Our current director is stepping down this August to resume full-time teaching. He’s been in his office 12 years, so I guess he’s paid his dues. Kudos and good luck to him. So our department is currently seeking a new director. We’re lucky to have three excellent candidates, all of whom are well qualified for the position. One of the candidates I had met last year when she came to speak here. I was quite impressed by her and until today, she was my leading choice for the position. But today we met with one of the other candidates. He was also quite impressive, so now I have no clear choice; and there’s still the candidate I’ve met and one more to speak with. This is not going to be easy. But it does exemplify the utter importance of making a good first impression. The gentleman we met today was easy going, attentive, knowledgeable, and had a great grasp of what he was getting in to, at least as far as the job is concerned. He’s coming from MIT in Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston, so I’ve been wondering if he’s truly prepared for the culture shock of living amid the corn, but I guess he’ll learn the hard way like everyone else.