PTAS ImeS AND PReSeNT TimeS - Wesleyan University
Wesleyan UniversityWasch Center for Retired FacultyNewsletter Vol. 7, No. 2Spring 2016Pastimes and Present TimesBy Al TurcoIt is a fact of academic life that most of usknow colleagues mainly through ees served on, faculty meetingsattended, and other duties whose inutility (alwaysexcepting teaching) often does not becomeapparent until we no longer need to performthem. Of course we knew that our colleagues,like us, have extracurricular interests–this oneplays golf; that one, chess; a third, the field. Butthese are mere for-instances; there are deeperwaters, unsecret though often unknown. In theaggregate, evidence shows that if you can’t makea living from a hobby, you may at least make alife.What happens to our inspired eccentricitiesafter retirement?Curious on this point, Iemailed the grand list of emeriti faculty to seewhat news would emerge.Quite a lot did. First, I needed to weed out afew replies of dubious import and questionableprovenance – e.g., an amateur magician whoclaims to have yanked a grinning Karl Scheibe,feet first, out of a top hat. For the rest, I wassurprised by the range and depth of responses –from pool playing to pool tending, from paintingto poker to poetry – and that was just the P’s.What impressed me most is that everypastime described is a continuation, areawakening, or a discovery alive and well inthe present tense – thus belying the stereotypethat retirement necessarily means beating a slowretreat to the rocking chair. Our natural frailtiesaside, most of us are off our rocker. Sometime weplay nearly hard enough to turn an avocation into acalling. Enough said. Let the thirteen respondersbelow speak for themselves.Read about the Pastimes and Present Timesof these retired Wesleyan faculty in this issueAllan Berlind.p. 2Tony Connor.p. 2Stew Gillmor.p. 3Joyce Lowrie.p. 3Laurie Nussdorfer.p. 4Dick Ohmann.p. 4Paula Paige.p. 8Joe Reed.p. 8Phyllis Rose.p. 9Karl Scheibe.p. 9Vera Schwarcz.p. 9Bill Stowe.p. 11Al Turco.p. 11.there are deeper waters,unsecret though often unknown.1Continued on page 2.
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 1.“A Late Game”ALLAN BERLINDPuzzledWe size up the pool table,my friend and I, both of uscreaky from lack of practice,arthritic in certain joints,but keen to test our mettle,as in our earlier daysof field-sports, girls and parties,locker-lore and drunken chants.One of my post-retirement hobbies is theconstruction of acrostic puzzles. I’ve been a solverof all types of word puzzles since I was in the crib.I made up my first crossword in high school andhad it published in the school paper. I particularlyenjoy acrostic construction because of the rangeof tasks and mental challenges it entails: findingquotations that are entertaining, surprising and/orprovocative; manipulating an often uncooperativebunch of letters into interesting clue words, andthen writing clue definitions that are neither tooeasy nor impossibly difficult. I made up my firstacrostic many years ago, an arduous task withoutany special aids. After retiring, I reasoned thatthere must be good computer programs to helpwith construction, and found an excellent onecalled Acrostic 3 that is great for keeping track ofprogress and alerting the constructor to remainingproblems that need to be resolved. I now keepmy eyes peeled for promising quotations in prettymuch everything I read, and also keep myself alertfor thought-provoking clue words, particularlythose which contain hard to use up letters. I’vehad puzzles published in the Argus and theWasch Newsletter. I haven’t tried to peddle them;so far my audience has been several enthusiasticand appreciative friends. I have not been able toconvince the Alumni Bulletin to print any of themany Wesleyan-related puzzles I’ve made up.Perhaps they don’t believe that a biologist can be aman of letters.The Senior Center’s newand this is our first visit.We buckle down to the gamewith self-confident vigour,Lowell grinds chalk on his cue,I reverse my cue and twirl it,then we bang balls at random,missing some altogether.Three other old geezersare playing in slow motionbeneath the wall-hung flat screenwhere Oprah’s at full throttle.They mutter, “shit!”, “shot!”, “Jesus!”,shuffling to take position,one leant on a walking frame,one stiff-legged, one bent double.I feather a cushion ball -the ghost of lost competenceguiding my shot – which shrinks fromthe pocket. Lowell mis-cues,and his ball jumps the table,but I get my comeuppancethere and then, when he hits formin a potting storm. I lose.TONY CONNOROf Poetry and PoolThe three old geezers give up,arguing amicablyas they leave, but we play onthrough the afternoon’s boredom,the Center’s edge towards sleepround Oprah’s Celebrity.Only the desk guy stays onfor our fumbled, final game.Lately I’ve been playing pool – after a forty yearbreak. I met Lowell Svennungsen when he wasa Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology here. Inhis time he’s practiced architecture, played in jazzbands, composed songs and painted. Now heplays pool with me – content to be termed an “oldgeezer.” (What other kind is there?) Here’s thepoem I’ve written about it.Continued on page 3.Wasch Center f or R e t ir ed Fa c ult y2
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 2.when we only had five guys, I played bass drum withone hand and trumpet with the other. Students,professors, alumni -- allwelcome as regulars orguests. Marriages havebeen built in the PepBand!Now retirement. Time to catch my breath,plant a vineyard, and make a small winery. The lasttwo winters, the most severe in CT in over a century,brought heavy loss to our Riesling and CabernetFranc vines. My basement full of pH, SO2, T.A.,hydrometry, Malolactic Fermentation tools, plusthree- and five-gallon glass carboys of wine inprocess. Wife, avid gardener, hopes this activitywill keep me out of trouble; she won’t let me climbthe telephone pole anymore since I’m now 77. Imay be a little crazy.STEW GILLMORVintage Pep40 years inWes Pep BandRather than inflict a boringly coherent account ofthe outcomes of my release from teaching courses,sitting on committees, producing scholarlyresearch et. al., I will offer a conglomeration ofimprobabilities traversing a lifetime of duties,follies, hobbies and headaches in amiable disorder.I can, at mediocre level, play , tenor sax, alto sax, sousaphone. Iwent to Antarctica as an undergrad for 14 monthswith an official Soviet expedition. I was pianistat the Central City, CO “Gilded Garter Saloon.”I led tourists on the last cruise of a famous oldMississippi river boat from New Orleans toNatchez. I landed in the dark during a Congocivil war between Colonel Mobutu and PatriceLumumba. I entered airport at Johannesburgwith the most overweight baggage [8000 lbs.] in S.African history. I worked on and flew in WWII exNavy PBY amphibian and made large yagi antennafor Arctic radar experts. I helped on secret nucleartests conducted from height of 200 kilometers; Iwas in Azores, bombs exploded over S. Atlantic. Iwas interviewed in Russian language on Voice ofAmerica, then had to re-do it in English becauseVOA editors said my Russian was too foul to useon air. I gained inner strength by eating boiledsheep intestines during l’Aid el Kebir holiday inTunis. You think that’s all?Here’s more. I danced, at age 3, with movieactress Anne Dvorak, in an Army amputee hospitalin Texas. Fifty years later I played piano in a livebenefit with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward,Jason Robards Jr., Bobby Short, Joan Collins,Kathy Lee Gifford, Phylicia Rashad. I moved oneof our two houses (built circa 1720) 8 miles fromChester to Higganum rolling on 24 wheels alongroute 148 to route 81 to new address. I installed100 foot telephone pole in our back field for myham radio antennas.Now back to music: I helped advise andplay for more than 40 years in Wes Pep Band atbaseball, football, hockey, basketball games (menand women’s) and other special occasions.Idrove stalwarts to Williams, Amherst, Trinity;JOYCE LOWRIEOpera-tunityBrazil is the place of my birth. One might thinkthat “samba” references that statement, but that isnot the case. I was exposed, at a very early age, toclassical music. My mother, who was also born andgrew up in Brazil, came from a musical family. Sheremembered that when she was a little girl, the housein which the family lived in São Paulo was locatedacross the street from theTeatro Municipal, the operahouse that was built in 1911,and was modeled after theOpéra Garnier in Paris. Shewould sit on the steps, sheclaimed, and rememberedhearing Caruso sing. WhenI came to the United Statesto attend college, I lived withmy sister for ten months.An opera lover and singerherself, she listened regularly to the NBC announcerMilton Cross, who served the Met for 43 years. Myavocational interest in opera, one might say, runs inmy blood.Myavocationalinterestin opera.runs in myblood.Continued on page 4.3Newsletter Spring 2016
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 3.I’ve been three times and am planning a fourthwalk next May. Using a terrific website (www.luggagetransfers.co.uk/), I make my ownarrangements for lodging along the section ofthe path that I’ve chosen and hire a company topick up my bags each day and drop them off atmy next night’s B&B. Sometimes I walk alone andsometimes with friends or family. Last summermy sister and I indulged our passion for Poldarknovels by exploring Cornwall’s mining coast,which turned out to be close also to the lighthousethat inspired Virginia Woolf. By the way, I do trainor practice year round; I have a three-mile climbright outside my door in upstate New York that Itry to do several times a week.Last year, I had the honor to be invited by PeterFrenzel and Walter Mayo, experts on opera, to jointhem in teaching one of the WILL Wasch Centercourses. Titled “Three Operatic Femmes Fatales,”or as Walter called it familiarly, “Operatic BadGirls,” we explored the motif of the “femme fatale”in Bizet’s “Carmen,” Saint-Saëns’s “Dalila,” andRichard Strauss’s “Salomé.” We focused on theirorigins and their previous analogues in literature,art, and popular culture, culminating in film noir.Among the pleasures of studying and enjoyingopera is the opportunity to see and hear, right herein Middletown, the Met’s Saturday series of operasin HD. Among the audience is a small group ofopera devotees, average age about 60. We’re in thevanguard.DICK OHMANNOn the CardsLAURIE NUSSDORFERWalking England’s Coastal FootpathIn twenty years of retirement, I’ve playedpoker once a month or so, often in a game thatstarted before I arrived at Wesleyan in 1961. Mysenior colleague, the late Ihab Hassan, askedme to join. Since high school I had enjoyed theaggression, deception and adrenaline rushes thatcharacterize poker. Those rushes were substantialEven before I retired I had become addicted toEngland’s extraordinary coastal trail, extending630 miles along the entire southwest of thecountry (counties of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall).Now I can “train” and go whenever I please, andLaurie on the South CoastWasc h Center f or R e t ir ed Fa c ult yContinued on page 5.4
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 4.in Middletown, where pots could grow well past 100. John Cage, during his year at the Centerfor Advanced Studies, once raised me 300—more than 3% of my annual salary. It’s not goodto consider the real value of chips, in the middleof a hand. I thought instead about my strongholding and Cage’s stochastic style of play. Icalled. He showed a trash hand. Accordingto Dick Winslow, Cage said he “liked to lose.Usually he succeeded.”The quality of play was as low as theexcitement was high, and the game cheapenedas we aged. One can now toss in no more than 40 in a round of betting--about a fortieth thesize, in constant dollars, ofJohn Cage’s mightywager. The game also became wilder,as adrenaline mingled with othersubstances, and as we abandoned ourmidnight curfew, often playing untildawn or after.The only player currently teachingat Wesleyan is chemist Phil Bolton.Our group includes two women,one a tournament player. Manynon- academics have been regulars.Bookstore owner Trumbull Huntingtonand Middletown Press publisherWoody D’Oench, were members whenI arrived. Woody is now the game’sconvener. Others have included anEpiscopal priest, a broker, a consultant,a car auctioneer, a behind- the-scenesWaterbury politician, a survivor of theDutch underground, a mechanic, aman with a lawn-and-garden business,a security guard, and a couple of 1960sdropouts. Town-gown collaboration,united by a determination to take eachother’s money.I vividly recall one unplannedencounter. On a hot night we opened thefront door of 271 Court St. to let in somecool air. Around 10:00 in the morningthree well-dressed Jehovah’s Witnesseswalked into the squalid-scene—droopyplayers, cards, chips, cash, bourbon bottle,beer cans, overflowing ashtrays. “Oh, I see,”said the lead Witness, “we’ll come backanother time.” They never did.Foxwoods opened its poker room in 1992.Many home games folded. Ours continues,though many of our number have died,moved, or quit. The convocation is no longerin Middletown, and we follow casino rules.So is it the same game, philosophers?The adrenaline and silliness still work,for me. Getting the former without the latterfrom organized tournaments, I take two orthree poker vacations a year at Foxwoods,when offered a free room.“The Emeriti Live it Up!” Drawing by Lewis CarrollContinued on page 8.5Newsletter Sp ring 2016
The Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning Spring 2016In the spring semester the Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning will offer seven regular courses plus a one-dayprogram. The courses are listed below together with times and dates. For more complete descriptions of thecourses and the one-day event, cost, and enrollment information, please visit www.wesleyan.edu/will or call theWasch Center at 860/685-2273.Thomas Jefferson: Integrity in the Individual Life andthe Meaning of “Greatness”Richard VoigtFour Tuesdays, February 23, March 1, 8 & 15, 6-7:30pmButterfield Room - 100From Freud to Facebook: 100 Years of Psychotherapy in AmericaSteve BankThree Thursdays, April 14, 21, 28, 4:30-6pmButterfield Room - 70The Epic of GilgameshHerb ArnoldFive Mondays, March 28, April 4, 11 & 18, 25; 4:30-6pmButterfield Room - 110Three Great Myths: Oedipus, Persephone,and DionysusElizabeth BobrickSix Thursdays, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 & April 7,6:30-8:30pmButterfield Room - 175Birth of the Modern: Paris, New York and theAge of Abstraction (1848-1948)Richard J. FriswellFive Tuesdays, April 26, May 3, 10, 17 &24, 6-7:30pmButterfield Room - 110Geologic Resources and the Evolution of Societies inWestern EuropeJelle Zeilinga de BoerFour Mondays, May 2, 9, 16 & 23; 4:30-5:30pmButterfield Room - 70A Shakespearean Romance: The Winter’s TaleAl TurcoFour Mondays, February 29, March 7, 14 & 21, 6:30-8pmButterfield Room - 100Was c h Center for R e t ir ed Fa c ult y6
The Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning Spring 2016Knowing and Enjoying the Connecticut RiverJelle deBoer. Mark & Mindy YuknatSpend a day on the Connecticut River aboard theRiverquest cruiser enjoying commentary on the historyand ecology of the river. Learn about the geology ofthe river valley, birds and fishes, and some history ofthe river’s shipping and commercial importance. Hearthe latest news and discussion about the health of theriver. Staff includes Captain Mark Yuknat and his wife,Mindy Yuknat who own and operate the Riverquest.The day also will feature Jelle DeBoer, an authority onthe geological history of the river. Box lunches will beprovided.The present plan is to have lunch on one of thebeaches at Selden Island.Saturday, May 14, 2016 - 1259:30–10amSign in: Riverquest dock in Haddam10am – noon Cruise, with a stop in EssexNoon–1pm Lunch on Selden Island1–4pm Cruise, with a stop and visit to Gillette Castle4pmDisembark7Newsletter Fal l 2015
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 5.PAULA PAIGELiterary ExcavationsJOE REEDMy Two CareersSince my retirement, I’ve become involvedin two areas that might seem unlikely for anadjunct professor of Romance Languagesand Literatures. The first, writing andtranslating, is no surprise for thosewho know me. I’ve published a secondtranslation from the Italian—a collectionof stories by a nineteenth century journalistand novelist, Matilde Serao (1856-1927)--whom I would call an early feminist.And I’m writing fiction too. So far, onlyone of my short stories has been published,although I’ve been patted on the head withseveral honorable mentions in literarymagazine contests. I’m now exploringpossibilities on the Internet.Secondly, my basement has yieldedsome startling literary surprises. My latehusband, D.D. Paige, who was an EzraPound scholar and intimate in the decadefollowing the Second World War and theeditor of The Selected Letters of Ezra Pound,left behind many letters written to him byPound and his wife Dorothy Shakespear -as well as by Ernest Hemingway, WyndhamLewis, T.S. Eliot and other luminaries. Mostof the correspondence took place duringthe period when Pound was “incarcerated”in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington,from ‘46 to ‘58, although some letters datefrom Pound’s Fascist period. Douglassdid give his side of the correspondence toYale, but unaccountably left Pound’s in thebasement and never told me. Many letterswere filed but others were in an unlikelyvault--a paper bag in a closet! All verymysterious.So, with the help of my partner CarverBlanchard -- lutenist, guitarist and tenor-- I have been dealing with the Beineckeat Yale and the Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin, trying to findgood homes for this material.Maybe the inspiration for a story?For me, painting is less a second career than a parallelcareer. I’ve been painting for almost as long as I havetaught. It began with four water colors for Prof. FrederickA. Pottle, my mentor and later collaborator at Yale, andMarian Pottle, the Boswell bibliographer. They were inMaine for the summer; we redecorated their bathroomas thanks for a summer we spent in their house in NewHaven. I worked on my Boswell volume (Boswell, Laird ofAuchinleck, 1778-1782 ed. with F. A. Pottle, Volume 3 of theYale Edition of his private papers, in the Sterling Library.)The bathroom walls needed that finishing touch: herbalwatercolors. I painted four. I moved from water colors intoacrylic on masonite and from there to acrylic on aluminumpanels: my series of ants in history, one of which sold to theDuke of Bedford; a hundred-some alphabets, currently incollections including those of Robin Williams, Elizabethand Daniel P. Moynihan, as well as one I designed forNancy and Colin Campbell; the Custer and Mrs. Whistlerpaintings and. and. I’ve had shows at Wesleyan, in NewYork and Washington DC, London and New Delhi. Myetchings are currently available via a dealer in Boston. Youcan see my work at http://www.josephreed.netWasch Center f or R e t ir ed Fa c ult yJoseph Reed. Mrs. Whistler in Purdah. 1983.For more of Joe Reed’s art, please visit http://www.josephreed.net.8
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 8.PHYLLIS ROSEPondkeeperKARL SCHEIBESecond WindThere seems a natural tendency, as one ages,to find more in less. My own world in a grainof sand is a fishpond, here in Key West, nineby sixteen feet, a former cistern. I began withgoldfish, cherishing and naming each one:Red Buttons, Red Grooms, Scarlet O’Hara,and so on. When they died – for they diddie, no matter how much care I gave them –I buried them and inscribed their names onthe autograph tree. But gradually it got to me.They would reach a tremendous size, andthen they would die. I switched to koi, whichI don’t find nearly as interesting as goldfish,but which live longer.My koi got so big I wanted to give someaway and via Craigslist offered them free to agood home. A man in Miami was willing todrive the three hours to Key West to take oneof my platinum ogons, but first he wanted tosee the fish on FaceTime, and when he did,he told me I had a pregnant fish needingimmediate help. I had to induce her to layher eggs by filling the pond with palm frondsand lowering the temperature for three dayswith bags of ice: when the water warmed upagain the fish would be fooled into thinkingit was spring. I did this, and on the fourth day,the pregnant fish laid her millions of eggs, allover the pond fronds. Three weeks later shedied anyway.Another time, two local koi fanaticsspotted a diseased fish and offered to operate.They scooped the fish up, anaesthetized himwith oil of clove, cut out the tumor, sewed himup, slowly revived him, and re-introducedhim to the pond. Three weeks later, he died.I still mobilize myself for major threatsto my ecosystem, like herons, but when thefish die, I put them directly in the garbage.I still love my pond – the movement of thefish, the spread of the ferns, the water itself– but, as Montaigne said, to philosophize isto learn to die, and the same can be said forpondkeeping.When I was in third grade, just 9 yearsold, my father urged me to begin playingthe oboe, lending me his oboe, which hehad played in his youth. I persevered atit, culminating in several performanceswith the school band. But we moved toanother town after that year, and there wasno instruction available in my new school.I put my oboe away.As I approached retirement, I noticedan ad for a Loree oboe in Middletown. Ibought it—with an elementary lessonsbook and some reeds, and began to practiceon my own. Little progress was evident.After I retired in 2005, I resolved to getin touch with Libby Van Cleve, who comesup to Wesleyan from Yale once a week tooffer oboe instruction. Libby graciouslytook me on as a student—ending a sixtyyear hiatus in my woodwind career. Underher guidance, I progressed moderately well.We worked out two performances at theWasch Center— including a Bach sonata—togetherwith my colleague David Westmoreland in Chemistry. Ialso began to play occasionally in church, accompanyinghymns.For eight years I studied with Libby, but just ayear ago suspended my lessons. I do continue to playa bit and enjoy the diversion. The oboe is a difficultand unforgiving instrument. But I rather enjoy thechallenge of playing it. I also enjoyed hugely theassociation with my teacher and take some pride in mymodest accomplishments under her tutelageVERA SCHWARCZChinese CalligraphyFree of Ego, of Students, of Career—Just for the Fun of it.I would like to say that writing poetry is my postretirement avocation. But, truthfully, it has been the coreto my writing life for over 20 years. The latest volume,dedicated to Jason’s memory, will be showcased at theContinued on page 11.9Newsletter Spring 2016
A SALUTE TO KARL SCHEIBE:GR AT I AS M A X I M A S TI BI AG OAt the end of the spring semester, Karl Scheibe,Professor of Psychology, emeritus, will retirefrom his position as Director of the WaschCenter for Retired Faculty. It will mark ten yearsof careful stewardship: controlling its operations,keeping its books, and developing new programs. Hisactions have been governed by his unerring judgment,his administrative talents, and—not least—his easyamiability. Under his steady hand the institution hasflourished.Karl was one of the Center’s founders, a group ofdistinguished faculty members in or near retirementthat convened in 2002 to discuss the feasibility of acenter for retired faculty. They were encouraged intheir efforts by Bill and Sue Wasch, who had beenconsidering a major gift to Wesleyan and now decidedthat it should be used for the establishment of a newcenter. Karl, with his knowledge of Wesleyan’s innerworkings and sure sense of how to get things done,was a natural for director of the new entity. To noone’s surprise, he was duly appointed.It was a bumpy road, but eventually a house at 51Lawn Avenue became available and constructionbegan in early 2003—forty years after Karl’s arrivalat Wesleyan. It was officially opened at a dedicationceremony in November of 2005.Since then the Center has flourished. Karl hasKarl Scheibe, Director of the Wasch Center since 2005provided energetic leadership—selecting thespeakers and performers for the lecture series(seven per semester), putting together the filmseries, finding the instructors for the WesleyanInstitute for Lifelong Learning program,administering grants to retired faculty members,and—perhaps most important—helping us tokeep a sense of connectedness to one another.And the list goes on. All hail to Karl!Aintza! Slava! Glory!Glória! Kunnia! Heerlijkheid!Gogoniant! Dicsöség! Kudos!Wasch Center f or R e t ir ed Fa c ult y10
Pastimes and Present Times continued from page 9.Karin and I have seen Golden-winged Manakinsand a Golden-headed Quetzal on the slopes of theAndes, toucans and Scarlet Macaws in Costa Rica,Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos, spoonbills on theNorfolk (UK) coast, and Bald Eagles right here inPrinceton.On my own I’ve racked up Scarlet Ibis in Trinidad,motmots and antbirds in Panama, Great Kiskadees inSouth Texas, and Great Skuas on tiny Fair Isle in theNorth Sea between Shetland and the Orkneys. NextFebruary, if all goes well, I’m hoping for a Red-headedTanager in the mountains near Oaxaca, Mexico.There’s writing, too. Last fall NJ Audubonpublished my anthology of NJ nature writing entitledPete Dunne’s New Jersey, a tribute to a well-knownbirder and prolific author who was the foundingdirector of NJA’s Cape May Bird Observatory.Wasch Center on Wednesday March 2nd, 2016.So, I have another secret love I want to share:Chinese calligraphy. Having retired from teachingabout China for 40 years is a relief. The politicalintrigues and repeated brutalities of Chinesehistory wore me out. What lingers after all thesedecades is a very private affection for the music ofthe brush. When I was a young graduate student atYale, I took calligraphy from a master teacher andwas very bad at it. I gave it up over the years as “notfor me.”Now, away from the academic world andChinese students and colleagues to watch andjudge, I pick up the brush on most morningsand grind the ink slowly to some Chinese musicon my phone. For the past 6 months, I have beenpracticing only 9 characters—the first line of theConfucian Analects:AL TURCOIn Their Own WriteThe very thought of autograph collecting used toturn me off because of disdain for celebrities – bethey athletes, entertainers or Nazis (the last a favoredcategory for some). But around two decades ago Iwas gifted a “blue book” from 1935 which containedan essay on Oscar Wilde – unremarkable except forhaving been written at the Boston Latin School by astudent named Leonard Bernstein. Tucked inside wasa scrawled list of his favorite novels (including Mann’sThe Magic Mountain) and plays (“O’Neill: anything”),along with a mediocre grade sheet.The futureLennie had signed each page at the top. Signaturesstranded in white space have never appealed to me;what does is the elusive charm known as “interestingcontent,” and here it was.Since then I’ve haggled with dealers and placedstingy bids at auctions in hope of nabbing the rightstuff dashed off by classical composers. I’ve lost a few,won a few. Among the latter is a mash note written in1921 to a novice soprano by Puccini -- self-described as“this little man who has his age [63] on his conscience but you have given me adequate proof.” (Undoubtedlyshe had.) Then there’s a darkly inked two-sidedpostcard (circa 1905) from the overworked Directorof the Vienna State Opera, saluting an associate withTo learn and over time to have something becomesecond nature, what greater joy is there?The English is wordy, clumsy, but my brushsings to me of something deeper. I may never domore than this one line. I can imagine, it may carryme for years.I have no need for rice paper or fancy seals(though I own both). I do this for no good reasonat all but the soft scratching sound of brush onused printer paper. And the slowing of breath ondays otherwise mobbed by grim news from theoutside world.BILL STOWEOn the WingAnd now for something completely different, Ithought when I retired. So these days, betweenkeeping up with recent ecocriticism, auditingcourses in the Department of Ecology andEvolutionary Biology, and volunteering with localenvironmental organizations, I travel in search ofbirds.Continued on page 15.11Newsletter Spring 2016
NecrologyJohn Barlowhe taught a popular general-education biologycourse that culminated in a book, The InfectiousMicrobe, published by Oxford in 2014. He was afounding member of the Molecular Biology andBiochemistry Department and served as its chairfor seven years. Memorial donations may be madein his name to the Wesleyan Memorial Fundand sent to the care of Marcy Herlihy, UniversityRelations, 318 High Street, Middletown CT 06459.A memorial service was held on January 25.Jon K. Barlow, Professor of Music, Emeritus,died in December at the age of 73 after a longillness. After graduate studies at Cornell hejoined the Music Department in 1966, just as itwas striking out in new directions, especially inthe area of World Music. His scholarly writingand research and the courses he taught focusedbeyond the traditional study of music and itssister mathematics, but explored, usually ingreat depth, baseball, film studies, Wittgenstein,Kepler, Faulkner, Ives, Cage and many others.He interrupted his
euphonium, tenor sax, alto sax, sousaphone. I went to Antarctica as an undergrad for 14 months with an official Soviet expedition. I was pianist at the Central City, CO “Gilded Garter Saloon.” I led tourists on the last cruise of a famous ol
*BLS and Data USA combine PTAs and physical therapy aides when reporting sex/gender. Median Annual Salary PTs PTAs Data Source 85,000 52,000 APTA (2016) 89,440 58,790 BLS (2019)* 78,350 48,022 U.S. Census Bureau (2018)* *BLS and Census combine PTAs and physical therapy aides when reporting salary data. Median Annual Salary by Sex and Gender
The Palo Alto Council of PTAs works with the district staff, the Board of Education, community partners and the PTAs at the 17 schools to support the students and families of the Palo Alto Unified School District
A Euclidean TSP instance is considered nice if: 1 All points have nonnegative integer coordinates 2 The minimum nonzero distance between points is at least 2 3 The maximum distance between points is O(n) 4 All points (xi;yi) satisfy xi;yi 2[0;O(n)] Vijay Kothari (Rutgers University, Camden) PTAS for 2-Dimensional Euclidean TSP February 6, 2010 .
PACKING [FL81], are known to have polynomial time approximation schemes (PTASs). A PTAS is an algorithm that, for every xed 0, achieves an approximation ratio of 1 in time that is polynomial in the input size (but could grow very fast with 1 , such as O(n1 )). A PTAS thus allows us to trade o approximation accuracy for running time.
Polynomial-time approximation schemes (PTAS) are a family of algorithms in P that nds approximate solutions to instances of NP-problems, while making an explicit guarantee about the relative quality of the approximations when compared to the optimal solutions.
Reese Dimmitt Honorable Mention My Heroes Around Me Bryson Elementary Eagle Mountain Saginaw Council of PTAs Madison Garza Award of Merit My Heros Bonham Elementary Harlingen City Council of PTAs Daniella Guzman Honorable Mention Three Amazing
doubles-plus-one facts, doubles-plus-two facts, plus-ten facts, plus-nine facts, and then any remaining facts. For multiplication, the suggested sequence is the times-zero principle, times-one principle, times-two and two-times facts, times-five and five-times facts, times-nine and nine-times facts, perfect squares, and then any remaining facts .
published by the American Petroleum Institute (API, 1984, 1991) are generally not consistent with the physical processes that dictate actual pile capacity. For example, the experimental observa- tion of a gradual reduction in the rate of increase of pile capacity with embedment depth is allowed for by imposing limiting values of end-bearing and shaft friction beyond some critical depth .
