More Mail, All the Way from Shanghai

Just as promised, today from Shanghai my textbook arrived. Mine's the only legible name on the cover to most of us on this side of the Pacific, but it's good to see the book, College Business English Integrated Course, published by Qinghua University Press in Beijing, China. It's the first volume of a four-volume set. We're currently working on Volume 3.

My friends Cuiping Yang and Ming-Fang Lin were the driving forces behind the project, two good people that were excellent hosts when I was there in 2001. Other editors included Yal-Li Zhou and Xin-Guo Ye.

It's not what I anticipated might be the first book with my name on it, but here it is. Complete with a student text and a teacher's version. ISBN: 97B-7-302-18720-2 or 97B-7-302-18719-6.

Happy Day!

Something In the Mail

A reminder of the plight in Tibet came in my mail. I've put it temporarily above the wood stove, where the heated air is keeping it in motion.

"No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'" A quotation from Danielle Berry in the latest issue of The Sun.

Winchesters at the Museum

My article about John Goeman's brown-bag presentation at the Smith-Zimmermann Museum is in the Madison Daily Leader. I hope to get over there and hear about Winchesters and their short-lived foray into hardware of all stripes. Best known for their repeater rifles, Winchester built a network of hardware stores in the '20's, but they failed after a decade. Collectors around the world have apparently become enamored of the skates, saws, flashlights, wrenches, knives, forks, toasters, hatchets, and more with the Winchester logo. Check out their membership and store here.

Winterfest Car Show

Some people spend a lot of time and energy on websites, playing games, or reading books. Other people build cool cars. EJ and I traveled to Sioux Falls today to look at some cars and motorcycles and drop off some posters for our own car show in Madison this summer. I had to take several pictures for the daughter's man of the 1948 orange and black hearse outfitted to load the motorcycle. Check out it and the other cool cars and bikes in the slide show below. Click on it to see the larger photos. (Sorry, no photos of Miss Sturgis, who was signing posters at the event.)

One trend I noticed was the use of painted trim that replaced chrome strips and emblems. I took a few closeups to illustrate. Check out the meats on that Corvette--they must have been more than two feet wide! Someone was making cool choppers using old Honda 90 engines for power. A few vintage cars were evident.

Dr. Droge and Mr. Darwin

Last night my colleague Dale Droge portrayed a man celebrating his 200th birthday, Mr. Charles Darwin, Beagle voyager and barnacle collector. Also, the author of some books that have caused a bit of a stir.

It was a pleasant evening with a good turnout of supporters and a small contingent of detractors. All was handled with aplomb and grace.

Thank you, Dr. D, for getting this presentation together to give us a glimpse at a man whose name became an -ism, encouraged by a lot of -ists.

More such portrayals would be welcome!

All Hail the Woman With the Knife

I'm all for equal rights, and I'm doubly agreeable when a woman

1. Has a big knife
2. Has a chocolate-topped Rice Krispy treat
3. Is willing to share.

Today, all three could be said of LR, shown here, who enhanced my canned-soup lunch today by sharing her treat with others.

It's been a good two days, with chili yesterday supplied by CB and JB, with crackers not ravaged by time and the elements, supplied by NM.

Read Blog--> Purchase-->Try-->Get Flowers

My colleague JL appreciated my showing him the "Cool New Scraper Tool" that I wrote about last month, and he managed to score one at Ace Hardware last week to try on a home project over the weekend.
He reports that the dandy scraper worked fine on the ridges under the tile he was removing, but the smoother cement underneath wouldn't budge. Thus doomed to buying a new tool, he brought home a grinder and a masonry disk, which promptly turned much of the concrete to dust. Dust drifted through the house despite the efforts at containing it to the room with plastic. Much later, the cement ground down, he's about ready to lay new, lovelier tile.
Meanwhile, the lovely lady who suggested the project noted that it had turned into something more than what she'd expected. These flowers reflect her revised notion of what the project entailed. So JL gets a new tool AND flowers. Cool!

Standing in the Parish Church in Vienna

The work that goes into some places of worship sometimes astounds the senses as one realizes just how the faith transforms into artistic expression. My aunt Kathy sent me the link to this one-gig 3-D scrollable photo of the Parish Church of Marie Treu, in Vienna, Austria; it had its first mass in 1796. Scroll and you'll get a sense of what it might be to stand in the church gazing upward, turning to admire the beauty of the structure. Follow my link here and check it out. Exterior shot is from Wikipedia. Thanks, Kathy!

Failure and the Secret to Success

I liked this video produced by Honda on the idea that permission to fail leads people to successes otherwise not available.

My Other Inspiration

The wife sent me this video the other day that also helped get the ball rolling on my little stop-motion cookie attack. It's The Guggenheim Grotto singing "Her Beautiful Ideas."

My Inspiration From Today

Cookies Came to See Me

Sometimes things just come together the way you want them to. Thanks, Amy!

Unattended Cookies

Just outside my office door, someone has left several packages of unattended homemade cookies. They appear to be chocolate chip, several to a package. I can't smell them, but I can IMAGINE their smell. Yes, I have other things to do, but my concern for the fate of these cookies is demanding some of my attention.

Remember John Updike

I never met John Updike, though it would have been a definite treat.  I haven't met a lot of famous authors or seen them in person.  But Updike, who died yesterday, gave a lot of himself in the many books, stories, and articles that he wrote.  As a book reviewer for the Wichita Eagle years ago, it was Updike's novels that gave me most pause; he was a big-time writer, and he was alive.   Who was I to be commenting on his newest book (at that time, it was Roger's Version)?  I felt like a fraud, but I loved his work, and I never tired of teaching his short story, "A & P," about a young man who makes what may be a fateful decision that readers enjoy seeing unfold.  His Rabbit series kept my attention through several novels.  He'll be remembered as someone who "who opened a big picture window on the American middle class in the second half of the 20th century," as noted by the New York Times article on his death.  R.I.P.  

Remember that Six-Mile Bottom

My sister was stationed in England at the same time I was doing my stint in Germany, and when I visited her there we enjoyed noting the strange place names.  One nearby her Lakenheath station was Six Mile Bottom, which we thought was worth naming a place for.  That's a big bottom!  

The New York Times reports today on other place names there that seem to have escaped us, such at Titty Ho, Penistone, and Spanker Lane.  "No Snickering, That Road Sign Means Something Else" points out that although you may have claimed your home town (or the one you live in now) is the armpit of the world, at least no one could claim that you must have grown up in Butt Hole Road.  

No Photos, Only Good Memories

Sometimes it's the photos of moments that we use to recall the memories associated with them, but what if there are no photos?  My memory of our Robbie Burns party last night includes only the scantest recall of photos being taken--no group photos, that's for sure.  But it was an excellent party, with old acquaintences not forgot, new ones learned better.  Thanks to the B's for their excellent hosting and food, the R's for their good company, the S's for their wit (and reading of "To a Haggis"), and to H and G for their willingness to put up with a group of us who know each other well and can't help sometimes falling into talk of work.  

Happy 250th Birthday, Robert Burns!  

"Jesus Christ Superstar" at the Pavillion

We went to see "Jesus Christ Superstar" last night at the Washington Pavillion.  I was both intrigued and dreading to see Ted Neeley in the main role, having seen the movie several times when it came out in 1973 and the play in Louisville, KY, when I was stationed at Fort Knox.  Whether he played the main role in the play I saw I don't remember, but it was good enough that I bought a t-shirt.  I was quite the fan of the play, the movie, and the music, singing one of the songs in our high school's Christmas concert.  

This version was pretty good; Neeley did fine but is well beyond his prie and looks and sounds like it.  He's still got his voice, but it's got a lot of miles showing.  The youth and vigor of the cast made Neeley's stage presence look less like a meditative young Jesus than a tired older man.  Still, the music still works, and this performance showed off a lot of the new stage techniques in lighting and other effects that enhanced the play.  

As much as I hate to say it, though, Neeley should hand off the role to someone who can step up and remake that role.  

Cool New Scraper Tool

I was going to make a note about the great pecan pie that made it home with us today, courtesy of a Kentucky native. but that pie was so last hour. Now I'm interested in a new (and inexpensive) tool that promises to make quick work of scraping jobs, like taking the glue or old carpet off a hardwood floor. Check it out! From This Old House.

Tiling Done, Fire Blazing

We got the stove back in tonight after finally laying the tile.  There's still work to be done on the stove situation, but the stove is in and no damage to the new tile.  

Thanks to Justin and Pat for helping move the stove out.  Thanks to Justin for helping move it back again this evening.  Thanks especially go to Donna (who helped pick out tile and grout colors), Joe, and Megan for coming and helping lay tile.  And of course, many thanks forever to the wife, who laid into the grout last night and had a vision of what it all could be.  

Clearly, Walter is thankful too.  

Soon the carpet will be tacked down, trim and mantel put up, and (hopefully) tin will be laid behind the stove.  

Raising the Right Hand

Today's inauguration of Barack Obama as our President was an act of hope and promise that will play out, one way or another, over the next few years. The contrast between this President and the last couldn't be much stronger, and I'm glad to have come around to him, glad to have reached out, just as he did that summer day in Mitchell, SD, to shake his hand.

How this new administration will set about addressing the challenges they face is a mystery to me.

Giving people hope and inspiration and asking them to help--that's a good start.