How It Happens (Rebel Girl)

     The characterization confused Rebel Girl at first. She recognized the name but the out-of-bounds skier killed by the avalanche was also described as "veteran character actor" and "age 60." That didn't seem right. Then she did the math. She considered the fact that he had been acting since before she met him nearly 25 years ago. She considered what 25 years could do to one's age and career status. So, he had probably reached "veteran status" and considering he never became a leading man, "character" seemed about right too. It was him all right. The husband of a handsome Santa Monica acting couple who had employed young Red Emma as child care provider for their son, also dubbed Red Emma. Rebel Girl and Red were in their salad days then, finishing up undergraduate work, taking jobs here and there. The handsome acting couple paid well and, when they went out of town, Red and Reb housesat for them in their handsome Santa Monica craftsman house, north of Wilshire, a walk to the beach.
     Rebel Girl wanted their life, or a version of it: the dust-free house, the wood floors, the light through the clean windows, the down comforters on the bed, the day planners filled with rehearsals and dinner parties, trips to Santa Fe and New York and yes, if she thought about it enough (but she didn't), the young handsome son, too. Rebel Girl would press the pump dispenser of the wife's lotion (once, twice, no more than that) and rub the fragrant lotion on the backs of her hands. She wanted to smell like that.
     Time went by and the handsome couple broke up and married other people and had other children. The break-up managed to surprise Rebel Girl despite her own mother's eight failed marriages. Red and Reb stayed in touch with the wife and saw the husband's face or name now and again in some production. Their handsome son grew up and learned to write poetry. He showed up at the summer writers conference where Rebel Girl and Red work and was brilliant and all grown up. Now he is finishing up his dissertation at USC. He married last year.
     And then last weekend, sitting on Chunk's living room floor, safely evacuated from their dusty canyon house with its wood floors and generally sunlight-flooded windows, their own handsome young son asleep on the couch, Rebel Girl and Red Emma watched as the handsome actor's body, wrapped in a bright yellow tarp, strapped to a sled, was pulled down the mountain. -RG

Whew!

Pacific storm much weaker than forecast

The North Pacific storm that blew ashore Saturday night drenched Orange County but dropped less than half of the rain forecast by the National Weather Service….

On the other hand:

"This is going to be unbelievable"

From this morning’s OC Register: Canyon residents urged to evacuate:

.....Canyon residents are being urged to leave their homes this afternoon as Orange County braces for what is expected to be the largest in a wave of storms that has walloped much of Southern California this week, soaking fire-scorched hillsides and turning streets into rivers.
.....With even more rain and snow preparing to batter an already water-logged Southern California, public works crews went into damage-control mode Friday, racing to shore up canyon hillsides saturated by two heavy storms that pummeled the region this week.
.....
.....Facing grim weather predictions, county officials will order voluntary evacuations for thousands of residents living in canyon areas affected by fire and are in danger of mudslides and debris flows beginning at noon today, said Capt. Mike Blawn of the Orange County Fire Authority. Voluntary evacuations will be ordered for Modjeska, Santiago, Silverado, Harding and Williams canyons. Residents with special medical needs as well as large animals in those areas will be under mandatory evacuation orders.
.....Evacuations for residents could become mandatory if the National Weather Service issues a flash-flood warning.


.....Even with the warnings, it is unclear how many people will choose to leave their canyon homes. During one of the last evacuations that residents faced, only 90 people are believed to have left the canyons.
.....“Our fear is that people will become numb to these notices and look at us like the boy who cried wolf,” Blawn said. “But what we want them to remember is that in the end, the wolf came.”
.....County emergency officials huddled at a strategy session Friday afternoon, preparing for a wintry blast that weather forecasters are predicting could drop as much as 8 inches of rain in nine hours. Expected to arrive in Orange County this afternoon, the rain is forecast to pick up around 9 p.m., with the heaviest downpours expected to hit between midnight and 3 a.m., dropping between an inch to 1.25 inches an hour, said Dan Atkin, a weather service forecaster.
.....“If the weather patterns holds, this is going to be unbelievable,” Blawn said.
.....Heavier-than-expected rains drenched Orange County early Friday, making the soil mushy.
…..
.....County repair crews raced to bolster unstable hillsides behind several Modjeska Canyon homes after rains caused small amounts of mud and debris to come cascading down overnight Wednesday. Crews worked to clean up the mess and put up barriers behind a handful of Modjeska Canyon properties, hoping to prevent more severe slides, Blawn said.
.....Extra search-and-rescue crews and road-clearing equipment will be on standby overnight tonight, bracing for the worst-case weather picture and should the forecasted rains cause mud and debris to come crashing down into canyon homes.

"Just a Random Female"

Just saw this in the OC Weekly:

Nick Schou's "Just a Random Female," which recounted the harrowing tale of the 1986 murder of Robbin Brandley at Saddleback College and the subsequent search for her killer, will be included in the 2008 edition of The Best American Crime Reporting anthology. This book has in the past featured articles from such publications as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ and New York magazine.

If you haven't read Nick's story yet, you should. But do yourself a favor: Make sure you're somewhere well-lit, and with lots of people around. In addition to being a heartbreaking tale of a family's loss and a page-turning police procedural, this story is absolutely terrifying.

See

Short week feels long

DESPITE THE OCCASIONALLY BLUSTERY WEATHER, it was pleasant and nice at Irvine Valley College this morning. Things were buzzin'. The sky was stormy-beautiful.

After my 9:30 class, I graded homework for an hour or so, but then Rebel Girl had an idea. She insisted that we go take a look at "Kenny the Skeleton" over in the Library. I didn't even ask what that was about. "Sure," I said. Off we went. (The library is about 1 minute from our office.)

We found Kenny—hidden in a librarian no man's land behind a swinging door—and I took a few shots. The lady in charge came around and asked what we were up to. "We've got a campus blog," I said chirpily. "This is for the blog."

"Oh," she said. She was dubious. No doubt we were the first persons ever to seek out Kenny. Obvious troublemakers.

We got outa there.

"Let's take a shot of that skeleton in A400," said the Reb. I agreed. Can't say "nope" to the Reb.

For some reason Irvine Valley College is, like, the skeleton capital of the freakin' universe. Don't know why.

The A400 skeleton is in a glass case. Very nice. It is cleverly labeled, "Human skeleton." I took a pic. Students were swarming, just getting out of class.

On our way out, we noticed a big dumb sign on the wall. The sign asked, "Nothing to do Feb. 11-15?"

"Gosh, that's a long stretch to have nothing to do," I said.

The sign continued: "Go online and vote—HOMECOMING King + Queen."

"Hey," said Reb. "Let's see if we can make these skeletons the homecoming king and queen!"

Reb's like that. Every once in a while, she creates tiny pockets of anarchy. Makes her feel better. Me too.

* * * * *

I told the Reb that I'd try to get away early to take pictures of the snow up in Modjeska Canyon, but, what with classes and grading and letter-writing and all, I couldn't get away until nearly 5:00. I headed over to the canyon anyway to see what I could see. It was getting dark.

No snow, really. It had melted. Still, check out the pics. Especially the trees. Love those trees.

Up on Modjeska Grade, where most everything burned.

Down on the canyon floor.

As I headed home, I caught a glimpse of some snow up on the mountain (Modjeska Peak).

"Whoosh!" goes the Chrysler 300, in the cold night air. Heading toward Cook's Corner—and home.

P.S.: Just the other day, I found this old topographic map of our mountains. Evidently, it was produced by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1942. I've added some things in red. (Click on it to make it larger.)


Find: Aldous Huxley's place, Nixon's haunt (the steakhouse), Arden, etc.

Let it Snow!

~
.....Rebel Girl doesn't have a camera on hand but from the vantage point of her living room window this morning she can see with her two aging eyes snow on the peaks surrounding Modjeska Canyon.
.....After the fire and the ash and the mud, snow on the burnt peaks is pretty darn beautiful.
.....She knows that if you take a look toward Saddleback Mountain today you too will see snow. Go ahead. Look.
.....And someone take a photo please. Send it on to Rebel Girl or Chunk (you know how to reach us) and we'll publish the best of the lot.

Harassment vs. Academic Freedom

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Harassment vs. Academic Freedom, Round Two:

…Donald Hindley first learned through twin October 30 letters that he was deemed in violation of Brandeis University’s nondiscrimination policy for allegedly uttering “inappropriate and racially derogatory statements.” The provost, Marty Krauss, informed the professor of politics that a “monitor” would observe his classroom and that he would be required to attend “anti-discrimination training.” The administration’s sanctions were deemed unusual by veteran observers of academic freedom, such as the American Association of University Professors, and the allegations set off a furor among faculty members at the institution, named for the free-expression defender and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

“Brandeis still refuses to let me or my lawyers know what I am supposed to have said or done that allegedly constituted racial harassment and/or discrimination,” Hindley said in an e-mail.

Last month, the provost rejected an appeal by the university’s Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities, leading Hindley to seek counsel and outside backing to pressure the university directly. At issue is a fundamental dispute about which is more important: protecting academic freedom, or ensuring students’ willingness to come forward with allegations of harassment?

The monitoring of his class has stopped this semester, and Hindley has so far refused to participate in the mandated training sessions. According to statements he and others have made to campus newspapers, the allegations revolve around students’ interpretation of comments he made using the term “wetback,” a derogatory reference to Mexican immigrants. Hindley, who has taught at Brandeis for almost 50 years, said he was using the term in his Latin American politics course in the context of explaining how it had been used historically. The department chair, Steven L. Burg, has previously said that at least two students approached him separately about Hindley’s remarks.

A campus publication, The Brandeis Hoot, pseudonymously interviewed one of the students, who said Hindley had used phrases like “mi petite negrita” and “wetbacks.”

…The dispute first escalated when the Faculty Senate took up the issue in a November 8 emergency session, unanimously expressing that it was “seriously concerned about procedures.... The Human Resources policies stress the importance of resolving such issues in an ‘informal manner’ with ‘flexible’ solutions. Furthermore, the Provost’s letter to the professor includes reference to ‘termination’ as a possibility if the professor does not accept the suggested remedies. This violates section VIIC2a of the Faculty Handbook: ‘When considering suspension or dismissal, the Provost will first consult with the Faculty Senate Council.’ No such consultation occurred before this letter was delivered.”

Accepting Hindley’s appeal, the Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities wrote to the provost on November 29, asking her to fully reverse her decision, citing threats to academic freedom, procedural irregularities and excessive punishments. For example, the committee said that the sanctions against Hindley should have been lifted under the appeals process; instead, a monitor was immediately sent to his classes after the decision.

The committee argues that the administration didn’t follow basic procedures as outlined in the Faculty Handbook and the nondiscrimination policy, such as allowing Hindley to choose a witness to be present throughout the process. Responding to the committee’s letter on December 10, the provost rejected its findings and referred to “errors, both factual and legal,” in the analysis. “I am committed to academic freedom for our faculty and students, but I am equally committed to the principle that we will not tolerate racially harassing speech,” Krauss wrote….

Rio Salado Puts Brakes on Proposed Sale:

The chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District sent an e-mail message to its employees late Wednesday saying that the institution would not seriously consider a private investor’s offer to buy the online operations of Rio Salado College, its “college without walls.”

“I feel the need to set the record straight,” Rufus Glasper, chancellor of the Maricopa system, wrote in the e-mail…. “Rio Salado College is not for sale.”....