Lost in the Life of the Mind

By BILL COPLIN

"Bait and switch" is usually used to describe the sleazy telephone sales rep who starts, "This is your lucky day. You are the winner of a free vacation in the Bahamas." Schnooks take the bait only to find out the hidden costs.

I felt like a schnook after my second week as an undergraduate in 1956 at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. After a year, I transferred to the Johns Hopkins University, where the switch was even more apparent. My parents, relatives, high-school teachers, and