I went to Chinatown on Friday with my family. I missed a departmental meeting where they were going to finalize the 3-3 load and tie up some loose ends. It ended up being a major fight. They had three items on the agenda and two ended up being tabled for another time when tensions were less high. The flurry of emails after the meeting left a great record of the event and the underlying ire. There was at least one major threat made and a number of vicious glances exchanged.
I ate Chinese food, sheparded my children through downtown LA, and overall had a great family experience. I am grateful for field trips.
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In the Richard Russo book Straight Man, the main character is the chair of a college English department who gets his nose mutilated at a department meeting. I always thought it was a bit of hyperbole, but now I'm not so sure.
"Straight Man" is more true to the real academy than most of us want to believe. Many of my colleagues who have read it share the parallels in normal conversation. Russo was/is a prof at Colby College I think. I can't help but believe that it is semi-autobiographical.
Last fall when the budget was delayed for so long here and we had about 2 minutes between when we got the budget and when classes started, I yelled "if you don't get me my budget by monday, I'm going to kill this duck!" We all laughed, then I went back to having stress-induced chest pains.
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