Photoessay #2869 - Justice Sotomayor's visit

I was fortunate to be able to participate in Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's visit today at the University of Washington.  They emphasized that undergraduates and other students have priority for tickets.  As an access student, I got in on the second round.  They labeled the event as 'sold out' so I attended as part of an audience of 1200 in the HUB ballroom.  She was a warm accessible graceful speaker.  The hour program was done in a Q&A session by one of the provosts mainly with questions that students had submitted.  She insisted on individually recognizing the authors of the question individually.  Afterwards she wanted to go pose in the crowd.  It was a pretty wild scene and I'm sure the Marshals do hate it when she does it.  I tried to get in one picture when she came to my section.  But I don't think she was harmed!

The students loved her.  I sat in front of a group of latino students and you could tell that they just worshiped her.

She's in the center of this picture.  She did this over and over.

Photoessay #2868 - Going Hellenic

Seem like sort of a suggestive pose?  Are we not used to women naked to the waist?  It's rather appropriate for the movie Dennis and I saw this afternoon.

Actually we're doing pretty good on the culture scale this week.  Last week we saw the Rhodesli movie with the Sephardic Jews.  On Friday I went with Curtis to a talk put on the local Adlerian society at a private home (still not sure what Adlerian means but Curtis who has studied all this more was quite ready to throw on the technical terms and acronyms for credibility).  Tomorrow I'm going to hear a talk by Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor tomorrow.  I scored a ticket....they were giving them out first to undergraduates and then to graduate and professional students.  As an access student, I'm more in the latter category.  I did not see any lines but the next week, it was marked 'sold out.'

Continuing our cultural campaign, Dennis and I again went to UW to see a Greek movie "Mediteraeno." put on by Hellenic Studies.  Because of a team meeting, we could stay for the Q&A.  But free event with pita chips and humus and free parking.

This is a shot from the movie which is pretty and sweet.  I love a good-hearted movie.  Reminded me a lot of "King of Hearts" with soldiers coming upon a magical enclave where war seems to have vanished.  This time on a Greek Aegean island.  Won the oscar for foreign language film in 1991.

But this sucker definitely would NOT pass the Bechdel test.  The only women that had a any screen time at all were both love interests.  That's all they did, sex stuff.  No other character development.  The one pictures did have some sheep.  But also they were never demeaned nor attacked.

Interest cameos for *2* donkeys.  Should have had more donkey jokes and scenes.

Photoessay #2867 - Wedding from last year

A picture from just about a year ago of my niece and her step-mother, my sister-in-law.  It was on a photographer's website (Rachel Walker Photography) and I don't have any rights to use it.  But it's such a nice warm picture on Krystal's wedding day.  Now, Krystal is just about to have a baby; I received a baby shower invitation the other day.

She had a lot of people; did it on a shoestring budget.  You can do it especially if many people chip in.

My contribution for the next wedding coming up...today Naomi showed me where Ilana had some pink ribbon and I put a bow on the cake knife. Real DIY....Nagged Naomi to buy her dress, you know how well THAT works.

Kind of a deep rasberry watermelon pink and a medium orange.  It will be fine!

Photoessay #2866 - Fairfield University

I'm continuing to prepare for my trip to Connecticut now less than 4 weeks away.  The conference itself will be held at Fairfield University (aerial shot is my illustration).  Private (undergraduate tution - 42k!) college.  About 5K enrollment.  Apparently Fairfield is a prosperous community.

Trying to figure out the trip.  I've written to the rabbi at Mishkan Israel and asked if they would like me to present the talk at the temple.  I'm speaking on an important member in their history.  Don't know if anybody is interested.  I don't know there are that many people immersed in 19th century New Haven.  Which does beg the question.

Haven't heard.

I'm pretty sick of practicing this thing....  I would like to get a 10 minute version but realistically it comes in at 12-13 minutes.  I haven't got a clean run-through so I guess I have to try it again.

Our plan is to arrive on Thursday so if there's severe airline tie-up getting across the whole darn company, we will have some space.  Really, that's a long way to travel for a particular short event.  Wish they would post the specifics of the program.  I've received information in bits and pieces.

As I often say, poking a little fun at myself "Oh, that's just so second-wave."  Referring to feminism as observed by current scholars.

Photoessay #2865 - More and more speech practice

I have become a frequent flier at the Public Speaking Center at UW.  I've gone two or three times/week for the last several weeks.  They'll close down for the quarter so I want to get as much as I can. 

I practice and practice.  I have one card I'm using.  Most is memorized.  I have a short and a long version.  I want to get to 10 minutes; that's hard.  Supposedly I have 20 minutes but I've been warned that your time can be cut for whatever reason.

I want it to be really smooth.  I do have some public speaking experience but mostly giving programs at Parent Group.  As, somebody pointed out, it's a very friendly audience and I have a lot of credibility.

So I'm working on it and working on it.  I have to be careful because I wouldn't want to end the conversation without the Board of Education part so I just can't cut it short.  I'll continue.  There's about a million reasons I can always think of to not practice it.

Think I could be as good as Michele Obama?  Yeah, that would be a stretch.  Mostly I have to slow down, work on not dropping my voice at the end of an idea and say his name more often.

I'm working on it!

Photoessay #2864 - I'm on the UW Jewish Studies blog!

Check it out!

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies (part of UW Jackson School of International Studies) has a significant online presence including a high quality (if I do say so myself) blog written by faculty and graduate students.  The person who coordinates the blog came to our small class and said that they wanted to encourage students to contribute.

You don't have to ask me twice.  You know I'm going to do it.  I stretch my Access Student status to the max.

One of the assignments for the class was to write reflecting on what we discussed.  I had been ranting a bit about this and why not write about it???

So here it is.  You can read it here.

Other hot news:

The 'printer of which we do not speak' has been replaced with a real live working color printer.  Last summer Dennis had bought an Okidata printer that failed a few weeks after we got it.  Dennis brought it to a licensed repair place.  That's the last we saw of it and Okidata did NOT make good on it.

Photoessay #2863 - Alumni weekend

Every year I'm notified about the UCSC alumni weekend.  And every year I don't go.  For a long time it was softball season.  This year I'm going on a trip to speak in Connecticut the first week in April.

The alumni weekend is towards the end of April.  Wonder if there will be anything for a 40th Crown reunion?  Oh wait, must lose 40 pounds before then.  Right, that always stands in your way.

Plus I find that I might not remember many people.  I did go once in the 1980s.  I remember telling people I had 3 kids.  Naomi was born in 1989 so....  I walked around with JJ and got quite a kick at how people related to us.  As usual, people responded strongly to her (she's got a big presence and personality) and then looked vaguely at me like maybe they might remember me.  I thought, wasn't that always the way.

But one year, I'm going to go.  If only because of the landscape.  I remember thinking the UCSC campus was the most beautiful place I knew when I became a student there.  And I still think that.

Plus it might be sunny.

Photoessay #2862 - Petey in the 1970s

Dennis took some enigmatic pictures of my grandmother with her parakeet in the mid 1970s.  I think there were some even more interesting than this one.  Petey, their parakeet, bought by my mother on impulse as a surprise birthday gift.  She had no idea whether my staid grandparents would go for a parakeet.  She figured the worse thing that could happen was that she would end up with a blue bird.

My mother, not shown, would have been in her early 50s; my grandmother Betty Ginsburgh, her mother in law in her mid 70s.

But it was a good call; to everybody's surprise, even their own, they loved the bird and kept him well-cared for for his entire bird life.  When he died they didn't want another. 

Did I pick him out?  Maybe.  Somehow, I have a memory of going to the bird place and picking out a more pastel bird.  But I could be making it up.

Photoessay #2861 - Rhodesli

This afternoon, Dennis and I went to downtown Seattle to see a screening of "The Longest Journey," about the Jewish community (now destroyed) from the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterannean.  I think Rhodesli means 'pertaining to Rhodes' or maybe 'people of Rhodes.'

The Jewish community in Rhodes had lived in Rhodes for 500 years.  Part of the Sephardic branch who had been expelled from Spain in 1492.  Speaking Ladino or Judeo-Spanish.  Very quaint and scenic.  The film describes the community through the memories of three Holocaust survivors as they return to their ancestral home.  Now destroyed.

The title, not sure I like it.  It refers to the 21 days it took for the Nazis to transport the 1800 Jews to Auschwitz.  But the community was so much more than their pointless journey to death.

The last scene shows one man cursing the Nazis while he stands with his daughter, granddaughter and his great grandchild.  His message was that he had lived.

The local connection? Older adults (and some younger) filled the theater.  Seattle is the home for one of the largest Sephardim communities in the country.  When the Young Professor (Devin Naar) asked how many had connection to Rhodes, many (at least half) raised their hands.  The Jewish Studies program at UW where I hang out has a strong Sephardic emphasis.

Much sniffling at the end of the film.

Most American Jews (including myself) have Ashkenazim roots, European descent esp central and eastern Europe.

They had a short panel after the film and the ladies from Ezzie Bezzie (Ezra Beseroth, one of the local sephardic contregations) served traditional cookies in the lobby.  Biscochos, a shortbread cookie in the shape of a circle.

A shot from the film as one of the survivors describes his life and a picture of biscochos, like the ones we had.