Last year legislators of the Commonwealth of Virginia sent to state college and university faculty a time-study questionnaire on which appeared a question of the following sort: “On a scale of one to five, rank the personal satisfaction you derive from each of the following: 1) teaching; 2) administration; 3) research; 4) sports; 5) your family.” While many of us have decided preferences for one or more of the first three activities, or even the first four, having to rank one’s family along with one’s job may seem somewhat inappropriate. Struggling academics may, in fact, neglect their families in the hopes of churning out sufficient copy to gain them tenure, and many marriages have foundered on less rocky shoals. Even so, American social categories regard the teaching-administration-research syndrome as work, something qualitatively different from one’s spouse or children. To the academic couple, however, the above question may make all too much sense.