Category Archives: WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer)

Writing Exercise – “The Dress-Up Dress Down”

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Katherine Wikoff

Or should that be “smackdown”? Read on and see 🙂 My writing group does short exercises to share each time we meet, and I’ve decided it might be fun to start sharing them here on my blog. For this week, … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Life, Uncategorized, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer), Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

The individual vs. society – Joseph Campbell, Gandhi, and JFK weigh in

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Katherine Wikoff

I’m cleaning out my office today, throwing out old student papers and old lecture notes from courses I no longer teach. One of the files I came across was from a one-off course on mythology that I taught in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, History, Learning, Life, Political Analysis, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Random Reflections on Malls and Department Stores

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff

Monday’s Wall Street Journal ran an article (read it here) noting the waning days of the department store as anchor in the American shopping mall: “Mall Owners Push Out Department Stores: Fast-fashion chains, restaurants, specialty stores do a better job of driving mall … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, Creativity, History, Life, Milwaukee, Popular culture, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Russia, Syria, Ukraine, and Turkey: And so it begins

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

I hardly know where to start with this post; so many bits of knowledge are swimming around in my head. First, I think something really significant is happening in the Middle East right now. Lots of pieces that have been … Continue reading →

Posted in News, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Resolved: To Be Good Enough

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

You’ve surely seen the motivational posters before. Possibly you’ve also seen the “demotivators” from Despair.com. This one has always been my favorite, mostly because of the contempt I’ve always felt for people who practiced mediocrity. Ha! What’s that saying about … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Popular culture, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer), Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Communication lessons learned from the Indian Ocean tsunami and other natural disasters

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

It has been ten years since the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami.  Many “anniversary” articles today will look back at this event, so this post doesn’t cover the same ground.  Because my academic specialty is communication, I wanted to … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Learning, Life, Nature, News, Science, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Northern Soul Project – Some Background (post #2)

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

To recap: I stumbled across the term “Northern Soul” a week ago while trying to see if the Dusty Springfield part of the Pet Shop Boys’ “What Have I Done to Deserve This,” was actually one of her old songs.  … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Learning, Life, Movies and film, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Northern Soul Project

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

One of the terms in my blog’s subtitle is “Lifelong Learning.”  When I started writing here a couple of years ago, I thought I’d be talking much more about that topic than I’ve turned out to, as it’s a huge … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Learning, Life, Music, Popular culture, Teaching, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

“Smart” is kind of creepy

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a story headlined “Madison software firm Solomo develops customer-tracking technology.”  Yes, I’m creeped out, although seeing this story just pulls together a lot of things that have been creeping me out for a while now. Basically … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, News, Popular culture, Science, Technology, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Russia–Ukraine–Syria connection (and why Turkey may be in crisis next)

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Sometimes looking at a map can tell you a lot.  Take a look at this map, for example.  It shows that Russia is a largely landlocked country.  Unless you count its far northern shores deep inside the Arctic Circle. Public … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, News, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments