The town of Fairview

Everybody knows the intersection of Harbor and Adams in Costa Mesa, right?

According to an article in yesterday’s Daily Pilot (Railroad tracks, $12,000 hotel and proximity to Newport Beach helped town enjoy brief success), it was the location of one of OC’s late-19th Century boom towns—Fairview.

There were lots of boom (and bust) towns during the local boom era (1863-1888), all over the county.

The period between 1873-1896 is known as the “Long Depression” (companies born during downturns)—it was called the “Great Depression” at the time—and it comprised the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893.

I’m having a Panic right now just thinking about it.

OC (which broke away from LA County when Fairview was founded) had been ranching land,  but a series of natural disasters—especially a drought—changed all that, starting in the 1860s.

Fairview was, more specifically, a railroad boom town:

A group of businessmen known as the Fairview Development Co. purchased 3,000 acres of land between Santa Ana and Newport Bay in November 1887, with the intention of laying out a 100-foot-wide road and motor railway line that would end at the Pacific Ocean.



“Surveyors are now laying out the town of Fairview, through the center of which will run the 100-foot avenue and motor road,” the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 2, 1887.

“The site for this new town is one of the most beautiful in California, being situated on a gently sloping mesa, giving a delightful view of the entire valley.”


According to one LA reporter at the time,

“Here on this level mesa, 80 acres have been laid out in a town site, with adjacent acreage in 5, 10 and 10-acre lots around it,” the correspondent wrote. “Carpenters were busy erecting the pioneer building of the town, the [Fairview Development Co.’s] office. It was designed to place the town lots on the market on the 14th instant, but so great was the local demand that all the business lots have been sold, and a large portion of the residence lots and acreage.”

Two railroads were in a fare war, and so travel was cheap. Fairview did quite well, according to reports:

“The town was laid out about the time the boom subsided, and has been steadily pushing forward, notwithstanding the general depression experienced through the country,” The Times reported in the January 1892 article. “It has a good hotel, which cost $12,000, a number of fine store buildings and numerous neat cottages and handsome residences which would do credit to a town of much larger size.”


It soon went into decline, and, by 1907, it was a ghost town. But a nearby town—Harper—located at 17th and Newport did better.

It changed its name to “Costa Mesa” in 1920.

Forgotten gems of districtular absurdity and infernal high jinks, aka "I read it in the paper!"

Well, dear reader, I’ve been working on an enormous document entitled, "Newspaper headlines tell the story."

I’m not finished with it—whole chapters remain unrepresented—but I think you’ll find that this super-duper chronological collection of headlines (and blurbs) paints quite a picture already.

Here’s a RANDOM SAMPLE of what you’ll find:


• College District Won’t Allow Offensive Views at Meetings
LA Times, February 13, 1998
Education: New measures, including more security, come after anti-Semitic comments.

Under criticism from Jewish organizations, the South Orange County Community College District is taking steps to curb offensive and derogatory remarks by speakers at public meetings. … “Some people have said some hurtful things, and it’s gotten kind of ugly,” said board President John S. Williams.

“If people are going to start making comments like ‘The Holocaust didn’t occur,’ I’m going to stop them. I’m certainly not trying to restrict free speech, but certainly people have to understand that there is decorum.”….


• “Newspaper vicious toward college board”
letter, Irvine World News, August 28, 1997 (Ray Chandos)

Why does the Irvine World News, which serves a large area, concentrate its vicious attacks on South Orange County Community College district trustees and the interim president Raghu Mathur at Irvine Valley College, ignoring other news, governing bodies and institutions?...

• “Why don't we raise hell about Steven Frogue?”
OC Jewish Heritage, August 29, 1997

My professor friend doesn't know what is wrong with the Orange County Jewish community: "Why don't you raise hell about Frogue and his gang?" he asks me, his tired voice weighed by years of accumulated frustration.

He has a point.

Why don't we do anything about Steven Frogue? Picket board meetings? Launch a recall election?

Good question….


• “Irvine Valley Spokeswoman quits”
OC Register, September 25, 1998

On the job a month, she says she was pressured to present a false view of the college….


• College District Opts for New Chancellor
LA Times, January 31, 2001

…[Chancellor] Sampson, who has been on sick leave for almost two months with anemia, said the move Monday night surprised him.

"I have to take some time to absorb this and find out from the board what the reasons for the action are," he said….

[Note: 21 months later, Sampson died of complications of leukemia.]


• “College district tosses aside procedure manual in choosing new Irvine Valley College president”
Irvine World News, August 14, 1997

Chancellor Robert A. Lombardi said Tuesday he has decided that community college trustees should choose the new president for Irvine Valley College directly from the pool of 20 to 30 candidates rather than letting a representative search committee eliminate candidates first.

He said he made the decision not to use the established hiring procedure after communicating with members of the board of trustees.

He said the South Orange County Community College District trustees will choose the new president based on their own interviews and the written comments on each candidate from each member of the 12-member search committee.
…
Under the established method of hiring administrators, a search committee of representatives from all segments of the college reviews applications for basic qualifications, interviews qualified applicants and ranks them in order of who they think is the best person for the job. The top three to five then go to the chancellor who makes a recommendation to the board for their approval. This hiring procedure was adopted by the board in 1988 and is similar to hiring procedures at other community colleges.
…
Lombardi acknowledged Tuesday afternoon that this [new] method is not the one specified in the district's Employment Procedures Manual. "It wouldn't be my choice, if another model would get the support of the board majority," he commented.

He stressed that he is trying to "be realistic" with this board and chose this method of selecting a president so that someone will be chosen to fill the position.
…
When asked if this is a way to make sure that Interim President Raghu Mathur is included as a finalist for the permanent position, Lombardi replied: "let's put it this way—this is to make sure he is not eliminated unfairly. That's what the board would say."….


• “Saddleback College cans newspaper adviser”
Saddleback College Lariat(?), June 5, 1997

Kathleen Dorantes received word May 20, without warning that she would no longer be the adviser to the Saddleback Valley College newspaper, The Lariat.
…
Some sources at the Mission Viejo college, governed by the same board as Irvine Valley College, say the move was politically motivated. The student paper has been critical of the majority of the college district's board of trustees since the election in the fall.

The faculty member appointed to take Dorantes' place as adviser, Lee Walker, is an outspoken supporter of the board majority. … Walker could not be reached for comment.
…
When asked about reasons for the change or reasons that the college president, rather than an immediate supervisor, would make a decision about a faculty teaching assignment, Doffoney said, "I think this conversation has gone about as far as it can," and indicated he did not want to comment further.


• “Fortune named in flier flap"
Saddleback College Lariat, April 24, 1997

Librarian steps forward to identify trustee who tore down club's fliers

The unnamed trustee who was publicly accused of tearing down fliers posted by a student club is Dorothy Fortune, according to librarian Ana Maria Cobos. Rick Travis, president of Associated Student Government, made the accusation during the March 31 meeting of the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. He did not name the trustee, however….
…
According to Jaime Placek, an ASG senator and member of Student Alliance for Awareness, there has been an ongoing problem with the club's posters being removed.
…
Some of [the fliers or posters] promote attendance at the April 28 board meeting. Others target certain trustees, with statements such as: "Hey Fortune, Frogue and Williams: Do you represent the students or the Faculty Association?"

Another flier reads: "Board members or any of your associates: Stop tearing down our fliers, we refuse to go away or keep quiet!....


• College Proposes Soaring Venture
LA Times, June 15, 2002

Building: Irvine Valley seeks investors in office, theater plan thought to be unprecedented in state.

Irvine Valley College officials are quietly trying to find investors for a private hotel, entertainment and office complex on campus that could cost as much as $800 million, officials confirmed this week.

As described in recent meetings among campus officials, the project would include a hotel, a multistory parking structure, two 2,000-seat theaters, office buildings, a sound stage and a lake, replacing orange groves and an athletic field at the southern end of campus.
…
The cost would be enough to build two community colleges, said Kirsten McIntyre, spokeswoman for the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, which was unaware of the proposal.
…
The plan is being developed by Howard Gensler, Irvine Valley's dean of humanities and library sciences, who declined to comment. Raghu P. Mather, chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District, said he had discussed the idea with the president of the board of trustees, but would offer no details about the project or how much revenue it would generate for the campus….

[Once we tipped off the press about the existence of this absurd project, the entire thing just collapsed. Its planning had involved the participation of Raghu Mathur and some trustees.]


• Vast Arts Complex at College Ruled Out
LA Times, June 25, 2002

… The proposal … called for construction on 25 to 35 acres of what are now orange groves and athletic fields at Jeffrey Road and Barranca Parkway. It would include a 2,000-seat theater; a 2,000-seat concert hall; a seven-story art gallery/planetarium; a four-story, 2,000-car garage; a seven-story hotel; a seven-story building of offices, shops and restaurants; a 13-acre movie production complex; a 5,000-seat baseball stadium; a 10,000-seat soccer and track stadium; a lake and botanical gardens.

The ambitious project would make the campus "one of the most important cultural centers in Southern California," Howard Gensler, IVC's dean of humanities and library sciences, wrote in a May 23 report to the college district chancellor, Raghu Mathur.

Faculty members said the project didn't appear to benefit instruction in any way.

What they really needed was a much smaller theater appropriate for college productions, they said. The college has plans for a 400-seat performing arts center, to be completed in 2006.

The complex was to be built by the Newport Financial Group of Newport Beach. One company figure is Charles Ross, 91, of Laguna Woods, who proposed a similar project at UC Riverside, without success, [trustee Dorothy] Fortune said….

[Gensler was another Mathur hire. A cursory examination of his employment history might suggest to more discerning individuals that Gensler was a flat stupid hire.]


• College District Ends Suit by Hiring Former Trustee: Teddi J. Lorch is given the South County job she sought before filing an age-discrimination case in 1999,
LA Times, March 09, 2001

The district's trustees discussed the matter in closed session Tuesday and agreed to the settlement by a 4-3 vote, with David B. Lang, Marcia Milchiker and Donald P. Wagner voting against it.

The district's news release announcing Lorch's appointment to the $72,171-a-year position, effective Monday, did not mention that it was part of a deal to settle the complaint she filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Lorch, 53, filed the complaint in 1999, saying she was denied the position of human resources director and other district jobs because of her age. Lorch was one of three finalists for the human resources job.

[When Lorch resigned from the board, we reported that, according to many, she had done so in hopes of securing the district’s chief HR job.]

Happy Birthday Elvis!

I'll see your Young Elvis and raise you one Younger Still Elvis! —BvT

Google book digitization debated

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

Is Google Good for History?

At a discussion of "Is Google Good for History?" here Thursday, there weren't really any firm "No" answers. Even the harshest critic here of Google's historic book digitization project confessed to using it for his research and making valuable finds with the tool.
…
Dan Cohen, director of the Center for History and New Media, at George Mason University, kicked off the discussion with a strong defense of Google's book digitization efforts.

"Is Google good for history? Of course it is," he said. "We historians are searchers and sifters of evidence. Google is probably the most powerful tool in human history for doing just that. It has constructed a deceptively simple way to scan billions of documents instantaneously, and it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of its own money to allow us to read millions of books in our pajamas. Good? How about great?"….

Letter with white powder burns woman (OC Register)

Surging Enrollments Put Community Colleges in a Good Credit Position (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

Governator squawkage, full of sound and fury, signifying anything?

Potential Boon for California Higher Ed (Inside Higher Ed)

…In a State of the State speech that elevated education, and higher education in particular, above some competing state priorities, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed amending the state's Constitution to ensure that the state's two major public university systems receive no less than 10 percent of the state's operating funds each year. The additional funds would come by cutting spiraling state spending on prisons, the governor said.
…
The plan faces enormous hurdles, though, in that it would require at least two-thirds of state voters to back a ballot measure and because Schwarzenegger proposes deriving the funds by privatizing the state's prison system, an idea that California's powerful union of prison guards, among others, will vigorously oppose. And the governor is a lame duck, so hardly at the peak of his political powers.
…
"Wisdom and common sense remind us that tipping the scales back in favor of fully funding education means that fewer Californians will land in a prison cell and we will reduce costs associated with larger prison populations,” said Jack Scott, chancellor of the California Community Colleges. In an interview, Scott said that while the governor's proposal would not promise any increase directly for community colleges, he hoped that as the initiative took shape, some of the additional funds for Cal State and UC might be set aside to ensure additional enrollment slots at those institutions for students transferring from two-year institutions.

"That would certainly be fair, and would certainly increase community college support for the proposal. I would expect a receptive ear from both of those leaders," he said of [Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California] and [Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the Cal State system]….

Yesterday, in a letter to his Chief Executive Officers, Scott wrote:

I was very encouraged that in his speech the Governor pledged to make no further cuts to education in his proposed 2010-11 budget. I will report on the latest details of this proposed budget for the community colleges once he releases it on Friday. Of course, the Governor’s budget is only the first round in a protracted budget process, but certainly, his proposed budget is important as a starting point.

In addition, the Governor showed great leadership by making it very clear that California is headed in the wrong direction in spending more money on prisons than on higher education. He is therefore proposing an initiative that would, over a three-year period, reduce prison spending to 7% of state general fund expenditures and increase higher education funding to at least 10% of state general fund expenditures. Much of the impact of this initiative would help the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC). But I have begun conversations to make sure that the initiative would guarantee that a significant portion of that additional funding would be used to increase slots for community college transfers to CSU and UC.

Low in the Fuentesphere (where it's always low)

Anaheim, 1886, for no particular reason. Store owned by a Mr. Wallop.

As you know, ever since the notoriously vindictive Tom Fuentes, architect of OC's formidable hardball political "machine," joined the SOCCCD Board of Trustees in 2000, the district has been, more or less, an annex of, and a venue for, the OC GOP.

CONSIDER:

• Former OC Sheriff (now felon) Mike Carona—for years, the Star of the Fuentesphere (and advisee of “Republican mafia” henchman Mike Schroeder, another doozy)—used to hang around IVC to pray and cry and pose and collect prizes. (Nowadays, not so much.)

• DA Tony “"ethically challenged" Rackauckas (another Mike Schroeder advisee—and whose spokesperson is Mike's wife) has occasionally visited the district to swear in trustees and such.

• When Dot "residence challenged" Fortune resigned from the BoT, somehow, Eric Norby, the brother (and chief of staff) of right-wing city councilman, now OC Supervisor, Chris Norby suddenly popped up as her replacement. (That gambit backfired, tsk tsk.)

• Not long after Fuentes’ arrival on the BoT, slow-witted SOCCCD trustee John Williams, a former bailiff, managed to get elected as OC Public Administrator—which is about as "down ballot" as Dog Catcher, but more lucrative. Don’t know how that happened, but it’s a good bet that John's colleague Tom made some calls and pulled some strings to get 'im a leg up on the competition (Williams was utterly unqualified, of course, but voters didn't notice). Soon thereafter, Williams, promising big cost savings, managed to transform his PA gig into a combined PA/Public Guardian super-gig, with a big fat salary and car bennies. Recently, of course, the OC Grand Jury issued a scathing report, accusing Williams of mismanagement, cronyism, and basically costing the taxpayer a buttload of money for shitty work.

• When Williams took on the Public Administrator/Public Guardian office, he hired SOCCCD colleague Nancy Padberg as his chief of staff. Gosh! Doesn't that create a conflict of interest? (See "2 Trustees' Job Status Is an Issue: One who sits on an Orange County college district board is the elected boss of another", LA Times, March 9, 2004.) Later, Williams summarily fired her, which caused some serious bad blood between the two and providing the SOCCCD BoT meetings with reliable episodes of high comedy. —Hmmm. Maybe it's not such a good idea to have boss and employee serving on the same board. (OK, this one might not belong here. On the other hand…..)

• Sleazy (explained below) OC Treasurer, Chriss Street, keeps showing up for SOCCCD BoT meetings, which are televised, giving unnecessary reports about property taxes. Man, that Fuentes whistles, and Chriss is Johnny-on-the-spot.

Well, judging by the past, with this crowd, it’s always just a matter of time before they get caught in some scandal or crime.

So, with that in mind, here's what popped up in today's OC Register:

Judge: Treasurer must face trial before election

A bankruptcy judge refused Wednesday to delay the $7 million civil fraud trial of Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street. ¶ The decision means Street will face allegations that he looted a bankruptcy trust while he is running for re-election. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3, four months before the June 8 election.

Street was court-appointed trustee of the Fruehauf truck trailer company from October 1998 until creditors forced him out in August 2005. His successor, Los Angeles money manager Dan Harrow, sued Street for fraud in February 2007, weeks after Street took office as treasurer.

Street's attorney, Phillip Greer [sound familiar?], pleaded with Judge Richard Neiter to delay the trial until late June. … Neiter wasn't buying. The allegations already are public, he said.

[See also D.A. joins list of Street investigators (OC Register, 9/5/09)]

That guy Phil Greer, Street's lawyer, really gets around. He represented John Williams (John Williams has friends) in recent discussions at the OC Board of Supervisors concerning how best to respond to the OC Grand Jury's dismal assessment of Williams' performance as PA/PG. That day, his pal Chris Norby provided the key vote that saved Williams’ ass. The vote made no sense.

Of course, Greer represents Norby as well. He represents several of the BoS's members.

I’ve been told that, recently, Raghu Mathur required the services of an attorney. Guess who took on the job?

For ES:



Lisa says that it's all right
When she meets me home at night
Lisa says that she has her fun
And she'll do it with just about anyone.

Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says

Lisa says that she's on the run
Looking for a special one
Lisa says that every time she makes it straight
She knows her heart will break

Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says

Looking for a party, some action
Going to make it feel okay
But what do you find
When the [?] come undone
Look at it run

Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says, Lisa says

The Chancellor's opening session: not bad

I attended the Chancellor’s “opening session” this morning. Silly me. I thought it started at 9:00 a.m., but no, it started at 8:45, so I was late. [See also Tracy's update.]

Had they invoked the Lord? Hmmm. I looked over at Karla W, a few rows back, and she seemed serene.

That clinched it. Must’ve been a moment of silence or less.

As I entered the hall, Chancellor Raghu Mathur was blathering like he does, though he seemed somberer than usual, like he had an extra marble in his yap and a pebble in his loafer. He went through the usual factoids and charts. He emphasized the relative fiscal health of the district, owing to its “remaining within its means,” which, he joked, is a “radical idea.” Something like that.

I suspect that most of us are indeed glad that the board has been conservative (an approach eschewed by Republican Presidents, it seems) in its approach to finances in the last decade or so. Remember that board majority of 1996? Williams was in charge of that crew for a while. Nearly ran us into the ground. (See "State Warns It Might Take Over S. County College District Finances," LA Times, December 28, 1997.)

I studied Williams’ face during Mathur’s crowing and his alluding to the bad old days of fiscal, albeit Republican, spendthriftery.

I noted John's blissful visage.

“Lights are on, nobody home.”

(BTW: in attendance were Trustees Wagner, Milchiker, Padberg, Williams, and Fuentes. Didn't see Jay or Lang. Jay might've been sleeping somewhere. Wagner left early. The two Presidents were there, plus the ATEP Provost. The audience was medium-sized.)

Mathur launched into a list of the ten greatest districtular accomplishments of the last decade. Its items were unsurprising: more students, more FTES, less debt, accreditation(!), fewer pesky bees and Nazis, etc. Mathur seemed eager to persuade us that these accomplishments are significant, a reason to be proud.

When he got to ATEP, he was even more insistent. The audience seemed dubious. I looked over at Tom Fuentes, off to the left, in the dark. Poker face, with lower lip droopage, Nixonian jowls.

At one point, Mathur made a point of spotlighting the “two provosts” of ATEP—Bob Kopecky, who was canned (by a desperate, finger-pointing Mathur), and Randy Peebles, who, these days, looks like he could follow in Bob’s cansteps. Those two huddled together as if sharing a trench in the French countryside. Everyone clapped. They smiled. Mathur smiled. I smiled. —Different smiles.

I pitty the poor fool who has that ATEP Provost gig under Mathur. Anything goes south, and the Provester gets canned, i.e., they tie cans to his feet and send 'im out to no-man's land to face the Hun and his MP18.

At one point, whilst discussing ATEP, Mathur alluded to the difficulty the district (mostly Gary P) has had dealing with “a city,” which remained nameless. That drew a laugh. Mathur went with it. Hope no Tustinians were in the room.

Mathur once again declared that the Tustin project could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to the district, a shining city upon a hill. "Keep the dream alive," he seemed to say. He seemed to really mean it—if, that is, he were to say it, which he didn't.

There’d been a rumor that, today, Mathur would announce some sort of personal migration to beyond our district, but, like all good rumors about Mathur, this one proved to be false. (Yeah, but what's with the somberness?)

The “keynote” speaker, Mr. Christopher Harrington (Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.) was next. He wasn’t half bad. Seemed like a bright guy, albeit a “chamber of commerce” sort. Staunch. Subtly imperious. Republican.

He discussed changes likely to occur in the world economy in the next forty or fifty years—China will be the great power, India will be tied with the U.S. in GDP, Mexico will not be far behind, etc. (Bob K brought up the subject of Mexico during Q&A. Bob's always on top of such things.) Harrington briefly outlined the history of centers of economic power: from Europe to the American Northeast, to the American Southwest, to China—and then (some time in the future) to the south: Mexico and South America, and even Africa.

California, of course, is in a relatively good position to participate in the rise of Asian commerce and power that we witness today.

Harrington seemed to argue a thesis: that colleges should help get people up to speed on the ethical issues involved in today's business environment, e.g., finding the right balance between a corporation’s pursuit of profit and its social obligation regarding the environment. He described Toshiba's efforts to move toward greater efficiency and a smaller carbon footprint, etc. He said that the old Milton Friedman (greed is good) model of the “responsibilities” of a corporation is under attack: no, it is not enough to pay taxes, create jobs, make a profit. Social responsibility has to enter the picture, too. But how do we think about that? There must be a dialogue.

That sounded pretty good, especially coming from a Republican. He really did seem to want academia to step up to the plate to provide the kind of understanding and dialogue necessary to prevent the kind of disastrously narrow thinking that brought us Enron, the recent mortgage fiasco, etc. (On the other hand, it seemed to me that he was also saying: you guys aren't stepping up to the plate. So get with the effing program!)

All in all, Harrington's presentation was successful and well received, I think.

Fuentes, our MC, got up to do his thing. He seemed on his game. It seemed to me, though, that he left the distinct impression that that was it. I started to get up.

But wait!

Next came our own David Bugay, VC of Human Resources. He was charming, entertaining. He managed to provide the highpoint of the session, I believe. He spoke of the very point of our institution and our jobs—the good that we can do for students. And he noted the gap between instructors being “good” and being “great.” Great instructors, he said, are a total pain in the ass (he did everything short of using those words). But they’re worth it, he said. Teaching well is the thing. He had some anecdotes.

“Goodness is the enemy of greatness,” he proclaimed (quoting someone). He spoke of burnout and other syndromes of decline and crummitude.

He then spoke of his own adventures as an (initially) “wayward” student, starting at a community college thirty years ago. There he was, not knowing his butt from a hole in the ground. He described two teachers who really turned him around, about reading, writing, and the purchase of ties.

His anecdotes were nicely compelling and entertaining, and so that was that, I thought. Good for you, Davey-Do. Who'd of thunk?

But no! Suddenly, he invited these two geezers—one was maybe in his late sixties, the other was in his seventies—to come on out. And so they did, to big applause. They immediately found their places in a faux living room with couch, chair, lamp, and coffee table. Bugay sat in the stuffed chair and pretend-smoked a large Sherlock Holmesian pipe, à la a dignified and petrified host of a TV series on the dead-'n'-somber classics. Funny. His nervousness really worked for him. I guess he's a nice guy.

These two old dudes were quite good. I don’t know how Bugay pulled it off, but his and their spontaneous-but-scripted dialogue went off perfectly. Each geezer told his stories and described his values and whatnot. It was a home run.

What about burnout?

"Well, you can do this; you can do that; but, hey, sometimes there's nothing you can do."

Big laugh.

At one point, Bugay insisted that “motivational speakers don’t work.” But I do think that he did a decent job motivating us to be mindful of this phenomenon—that the things we teach and do for our students can have a lasting impact that can change lives for the better.

OK, clearly I’ve gone too far here. I'm being much to positive. Corny, even.

Ummm....

Oh yeah. As I was leaving, Tom Fuentes made a big point of reaching out his hand to me and saying “Happy New Year, Roy.” OK. So I grabbed his hand, shook it, and said the same.

I think Gary P was standing next to him in some sort of fuzzy-but-sharp jacket. (He’s a bit of a dandy. Ever look at his shoes?) I shook his hand too. He was friendly, as always.

Then I stroked the fuzz, and said, “nice, dude.” I booked. Whew!

(My back was killing me, so I blew off the Faculty Association lunch and gabfest. Did anyone go to that? Anything worth reporting?)

COMMENTS:

Anonymous said...
The FA Luncheon opened with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a full-throated rendition of God Bless America. Then we all square-danced and ate some Apple Betty.
4:34 PM, January 06, 2010

B. von Traven said...
Apple Betty? Am I the only person on earth who has no idea what "Apple Betty" refers to? --I googled the phrase, fully expecting it to refer to a popular porn star. But it's just some goddam pie.
4:56 PM,

DoeSeeDoe said...
I could have sworn it was a Sour Berry Slump.
8:19 PM,

Anonymous said...
Gary P has to work at being sharp; he's color-blind. And yes, he is a nice guy. Likes jazz too.
9:20 PM,

alannah said...
You forgot to mention Bugay's fondness for Jerry Garcia ties. A very big plus in my opinion, at least until somebody tells Tom Fuentes who Jerry Garcia is.
9:22 PM,

B. von Traven said...
Re Jerry Garcia ties: I alluded to that, referring to what Bugay learned from his cc mentors (see).

I played along with the Jerry Garcia tie thing. But, in truth, wasn't Jerry just a hippie with good guitar technique? Never heard a Grateful Dead song that remotely interested me. And that whole fuzzy-headed drug scene leaves me cold.

If you're gonna listen to a Bay Area band (of that era), I say: consider Moby Grape. Or CCR! Both bands infinitely more accomplished, in my opinion. Moby Grape is a gold mine of listenability, if you've not heard them. Check it out.

OK, now I've violated my New Year's resolution: not to make enemies. I take it all back. Loved what Jerry did on "Teach Your Children," BTW. (I can do without the rest of his noodling, however. D'oh! did it again!)
9:34 PM,

Anonymous said...
I can't find "my" song on the Dissent Jukebox anymore - did you change anything?
ES
10:55 PM,

B. von Traven said...
I do change it once in a while. Which song was "yours"? I'll put it back, if I can. In truth, the list of favorites is much bigger than can be placed on the playlist, alas.
10:59 PM,

Anonymous said...
"Lisa Says". Came out the year I was born, and I've always loved the Velvet Underground. 
ES
11:06 PM,

B. von Traven said...
If I removed "Lisa Says," it was by mistake. Love that song. One of my faves among faves.
11:09 PM,

Anonymous said...
And of course, Lisa is one of the best names ever...
ES
11:11 PM

B. von Traven said...
It turns out that "Lisa Says" ceased being available, hence the "removal." Nothing I can do about that. 
So I added the YouTube "Lisa Says" in the post above, with Lyrics. 
Heartbreaking. Always gets to me.
11:44 PM,

Anonymous said...
Where would we be without YouTube...
ES
11:57 PM,

Anonymous said...
We listen to music, that we listened to, when we listened to music.
11:02 AM, January 07, 2010

Anonymous said...
Always liked the Underground but hated Lou Reed.
1:25 PM,

Anonymous said...
How could anyone hate Lou Reed?
2:58 PM,

Anonymous said...
I'm not sure how you can like the Underground but hate Lou Reed. The sound of the Underground pretty much is Lou Reed. Do you mean you hate him more on a personal level, or his looks, or...? 
ES
9:13 PM,

B. von Traven said...
Lou has had so many styles over the years. I definitely like some of them more than others. I especially liked the band sound for his New York album. Terrific. With the VU, the sound changed considerably as well. In the early days, the guy with the viola was very important to their sound--the drone. When he left, the drone left. When Mo Tucker left (I think she was pregnant), the band ceased being the VU, despite some great songs. Her simple drumming was an essential element. Much like the White Stripes.
12:34 AM, January 08, 2010

Anonymous said...
Good post, Chunk. I like it when you're positive - it's good for your soul. Have a great semester. Cheers!
5:56 AM