Dateline: Downtown
March 31, 2007
Names are faces …Susan Bookbinder works in the English department. Louise Penner also is an English professor. We have a King Prudence in the Education department. Segal Professor is in History. Gerald Friedman, no relation to Milton, works in the Economics department at Amherst. Also at Amherst, Judith Goodenough of the Biology department we hear is a very easy grader. And there is a Professor Pages in Literature at the UMass flagship. At Lowell, attendance isn’t mandatory in Arthur Forgetta’s Math class. You know what’s going to happen…
Should you chanceth …”Crooks, Rogues, and Maids Less than Virtuous,” a display at the Boston Public Library focusing on early 18th century English street broadsides presented by our hard-working graduate students in the English department in conjunction with Hizzoner the Mayor and the BPL, closes up on May Day. Take a jaunt down Beer St. if, if you are able to make it past the alluring frescoes limned aloft the third floor of the McKim building… They’ve also extended the display of President John Adams’ book collection, equally marvelous. “I am mostly intent at present,” Adams said at the outset of his imposing accumulation, “upon collecting a Library, and I find, that a great deal of Thought, and Care, as well as Money, are necessary to assemble an ample and well chosen Assortment of Books. – Fame, Fortune, Power say some, are the Ends intended by a Library. The Service of God, Country, Clients, Fellow Men, say others. Which of these lie nearest my Heart?” Peep Adams’ copy of the Diderot Encyclopedia, and a collection of some 7,000 other works, including (we hear) a couple that were swiped- evidently our 2nd President was not above indulging the occasional klepto-bibliophilic impulse. No “My Pet Goat”, if you are wondering…
Around and About …Does anyone know why the 6th floor men’s room in Healey is closed? Again? We have notions, but this is a family paper…Why is there only one Math QR 114 course offered this Summer semester? Lots of CLA students take it, and many need to bash it out quick as possible before graduation, making it ideal for a quick cram session. Few options: take the 10 a.m. course from mid-July to mid-August, or wait until the fall… Our custodial technicians remind you to place your cigarette butts in an ashtray, or they will place you in an ashtray…Spring is here, and you know what that means: turgidity in Dorchester Bay…We have a De Kooning on campus, in back of the Quinn building. Who knew? …Prayers and sympathy for the family of 5-year-old Sheldon Mathias, who was shot on I-93 by thugs who stalked his mother from the Harbor Point apartments to the Zakim Bridge into Charlestown. WBZ reports the boy in fair condition…
Happy Spring!