Reading Material

As a department, we subscribe to some journals that are circulated among the faculty members. Each journal has a checklist of faculty names and after you read the material, you check your name off and pass it on to someone else on the list. The way it actually works, however, is if you leave your office unattended journals sprout on your desk like end-of-summer zucchini. I had such a large pile of items-to-be-read on my desk the other day that I declared that I was going home for the rest of the day and would be getting caught up on my reading. The next morning, my name neatly checked off on each one, I followed the time-honored distribution method of sneaking them into other people's offices when they were out. Of course, by the time I got back to my desk, some unnamed department member had struck and I had more reading material waiting for me. I know we could just hand them off to each other like civilized persons, but I rather like the sporting element of the thing.