Doug Lederman

After a yearlong hiatus, I'm back in @insidehighered's pages with a new column, Tough Love. I'll try to make sense of the postsecondary landscape. Please send ideas my way! insidehighered.com/opinion/column…

@_HoopyFrood_ @lady_valor_07 Excellent show.

@lady_valor_07 Line of Duty (A fantastic British show)

Name one

@Mishi_2210 17

How many square you see ..? 99.9% will fail

@ByBerkowitz @usatodaysports One of the finest, most diligent journalists I've been privileged to know over the years. Good luck in what's ahead, Steve.

Personal news: Today is my last day working for @usatodaysports. Thankfully, this is by my choice. After 25-plus years with the company, there are waaay too many people to thank individually, but I am grateful to all. Next move: TBD -- but it doesn't involve a beach chair.

@bradluttrell Not just you -- I had the same experience.

Is MJ Lenderman an acquired taste or was I just having off days the first 27 times I tried to get into this guy? Really dig Fireworks now. I didn't when it came out, at all. Didn't get it. Finally clicked recently for me. Checking out his 2022 album now and digging it. MJ Lenderman // Boat Songs // 2022

@DannyDeraney @TheRealMarilu Yes, yes, yes.

46 years ago today, Taxi gave us one of the best scenes in sitcom history. "What Does The Yellow Light Mean?" @TheRealMarilu is actually stabbing herself with a pencil to stifle herself from laughing.

@bradluttrell Agree with your take. I'm an amateur (only went once, in 2023, with my adult kids), but thought it was a very well-run festival. Tremendous experience. (Also: Amazed how easy it was to get out of the parking lot!)

I stumbled into a Reddit thread about how bad Bourbon and Beyond is, and it's chock full of wrong takes. I've been going for years, with VIP and GA. I'm going to rebuttal the comments. This is a well run festival overall, and I think they made some tremendous efforts to improve it this year (and they're continuing to do so). The state has a 10 year deal and is committing to investing into infrastructure for the festival. Take: You are not allowed to bring blankets/tapestries to sit on Response: This is completely false. Take: The sound bleed is terrible Response: There were parts last year where it was, but this year, as long as you were within a few hundred yards of the stage, there was none. The only place that bled was in the dead center of the festival grounds, which was an area so far from the stages, you couldn't even see the screens to know who was playing anyways. Take: If you bring a chair to sit in, you have to buy an upgraded “chair pass”. Response: True Take: Most of the area around the stage is gravel besides a small sliver. Response: This year was a new footprint. It's mostly pavement but the astro turf was fine. Take: Water lines were absurd. Response: I've never taken more than 60 seconds to refill a bottle and I've been going for years. Take: sets are only 30 minutes besides headliners. Response: The opening sets are 30 minutes and get longer throughout the day. It varies per artist, not per slot but generally later in the day = longer set. Jack White was 70 minutes, playing right before a headliner. Take: pit area is for VIP only. seating in VIP is also a joke. Response: True for the main stages. But with GA you can get up reasonably close on the 2 main stages and you can be on the rail for the other 2 stages + the Bluegrass stage. There is no VIP seating on 3 of the 5 stages. Sure, the seating is limited overall but it's also 50K to 60K butts. This isn't held in an arena. If you like sitting, buy the cheap chair pass and sit all you want. I did it a few years—great option if you don't want to be on the move. Take: there’s no creative or artistic experience outside of the music. Response: It's a bourbon festival. The bourbon is the experience. There are bourbon tents every 10 feet. The art displayed is all done by artists. There is a podcast kinda area where all they do is talk about the craft of bourbon, all day. Take: it’s majorly oversold and imo the facilities cannot handle the amount of people they have pushed to allow in. Response: Just not true. They hit 60K there when Zach Bryan played. Beyond that it averages 50K people every day, and this year they had tons more space. It's never felt claustrophobic to me, short of being up close for headliners and that is literally every concert for big names. Take: the audio mixing was consistently terrible Response: Like any festival with a huge area, the sound swing can be huge depending on where you stand. Pay attention to how things sound early in the day, mentally note that spot and come back to it when you return for other artists. REMEMBER: When in doubt, stand next to the sound booth. It's the best sounding spot of any show. I have an A+ time at this festival every year. Some people just like to complain.

.@katescharff is the best -- please vote for her!

@Laughlin18 @MonSportsNet I had emergency surgery for an aortic dissection last July, and I still have ups and downs in my energy level. So take it slow, Locker -- for yourself and your family. Play the long game!

Hey #Caps fans. Unfortunately I haven't been feeling 100%. My cardiology and medical team have advised me to miss a few games. I'm so disappointed to step away from the booth again, but I can't wait to rejoin our @MonSportsNet broadcast team very soon. Go Caps!

Today is publishing day for my wife Kate Scharff's new book "We Need to Talk About Divorce," to guide middle-school kids and their parents through one of the most difficult times in their lives and come out the other side whole. Could not be more proud! us.macmillan.com/books/97816844…

@WesleyWhistle I am terribly sorry about your loss, Wesley. Surround yourself with those you love and take good care of each other.

Tonight, at 5:40 pm, we said goodbye to my mom. She was 53. Her life was too short and too hard, but I’m just glad she isn’t in pain any longer. I’ll love you forever, Momma.

@keith_dorschner @GadSaad Do you mean debt?

@GadSaad The higher education bubble is about to burst. A lifetime of dept for a worthless humanities degree is not a sustainable business model.

I'm delighted that a growing number of people are waking up to the university insanity that has been allowed to fester for generations. BUT, you truly cannot imagine how parasitized that ecosystem is unless you inhabit it. It is unimaginably bad. The bureaucracy, the inefficiency, the parasitic ideological rapture, the socialist bent, the anti-Western bent, the anti-Jew bent. It is pervasive in every nook and cranny. There is no creature that is as spineless and as castrated as an academic. Rather than being intellectual Navy seals, most academics are meek sheep afraid of their shadow.

🆕🎧 In this episode of The Key, host @DougLedIHE is joined by Amanda Winters of the @NatlGovsAssoc and Michelle Van Noy of @RutgersU to explore the relative consensus between the parties and its implications. Listen here ➡️ bit.ly/3YxGdwr

🦉 Start your week with wisdom! @sonyachristian, chancellor of @CalCommColleges joins our CEO, @BBurnsEDU, and @dougledIHE of @insidehighered Monday for an insightful episode of #WeeklyWisdom. 10/28 9:30amPT Thanks to our sponsors, @hey_mainstay & @CarnegieCorp.

@biblioracle @insidehighered Thank you so much, John. Having played a role in giving a platform to scores of journalists and writers (like you) and hundreds of thoughtful interpreters and analysts of higher education is one of the things I'm proudest of.

Yet another small New England college to close: -- Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts: insidehighered.com/news/quick-tak…

Kevin Kruger (@NASPApres), president of @NASPAtweets, joins @dougledIHE of @insidehighered and me for this week's insightful episode of #WeeklyWisdom. Thanks to our sponsors, @heymainstay and @CarnegieCorp. #InnovatingTogether twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

If you’re on the fence about joining Inside Higher Ed's membership program, we’re offering the following issues for free so you can get a sense of whether it’s worth your time (and money) to become an Insider. 🔹 Issue #1: Welcome to The Sandbox 🔗 bit.ly/4amDtEC 🔹 Issue #3: Authenticity and Leadership - Guest Essays 🔗 bit.ly/44GtOrk 🔹 Issue #4: A Little Gratitude Goes a Long Way 🔗 bit.ly/4adPGLW 🔹 Issue #15: The Urge to Merge 🔗 bit.ly/44NFadm 💡 Learn more and join the membership program here: 🔗 bit.ly/4amkn1F