IN: Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 - October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojeve. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Yale University, Ecole Normale Superieure of Paris, and the University of Chicago. Bloom championed the idea of Great Books education and became famous for his criticism of contemporary American higher education, with his views being expressed in his bestselling 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind.

Allan Bloom was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1930 to second-generation Jewish parents who were both social workers. The couple had a daughter, Lucille, two years earlier. As a thirteen-year-old, Bloom read a Readers Digest article about the University of Chicago and told his parents he wanted to attend; his parents thought it was unreasonable and did not encourage his hopes. Yet, when his family moved to Chicago in 1944, his parents met a psychiatrist and family friend whose son was enrolled in the University of Chicago's humanities program for gifted students. In 1946, Bloom was accepted to the same program, starting his degree at the age of fifteen, and spending the next decade of his life enrolled at the University in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. This began his lifelong passion for the 'idea' of the university. In the preface to Giants and Dwarfs: Essays, 1960-1990, he stated that his education "began with Freud and ended with Plato". The theme of this education was self-knowledge, or self-discovery--an idea that Bloom would later write, seemed impossible to conceive of for a Midwestern American boy. He credits Leo Strauss as the teacher who made this endeavor possible for him. Bloom graduated from the University of Chicago with his Bachelor's Degree at the age of 18. One of his college classmates was the classicist Seth Benardete. For post-graduate studies, he enrolled in the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, where he was assigned Classicist David Grene as tutor, and went on to write his thesis on Isocrates. Grene recalled Bloom as an energetic and humorous student completely dedicated to studying classics, but with no definite career ambitions. The Committee was a unique interdisciplinary program that attracted a small number of students due to its rigorous academic requirements and lack of clear employment opportunities after graduation. Bloom earned his Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought in 1955. He subsequently studied under the influential Hegelian philosopher Alexandre Kojeve in Paris, whose lectures Bloom would later introduce to the English-speaking world. While teaching philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, he befriended Raymond Aron, amongst many other philosophers. Among the American expatriate community in Paris his friends included leftist writer Susan Sontag.

Did he write the essay?

OUT: an idea that Bloom would later write,

IN: Cassie Ventura was born in 1986 in New London, Connecticut; the daughter of a Filipino father and a mother of African-American, Mexican and West Indian descent. She attended the Williams School, a preparatory school, located on the Connecticut College campus. At age 14 Cassie began modeling, and when she was sixteen, she was modeling for local department stores, Delia's fashion catalog, and Seventeen. Cassie also briefly appeared in R&B singer Mario's "Just a Friend 2002" music video.

In 2008 Cassie made her film debut as Sophie Donovan in the dance film Step Up 2: The Streets, Cassie also sang the lead single "Is It You" to the Step Up soundtrack. The song was released on November 13, 2007, and peaked at eighty-five on the Canadian Hot 100 and fifty-two in the United Kingdom. In July 2009, Cassie announced that her second studio album's title would be Electro Love. Cassie said that her new album will demonstrate more "independence"; there will be a "difference in vocals, a little bit more personality. And it's definitely a sensual album". Three singles have been released from the album; "Official Girl" featuring Lil Wayne in August 2008, "Must Be Love" featuring Diddy in April 2009, and "Let's Get Crazy" featuring Akon in August 2009. All three singles failed to chart in the United States. After several delays, it was announced in December 2009 that Cassie had signed a new record deal with Interscope Records. She is featured in a spread in the August/September issue of Bust in which she said a new single will be released in the fall. She has recently told her Twitter followers that she is still in the studio recording for her album. At the time of an October 2010 interview with HitQuarters, A&R Daniel 'Skid' Mitchell said that Cassie had already recorded around fifty songs for the album. Mitchell said that she was taking her time over the album because she is keen for "it to be something that people are going to respect". She also appeared in rapper Wiz Khalifa's "Roll Up" music video as his love interest. Cassie released the single, "King of Hearts", which was released in the United States on February 14, 2012, along with the official music video. On April 24, 2012, Cassie performed the single live for the first time at BET's 106 & Park music video show. She concluded the performance with a brief dance number set to the Kanye West remix of the song, along with four dancers. After the performance Cassie and 106 & Park were worldwide trending topics on Twitter and it received mostly mixed to positive reviews from various online media outlets. The single, "Balcony", featuring Young Jeezy, was then sent to U.S. urban radio stations on September 18, 2012. On September 13, 2012, Nicki Minaj released the debut single off her re-release album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up, titled "The Boys", featuring Cassie. The song was then sent to urban radios on September 25 and a music video was released on October 18. In July 2012, Cassie announced in a letter to her fans that she had been working simultaneously on her album and a new mixtape titled RockaByeBaby. RockaByeBaby was released on April 11, 2013, and was named the best mixtape of the year by Dazed & Confused. The mixtape saw the release of "Numb" featuring American rapper Rick Ross on April 2, along with the songs accompanying music video and "Paradise" featuring rapper Wiz Khalifa premiered on April 9, 2013 alongside the video on BET 106 & Park. In April 2013 it was announced that Cassie was the face of the Summer 2013 Forever 21 collection.

what did she do besides sing

OUT:
In 2008 Cassie made her film debut