To Tweak A Yalie's Nose ...

Kikuchiyo at Kikuchiyo News thinks I've been unfair to David Adesnik at Oxblog. Reporting on the turmoil at the University of Southern Mississippi, I wrote:

Then, of course, there is the attitude of Oxblog's David Adesnik that an affair like that at USM is a"tempest in a teapot." When you're a Yalie at Oxford, you have more important things to think about: a world economy to manage, a Middle East to democratize, and Salma Hayek to bed -- you know, the BIG picture.

"Oh my. That's a bit unfair, I think," says Kikuchiyo.

I'd like to venture that regardless of whether the frame of reference is Swarthmore or Harvard or the University of Michigan or Southern Mississippi academic disputes can often be fairly characterized as temptests in a teapot because even at an incredibly august academic institution the stakes are fairly low. We academic types might, just possibly, be slightly vulnerable to overestimating the importance of our own affairs. After all, tons of people are fired from their jobs with little reason or explanation after decades of service, and the ACLU doesn't come running into the breach for them. It would be disingenuous of me to claim that I don't think that tenure is a good that should be protected, but there's no point being nasty to David for pointing out that it's easy to exaggerate the importance of the latest fencing-match in the ivory tower.

Kikuchiyo misunderstands my frame of reference. Having thrown a newspaper route and manned a cash register within the last decade, I identify with the plight of non-academic labor. More importantly, I refer Kikuchiyo to a 1993 article by Hochnaesig and Vordeck,"The Beak as Social Text," in the Journal of Proboscis Studies. Studying 5,000 sons and daughters of old Eli and a comparable number of ordinary mortals, Hochnaesig and Vordeck found that the primary function of a Yalie's snout was for pulling. Only secondarily did it serve the breathing function common to the rest of us. Since reading their study, whenever necessary (see, for instance, here [scroll down]), I've never hesitated to tweak a Yalie's nose.