Ink and Valium

Poking around assorted blogs, I saw a link to this one. Only I mis-read it. Now I want to have a blog called "Ink and Valium."

I grew up in a college town. When I was a teenager, I sometimes babysat for a family whose paterfamilias worked at the local Uni. Lots of people I knew worked there, so I didn't pay much attention . . . until I was in graduate school, and Mr. Paterfamilias turned out to be a Very Fancypants Scholar. Like, not just Mr. Paterfamilias, but MR. PATERFAMILIAS. You've heard of him. And I remembered discovering that his medicine cabinet harbored his prescription for Valium.

Of course, it could have been for back pain or something. But I can't tell you how much it has consoled me, over the years, to believe that Very Fancypants Scholars suffer from anxiety and pre-tenure nerves like all the rest of us.

That's my Ink and Valium story.