Some of Sierra and Manny's pottery

Several Dissent readers have requested photos of my mom's pottery.

I've shown some of her work before, but not for a long time.

I happened to be at my folks' place today and I had my camera but I only had my macro lens. Well, I worked with what I had.

Above and below, we see two sides of one of mom's pots. (I call her "mom," but the rest of the world seems to call her either "Sierra" or "Edith.")

Mom used to be a painter.

Me, I go for simple and elegant designs, like this one.

It's hard to tell, but this thing is big.

I think I messed up my back puttin' it on the kitchen table. Sheesh.

This is one of my dad's efforts in clay (he paints too).

That's all I'll say about it.

But I do like it.

Another one of my mom's (i.e., Sierra's) efforts. Very delicate.

This is one of my dad's. Did I mention that people call him "Manny"?

His real name is "Gunther Manfred"

Another simple, elegant design. This is the smallest of a set of three. You know, my back.

Something I found in a corner of their home.

Well, there you go. You can't walk around there without tripping over one of these dang things.

     Earlier, I mislabeled this photo at left. Nope, it isn't a picture of mom when she got off the boat; rather, it is a picture of mom just before she boarded the boat (ultimately to Canada). So the picture was taken in Germany.

     The next photo was taken of my dad maybe a year or two earlier in Germany.

So much for "ClimateGate"; Kaplan snubbed

British Panel Largely Clears 'ClimateGate' Scientists of Misconduct Charges (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     Climate scientists were cleared of charges of scientific misconduct but criticized for a lack of openness in a report released on Wednesday by a panel in Britain.
     The panel was set up by the University of East Anglia, which found itself at the center of the so-called ClimateGate scandal after more than 1,000 private e-mail messages by climate researchers there were made public without authorization last November. Some of the e-mails suggested that scientists had attempted to exaggerate their findings, hide data from critics, and pressure journal editors to suppress information in an effort to strengthen arguments that global warming requires political action.
     The investigation largely cleared the scientists of wrongdoing.
     "We find that their rigor and honesty as scientists are not in doubt," Muir Russel, who led the panel, said at a news conference. "In addition, we do not find that their behavior prejudices the balance of advice given to policy makers.". . .
     But in a 160-page report, the investigators faulted the scientists for attempting to dodge potential open-records requests by deleting some e-mail messages, and said the University of East Anglia management "should have accepted more responsibility for implementing the required processes for FOIA and EIR compliance," referring to Freedom of Information Act requests and Environmental Information Regulations.. . .
     Several other investigations have found the researchers innocent of scientific misconduct, including one last week by Pennsylvania State University, where another of the climate scientists implicated in the e-mails works….

So far, community colleges snubbing for-profit Kaplan University (California WatchBlog)

     It's been about six months since California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott signed a controversial deal with Kaplan University that would allow students to take classes from the for-profit company for credit at a community college.
     Under the terms of a December 2009 memorandum of understanding, it's up to the individual colleges to sign agreements with the for-profit company to decide which Kaplan courses would be eligible for community-college credits. But so far, not a single college has signed up, a Kaplan spokeswoman said.
     When the Kaplan deal was announced, some faculty groups and student advocates questioned it for a number of reasons. For one, students taking the Kaplan classes would pay 10 times as much as they would for the community college class, even after a special discount. ¶ They also questioned the transferability of the Kaplan courses for students who want to eventually attend a UC or CSU campus.
     Michelle Pore, spokeswoman for Kaplan, said it's too early to expect colleges to have set up agreements with the for-profit company. Plus, she said Kaplan doesn't really need the extra business. Before the agreement was signed in December, the company already had deals with 75 colleges that allowed community college graduates to transfer to Kaplan.. . .
     … Jane Patton, president of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, said a number of community college officials in the state told her they declined approaches from Kaplan about signing agreements. The Academic Senate has been one of the groups to voice concern about the Kaplan deal….

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "in the elegy country"

Early summer took Rebel Girl by surprise, one thing after another and now, today, she heads north, (Polish wedding! Poets! Writers conference! hot springs! hot cha!) back weeks from now on the eve of classes in August. She'll do her best to post poems, the occasional meditation and weigh in when she can on what B. Von Traven has to say.

Here's Howard Nemerov being moody for today.



Blue Suburban


Out in the elegy country, summer evenings,
It used to be always six o'clock, or seven,
Where the fountain of the willow always wept
Over the lawn, where the shadows crept longer
But came no closer, where the talk was brilliant,
The laughter friendly, where they all were young
And taken by the darkness in surprise
That night should come and the small lights go on
In the lonely house down in the elegy country,
Where the bitter things were said and the drunken friends
Steadied themselves away in their courses
For industrious ruin or casual disaster
Under a handful of pale, permanent stars.

*

The fine beasts of '86

     I found a large manilla envelope in the cupboard where my folks keep their "vacation slides." In it were, not slides, but many color negatives--mostly pictures taken by my mother starting in '86, when my dad bought her a Nikon. They'd never been processed into photos or slides.
     There's a lot there. So I started with these pics from 1986 of Sepl the wonderful German Shepherd pup.
     Sepl is quite legendary owing in part to his being my dad's pal and his "construction dog." Those two would go around together everywhere in dad's Toyota truck. Zep would even sit next to my dad when he ran his tractor, a small JD.
     When I found the negatives, I showed one of the strips to my dad, who has long complained of having no pictures of Sepl. He held the strip up to light and said, "These seem to be photos of a little pig."
     Nope. Not a little pig. Sepl the Wonderdog!

Not long after the great and noble Attila died, my dad brought home Sepl (or Zeppie), a truly wonderful little man. 

Mom loves puppies and kittens. She loved her "little boy" Sepl.

Ronnie was away at college back then. He loved to come home to play with little Zeppie.

One day, years earlier, brother Ray brought home a pregnant cat named "Bobbie."

Bobbie had seven or so kittens. Ray gave away one or two of 'em. The rest ended up living with my folks in the Santa Ana Mountains.

This is "Felix" or "Fat Thing" (don't ask). According to my dad, little Fat Thing was the queen of the cats. She pretty much ran things. Slept with my folks.

The lovely and royal Ildy, Attila's "mate," was still with us. Ronnie was very close to "Ildy Pie."

Ildy was pretty much an invalid by then. She tolerated young Zeppie. Barely.

Here's goofy young Zep, testing Ildy's patience.

Zep didn't have a single mean bone in his body.

Here's one of Bobbie's kittens, the aloof and beautiful Greyball. She lived to be twenty-two.

Nobody fooled around with Greyball.

Zeppie and the cats, chowin' down. That's Moon Unit on the left and Toby in front of her.

Fat Girl on patrol.

I do believe that my mom took these pictures with her fancy new Nikon (back in '86).

Mostly, though, mom's into pottery.