Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
…and because if you’re watching the video below, you might also enjoy a second video…
Check this out, especially if you’re interested in architecture. An oldie but a goodie — Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water as a CGI movie. (Don’t forget to come back here after you watch it and comment to let me know what you thought!)
GOOD MORNING FORMER PRISM FOLKS!
I hope you all have been making the most of your summer and that you’re getting ready for school to begin (whether in WWP or college)…
I know many (most?) of you have heard me talk about COPPER ENAMELING. Last week I went to a really cool place in Alexandria, VA called the Torpedo Factory – yes, it’s a former factory, now filled with art and art studios and you can walk around & talk to the artists about their work (and they would like you to buy some, but I didn’t, and they were just as excited to have someone ask about what they do). It was kinda like a Lunch & Learn on steroids! 🙂
Anyway, check out this artist who sells his work there – it’s amazing! My copper enameling NEVER looked like this. The gradient look he gets is so darn cool. Anyway, enjoy! I’m headed back to finish my dissertation (I defend in front of my committee on September 12th – send good luck wishes)!
And good luck with the start of school! Sending much love and hugs to you all —
The Torpedo Factory – a cool place to visit if you go to Old Town Alexandria: http://www.torpedofactory.org
The link to this artist’s video about creating his enamel artworks: https://www.donviehmanenamels.com/content.html?page=5
Happy New School Year!
Good morning everyone, especially researchers!
I’m not sure how many of you read the New York Times, but even if you don’t, you should know about the NY Times Book Review, which is a true thing of beauty. You can get to it online (of course) if your family doesn’t subscribe to the print version of the Times — my favorite parts are the Editors’ Choice page and the rankings to see what’s selling (and ostensibly being read). Here’s the link: https://www.nytimes.com/section/books/review
And every week they have reviews (duh!) of recently-published books of note. So sometimes, if you’re not TOTALLY interested in the book but just want to get a taste, you can get that from the review. And often what I end up doing is reading the review and then deciding to request the book from the library (which can take a bit, since they’re newly-published and it’s likely everyone is interested in them) or downloading the sample to my Kindle so I can see if I want to read more….
BUT I also end up finding things that seem like they would be awesome NHD topics, like this week. Check these out (sorry, darlings, you’ll need to get the links yourself, this is just an old-fashioned list, but if any of these spark your interest I know you know where/how to find the information):
- George Washington, Dealmaker in Chief (this is an ad, but the book seems pretty intriguing)
- PRIDE: Fifty years of parades and protests (about LGBTQ history, now a required part of the curriculum in several U.S. states)
- IF: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years (about Rudyard Kipling – author of “The Jungle Book” and “Just So Stories”)
- Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II (wow – personal accounts of what children experienced during WWII)
- Barnum: An American Life (PT Barnum monetized the idea of a circus/side show and famously said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”)
- Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian (interesting if you’re into the Victorian period, during which many barriers were erected and many were broken)
And this one isn’t reviewed this week (it was reviewed last week or the week before), but could be intriguing: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom about New Orleans and problems/issues with city planning there.
Anyway, something to think about. If you’re planning to do an NHD project and have yet to start on the “Breaking Barriers” theme, many of these could be of interest. And don’t forget that we’re celebrating the anniversary of women getting the right to vote (that’s where the theme comes from), and there are tons of resources for that — find a UNIQUE angle or person on which/on whom to focus.
Have fun and enjoy the last few weeks before school begins! Let me know what you’re up to….
Futility personified at the UPS locker
Oh my. Today I was running my errands, one of which was to pick up a package that was waiting for me at the UPS locker. If you haven’t seen these, they’re pretty cool — like an Amazon locker (which you many not have seen, either) but for UPS. And apparently not quite as efficient.
I had gotten a delivery notice on Friday for a package requiring a signature — they said no one was home (wrong — if you ring the bell, you can not only SEE but also SPEAK WITH the people who are, indeed, present at the address.
Whatever! I finally got to the locker and was very excited to get my package. But when I got there, I learned that the system was just about as messed up can be.
First the customer service agent I called (from the phone number painted on the side of the machine (should that have been my first clue?!) told me that my cell phone number didn’t match the phone number they are showing as being assigned to this address. Hmmm…I actually find that pretty normal, given that this is my MOBILE number, and not a LAND LINE.
There were other strange comments exchanged, not the least of which was when the “customer service” agent told me that the name on my drivers license (COHEN, DEBRA) did not match the name on the mailing label (DEBRA COHEN). Flabbergasted, I tried several approaches to make this woman understand that those two are the EXACT. SAME. THING.
It was so frustrating, and seriously, THIS IS YOUR JOB. Like, if someone who isn’t sitting in a “hot seat” for UPS doesn’t know that sometimes names are written with the first name appearing last, that’s OK. But if THIS IS YOUR JOB (note the emphasis again), that is just plain silly. As I said to the UPS supervisor when I called them during the afternoon, this is a definite opportunity for training.
Wow. I wanted to scream by the time we got off the phone, and reminded the supervisor that this is AN AREA OF OPPORTUNITY for UPS moving forward. Perhaps they could train their staff on the fact that everyone names can be written First name + Last name or be written Last name, First name.
OK, rant over. I got my package. And hopefully UPS is doing some training with their people so they can know how to handle customers in the future. I hope your day is much less “exciting” and you’re still enjoying the summer! Make the most of it!
Apollo 50
Hello former PRISM folks! I hope you’re all doing well!
I have been super busy trying to unpack boxes and get thing organized. It’s kind of like when someone goes off to college and they have to figure out ways to maximize space in their dorm room. Our house here is considerably larger than a dorm room but also considerably smaller than the home we lived in, in New Jersey.
Now that I have more of an idea of what we need, I’ve been trying to get out a couple times a week to run errands and pick up things. As you can imagine, since I have absolutely no clue where I’m going, this is pretty funny.
Last week, I found IKEA (in College Park, Maryland – not far from the university campus, where we hold National History Day). On the way there, I spotted a Costco on the DC-MD border, so I had to check that out. There’s even a Lowe’s in the same shopping center as Costco, so that’s convenient, although there’s a Home Depot right near us, too. And today I found the nicest TJ Maxx I’ve ever seen — a great place to find some patio chairs that I could fit into my car! We have balconies outside all the bedrooms in our new place (kind of like a cruise ship), so we can use the chairs out there if we decide not to put them on the roof deck. (I think we call these decisions First World Problems.)
I made friends with the woman in charge of the office of the church across the street from us — she was absolutely thrilled to get some of our games and things that my kids don’t want/need anymore, so that made me feel good to help them out. As I unpack boxes, I keep coming across things that I can’t figure out why we were saving them, much less why we moved them with us, and so I keep a “DONATE” box next to me when I unpack so I can put those things into the donation box immediately. It’s a really good feeling to be able to help others — if you get ambitious enough to clean your room, clean the garage, or clean out a closet, I bet you’ll find lots of stuff you don’t need anymore, and you can see what I mean. I actually feel LIGHTER having given things away.
But the biggest excitement, which you may have already seen or heard about, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, and they are celebrating big here! There’s a whole festival on the National Mall, with all sorts of STEM exhibits and tents from different companies (and NASA of course) involved with space travel. But for me, my favorite thing (so far) is the fact that the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum is projecting an image of the Saturn rocket that flew the Apollo astronauts into space onto the Washington Monument. You’ll have to google it to get some good photos — but here are my not-so-good ones.
The clock in the foreground is a replica of the Kennedy Center countdown — clock remember, the folks on the ground needed to keep track of how long the astronauts were in space, when they were supposed to take the first steps onto the moon, etc.
We don’t live very far from the National Mall, and so we are going to go back tonight to see what’s happening, and then tomorrow we’ll go there with my kids, to see the 17-minute movie they are screening outside all night long. If you can convince your parents to let you come down to DC for the weekend, the movie is showing Friday and Saturday at 9:30pm, 10:30pm, and 11:30pm. (Saturday is that actual day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.) Yes, we are a little bit geeky — and proud of it! 🙂
Last week I had coffee with a former student (who is now an undergrad at Georgetown University), and next week or the week after, I’m getting together with another former PRISM student at Johns Hopkins University. I love keeping in touch with all of you!
Please let me know how you’re doing, and whether you’re excited for the upcoming school year.
Much love,
Mrs. Cohen
My first blog post!
OK, so let’s see what this blogging stuff is all about…
This is a L O N G overdue post, but the past couple weeks have been INSANE, as you likely know if you are reading this. I am just now able to unearth important things like my computer cord and more tank tops (it’s been in the 90’s here and very humid, so these are important for unpacking – the tank tops, not the computer cord).
June 21st was the last day of school, and my last day as Grover’s PRISM teacher, which is STILL very weird to me. I always miss my students over the summer, since I enjoy teaching and interacting with them so much, but this summer is just more FINAL, and that’s very strange.
So, after school ended, several of my former students (now students at South) came to stop by and wish me well. We ended up talking and hanging out for a while, and they were kind enough to watch me finish packing up my classroom and office, and then the best part was that I didn’t have to leave Grover by myself. I think I would have been weeping for sure if I didn’t have these wonderful students-turned-friends to walk me out of the building.
When I got home, an old friend I haven’t seen for 20 years and his family were waiting at our (pretty much empty) house, so that was fun. (They had taken their daughter for a tour or Princeton U that morning). The movers were taking out the last boxes, so I gave them my “Grover boxes” and then (after our friends left) it was time to sign papers with the movers so they could start driving up to DC. We packed up the car and a U-Haul (since there are things movers can’t take, like plants, and aerosol sprays and paint, etc. and things we didn’t want them to take, like our clothes and toothbrushes), and headed out.
We got to our new home that night and spent the next few days unpacking and trying to figure out where things should go. (Spoiler alert: some things should go – and have now GONE – to be donated.)
Then it was time to head to Chile, where my husband had business and I went for geeky Science fun. (And, truth be told, I also went to get a break from the boxes. You can only take dealing with so much cardboard and wrapping paper at one time.)
Chile is a really interesting place – Santiago is very cosmopolitan and looks a lot like downtown Miami. We stayed in a hotel not far from the American embassy and close to a terrific Indian restaurant. We met one of my husband’s Chilean colleagues there for lunch – he had never eaten Indian food, and he’s now a lover of samosas and chicken tikka masala. J
The first day we were there, I accompanied my husband to meet with a Chilean conservation organization so his company could sign an agreement with them to work together on some conservation projects, which is very cool. And we met with one of the folks at the United States embassy to discuss the company’s work in Chile (I just watched and listened and enjoyed the experience of being in an embassy, which is basically an office building but with much more security, and you can’t carry your cell phone, which is a weird feeling).
The next day we explored Santiago, an interesting city and has a really great Museum of Precolumbian Art. That was a lot of fun, especially since I’ve seen many of these types of items in the Library of Congress’ exhibit about the Americas. And when I did a teacher training course at the L of C, I got to handle many of these artifacts, which they store in the basement when they’re not on display. Check out this link: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/interactives/reading-pre-columbian-artifacts/
The next day we flew to La Serena, on the Chilean coast, where the observatory that had invited us was located. The company is called AURA (they manage telescopes for NASA and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory) and they have several observatories in the area. Their telescopes are OPTICAL telescopes, while the ones my husband’s company (Associated Universities Inc.) manages for the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory are RADIO telescopes.
Flying to La Serena, I ended up being assigned a seat next to the wife of the National Public Radio (NPR) national science correspondent. His name is Joe Palca, and you may have heard his reports on WHYY. We had a great chat about all sorts of things (can you imagine? Me talking to someone?!?!) and ended up hanging out together the whole time we were in La Serena. They live in Washington, so we’re going to get together sometime here and share photos from our experience at the eclipse.
We toured observatories and learned about AURA’s telescopes for two days, and at the end of the second afternoon it was time for the Big Event. This is the second solar eclipse I’ve seen, and it’s just a magical experience each time. The light around you changes as the moon blocks out more of the sun, shadows get more defined, and the air gets cooler.
And to be able to share the event with so many scientists and people who had a vested interest in what was happening was really terrific. There were astronomers and scientists all over the place, including Kip Thorne, who’s a Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist and was friends with Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan. He’s the nicest, soft-spoken unassuming man, and is currently working on a project with an artist to illustrate a book of his poems about the stars and the heavens. It was terrific fun.
The next day, we headed back to the states, which meant flying to Santiago and then to Houston and changing planes to get to Washington DC. We traveled with a former Congressman, John Culberson, who holds political views I don’t necessarily agree with, but he’s a very nice man. (And he even flashed his Member of Congress card – yes, there is such a thing – to get us past the crazy line of returning eclipse watchers at the airport).! He is now a lobbyist on behalf of Science and space issues, and so he was there to experience the day.
I took some awesome photos, including one that the U.S. embassy in Chile used at the end of their video about the day (a bunch of them were there) and supposedly CNN International used it as well. So that was pretty fun. If I remember, I will attach it here.
We got back to our new home the morning of July 4th and that night we watched fireworks from our new roof with some of our neighbors. So that was a great welcome home.”
And now, since then, we’ve mostly been unpacking and purging – I gave away some games we had to the church across the street, and they were very appreciative.
And the donation truck picked up 14 boxes yesterday, so that was good. We have a little bit more room to move around.
It’s fun to live in the city and walk all over the place – we are walking distanced to FOUR supermarkets and so yesterday (after the morning’s historic rain) – 3/5 inches in 15 minutes!) I went to explore one of them (mostly to find out where the laundry detergent was, but it’s important to “learn” a new store to make shopping quick & easy. Right now I’m good at Trader Joe’s because it’s so small (although it has more than a dozen cashiers!) but the others I will need to get used to be able to find things. No problem.
Tomorrow I’m meeting a former student of mine, who is now in college at Georgetown University, for coffee, so that will be fun. I love connecting with former students – and current ones, so if you’re in DC, please let me know!
More to come….
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