The Town that Joe Paterno Built
STATE COLLEGE, PENN. -- Well, I'm at the end of my two day campus visit to Penn State, with a little breather before I make the long flight back to the Bay Area. State College was kind enough to provide me with a mini-snow storm yesterday, followed by cold and sunshine today. I do not know whether the groundhog saw his shadow on February 2nd, but I do feel fortunate not to have had to relive yesterday over and over again until I got it right, a la Bill Murray.
Yesterday was a full day of interviews, meals and my job talk, starting at 7:45 am (which of course felt like 4:45) and not over until 9 pm, after I'd experienced four faculty members sniping at each other over the future of the profession over salmon and crab cakes. In between, I shuffled around from faculty member to dean to librarian to graduate students -- who were probably the most fun to hang out with, and who are clearly dying for some more courses in 20th Century Spanish Lit., which is where I come in. The most common question asked was "Do you like football?" to which I responded: "I can pretend to like football." This usually elicited the relieved response of: "Oh no, no, we don't care about football" from a faculty member. Clearly, however, they're the only ones in this town who don't care about football. In fact, the real estate agent who just drove me around town made sure to regale me with anecdotes about Joe Paterno (who, after having been briefed by Dad, and then having seen like five buildings on campus named after him, I now know is the 80-year old coach of the Penn State Nitny Lions1) not being able to pump his own gas, among other tidbits. Then she drove me by his house, which is not for sale, by the way. The second most common question asked was "Have you heard of Wegmans?" to which I answered yes, since it's SKBK's favorite grocery store, and other Rochester natives and non-natives have been singing the praises of it for years. The Penn State folks are very excited about having their own Wegmans (or is it Wegman's?); I told them it sounded like some sort of cult, and did they come by your house to wash your carpets, too?
Anyway, the professional end of things went well -- my job talk was well-attended, came off without a hitch, and was followed by many questions. One of the faculty at Berkeley told me after my practice job talk that I should expect harder questions, and he was right. The questions were not softballs, but I think I handled them well.
That's the report for now -- one down, two to go. Whew!
1 I still don't know what differentiates a nitny lion from a regular lion, but I think it has something to do with the fact that the Nitny Lion looks like a panther.
Yesterday was a full day of interviews, meals and my job talk, starting at 7:45 am (which of course felt like 4:45) and not over until 9 pm, after I'd experienced four faculty members sniping at each other over the future of the profession over salmon and crab cakes. In between, I shuffled around from faculty member to dean to librarian to graduate students -- who were probably the most fun to hang out with, and who are clearly dying for some more courses in 20th Century Spanish Lit., which is where I come in. The most common question asked was "Do you like football?" to which I responded: "I can pretend to like football." This usually elicited the relieved response of: "Oh no, no, we don't care about football" from a faculty member. Clearly, however, they're the only ones in this town who don't care about football. In fact, the real estate agent who just drove me around town made sure to regale me with anecdotes about Joe Paterno (who, after having been briefed by Dad, and then having seen like five buildings on campus named after him, I now know is the 80-year old coach of the Penn State Nitny Lions1) not being able to pump his own gas, among other tidbits. Then she drove me by his house, which is not for sale, by the way. The second most common question asked was "Have you heard of Wegmans?" to which I answered yes, since it's SKBK's favorite grocery store, and other Rochester natives and non-natives have been singing the praises of it for years. The Penn State folks are very excited about having their own Wegmans (or is it Wegman's?); I told them it sounded like some sort of cult, and did they come by your house to wash your carpets, too?
Anyway, the professional end of things went well -- my job talk was well-attended, came off without a hitch, and was followed by many questions. One of the faculty at Berkeley told me after my practice job talk that I should expect harder questions, and he was right. The questions were not softballs, but I think I handled them well.
That's the report for now -- one down, two to go. Whew!
1 I still don't know what differentiates a nitny lion from a regular lion, but I think it has something to do with the fact that the Nitny Lion looks like a panther.
posted by SJB at 12:09 PM
3 Comments:
nittany is a native-american place name. the nittany lion refers to a regular old mountain lion (e.g. a (former)denizen of mount nittany).
congratulations on getting through your day of interviews.
Nittany Lion refers to the mountain lions that once roamed Mount Nittany, which is just outside Happy Valley (State College).
As for Wegmans, the store is named after the Wegman family. So it probably should be "Wegman's," but I don't believe they use an apostrophe.
You might not fully appreciate the greatness of Wegmans, since you currently live in a produce universe that sells clementines one at a time rather than in crates.
The Wegmans folks probably won't come wash your carpets, but it's still a great store.
Anyway, congratulations on a successful interview!
Oh yeah, actually the real estate agent pointed out Mount Nittany, but I was so fried by that point that I don't think it registered.
If I'd cracked open her pile of materials before I'd gotten on the plane, I would have figured all this out and spelled it correctly to boot!
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