Surrey Hills

Spooky church

Sonnet and I ramble in the Surrey Hills designated as an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty by the UK government.  And it is.

On the top of a tall hill we stop at a church graveyard with stones dating to the 18th century.  Sonnet thinks a lovely place to be married; me, it looks like the perfect setting for "Night Of The Living Dead" or some other such horror movie.  I see zombies crawling from their graves seeking human flesh. Would not come here after nightfall. Strangely, our footpath the only way here - in and out.

Rusty Returns

Jail break

I pick up Rusty from the kennel and the dog is ready to get the hell out of there.  He jumps all over me, begging : "home, home, home, home .. . "

A poem posted nearby Smith College as part of Northampton's "June is Poetry Month" Celebration:

Prayer to Artichoke
by Gail Thomas

Strange one, I bless
the day I found you spread
open, plucked and pulled
between my teeth.  Lead
me to your tangy core.
Oh, keep me
wanting more.

On The Range

Meanwhile back in London

The report from Colorado positive. Eitan and Madeleine solo with Stan, enjoying football camp on the mesa, and generally being (i) spoiled and (ii) bored (Eitan). Madeleine relieved to know that Eric and Nelson (the turtles) are doing well. Sadly Stig the goldfish goes belly up (some tears from our intrepid pet owner) .  Madeleine finishes 'The Diary of Anne Frank' and 'Lord of the Flies'; Eitan reads 'Lonesome Dove' (Eitan to Sonnet: "Mom, what's a whore?" Sonnet to me: "Nice one, Jeff")

Me: "Are you two getting along?"
Madeleine, Eitan: "No. Maybe."
Madeleine: "Eitan came in to my room to steal my stuff."
Eitan: "You said I could have those things . .. "
Madeleine: "Did not. And besides, it was while I was sleeping."
Me: "Good to see you kids enjoying yourself."
Eitan, Madeleine:
Me: "No doubt about it."
Eitan: "Yep."

Smooth

Following a quick review of the Internets to find a window cleaner better than Windex (because, you know, Windex is kind of boring), I create a concoction: 2 gallons of hot water, half-cup of ammonia, handful of dishwasher detergent, and Rain-X which otherwise keeps the car windows de fogged. The reagents act favourably, actually bubbling and popping. I try not to breathe it.

From there, it is up the 32 foot ladder to catch the 2nd story fenestras and the conservatory, that requires, well, walking on the conservatory which always freaks Sonnet out and takes me back to the stupid things I did in college.

I live yet, following a half-days work, my cleaning mixture leaves dots and streaks and I have to re do it using Windex and newspaper.

Going Solo

Coming un done ?

As I am alone since Tuesday, even without the dog, I do what most of us would do in these circumstances : watch the complete series of Deadwood and drink beer.

Since cooking out of the question, I am unintentionally on a weird macro diet: yogurt and berries for breakfast. Maybe something for lunch. And dinner a large green salad that doesn't require the burner. Breakfast of champions.

La Veta

From the Minnis ranch.

Photo by Marcus as I blog from . ..my . office . I mean WTH ?  I will be leaving soon to watch Law & Order and drink some red wine.  Not so bad I guess.

The Globe

Jasper in Prague

1993, when the rest of us still stunned, post college, Jasper went to Prague and co founded The Globe, which now celebrates its 20th anniversary. This was a bad ass thing to do.

The Globe modelled after Moe's and Cody's Books and other similar Berkeley institutions, thx to Jasper, and became the meeting point for ex pats and Czechs alike who, during communism and the early 1990s, could not browse nor sit and read in a bookstore as books were shelved behind a counter. The Globe changed all that, offering coffee to boot.

In the early days, The Globe attracted readings from Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Alan Levy, Ivan Klíma, Zdeněk Urbánek, Amy Tam, Richard Ford, P.J. O'Roarke, Arnošt Lustig, Jáchym Topol and Allen Ginsberg.  I recall President Clinton cancelling a visit last-minute when in Prague, 1994.

It is unclear if Aneta knows about The Globe but her generation lives on the net.

Out West

Martine & Bill's horse ranch, La Veta, CO

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: