Thursday, December 27, 2012

Happy New Year

And with this post I think I set a new personal record for posts in a year, and since this will doubtless be the last one of the year that's well-timed.  Normally, at this time of year I feel appropriately sad and reflective, but this year I just feel very happy and excited about the future.  So, Happy New Year to one and all.

Ready for new adventures.

Stonehenge

I usually pride myself on tracking down the spots far off the beaten path and avoiding the more touristy locations, but there are some things that you just can't avoid - and Stonehenge is one of them.  I should really write a lot more about the visit, but I'm running off to the airport to pick up Laura (insh'allah), because her 7:50 flight (initially 5:30 and then progressively later and later) has suddenly become 6:00 and then 6:30 (when they discovered that there were no flight attendants available, which is amazing since its a flight where they don't serve food or drinks).  And now it may be another half-hour.  I think I'll just head over and wait.  Anyway, we visited Stonehenge on an appropriately overcast and windswept day, which was just perfect.  I don't know if I felt spiritually moved to a transcendent plane, but it was a wonderful day.



Again, the prettiest tour guide in the world.


Thinking about blowing this one up to hang on the wall, but I can't decide if it's a good picture or not.

Bloody Hell

I did manage to find the car under that mess.  It's the first real storm of the season, and it seemed to sneak up on everybody.  Actually, I would be quite content to have to snow like crazy except that poor Laura is trapped at JFK in one of those endless storm waiting sessions where just when you think that you're getting there they push the departure time back again.  It would be nice if they just went ahead and cancelled the flight so that people could at least make alternate plans or go grab a hotel room and crash after an international flight, but that would be considerate or humane and that's two things that any U.S.-based airlines never is.

Bowl Pool 2012

Yes, it's time once again for that annual tradition: the Mike Lange-engineered college football pool.  Oddly, for a person who knows nothing about college football I generally do pretty well, and last year had to lose the last five bowls in a row to not win (which, of course, I did).  My tried and true approach is based on three factors: 1) which team is further south, 2) which team has the worst academic reputation, and 3) some obscure literary reference that amuses me.  This year I am once again going head-to-head with my bitter enemy Cyndi Brandenburg, who, despite her astonishing effort to cheat, has yet to defeat the forces of good (that is, of course, me).  I've also dragooned my son into participating this year, so there are multiple bragging rights at stake here.  Obviously, the entire bowl season boils down to today's Belk Bowl, also known as the National/Aiken 204 Championship.  Another arch-nemesis (why do I have so many?) Craig Pepin attended Duke (back when they were accredited, I think), who will be taking a pounding at the hands of the mighty University of Cincinnati Bearcats, who are not further south than Duke but dominates them in the category of academic inferiority.  So, here are the picks, with the winning team in bold, if not emboldened.

New Mexico Bowl
Nevada vs. Arizona
Scudder: Arizona 1-0
Brandybuck: Arizona 1-0
GSIII: Nevada 0-1

Idaho Potato Bowl
Toledo vs. Utah State
Scudder: Utah State 2-0
Brandybuck: Utah State 2-0
GSIII: Utah State 1-1

Poinsettia Bowl
Brigham Young vs. San Diego State
Scudder: Brigham Young 3-0
Brandybuck: Brigham Young 3-0
GSIII: Brigham Young 2-1

St. Petersburg Bowl
Central Florida vs. Ball State
Scudder: Central Florida 4-0
Brandybuck: Central Florida 4-0
GSIII: Ball State 2-2

New Orleans Bowl
East Carolina vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
Scudder: Louisiana-Lafayette 5-0
Brandybuck: Louisiana-Lafayette 5-0
GSIII: Louisiana-Lafayette 3-2

Las Vegas Bowl
Washington vs. Boise State
Scudder: Boise State 6-0
Brandybuck: Boise State 6-0
GSIII: Washington 3-3

Hawaii Bowl
Fresno State vs. Southern Methodist
Scudder: Fresno State 6-1
Brandybuck: Fresno State 6-1
GSIII: Fresno State 3-4

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Western Kentucky vs. Central Michigan
Scudder: Western Kentucky 6-2
Brandybuck: Western Kentucky 6-2
GSIII: Western Kentucky 3-5

Military Bowl
San Jose State vs. Bowling Green
Scudder: Bowling Green
Brandybuck: San Jose State
GSIII: Bowling Green

Belk Bowl - National Championship Game - Aiken 204 Championship
Duke vs. Cincinnati
Scudder: Cincinnati
Brandybuck: Duke
GSIII: Cincinnati

Holiday Bowl
Baylor vs. UCLA
Scudder: Baylor
Brandybuck: Baylor
GSIII: UCLA

Independence Bowl
Louisiana-Monroe vs. Ohio
Scudder: Louisiana-Monroe
Brandybuck: Louisiana-Monroe
GSIII: Ohio

Russell Athletic Bowl
Virginia Tech vs. Rutgers
Scudder: Virginia Tech
Brandybuck: Virginia Tech
GSIII: Virginia Tech

Meineke Texas Bowl
Minnesota vs. Texas Tech
Scudder: Texas Tech
Brandybuck: Texas Tech
GSIII: Minnesota

Armed Forces Bowl
Rice vs. Air Force
Scudder: Rice
Brandybuck: Air Force
GSIII: Rice

Pinstripe Bowl
West Virginia vs. Syracuse
Scudder: West Virginia
Brandybuck: West Virginia
GSIII: West Virginia

Fight Hunger Bowl
Navy vs. Arizona State
Scudder: Arizona State
Brandybuck: Arizona State
GSIII: Navy

Alamo Bowl
Texas vs. Oregon State
Scudder: Texas
Brandybuck: Oregon State
GSIII: Oregon State

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
Texas Christian vs. Michigan State
Scudder: Texas Christian
Brandybuck: Texas Christian
GSIII: Texas Christian

Music City Bowl
North Carolina State vs. Vanderbilt
Scudder: Vanderbilt
Brandybuck: Vanderbilt
GSIII: Vanderbilt

Sun Bowl
Southern California vs. Georgia Tech
Scudder: Southern California
Brandybuck: Southern California
GSIII: Georgia Tech

Liberty Bowl
Iowa State vs. Tulsa
Scudder: Tulsa
Brandybuck: Iowa State
GSIII: Iowa State

Chick-fil-A Bowl
Louisiana State vs. Clemson
Scudder: Louisiana State
Brandybuck: Louisiana State
GSIII: Louisiana State

Gator Bowl
Northwestern vs. Mississippi State
Scudder: Mississippi State
Brandybuck: Mississippi State
GSIII: Mississippi State

Heart of Dallas Bowl
Purdue vs. Oklahoma State
Scudder: Oklahoma State
Brandybuck: Oklahoma State
GSIII: Purdue

Outback Bowl
Michigan vs. South Carolina
Scudder: South Carolina
Brandybuck: South Carolina
GSIII: Michigan

Capital One Bowl
Nebraska vs. Georgia
Scudder: Georgia
Brandybuck: Georgia
GSIII: Georgia

Rose Bowl
Wisconsin vs. Stanford
Scudder: Stanford
Brandybuck: Stanford
GSIII: Wisconsin

Orange Bowl
Northern Illinois vs. Florida State
Scudder: Florida State
Brandybuck: Florida State
GSIII: Northern Illinois

Sugar Bowl
Louisiana vs. Florida
Scudder: Florida
Brandybuck: Florida
GSIII: Florida

Fiesta Bowl
Oregon vs. Kansas State
Scudder: Oregon
Brandybuck: Oregon
GSIII: Oregon

Cotton Bowl
Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma
Scudder: Texas A&M
Brandybuck: Texas A&M
GSIII: Texas A&M

Compass Bowl
Pittsburgh vs. Mississippi
Scudder: Mississippi
Brandybuck: Mississippi
GSIII: Mississippi

GoDaddy.com Bowl
Kent State vs. Arkansas State
Scudder: Arkansas State
Brandybuck: Arkansas State
GSIII: Kent State

National Championship (sort of)
Notre Dame vs. Alabama
Scudder: Alabama
Brandybuck: Alabama
GSIII: Notre Dame

Tie-breaker - points in the National Championship (sort of) game.
Scudder: 31
Brandybuck: 37
GSIII: 10

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Goblin Tree

I guess since I my family always had artificial trees, and because Brenda and I always had artificial when we were married, that I somehow turned the process of getting one into this amazingly difficult process.  It wasn't until two years ago that I actually purchased my first real tree, although I have yet to go as far as actually going to a farm and cutting my own (maybe next year).  Obviously, I didn't have a real tree last year in Abu Dhabi, although I did help Laura buy a little artificial one this year on my last visit.  So, this was my second adventure in getting a real tree.  Being a man, and thus having absolutely no imagination, I just went to Home Depot (where I picked up my first one).  After going through the trauma of trying to decide between a Frazer and a Balsam (and wondering why I didn't write down what I had before), I chose the loneliest little asymmetrical tree that I figured a good home.  Partially I figured this would make Laura happy, because she's the type of person who would go to the pound and pick out the ugliest dog there for much the same reason (although I guess that throws open the question of why she chose me), and partially because of my own similar odd desire to "look after" lonely inanimate objects (I one time got really sad looking at some used suitcases in the window of a second hand shop in Omaha, Nebraska and had to fight the urge to liberate them).  After I chose my tree I asked where the tree stands were, and was informed that they were out of stock and no one had thought to reorder - and they didn't think that anyone else had any either.  Of course, this led to a ridiculous twitter rant on the utter buffoonery of all things Vermont, but also left me with a quandry: should I buy my lonely little tree if I couldn't be assured of having a stand?  For once I let discretion be the better part of valor and left my little green friend waiting expectantly as I went off in search of a tree stand, which turned out to be easy because the Christmas Trees store around the corner was awash in them.  So, between the two stores and picked up what I needed, including the good folks at Home Depot, most notably Moe, helped get me squared away - including cutting two inches off the bottom of the tree (so it could more effectively drink water) and somehow get the tree into my car.  Once home I had a lovely thersitical fit as I tried to get the tree into the stand by myself, while balancing it with one hand and tightening the screws with the other - and somehow not throwing out my back again.  The lights and decorations are on, and I even have a bizarre little angel on top (which, despite my best efforts, continues to lean to one side which inspired Laura to comment that she looked drunk, which, of course, made me think of Drunken Angel by Lucinda Williams, which I can now not get out of my head).  It's amazing how something as simple as having the tree can make you happy.  For any number of silly reasons I've started referring to it as the Goblin Tree.  In the end, it's making me happy and the tree has a warm, safe home for the holidays.

Moe wrestling the tree while a couple inches were taken off the bottom.  I was assured the tree didn't feel a thing and would be much better off after the procedure.

Yes, my tree stand looks like a little sled.

"It's really not such a bad little tree."

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Four Corners of the Earth Deli

Don't ask me how this picture turned out this way, but as soon as I took it my excellent friend Cyndi Brandenburg received a phone call from someone who whispered the words "seven days" over the phone.  Still, it was an excellent lunch with Cyndi, Mike Kelly and Mike Lange at Four Corners of the Earth Deli, the BEST RESTAURANT in Vermont.  The Iraqi Turkey is the greatest sandwich in the world.

The waitress was this cute little Japanese girl who crawled out of a well.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Portion Control

Doubtless, one of my biggest challenges in dieting is portion control (and, yes, I'm the person who ate 61 wings at the last chicken wings for charity event).  I tend to blame it on the fact that I must have been one of the initial leaders of the clean plate club - and that I was really worried because there were starving kids in India - and thus had to eat everything.  Or I could just be a pig.  However, it doesn't help when people go out of their way to give me extra - like those two Arab gentlemen in the buffet line during a desert safari on my trip to the UAE a decade ago who said, laughing, "you are a big man, I will give you more!!"  And the second guy, "I too will give him more!!!"  Or, there was also Adam, arguably the world's sweetest but also most perpetually confused waiter, who was working at the Dolphin Bay Resort in Zanzibar.  We had discussed the relative merits of the lunch choices, with my main concern being that I didn't want the sandwich buns that cracked (it was the off-season so the larder was pretty picked over).  In Adam's mind the obvious answer was to bring me both the pizza and the cheeseburger - or maybe he just, per usual, messed up the order.  Either way, I was not about to be defeated and ate both.

"I too will bring him more!!!"

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Yikes

It suddenly feels a lot like winter today in Vermont, although the precipitation is still rain and not snow.  Here's a picture, sadly blurry, that I snapped last month looking out over Lake Champlain which gives us a gloomy sense of what awaits.  Can't believe I was reveling in 80 degree weather and sunshine in Abu Dhabi a week ago.

Happy National Day

Happy National Day to all my friends in the United Arab Emirates

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Exiles On Main Street

Just back from a wonderful trip to Abu Dhabi for Thanksgiving break, and doubtless I'll have more to say about that in the days to come (including a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner provided by my great friends Mel and Rob, in which Laura and her sister Heather got to experience their first Thanksgiving - and the mystery that are candied yams).  In the meantime, here's an odd sign for a maid service that we came across.  On the one hand it seems like a clumsy name, but considering the prevalence and status of foreign workers in the UAE it might be dead on.

Being a visiting professor was a great gig there, but we were also clearly just mambers of the food chain of foreign workers (although pretty near the top).

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Greatest Gig

I had one of those reminders today about why I have the greatest job in the world.  It was late afternoon and I should have been packing for my trip to Abu Dhabi tomorrow, but instead I was sitting in my office working up material for class tomorrow.  My excellent and far more brilliant friend David Kite was sitting in his office across the hall.  David was working up material for a discussion tomorrow on Chinese Buddhism while I was putting together a Powerpoint with musical links for a discussion that somehow tied together Igor Stravinsky, Miles David and Neil Young.  Essentially it was about the artistic desire to blaze new territory, fight against conformity and expectations, and the audience's inability to "get it" (which, in my fevered brain anyway, logically tied together Rite of Spring, Bitches Brew and Tonight's the Night - and I'm sure that somehow passages from W. Sumerset Maugham's The Moon and Six Pence will sneak in).  And while the logic might be undeniable only to me, it was another reminder of what a gift it is to be a teacher.  In addition to helping developing mind to think, I'm also being paid to create.  I ran back and forth to David's office several times so that we could swap ideas.  It was amazing and just left me energized and thankful.  And, if nothing else, I get to play Young's Tired Eyes, one of my all-time favorite songs, from Tonight's the Night, the greatest album in rock history (this clearly deserves its own blog posting), in class.  What a gig.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

More Winchester

Now, a logical person might point out that if I'm way too busy (which I am) to post appropriate commentary, then I must also be too busy to post.  Sure, a logical argument, but this is also why the brain is the most over-rated organ.  I can only blame my excitement at actually finding my camera, and also the very warm memories of an amazing trip.

A typically overcast English day, which was a very welcome change of pace after a year without rain and blistering heat in Abu Dhabi.

Laura honing in with her impeccable sense of direction.

A beautiful little corner of the world.

After a year of the glossy and new, real history did my heart good.

The Round Table, from which I was fired for general bad behavior and churlishness.

Truthfully, everything after Elizabeth's death in 1603 is trivial current events.  As one of the popes, and thus her enemies, suggested, only she is truly a king.

More dissertation flashbacks.

Obviously, I never commit a nuisance so this didn't apply to me.

A photo of some nature shit, which is obviously Laura's influence on me.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Winchester Cathedral

And more pictures from the UK - and once again thank God that I found my camera. I bought the one I have, not because it takes great pictures, but because it is shock-proof and water-proof and sand-proof (which, in order, in what happened to three cameras in the space of two months). When I couldn't find my camera I was kicking myself for not buying an idiot-proof camera, but it came back to me. So, expect to see many pictures of my epic visit to the UK. It's hard to believe that a British historian wouldn't actually make it to the UK until he was fifty-two, but I can only blame poverty and the excellence of British historians and their ability to put almost every document on microfilm. I think on the night I first met Laura she abused me because of the fact that I had never made it to the UK, and that I had to go there - and so I suppose it was inevitable and appropriate that she played tour guide on my first trip. Here are some pictures, sadly more quickly that they deserve to be presented, of our visit to the Winchester Cathedral.


Obviously too pretty to be my tour guide or my girl friend.  She's celebrating the fact that she finally dragged me to the United Kingdom, which I think is near England.

Inside Winchester Cathedral.  I'd hate to think how many cathedrals I've been to in the last decade, but how could one ever truly get tired of them?

Having flashbacks of Fox's Martyrs from graduate school.

More old history stuff that Laura suffered through, and which insured that we had to go find nature stuff.

Appropriately creepy, and it naturally reminded me of the Labyrinth on Castle Hill in Budapest.

I am not a huge Jane Austen fan, but it was still wonderful to visit her tomb - and it made me want to delve into her novels again.

It is not actually a statue of the excellent Bob Mayer, but it's pretty damh close.


Reflections at 600 (postings, not years)

It always mildly amazes me when I reach some sort of milestone on this silly blog - just as it amuses me that anyone reads it (which, oddly, they do).  So, here we are at another milestone, in this case my 600th posting.  As I've said before, it either means that I lead an interesting life or am immensely self-absorbed (both of which are probably true).  I suppose I should be writing something utterly profound at this moment, but I guess all I really have to say is that I'm happy.  For the first time in a long time I feel confident about the future, and that I'm heading in the right direction, and not heading there alone.  And is so often the case, the simplest epiphanies are the best.

A nice picture from the New Forest in the UK (more on that later).  As Archer would say, "hurray for metaphor."

Sunday, November 11, 2012

GOE Tailgating Excellence

Several weeks ago a group of the Gentlemen of Excellence were together and the topic of college football came up, which is always a popular topic when Lange is involved.  I asked the seemingly innocent question (I was trying to contribute because I don't know much about college football) - did you guys ever think about getting together to watch a college football game?  As with most things associated with the GOE it quickly turned into an event or even an EVENT (although I am trying to ignore the call for resurrecting the chicken wings eating competition, which is the definitive GOE EVENT).  The decision was made that yes, definitely, the GOE should attend a college football game and tailgate (a concept that I had to explain to my girlfriend Laura, who was mystified by the language and proposed that I needed to express it in British English).  Now the issue became where.  Vermont is known for many things, but major college athletics, especially football, is definitely not one of them.  The University of Vermont nor Champlain College (more on this later) do not play football, and, for that matter, Champlain doesn't have any teams beyond the intermural or club level at all (something which I really like about us).  We finally decided to attend Middlebury College's final game of the season versus Tufts, which turned out to be a fantastic day.  Middlebury is about an hour south of us and it's a beautiful drive down with some stunning views of the lake.  We set up our grill and Kevin Andrews, grillmaster, cooked up some delicious brats, sausages and hot dogs.  I was charged with the less complicated items such as buns and chips and donuts - and adult beverages (who knew that Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale would be so good - I don't normally get a craving for pumpkin in my beer, but I may have to stock up since it's a seasonal selection and will be gone soon).  The weather was beautiful, the game was great, and the conviviality was typically extraordinary.  At a certain point I suggested that we should do this at least once every football season because tailgating at Middlebury was a blast.  Further, I proposed that since Champlain doesn't play football we should essentially invent an imaginary football team for the school with an imaginary schedule (featuring games against Notre Dame and Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati [all alma maters] and, for some reason, the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League and a loser leaves town [or at least loses their school name] game against Canada's Champlain College).  This would allow us tailgate at Champlain every other week when the imaginary team was playing an imaginary home game (sort of).  My suggestion was that we should tailgate in front of Aiken Hall, where most of our offices are located, although I really liked the idea of tailgating in President Finney's backyard (although we'd have to run when he came out and found us there).  As is often the case with the GOE this has completely taken on a life of its own, featuring discussions relating to posters and documentaries and, my personal favorite, Andy Burkhardt's suggestion that the Beavers (Champlain's team name for our non-teams, which is actually true) should play in a floating stadium on Lake Champlain called the Beaver Lodge.  Obviously, much more on this later.  It feels great to be home.

The beautiful field of the Middlebury College Panthers.  This shot doesn't do it justice because there are mountains in the background.  It was a great game, including a crazy long fumble recovery and pitchback return for a touchdown.  The Panthers won the game and thus their league.  Go Panthers!

Kevin Andrews, Grill Master and Man About Town.

Classic tailgating fare.  So delicious.

Steve Wehmeyer and his daugther Daria playing football, an essential part of any successful tailgating.  One of my favorite moments of the day was my conversation with Daria where I tried to talk her into attending Middlebury, and she said she might although it would have to have a good art program (she's in 5th grade).  Daria rules!

Laura tells me that I only tend to post pictures of myself on my blog when I'm happy.  I'm happy.

The Gentlemen of Excellence tailgating.  An epic day, which ended up at the St. John's Social Club for games of chance.  What amazing friends I have.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Movie Experience

And here's a typically over the top UAE experience - the Vox Gold ticket.  For a year I had been waiting around to see a movie in the Vox Gold theater at the Marina Mall, which they describe as "the movie experience."  I don't know if it's that amazing, but it was fun.  Laura and I were going to go, but somehow never did - although we saw a ton of movies.  So, my last chance was when my sister Lisa and nephew Garrett were visitng.  After a day spent touring the Burj Khalifa we waited until after dark, and thus when we could start eating during Ramadan, and made it way to the Marina Mal to see the new Spiderman moviel.  With a Vox Gold ticket, which was something like $40, which at least does keep out the teenagers mindlessly texting and even talking on their mobile phones.  Before the movie you order the drinks and food you want, which are delivered to you by a waiter during the movie.  You watch the entire thing reclining in a recliner, warming yourself under a blanket.  Like I said, it's so Emirati.

Lisa and Garrett climbing into their recliners, and resting up after a crazy day featuring a drive to Dubai and a trip up the Burj Khalifa.

Lisa checking out here swag, including the blanket and her 3D glasses.  Ice cream was on the way.

Garrett and I philosophizing about Spiderman, or maybe contemplating another trip into the desert at Liwa.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Herbert Scudder

A picture that my cousin Patrick posted on Facebook, that I then swiped.  This is my grandfather Herbert Scudder, better known to his grandkids as Papaw or Jum (although there are disagreements in regards to the spellings of both options).  As I've often said, he's the last Scudder who was worth a damn.  A very gentle soul who I miss a lot.  This is a picture of him from his time in the Pacific during World War II.  After the war he, for some reason, brought back a set of nut crackers that looked like a woman's legs, which had to be squeezed together to crack the nut.  It led to a decades long battle with my grandmother Maude that mirrored the mirrored the major prize leg lamp argument from A Christmas Story.

Land of the Engs

And thank God I found my camera. Not since I lost hundreds of pictures of western China when my camera went missing in Barcelona have I been so worried. I've been waiting to get to England forever, and then I came back and couldn't find my camera for well over a month. But now that it's shown up expect lots of UK postings. It was an amazing trip and can't wait to go back, and I suspect I'll be there a lot.


If It's Thanksgiving This Must Be . . .

. . . Abu Dhabi.  Continuing my pattern of always being overseas on Thanksgiving and July 4th I'll be heading back to the United Arab Emirates a week from today to visit my friend Laura.  It will be odd to head back, especially after spending an entire year there last year.  It feels like I'm just getting back into the swing of life here in Vermont, so I don't have any idea what my feelings will be when I step off the plane.  Here's a picture of me at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  My camera went missing for around a month, and, thankfully, I finally tracked it down after class today.  I was afraid that I had lost all of my England pictures, but they've showed up and expect lots of UK pictures.

When you're up on the observation deck at the Burj Khalifa you're so high up that about the only way to get a picture with you in it is to sit on the floor.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Diomedes Lopez, Legend and Humanitarian

I guess I had been terribly amiss in posting anything to this blog.  I ended up picking up an overload class and that has slowed everything down.  While taking a break from grading online Frankenstein and Winesburg, Ohio essays I visited my blog and realized that I had managed only one post in October and nothing at all in November, so I thought I should at least throw something up quickly so that I don't forget how to post altogether.  And since I'm already missing baseball it seemed logical to put up something on the one perfect sport.  During the last game of the Vermont Lake Monsters season they always have a player jersey auction to raise money for charity.  I have tried to pick up an actual player jersey on the last day several times, but always failed.  My son and I would normally try to figure out who the worst player was an bid on that jersey, figuring that there would be little competition.  It makes sense, but somehow we never made it work.  And this brings me to the last game of this season, and the most excellent Diomedes Lopez.  Now, Diomedes may turn out to be a very fine player and I hope he makes it to the big leagues someday (where I root for him, as I do all ex-Lake Monster and Expo players).  That said, he's never done much for the Lake Monsters, which made him a popular player with the Gentlemen of Excellence.  For example, this season in 51 games he managed 11 hits for a .216 average, with no home runs, 2 runs scored and 1 RBI.  So, obviously, he has developed legendary status with us.  Well, that and his rather unique name.  When he came up to the plate, which wasn't often, we would try to get a chant of Di-O-Me-Des going, which tended to only draw mystified stares from the other fans.  Now, fast forward to the last game of the season, which I ended up going to alone because none of my friends wanted to take in another game (to their never ending shame).  Anyway, at the appropriate time I put in my bid for $50, which was the minimum bid, for Diomedes and waited, anxiously, for the results.  It was different this time because there was both a silent auction (where you would return repeatedly to the sheet to up your bid) and, if there were still active bidders, a live auction.   I came around to check on the status of the process in the 7th inning and saw a big sheet of pages, and next to it one lonely sheet.  The guy in charge of the bidding held up the pile of pages and said that there would be a live auction for those players, and then picked up the single sheet and said, "And Mr. Scudder, here's your jersey."  I felt a mixture of joy, shame and sorrow.  They told me to come back in a half-hour and pick up my jersey at the souvenir booth.  When I arrived they souvenir booth they asked me if I wanted it at the end of the game or come back the next day when it was clean.  One of the cool things about the auction is that you're supposed to be able to come out on the field and just take the dirty jersey off the players out on the field.  Of course, my response to this question was, "How could it be dirty, he never plays?"  Suddenly the man said, "Oh, that's right, he's been promoted, so the jersey is already clean and ready for pick-up."  This left me even more stunned.  Diomedes had already been on the Lake Monsters for two years, and if you spend two years at short season A you are, by definition, not much of a prospect.  Nevertheless, and in the face of all logic, Diomedes has, in fact, been promoted to the Stockton Ports of the Class A Advance California League, for which he perforned admirably - with a .286 average, one home run, a RBI and 3 runs scored.  I could not be happier for him.  Even though I did not have a class the next day, I went up to campus anyway, proudly wearing my number 30 Diomedes Lopez jersey, to mock my friends for their lack of faith and moral courage.  DI-O-ME-DES!!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Post-Sabbatical Blues

The title sounds like a song from Neil Young's On the Beach album.  I am slowly rounding into shape, intellectually and emotionally (and hopefully physically, despite my creaky back), from my year away from Champlain.  It took me about two weeks to get beyond the notion that I was getting ready to get on a plane to go "home" to Abu Dhabi.  Now I'm working on truly immersing myself into the life of a professor.  I'm enjoying the teaching immensely, and my students have been great.  It's fantastic to teach and follow where the moment takes you, and, as I've mentioned before, it is exhausting, especially for me, to continually self-censure every word and thought.  There is a profound difference between having a filter and worrying about saying the wrong thing and being put on a plane out of the country that afternoon.  So, the teaching part of things has been great.  Rather, I'm slowly adjusting to the day to day grind of grading and committee meetings, and just daily life.  I've had a couple great discussions with my wonderful friend Trish about this, who had her own year-long sabbatical at the University of Jordan.  One does get spoiled while spending a sabbatical teaching overseas, especially in an area as interesting as the Middle East.  It's tough to face a pile (or in my case a cyber pile) of essays to grade when you're used to having the option of just saying, "what the hell, let's go to Beirut this weekend!".  That said, it's not something that demands, or has earned, a lot of sympathy from your friends.  Actually, my friends have been great, and much better than I thought they would have been (and I knew that would be supportive).  One of the things that study abroad folks have begun focusing on with their returning students is the inevitable blues during your first semester back.  It's great to see your friends, but they also don't really want to hear about your semester in Florence, and it can actually leave the returning students feeling more than a tad isolated.  It's certainly less of a problem for professors, partially because most of us have traveled a fair bit anyway and also because we should be more emotionally mature (not me, obviously, but others).  Still, I have run into a fair number of folks who, even though they initiated the discussion and specifically asked me about my best experience during the year, still have their eyes glaze over or get almost snippy when I discuss swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar or getting magnificently lost n San'a.  Luckily, and happily, I do have a number of really close friends who actually do want to hear stories of swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar or getting magnificently lost in San'a.  Even considering my good fortune on that front, I never bring any of it up unless I am asked, and only part of that relates to my own freakishly introverted nature.  All things considered, I think the transition back into the world is going better than I thought, even if I still drift off all too easily during faculty meetings to memories of Istanbul or Salalah or Beirut or Lisbon or Zanzibar or San'a.  The word sabbatical is drawn from the Latin sabbaticus, essentially a "ceasing", so maybe what I need is a sabbatical from my sabbatical.

Now, to be fair, the picture could have been taken before I left for my sabbatical.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Oscar

Here's remembering my great uncle Oscar Scudder (my Grandfather Herbert's brother), who was killed on this date 94 years ago on the western front in the waning days of World War I.  Thanks to my cousin Patrick Myers for sending it along.

Oscar Scudder

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Quiet Prayer

Here's a nice shot from inside the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.  It is a very beautiful mosque, which dates back to the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent (so it is not nearly as old as the Hagia Sophia).  What I like about it is the shot of the one peson who came in to pray in the middle of the day.  We tend to think of mosques as very busy places with hundreds if not thousands of worshippers praying at once in a very ritualized fashion, but here's the other side of the story. 

While I really should not have snapped his picture, I wanted to capture a bit of the serenity of the moment and share it with an audience which all too often has a very different view of Islam.

Fujairah

Since I made it back to Burlington everything has been a blur, which has been fantastic, but it also means that I am way behind on my blogging.  I can't remember the last time I only posted once in a month, and we're getting awfully close to the end of this month so I need to get busy.  So, let me just quickly post a few quick thoughts, and maybe that will inspire me to write more over the weekend (and maybe I will find my missing camera so that I can download my pictures from the UK).  Here is one of my favorite pictures from the year, from one of my favorite days.  Laura, who is a very experienced scuba diver with over a hundred dives (but no shark sightings, oddly), took it upon herself to introduce me to the sport on a trip to Fujairah on the east coast of the Emirates.  I'll have a lot more to say about it later, including some pictures which somehow survived the loss of yet another camera.  You can tell what a good time I had - and I think she is just relieved that I actually survived.

She did discover something even scarier than sharks.

Monday, September 3, 2012

If Anyone Asks, I'm Lutheran

Well, I am actually almost Lutheran, sort of.  Growing up out in the Hoosier hinterlands of southern Indiana the closest church was St. John's Lutheran Church.  Pastor Jackson was a really great guy and smiled obligingly when we played endless baseball games behind the church, and didn't even get mad when we used a lawn mower to carve out three golf holes on church property while he was on vacation.  On the first hole you teed off under the willow tree and played parallel to the road; on the second hold you hit over the graveyard; and the third hole was a real short par three with a precipitous drop-off after the green into a cow pasture.  To make up for my sins I actually attended Bible study for a while as preparation for being baptized, but I was reading a couple Erich von Daniken books at the time and spent the whole time "analyzing" text for proof of aliens so the decision was made that maybe I wasn't quite ready for conversion.  However, we parted on the best of terms.

So what does this relate to today?  My excellent friend Andy, who works in the library here at Champlain, and his even more excellent girlfriend Heidi, who works in the library at Norwich University, are getting married this summer and asked me to precide over the ceremony.  Yes, I don't believe it either, but it makes me so incredibly proud and happy.  I love them both and I was just happy being invited to the ceremony to share the day with them, let alone anything else.  Of course, there is the small problem of the fact that I need to get ordained.  However, our excellent friends Kerry and Steve were both ordained online and have married several of their friends, so we'll sort this out somehow.  And bringing it all back around - I asked Heidi if there was some particular online church where I should go for ordination.  Her response, "It doesn't matter to me, but if my grandma asks you're Lutheran."  Doubtless there, will be much more on this adventure in the coming months.

Me: "Heidi, how in the hell did you let Andy talk you into this?"  Heidi: "It was my idea."  Me: [too choked up to respond]