December 29

Yesterday, at WalMart, I saw a special display of $4.00 bottles of Andre Champagne and cans of Pringles Potato Chips. How America celebrates New Year's Eve, I guess!

Not that I should scoff; I'm shopping at WalMart, despite my loathing of the corporation, because, on my soon-to-be-no-more salary, it's what I can afford to do. Next stop: Dollar General!

A friend mentioned in an email that he sees the "career paradigm" in this country changing greatly, especially and paradoxically for those who obtain more educational credentials. I concur with that completely. It occurs to me that, since a large, aspirant middle class is after all something of an anomaly in world history, that we may simply be seeing a reversion to historical norms. If we are moving into an Age of Scarcity (Peak Oil, water shortages, grid malfunctions, and so on), then it seems quite likely that, as in all past such ages, there will be a very few Haves and a multitude of Have Nots.

How that will play out in the field of American education, which is of course a container and an advancer of our aspirations, remains to be seen. But I would put forward a not-too-bold prediction: Over the next few years, we will start to see smaller and less well known private colleges fold in increasing numbers. The people who can afford them are disappearing, and the colleges are at a severe marketing disadvantage. Smaller colleges also fail to achieve any of the ever more necessary economies of scale.

When I find my thoughts drifting in unhappy directions, it encourages me to think of those whose work and lives I admire and draw strength from -- always remembering too, that in addition to the famous, there are many kindred and noble spirits whose names are lost to history, but who did their good as well. Among notables born on this date are British Prime Minister William Gladstone, President Andrew Johnson, cellist Pablo Casals, Mexican painter David Siqueiros, novelist William Gaddis, golf course designer Pete Dye, singer Marianne Faithfull, member of The Band Rick Danko, ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, comedian Paula Poundstone, and a whole bunch of actors -- Jude Law, Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Flanders, Jon Voight, Ted Danson, Viveca Lindfors, Barbara Steele, and the great Patricia Clarkson.

Although not a golfer myself, I had the privilege to walk Pete Dye's Whistling Straights Straits Course, in Kohler, Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Michigan, on Day 2 of the 2004 PGA Championship. Dye's landscape artistry was everywhere apparent. I commented to a course employee on his brilliant use of the hills all about, and the employee answered with a smile, "This was all flat as a pancake. Those hills were constructed."