Via Crooked Timber, one of the wittiest metablogging posts I’ve read in quite a while. This is my favourite bit:

Maxim of Controversy:

1. Be controversial. (Occasionally say what you are certain is true. It adds credibility.)

2. Hint at that for which you have no evidence.

Via Invisible Adjunct, a sample job application letter by Alex Golub that will ensure triumph when applying to liberal arts universities. A taste of that one:

My Dear [department chair],

Rejoice! After considerable rumination, I have choosen to fill the Tenure Track position in Art History advertised by your University in The Chronicle of Higher Education! Fret not, for while my decision was influenced by your university?s proximity to vast fields of wheat and several shooting ranges, I have choosen the University of [delete] because of its sparkling reputation and world-class faculty. As an art historian, one has the option of living a gigolo lifestyle, awash in cocktails and listing back and forth from auction to private showing to auction again. Nonetheless, I know that the charms of such a tawdry existence would soon fade. And so I say no – no! It is to the life of the mind that I must cling, and cling I shall at the U of [deleted].