Victor David Hanson on … a faculty lounge

 Victor David Hans0n, a classics scholar (Stanford Ph.D. in classics and for many years a professor at Cal State Fresno) and farmer, has an essay on "Obama Versus the Way of the Universe."  In it, he mentions a faculty lounge.  Here's the set-up:

In short, Obama reminds me a little of myself–at 26. I had left the
farm for 9 years to get a BA in classics, PhD in classical philology,
and live in Athens for two years of archaeological study-all on
scholarships, TAships, research-ships and part-time summer and school
jobs tucked under the aegis of the academic, no-consequences world. By
the end of endless seminars, papers, theses, debates, discussions,
academic get-togethers, I had forgotten much of the culture of the farm
where I spent years 1-18.

And here's the payoff: "Then after the requisite degrees I left academia, and returned to farm 180 acres with my brother and cousin-and sadly was quickly disabused of the world of the faculty lounge."

Ok, so Hanson didn't have our lounge in mind–but it's still good to see a lounge discussed.  I like to think that we're a little more realistic in this lounge than in the one that Hanson envisions–such as when we discuss what scholarship will look like after the economy's crash.

H/t to Glenn Reynolds.  The image is of a grove of olive trees.