Smithsonian’s Black Tuesday at the Senate Office Building

Who needs to go to Washington? Today you can attend yesterday’s uncomfortable Senate hearing on Smithsonian governance reform from the comfort of your own desk chair. Just click here.
I think Sen. Diane Feinstein was a bit hotheaded in insisting that the Board of Regents find a new Smithsonian chief executive yesterday. These things do, appropriately, take time. And this is a more important post than most.
As the wife of someone who trades on the floor of a stock exchange, I got a good laugh from the photo chosen by the NY Times to illustrate its headline, “In a Tough Hearing, Smithsonian Is Urged to Find a New Chief Fast.”
It shows Cristián Samper, the Smithsonian’s acting secretary, looking numb and holding his forehead in weary disbelief—the classic newspaper shot of a stock trader on a day when the market tanks big time.
Markets do rebound, eventually. So will the plummeting reputation of the Smithsonian.