dispatch from ann arbor

(dale, who drove me from the detroit airport to ann arbor)

I am still someone who feels a non-teensy thrill whenever he arrives at an airport and a professional driver is there, in a coat and tie, holding up a sign for me (just like I was someone important!). Presumably, if I stay in this business long enough, one of two things will happen:

1. I will experience this a sufficient number of times that I will no longer feel this thrill.

2. I will phase out of ever getting invitations anywhere that would ever go to the trouble or expense of arranging this for me.

Either eventuality I would prefer to postpone as long as possible.

It was snowing a bit on the drive from Detroit to Ann Arbor, my first experience with snow this season (talk about another eventuality I was preferring to postpone as long as possible). It's quite cold here. Still, as we were driving into town, I was reminded of how much I adore Ann Arbor. (I've been here several different summers as part of their social science stats camp.) Ann Arbor is a lot like Madison, only a bit smaller, a bit less crunchy, a bit more cosmopolitan, a bit less pretty, a bit better restaurants.