I thought that I was hallucinating, or whatever you call it when you hear things that aren't there. But after standing still for a few seconds wondering about the sound that I had heard, I became distracted by the view of my shoelace resting on the concrete steps. I bent down to tie my shoe and thought about how Nicholson Baker had written a book that mostly took place while someone was bending over tying his shoelace. I was tempting fate given that the laces were kind of frayed, but I wanted that left shoe snug and I was willing to deal with the consequences if the lace broke. After all, I had a problem set due and wasn't going to be going anywhere, anyway. Given the frequency and the zeal with which our friends on the cleaning staff vacuum our floors, who needs shoes anyway? If the lace broke and my shoe fell off, I could just leave it where it lay. But as I was bent over contemplating all of this, I saw her out of the corner of my eye. A girl scout. She couldn't have been more than ten years old and she was struggling to hold back her tears long enough to be able to talk.
``P.P.P.Please sir. Can you help me?''
Help her? I have things to do. I have research. I have a problem set. I have a shoelace that is dangerously near failure.
``Sure,'' I said, ``What can I do?''
``I don't know. You see, for years the AI lab has been having a Girl Scout Benefit on the 7th floor every Friday. But recently, this hasn't been happening. We scouts have fallen on hard times and we're scared. Can you help us?''
``I'll see what I can do, kid.''
And as I walked away, I realized that there's a time and place for theses and research and problem sets, but there's also a time and place for GSB.
GSB. 7ai. See you there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neil Weisenfeld | http://www.mit.edu/~weisen | mailto:weisen@mit.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- MIT AI Lab / Harvard-MIT Div of Health Sci Tech | +1 (617) 253-8827