When we moved to New York twenty years ago from Nebraska — after first deferring through Washington, D.C. for a year — we rented a giant, three axle, Ryder truck for the price of a van — they were out of vans when we arrived with our prepaid reservation — and we motored into the muggy urban core of the Big Apple by driving down the wrong way of a one way sliver of Riverside Drive near Columbia University in the repressive heat of a mid-August afternoon.
When I was a graduate student at Columbia University in the City of New York, my friend and mentor Howard Stein said this to me: “David, you don’t have any money; you can’t afford cheap shoes.”
He was right and I have abided that sage advice ever since.
It is better to buy quality once at a higher price than to keep paying a cheaper price more often for a product of lesser quality because, in the end, cheap shoes are more expensive.
26 Cornelia Street is an apartment house on a street that is exactly one block long in the heart of Greenwich Village in New York City. 26 Cornelia is on the right side of the image below and the first of the three green canopies marks the front door. You are seeing the entire length of Cornelia Street in this image:
The rise of credentialism is an onerous and angry philosophy of separation forced upon the “have nots” by the “already haves.” That phony-on-the-surface and irresistible-in-the-depths separation of people by paper is an ominous cloud along the horizon of our educated humanity because this is a separation not by talent or ability or deeds but by theory and strategy and if you doubt it there is a growing diploma trail to prove my point. I have an MFA degree from Columbia University.
An MFA means “Master of Fine Arts.” An MFA differs from an MA degree in two ways. The first is the degree moves beyond theory and into the technical aspects of the art: I can not only describe how colors affect a dramatic presentation I can design and implement them as well. Second, an MFA degree, because of the technical aspect, is considered a “terminal” degree in that, like a PhD, you have reached the end of the road in your trip for knowledge and because you have touched that terminal end you are certified by the system of academe that you are worthy of being hired on a full line tenure track.
At least that’s the way it is supposed to work in theory. In the last five years there has been a sea change in academe as the basic requirements for applying for a tenure track position at a major research university have shifted. Most job announcements used to say “MFA or PhD preferred.”
The secret to good writing is, as Dr. Howard Stein repeatedly told his graduate students at Yale University, the University of Texas-Austin, The University of Iowa, SUNY-Purchase and Columbia University over the course of a continued 60 year teaching career, is simply: “Ass on Chair.”
After 15 years of service, my stainless steel Rolex Datejust died yesterday. The hands will only move backward instead of forward.
Rolex watches have a terrible reputation for being handsome but then dying at an early age. My Rolex never failed me a day in 15 years and I will miss its ugly magnifying bubble for the date and its dull blue face.
I have many secret lives. I will reveal one of them to you now: For the past 15 years I have been a well-paid Script Doctor for select Hollywood and New York writers, producers and independent production companies.
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