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Showing posts from June, 2012

Eyes Have It

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It's in the eyes. Often, the first time you encounter someone you can see their curiosity in their eyes. Intellectual curiosity. It lights up the soul. I've seen it a time or two in one of the nearly 5000 students in my classroom over the years. Dare I say these people light up a room. They have an innate energy that just seems to burst out in everything they do and speak about and pursue. A kind of cheerful approach to learning. So it was this light that drew me to a conversation this morning with a young woman who works at my local coffee shop. She was sitting at a table reading a book in Spanish. When I ambled over to see what she was reading and look at another book, a novel, on her table, she maintained the same level of connection that most of the baristas are required to extend toward their customers. But this was different. Rather than the forced friendliness accompanied by, "so what are you up to today,"she didn't have to say anything. The ey

Roll Back

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Because my parents were married for more than a decade before they had children, I knew they were older than most. While other kids in my neighborhood had moms and dads celebrating their 35th and 40th birthday, my folks were in their late 40s and 50s respectively. Being older, they had a bit more history under their belts. In fact, they married in the big middle of the Great Depression. So the story goes, an elderly aunt gave the the green light because, in her view, things weren't going to get better for a good while, so they might just as well find something to celebrate. Sounds familiar. Now and then we'd get my dad talking about life in his childhood and adolescence. It was interesting to hear the price of a loaf of bread, the limited opportunities for transportation, and what a typical day without television or a car was like. New Yorkers got on quite well with public transit. If we really pushed it, we'd get him talking about the kinds of penny candy he sol

You Don't Know Me

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It is a particular oddity, this business of returning to one's previous home.  All kinds of observations and issues arise.  Sometimes it's as if you willed them to.  Case in point: this morning I found myself with some lovely down time and decided to re-visit a neighborhood where I once lived.  Given there is a new coffee place with large comfortable seating and wifi, this was going to be just what I need before the long trip back to Portland. While there, I began to notice some only in Berkeley experiences.  Oh, I'm not saying they couldn't happen anywhere else, it's just that in the East Bay, they seem to happen simultaneously.  Coffeehouses seem to be the great equalizer as people stumble in and out for their jump starter jolt of caffeine.  This time I hear languages..for spoken in various corners of the room.  Italian, French, Eritrean, Spanish...I guess English makes five.  If I wanted to get technical, there are various strains of English spoken here too.  

Bears Thought

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I've been traveling around Northern California for the past few days, finally settling into a brief Berkeley visit.  Although it's only been half a dozen years since I've lived here, the changes are mighty.     This overcast,  misty day is quite reminiscent of Portland, but that's where the similarities end.  I see California's budget crisis in the number of businesses gone and going. An empty movie theater is difficult to tolerate.  All the possibility gone dark.  I  see the publicly insane staring at me from their street caves and perches.  I see some familiar faces, well worn by time, age, and their addiction to remaining in the same place for decades.  Even some of the streets have been re-configurated adding an unfamiliar tone and the anxiety that I really don't know where I'm going. Still, I love the diversity and hate the traffic. This morning I found a few minutes to wander the UC Berkeley campus and dropped in the bookstore. Looking a little sha

Wordsmith

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It started with a simple discussion about the word fete.  It suddenly seemed "funny" to me.  Fete, in case it seems peculiar or unfamiliar to you, simple refers to a day of celebration; a holiday.  From there it went to a small bundle of words that have been popping up in my reading lately.  New words to the vocabulary are always exciting to try out.  Use them or lose them is the best policy, in my view. So it was with conservative columnist George Will's recent use of the word bloviate.  Will, obviously displeased with Donald Trump's continual bullying over Barak Obama's birth certificate authenticity called The Donald a "bloviating ignoramus."   Such an elegant way to call someone a windbag.  Perhaps it's the blo in bloviate that adds the onomatopoetic justice to the phrase. Seems to me that so many of the cable news channels these days are full of bloviators, if I might coin a word. I read the word gauche in print the other day.  You know this

Crowning Moment

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We are two days away from the Belmont Stakes and the possibility of a Triple Crown winner in the form of a 3-year-old colt aptly named I'll Have Another.  But will we get another?  After all, there have only been 11 Triple Crown winners ever, and none since Affirmed became the third one in five years back in 1978. We just might get the ultimate trifecta this year, but the Belmont is far different from any horse race, especially for a 3-year-old.  Sure it's about distance.  The mile and 1/2 distance is rarely run any more and certainly hasn't been run by such young horses at any point in their careers up until now.  It's about timing too.  The massive oval that is Belmont is unlike any other track in the country.  It's all a big mystery with a  bouquet of new variables that is all part of the mystery and anticipation. When Affirmed completed his magnificent run with the courageous Alydar, the year was 1978.  34 years down the road, on the verge on what quite pos