One problem about working here is that I don't have anything in common with my coworkers. My age puts me in a wide temporal gap between the student workers on one side and the upper-middle-aged professional staff on the other. Religiously I don't fit in; everyone else is either Southern Baptist or liberal Presbyterian. No one shares my interest in middle-brow pop culture. Back here in technical services D.B. and L.L. talk about home decorating, dieting, and clothes; up at the desk D.W. and K.L. discuss comic books and Baptist theology. The only serious music fan among them is a strict devotée of Christian rock. Most are teetotallers so I haven't made any drinking buddies.

On Monday J.E., who was hired to replace M.D., begins work. He's in his late fifties and married, so it's not as if I'll be hanging out with him regularly. But from what I've heard he's Episcopalian and a movie fan, so perhaps we'll have at least some basis for conversation, although a taste for gin and tonic might be too much to hope for.