Author Archives: Katherine Wikoff

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About Katherine Wikoff

I am a college professor (PhD in English, concentration rhetoric) at Milwaukee School of Engineering, where I teach film and media studies, political science, digital society, digital storytelling, writing for digital media, and communication. While fragments of my teaching and scholarship interests may quite naturally meander over to my blog, this space is intended to function as a creative outlet, not as part of my professional practice. Opinions are my own, etc.

Champagne and Christmas Tree Lights (Photo)

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Taken with my iTouch last night when I noticed how the lights of our tree sparkled through my midnight champagne.  Happy 2014!

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What it takes to keep your New Year’s resolutions

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a really good article on what it takes to keep your New Year’s resolutions, “More Rational Resolutions,” by Angela Chen. My main takeaway was a technique called “pre-hindsight,” which is part of a three-day workshop hosted … Continue reading →

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (7 days to go) — Cora’s fortune

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

I knew that it was common near the end of the 1800s for American heiresses to go hunting around Europe for impoverished noblemen.  It was the perfect win-win in some ways: an aristocratic pedigree for America’s nouveau riche and a … Continue reading →

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Visits from Jack Frost

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

In my childhood home there was a window situated right at the turn in our staircase, only slightly higher than the steps themselves and just a short flight down from the second floor. Very dangerous spot for a window, if you ask … Continue reading →

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (13 days to go) — The Dowager Countess’s “Mom” Jeans

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Or at least the equivalent thereof. Have you noticed that as other women’s hemlines rise and hairstyles modernize, Violet Crawley (played by Maggie Smith) remains somewhat stuck in a pre-WWI Edwardian time warp?  Her hats are a bit smaller and slightly … Continue reading →

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He couldn’t keep a jailer: Why Nelson Mandela was a great leader

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Much has been said about Nelson Mandela over the past day.  But one thing I haven’t heard anyone speak of on the news channels—because, really, it’s pretty small potatoes when compared with this man’s towering greatness in so many areas—is … Continue reading →

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Is climate change cyclical?

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Although most media reports on climate change focus on looming disaster, I’ve read some interesting articles recently that look backward and provide some long-term perspective. Melting glaciers are revealing ancient human artifacts as they recede.  Beneath ice thousands of years … Continue reading →

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (36 days to go) – Pharaoh and Isis

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

The title of today’s post refers to the countdown clock on the Masterpiece “Downton Abbey” page on the PBS website.  For those of us anxiously awaiting Season 4 (or “Series 4,” as they say in England, where this season’s episodes have … Continue reading →

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foraging in the wreckage

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Originally posted on 35andupcynicismonhold:
  Haiyan came, conquered and left the country torn and devastated. More than the usual…   The world’s biggest, fastest and strongest typhoon came this way/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk   Tagged as the biggest and strongest cyclone to…

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France – November 11, 1918 : The clearing of the Armistice -40 photos

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Katherine Wikoff

Originally posted on ICI & LA NATURE PICTURES:
100 years ago the armistice of the first world war was signed here             The Armistice that brought to an end of the greatest war in history,…

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