Those Boring, Boring Librarians

We're having a minor controversy here in Atlanta over the treatment of a historian who was in town for the American Historial Association conference and arrested for jaywalking. The historian claims he was roughed up by an off duty police officer monitoring the street in a hotel district where the convention took place. The officer says the historian was beligerent. Either way, the historian spent several hours in jail which is pretty absurd. But at least he didn't get shot.

So what is the lead sentence in the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial about the incident today?

Other than librarians, it's hard to imagine a less rambunctious group than historians.

If any of the members of the AJC editorial board ever happen to run across this post, I would invite you to visit a library conference sometime. Or at least browse the IL2006 tag on Flickr. And it's not hard to picture a bunch of historians in the hotel bar at 1am discussing the finer points of the Ottoman Empire either.

Maybe a librarians and historians VS editorial writers rambunctiousness contest is in order. I wouldn't want to go up against a group of beat reporters but I'm pretty sure editorial writers are soft from their cushy desk jobs. And we have Michelle on our team.

There's a video of an interview with the jaywalker on YourTube too. Who says historians live in the past!