work Archives | Page 10 of 12 | Blowing & Drifting

Coinky-dink?

On Tuesday, Carleton hosted the noted local-food advocate Gary Nabhan, who delivered the year’s opening convocation. Also on Tuesday, American commandos killed the fugitive al-Qaeda operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan suspected of “masterminding” various terrorist attacks in East Africa.

On Friday, September 25, Carleton will host the political speechwriter John McConnell, who worked for George W. Bush, among others. If I were an al-Qaeda operative with the last name of McConnell, I’d be afraid. Very afraid.

Carleton’s World Trade Center Architecture

Walking across Carleton’s campus, you don’t have to look hard to see 9/11.

Carleton’s Olin Hall of Science was designed by the prominent modernist architect Minoru Yamasaki (who also designed four other Carleton buildings), built in 1960-61, and opened in 1961. (The building currently houses the departments of psychology and physics & astronomy.) A webpage about the building says that “the three-story red brick building is distinguished by an exterior arcaded screen of white, pre-cast concrete,” as shown in this view of the building’s northern facade

Olin Hall of Science (view from the north), Carleton College

and in this view of the northeastern wing, which houses lecture halls.

Olin Hall of Science (detail), Carleton College

If that arch-heavy screen looks familiar, it’s because Yamasaki also used it on his most famous commission, the World Trade Center towers, where the screens were used on the ground floors.

World Trade Center, 1986 (via Flickr user The MachineStops)

This is what they looked like just about eight years ago right now:

World Trade Center (via the Big Picture blog)

Class of 2013

Carleton’s Class of 2013 arrived today, trickling in all day to the cheers of a big group of current students who assemble at the entrance to campus and shout out a welcome every time another jam-packed car rolls through. The Bald Spot (and the colossal circus tent in its northwestern corner) slowly and steadily filled up, until, around dinnertime, it was probably the most dense mass of humanity in Northfield. I hope that all of the new students had a great day and can now have a great new student week, leading into the start of classes next week.

And but so, arrival day is the best day for on-campus peoplewatching. The parent-and-kid(s) groups wandering through the campus center all day were funny – but not quite as funny as they were a few years ago, since those kids are now closer in age to my daughters than to me. Some of the kids looked dazed, some a bit confused, others laser-sharp, but most looked happily engaged with a great new adventure.

On the other side of the generation gap, I’m amazed (as I have been every year) at how mothers and daughters dress so much alike, and how fathers and sons don’t – tank tops for both moms and daughters, but polos for dads and t-shirts for sons. I’m also amazed at how people will eat popcorn at any hour: quite a few dads were flat-out chowing on big bags of it at 9:30 this morning. I guess the continental breakfasts at the AmericInn weren’t filling enough.

For my money – $2.44, for a cup of coffee and a caramel roll at the snack bar – the most interesting part of arrival day occurred a few feet past the table where new students were getting their ID cards (and just a bit further from the popcorn cart), along the wall where three banks – two local banks and Wells Fargo – had set up tables. Each of the local banks had two employees at their tables; both of these employees stayed in their chairs behind the tables, leaning well back from the inert stacks of forms and literature on them. Wells Fargo, on the other hand, had four or five reps – all young women in WF red polo shirts – out in front of their table, cheerily greeting parents and students and handing over brochures. One guess as to which bank was opening the most new accounts.

Ten Signs the School Year Is Nigh

Ten signs that the start of the school year is nigh:

Big and small clusters of athletes are wandering between the sports facilities, the dining hall, and the dorms.
The faculty members who have been contemplating those distant September grant-proposal deadlines are now either fishing or cutting bait.
The squirrels are aggressively securing every acorn they can.
The grounds crews are working at 125% speed getting everything ready for the arrival of the new students and their donors parents.
Staff on part-year contracts are suddenly back in our midsts.
The hungry and the thirsty wander past the snack bar all afternoon, reflecting on the injustice of its closing just after lunch each afternoon.
Rather than getting a dozen email messages on a busy summer day, I’m getting that many in a busy hour.
Colossal stacks of textbooks are making the lower level of the bookstore into a pyromaniac’s dream.
I’m obsessively checking and re-checking the dates on which we’re supposed to be notified about the results of springtime grant submissions.
The oaks are slowly losing their lustrous green.

Lyman “Lake”

Thanks to the rain, Monday morning marked a full week since I last biked through the Arb. Ho hum. Trees, new gravel on the path, nice repair work on the little bridge behind Bell Field, holy cow the lake is empty! Mai Fête Island is now just a lump of lawn in a mud skirt!

Turns out, it’s an elaborate erosion-control measure. Tricky, right? No water, no erosion! Actually,

Wednesday, August 12, work began on the Lower Lyman Lake/island shoreline restoration project. The first step was to drain the lake. Then the shoreline will be re-established with erosion control materials, planted, and back filled with soil. We expect to replug the dam and return to full depth of water by the time students arrive on campus.

*whew*

Carleton’s Colossal Crane

With the start of classes just a few weeks away, it must be nearly departure time for the big old crane that’s loomed over Leighton Hall since June. Though I understand that the crane and the reroofing project to which it’s contributing have made it hard to work in Leighton this summer, the crane is rather pretty, I think.

Eating the Lawn

Most campuses have lots of green space. Lots of people have gardens. Even more people – and some campuses – have blogs. But have you ever heard of a campus garden with a blog? Such a thing exists now, thanks to an enterprising student at Carleton who is growing a substantial garden smack in the middle of campus and blogging about her work. One thing that isn’t yet mentioned on the blog is that even though she’s doing all the hard work (when I get to work at eight, she’s often at the garden, watering and weeding), anyone can take the food. Anyone. She has signs all over campus saying as much. Incredible and cool and delicious.

Carleton Summer Sights

It’s verrrry quiet around campus these days, so it takes a while to accumulate a meaningful (if small) number of unusual experiences, such as

The deep, deep quiet of just about any academic-building hallway you’d care to walk through. When the AC is the loudest thing you can hear, it’s pretty quiet.
Two technicians repairing the floor underneath the climbing wall in the Rec Center. I know that it needs to be cushiony in case some butterfingered mountaineer falls off the wall, but jeepus: they were laying down a lot of thick rubbery padding.
The jungly growth of the community garden between CMC and Olin. Holy produce! You can’t actually see over it anymore, once you’re up close. In case you didn’t know, anyone is welcome to help themselves to anything that’s ripe. Or that attacks you when you approach it.
A campus tour being conducted by two student guides for one adolescent tourer. Personal service, anyone?
Two guys filming themselves as they jumped onto and off of picnic tables on the Bald Spot. Geeky parkour?
A muskrat on the bridge between the Lyman Lakes. When I walked up on him (her?), I received only a cold stare. I let the creature trundle back into the water before I proceeded over the bridge. I hear that a muskrat will kill a man just to watch him die.

Skidmored

Today was the full-on conference day, from the breakfast chit-chat at 7:30 a.m. through the cocktail hour and dinner, ending at 9 p.m. In between, we had four good sessions (and a lunch!). Throughout, I caught up with some colleagues I’ve met before – including a hilarious staffer from Barnard who is, and knows she is, basically a character in a Woody Allen movie. I also sampled some Saratoga Springs water, which was delicious and subtle, much lighter than San Pellegrino, and had a nice run through Skidmore’s “Northwoods” nature preserve. Now it’s time for bed.

Tomorrow we have fewer conference activities, so I think I might take advantage of our open time to head over to the Hudson River and see the historical monuments in Schuylerville, the town where, in 1777, British general John Burgoyne surrendered his army, breaking the king’s hold on the northern colonies and inducing the French to join the American colonies’ cause. Seems like a decent place to spend a few hours.

Air Travel Weirdness

Owing to the vagaries of the airport shuttle from Northfield and the troubles inherent to contemporary air travel, I spent about twelve hours getting to Saratoga Springs, New York, today. It could have been much worse – I could have been one of the several people who had to open their airsickness bags on the bouncy, rocking descent to Albany.

Since I wasn’t, and thus can’t overshare by describing airborne stomach troubles, I’ll offer two trifles related to the flight:

1. Every time I see one of those electronic-gadget vending machines that are now ubiquitous on airport concourses, I wonder about the most expensive item inside. The machine near gate C10 at MSP topped out with the 32GB iPod Touch, on sale for $400.

2. Delta’s in-flight magazine included this gobsmacking item in their July events-around-the-world calendar:

Tours – Michael Jackson – The King of Pop created a frenzy when tickets went on sale for his “This Is It!” performances at London’s O2 Arena. the thrills commence July 8 and don’t beat it until February 24, 2010.

Or not.

Business Travel

Tomorrow morning I head off to a grants conference at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. There is nothing like a business trip to rip open all kinds of psychological fissures. You’d need a dozen octopi for all the “one the one hand… on the other hand…” situations. The crowning aspect of any business trip, of course, is that it leaves one partner home alone with no shift change. This, Shannon does not like- not that she should. I don’t like that part of it much, either. As difficult as evenings can be (with Vivi’s hijinks), there’s no substitute for simply being there with the girls – which is what’s made it so unpleasant for me to be cut out of the bedtime routine these last few weeks and months.

On the other hand, I love traveling and especially seeing new places. Skidmore and Saratoga Springs both sound like fascinating places that’ll eat up my few hours of downtime. Having attended earlier iterations of this conference, I know it too will be great in all the important ways – such as finding new ways to drum up money for the college.

On the other other hand, travel like this is a pretty far cry from relaxing. The days are, after all, full of rather intense work. And yes, as Shannon reminds me, I can eat what and when I want and sleep without a baby monitor buzzing in my ear. But airplanes are not exactly dens of comfort and bliss, and having had quite a bit of the usual modern air-travel trouble every time I’ve flown for business, I doubt I’m going to arrive in Saratoga Springs tomorrow feeling particularly tanned, rested, or ready. But if all goes well, I will probably head home on Friday in a pretty good mood.

All Quiet on the Carleton Campus

I grant that today was the day before a three-day weekend, but the Carleton campus has been deader than the King of Pop all week. The only excitement anyone can find is a roofing project that requires a gargantuan red crane, apparently borrowed from Dubai, and periodic showers of roofing debris. If you visit the campus center after the snack bar closes (at 1:30 pm! well before my afternoon iced-coffee jones kicks in!), you’ll probably find only some dusty chairs, a groggy clerk in the bookstore, and the post office’s two bins of undeliverable magazines. (Anyone for fifty copies of the current Economist? Or twice as many copies of ESPN The Magazine?) In making – over the course of the week – four round-trip bike commutes and three walks to and from the Rec Center, I’ll bet I didn’t encounter a dozen people, total. Hell, in the Arb, I saw about three times as many red squirrels as people. And I saw three of those surly rodents.

Oh well. The plants in the little garden plot on the lawn between Olin, Goodsell, and Boliou have all sprouted now, as have signs all over campus inviting anyone – anyone? anyone! – to go ahead and pick whatever’s ripe. Anyone? Anyone! I don’t know about you, but I’m having radishes for lunch on Monday.

And the trees! God. The maples and oaks are shimmering with life. If you get too close, you might get knocked down by the photosynthesis. I discovered this beauty in the Upper Arb, just north of the concrete bridge near Bell Field – sublime, in the truest sense of beautiful, awe-inspiring, and a little bit frightening. This giant has already seen more summers than I ever will.

Arb Ride

Except in winter (when I have to use the streets, if I can’t ski to work), my bike commute runs from my house to the southeastern corner of the Carleton Arboretum, over Arb trails to the Rec Center, and then over the Lyman Lakes to the center of campus. My favorite leg of this trip is definitely the dirt-path section in the Arb. The trees and grasses are glowing with color. Even the browns and tans of the path itself seem heightened somehow.

And the manmade sights – like the vista over Bell Field toward Evans Hall or this bridge near the Cole Wetland – are nice, too.

Rainy Day Near-Nudity

This afternoon, just after starting my drizzly ride home, I passed a student walking along in a straw hat and some raggedy khakis. He was carrying his flipflops in one hand and his shirt in the other. As I passed him, he turned and gave me a smile that was, I think, more than a little bit stoned-happy.

I’m all for embracing your inner nature child/pothead, but I’m also glad that I didn’t encounter him another hundred yards along the path, by which time surely the pants (et cetera) had been shed, too.

Spring at Carleton

Carleton was exceptionally Carleton today. The entire campus seemed to be suffused with green – not just the colors of regular old spring, but one step beyond, thanks to the wet air and intermittent rain.

And then there was wackiness that kidnaps the ordinary during every spring term. A student used a step ladder to climb onto the lowest branch of the oak that stands near the center of campus; she sat there, sketching the tree all around her. A few feet away, another group of students were tilling the new garden near the observatory. The plot is marked with a cute little sign reading, “Eat the Lawn.” See, now, kids, parents spend quite a bit of time getting their own children to avoid doing exactly that, and here you go encouraging it.

And – best of all – new and cool sculptures are popping up all over campus, thanks (I think) to the students in one of the studio art courses. One of the sculptures is a sort of tall room with red fabric walls, which blew dramatically in today’s wind. It’ll be fun to try to find the other sculptures all around campus over the next week or so.