In this article, the author talks about the challenges of a public scholar's life and argues that the rigid standards of hiring and tenure stand in the way of humanities professors as public scholars. She states that the usual lament of the humanities--"There is plenty of money to support work in science and engineering but very little to support work in the humanities"--proves to be accurate only if one defines "work in the humanities" in the narrowest and most conventional way. Rather than envying the resources available to scientists and engineers, the author suggests that humanities professors take up applied work, using the Center of the American West, one indication of the beginning of a shift in academe toward more acceptance of applied work, as example.