around Amherst
Issues around town
Alisa and I attended the Amherst 250th Gala on Saturday night. It was an amazing event. The organizers had done an outstanding job to create a festive atmosphere in the Campus Center Auditorium: a venue not known for it's native attractiveness (it being a monument to brutalism and all). The lighting and decorations were beautiful.
The most interesting decorations, of course, were the clothes that everyone was wearing. It was a "black tie optional" event and so most of the men were wearing either a tuxedo or a suit and for women fancy dresses were de_rigeur. It's very strange to be in that kind of environment. Some people live in that sort of milieu constantly. I feel rather out of place.
I mostly enjoyed the live music early in the evening. They played a mix of songs from the big-band era through to modern stuff. Later, however, the music was provided by a DJ and it became increasingly loud and obnoxious. Eventually, I had to leave the room because my throat was sore from trying to talk over the noise.
The University had organized two tables of participants and many of the high-level administrators were there: the chancellor, his wife, the CIO, the vice chancellor of A&F, etc. On the whole, I'm glad to see increasing engagement between the university and the town.
Alisa is running for re-election and seemingly knows everyone. It wasn't possible to walk from one place to another without her talking to each person along the way. I remember seeing a seminar once called "working the room like a pro". I think Alisa could teach that now. I enjoyed being able to "participate" in her discussions with other people, because then I didn't have to say anything and could just nod and listen to her. But she succeeded in ditching me for much of the evening and I had to talk to people.
I don't really like talking to people. I can enjoy talking about things I'm interested in, but those areas don't overlap with the general public very often. And it's a minefield to talk with people about anything related to the town or local politics because of Alisa's role. One guy was trying to organize people to pass an override to raise revenues for the school and I said, "But since we've already lost the Mark's Meadow school, what's the point? What's left to save?" I feel like Hagrid: I shouldn't have said that. Many of the people who know Alisa, see her as the only thing we have in common and end up trying to talk to me about her, which is similarly dangerous.
Early in the evening, I (half-heartedly? resignedly?) asked Alisa if she wanted to dance and she said, "No way." Alisa's friend Clare undertook as her special project to make both Alisa and I dance (separately, with her). I have little affinity for the terpsichorean muse, but I did my part, shuffling about and waving my arms like a drunken pelican. Alisa and I even went out later and danced a bit with each other. Clare is very sweet and a good friend.
Finally, at midnight, Alisa relented and we went home. I can't really say I enjoyed it thoroughly -- I just don't like things like that very much. But it was something.
When I arrived in Amherst, I noticed a couple of unusual things about driving here. First, I was surprised to how courteous most of the drivers were in Amherst: when you needed to merge, they would make room for you with no problem. But this had a dark side. I noticed that it was de rigeur to let people turn left in front of you when a light turned green. And that many people just did it, whether you let them or not.
It happened to Lucy's brother David when he was helping her move out here. He was rendered speechless that someone would do that: "Wha!?! Hey... Hey! Did you see that? Did you see what that guy did?!?"
We call it a "Massachusetts turn". I never would have imagined doing something like that before I moved out here -- I think the traffic rules of right-of-way are pretty clear and this has nothing to do with them. But here it's just commonplace. Most people expect you to do it, so whenever a light changes, you have to try to read the other driver: Are they waiting for me? Should I wait for them?
The topper was when I was driving home last week. I was stopped at a light near my house going straight. When the light changed, a car made a Massachusetts turn in front of me and it was a driver education car. The student was driving and the instructor waved at me cheerfully as they turned left in front of me at the light. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
I'm reminded today of how it's the connections with other people that bring the most satisfaction in life. Sarte famously said "Hell is other people" (which, as a parent, I modified to "Hell is other people's children") but without other people, life is not worth living.
Today, Laura and Jared stopped by and surprised me. They just walked into my office, unannounced. I haven't seen them in a couple of years, although we have exchanged messages electronically a time or two. I always love to hear from alumni -- but especially from former students, BCRC-staff, and friends. We chatted for a couple of hours about the university, work, the economy, and life in general.
Tomorrow, several of my Esperanto friends are planning to join me at Join the Impact, to protest California's passage of Proposition 8. I've made some signs in Esperanto to hold. I spent a while trying to come up with catchy signs. The best I came up with were "NE M8U NIN" and "EGALAJ RAJTOJ" and "GEEDZI?O GEJEDZI?O".
I'm really enjoying my local Esperanto group this year. On December 13, we're going to have an Esperanto Day celebration at the Jones Library. We'll have a potluck lunch at noon and then watch Gerda Malaperis. Join us!
When I think of connections with other people, I also can't forget my family: My two wonderful boys, who always make me smile. My wife, oryx, friend, partner, and stalking pony. My mother who keeps me sane. My brother, who I correspond with constantly. My dad. I try to never forget how lucky I am to have these connections that keep me grounded.
It's the weekend before the last week of the summer. I was stressed coming back with only two weeks to get stuff ready, but the first week went pretty well. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm starting to feel like I have things under control.
Today is my birthday. I'm planning to go to the tomato festival at Red Fire Farm. I mentioned to a lot of people that I was going there -- I think Tom and Ella are going to join us, but it seems that most people are busy doing other stuff. Too bad for them.
Yesterday, I saw something that mentioned that there was a survey by McDonalds at The Lost Ring. It's all about their branding. The marketing types believe that everything is about "adding value to the brand" and they're trying to see whether sponsoring a game like this adds value to the brand. I tried to answer the questions honestly, but I think the idea that business is about leveraging the value of a brand to convince people to buy crappier stuff than they would have on their merits is just stupid. I'm sure they would say that its just good business. The weirdest question was something like "What does it say about McDonalds that they would sponsor an experience like The Lost Ring?" My reply was along these lines: "That's like asking, 'what does it say about amphibians that when you lick their skin you have a hallucinogenic experience.' I would answer (1) it's an enigma and (2) it says more about the problems inherent in global capitalism than anything about McDonalds."
After the long ride yesterday, I decided a short ride was in order today. Lucy, Daniel and I rode downtown to the Lord Jeff and had drinks and a light meal. I had a glass of chardonay and we shared an appetizer. It was another beautiful day and we had a wonderful time sitting in the shade and chatting in the warm breeze. The only downside was a nasty blower that the Lord Jeff has right by their exit that would run every so often, drowning out conversation.
I could have ridden quite a bit further, but this was perfect. It's all uphill to downtown, so after our brunch, we could practically just coast home. Tomorrow the weather looks like it will be unsettled. I'm hoping to get work taken care of before noon and have the rain finished up by then as well, letting me take a long bike ride in the afternoon. I think I'm about ready to circumnagivate the Connecticut River.
I took a long bike ride today, leaving around 10 and getting home around 2pm. I wasn't riding all the time -- I rode to the bridge along the bike trail and then explored the new extension into Northampton. I rode along King Street into the middle of Northampton and past to Northampton Bicycle. Then I rode back and turned right at the middle, went under the tracks and along past Joe's Spaghetti. I had a hankering for fried rice, but the Chinese places weren't open yet. So I rode back along the bike trail to Whole Foods and stopped there. I couldn't find fried rice, but I did see a weird "forbidden black rice salad" that looked cool, so I got some of that and some clam chowder. The last 5 miles were the toughest: its the endless hill part of the bike trail and then there are two small climbs at the end of the bikeway connector and by Computer Science. It looks like I rode around 25 miles, all in all. It was about the right amount for the day.
The bike trail is one of the best things about the Amherst area -- it gets a lot of use. There is work going on near the bridge to smooth out the places where roots have created rough patches along the trail. Some places are so rough that you can barely ride, but there are only a few places like that. It's a very restful way to ride a bike, without having cars zipping by just waiting to clip you.
Afterwards, I had planned on going to my office to finish off grades, but the weather is just too nice. It's sunny and cool with a very light breeze -- simply perfect weather. Maybe it will rain tomorrow and make it easy for me to sneak into the office for a couple of hours. But not today.
I went with another group of students on Saturday to collect data. I took some pictures, in addition to the research images. It sounds like another group is going out this afternoon, so I'm planning to ride my bike to meet them.
One of the things I love about doing research is how I start looking at one thing, I notice more stuff about everything. Without projects, I have a tendency to blunder around without noticing what's happening around me. When I get started on a project like this, I'm reminded of how much I've forgotten in terms of tree and plant identification. I don't know the first thing about identifying lichens.
That's actually not quite true. I do remember the first thing: the three basic forms of lichens: crustose, foliose, and fruticose. In searching around for ways to identify lichens, I found The Macrolichens of New England (Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden, Volume 96) . It sounded perfect, so I bought it instantly. I don't know if it will arrive in time to help us with our projects, but hopefully, we can turn around and do lichens again another semester.
Over this week and next, the semester reaches its climax. On Monday, I tried to get my students organized for collecting data, but we didn't really get everything set until Wednesday. Last night, I went with one group to collect data at the East Amherst Common. I'll go with another group tomorrow. The other groups haven't contacted me -- I suspect that means they'd just as soon not have me go with them. The goal is to have the data collected by Monday, which will give us a full week to analyze the data and write the final reports. It would have been good to have another week, but I'm really excited by the data we're collecting.
This semester, the students chose to look at lichens on trees. I love lichens -- I've always thought they were really cool. We're collecting imagery of lichens on trees on town property in Amherst. This is a critical year to collect the imagery, because the coal-fired cogeneration plant on campus is shutting down this year, being replaced by a new oil and gas fired plant. The imagery we collect now can serve as a baseline for studying the changes in air quality associated with the new plant. And we're looking at a bunch of other factors: distance and orientation of roads, traffic, north-south orientation, species, and distance to other trees. There is real potential here for publishable work.
We had a great party in the department to celebrate Zane receiving the Distinguished Teaching Award. The chairman said a few words and then Randy and I each spoke a bit. It was such a treat to see Zane surrounded by her colleagues and students. And friends -- friends all. I sometimes get frustrated by the University and the senseless way they approach things and then I remember who I get to work with. Zane and Randy and Elizabeth... And George and Chris and Robbie... And Tom and Tom and Sally and Brian and Elsbeth... And everyone. Well, not quite everyone. But I really love my job. What wonderful people and what a great place I have to work.
My student's first projects were due today. There's nothing like a due date to bring out all the problems -- there weren't as many as I had feared: a few groups that hadn't worked perfectly and then some individual students trying to jump through all the hoops. With respect to groups, I ask students to reflect that, even if their group hadn't worked perfectly, it probably saved them some effort and that, with a wiki, I can easily see which students contributed fully and which had shirked. The individual problems often revolve around the software: students who haven't figured out how to define styles with their word processor -- or who haven't installed a word processor with styles.
I always ask students to present their work -- usually in a fairly informal way. Great stuff! I was also very pleased with the number of thoughtful questions from other students. The semester is off to a good start.
In the March 27 townwide elections, Alisa trounced the competition, receiving twice as many votes as her opponent. She will serve a three-year term on the select board starting immediately. We're both very gratified by the support of the many volunteers and voters who turned out to make her candidacy possible.
The election got ugly as the other side became increasingly desperate. I was pleased that Alisa ran a very clean campaign. She did everything right: got out an early letter to solicit donations, made an early reservation for a good spot for a signature ad in the paper, got the lawn signs out first, and got two mailings out: a brochure early, and a reminder postcard just before the election.
People have been offering me their condolences - since I will now be a "select board widow", but I don't think it can be any worse than when Alisa was on the school committee and chair of comprehensive planning. And, hopefully, she can slow down for a few weeks before things will need to ramp up again for the override. On May 1st, the town will vote on whether to have a 2 1/2 percent tax override to offset the structural deficit in the Amherst town budget.
I had to laugh when I read Jim Oldham's letter in the Bulletin about Alisa. He said:
As a member of the Comprehensive Planning Committee since December 2005, I can attest to how this contrasts to the leadership style of the third Select Board candidate. Until the committee elected new officers last November, Alisa Brewer, as chairwoman, dominated discussions with long monologues, frequently challenged the input of other members on the basis that we didn't understand the committee's long history, and used agenda-setting as justification for sending members long e-mails discussing upcoming business. Whatever she claims to stand for, this is not a leadership style Amherst needs.
I don't think he realizes what an endorsement this is. My impression is that many people in town are tired of having endless meetings where such vast amounts of time are given over to letting people ramble on far beyond any reasonable time limit. I think people want to have someone who can make people stick within their time limits. I think they also want someone who can set the agenda and make people do their homework before meetings. Anyone who knows Alisa, knows that to call her "dictatorial" is a gross exaggeration, but it's not an exaggeration to say that she's tough and she's not afraid to get stuff done. I think a lot of people agree that this is what Amherst really needs. So, although I think Jim's letter tries to savage Alisa, voters will see through his rhetoric and recognize this letter for the endorsement that it really is.
Last night, I took two snakes to the science night at the neighborhood elementary school. One was a boa and the other a milk snake -- one of those coral snake mimics. They were a big hit with the kids. I was surrounded practically the whole evening with kids wanting to feel and hold them. Which, of course, I let them do. Charlie came after a bit and interpreted for the little snake so I could let kids hold the big snake.
It was my fascination with snakes that first got me interested in science. It's hard to explain, but there's something simple captivating about the other-ness of snakes: the unblinking stare, the sinuous motion, and the flickering tongue.
When I was a kid, girls weren't supposed to like snakes and relatively few did -- people were starting to talk about "women's lib" and there was less pressure on girls then than there probably was 20 years earlier. But last night, it was the girls who were most engaged with the snake -- I was surrounded by girls the whole night. I think one girl would have been happy to sit for the whole evening wrapped in the coils of the boa.
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