Heaven forbid that students should make films in the dormitories!

In the past couple of years, I have had my share of frustrating conversations with the custodian of university housing.

Yesterday, I had another such maddening conversation.

I was so insane as to suggest that, for purely formal purposes, I might register my current accommodation as the site of a "business".

Yes, I know what you are thinking.  But this is the post-Communism Czech Republic.  If you teach English, that is a business.  If you are a prostitute, that is a business too--I gather, though I've not
undertaken extensive research.  And heaven forbid that the happy hooker did not pay her taxes.

I must indulge the aside:  We focus upon petty crooks (if that's what they are) and we ignore the historically unprecedented robberies of the financial elite.  How, for example,  can I take seriously the "crime" of riding the local buses without paying, when the bankers have robbed us of billions?--And continue to do so......

( I would have like to say that to the "revizor" who I recently saw disciplining an elderly woman with her shopping bags, a large green vegetable protruding from the top of one bag, of a Saturday morning when the bus was empty.....The confused lady did not punch her ticket.  Maybe she did it deliberately, maybe not.  But why shouldn't she, at her age, be allowed to ride for free?)

But were I to have a License to teach English, the location of my "business" would be a theoretical matter.  Holding the License would allow me to do extra teaching outside the premises of my accommodation.  And I assure you, I am busy enough with my current responsibilities that no enormous amount of extra teaching will ever occur any time soon.

Nonetheless, the extremely thoughtful lady of the housing authority immediately had a head full of worries, apprehensions, and the general bad behavior which she would bring into the world if she signed the paper granting me the location as a business site.  "Why, if I let you do that, the next thing will be...."
Pause to catch your breath....and steel yourself against the truly awful possibilities....
"Students would be making movies in the dormitories!"
Yes, what an awful thought!

Later, I realized that once upon a time, say 15 years ago, I was, as a Professor attending
an NEH Summer Seminar,  resident in an NYU dorm
where students were making films, during the time of my stay, in the actual dorm where
I was living.
And no disaster ensued.
But, then I also recalled that there was an easy to access room for doing laundry (which actually
had dryers---unlike my current accommodation), and this probably indicates the much greater level of physical comfort enjoyed by students living in NYU accommodations......
In my current habitation, I must travel across a busy road, and pay in advance, after explaining my needs through thick glass of the sort found in banks, to the ladies working in a student dorm, at its front desk.  They will supply me with a host of keys---one for each washing machine, and one for the door to the basement room where they are found.  The keys which control the washing machines are a recent innovation.  Heaven forbid that a student or visiting scholar should wash his or her clothes for free!