some comment catch-up:

- I see the nurse for my shot today, I think I'm still going to ask her even though I had the odd experience driving in of getting behind a horrible old beater Cadillac* that was belching malodorous smoke, and I almost immediately felt my neck start to tighten and got a little headache (it's gone now). I think I have a sensitivity to bad odors.

(*I think it's even sadder when a Caddy turns into a beater than when other cars do. That may just be because I remember a couple people who had older model Caddies that really kept them up beautifully.)

- I have a few Asterix books (In English; I am not quite awesome enough to read those in the original French) but not the 12 labors one. I should maybe look into getting more Asterix books; I enjoy the ones I have.

And actually, yesterday's experience reminded me of why I work on a smaller college campus: as size increases, so does the intractability of the bureaucracy. Here, you can still (particularly if you KNOW the administrator in question from somewhere like church or an off-campus civic group) go into their office when some "unreasonable" demand is made, sit down, smile sweetly at them, and say, "you REALLY expect us to do that?" or, alternatively, comment on how the added burden is going to hurt either your teaching or your "scholarly productivity." And a lot of the time they listen. Too many larger bureaucracies have sort of like the school zero-tolerance policies, where stuff happens even when it's stupid because someone somewhere made a rule, and the rule has to be followed to the letter.

And also, in bigger organizations, there's a better chance of getting someone who (a) doesn't know you and (b) doesn't care about your request because of (a) (or because they're just putting in their time, and don't want to go over and above).

I have to say on a few occasions as a grad student at larger schools, I helped guide nearly-tearful undergrads through the maddening maze of financial aid, or getting transcripts sent out, or whatever. Here, enough of the people in offices know me (and being a prof helps), that I can usually call up the office in question and say, "Hey, I have a student in my office who is having problems and needs your help. I am sending them over. Please help them fix their problem." But the subtext under my polite "please" is a "you better..." My dad always said he hated to see students become "ping pong balls" (being lobbed back and forth between offices) and would do what he could to cut the red tape and get them the help they need. And I hate it too. It's not nearly as bad here as on larger campuses but it can still happen if someone is non-assertive and they get a secretary or whatever who is having a bad day.