Shots In The Dark
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
  The Globe on James Watson
James Watson's book, Avoid Boring People, gets a nice write-up in the Boston Globe...

When Watson begins teaching at Harvard in 1956, the start of a brilliant career as an academic, readers get an entertaining front-row seat on this glitzy world that runs on brains, gossip, and (sometimes) backbiting. Watson, for example, can barely contain his disdain for onetime Harvard President Nathan Pusey. After criticizing Pusey's heavy-handed reaction to student protests at Harvard in 1968, Watson notes that Pusey's face hinted at his status as an intellectual lightweight: "Pusey had a wrinkleless face that reinforced the impression of a life devoid of pain or pleasure." Watson also criticizes former Harvard president Lawrence Summers for his social tactlessness.

Watson, of course, isn't exactly tactful himself. But in a time when Harvard officials toss around Orwellian-lite phrases such as "Beverage Authorization Team," it is refreshing to hear someone speak his mind without apology.
  10:25 AM  
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