Fall Retreat 2024 Style. . .

 

A rare photograph of yours truly and the Grand Duchess together on campus.  Our paths almost never cross although our offices are separated by one floor in the same office building right smack in the middle of campus.  And I swear, despite my crooked grin, nothing medicinal was present or consumed at yesterday's meeting.

Journeyed the 15 minutes into campus yesterday for the final department meeting of the fall semester, once called "retreats" but no longer under the guidance of our new chair.  As 90-minute meetings go, it was reasonably pleasant and was followed by a retirement send-off for the senior faculty member in our program.  

Of the remaining 13 faculty (plus our chair), that leaves yours truly and two others as senior members of the program.  And although those two colleagues have taught here longer than yours truly, I am actually older by some years than they are.  In the blink of an eye, I have become. . .  The Old White Guy.  My late mother and I used to tease my now emeritus stepfather about his very similar situation 20+ years ago when the last of his own contemporaries finally retired.

Well, one can at least dress with colorful intent as he sails ever closer to sociopolitical irrelevance, right?  And if we're brutally honest about it, academics are pretty well irrelevant from the get-go as far as the rest of US society is concerned given the general level of hostility toward intellectual life in our country.  

Yet again, I digress!

Attire-wise, the Brooks Bros. Makers necktie has toy soldiers all over it.  A conscious nod to my at the moment sadly neglected toy soldier hobby.  The lower half, just visible here, features a pair of very comfortable dark green and maroon plaid trousers in wool flannel, wool over-the-calf dress socks in maroon, and a pair of oxblood half-brogues from Allen Edmonds.  

Best of all, the Grand Duchess popped in for a few minutes, in her associate dean role, to give best wishes to the retiring colleague.  She stopped just long enough to have a helping of spinach pie (Middle Eastern lunch was provided) and pose for this photograph taken by another dean in attendance.  

All in all, a very pleasant day, and I was home before 3pm when the Young Master's school bus driver dropped him off.  The Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a glass of wine much later that evening by the fireside with some Christmas jazz playing softly in the background.  A lovely end to an otherwise busy week.

-- Heinz-Ulrich