"I'd consider a 245 'sporty'!"

Me too, but neither of us is 22 years old.

"...off to Poughkeepsie with Amtrak, carless..."

That's a very good plan. We did that the first year, but because she was an architecture major, she had carloads of crap to carry around. Given that a 245 is bigger inside than outside, what better and safer car to put her in?

"...what is an English Professor doing with an electron microscope?"

That isn't quite accurate. I have 28 years of engineering behind me, and decided to do something fun -- for a change. The opportunity to teach writing to eng'g students is a side benefit of my graduate program. The teaching alone is more rewarding than I ever expected.
--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)