Harvard Yard

Steps, Memorial Church

Harvard has the honour of rejecting me twice. As if.

Still, I enjoy walking about campus and watching the summer students mingle with the tourists snapping photos of the Law Library or the John Harvard statue or the squirrels and pigeons (always the Japanese). Eric and I observe at least four family units : middle age slightly fat and maybe balding Dad, perfectly quaffed hair mom, and tall athletic children. Boy, girl every time.

Harvard founded in 1636 and the oldest college in the United States, followed by William & Mary 60 years later (Madeleine and Eitan's schools founded in 1594 and 1557, says I, gleefully). The endowment over $30bn, which is a lot of dough in one place.  It is the most aspirational place I know.

Charles River

From the Boston Univ bridge

Eric and I stroll across Boston to visit Simona and receive a tour of Boston's Children Hospital where Simona works. Field trip, dude !

In 2012, for the 23rd year in a row, U.S. News & World Report rated Boston Children's one of the nation's top hospitals specializing in pediatric care. Children's ranked in the top three of all paediatric specialty categories and number one in heart & heart surgery, neurology & neurosurgery, urology, nephrology and orthopedics.

Simona owns the place, too, greeting staff and candy-stripers with cheerful 'hello's'; pointing out the surgical and recovery and play rooms .. describing all the time her work and the research she is doing. The hospital and children lucky to have her.

A Day At The Office

Working emacs

Eric: "I write code. I write math books."

Eric has a physics degree from Cornell, which he received with the lowest GPA possible, only outdone by Chas, who did worse and failed to graduate.  Post college, Eric found substitute teaching in Houston unacceptable therefore he (and Chas) drove to California to find their fortune. Following a night sleeping in a ditch surrounded by beehives, they returned to the Eastern Seaboard. Shortly, Eric was encouraged to apply for a grading job at Harvard maths.  Within a couple days, he was teaching two sections of Quantitative Reasoning 10.  The rest, they say, is history.

Some DNA

The Shakespeares find a blush of boys (and girls) and we periodically see them running across the reception grounds, top speed, in hot pursuit of each other.  Eventually they cool off in front of a movie before it starts all over again.  Here I capture their attention for 30 seconds to take a photograph. And then they are gone.  

I half wonder if Eitan and Madeleine will try booze at the reception - every kid about this age has some wedding or bar mitzvah story where they get intentionally or accidentally plastered - but Eitan aghast when I suggest a small glass of Champagne.  

This morning Sonnet and I separate at Logan Airport where she is on to Colorado with the kids and me to London, via a welcome extension with Eric and Simona.

Rana Ties The Knot

Sedgwick House, Stockbridge, MA

On a glorious afternoon, in a charming western Massachusetts town, Rana and John say their vows and share their joy in to the late evening hour.

John from an old New England family dating back to the 17th Century.  He is a journalist and writer, whose office now the third floor of their Park Slope townhouse overlooking the treeline and one block from Prospect Park.

Rana's story, "Is Your City Next? Lessons from Detroit's Fight to Survive" covers Time Magazine this week.

I dance with a wonderful assortment of financiers, writers, economists, teachers, poets and stargazers, as well it should be.

Red Trousers

A pose

Madeleine: "I don't understand the Royal Family. Does it go to the King or the Queen or someone else?"
Sonnet: "After Queen Elizabeth II, the next in line is Prince Charles. Then William and now George."
Madeleine: "What about Harry?"
Sonnet: "Harry is the second child and so stepped over."
Madeleine: "That is so unfair. .."
Me: "It's probably a good thing."
Madeleine: "Dad, even a Prince should be allowed to party."

Sugar

Dana in Black

On a perfect evening we join Rana and John and their families and friends for the rehearsal dinner in Gr Barrington, MA.

The kids stuff their face with breakfast donuts at the hotel. Me: "Is that really what you are having for breakfast?"
Madeleine: "Oh, it is sooo good. The breakfast here is so much better than the last place."
Me:  "Why do you guys like donuts so much?"
Eitan: "Sugar."
Me: "Doesn't it make you sluggish?"
Eitan: "Yeah, so?"
Me: "Are you addicted to sugar?"
Eitan: "Yes."
Me: "How about you Madeleine?"
Madeleine: "Yeah. Every kid is."
Me:
Madeleine: "There's no life without sugar."

Smith College

Class of '90

We stroll about charming Northampton which hasn't changed since Sonnet a student (she tells me).  Here is where she studied for her art history exams. .. there is the bar where she drank, legally, on her 21st birthday. This is where she lived with Catherine and Halley.

We visit the Smith Art Museum, which has a useful collection of American and European masters (I have the Shakespeares draw their favorite); I am treated to an exhibition on Psychedelics from San Francisco's Summer Of Love, 1967.  The art created for Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane concerts but also references Ken Casey, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Golden Gate Park, Janis Joplin, the Haight Ashbury, Flower Power and the hippie movement.  Too bad it all had to end, 1970.

Madeleine: "What would happen if you skive class?"

Young Love

Cambridge, MA

Since the wedding things have gone from joy to joyous.

Simona continues her work at Boston Children's hospital, where she is conducting a quality improvement project assessing the use of mental health services by patients and families on inpatient medical and surgical floors (the hospital website tells me). She is the acting site principal investigator for Dr. Eva Szigethy's randomized treatment study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, targeting the reduction of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease and depression by using cognitive behavioral and supportive non directive therapies.

MIT

Kresge Oval

The Kresge Auditorium designed by noted architect Eero Saarinen and built in 1953; the building named for its principal funder, Sebastian Kresge, who founded SS Kresge Stores which became Kmart.

A remarkable thing about MIT : it is open to the public, who mingle in the Great Dome, Mass Ave, as students race to afternoon classes.

Commons

Eric picks me up at Logan following a kerfuffle caused by torential storms and a two-hour delayed arrival time.  Today we walk from Cambridge to Harvard Sq then MIT and over the Smoot Bridge to the Back Bay, Newbury Street followed by the commons (pictured), Beacon Hill, the Charles River and home.

Eric is writing code for a cool education focused website funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Here is what he does all day :

$.fn.summarize = function (mainOptions) {
   var $summarizingNode = this,
   options = $.extend(true, { }, { log: false }, mainOptions);
   $summarizingNode.find('.' + $.constants.misc.summaryControlClass)
     .each(function () {
       var $control = $(this),
       localOpts = $.extend(true, { }, { log: options.log }, $control.data($.keys.summaryControlOptions)),
       handlerName = localOpts.handler,
      
And so on and so forth.

Ravens Wood

When I worked in Sonoma, for that wonderful two years with Help The World See, I would jog along the valley's edge and, sometimes, into the Ravens Wood vineyard.  It is my always selection at the super market.

Me: "You know, your noggen is as hard as wood."
Madeleine: "Gee, thanks dad."
Me: "No, seriously, if you are ever in a fight, a good headbutt will end things right there."
Madeleine: "Really?"
Me: "Look at Zidane, he headbutted someone in the 2006 World Cup Final."
Madeleine: "I cannot believe he would do that."
Me: "Well, imagine you are in a game and the other player says your brother is an ape or something."
Madeleine: "I wouldn't do anything. I would agree with him."
Eitan:
Me: "Me, well imagine it was someone else then."
Eitan: "You would never get that far in football anway."
Madeleine: "Says you."
Me:

Farewell, Rusty

Carlucci's

Madeleine joins me to drop off the dog at the  kennel in Surrey.  Rusty knows something is up and pees everywhere.  Three weeks, Rusty free.

After the dog drop, Madeleine and I have breakfast in Richmond. She tells me she does not miss school and enjoying vacation and sleeping in.  Usual stuff. She craves an ipad or macbook but, for now, it is all about real books (Madeleine: "I promise to read every day if you get me a computer." Me: "That is exactly why I don't want you to have one.")

Summer Hours

Eitan contemplates chores

Madeleine: "Can we play the 'comparison game?'"
Me: "Sure."
Madeleine: "Would you rather fall in a pit full of spikes and rattlesnakes or get run over by a go-cart with electric things and stuff that would burn you?"
Me: "Would I die in both cases?"
Madeleine: "Let's say 'yes.'"
Me: "Go-cart.  Would you rather jump from the Empire State Building on to a bed of shattered glass or be eaten alive by a centipede?"
Madeleine: "Jump from the Empire State Building, if I didn't have a choice. Plus I would probably be dead before I hit the ground."
Me: "Good point, you are always two steps ahead of me."
Madeleine: "Yep."

Cecconi's

Mayfair, 9:40AM

Madeleine stumbles back to her bedroom, half asleep, 7AM
Me: "Want a hug?"
Madeleine pauses and turns in to me.
Me: "Sometimes a hug just feels good, doesn't it."
Madeleine:
Me: "For you and me both, kid."

Heat Wave

War 'on'

Madeleine and Nathaniel suffer the heat in their own way.  Nathaniel going to Latymer School next year which is, Sonnet notes, "a school for smart, sophisticated, urban kids".  We hope Nathaniel stops cussing like a sailor.

In other news, Detroit files for bankruptcy.  I have visited the Motor City once, maybe ten years ago, on an investment boondoggle. It was autumn and the foliage fluxed in colour - beautiful. The GM HQ an entire downtown block, impressive. My other recollection : jogging, 6AM, nobody minding red lights nor stop signs. Weird.

Monkeys

Museum Natural History via Katie

Sometimes we all feel like the dude behind Madeleine.

West Side, Manhattan

July is still a pretty busy month in some parts of Europe while August a complete shut-down.

I am with Ivor and Alison in the 16e the other night as they visit Paris for their 20th wedding anniversary - they spent their honeymoon here.  Ivor and I go back to at least 7 th grade; we both went to Brown and, on that fateful day, August 30, 1985, (or thereabouts) we were on the same dawn flight to the East Coast setting off for a new life. Only Ivor missed the plane. On the plus side, he had another 24 hours with Alison.

The UK goes gay, notable as it is so un notable here. Andrew Sullivan points out that there are 362 million more people who live in countries with marriage equality than one year ago. The total population now living in countries with marriage for all is 641 million.

August '96

Polk St, San Francisco

That is Moe's 544 behind us which, by the way, got a flat on the Bay Bridge, post wedding.  Happily Moe and Ken together and their combined JD, MD, MBA and Rhodes Scholar able to solve the predicament.

Ray Bans

Portobello Rd

Eitan thinking about his look. Fun to watch.

Madeleine: "Look at those bugs."
Sonnet: "The little blood suckers."
Madeleine: "Wack 'em, Dad."
Me: "All creatures great and small."
Madeleine: "Accept for mosquitoes. And leeches. "
Me: "How about locusts?"
Madeleine: "No, they're too much like crickets and I like crickets."
Me: "How about their, like, eating an entire crop and killing some village in Africa?"
Madeleine: "OK, locusts too, Dad."
Me: "What about blood sucking newts?"
Madeleine: "Definitely not."

Madeleine: "Good night, Dad."
Me: "Madeleine, you are everything I could ever want."
Madeleine: "Cheesy."
Me: "But true."
[I get a direct look and a smile]