[a little elbow grease]

"Hanson is nothing if not a clear and incisive thinker. I admire his calm demeanor as well."

__________________

..... and the good man is a farmer. That means a lot to me.

[a little elbow grease]

From Jonathan Kay, in the Weekly Standard (3-14-05): [Jonathan Kay is managing editor of Canada's National Post and a media fellow at the Hoover Institution.]

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"MOST PEOPLE who earn Ph.D.s aspire to tenure-track professorships, think-tank jobs, or careers in government. When Stanford University awarded Victor Davis Hanson his classics degree 26 years ago, he chose to become a farmer.

"My grandmother was 93 and living alone," Hanson tells me as his pickup bounces along a dirt road winding through his family's grape vineyard. "My brothers, cousins, and I decided we'd come home and see if we could put the farm right."

But his career as a full-time farmer lasted just four years. In 1984, the price of raisin grapes fell from $1,300 per ton to $450. Struggling to make ends meet, Hanson reluctantly dusted off his résumé, got into his truck, and drove to the closest university, California State at Fresno. "I was dressed like this," he tells me, gesturing to his red and black lumberman's jacket and work-worn blue jeans. "The dean couldn't believe I was a Stanford Ph.D. The chairman made me go home and get my diploma.""