I've been offered a chance to go to something really interesting far, far away at someone else's expense.
And it looks like I won't be able to do it: it's happening the same long weekend as the AALS hiring conference, and I'm married to the chair of our committee. She has to be there, so I have to be here — although our kids are amazingly large to look at, they're not big enough to be left alone for a night, much less for four days in a row.
That’s a real pity. There are few things more interesting than those done far, far away at another’s expense.
You mean that you wanted to miss the AALS hiring conference (also known as the “breaking your arm while patting yourself on the back” extravaganza)?
No, I was never going to that in the first place. Although it’s less unpleasant (but no less tiring) when you are a buyer then when you are a seller.
Do you take your kids to class (so that they can see what mommy and daddy do for a living)? I went to the hospital with my father on numerous occasions. On the last occasion, I met one of my father’s colleagues in the doctor’s lounge who admitted that he, too, had raised a lawyer, but he could not get his kids interested in medicine. OTOH, I met an emergency room physician in Wichita whose father is a prosecutor in western Nebraska.