This season’s Director’s “Dish” might in fact be a pie plate . . . I never thought I’d come to know as many people who grew up on farms as I now do. Until moving to Lincoln almost five years ago, I’m pretty sure I had known no more than one or two people with farming backgrounds. But Nebraska—like so many midwestern and great plains states—was built on farming. As Evelyn Funda points out so beautifully in her wonderful memoir/cultural history book Weeds, due out this month from the Press, 90 percent of Americans worked on family farms in the … Continue reading The Director’s Dish

Last week I took a step into
modernity and issued my first personal tweet.

I’ve
used the descriptor because there is an important clarification to be made
between my relatively early-adopter use of Twitter and my newly acquired status
on the social media platform.

I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon
in early 2008 through my previous job. All tweets crafted were the opinions of
that company rather than mine alone. In other words, I acted purely as the
mouthpiece on Twitter of that company, penning tweets that promoted the good
work being done. I had never, until this week, acted on Twitter as my own
agent. So, why now? Since moving to the University of Nebraska Press I have
been toying with the idea that I should really have my own voice, albeit one
intimately tied to what I do as marketing manager for the Press, on this
fascinating platform. Now, I’ve finally taken the plunge.

The delay between first tweeting
for work and finally tweeting as an individual is an oddity in some ways. I
don’t have a good reason other than I simply didn’t do it. And yet, I believe
that Twitter is a powerful tool for learning about any subject in which you
have an interest or a stake. Twitter, perhaps more than other social media,
allows for more immediate sharing, browsing of ideas and thoughts from others
in your industry, and creation of conversations that may or may not continue in
other environments. It seems to me that businesses and organizations can use
Twitter in a very natural way. The network serves as the old town crier did,
letting the world (or those interested, at least) know what the organization is
thinking and doing. Such groups have become much more savvy about how they do
this on Twitter, moving away from selling to informing and conversing, and I
think we have all benefited as a result.  

Continue reading “Doc Martyn’s Soul: Why now?”

In honor of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, save 25% off select books, like the JPS guide by Ronald L. Eisenberg, Jewish Traditions. See a full list of discounted book here. Offer expires August 30, 2013 Continue reading Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur book sale

Polluted waterways, a damaged (beyond repair?) ecosystem, the unnecessary death of humans and animals alike. These notions are, unfortunately, relatively commonplace in the modern media and our modern way of life. They are part of what we know and believe and understand about what we are doing to our planet. Yet, these same notions came from the mind of a man writing in 1971. It is not unusual for science fiction writers (often harbingers of doom) to be prescient or before their time. There are many fine examples—Arthur C. Clarke being an obvious one—but I have just finished reading an … Continue reading Doc Martyn’s Soul: Does end of the world start with a book?