Monday, September 18, 2006

This Made Me Laugh

Ok, so I got an email from Conference Friend, to whom I'd mentioned my decision to go on the market. (This makes it sound like we're less good friends than we are - you know how in Anne of Green Gables Anne talkes about "kindred spirits"? Well CF and I are like that, in that we became actual, real good friends, and I've met members of his family and things and we've known each other for years and kept in good touch through everything even though we've only been on the same continent for roughly 1 month total.) He writes the following (which of course I've edited to eliminate any incriminating details, about me or others in question):

"I had a little look on the MLA j-list last week -- anywhere tickling your fancy? I have, amongst others, a novelty rejection letter from Fancy School, and I see they're after a Person in Our Field of Specialty. I have a drunken photo of you and Very Fancy Scholar from Fancy School who is also in Our Field of Specialty outside a Drinking Establishment in a European Country, if you might like to use it in your application."

I am not at all sure what the above says about me (or the VFS).

Which reminds me: one of these days I've got to do the post that's been brewing about the dynamic between young-ish female scholars and less young-ish and more well-established male scholars at conferences in my field. (This brewing post actually has nothing to do with Very Fancy Scholar, at least as far as I recall.)

2 comments:

MommyProf said...

I love conference friends. They are like your old friends from junior high that you almost never see, but you can pick things up right where you left off.

New Kid on the Hallway said...

I'll be interested to see what you say about the younger female/older male faculty thing. I have to say that while I know that dynamic exists (and is notorious), I have really never experienced it personally. Maybe because all the Very Fancy People I orbit around are women? That's a whole other dynamic...