New Faculty

There is a knock on my office door.  

"예에에~~~?"  I answer melodically.

The door opens and there is Evil Mark, down from fourth floor, with a woman.  

"The is Kim Blah-blah, our new member," he says with his usual thinly disguised disdain.  

This happens in our building.  When new faculty joins another department in the building, someone takes them around all the departments of the building and introduces them to all the present faculty.

This also happens in our building, people refer to faculty in their department as members. Possibly the phenomenon is more widely spread.  

"New member?" I ask, "Member of what? Team evil?"

"She has just joined the Statistics Department. We have not yet decided if she will have a nemesis."

"Well," I say to Blah-blah, "Congratulations on your appointment.  I hope to see you around often."  This is all I am supposed to say.  They have 30 other offices to visit.

As they leave, I mention to Evil Mark "Our recent hire, Lee, doesn't have a nemisis yet. Perhaps she could be Evil Lee."

He shoots back, "There is talk of Lee being Evil Kim."

This is just Evil Mark trying to get under my skin.  We can choose nemeses, but who is evil and who is good is not up to us.  It is a question of values and morals.  It is well known that Mathematicians are among the most moral people on earth, while Statisticians are base, ill-mannered, and  duplicitous.