McCarthy is not a Harvard professor -- he's a lecturer with a temporary position in Hist and Lit. Note that the bio to which you link contains obfuscation, saying he's "published two books", when actually, he's just edited them.

Rich, one of the weaknesses of Harvard Rules was making this corporal seem like a major general. Years later, please don't repeat the error.
 

5:49 PM, you make Tim McCarthy sound so small. Have you read his profile and his blog...what he does and how he thinks and what kind of a man he is? I remember the story of Tim McCarthy in Harvard Rules which was one of my favourite parts of the book. Now of course, there was major general Larry Summers...I remember him too and not just from Harvard Rules but from all the really outstanding contributions he made to Harvard, his less than stellar and equally profound contributions to humanity and the totally unselfish and humble way he has managed to look after himself since his "triumphant" exit from the world's most powerful university. If he's the major general and Tim McCarthy is the corporal, I'll take the corporal. And a pretty impressive corporal he is too. One of your weaknesses appears to be the ease with which you belittle...please don't repeat the error.

lmpaulsen
 

Right on Impaulsen, as always. Not a ladder appointment! Not a ladder appointment! cries 5:49. Tim is a friend of mine and good force to have around Harvard (for all I know you are both yourself 5:49!), amusing company and willing to spend a lot of energy and time on those in our midst and beyond who have been dealt a less good hand. And though I'm myself the very model of a modern major general, I more modestly sign off

Lt. Col. R. F. Thomas
 

A minor editorial point, 5:49: When I wrote about Tim in Harvard Rules, it was to emphasize the point that at Harvard, many of the University's most passionate, reform-minded citizens are, accordingly, among its least powerful. Tim's relative low place on the totem pole was actually part of the argument. And yet—as with lecturer Brian Palmer and with Cornel West, there were always quite a lot of students who seemed very much to want to hear what these people had to say.
 

5.49. I don't like egotists or self-promoters and that, to my mind, is what TPM is: breathtakingly so. I remember the walkout on the day the Iraq war began, and his mighty speech in the Yard filled with "him," about his students in Dorchester or Roxbury etc. He's someone who always seems to be quoted, always gets his fingers in; and so I'm wary if all of a sudden people are calling him "professor" (when he's not) or saying he's "published two books" (implying he's written rather than edited). "Totally humble," Impaulsen, I don't think so.