Today I ran into a friend at the farmer's market who had independently come up with an idea my Dad had thought of a couple years ago. The idea is to set up an office for retired faculty. This would be particularly apropos in Amherst, where more than a hundred faculty just took an early retirement option from the state that wanted to cut payrolls. With the Five Colleges in the area, there would be a reasonable chance of getting enough faculty to make it work. Phil and I exchanged a few emails discussing the kind of resources you'd want to have available. Some faculty might want an office or a cube permanently (or for weeks or months at a time), but I think that a fair number would like a cube they could reserve and drop-in to use. We could set up some sunrays, or something like that, that would let people preserve their session and resume it in whichever cube they got next time. We could set up a host with email and web space. We could run cat-5 out to the offices and set up a little 802.11b network. We could get a multi-purpose scanner, fax-machine, and laser printer. We could have a little lunch room and conference room. It would be great! Maybe it could be set up as a coop: get 50 or 60 people to provide the capital for setting it up and running it for themselves, then go after new clients to make it self sustaining and provide a return on investment. It has possibilities...
My friend suggested setting it up in a mall, where it would be on the busline and there would be lots of parking. Phil thought he would rather have it downtown, about a block of main street, with ready access to good restaurants and coffee shops. I agreed, but suggested it would be nice to have a courtyard with tortoises. (This is a reference to the building that our Dad used to work in, which had an interior courtyard where, at one time, several fairly large tortoises were kept.) Phil thought this would be extravagant, except possible for Istvan Bierfaristo, and wrote a haiku to prove it:
Korto, testudoj Jen plej bona kabinet' Tute paginda!
I modified it by one letter to make it into a fi-hajko and replied complementing him on writing the best fi-hajko ever. He hasn't replied to that yet. (And probably won't). If you can guess what I did to produce a fi-hajko, send me an email, and, if you're first one who's right, I'll give you a free Istvan Bierfaristo mug or t-shirt.
I've been reading The First American Revolution, a book which describes the events that preceded the shot heard round the world. I was completely unaware of the fact that in 1774 the people of Massachusetts peacefully rose against the British act that usurped the rights of largely self-government that had been enjoyed by the colonists since the Charter of 1641. The act caused the governor and judiciary to be no longer accountable to the people and required that all town meeting topics be approved by the governor. When the act was promulgated, the townspeople took it upon themselves to prevent any action being taken under the act. They gathered peacefully (mostly) and required everyone who had been appointed by the governor under the act to either recant and resign or flee to Boston, where British troops could protect them. They took over the court buildings and refused to allow the justices to enter. Its fascinating stuff, particularly because all of the places are around here: Worcester, Northampton, Hadley, Pittsfield, Great Barrington, etc. I'm encouraging Alisa to read it because, as a town meeting member, I think she should be aware of the critical role that local governmental organization played in securing democracy for our people. (Of course, in Cambodia it was just a quick ticket to the firing squad, but still, you have to focus on the bright side).