One session the first night was entitled Exotica. The Moderator says “I’m not sure what ‘Exotia’ is supposed to mean, but our first speaker…” My department chair, one of the meeting organizers, interrupts, “It’s a typo… it was supposed to be Erotica.” And there was an outburst of laughter.
I was speaking with someone I am interested in working for having already applied to his institution and a colleague, CJ, is standing next to me. Says the potential future boss, describing the program, “Being a minority isn’t required, but plenty of minorities do apply.” CJ pipes in “Well it’s not like you get a lot of applications from oompa-loompas.” If I had the capability, my eyes would have been shooting lasers at him. I cannot believe he called me an oompa-loompa, especially in front of a relative stranger. (I don’t think it affected my application but I really want to install some sort of maturity filter on CJ.)
The NIH Challenge grants, which are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are supposed to “to accelerate the tempo of ongoing science.” This phrase was repeated several times over the weekend with some discussion about the specifics for these grants and such (details for the bosses to be concerned about). The phrase "to accelerate the tempo of ongoing science” echoed in my head and caused me to envision of the cast of characters in our lab performing work in a rhythmic way to the tune of a waltz before suddenly breaking into reggae with ensuing chaos in the lab. That’s not exactly what Congress had in mind, but it amuses me.
1 comment:
Too funny and ironic. Congress may not have had that in mind, but it describes perfectly how they work.
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