Mike Wittmer

Category: miscellaneous

  • limericky

    My student, Terri McGarry–yes, she married mostly for the rhyme–has been complaining that WordPress won’t let her leave comments on this blog, and not just because her name sounds fake. Terri is also the student who suggested that I listen to more Christian radio, and as you can see by the last post, that did…

  • Psmith

    A couple of weeks ago I took Doug Wilson’s advice in his inspiring little book on writing, Wordsmithy. Not the advice that inspired Jim Hamilton to write limericks about his family vacation: There once was a professor named Jim, Who took his fam on vacation with him. He brought his sweet wife, Oh, what a…

  • every 20 years

    How will the new creation compare with the old? Maybe something like this. Update:  I just sold the old one to a fellow who lived in my hometown in Ohio, so that makes me happy. I don’t know the right way to say this, but now my wife is the person/thing I have lived with…

  • you’re not helping

    I am decidedly less worried about the sequester after a letter I received from the IRS on Friday, because apparently there is still a lot of fat in our federal government. The letter informed me that it was a mistake to mail a photocopy of my tax form because “We cannot accept photocopied signatures.” To…

  • wrong number

    Maybe it’s the influence of my Amish relatives, but I have a rule that no wifi may be used in class. Some students complain, especially the fidgety ones, but I think it helps build a better community in each class. So I appreciate this clip, forwarded to me by Bob Deardoff, a superb Missouri Synod…

  • march madness

    My thanks to Dan Kersey, who remembered the bracket we passed out in class the last time the church selected a pope. Notice that the cardinal who won was a sixth seed, which was more of a long shot than Duke. So don’t count out Cardinal Timothy Dolan just yet. Don’t know the names of…

  • eblogharmony.com

    Can your blog do this? Three years ago a student of mine, Adam Forrest, was commenting on a post I made about David Letterman’s affair with his staffer. His comments caught the attention of Rachel Watson, who emailed him to discuss what he had said. They continued the conversation on her blog, two weeks later…

  • more bloopers!

    I am in the middle of grading term papers, and thought I might share my five most recent student bloopers (I’m now up to 57!). 53) “God allows evil to exist although He can easily defeat goodness.” (Sure, but why would he want to?)   54) “The contrast view originated from felix culpa.” (This student…

  • what a waste

    I’m feeling a little sad about my paper at ETS yesterday. Someone had the bright idea to schedule a Friday afternoon full of papers, even though the conference effectively ended before noon. I walked past room after room of speakers gamely lecturing to empty chairs until I find my room, tucked away in the back…

  • by the powers of Brady Hoke

    Perhaps reading Peter Leithart’s Defending Constantine has over sensitized me to the merging of church and culture, but today’s Grand Rapids Press includes evidence for what we Buckeyes have long suspected:  Michigan football is a pagan religion. Apparently for $13,000 you can now walk out of the tunnel of the Big House and get married on…