My door (was): hand-scribbled note with office hours, postcard with my sister's art (which is funny), and, at various times, the NY Yankees logo with the hand-written slogan "fish food" (relevant last year, at least), un-heeded envelopes for students, and flyers for German movies.

The message: none discernible, but definitely NOT the productivity line. Just thought I'd share.

Having just seen "Young Frankenstien" last night, again, I am reminded stangely by your subject line "Door decorations" of the line: "What great knockers!"

(To those never having seen the movie, it's not what you think)

N. Anand at LBS has a paper, "Office Door Cartoon Displays: The Autoproduction of Visual Humor in an Organization", that is forthcoming in an edited volume.

He found that cartoon posters tended to be junior faculty and to al esser extent female, i.e., not dominant members of the pack. The cartoons signaled communion, crusade, an aspect of persona or provided comic relief. The humor was genteel; there were no ethnic, racist or sexist cartoons.

I have a cartoon of a dinosaur reading a letter that begins "While this is an impressive manuscript, it does not, at this time, meet our needs." The caption is "Why the dinosaurs perished." And another of a tombstone reading "Published, but perished anyway."

Sounds like something Doctor Fun would draw, Donald.

Well, I'm a new assistant professor, and so far, I'm still happy! My door: sign with office hours and a scribble from a student saying "We love Dr. Hamilton!" (I got a big head over that one and left it up). The abstract from my latest conference submission (yes, I admit--still, it's not a keynote). A poster of Chandra X-ray Telescope images (I'm an astrophysicist). Cartoons--"When Astronomers Collide" (Joy of Tech debating whether Sedna is a planet) and Day by Day.

Oh--and excerpts from the "Tea Club" Quote Board from back at Goddard Space Flight Center www.smart.net/~kmukai/tclub/quotes2002.html (I'm the "Tim" there). Very inside humor, but my students sometimes get it and laugh...

I teach law, including criminal law and criminal procedure. On my door -- Dilbert cartoon, as follows:

Dogbert (as attorney, addressing jury): I will prove to you that my client is too dumb to embezzle. Failing that, I will prove that you're too dumb to know he did it.

Judge: Mister Dogbert....

Dogbert (rounding angrily on judge): Don't get me started about YOU!

Hey, i heard this today ;-)

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed.

The other guy takes out his phone and calls the emergency services.
He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?"

The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."

There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"