When I was a wide eyed linguistics geek way back in the eighties, he gave a lecture to a small group of linguists at the University of Louisiana in Baton Rouge and a friend and colleague of mine at the time made the trip up from New Orleans in her daddy’s caddy. I think it was 1986 or 7. I was young enough to be both humbled by the experience and dismissive of his certainty. I guess I’ve always wondered how folks can be so convicted to things which they cannot prove and also admiring of their convictions and dedication. What made seeing Noam Chomsky different from other scholars was his political involvement, which lent an air of intrigue to the event and made it feel like we were all on the fringe. Mr. Chomsky kept all discussion to linguistics and I admired the professionalism of that decision. Black box, black box…I’m thinking I should review his work from where I am today, a reformed linguist, as I’ve heard it described.