Grizzly Bear Underwear, Turtles' Necks — I've Got My Share

I was no fan of The Cosby Show or its spinoff A Different World. Not to say that I never watched it: just that I could probably count on two hands the number of episodes I've seen. Because I didn't pay attention to the series, the changes had to be explained to me with each ep. I did watch. Thus, in one of the later seasons, I was given to understand that Dwayne Wayne, the math major, had begun to teach at the college. I assumed that this meant, in TV Land, that he had joined the faculty rather than being a student-teacher. Even then, before I began grad school, I knew that that was nonsense: (1) departments rarely accept their own undergrads as grad students, let alone hire their own postgrads as faculty; and (2) departments rarely hire B.A.s to teach. So what happened on the show is not what really happens.

Nor was I a fan of Beverly Hills 90210. Again, I watched a few random episodes, but didn't follow the series. The only multi-episode plot line that infiltrated my memory is the one about...um...that guy...the brother guy, of the sister who was played by Shannen Doherty, who became the president of the student government at his university and had some sort of conflict with the president of the university. Which, again, I knew to be nonsense: student government basically exists to dole out money collected under student activity fees. It does a few other things, but that's the main one. Student governments don't report to presidents, they report to deans. They just don't do anything that would put a university president into any kind of a tizzy.

I am, however, a fan of the comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane. (I wish I were Dr. Juliette Burber. I do like her style.) The current plot line concerns Dr. Burber's underwear, now that she's become a visiting university professor, and the indirect effects thereof on the Board of Trustees. But I can't think of any such board anywhere, let alone of a university, where non-ex officio trustees have any kind of a regular presence at the institution. They just aren't to be found walking around campus. Faculty have pretty much no interaction with them. It just doesn't happen. While I do enjoy the thread, its unbelievableness drags down its appeal. I like the strip well enough to wish it wouldn't do things like that. It's not at all a political strip, but it has taken a few shots at political circumstances; so when it can't get things straight about how a university works, it's hard to give its rare commentaries any consideration whatsoever. I find that disappointing, is all.

And that's the entire point of this post.