Mailbag

I got an email from a prof who was delighted
that I included a couple jokey comments in the
endnotes to my lousy translation from the Irish of a medieval
ode to St. Catherine of Alexandria. Well, I thought
I was being cute, but not funny enough to elicit an
email! (That centaur thing -- now, that's comedy.)

Still, it seems to me that academia nowadays is a
pretty grim place, in an intellectually fluffy yet socially brutal kind of way. People seem much more interested in whether you use the buzzwords and have the PC attitude than whether you do a good job of teaching, use good documentation, have good insight, and attempt to have good ethics. I truly admire those, who like Constant Reader, brave such an atmosphere to educate the young. Not me, buddy. So if I've lightened somebody's mood, I suppose that might be worth an email at that.

I heard last night that Biichan has had some serious misfortune, type unspecified. (The list owner didn't feel it was her place to say what happened, but the tone suggests it was pretty bad.) So if by any chance you're a friend or acquaintance of Biichan, do send her a supportive email or comment. Obviously it's better to be there, but email is considerably better than nothing.