Death Is Not Option
By Who would you rather have to spend 15 minutes with, Helaine Olen or “Ivan Tribble”?
Obviously, this is a choice too horrifying to have to contemplate, like having to choose between spending the next year with the films of Joel Schumacher or Tom Shadyac. The best you can say for Tribble is that he at least seems to make no bones about being a pompous, irrational reactionary–his sniggering about “geeks” and body piercings and how someone with other interests may leave you is quite unapologetic–while (as Amanda also notes) Olen tries to pretend that she’s actually really open-minded and progressive, when Ivan Tribble’s sensibility lurks about a millimeter below the surface. On the other hand, I think spending time with Tribble would hit too close to home to be endurable. Since I work in the same profession, having to spend time with someone who would be far better suited to being a manager of a TGI Friday’s than running an academic search would be just too depressing to deal with. Anyway, I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather have to sit through the film version of The Phantom of the Opera than do either….