When racial preferences were banned by the voters in California, there were dire predictions that this would mean the virtual disappearance of black and Hispanic students from the University of California system. What in fact happened was a 2% decline in their enrollment in the University of California system as a whole, but an increase in the number of black and Hispanic students graduating, including an increase of 55% in the number graduating in four years and an increase of 63% in the number graduating in four years with a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. Instead of the predicted drastic decline in enrollment in the system as a whole, there was a drastic redistribution of black and Hispanic students within the University of California system. Their enrollment dropped at the two most elite campuses, Berkeley and UCLA — by 42% at the former and 33% at the latter.… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Aside
If something smells fishy, it might be a fish.
Boring a Lot of People For a Long Time
I’ve probably been boring a lot of people for a long time. Strange to find comfort in the idea. There have always been things I felt I must tell them, even if no one listened or understood. — Marilynne Robinson, Gilead Read more →
Happy Fathers Day
I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you. — Marilynne Robinson, Gilead Read more →
A Glutton for Punishment
“You must really be a glutton for punishment,” he said. “A gourmet, actually,” I said. “If it isn’t perfect, I send it back.” — Jonathan Lethem, Gun, with Occasional Music Read more →
We Know What You Like: Cox
A commercial for Cox Communications comes on the TV, the gist of which is that no one knows what the young woman in the ad likes. A sushi chef, for example, serves her an oddball concoction that she doesn’t like, and I forget the rest, but you get the idea. “But here at Cox,” the ad goes on to say, “we know what you like.” I say, “She likes Cox.” My kid gives me a look. “C-O-X. Cox. Come on, man.” Read more →
I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead. — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Aside
I wish more people staring at cell phones while walking would fall into holes . . .
Aside
Paul Boag: Do users care about your latest news? (Spoiler: No.)
Shocking News About Soccer
Robbie Rogers, on in the 77th minute, makes American sports history as the first openly gay male athlete in a major U.S. sport. — Deadspin This came as shocking news to me . . . not the gay aspect, but the fact that someone considers soccer a major U.S. sport . . . Read more →
Best Tip for Stress Reduction
The best advice to reduce stress in your life is to stop screwing up . . . Read more →
To-Do List
Strive for clarity and distinctness. Ask “What do you mean, and how do you know?” Read more →
There Was an Old Woman
here was an old woman tossed up in a basket, Nineteen times as high as the moon; Where she was going I couldn’t but ask it, For in her hand she carried a broom. “Old woman, old woman, old woman,” quoth I, “Oh whither, oh whither, oh whither so high?” “To brush the cobwebs off the sky!” “Shall I go with thee?” “Aye, by-and-by.” Read more →
In the desert, an old monk once advised a traveler, the voices of God and the Devil are scarcely distinguishable.
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. — Joseph Addison
Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
A Good Picture
My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person. — Andy Warhol Read more →
Excerpts From President Obama’s Commencement Address at Morehouse College
My whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn’t for my mother and me. I want to break that cycle — where a father’s not at home, where a father’s not helping to raise that son and daughter. I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man. . . . Growing up, I made quite a few [bad choices] myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. We’ve got no time for excuses. In today’s hyper-connected, hyper-competitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil, many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did, all of them entering the global workforce alongside… Read more →
Steven Miller Out
“He’s a joker, he’s a smoker, he’s a midnight toker,” Obama added. Read more →
First World Problems
When I get coffee from the break room, I try to cycle through the creamers — French Vanilla, Hazelnut and the regular Half & Half. Today I got coffee and I couldn’t remember where I left off in the cycle. I’m in a quandary . . . Read more →