Random Acts of Culture

Every one of these made me choke up a little. I know, I choke up easily, but I swear something about this kind of humanity cuts right to the center and just sits there and says “See, humans are wonderful after all.”
Yes, sometimes they are, and these are among those times. Take a moment out of your busy day to look at these events. And look carefully at the people that are being surprised by the music. Wonderful. Makes you think there might be hope for the human species.
In a food court: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE
In a train station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k&feature=related
At Macy’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU
Image: good-times.webshots.com

The Glass Bowl

Louisville; bitter cold walking back to hotel after some good beer, fish and chips and freezing our Southern asses off.
Sal and I were walking against the wind when we passed what looked like a glass blowing lab with picture windows to the street (1). There was also an art gallery with some interesting work, and a few people milling around in the gallery with glasses of wine in their hands. Private party? Open house? We decided to at least get off the street and warm up a little so went into the reception area and were offered wine and snacks (we just finished the meal so declined the snacks, not the wine). The glass blowing lab had two people working and we watched through a glass partition while a guy put a blob of glass on a pipe and began to form something. He saw us and gestured us to come in. We did, and spent the next half hour warm and watching him create a simple but pretty bowl. He and the helper alternated heating, shaping, adding glass, heating and shaping again and again until he had it finished. Then one cut and the bowl fell into waiting gloves to be placed into the cooling oven. The glass artist’s name is Tyler Gordon.
I told him we would love to buy the bowl because we liked it and we saw it being born. He gave me his cell # and told me to call the next day to arrange to pick it up. I didn’t. But, while sitting in Borders contemplating homelessness two days later I did call. No answer. So, I walked down to the building. Locked. A janitor saw me and let me in, and told me Tyler was in the lab with a class, and to go on in. Tyler looked a little surprised and I think he didn’t expect to see me again. We walked back to another small lab where the bowl sat on a shelf amongst other pieces. He said he would be happy if I accepted the bowl as a gift. I did, and he accepted a donation to his much depleted beer fund.
I can't know if Tyler Gordon will make it as a glass artist, but he made our day a bit brighter, and the bowl has a place of prominence in the kitchen. And I think he is happy too, not just for the beer money, but because someone valued his work. So thank you Tyler for your generosity, and we both wish you a long and productive career.
Image: iittala.com (image of our bowl delayed due to camera difficulties. Ours is much the same only opaque.)
1. The glass blowing lab is part of the Hite Art Institute at the University of Louisville

Homeless in Borders

I walked Sally to the session in blowing light snow and 25 degree (colder wind chill no doubt) temp. Then I walked about 5 blocks to the Borders for a quick look for a new book and coffee. My dress: ratty watch cap; old jeans; oldish shoes; reasonable coat with dog hair; no gloves; no shave.
Louisville has a lot of homeless men hanging around the civic center trying for a few bucks and someplace warm to rest. Mostly they are grubby and burned-out looking. Kind of what I looked like that morning. I walked into Borders warmth and started a tour around the first floor looking for discount books. Nothing interesting so up to the second floor. Nothing interesting there so back down to the coffee shop for a quick cup of Joe and then back to the digs. As I sipped the hot coffee the manager walked a homeless guy out the door and stood outside as he moved off. When she came in I gestured her to the table and asked her if she had to move out many homeless folks. She said this guy was smoking in the bathroom, against the rules.
Then she looked at me and said “As long as you follow the rules, you are welcome to stay as long as you like. I know its cold out there.” As she walked off I thought: “Time for a new hat and a shave.” And I also thought: “Being homeless must really be a bitch.”
Image: corbisimages.com

Beer: Not Only Food, but Medicine Too!

On the road again, this time in Looaville, Ky. A few quick observations pointing to essays to come: Good breweries here, with interesting IPAs, a very nice Bourbon Barrel Stout, some barley wine; a university glassblowing program set in a downtown parking garage (with an art gallery included); freezing weather and snow; White Castle slyders; homeless people in Borders. This lists the high points. Low point: Sally picked up a "tummy bug" (her description) that was probably classic "food poisoning". We ate pretty much the same thing for the last couple of days, so my conclusion is that hoppy beer, in addition to being a wonder drug for all kinds of things, is also good at curbing food poisoning. Remember this: Beer: Not Only Food, but Medicine Too!
See, I think the combination of alcohol (disinfectant), hops (calmative and restorative agent), water (hydration) and grain byproducts (food and fruit group) is indispensable in any therapeutic regimen. Taken as a preventative it is unbeatable. I drank more beer, she drank more wine ( more alcohol, no hops, less water, grape byproducts (fruit group only) and no grain byproducts.)

(M & J: Look at the location of photo)

Image: http://www.thebeerguys.com/

Babe, You Sound Like a Baby!!

Women with baby voices:
Today I heard an interview with a senior partner in a law firm, but before the interviewer identified her, I thought he was talking to a 5 year old girl. Not what she was saying, but her baby-like voice.
Am I the only one concerned about American women increasingly sounding like babies when they talk? You know what I mean: high in the throat, quick and annoying sounding. Just like a little girl. Why do they (you) talk like that? Europeans don’t. Asians don’t. Africans don’t. But American women from these groups do. Conclusion: This is a cultural phenomenon. A LEARNED habit
Think. A woman is interviewing for a job and sounds like a baby. Strike one before she says anything. She sounds whiney and tentative. Strike two.
The normal human voice is produced in the larynx, low in the throat. Anyone can make their voice sound like a little girl by moving the sound up into the back of the throat. But why the hell do that? American women need a good dose of speech therapy to get back to a melliferous sound. A purring murmur. Sexy or direct, anything but babyish. Come on women. Listen.
Read the LA Times article cited below for a more complete discussion. See? I’m not the only one the notices these things, and, gets concerned.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum7jul07,0,7903770.column
Image: www.babytalk.co.za/babyTalkLogo.jpg

Doctrine of Unintended Consequences

I sit here this afternoon, humbled and teary (Oh Search, not again!). The little essay on ratemyprofessor was, as many of my musings, a way for me to work through something. It helped, and publishing seems to be part of the help, at least for me. After I posted, I thought “Well, there was some whining Woody. (Searchie-pie to one of you)” But I don’t take down things I post, so there it sat. The responses were humbling. And yes, very pleasing too.
As I move away from the center of my career to the fringes, I can’t help wonder sometimes what good has come of it? I have been known to be a bit pessimistic about some things from time to time, and recently more than earlier. But not here. Not with My TU Students. I know to the marrow how hard you worked, in fact how hard I worked most of you. I know you left my domain knowing a lot of content and for many knowing how to think analytically. Still, as most teachers know, you let them go with a hope and prayer and mostly never hear how they did.
I did not write the essay to winkle kind thoughts or praise or anything really. I wrote to clarify in my own mind the seeming decline of Me. And I think I got it: different venue, different perception. Many of my Students will remember me talking about the “Doctrine of Unintended Consequences”. This is a perfect example.
Thank you for the unintended consequence. And the blub.
Image: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=254327

RateMyProfessor: Oops, Is That ME?

The last time I looked at my TU ratings I scored 4.7 out of 5. Not too shabby. The comments were positive with words like “Awesome” “Great” and other superlatives. Great for the ego.
So today I looked at my TCC ratings from 3 students based on my classes from the spring of 2010. I scored 3.4 out of 5 with comments like “He doesn’t teach much, but gives bonus points.” What the HELL? Is this the same professor? Then it hit me. Yes, it is the same professor, but TCC is all labs with no real chance to teach content. All show and tell. All models. And, my classes were way above the average in both grades and retention. Disconnect? I think so. My lab teaching technique, developed over decades of teaching (too many decades maybe?) is to NOT give people the answers to questions like “Is this the right or left clavicle?” My answer: “I don’t know. Let’s try to figure it out.” Then I show them how to figure it out, without ever telling them the answer. Works like a charm and before long they burrow into material on their own. And they don’t realize they have learned to learn. Probably the most important thing anyone can learn.
So I feel bad about the ratings and comments, but understand that learning to learn is not as apparent as memorizing a list of bones. I can’t wait to see the ratings from this term. Maybe I will soar up to 3.5.
Image: www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3157622170/

Thanks.

Thanksgiving. I have been thinking about thanksgiving and all the church signs I see around with some variant of "Thank God" for something. That got me in a really negative mode because there is no doubt that if you thank some being for the good things then you must hold that same being responsible for the bad things. At least as I see it. Then I read a blog (1) posted by one of my favorite authors, a woman suffering and possibly dying from MS. She shamed me with her long list of “thanks” without once thanking any kind of god. I went back over my own thoughts and did after all find lots of things to be thankful for. Thank you to Sally for all the years you have put up with and loved me. Grateful for being alive and relative healthy, not rich, but not poor either, good friends, and the list got longer and longer.
With deities off the table, anyone can be grateful for anything. Or appreciative even. Like a beautiful sunrise or powerful storm. A poem or novel or play or symphony. Anything. Negative just slips away.
So I think my point is this: If you feel the need to thank some god for everything good that ever happens, then you should hold some god responsible for the times when things go wrong. “Thank you God for the food on our table, but where are you when people are starving in the Sudan?” And “Thank you God for protecting my child while she was deployed in Afghanistan, but where were you when other children were shredded by IEDs? And by the way, why are we at war anyway? If you are so powerful and loving, surely you could solve that little problem without butchering thousands of innocent people?”
Get the point? No praise without responsibility.

1. “A Writers Thanksgiving” : http://asknicola.blogspot.com/2010/11/writers-thanksgiving.html
Image: iskcon.net.au

WIC and CIGS

He was ahead of me in the line at Harveys. Three WIC vouchers four piles of stuff. I don’t know how WIC really works, but obviously each of the vouchers either had a dollar limit or a food type or he saved them up. He got milk, eggs, cheese, some cereal and a few other things on the vouchers. Each pile had to be checked out separately, each voucher signed separately. The fourth pile was beer, and the cashier got a couple cartons of cigs. Out came the wallet with a wad of 20s. That really pissed me off. Essentially I paid for his kid’s food and he paid for his beer and cigs. It still pisses me off.
Sally pointed out that with the vouchers, at least his kids got fed (and so did he, the greedy bastard) because he would have bought the beer and cigs anyway, and not food. She is undoubtedly right. It still pissed me off. If this guy makes enough to wave that kind of cash around why the hell is he getting the vouchers in the first place? Maybe works for cash so no paper trail? I don’t know. And maybe when he gets home he will sell the groceries to a neighbor, send the kids to eat a free lunch at school and sit around watching his flat screen drinking beer and smoking. Just the thought of that pisses me off.
More good news: the economy in Florida will generate 1.3 million jobs in the next few years due to the recovery that is well underway. So the morons in Florida that “Threw the bastards out” threw out the wrong bastards. No accounting for morons.
Image: http://farmdirectmarket.powersites.net/files/2010/09/WIC.jpg

Breaking News: Blurred Groin Syndrome!!

A newly discovered physical/anatomical disorder is called blurred groin syndrome or BGS. Men have wondered for years why the shape of some men’s “junk” was obvious even through clothing, while others could wear anything for jeans to Speedos and still not have that “come and get it” look. Now we know the answer to this perplexing problem: BGS. That’s right; there is something about the anatomical and electrophasic distribution of the body’s meridia that cause a blurring of the groin area, resulting in a nearly invisible set of genitalia. This syndrome was confirmed inadvertently as comedian Dave Barry was directed by TSA into a pat-down room because the full body scanner could not image his “package” (1). He was told he had a blurred groin. It seems that this strange combination of anatomical and electrical phenomena affects not only the retinal imaging of genitalia but also the X-ray imaging.
So after years of carrying equivalent junk and getting ignored by everyone, men finally have an answer: BGS. Laboratories around the world are currently at work to provide a drug to relieve the symptoms of BGS. Early tests of one drug showed great promise: mice that have notoriously blurred groins were given a two week course of experimental drug “X”, and were observed to have rat-sized genitals! Who Knew? The drug is scheduled to move directly to phase three trials because many of the top regulators in the country have been accused of not having any balls and they want to prove that they have. We shall all see very soon.
(Secret research for this breaking news report is secret, so don’t ask. It is, however, copyrighted)
Image: http://www.aclu.org/files/images/client/BodyScanner.jpg (note that the gun is easliy seen, but the "junk" is invisable!)
1. http://www.npr.org/2010/11/15/131338172/humorist-dave-barry-and-the-tsa