The EclectEcon, by now, should be heading home from Chicago, having experienced some of that city's finest cuisine. The bustling metropolis will likely miss his presence.
He was in the city for some sort of academic recruitment conference, I gather. I'd have liked to join him for some socializing, but my budget and a handful of unusual responsibilities kept me down on the farm, as it were.
We out here in the sticks don't get out much for that sort of stuff. We just have to hope that folks will hear about us and amble on over, looking for the bib-alls freak show, where the best competition for church on a Sunday is a bustling consignment auction, where academic standards are rumored to exist at the primary and secondary levels, but at the college level our reputation is still honestly solid (for the nonce -- until one of the faculty gets into another argument with somebody like Mike Adams).
Still, the town and its schools are not enough for a lot of kids around here. Come to think of it, it's not enough for kids, just about anywhere. I seem to recall the attitude of most kids I've known, even in the Big Cities, was "I can't wait until I'm old enough to get out of this place..."
Most of the locals look for any escape –– and, according to people like John Kerry, this is the longstanding, one and only option...
you know, if you don't get an education....
I hope the conference brought more than a sampling of great pizza and another good handful or two of interested, strong intellects to those wacky academics.
But now I'm all hungry for a slice of Uno's and a coupla hours of reading.
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