April 21,2020

Cautious grocery shopping. Arriving at the ABC too early to restock the liquor cabinet. Realizing that it is possible that I will never stand before a classroom again. In some ways this annihilation is better than the build-up to that ceremonial “last day,” which, being valorized in my imagination, was bound to be disappointing. Thoughts of academia led me to think of my old wonderful professor, Earl Wasserman, at JHU.  His death in my second semester sealed my fate there. Early accounts of his life revealed the most astonishing and thorough-going anti-Semitism. He was rejected for employment because the department already had a Jew. He was recommended for employment even though he was a Jew, because he wasn’t a cartoon Yid. This was after the War. Was it just Baltimore? Was it just JHU?  Hard to imagine this in a time when I was alive. In any case, I realize it is Wasserman and John Shaw after whom I modeled my teaching. I hope that is a scintilla of immortality.