I’m at MiT6 this weekend, which is starting up as I type; if you’re here, be sure to say hello. I’ll post more from the conference as things unfold.

Actually, I mean that in a more positive sense than it no doubt sounds. I tried a few other variants (Mouthing Off Pays Off!) but none were quite as satisfying. And it’s possible that the ambiguity is intentional.

In any event, the payoff: I got a letter in my mailbox from the MLA today, not one of the mass-produced kind but clearly a more personalized type thing. I’m the chair of the discussion group on Literature and Media this year, and so I assumed that the letter had to do with that. Instead, the letter began:

Dear Professor Fitzpatrick:

It is my pleasure to inform you that at its recent meeting the MLA Executive Council appointed you to the Program Committee for a three-year term, from 1 July 2009 through 30 June 201012.

I’ve got to assume that the Executive Council is at least not wholly unaware of my recent mouthings-off on MLA-type issues, so I’m taking this as a good sign, and as an opportunity to have some influence on the future of the field.

I’m extremely excited about the possibility — perhaps more excited than I should be. As a friend of mine has been known to say, it’s alarming how much good news in academia comes with a big pile of work attached…

Just utterly tyrannized by the to do list. Once the grading and the thesis drafts are out of the way, there are classes to prepare for, a grant proposal to be written, and a 15-minute presentation to be carved out of a 40-page chapter. Plus a journal peer review, a dissertation report, and a tenure review. And then there’s that little book project of mine with the looming deadline.

All of which is to say that once some of the small urgent stuff gets out of my way, and I can pay attention to the bigger important stuff, I’ll hope to have thoughts worth writing about, not to mention a moment in which to write them.