Some, like the Brookings Institute, are venerable. They've been around for a long time. Some, especially the conservative think tanks, are new in the field. Whether they are liberal or conservative, scientific or sociological, they are all pretty much nonprofits and nongovernmental. That means if they are careful, they don't have to pay taxes on much of what they own, a great incentive to their formation.

Of course, being nonprofit has some drawbacks, too. Financing depends on gifts, bequests and donations. And federal law is such that some nonprofits can't have much in the way of income accumulation. They have to expend so much each year.

So life as a nonprofit is sometimes tenuous. It's hard to build up any kind of reserve or set aside any money for capital improvements like buildings and equipment. But that's mainly a problem for scientific think tanks, those that do medical and scientific research.

The kind of think tank I am thinking about is one like the Center for Strategic Studies or the Institute for Iraqui Affairs or something like that. Few people know what these "institutes" or "centers" do. Some are free-standing—that is, they exist on their own. Others are parts of universities and colleges.

The latter seem to be more nebulous than the former. Some of these seem to be the invention of college professors and may well, for all I know, be just a filing cabinet drawer. But some—the Carnegie Foundation, for instance—have been around a long time, have a solid base of financing and dispense good, if not well-known, works. The Carnegie Foundation built a lot of public libraries in its day and now deals with peace. Who can argue with efforts to maintain peace in the world?

So with all this in mind I have been thinking about starting a foundation. I'm not sure whether I should call it a foundation, an institute or a center, but somehow "center" sounds most impressive. Then, of course, I'd have to have some stated purpose for my center, some reason for its existence.

A lot of "centers" and "institutes" these days seem to be in and around Washington, D.C., mainly to give employment to those of the last administration who no longer have a job in government but who might get one if the election results at the next general election turn the current administration out. It provides a pleasant kind of musical chairs game for bureaucrats and politicians.

So I have thought of calling mine The Center for the Study of Centers. This sounds a little redundant, but I think it is time we expended a little time studying what it is that centers and institutes actually study. Another area for study is what center and institute fellows do and how one can get center appointments.

The Hoover Institute at Stanford, for instance, has such diverse fellows as John Bunzel, who used to be president of San José State University and who seems to study mostly political jokes, and Joseph Macnamara, who used to be San Jose's police chief. Presumably he studies police problems, although it is a little strange to find him in a place dedicated to the study of war, peace and revolution.

Both are senior fellows. There don't appear to be any junior fellows at Hoover.

I'd like to know if there are any junior fellows at any of these places. Everyone is always identified as a senior fellow. I suppose if one were a junior fellow, one wouldn't advertise it by adding it to one's name. You'd just be a fellow, neither senior nor junior.

Another subject for study is what qualifies one to become a fellow. Presumably it is some kind of expertise that would benefit other fellows in whatever it is they're studying, but the connection between a senior fellow's previous life and work and his or her work at the center or institute often seems tenuous.

But it sometimes is difficult to see. What, for instance, does Joe Macnamara contribute to John Bunzel's study of jokes and vice versa—funny stories about policemen?

The Center for the Study of Centers will ferret that out, though, along with what happens to old fellows when they get old (do they, like old soldiers, just fade away?), if there is such a thing as a senior senior fellow, someone sort of like a senior vice president, and whether any center studies ever cause any changes in the body politic—or anywhere else for that matter.

So there you are, or rather there I am. All I need is a nonprofit corporation, a board of directors and, of course, some beneficent angel with a few million dollars he or she doesn't know what to do with and we're in business.

Oh, and I'll need to devise a logo for the center. Something like a circle with a slash bar across it might do.

What do you think?

All contributions, need I say, are tax-deductible.