It's Mike Smith, an engineer and computer scientist, and a wonderful person. This is a great appointment.

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.07/99-dean.html .
 

A nice man with a middling academic record, very little leadership experience at Harvard or anywhere, whose name will draw a complete blank for FAS faculty. Tabula rasa, just like Faust herself; and no threat to her or Hyman. Unmistakable that Faust was determined to have a natural scientist no matter what.
 

Like Drew Faust, no qualifications for the job. At least he has no ties to the clique of old-timers who have run FAS into the ground, though they will start sniping and spreading rumors about him right away.
 

I disagree, 11:19. I think you'll find most of us very pleased that a decision has been made and very willing to get behind a new dean and new president once they take office come July 1 -- though it sounds as if you would wish it otherwise!
 

The Crimson has this up:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519073
 

Prof. Smith is an excellent and well liked educator who will be a breath of fresh air in the dean's office. From a student's perspective, I believe that this is very good news for the FAS.
 

It would be nice to hear from Standing Eagle on this. I'm sure he has a very good perspective on Professor Smith.
 

Developing film? You haven't heard of digital cameras yet?
 

harder underwater maybe
 

Yeah, but those disposable underwater (film) cameras don't work very well.

Let's start the Get Rich a Nikonos Fund, O.K.?
 

I like the idea of starting a fund to help Rich get a camera, or some token of our appreciation. He has really done some wonderful service to higher education by maintaining this blog.

Is there a way to set up some way to anonymously donate to this fund?
 

So long Richard. It's been fun to write. I've enjoyed reading.

I must depart now. I go confidently in the direction of my dreams to live the life I have imagined in a much smaller town. With Thoreay too hope that, as I simplify my life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

Won't be reading this blog again, won't be writing. From a wall I'll be watching.
 

Could we get back to Professor Smith? I need to hear more about this hitherto invisible person.
 

"From a wall I'll be watching." ??????? That just is so creepy.
Does anyone else feel that Richard just had an ex-girlfriend go psycho on him on the blog? I'm probably wrong but what a weird posting....
 

Many FAS faculty are stunned. They have never heard of Smith. He may be a good person but according to his resume he has no experience or ties outside of computer science and the athletics committee. In the past scientist administrators (like Jeremy Knowles) at least led major departments and had many friends and interests across FAS.
 

"From a wall watching"...
either a fly or a bug.
 

Anon 9:42, while you are correct, Jeremy Knowles had much experience in Harvard's myriad committees, his predecessor, A. Michael Spence did not. In fact, he seems to have had even less experience than Smith.
https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/facultybios/biomain.asp?id=09972936
Let's give the guy a chance to start before we begin tearing him down.
 

"Widely known" often means "self-promoting egotist." Smith is definitely not the latter, which people sometimes confuse with the former.
 

"From a wall watching" is a variation on the second-last line of Tennyson's fragment, "The Eagle," which Standing Eagle has already told us is the name of his/her pseudonym:

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.


The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.


The allusion is somewhat creepy because the word "fall" suggests that the eagle is swooping down on his prey (though some readers find the final line more ambiguous than I do).

Fly well to your new perch, Standing Eagle (if it is indeed you who sent the message with the phrase "from a wall watching").

Judith Ryan
 

Judith,

Brilliant! Terrific detective work. But would Standing Eagle really not sign his sign-off, if indeed that is what it is?

Cheers,

Richard
 

Standing Eagle loves mysteries, so maybe s/he decided to see if we could solve this one.
Judith Ryan
Girl Detective
 

Sorry Judith, Eagle is not. Evidently not a Samuel F.B. Morse rendition, but no bird at all.

As I go to quieter surroundings, and may too write my Poems of Nature, I am reminded of another allusion to birds from a fellow graduate:

Light-winged Smoke! Icarian bird,
Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight,
Lark without song, and messenger of dawn,
Circling above the hamlets as thy nest;
Or else, departing dream, and shadowly form
Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts;
By night star-veiling, and by day
Darkening the light and blotting out the sun;
Go thou my incense upward from this hearth,
And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.
 

And then there is the great John Ashcroft work:

"Let the eagle soar,

Like she's never soared before.

From rocky coast to golden shore,

Let the mighty eagle soar.

Soar with healing in her wings,

As the land beneath her sings:

'Only god, no other kings.'

This country's far too young to die.

We've still got a lot of climbing to do,

And we can make it if we try.

Built by toils and struggles

God has led us through."

Uncut version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M789kRvbziM
 

Oh, wow, that creepazoid (8:50 yesterday) might indeed have been invoking me. Nice sleuthing, Prof. Ryan! But wrong.

No, I'm not going anywhere (and I do always sign my name). I might start my own blog sometime but I'm certainly not going to be penning valedictory creep-you-out-ologues.

(I have no particular opinion to express on the FAS Dean appointment.)

And yes, Professor, by the way, I think all the evidence supports your reading of 'falls' in that last line. Quite unambiguous in the end, unlike Hopkins's bird-verb 'Buckle!'

Will be swooping some more if there's swoopability in what Richard says on here. At the moment I'm focused on finishing out the year's duties... and on that weasel Bradley Schlozman (string 'im up, I say!).

SE


PS. Prof. R., I know that this kind of attribution-puzzle is up your alley (the curious can learn why on the Dept. website: "Her interest in literary pastiche and literary imposters led her to co-organize an interdisciplinary conference on 'Forgery,' held in 2001 at the Harvard Humanities Center"). But what makes you say *I* love mysteries?
 

Perhaps 8:50 is an imposter. He or she does seem to be using the poem by Thoreau as some kind of smoke-screen. Obviously, the "Icarian bird" falls very differently from Tennyson's eagle.

Sorry if I thought you love mysteries, Standing Eagle. I did have the impression, though, that you enjoy your moniker, which happens to keep your identity concealed (at least from me). Glad to hear you will still be around.
Judith Ryan