Hot Medieval Spanish Professors

GRINNELL, IOWA -- These first night dinners at campus visits are strange. On the one hand, you've got a glass of wine in front of you and perhaps some Beef Wellington to dig into, and you're dining with people who are more or less your age (more or less) and know each other well, so it's all chummy. On the other hand, you're exhausted after getting up at 5 am to fly half way across the country and you're on edge about the interviews/teaching/job talk to come, and you know that although this may seem like a normal dinner to the casual observer, it's actually all part of the interview process, and asking too many questions about the availability of avocados in the middle of February in rural Iowa could make you seem like a snooty produce-lover who can't handle iceberg lettuce instead of arugula.

At tonight's dinner, I was surprised to find out that one of the Assistant Professors at Grinnell was in a class with me (and a few of the other PQ girls) a couple of years ago at Berkeley, and had a pretty good working knowledge of all the egomaniacs in my department. She also remembered a certain medieval Spanish literature professor from Spain, who was/is perhaps the hottest medieval Spanish literature professor ever to grace the halls of Dwinelle, but sadly went back to Spain and got married. This conversation elicited a low-grade obscenity from me (Asst. Prof: "Es muy guapo." Yo: "¡Qué te cagas!"¹) which reminded me that -- whoops! -- I'm in a freakin' interview and I should attempt to keep the gossiping and tacos madrileños² to a minimum.

¹ Basic translation: "Hell yeah he is!"
² In Madrid, tacos are spicy language, not spicy meat-filled hard or soft-shelled edibles.