On arriving in graduate school I find that my brother has been there for a year already. My thesis proposal is due immediately and I ask him if he has any ideas. He tells me that as a philsopher he has been trained to think precisely and that he has many ideas. He asks me if I have any ideas. Later, I find that my friend Sheldon Reid has been appointed Vice Provost of the University of Pittsburgh. He is still a very tall black man.