The Circle

Someone at Fiddle Camp, I don't remember who, recommended Dave Eggers' The Circle to me. Maybe it was because the main character went to Carleton. This thick book is a quick read (especially since the reader can skim pages here and there), and it is certainly a plot-driven novel. After I finished it, I read the NY Times review and have to say that I agree with Ullman on the flaws of the book. 

"This potential dystopia should sound familiar. Books and tweets and blogs are already debating the issues Eggers raises: the tyranny of transparency, personhood defined as perpetual presence in social networks, our strange drive to display ourselves, the voracious information appetites of Google and Facebook, our lives under the constant surveillance of our own government.

“The Circle” adds little of substance to the debate. Eggers reframes the discussion as a fable, a tale meant to be instructive. His instructors include a Gang of 40, a Transparent Man, a shadowy figure who may be a hero or a villain, a Wise Man with a secret chamber and a smiling legion of true-believing company employees. The novel has the flavor of a comic book: light, entertaining, undemanding."

So, yes, with all its flaws, it was a fun (and scary) read, although the Carleton connection did not stand up very well for me.

The Radish

I do not know what triggered this thought in my head this morning, but I remember a piece of graffiti in the Carleton tunnels. 

Back in the day, when Americans were less lawsuit-happy, students used the steam tunnels that run underneath the Carleton campus to get from dorm to class to dining hall in warmth during the frigid Minnesota winters. When I was considering Carleton in high school, the tunnels were touted as being "student decorated." That meant graffiti. Carls, known for their/our quirky sense of humor painting such sayings as, "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." Here is a photo from the Carleton archives of the Twister board.

Back to my morning mind flash. I was thinking of the phrase, "We have all had the radish." I read that on the wall nearly every winter day as I went to class, and I never knew what that meant. When I asked others, they had no idea, either. Well, now we have the internet, and now I know! I found a blog called "Had the Radish," and this is what it said.

The unknown artist must have spray-painted that during finals.

Sea Food Paradise

When our daughter went off to college, she thought we would enjoy meeting her friend's parents, so she made a point of introducing us (first via the internet and IM - remember IM?). Then we officially met them when they were visiting So Cal. At that time they were living in Kansas City, but now they live in Carlsbad, which is not too very far from here. In December they were taking their son to Rancho Cucamonga and Claremont was on their way, so we reconnected for the first time since our daughters' graduation in 2007.

We decided to get together again, this time to meet somewhere between Carlsbad and Claremont, and they suggested their favorite Dim Sum restaurant in Westminster. We had not had Dim Sum in quite a while, and as soon as we sat down and saw the amazing amounts of diversity rolling around on the carts, H immediately said that he wanted to return, and very soon. The food was excellent, and it was worth the 40-minute drive. Apparently, Sunday is the best, and busiest day to go. The selection is greater and the food fresher. We arrived by 10:45, so we were seated immediately. The bottom picture shows a little bit about how big the place is.

Carleton Alums, Convo, and Schiller

I have blogged in the past about Carleton College and our strange history with a bust of the German poet philosopher Friedrich Schiller. This morning while I was streaming the Carleton Convocation (the speaker was our classmate, Bob Daily who I've also blogged about), but I learned something about Schiller today that I hadn't known.

The poet used to keep rotting apples in his desk drawer, and when he needed a little inspiration, he would sniff the putrid odor. Apparently, rotting apples give off methane gas which can give a powerful elevating effect, or, in other words, can give you a buzz. And this is the icon my alma mater has elevated to some kind of godlike status. Yup. It's a quirky school. (I've always known that.)

Bob's talk was about his road from Carleton to Hollywood and also about creativity. You can watch an archived stream of this talk (and others) at this site. It might take a day or two to be archived.

Pipestone Vineyards

Spring Break Trip - Day 4

Last Saturday was the day to start wandering home from the central coast, and I had it in my mind that I wanted to visit Pipestone Vineyards just outside of Paso Robles, one of California's wine regions. Through the Carleton network, I knew that this winery was owned by Carls who were there when we were (even though we didn't know them at the time). 

Pipestone is tucked away down a small road, so you have to know it is there to find it, although if you have the address, the GPS (or the directions on the website) will get you there with no problem. 

From the website: "Pipestone Vineyards is a small family winery with a dedicated history of sustainable farmingand producing handmade Estate Grown Rhône-style wines from Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, & Viognier and a dry farmed Zinfandel. Jeff Pipes and Florence Wong use draft horses, organic methods of pest-control, and feng shui in their farming practices.

We arrived just as the tasting room opened up and walked in with our Carleton gear blazing, so Florence knew immediately that we had a connection. We started chatting and getting the wine glasses set up when another group came in. Turns out that three of those four were also Carls, so we had a nice gab-fest and figuring out how we were all connected. Oh, yeah, we tried some nice wines, too....

An hour and a half later, we walked out with 3 bottles of wine and new friends. Too bad that Jeff wasn't there. Maybe next time...

Fridays in Minnesota on the Web (and a photo)

This morning I saw on Facebook that I could stream the convocation live, and since I was home, I thought I would do so. Every Friday during the academic year, Carleton shortens classes by 10 minutes each so that everyone has an open hour to hear the speaker. When I was a student I heard Richard Leakey and various other speakers at this Friday ritual. However, I know that I did not take advantage of the richness of these opportunities as a student since I would frequently use that extra hour to prep for my next class, or something else. Now, I know better, and I think I might try to make up for lost time and check in with these free Friday talks. They start at 10:50 a.m. in Northfield, so that makes live streaming start here at 8:50 a.m.

Today's convocation featured Sherry Turkle from MIT. She spoke about the human relationships we have with technology, and how technology shapes our relationships with other humans. This talk will be archived in the near future, so if that seems interesting to you, check back in a few days to see if you can watch it, too.

Schiller!

So, you know that one of our Carleton classmates, Bob Daily, writes for Desperate Housewives.  I blogged about our visit to the set of the show at Universal Studios this past January.

Word has slipped that Schiller will appear on the final episode of the ABC comi-drama, airing this coming Sunday.  Most of you will ask yourselves, who the heck is Schiller, what does he have to do with Carleton, and why should I even care?

I could spend quite a few paragraphs of the details of Schiller, or you could read about the importance of the bust of this German poet at this Carlwiki page.  I will give you a brief summary here.

It is a long tradition that a small statue of Schiller is to be held in secret by some Carl (or Carls) and must be shown at very public events.  Schiller appears at homecoming games, convocations, and other local events, but he has also been known to appear with Bill Clinton at Carleton's 2000 commencement, at the end of the Colbert Report, and at a taping of A Prairie Home Companion.

Also appearing in the final episode, Bob will have a cameo appearance as Moving Man #2 (it would appear that Marc Cherry is Moving Man #1).

For us Carls, this is considered pretty extremely exciting news.  For the rest of you, I promise to return to Life in Claremont  tomorrow.

Wisteria Lane

While other people chose to celebrate with reverence yesterday, we took the opportunity to take a private tour of Wisteria Lane (the outdoor set of Desperate Housewives) as well as the sound studios at Universal Studios.  One of our college classmates has been a writer for the show since season three, and along with some other classmates in LA, we had a mini-reunion at the studios.  First we took a van tour and saw many of the streets from other movies and tv shows (including the Bates Motel from Psycho and the town square from Back to the Future).   Then we got to wander throughout Wisteria Lane and take photos and go into the houses which actually have rooms inside (many are just facades).

After lunch we popped into the sound studios and watched the filming of part of one scene with Bree Van de Kamp (you won't hear a spoiler from me....) and then met her along with Orson Hodge.  (Yes, I know that their real names are Marcia Cross and Kyle MacLachlan.)  They film about 5 minutes a day for each episode, so it takes 8 days of filming to get their 42 minutes and 20 seconds of episode.  

Quickly wisked away to the hospital set next, we watched while Vanessa Williams rehearsed a scene, then left the room while a stand-in sat in her place to get the lighting correct.

Because our friend is one of the writers, we also went to the room where he spends most of his time and saw the board with the plot lines pinned up, color-coded and edited.  We asked if he knew what would happen in the final episode (this is the last season), and yes, he does; we don't.

The final part of the tour was visiting one of the 5 trailers where they keep the wardrobes for the cast.  Wow!  It takes 10 people to take care of all the parts of outfitting the actors, including the shopping (I hear you can get great deals at Target!), cleaning, maintaining, and keeping track of who wears what for each episode in case there will be a flashback.... I was exhausted just thinking about it all, and I had a great appreciation for all 250 names that come up at the end of an episode.

To learn more about the houses of Wisteria Lane, click on the Wiki page link and see what other shows have been filmed on this street.

Gaby and Carlos Solis House

Susan's Kitchen

Also the Leave it to Beaver house

Haircut

My recent blog posts have been about food, which is fitting since it's been Thanksgiving week with a birthday thrown in.  I see that food has overtaken book as my number one label/tag this week.  Partly that is because I am 300 pages in to 1Q84 by Murakami with 650 pages left.  I've been reading, but it will be awhile before I report on a finished book.  This novel is in three sections, though, and I could possibly write a post after each section.  We'll see.

Today I thought I'd write about something that I have been doing about once a month for nearly 31 years now.  When I met H in college, when we were all living on a shoestring, he handed me his black-handled desk scissors and asked me to trim his bangs.  Slightly shocked that someone would trust me with this endeavor, I decided to go for it.

Soon I was cutting all around his head, and when I got better at it, my mom bought me a pair of haircutting shears, and then I started coifing a few other male friends' heads, and then I started charging $2 a pop.  Slowly I transformed H's bowl cut into the regular guy cut that he sports today.

With a little back-of-the-envelope calculating, I figure I've done this over 370 times, and if I figure that the average cost of a cut would run $20-25 over the long haul, we have saved over $7,000 in barber costs.

My mom has been cutting my dad's hair for over 50 years, so their savings is even greater.

Of course, I've probably spent more than that on my own head in the same amount of time.

German Poet and Minnesota Energy

Carleton College isn't known for being a nerd college for nothing.  Facebook directed me to this blog by a junior bio major in which she chronicles the dedication of the second wind turbine the college has erected.  This new turbine will power one third of Carleton's energy.  If that isn't nerdy enough, Friedrich Schiller made an appearance at the dedication.

If you are familiar with this German poet, you know that he is no longer with us, and you are sort of right.  A bust of Schiller, however, is one of Carleton's most famous residents, although few know where exactly he resides at any given time. He appears at special occasions, usually arriving with masked people, and disappears quickly.  You can read more about this crazy tradition at this wiki page.

The blog post features more photos which are worth viewing.

What the Dog Saw

In my Malcolm Gladwell kick, I have just finished What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures.  This book is a compilation of his favorite work he published in New Yorker.  While there are three sections which have a central theme, this book does not have one overarching idea tying the thoughts together.  The upside to that is that a few of the articles did not interest me, and it did not detract from the book if I skipped or skimmed them.  But other articles grabbed my attention and put a spin on how to look at something in a new way.

This picture is of a paragraph which mentions three Carleton professors and the research they did on personality characteristics.

Flooding in Northfield, MN

News is coming in fast and furious about the flooding of the Cannon River in Northfield, MN. I guess the river rose about 8 feet in 24 hours. You can read an update in the Northfield News or at the Carleton College website.

Strange Week at my Alma Mater

Yes. I love my alma mater, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Here are two wild events that happened there just this week. First, the Goodsell Observatory was dressed up as the world's biggest R2-D2 and made it into The Chronicle of Higher Education. Today, 529 students broke the Guinness Book of World Records to create the longest chain of spooning. See, it's not always snowing in Minnesota!

Carleton Day at JPL

On Saturday, Hal and I toured JPL with a group of Carleton alums. Out of 5,000 employees at JPL, four are Carls, and all four led the tour. We learned about the newest rover that will go to Mars, saw the clean room where it is being assembled, and learned more about the current rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) as well as other things that people at JPL are working on.

Buzztime Trivia

One of my volunteer efforts this year is to organize about 4 Carleton alum events per year for the Inland Empire. Last fall we had a potluck BBQ, and today we competed in a trivia game with 14 other Carleton clubs across the country. Seven of us gathered at Tequila Hoppers in Upland where you can get a game box and answer trivia questions that appear on a screen. The faster you answer correctly, the more points you get. Well, our LA club didn't win, but certainly had fun!

On Cafeteria Trays

Yesterday on Facebook, the Carleton College page posted a video blog entry about traying- a time-honored winter tradition. Ah, yes, "borrow" a cafeteria tray and use it to slide down the big snow-covered hill. Much fun!

I commented, "I wonder if Carleton will go the way of other colleges and stop using trays in the cafeteria. They say that it reduces waste from people taking more than they can eat, plus it saves water by not having to wash the trays. If Carleton does go that way, perhaps they can assign trays to each dorm room. So, each student gets 1 bed, 1 dresser, 1 tray."

Carleton answered back that they had tried some trayless days, but it hadn't gone over very well. (I'm surprised they didn't comment on my great suggestion about standard room issue.)

So, today I went to eat lunch at the Harvey Mudd cafeteria which has already implemented traylessness. (I ran into a prof who brings his own tray - a gift from his wife with his name written on it.) I think I do actually take less food when I have to revert back to my waitressing days and carry two plates (one salad, one chicken fettuccine), one fork and a cup of water. And I don't need a tray for sledding since we have no snow, or hills, around here.

Check out the article at the NYTimes about this issue.

Venturing Out

Today I decided I could keep one of my plans, so I interviewed a prospective student for Carleton. We have an alumni admissions network which allows high school seniors to have interviews closer to their homes with alumni. A group of alums met in downtown Claremont in an office building and students came in with their parents. Although it went on for most of the day, I came for a bit in the afternoon and chatted with one student. High school seniors look younger all the time! These guys are 4 years younger than Claire!

Say what you will about Facebook. . .

Today I got in contact with a college roommate through Facebook. I had followed her a bit through the Alumni publications and knew that she had moved to France, but that's all I knew about her. She has been in France for nearly half her life now, and she and her husband run a champagne vineyard. Now I have a link to her blog about running the enterprise!

Alum Gathering

My newest volunteer duty is to be in charge of planning events for Carleton alumni in the Inland Empire. Tonight was our first event - a potluck. 9 of us enjoyed good food and great conversation. I even met an alum who went on the same program to Graz, Austria that I did, so we had some stories to share.

Grand Memorial Service

This morning a sanctuary full of people came to celebrate the life of T. Willard Hunter, one of Claremont's treasures. You can read a more full obituary here. I feel at a loss to explain his many accomplishments and influences in a simple blog post.

I was surprised to see a casket at the front of the church since most of our memorial services don't have one. Throughout the service we were all treated to remembrances of Willard's life, and most people referred to the fact that he had scripted his funeral (NOT a memorial service) down to the detail, including the casket, so that people could have some closure.

I was one of the many people who received a letter in the mail from Willard. We had been discussing a book by Marcus Borg, and he sent me a typewritten letter of several pages espousing his thoughts on Borg's theology. I am also proud to have graduated from Willard's alma mater, even attending an alumni event in downtown LA with him.