Two Cultures At Meetings  For some reason, I was forwarded a
link to an old article from the Chronicle of Higher Education
about how to give a scholarly lecture. (It’s a time-limited
email link, so look quickly.)  As with roughly 90% of all
Chronicle pieces, it’s aimed squarely at the humanities types.
The advice given thus ranges from pretty good advice even for
science types (“Remember that people who show up to hear you
want to believe that you’re smart, interesting, and a good
speaker”; “Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Then stop”; and
“Prepare yourself in advance for questions.”) to horror-show
glimpses of how the other half does conferences (“Even if your
talk is only 20 minutes, you could be seated on a dais for a
three-hour panel”; “Don’t read aloud subheads or part numbers
that may divide up bits of your lecture”). I think I can safely
say that I’d rather hit myself in the head with a brick than sit
through a three-hour session in which people read prepared
papers aloud. Of course, most English faculty