Wined and Dined, Sort Of

Maybe I really should say I was "beaned." At any rate, I'm being plied with gifts from those wishing to sway my vote for a new department-wide textbook this spring.

I'm on the committee charged with deciding on a new book for my university's freshman writing program, which means about 2,000 sales for some lucky publisher. We'll make our choice soon, so we're receiving lots of calls, emails, and handwritten notes from hungry publisher's reps. And yesterday, when I went to my mailbox, I found a Starbuck's gift card, courtesy of McGraw Hill.

Before I went to graduate school, I was a publisher's rep myself, and a few times I took committees out for dinner, events that tapped my employer for over $200, sometimes. No one has offered us anything like that, but I'm holding out hope.

Actually, I should let on to the reps that I fly fish...maybe I could get a new sinking line or at least a dozen flies out of this business.

And students wonder why their textbooks cost so much...