Fresh Goo

A friend forwarded this:

See also Edorsements

Red Emma remembers Gore Vidal

Red Emma remembers Gore Vidal:

Gore Vidal Remembered  

     Almost everybody in Southern California has, or should have, a Gore Vidal story, because if you have been in any way active in anything here—anti-war or civil rights or environmental activism, you would have encountered—and I use the word pointedly, admiringly—Vidal, at a debate, lecture, reading, demonstration, book fair, any public celebration of the life of the mind, and of civic participation. 

     He lived here, in the Hollywood Hills, and regularly attended marches and gatherings, in fact was one of the small, reliable group of local Left stalwarts who'd add their names and deliver their bodies to a cause. 

     As an undergraduate years ago at Cal State Long Beach, and as a young, eager and impressionable student activist, I met him. I'd been invited to join a small group meeting with the candidate when he visited campus during his 1982 run for US Senate. Sincere, good-hearted liberal and progressive faculty, staff and other students were there, with their questions for the Great Man, who seemed to only put up with the responsibility of listening to his presumed constituents, the whole tiny opera of expectations a farce of course, since we were all there to listen to him, to be delighted, impressed, instructed, amused and, yes, empowered to imagine, absurdly, that an American man of letters, of history, a radical gay public intellectual and literary artist might stand a chance of being elected to one of nation's highest offices as a Democrat....

To read the rest (published on Portside) click here.

To revisit Red's previous post about Vidal's last visit to Orange County, click here. 

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Andrew Tonkovich

Vancouver postcards, part 2

Took this pic yesterday, at Stanley Park. Note the mallards, if that's what they are.
The rest of these pics were taken today, mostly during a harbor cruise that started at 7:00 p.m.

Vancouver Island in the distance. 

A wonderful suspension bridge, opened in 1938, on the north side of the penninsula

The same bridge, as seen from below. 

A shot of Stanley Park 

Up Indian Arm, north of Vancouver:

Vancouver postcards from Roy

My family moved to Vancouver, BC, in 1958, where we bought a home on Copley Street.
Thursday, we checked out the old place. I barely remembered it, but my folks had lots of vivid memories.

It's the house on the left. 'T'wern't much. Middle-class living, back in the day.

When my mom and her mother "fled from the Russians" in early 1945, they ended up far to the west, near Munster, Germany, as refugees, not a good group to be in. Almost immediately, my mother, then 12, befriended Marianne, and the two have been best friends ever since. It's interesting to experience this kind of friendship. They're like sisters.
Marianne and her husband, Hermann, a carpenter (and soccer fanatic) arrived in Canada in 1954 but they eventually moved to the City of Orange, not far from the Bauer home (we had moved to Orange in 1961). Eventually, Hermann and Marianne moved back to B.C., while my folks moved out to Trabuco Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains.
My folks never seemed able to make the trip up north to H&M's place, first on Vancouver Island, then just south of Vancouver.
So, finally, this summer I brought that about. These people are getting pretty old. It's now or never, I figure.
Kathie came along. We're quite the quartet.

A small pier at Whiterock, south of Vancouver, where Hermann and Marianne have lived since 2000.
It's stunningly green and beautiful here.

H and M took us all to a favorite (or "favourite") Greek restaurant, near the water, in Whiterock. It's lovely there.

My folks, Manny and Sierra. Dad just turned 80, and his health is only so-so. Hermann is 83 and in poor health.
My mother and Marianne are  79. They seem to be very healthy.

It's amazingly like Laguna Beach in Whiterock these days. We've experienced some great--and highly unusual--weather.
It appears that all the women in BC are attractive. It's amazing.

Vancouver is an amazingly cosmopolitan town.

Foresight, Hindsight: Assessing Potential Threats on Campus

from yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

Colorado suspect's psychiatrist reportedly had raised concerns

A University of Colorado psychiatrist [Lynne Fenton] whose patients included the former student charged with the Aurora theater shootings tried to discuss him with members of a campus behavioral and security committee six weeks before the attack, a television station reported Wednesday...

The university said it could not discuss the report, citing a judge's gag order, but did confirm that Fenton was a member of a campus Behavior Evaluation and Threat Assessment team and that she helped found it two years ago. The team, composed of faculty and other staff members, including campus police, was created to address behavioral problems and potential security issues involving the campus community.

To read the rest, click here.

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I Can't Get No: The SOCCCD District Services Satisfaction Survey 2012

If you're reading your summer email, you will note that today SOCCCD denizens were invited to visit the district sharepoint site and partake in the long-awaited results of the SOCCCD District Services Satisfaction Survey 2012.

Rebel Girl wandered over to peek but was befuddled (so easy to do for her) by bar graphs and percentages and the absences of her reading glasses.

A cursory glance does seems to suggest things are getting better - perhaps slowly, very slowly as John Cage once observed about the human condition.

A welcome change has come, it seems, especially at the Chancellor's Office.

Rebel Girl recommends spending quality time reading the comments which reveal - as they always do - issues that are not so easily measured.

HR seems to attract a lot of, ahem, attention - as do some specific service areas, policies and certain individuals whose names have been edited out but whose identifying characteristics are still discernible to the careful reader.

Are we satisfied?

What do you think?

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Public vs. for-profit colleges: Who does better job? (OC Reg)