That's My Teach! - Quotes from Dr. Jerry Grey, director of science and technology policy at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, have been showing up in a lot of articles about the Columbia inquiry lately. One example is today's NY Times speculator on what to do about restarting shuttle flights if the root cause remains elusive.

Grey was one of my professors at Princeton. (This one course in mechanical and aerospace engineering shows up as an odd-man-out on a transcript heavy on English lit and political science.) Honestly, I didn't take his non-technical class in spaceflight too seriously. He ran it on a Friday night and Saturday morning so as to minimize his time away from Washington, and knowing full well I'd never make the Saturday morning classes, I decided to take the course pass-fail. Good thinking, John -- considering the man gave me an A+ for my final grade. Obviously grades do not equate to common sense.