I had a string of meetings today, the first day back after almost a week

off for snow. Since travel was still disrupted in many parts of the city,

I agreed to meet one out-of-town colleague at her previous appointment

in Silver Spring; we then conducted most of our business on a campus shuttle

bus to College Park. Two of the meetings were with graduate students who

are just starting on major research projects. I tried to give them lots

of research ideas so that they wouldn’t be overly influenced by any particular

idea I suggested. In one case—again because of travel disruptions—we

conducted most of the meeting standing on top of a pile of plowed snow

in a median strip in a residential neighborhood near the College Park

Metro.