Curses, Foiled Again!

My clever plan to get lots of work done this summer--by losing my cell phone, seizing Laura D'Andrea Tyson's unused office Room 203 at BRIE's 2234 Piedmont Avenue, and hiding out there so that nobody could find me--has gone badly awry.

Yes, it is true that very few people from the Economics Department know where I am.

But my time is being absorbed by a large number of very smart and interesting people I haven't heard from in a while: people like Derek Bok, Richard Layard, Louis Gerstner, Michael Lind, Ray Kurzweil, George Soros, Gordon Brown, Frances Cairncross, John Seely Brown, Bill Emmott, and Amartya Sen.

They are all across the room clamoring for my attention, encased as they are in rows and rows of these small virtual-reality boxes.

You see, when Professor Tyson moved her base of operations back to her Business School office, she left too many of her books behind. So I am now distracted not just by my books, but by hers as well.

This is very dangerous. This is very distracting. I try to resist by repeating over and over again Rudi Dornbusch's mantra: "They don't pay me to read the literature; they pay me to write the literature."

But it is not working--not very well, at least.

Ah. Here is Sherry Gleid's Chronic Condition...

I am doomed.

Comments

[Ken Houghton]

I would offer to send my relatives over from Albany (CA) to borrow the Glied, but that would help neither of us. (Though as doctors, they might be interested themselves.)

[Robert Waldmann]

Hey I lost my cell phone too. Great minds go on the blink alike.

[Robert Waldmann]

Hey I lost my cell phone too. Great minds go on the blink alike.

[Former DeLong Student]

And those noisy protesters across the street? How you handle these distractions is a mystery not even the sharpest Econ 113 student can determine.

[save_the_rustbelt]

When I take long drives for business or family I try to stop frequently to stretch my bad back.

I know every book store in the midwest. Problem is, I end up being seduced and buying the books. A free stash would be a real treat.

I do get lots of free books, but accounting and tax books are tough to digest in the summer.

[Peter K.]

That's crazy. I've long been a fan of Tyson. Didn't she advise Hillary during the primary? Hopefully an Obama administration would ask her to come back and work for the government at an important position.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

I thought you were at Tahoe enjoying free natural wonders. I just drove past the LD'AT office on the way to grandma's - you're facing police, hippie microbuses, belligerent videographers, cranes, portable barriers and little clumps of protesters having teach-ins. What a circus. How can you get anything done?

I broke my cel phone and left it that way for six months (took me 3 to cancel the service). Nothing distracts me as much as the internet. Must. Get. Back. To. Work. The great Arab-American novel, draft 2, has a deadline of August 25 (kids' first day back at school, somewhat arbitrary).

[Roger Bigod]

You could get deprogramming for your impulse-control problem, but it's not without risk. Overtreatment sometimes results in a taste for NASCAR and a tendency to vote Republican.

[curious george]

seizing Laura D'Andrea Tyson's unused office Room 203 at BRIE's 2234 Piedmont Avenue, and hiding out there so that nobody could find me

uh ... doesn't everyone know where to find you now?