Dr. Barrett could always be relied on to block anything the faculty senate tried to vote on, whether by ceaseless questioning, filibustering, or endless motions for amendment. Sam often remarked, and I was inclined to agree, that the old bag treated the meetings as her own private airing of grievances. She wasn’t so much participating as holding court.

That attitude had earned her the moniker of “Princess Senatus,” among the other senators which in the grand old tradition of academic puns wasn’t understandable to anyone without a PhD in something or other. Sam thought it was the funniest thing in the world, and was always trying to explain it to his undergraduates:

“See, it’s a pun. Augustus was the “Princeps Senatus,” the First Man of the Senate, and the word senator actually comes from the word for old man, so we’re really calling her the old man princess!”

In response, the students would try to text from behind their schoolbooks, and I can’t say I blamed them.