I ran across something in one of those ad hoc committee files that perfectly captures what my job is like. These are the minutes of a meeting that took place in February, 1964. They were generated by a committee that I don’t really think was technically ad hoc–it was called the Administrative Committee and it was analogous to today’s Dean’s Council.

The first sentence of the second paragraph, with its preposterous segue from the charter change trial to the grave matter of photocopying charges in the library, made me burst out laughing. All the supporting material, including detailed charts and tables, are preserved in the file. I read every bit of it, out of a kind of spite. It was stupefyingly dull and of no lasting importance. But all I really want to know about is what was going on with the charter change trial. Somehow I find this extremely amusing, which I suppose is what suits me for the work.

Bonus: I can’t even begin to count how many afternoons I’ve walked out of Fondren towards Lovett Hall. Today was the first time I noticed how the afternoon sun makes semi-circles of light around the basement windows.