big black books

i know that most public interest is focused in the contents of little black books, but for me the big black book that is the finished, polished and nicely bound PhD thesis is hard to top. today in the mail i got a copy of one of my former students' thesis: with lots of nice gushy things about how much she missed me--as a person and not just as an academic. and that was really nice. sometimes it very helpful to remember that to some people i'm a person and not just a lecturer, a mum or a cleaner. not that all those jobs aren't worthy and fun, but personhood is kinda nice. congrats Jenny, your thesis is great and, like i've always said, you're a uni super star