I Missed You, Too
Told you I'd be back. Reports of my demise, etc., etc.
It was a great vacation. I broke bread with ColumbusGuy, blasted fireworks with AnnArborGuy and, due to a heavy schedule, just missed ChicagoGuy. (Hey, if he wants to meet me, the least he could do is write every now and then.)
Let me thank ColumbusGuy for running things while I was gone. I'm sure, just because I'm back, that he won't use it as an excuse to slack off. And after hearing tales of Managua from AnnArborGuy, I'd love to see him share it with you, faithful reader.
Over and over I saw things in the papers that I thought would make great posts, but I didn't have a computer available. I mean really dumb or bizarre statements from the people who make your laws. So they got a week off, too, I guess.
I had lunch with my old friend, Cass Sunstein. I wanted to talk about Con Law but as usual, he spent most of the time pitching ideas for TV shows. He also said (and this is public knowledge, not a scoop) that he's considering leaving Chicago for Harvard. He figures, if he's gonna make the move, now's the time. I'm not taking any bets, but does he really want to go to the place that 86ed Lawrence Summers?
I also dined with Richard Posner, who reminisced about his days at Harvard Law. It was the late 50s, when Harvard wasn't so politicized. If anything, it was depoliticized, and Con Law meant spending month after month on the Commerce Clause. (I expect ColumbusGuy to note there's nothing more political than the Commerce Clause.)
In those days, you were given a topic for your law review note. Posner's dealt with property rights in outer space. I'd love to look it up some day.
I also met with a friend who's been having a tough time lately. If you read this, all I can say it keep your chin up.
Okay, back to the present. Tomorrow, time to start writing about Lost and American Idol and the like.
posted by LAGuy @ 1:08 AM
2 Comments:
I think Cass (& I am another former student) specifically waited until Larry Summers got the heave-ho (Yes he was qualified enough to be Secretary of Treasury during the US economy's largest peacetime expansion but he couldn't handle the Faculty of Arts and Sciences). I mean it was Cass's type of people who did the heaving and hoing.
And speaking of Larry Summers' sacking, I think Alan Dershowitz got it almost right in his op-ed (sorry no link) when he said it was an academic coup. The only part he was misguided on was the "hard left" angle. While no doubt some the sackers like Sandinistas, Palestininians and quotas, these people moved Larry out because he tread on their turf and upset their ideas of importance and privilege and hurt their tender feelings while doing it. An ultra leftwinger who tried to do the same kind of streamlining and centralizing probably would have faired no better (Larry's not exactly a rightie either). This was a victory of an empowered faculty but not one of the "hard left"- these folks stood for local privilege and autonomy- more like the Harvard equivalent of the States Rights Party.
Welcome Back.
Thanks for your comment. It's nice to be back.
Anyway, Cass is a friend of Larry Summers. They've known each other for years and Summers made overtures to Cass to bring him over. Sunstein told me one of the reasons he liked Chicago is that it's not the kind of school where Summers' remarks would have caused a ruckus. On the other hand, he admitted (and you hear this a lot) that Summers is unusually blunt for a college President--most have learned to be pleasant all the time, while Summers can still be demanding.
Posner also had some choice words to say about Harvard. Actually, you can go to his blog and see his latest post, which is on Summers and organizational theory. Posner thinks Summers was a great choice for President but didn't fit into the Harvard system--which is a criticism of the latter. I hope I'm not getting him wrong, but since he's written negatively about Harvard on his blog, I think I can note at lunch he said Harvard has a lot of deadwood and has been floating along on its reputation for a while. I asked him how long can a school do that and he replied (jokingly?) that Oxford's been doing it for centuries.
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