Month: May 2006

Sorry for the non-blogging this week. It was the last week of finals. No, I didn’t actually have to take any. Yes, I had to proctor them. With a 8:30 am to 10 pm schedule, it really was grueling. I almost would have preferred to take 3 exams rather than to watch people suffer through 10.

Last Saturday was my godmother’s fundraising brunch for culinary scholarships. An extraordinary collection of chefs put together a fine feast – the hungry room barely made a dent in the buffet. See the spread yourself! I’m so glad that so many people have received her love over the years, and that they return that love to her.

Last Sunday was the CAPA Festival at Union Square. Our friend from Meniscus Zine was selling out for Mickey D’s at their huge blowup tent, complete with Asian Ronald. Koreans out in force with the best give-aways. And I won a ImaginAsian T-shirt!

NYU is having their 175th anniversary celebrations this week with alumni weekend. The alumni awards dinner was Friday. A couple of not-exactly-striking graduate TAs had a mini-flyer handout outside of the hotel, but were not really effective; they had thrown their remaining stack of flyers in the garbage when we left. One line acceptance speeches: Stateswoman Carol Bellamy (“learn to take the risk of failing”); the Tuskegee Airmen (“just ordinary people doing their best”); songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (“if you get caught between the Moon and New York City/the best that you can do/the best that you can do is fall in love”); real estate developers H. Dale Hemmerdinger (we can rebuild Camelot) and Daniel J. Brodsky (NYU is the family business) and mathematician Peter Lax (“they trust me as an expert in Hungarian literature”). NYU President John Sexton takes the pulpit as usual, and during the tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, he reveals that the number 42 in a circle that he has emblazoned on his academic gown is a tribute to Jackie Robinson, and not the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Just before I sleep on this late Tuesday/early Wednesday — I checked on the latest doings of the world of “Doonesbury.” What’s this – could it be? Has Alex Doonesbury finally picked her college?

Apparently, the other schools (was it really MIT?) had profs or students who couldn’t answer Alex’s hypo properly (something to do with unidentifiable wires and figuring out what to do with them when they’re in some boxes – I’m no techie). And, Walden, her safety school and her dad’s Alma Mater (the barely-accredited school that tries way too hard) has all but stalked Alex (their offer of freebies to bribe her to matriculate at the wonderful world of Walden: a free laptop – say what?). The May 10 edition suggests that a Cornell prof has been able to answer Alex’s hypo and Alex is getting excited about Cornell, even though she initially wasn’t keen on going all rural/suburban.

Is this for real? Is Alex Doonesbur Ivy-bound? Stay tuned…

Last night, the family and I went to the marathon baseball game at Shea stadium. Mets v. Braves; Mets’ leaving many people on base; us leaving just before the game finally ended. Crazy Mets. At least they were a fun bunch. Mets just won the game this Saturday afternoon. Yeah. Beat the Braves. Just go in there and not have the mindset that the Braves are still Met killers. One more game to go with the Braves.

The latest developments of the comic strip “Doonesbury” – Mike’s daughter, Alex, is visiting colleges to decide which one she’ll accept to matriculate. She’s staying over at the D.C. home of Joanie Caucus, her maternal grandmother, to consider Georgetown. In the May 4 edition, Alex explains to Joanie that wasn’t eager to attend RIT or RPI (aka Rensselaer) since it’s pretty suburban/rural, and she’d rather be in a big city (well, she was born and partly raised in NYC, after all). Alex says Harvard “seemed to have a little self esteem problem.” Grammy Joanie asks: “Too little?” Alex: “Too much. Who wants to start every day getting over yourself?” Hehehe. Funny, Alex.

The Doonesbury website links to this Cornell press release, since Cornell accepted Alex and Cornell would be so happy to have a Doonesbury character among its population. (sort of like how Boalt Hall was happy to have the very fictitious Joanie as a law student a generation ago). I just hope Alex doesn’t end up at the undergrad alma mater of her parents and her grammy; no need to be the next generation of Doonesbury at Walden (like she really wants to join Joanie’s son Jeff and his roommate Zipper at that barely-accredited school).

The teen writer who wrote “How Opal Mehta got Kissed…” – got into trouble for – what else? – plagiarism. Sigh. That’s pathetic. Intentional or not, plagiarism is a big No-no.

This week’s two-part “House” – wow. Omar Epps as Dr. Foreman – powerful. Give the man an Emmy. Back when he was on “ER” as the put upon medical student (the ultimately dead medical student, by the way), his current doctor is that much stronger-willed. But, Foreman still wants his mom while he’s badly sick, even though his mom is suffering from dementia. (possibly giving a personal explanation for why he’s a neurologist, other than the utter intellectual interest and challenging of complexting). House gets a bit more sensitive to treat Foreman, but that makes him too cautious. (and, by the way, yeah, it’s hard to kill a blind pigeon, House). At least his pet mouse, Steve McQueen, didn’t get sick.

Lovely spring.