Shorter David Spooks 'n Brooner ...

by Cliopatria

You have been a great teacher if you inspire your student to write your biography. Really. I've read it several times. Does he believe that? Doesn't a great teacher urge a student beyond discipleship?

"You have hissed my mystery lectures and tasted a whole worm," he told a student. At Liberty and Power, the 19th century American hero is Lysander Spooner (1808-1887). Here at Cliopatria, we're rather fond of his British cousin, the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), the Warden at Oxford. He is remembered for his tribute to Victoria as"our queer old dean." Lowell Thomas followed in his tradition by introducing Sir Stafford Cripps as Sir Stifford Craps.

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Derek Charles Catsam - 7/25/2004

Great, great, great point, Sharon.

Derek Charles Catsam - 7/25/2004

There is no better take on the Brooks nonsense than Tom's at Rebunk -- www.hnn.us/blogs/25.html -- to utterly destroy Brooks' vacuous "real world" idiocy.
dc

Sharon Howard - 7/25/2004

Weeelll... I think there was some attempt to say that she'd gone beyond mere discipleship to become more critical of her teacher (even if that only seems to amount to poking around in his private life). Hmm. But I was most struck by the ending, where he goes into the 'we need less specialism and more generalists who can see great connections' spiel. And how does writing an individual's biography (and poking around in his private life) do that, exactly?

Miriam Elizabeth Burstein - 7/24/2004

Spooner inspired a short story by Ellery Queen, "My Queer Dean!" The solution to the mystery rests on, you guessed it, a spoonerism.