Quotation of the Day
Perhaps you’re thinking I’m going to put something up from Sarah Palin’s deliriously incoherent resignation speech. Nope. Instead, I’ll offer up this delicious exchange between two characters — the department chair and his closest ally talking in the middle of a vicious bout of university in-fighting — in Richard Russo’s wonderful *Straight Man*, which accomplishes the impressive task of being a spot-on satire of academia that is hilarious (predictable) and at times quite moving (not so predictable). The part about the “paranoid fantasies” is what I love, but I want to include more just to appreciate Russo’s excellent ear for dialogue.
When she’s gone, Teddy says, “You’re trying to get recalled, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been trying all year, pal,” I say, thumbing through my mail. “It’s about time somebody noticed.”
When I suffer another sneezing fit, Teddy takes pity on me. “Okay,” he says. “Sunday afternoon. Council of war. And we’re going to be way behind. Finny’s been on the phone all afternoon. He’s got everybody all worked up.”
“They believe Finny?” I say. It’s a silly question, of course. My colleagues are academics. They indulge paranoid fantasies for the same reason dogs lick their own testicles. “They believe a man who’d kill a duck for them would turn around and sell them out?”
That dogs/testicles line just kills me.
