PROFESSOR 007: The James Bond of Columbia Law?

Columbia University Law’s website calls Philip Bobbitt “One of the nation’s leading constitutional theorists.” The New York Observer says he’s “a former member of the Carter, Bush I and Clinton administrations and an adviser to foreign heads of state”. But here at Nuts in NY we’re struck by the Cold War trappings: the anachronistic black & white portraits on his book covers… the anecdotes about his uncle LBJ… the scotch and soda and cigars.

Philip Bobbitt

Described as an expert on international security and strategy, Philip Bobbitt’s books have been read by presidential candidates McCain and Obama, and endorsed by Kissinger and Tony Blair.

“Most students see him as a dedicated teacher who happens to lead an impossibly cultured and glamorous life,” the Observer says. “He can blow smoke rings, and sponsors a national poetry prize in honor of his late mother.” And, he “rotates seasonally among his homes, and can’t shake his habit of a nightly cigar and scotch-and-soda.”

According to a teaching assistant for his classes, Bobbitt “teaches class on Monday and Tuesday and flies around the world solving the world’s problems Wednesday through Sunday.” Another says, “His mannerisms just kind of ooze a James Bondian kind of quality.”

As for us, we’re not sure about any “matinee-idol looks”, as abovethelaw.com puts it. To us Bobbitt looks more like 007 author Ian Fleming than any incarnation of his Bond character:

James Bond author Ian Fleming

Anyway, given a character like Bobbitt, we can’t resist taking a look at some reactions from the comments section at abovethelaw.com:

Comment #4:

He’s such a tool. He drives this classic convertible and hops over the door. Also, every single book he’s ever written has some…J. Crew type pose…

Comment #12:

Bobbitt’s house had paintings of naked people on the bathroom wall. Maybe it was supposed to be cultured, but I found it just gross.

Comment #24:

I thought his wife chopped his penis off and threw it out the window.

Comment #32:

So does the guy sleep with his students? …it would be very Bond-esque of him to have a new “Bobbitt girl” every year.

Source: NY Observer via Above the Law
Photo credits: via New York Observer; Horst Tappe/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, via Media Bistro

© 2008 NutsInNY.com

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Keep Entertaining Us, Oh Crazy Hyped Up Girl!

The buzz around the watercooler here at Nuts In NY Plaza today has been this report filed by Ashley Tiffany-Amber yesterday. Just the kind of wackiness that gets folks here talking, some fine nut gathering.

Ashley writes:

I am a graduate student at New York University… In one class, there is a crazy girl. She talks so much. Every class… she just sounds a bit hyped up on coffee. Or speed. Everything she says is frantic, complete with hand gestures and bobbing (in and out of her seat). She comes off as oddly excited and inquisitive…

Remember in high school when taking standardized tests? Students would always ask about how to fill in bubbles? Even though, for the most part, it is self-explanatory? She asks questions like that. And then asks for oh-so-much clarification. On everything…

The teacher…listens politely and is neither dismissive nor, you know, interested in what she is saying. She hasn’t, as of yet, been so irritating that students hate her because while she sounds moderately insane, she limits herself to 1-2 bursts per class… Either people really don’t mind, or they are polite enough not to snicker when she speaks. I think it is a little of both. Until last class…

Professor was explaining something, using an example, but not saying who’s paper it was in order to be polite. Crazy girl started asking questions. Then said to us, “Just so you know, it’s my paper he’s talking about.”

To which our professor responds, “I didn’t want to embarrass you.”

Crazy assures him, “You’re not embarrassing me,” and continues, while the student next to me whispers, “No, she is doing fine on her own.”

Crazy continues to argue that her paper was clear, etc., etc., and “I think you should read it again,” offering her assignment back to the teacher.

At the end of her frenzied protest, she apologized to the class, as she was taking up our time with her individual concern. However, I gathered from the class’s general reaction to her that we all thought what she did was very much worth our time with its entertainment value…

Thanks to Ashley for the keen reportage, for acting as our eyes and ears at NYU, and for finding such a perfect nut!

Read more about nutty students, ummm-kay? Or maybe there’s a perfect nut you know that you’d like to share with the rest of the class??

© 2008 NutsInNY.com

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