Having only been a college professor for a single year, I'm a newbie when it comes to dealing with "others," people outside the academy. But I've already had some odd comments from people. "Boy, that must be nice to have the summer off." "What do you do with the other 20 hours of the day you're not teaching class?" "Oh, you never grew up, huh?" "So, you're the one up in the ivory tower!"
The first time I got hit with the "summer off" comment, I tried to explain that I wrote two articles, did research in Italy for a book, and taught a second summer session class that took up 5 hours a day for 5 days a week.
What do "others" think of your academic career? What kind of insults do you hear, and what do you reply with?
