog you would expect to find curled at the feet of an expat in 1930s Paris. A dog with a sometimes wry, sometimes goofy sense of humor; a dog who would rather do tricks than hunt rats, but will do just about anything to be with you. No, this is the story of haircuts. Consider: poodles did fine until the twentieth century.

1 month ago | commonreader.wustl.edu | Jeannette Cooperman

https://commonreader.wustl.edu/app/uploads/2025/04/uncertainty.mp3Last week, I was on a panel. This, for me, is the equivalent of a tax audit, triggering raw, unwarranted terror. I did my usual stupid thing: wrote out all my answers to the posed questions and tried to memorize them. Then the organizer encouraged us to ad lib, go off script, respond freely to one another and turn it into a conversation. My stomach dropped.