So I was doing what all the cool kids are up to these days and reading 70 pages on educational policy in Georgia. As it turns out, The Atlanta Public School Agreement of 1973 is not as page-turny as you might think.
And then, two thirds into the article, I got to the Tootsie Roll center of the Tootsie Pop:
"The plaintiffs initially insisted that there had to be enough busing to raise the percentage of black students in every school to at least 50 percent. The Board of Education negotiators refused to budge. Back and forth the discussion went, with no one willing to yield on the point of principle and everyone eager to explain why he or she was absolutely right.
As the evening grew later, the talkers grew hungrier. At 9:15 p.m., they sent out for several buckets of fried chicken and a crate of Pepsi Cola. Their appetites were obviously as ravenous as their capacity for talk was great. Only an hour later, they sent out for more buckets of chicken and another crate of Pepsi. The meeting lasted until about 12:30 a.m., but they still had not reached an agreement on the question of student desegregation. They had met, talked, munched chicken, and guzzled Pepsi for seven and one-half hours with nothing to show for it. "
I don't know if Joel L. Fleishman had me in mind when he wrote his article, but I think I speak for all of academia/pseudo-academia/Carleton College when I say that I've never been so rewarded for doing late-night political science readings.
