There's a desk under there somewhere

by J J Cohen

I'm in my office today partly to annoy my friends who have to teach, but mostly to catch up on the mountain of small tasks that have accumulated over the past month.

After opening the stack of mail that awaited me (who sends physical mail any more??), my desk is a bureaucrat's paradise. Even though everything is already sorted, the sheer number of items that require attention stresses me out. Today I will plug away at getting things done, even if it means having less of a chance to point out to my colleagues that they are teaching and I am, um, secretly constructing a hammock to use in my office and buying a fake palm tree so that everyone gets the message that I am a tenured Professor of Leisure.

I should add, though, that many of the items that arrived in the mail and now sit expectantly upon my desk deserve their own blog posts ... and several will get one. Stay tuned, and happy beginning of the semester to those returning to teaching.