the days before tenure

"when they anticipate the time, let
them be put to death without mercy;
when their reckoning is behind the
time, let them be put to death without
mercy."
-the marquis of yin, pronouncing
sentence on hsi and ho, ministers
of astonomy, for miscalculating an
eclipse in 2150 b.c.

from the rough and tumble salad days of astronomy, when peer review was slightly harsher.