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Wednesday, January 19, 2005
GETTING TO YES
The Lawrence Summers business has now become an intellectual tsunami and an institutional firestorm, by turns drowning and scalding Harvard’s beleaguered leader. In a desperate bid to save himself, Summers conferred last Tuesday with a group of high-powered women academics. “I want to listen, mainly,” he said at the time. “And, frankly, I want to see if there’s a way I can get myself out of this mess.” After a three-hour conference, both parties emerged with a plan by which the divisions could be healed and Summers could maintain his stewardship of the university. Summers and a spokeswoman for the group took turns at the microphone in a hastily called joint press conference, during which they described in detail a purification ceremony that will take place on Saturday in the room where Summers’s comments were uttered. “What I’m going to do,” Summers said, “is sprinkle salt over the doorway and windowsills of the room. I’ll then light a white candle. Before the ceremony, I will have prepared a fireproof bowl with garlic, peppermint, clove, thistle, sweet grass, and sage in it. I’ll light it so it smolders, and I’ll then recite the following spell repeatedly: In the name of the Eternal Lady and Lord I bid thee part. I consecrate and clear this space. Let nothing but joy linger here. Once everything’s finished burning, I’ll go outside with the ash and sprinkle it over the earth, our Mother.” |