Re: for the academics amongst us

From: Philip Jonkers (P.A.E.Jonkers@phys.rug.nl)
Date: Tue Sep 04 2001 - 15:41:13 BST

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    From: Philip Jonkers <P.A.E.Jonkers@phys.rug.nl>
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    Subject: Re: for the academics amongst us
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    Quoting "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>:

    > Tenureclocky
    >
    > by Dany Adams
    > Department of Biological Sciences
    > Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
    > Drawing by Lois Malone
    >
    > (with apologies to Lewis Carroll)
    >
    > http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i4/tenureclocky.html
    >
    >
    >
    > "Sheıs Brilliant!" so the Ivy grove
    > Did hire the nimble-minded maid.
    > All flimsy were her bookish robes
    > Her bona fides displayed.
    >
    > "Beware the Tenureclock, young one,
    > Donıt pause at night or flaws theyıll catch.
    > Be sure you publish blurbs, and shun
    > The populous intro class!"
    >
    > She took an undergrad in hand.
    > Long time the grant of dough she sought.
    > And tested she her theory.
    > And swelled a file. And taught.
    >
    > And as she published what she could,
    > The Tenureclock, with eyes of flame,
    > Came sniffing round for moldy wood
    > And prospecting for fame.
    >
    > "No clue whatıs due ? Youıre never through!"
    > The maidıs keyboard went click and clack.
    > She felt half dead, but pushed ahead
    > Around the tenure track.
    >
    > And did she tame the Tenureclock ?
    > Overcome all academic strife ?
    > Sheıs taken her MacArthur grant
    > And gone to get a life.
    >
    > "Sheıs Brilliant!" so the Ivy grove
    > Did hire the nimble-minded maid.
    > All flimsy were her bookish robes
    > Her bona fides displayed.
    >
    > İ Copyright 2001 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

    No offense Wade, but as a poetry-illiterate *pur sang*,
    especially when it comes to foreign ones, my everlasting
    frustration in trying to comprehend poetry ceased upon
    learning the next quotation:

    ``In science one tries to tell people,
     in such a way as to be understood by everyone,
     something that no one ever knew before.
     But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.''

    Paul A. M. Dirac, `godfather'
    of quantum mechanics.

    I liked this source of consolation so much that I placed
    it on one of the first pages of my PhD thesis.

    Cheers,

    Philip.

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