Anecdote: According to a Univ. of Michigan Chemistry Prof, early 1980's, that Dept. had a brilliant orange ceramic coffee mug. It'd been purchased (and presum

Anecdote: According to a Univ. of Michigan Chemistry Prof, early 1980's, that Dept. had a brilliant orange ceramic coffee mug. It'd been purchased (and presumably made) at some Native American reservation in the Southwest, and was pretty radioactive. Supposedly, the Dept's Tenure Committee use it to serve coffee to the prospect when their decision was "no". These days, one would hope that the mug has long since been retired to a museum basement or something. Both because of the not-so-subtle malice of offering it, and because of the likely fates of the Native American potters who worked with that radioactive glaze.