# leddy (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover leddy. Page: Feed: --- ## [Car bars](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/car-bars.html) _2026-08-27 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Elaine and I were headed toward Staples when we noticed two women parked in front of the store, struggling to fit a swiveling task chair into the back of a BMW. “Do you need a hand?” I asked, having had some experience fitting similar chairs into similar spaces. They did need a hand, but not in the way I had assumed. They had the rear seats folded down and were trying to figure out how to remove… ## [HCR on Dolly Parton](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/hcr-on-dolly-parton.html) _2026-08-27 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ “‘Find out who you are and do it on purpose. And do it with purpose,’ Parton was famous for saying”: the most recent installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American is all about Dolly Parton . You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/dolly-partons-imagination-library.html) _2026-08-26 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Dolly Parton’s family requests, instead of flowers, donations to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library , a literacy initiative that provides a registered child with a book a month, from birth to the age of five. Parton started the Imagination Library to honor her father, Robert Lee Parton Sr., who could neither read nor write. The program has given away more than 332 million books. A related post… ## [Dolly Parton visits Captain Kangaroo](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/dolly-parton-visits-captain-kangaroo.html) _2026-08-26 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Elaine remembered this appearance, from October 27, 1976 . I had forgotten what a strange show Captain Kangaroo was. If you don’t have the patience for the marching band bit, Dolly arrives at 2:54 and prepares to sing “Cracker Jack” at 10:18. You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under… ## [Dolly Parton (1946–2026)](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/dolly-parton-19462026.html) _2026-08-25 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ “She was, quintessentially, a uniter of people. In 2019, The New York Times ran a story with the headline “Is There Anything We Can All Agree On? Yes: Dolly Parton”: from the Times obituary (gift links). Dolly Parton was a force for good in the world. I wish that I weren’t sharing this news. You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as… ## [Fifty blog-description lines](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/fifty-blog-description-lines.html) _2026-08-25 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ For many years the first words of Van Dyke Parks’s song “Orange Crate Art” — “Orange crate art was a place to start” — served as what Blogger calls a “blog description line.” In May 2010, I began to vary the line, always choosing some word or words or element of punctuation from a post then on the front page, and always keeping the quotation marks that had enclosed Van Dyke’s words. I like looking… ## [Stefan Zweig’s Salzburg mansion for sale](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/stefan-zweigs-salzburg-mansion-for-sale.html) _2026-08-25 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From The New York Times : The Paschinger Schlössl, the former home of Stefan Zweig, the Jewish Austrian writer, unexpectedly appeared for sale with the French luxury real estate company Le Figaro Properties in June. The mansion has long been meaningful to Salzburg, Austria, which is also home to the namesake six-week festival celebrating classical music, opera and theater now in its 106th year.… ## [Adam Kinzinger’s Substack](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/adam-kinzingers-substack.html) _2026-08-24 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Like Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American , This Is Adam Kinzinger is a useful daily digest of news. I keep both in my RSS reader, where they don’t get lost among e-mails. You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [Profs, busted](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/profs-busted.html) _2026-08-24 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From The Chronicle of Higher Education : “Professors Were Singled Out for Using AI in Public Writing. Now They’re Defending Themselves.” An excerpt: Two professors recently admitted to using generative AI to assist them in writing opinion articles for major publications, igniting a debate over the standards faculty should be held to in their public writing. The Financial Times added an addendum to… ## [Misheard](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/misheard.html) _2026-08-24 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Honest. On NPR: “Your donation supports the muse and information we rely on.” Related reading All OCA misheard posts (Pinboard) You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [Marketplace for AI-Powered Professionals (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/qHccV71yoRPC) _2026-08-24 · **Sponsored**_ Find professionals who use ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude to deliver work faster. ## [“That’s very perspicacious of you”](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/thats-very-perspicacious-of-you.html) _2026-08-24 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Today’s Dustin : Kevin reads a thesaurus . See also these two — 1 , 2 — Zippy strips. Related posts Beware of the saurus : Rewording : Rogeting You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [Mutts vibrations](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/mutts-vibrations.html) _2026-08-23 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[ Mutts , August 23, 2026. Click for a larger view.\] Today’s Mutts takes up a great American song. I’m glad I didn’t miss the title (aka “throwaway”) panel. Related reading All OCA Beach Boys posts and Mutts posts (Pinboard) \[I know: “Good Vibrations” did not appear on the Pet Sounds album. For anyone who needs it: the album cover .\] You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art… ## [Writing and AI at Harvard](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/writing-and-ai-at-harvard.html) _2026-08-23 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ At The Atlantic (gift link), Tyler Austin Harper writes about “Why the Closing of Harvard’s Writing Center Matters.” He suspects that Harvard’s decision will give other schools permission to close their writing centers: The decisions that Harvard makes create a permission structure for other institutions to follow suit — after all, if one of the most venerable schools in the country doesn’t need a… ## [Another Yankee Diner](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/another-yankee-diner.html) _2026-08-23 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[2494 Flatbush Avenue, Marine Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections . Click for a much larger view.\] Did you know that there’s a Brooklyn neighborhood called Marine Park ? I didn’t. Did you know that at one time there were at least Yankee Diners in Brooklyn, this one , the one above, and a third whose tax photograph seems to be unavailable? I did. The nameless… ## [Tell me you’ve never read my blog without telling me that you’ve never read my blog](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/tell-me-youve-never-read-my-blog.html) _2026-08-22 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ In today’s mail: We recently came across Orange Crate Art — a quietly artful personal blog. That's exactly the kind of artful personal blog we built \[redacted\] for — an AI content team that keeps creating for you. Tell it what to make — newsletters, videos, podcasts, or articles — and how often; it researches fresh sources, picks what matters, and produces editable content on schedule, so morning… ## [Recently updated](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/recently-updated_01944173275.html) _2026-08-22 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Things I learned on my summer vacation : Today’s Zippy prompted me to seek out a photograph of a Guggenheim Museum bathroom that I linked to in 2010. That photograph has disappeared from the Internets, but I found another. You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons… ## [Today’s Saturday Stumper](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/todays-saturday-stumper_02134133543.html) _2026-08-22 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ I found today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper , by Ben Zimmer, wildly difficult. Daily puzzles — Newsday , the Los Angeles Times , the syndicated New York Times — seem to me increasingly easy. I can often do an entire puzzle, or nearly an entire puzzle, from Across clues alone. But the Saturday Stumper seems to get more and more difficult and unfun. Humph. Some clue-and-answer pairs of note: 1-A, five… ## [Paving the swamp](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/paving-swamp.html) _2026-08-22 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Michelle Price of the Associated Press, on Washington Week in Review tonight: “This is a president who for a long time campaigned on draining the swamp, and it seems he’s paving it and making it glitzier.” Well put. You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0… ## [Origin of an idiom: “My foot!”](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/origin-of-idiom-my-foot.html) _2026-08-21 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From Saul Maydup, Idioms and How They Got That Way (2019): We know the expression “My foot!” as a way to signify indignant disbelief or shock: “Safe? My foot! He was out by a mile!” But it may surprise you to learn that the expression has its origin in the world of feet — in the world, that is, of poetry. The expression was born in 1727, during one of Jonathan Swift's many visits to the Twickenham… ## [Apropos of “the news”](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/apropos-of-news.html) _2026-08-21 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[ “Dream Job.” Zippy , August 21, 2026. Click for a larger view.\] Related reading All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard) \[Context: Allen Ginsberg .\] You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [PixelRift — Platforming with Level Editor (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/MwGmHAjAky6Y) _2026-08-21 · **Sponsored**_ Includes a built-in level editor, campaign with elemental heroes, and boss encounters. ## [AI scans the curriculum at Texas Tech](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/ai-scans-curriculum-at-texas-tech.html) _2026-08-20 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From The New York Times (gift link): “A Texas University Becomes a Petri Dish for a Conservative Overhaul” : Texas Tech is using A.I. to ferret out books and other materials that touch on topics like sexual orientation and gender identity. Professors describe the effort as a dystopian academic nightmare, in which ideologues are wielding technology to sideline subject-matter experts. The chancellor… ## [Fortnite, Harry Potter, &c.](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/fortnite-harry-potter.html) _2026-08-20 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Natalie Wexler, co-author with Judith Hochman of The Writing Revolution , writes about how Alpha School, a private-school network that relies on AI instruction, teaches writing . Long story short: Alpha School borrowed (or co-opted?) the model of The Writing Revolution , known as the Hochman Method, and called it AlphaWrite: It’s possible that AlphaWrite could do a good job of teaching writing.… ## [Student writing and AI](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/student-writing-and-ai.html) _2026-08-20 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From The New York Times (gift link), “What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?” An excerpt: Cognitive research confirms that writing is a powerful aid in helping us to retain information we read. The work of writing forces us to stress-test our ideas, allowing the writer to respond to counterarguments and cite sources. Revision is a practice of self-critique and self-improvement, and can be… ## [Nick and nook and cranny](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/nick-and-nook-and-cranny.html) _2026-08-19 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ I skip a lot of commercials, so I am late to the game, having seen the Swiffer Duster Kit commercial “No Jump Needed” (from December 2025) for the first time last night. After some successful cleaning, there’s this exchange: “It looks like you got into everything.” “Every nick and cranny.” Uh, no. As any eater of Thomas’ English Muffins knows, they’re called nooks and crannies. I can think of… ## [A pocket notebook sighting](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-pocket-notebook-sighting.html) _2026-08-19 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[From Dillinger (dir. Max Nosseck, 1945). Click for a larger view.\] Two feds, one pocket notebook, one pencil. Perhaps a Dixon Ticonderoga? Also one wallet. Out of the picture: John Dillinger. Related reading All OCA notebook sightings (Pinboard) You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed… ## [Jacques Pépin pays tribute to Julia Child](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/jacques-pepin-pays-tribute-to-julia.html) _2026-08-18 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ As part of Heather Cox Richardson’s 250 to 250 series . I always like seeing Julia Child or Jacques Pépin cook. Watching M. Pépin in my grownuphood gave me confidence to try a few more things in cooking. Did you know that Julia Child once visited the Martin family of TV fame: Ruth, Paul, Timmy, and Lassie? She did — at least in my imagination she did. The story is here: “Bon Appétit!” \[It’s a good… ## [Recently updated](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/recently-updated_0905245258.html) _2026-08-18 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Is this a cigar which I see before me? Now with an explanation of sorts. You’re reading a post from Michael Leddy’s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [“He doesn’t want to do the job”](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/he-doesnt-want-to-do-job.html) _2026-08-17 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia), yesterday in Atlanta : “And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs, and trades stocks. You see, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir… ## [Robert Caro, interviewed on C-SPAN](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/robert-caro-interviewed-on-c-span.html) _2026-08-17 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ It’s a great ninety minutes: Peter Slen interviews Robert Caro about his Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson biographies. When will the final volume of the Johnson biography be out? “Bad question.” A fun moment: the bookcases. A chilling revelation, in some discussion of Johnson’s and Robert Kennedy’s hatred of each another: when Robert Kennedy was shot, Johnson was up all night, asking his aides, “Is… ## [Tyler Austin Harper, ex-prof](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/tyler-austin-harper-ex-prof.html) _2026-08-17 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Three samples. From “Why I Quit the Tenure Track: The Insufferable Hypocrisy of Elite Academia” ( The Atlantic , gift link): I’d never had great enthusiasm for identity politics; I’d been a socialist since my early 20s, and it had generally been my experience that liberals were as eager to talk about race as they were uneager to talk about class. Yet I also assumed that conservative complaints… ## [100,000 Bonus Points Await You (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/u0Foosh5PeN0) _2026-08-17 · **Sponsored**_ Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. ## [A shoe shine boy](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-shoe-shine-boy.html) _2026-08-17 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[Outside 5117 4th Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections . Click for a much larger view.\] He appears in yesterday’s post . I didn’t want him to be overlooked. An outtake shows a shoe-repair shop at no. 5117, offering “Ladies and Gents Shoe Shine Inside.” An earlier photograph, I’d assume, before a radio-repair shop took over the premises. Sitting… ## [Word of the day: pothook](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/word-of-day-pothook.html) _2026-08-17 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ It appears in a metaphor atop a metaphor, in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield . The narrator describes the houses on Tommy Traddles’s street: They were all built on one monotonous pattern, and looked like the early copies of a blundering boy who was learning to make houses, and had not yet got out of his cramped brick and mortar pothooks. The Oxford English Dictionary to the rescue. A pothook… ## [What’s under there?](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/whats-under-there.html) _2026-08-16 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Aaron Rupar posted some strange footage and asked “Seriously, what is going on with Trump’s rear end here? It looks like he has some sort of contraption back there.” Whatever is back there, there also appears to be some sort of contraption on his legs as well. Watch as he walks toward the crowd: you can see his pants legs riding up perhaps eight inches above his shoes. And watch as he ascends the… ## [Diners face off](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/diners-face-off.html) _2026-08-16 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Count ’em. One diner: \[5117 4th Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections . Click for a much larger view.\] And right across the street, a second: \[5116 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections . Click for a much larger view.\] Look closely to see the Y and D design next to the Yankee Diner’s entrance, “Colored… ## [Who was?](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/who-was.html) _2026-08-16 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ I caught by chance a minute of Jeopardy! yesterday. New episode? Old? No idea. Here’s what got my attention: The category: American Poetry. The answer, for $800: Poems by him include “Crowing Hen Blues,” "Po’ Boy Blues,” & “The Weary Blues” No one buzzed. See also Black Jeopardy Misses , a YouTube compendium of similar fails. For instance: The category: That Is the Question. The answer, for $800:… ## [But sometimes it’s a pencil](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/but-sometimes-its-pencil.html) _2026-08-14 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[A Zits cigar, modified.\] I decided to make the cigar in today’s Zits look more cigar-like. But my son Ben went me one better. Well done, son. As Ben reminds me, Walt Duncan has sometimes been seen with a cigar, as in this 1999 strip . A related post Is this a cigar that I see before me? (Today’s Zits ) \[Post title with apologies to Sigmund Freud.\] You re reading a post from Michael Leddy s blog… ## [Catchphrases and all](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/catchphrases-and-all.html) _2026-08-14 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Elaine and I have been made honorary characters, at least on paper, in the world of Animal Crossing . Elaine’s clothing: green sweater and dress. Her catchphrase: “Isn't that cool.” Her personality: sweet. My clothing: polo shirt. My catchphrase: “You always need a pencil.” My personality: smug. These attributes were chosen for us, with the exception of smug , which I chose when presented with a… ## [Is this a cigar which I see before me?](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/is-this-cigar-which-i-see-before-me.html) _2026-08-14 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[ Zits , August 14, 2026. Click for a larger view.\] It looks a bit like a vaping device, but the puffs and the red suggest a cartoon cigar. At least Walt is setting his bad example outside the house. Notice the shirt: Bucyrus is a town in Ohio, the Zits home state. There is no Hard Rock Cafe there. Jeremy Duncan has (or recently had) a summer job at Pipkin’s, a Cincinnati grocer. There is an HRC… ## [Simon Willison’s advice for bloggers](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/simon-willisons-advice-for-bloggers.html) _2026-08-13 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Via Daring Fireball : tech developer Simon Willison offers observations and advice about blogging . Willison’s advice for someone getting started: Just start. It’s so easy to get caught in the trap of obsessing over the design of your blog, and planning for content that you never actually get around to writing. As long as each entry has a date on it and a permanent URL, it counts as a blog.… ## [Bean soup theory](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/bean-soup-theory.html) _2026-08-13 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From Merriam-Webster, an introduction to bean soup theory . (Wait — should that be bean-soup theory? Nah, don’t overthink it, Michael.) Here, from TikTok, is the recipe that prompted the theory. My favorite joke complaint: “What if you can’t eat solid food yet because you’re a newborn.” And from Delish, some further context . You re reading a post from Michael Leddy s blog Orange Crate Art . Your… ## [“Bob swore!”](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/bob-swore.html) _2026-08-13 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Miss Mowcher bids goodbye to David Copperfield and James Steerforth: Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850). Related reading All OCA Dickens posts (Pinboard) You re reading a post from Michael Leddy s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [Poor billionaire](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/poor-billionaire.html) _2026-08-12 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From NPR : In California, tech billionaires are ramping up spending to defeat a wealth tax in the state. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent more than $100 million to blanket the state in ads and commercials condemning the ballot measure. The measure, known as Proposition 40, would impose a one-time 5% tax on California residents worth more than $1 billion. If passed, the tax would fund… ## [“The Moronic Bullshit of the ‘Third Way’”](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-moronic-bullshit-of-third-way.html) _2026-08-12 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ That’s Robert Reich’s phrasing . An excerpt from his essay: I find it deeply troubling that faux centrist groups are declaring war on progressives in the pages of The New York Times , without the Times revealing who they really are. If you bother to look at the funding sources of Third Way — those that have been made public, that is (Third Way is structured as a 501(c)(4) social welfare… ## [Where’s the Silk?](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/wheres-silk.html) _2026-08-12 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ I finally called the toll-free number to ask about Silk Soymilk, which has been missing from (as they say) my grocer’s shelf for several weeks. Yes, there's a supply-chain problem. But what the Silk rep didn’t mention is that a plant in New Jersey has been shut down “amid broader struggles for the plant-based milk category in the US.” It’s not clear to me whether changes in European sourcing of… ## [Hi and Lois watch](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/hi-and-lois-watch.html) _2026-08-12 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[ Hi and Lois , August 12, 2026. Click for a larger view.\] I don’t go looking for trouble: it finds me . I defy any close reader to make full sense of the background in this panel from today’s Hi and Lois . The looming black triangle is a standard Hi-Lo Amalgamated feature — I cannot object to its appearance here. The blue must be a wall; the green, the floor of a room devoid of furniture; the… ## [At the door](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/at-door.html) _2026-08-11 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ \[“Be Seated.” Zippy , August 11, 2026. Click for a larger view.\] Today’s Zippy offers a catalogue of diner delights. What do I like most about diners? Their democratic hospitality. Venn reading All OCA diner posts : diner and Zippy posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard) You re reading a post from Michael Leddy s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This… ## [Out the door](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/out-door.html) _2026-08-11 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ From The Chronicle of Higher Education : “These Professors Are Retiring Early. Al Was the Last Straw.” An excerpt: Many of the faculty members who told The Chronicle they had retired or planned to retire earlier than anticipated expressed frustration with several aspects of their jobs. All of them, though, said AI loomed large in their decisions. They described feeling overwhelmed by the task of… ## [This alligator rules](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/this-alligator-rules.html) _2026-08-11 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ This alligator rules! \[Context here .\] You re reading a post from Michael Leddy s blog Orange Crate Art . Your reader may not display this post as its writer intended. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 License . ## [The gold standard and AI oral exams](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-gold-standard-and-ai-oral-exams.html) _2026-08-10 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Venu Govindaraju, Distinguished Professor, Chief AI Officer, and Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Development at SUNY Buffalo, calls the oral examination “the gold standard of evaluation and assessment” in academic life, as in a doctoral candidate’s dissertation defense. He envisions oral examinations at all levels in university life. And AI, he says, will be able do it.… ## [Ghost students](https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2026/08/ghost-students.html) _2026-08-10 · Michael Leddy · Orange Crate Art_ Méadhbh McIvor writes about AI and an online asychronous course: “My Students Weren’t Human. They Were Ghosts” ( The Chronicle of Higher Education ). An excerpt: Whether or not they had really done the work, I took it for granted that both Jeffrey and Adam were flesh-and-blood human beings — thinking, feeling people with the kinds of busy, unpredictable lives that sometimes prevented them from…