This New England

-- Photo by CHARLES PINNING

Even on a nice summer day at the Swiss Village, in Newport, R.I., death stalks us.

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Now that Harvard Regius Professor of Celebrity Henry Louis Gates has been properly liberated from any charges relating to his arrest for trying to break into his own Harvard rental house in Cambridge, it must be noted that whatever the racial (or utterly nonracial) element of this case, the police report of what the African-American scholar yelled at the cops richly evokes the pomposity of some professors at what The Globe's Alex Beam likes to call WGU (World's Greatest University):

"Do you know who I am?!''

Speaking as a former resident myself, I ask: Could any place have so many self-infatuated people in such a small area? Probably, but Cambridge is pretty competitive, right up there with Beverly Hills.

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In other college scandals, the Associated Press reports that Emerson College will pay $780,000 to settle complaints that it "steered student loan applicants to companies that gave free trips and consulting contracts to the Boston school's staff.''

The student-loan racket is pretty bad, and one reason tuitions are so high, but the New England economy has probably benefitted from it on net basis because so many people come here from other regions willing to pay colleges' outrageous fees, which go up by more than inflation every year.

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The State of Rhode Island is sending out about 800 questionnaires to residents of Narragansett to ask them what they think about putting a big wind farm in the ocean near them. A state official says "In order for something to be successful, you really need to know what people are thinking.''

Or maybe it's a good way to avoid doing anything. And people's opinions are as variable as the wind in Block Island Sound. As relentless referenda have caused paralysis in California, maybe such polls will cause it here.

Will the Dunes Club opinion mirror that of Osterville's Oysters Harbors Club?

One thing you can be pretty sure of -- most people will say windmills are a nifty idea, if not necessarily anywhere near them.

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President Obama and other luminaries constantly demand that students aspire to being judges, entrepreneurs, scientists and the like. The usual blather.

But we need more plumbers, not more white-collar yuppies.

 Tags  Alex Beam; Narragansett windmills Dunes Club Emerson College Henry Louis Gates; WGU student loans

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