Three MLA observations, one of them tangential

1. For some reason, all attendees follow a dress code largely appropriate to crows.  (I'm no exception to this rule, I hasten to add: I'm typing this entry in a black suit with a red shirt.  The Stendhal look, as it were...)  Wouldn't it be fun if someone were to show up in, oh, blazing orange?
2. Now that I know that I'm occupying a room with a dysfunctional alarm clock--a somewhat nervewracking discovery when you have to be interviewing someone in a different part of the hotel thirty minutes after you wake up--I feel somewhat more sympathy for my tardy undergraduates.  Somewhat, mind you.
3. I'm reading Balzac's Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes (a.k.a. A Harlot High and Low, in the Penguin translation), and yesterday had a flash of inspiration: when people say "Dickensian," they really mean "Balzacian" (or Balzacean?). 

Comments

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

So are you staying in the Marriott? We're getting the band, uh, "back" together tomorrow, and you should certainly join us for brunch or something.

Also, there's nothing wrong with wearing all black...esp. when you travel. I brought three black sweaters; three pairs of black slacks; and colorful button up shirts to go underneath the sweaters. But black simplifies everything for the traveler, esp. if he or she is supposed to look elegant.

[anonymous]

Can we mention that 90% of the participants seem to have the same glasses?