Hitler's Pope Revisited

"Devil's advocates were supposed to be fair-minded, and in the past Mr Cornwell, a prolific writer on Catholic matters, has at times been anything but. As he admits, Hitler's Pope (1999), his biography of Pope Pius XII, lacked balance. 'I would now argue,' he says, 'in the light of the debates and evidence following Hitler's Pope, that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by the Germans.'

"Chastened by this experience, Mr Cornwell is now a better biographer."

Mott Haven Diary

Last grades bubbled in. Waiting to hear from my other department about the timesheet issue which has led to my paycheck being held since last week.

Got myself dressed to the nines yesterday, well, eight and a half maybe, my kind of movie anyway, for an interview which lasted about fifteen minutes, but ended with the President's Chief of Staff promising to take my resume to the Provost that afternoon. I am already one of about thirty candidates for the IT position in the Student Development office. I suppose they will start weeding people out early in January.

Meanwhile, I may have a decent chance to be invited back for ESL but not English. The English chair gave me a zinger of an observation without mentioning what really pissed her off, my generally non PC attitude. That and the fact that I was hired over the objections of her deputy, the real power here, who has her own patronage network, all of African descent. They also have an adjunct pool with degrees in English rather than philosophy and higher education. If I had a real chance of a full time position I might have been more cautious about replacing the first reading, on bilingual education, with Robert Hutchins on education and the virtues. And having freshmen in the South Bronx write research papers about Mortimer Adler, Jacques Barzun, Elias Chacour, yes, even Bertie Russell. I'm not sorry in the least. Indeed, I was moved to the point of tears by my student's openness in examining their lives and hopes in the light of wider issues. That beats accurate spelling and Chicago Manual citation style by a country mile.

Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer on the CD drive.

The shortest day halfway over.