So what’s the appeal of bad boys? Let’s be clear that the real “bad boys,” are the ones who have failed, the incarcerated felons, the sexual abusers, the ones whose misuse of power to their own advantage costs everyone around them, “country gentleman” or not. They are not appealing, but repelling. What we mean, really, are the rebels, the revolutionaries, the creative artists who break the bad old rules, rules really meant to retain order and support the status quo. We’ve tal

I’ve been told that leaving academia when I did, at the relatively tender age of 63, and at the top of my scholarly and teaching game, “took guts.” It is true that I’d only recently been elected to an international scholarly society, co-organized a conference for what was once my primary identity organization, and gotten an unprecedented second senior merit award at my little liberal arts college. I’d also married a student, and the semester after my salary went to six figure