8/02/2006

Maryland Historical Society: pork barrel?

You know you're a geezer when you gawk dumbstruck at newsprint referring to salaried staff at an historical society.

When did this evil social development happen? The Maryland Historical Society has 60 of these exotic creatures haunting its hallways, according to this story. Call the Baltimore Zoo immediately!

The new director was recruited from South Carolina - another jawdropper for me. Are these people like education administrators, "Have Gun - Will Travel?" South Carolina, Maryland, hey: history is history. "Where" is just a state of mind...

Anyway, let me salue the new director for bluntness:
Emerson, who arrived on the job July 1, had been taking a hard look at the $1.2 million budget deficit reported in the society's most recent financial statement, from May, and realized that he was facing a sea of red ink.

"I had never seen anything like it," says Emerson, who came to Baltimore after four years as head of the South Carolina Historical Society. "Every year I was director there, we ended up in the black."
I remember black ink. Still use it occasionally. But what ever happened to the retirees puttering around musty archives in their spare time?