Reason 7,379 Not to Make Predictions

From Wood Hutchinson's Handbook of Health (1911):

Within fifty years from now the habitual use of alcohol will probably have become quite rare. It is already becoming "good form" among the best people not to drink; and the fashion will spread, as the bad effects of alcohol become more generally understood.

The title page identifies Hutchinson as a "Sometimes Professor."  Normally, I'm not sure what that means.  This time, I think I understand:

Sometime Professor of Anatomy, University of Iowa; Professor of Comparative Pathology and Methods of Science Teaching, University of Buffalo; Lecturer, London Medical Graduates' College and University of London; and State Health Officer of Oregon.

Comments

[Vance Maverick]

To be boring about this for a moment, his prediction probably seemed entirely reasonable at the time. Passing a constitutional amendment takes a lot of consent of the governed.

While I won't join in the mockery of his credentials, I will ding him for the phrase "the best people" -- even if one can imagine reading it without giggling, it renders the claim about trends unfalsifiable.

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

I wasn't mocking his credentials so much as the general locution "sometimes professor." In fact, I'm not-mocking his credentials, since in his case, the appellation fits.

As for effect of the rising temperance movement on his prediction, I think "social ostracism" and "federal prohibition" are two different beasts, no? I mean, the reason to ding him for the "best people" line is precisely because so many future "best people" would benefit from (or be created by) Prohibition. Jay Gatz, anyone?

[eb]

E. Phemeral Sometime was a speculator who got rich just long enough to endow a chair, thus creating the Sometime Professor of Anatomy.

[Kevin Y]

Possibly he is a "Sometimes Professor" in the same way that cookies are a "Sometimes Food."

[Porlock Junior]

A professor is a sometimes thing. But could we sing something so disrepectful to the institution of Tenure?

Anyway, was he sometimes a professor or was he sometime professor of whatever (old-fashioned but not obscure academic jargon, surely). Or is their misprint with an extra s the point of the joke? It's getting late here.