Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Fame?

"Being a relatively well known classicist is one thing, but to most of the world it is something akin to being a relatively well known beekeeper (if that's not unfair to beekeepers)."
-Mary Beard, reflecting on a radio announcer referring to her as a physicist

Part of the fun of going to conferences is playing Spot the Scholar. It's rather entertaining to peer discreetly at the name tag of the person nearby looking at the book tables, or buying coffee, or attending your session. At my very first conference, a very well known archaeologist came up to me and asked if I knew where the ladies room was. I did, so I stammeringly pointed it out to her. She will never remember that, but I always will.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, I know who Mary Beard is! But I guess I've got one foot in the world of classical archaeology.

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