Happiness is a warm cappuccino

Harvard now has a "fun czar" and the Harvard blogosphere is on the case. Here at Chicago, we're supposed to assume that everyone--including, no, especially, Harvard students--is having more fun than we are, though personally, I'm skeptical.

Our administration tried to bring us some fun a few years back, before I came here, though, so I can't say whether things are more fun here now than they once were. But I do know that attempts to make this place more fun tend to get folks pretty angry--the addition of a Starbucks to our campus bookstore caused one alum to write a letter to the U of C Magazine, saying, "Starbucks' foamy milk and fancy flavors are simply clutter that, I suspect, interfere with the kind of sharp-minded analysis for which U of C denizens are justly famed." I can see complaining about Ratner (huge new gym), or even Bartlett (huge new dining hall), but foamy milk? It's not as if drinking cappuccinos and thinking critically are mutually exclusive. In fact, I believe I've had assignments that could only be completed with the aid of an espresso-based beverage of one kind or another...