I am reminded again lately of how much Paul Fjelstad was the teacher who made the deepest impact on me, even though he led me personally in very few studies. He was my teacher in the freshman seminar in the fall of 1969.
On the first registration we did that fall I arrived in the big gymnasium and found the Paracollege table. Snootiness has always been easy for me and it was on that day too. I am embarrassed to remember that the first thing I said when I arrived at the table and saw papers all over it was, "Is there no order here?" Paul, the only teacher there, said, "Well, I guess there is none that you can see." Here I am now fifty years later still learning from that ten-word lesson he gave me that day. I still aspire to his creativity and alertness.
I am reminded of him when I read the paper yesterday. In it, a public safety officer was warning people to stay home if they could during the blizzard. His exact words were: "If you have to go out, then I would try to stay home." Now most people with no exposure to Paul would have glided right by that sentence. Most people go with their best guess at what someone else says. Not me. I spent way too much time near Paul to ignore that sentence.
Now I am not the kind of crank that seizes on opportunity like this one to bemoan the state of the language or how careless people are. (Internally I flinch, but I have long ago learned that no one likes or learns from being corrected. I don't do it. Anymore.) Instead, I am usually amused. I try to imagine what the person meant if he said exactly what he meant, exactly and correctly.
Anyway, I am reminded of Paul.
Professor Fjelstad