Fifteen Minutes: Editor's Note: Version 4
About a year ago, I obsessed over an article about professors. The piece would have all the stuff you secretly want to know--the cars they drive, the golf clubs in the trunk, the government research that pays for it all. Who are these people, where do they live, where do they go for Thai? I needed to know these things and so did FM readers. The piece would demonstrate true FM investigative reporting. Heck, we'd tail them if we had to, cribbing notes with every turn of the burled walnut steering wheel. Yesiree, stalking professors.
Well, that concept didn't fly. Professor Scrutiny Version One, in magazine jargon, was killed.
Professor Scrutiny Version Two suggested a more politicized approach. Working title: "My Professor's Totally Loaded! Faculty Salaries at Harvard." We'd dig and dig until we discovered who was making the big bucks and which professors got offers from Harvard they just couldn't refuse--a new Volvo, sabbatical every other year, a mega-office. Could have been great but without much enthusiasm from the FM editorial staff the story pooped out--dead again.
A couple of months ago, the Professor Scrut rose from the grave. Version Three working title: "Professor Houses." We'd publish FM Architectural Digest with luscious photography of the homes of Harvard's most esteemed faculty. They'd welcome us into their Victorian mansions or humble bungalows and give us the full tour from home-office, to library, to master bedroom. We'd wait for the "golden hour" around dinner time to shoot the grounds and the photos would be worthy of Better Homes and Gardens. But all 40 of Harvard's big wigs said no--"no way"-- except Harvey Mansfield who said yes and Henry Louis Gates Jr. who simply directed us to this month's House & Garden magazine which features his home. And so Professor Scrut Version Three, with no takers, flatlined.
The story wasn't dead. Not yet. FM's associate editors and a team of all-star writers rushed in with Professor Scrut Version Four, working title "Doing Professor things with Professors." The idea: shop with the shopping professor, cook with the cooking professor, bowl with the bowling professor; whatever. Thanks to six friendly faculty members, the story came back to life--with some creative twists--giving this week's issue its whopping ten-page Scrutiny (starting page 8).
If the cover story leaves you with a hunger for burled walnut, turn immediately to page four where German sports cars and Harvard's parking lottery process collide head-on. Or, for those readers interested in reliving Halloween revelry, this week's As It Were photos bear witness to the Adams House Masquerade (page 22).
And finally, two announcements. Number one: In observation of Veteran's day and our mounting misery, FM will not publish next Thursday; we're saving our batteries for Harvard/Yale weekend, only a fortnight away. Announcement number two: FMs executive staff are retiring in about a month and there are a few openings. Interested candidates should begin comping the magazine immediately.