The University of Mississippi College of Law, Starkville, Mississippi

As a Mississippi law professor, one of the things that happens to me when I'm at one of those speed schmoozing gigs, i.e., academic conferences (and, BTW, no one has anything on Dan Markel when it comes to schmoozing) is that the following conversation inevitably occurs:

Random  Person (squinting at my mid-section to read my name tag):  Oh, hi. You're  Paul Secunda.  Nice to finally meet  you.  I see you're at Mississippi.  You're colleagues with Mike  McCann and Greg Bowman, right?

Me:   I know them and quite like them, but they are at a different law school in the     State of Mississippi, Mississippi College.  I am at Ole Miss Law School.

Random Person (confused now):   Ole Miss?  Isn't that really just Mississippi State?

Me (speaking without having to think):   Um....no, Mississippi State does not have a law school.  Ole Miss is the University of Mississippi.

Random Person (by now feigning interest):  So you're in Hattiesburg?

Me (ready to move on):  No, Oxford.  Near Memphis.  Southern Miss is in Hattiesburg.

Random Person (really ready to schmooze with someone else now):  Well, anyway, nice  meeting you.  Please say hello to Mike and Greg for me.

Now, I want to make clear from the outset that I have nothing against Mississippi College, a fine, private institution in Jackson, MS, and, in fact, I count many of their faculty among my friends.  The problem is simply this:  I don't teach there.

So to set the record straight for once and for all (and just in case anyone cares):  I am at the University of Mississippi School of Law (also called Ole Miss Law School), a public law school  in Oxford, MS (about an hour south of Memphis, TN and two hours north of Jackson).   And I generally do not sit on white rocking chairs on verandas sipping mint juleps (though I'm not saying I never have).

Finally, I am not colleagues with fellow bloggers Mike McCann or Greg Bowman, though I did have a delightful dinner with them at the SEALS conference where we drank red wine out of chicken pitchers (don't ask).

All clear?  Fabulous.