Wednesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Wednesday

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4
Dec 24

Bob Wilson, please pick up the white courtesy phone

Going through my phone; finding things I’ve never used here before. I’m taking a break from writing messages to students to clean a few things off my phone, that’s how my Wednesday is going. How’s yours?

Anyway, this was on a flight from here to there, I forget which. I could look, but that’s not the point. We were in the emergency exit row, which is great for legroom, plus you get this teeny tiny little porthole to look out of, and wonder.

Expect more of this sort of place holding filler the rest of the week, and perhaps next.

family / food / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
27
Nov 24

Thanksgiving Eve

Our god-nephews (just go with it) have a light like this in their bedroom. Last Christmas they were of the age where they wanted to give you a tour of their room and all of their treasures. I had the privilege of meeting many of their action figures and see several of their creative projects. But this light stole the show. And so, as a joke, I ordered one for Christmas last year.

Ours has made a life for itself in the living room. I’ve recently discovered that you can program it to turn on and off at specific times. And, of course, you can control the colors through your phone. (Because what light doesn’t need an app?)

I think these were two of the better color schemes I saw recently.

My mother flew in yesterday for Thanksgiving. I picked her up at the airport, and we have enjoyed our visit so far. She ran some errands with my lovely bride this morning. I spent a little time finishing up the week’s grading. I even got ahead of things and wrote a few notes for classes next week. Also, I had a Zoom call with a student, as well. It has been a productive day.

This evening we went across the river and had Malaysian food. We met a friend there for dinner a few weeks ago and, just a bite or two in, I thought she would like this, so we’re back. And we ordered all of the same things. And she enjoyed it immensely, because it is good stuff.

When at Kampar, try the Nasi Lemak.

Essentially a fragrant, flavorful, magical packet of Malaysian awesomeness! Coconut cream-soaked rice topped with sambal, roasted peanuts, crispy anchovies and hard-boiled egg, all neatly wrapped in a fresh banana leaf.

Then get:

Achat
Spicy Nyonya pickled vegetables. Ange’s aunt’s recipe!

Rendang Daging
Braised beef in spices and coconut cream (our rendang is slow-cooked for at least 6 hours for the best flavor).

Ayam Goreng Berempah
Spice marinated fried chicken with sambal tomato.

We visited a cidery after dinner and just had ourselves a nice little evening in a quiet and empty Philadelphia. Everyone had gone somewhere for the holidays, it seems.

We enjoyed Kampar so much that we ordered their takeout Thanksgiving meal for tomorrow. No cooking, a new flavor profile, they even provided reheating directions. What could go wrong?

Nothing. Nothing can go wrong.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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20
Nov 24

Start somewhere

The assignments come in thick and fast on Mondays, as they do every Monday this semester. I’m teaching classes which have due dates at 11:59 each Monday. So I sit here and watch the number of submissions tick higher and higher, and try to figure out which things to assess first so the most important feedback gets back to the students in the most timely fashion.

I do this every week, and the answer isn’t always the same, but, also, it always is: start somewhere.

The thing that is the same is the thought that I shouldn’t teach a semester’s worth of classes which have things coming due all on the same day. I’ll spend three, maybe four days doing nothing but agonizing over points and pecking out constructive criticism and compliments.

None of this, none of it, is bad. But there sure is a lot of it!

We have two giant hydrangeas, both of which gave up quite some time ago, of course. But I’ve come to love the look of these faded old flowers. They speak to the season, or to just how a person feels in it, maybe. Still full, but brittle. Slumped to the elements, but still holding some character. And though their spring and summer beauty has faded, there is a new color and charm in there. And just a tinge of the original color, which I didn’t see until I looked carefully.

We’ll have to cut these back soon, which is a shame, in a way. If I brought them inside I could write essays about the corymbs for weeks, but I’m neither a poet nor an English literature professor, so it would be out of character.

Here’s a sunset photo from earlier this week that I didn’t use on the site. This is out on a road that feels lonely in all of the right ways.

I bet the wind whips through there. It probably is right now. It is really coming down out there. The first real rain we’ve had since the end of September. One good soaking won’t allow us to overcome an extreme drought, but you have to start somewhere.

adventures / photo / Rowan / Wednesday — Comments Off
13
Nov 24

Walking around on campus

I put together a new look today. The classic gray sports coat, an off-setting light blue shirt. It came together pretty well, even as I struggled with the photo composition. I’m sure it was the natural light coming from the office window to my right.

The pocket square was a gift from my mother-in-law.

That poppy I got in Canada when The Yankee and I were in Ottawa for a conference in 2009. I wore that as we walked through the Canadian capital city. When we got home from that trip we stopped by a restaurant on the way home from the airport, a small little Italian restaurant. The guy that owned it still worked there every day, and he was at the register that night. When we went up to pay he choked up just a little bit, thanked me for wearing that flower, and pointed to the 8×10 photo on the counter. “My son,” he said, rubbing the top of the frame. The picture was of a U.S. Marine in his dress blues.

They all look the same, because they’re Marines, but they’re all different when you stare into the eyes. The modern Corps has only had so many changes to that photograph. They look just about the same, no matter the era. But that print was aged. Faded. The Marine, young and strong, but now gone. That man saw him every day at his store. And so now I wear that flower not just on Memorial Day, but throughout that week, to remember.

That tie was my uncle’s tie. His daughter, my cousin, sent it to me. After he died they gave a bunch of his ties to people at the funeral, but I couldn’t take one. She went through them later and found one for me. His preference in ties was louder than mine, and I don’t know how she worked all that out, but she pulled an understated one for me. I got it yesterday, somehow glad I hadn’t taken one then, but eternally proud for having received one now. And so I wore it today. That was a real gentleman’s tie.

On campus today we went to the university assembled, a regular presentation from the president. He’s a fascinating guy. Good at his job. A real leader — and that’s not a guarantee among university presidents. But Dr. Ali Houshmand is a real talent. He’s served in the role for 12 years, and has overseen a lot of growth, and continues to do so. The university assembled was an opportunity to talk a little about the future.

We sat on the front row.

On Wednesdays I usually talk about markers and local history, but today I thought I’d talk just a tiny bit about this campus’s history.

In the early 1900’s the state found they needed a third normal school — a school for teachers. The locals here lobbied for it to be housed in their community. By 1917, 107 residents raised more than $7,000 to purchase 25 acres. They told the state they’d give it to them if they picked their town for the school’s location. The 25 acres had belonged to the Whitney family, whp ran the famous Whitney Glass Works in the 19th century. On the property was the Whitney mansion and the carriage house.

The state saw the community’s enthusiasm, the free 25 acres, the beautiful location, the train lines and agriculture success and decided this was the right spot for a campus. And both buildings still stand. This is the back of the Carriage House, which we walked by after the big meeting.

The Carriage House is one of the oldest buildings on campus and is now used for our University Publications. You might think that’s why I liked it, but, really, I just enjoyed the texture of the cedar shake shingles.

Whitney Mansion is an Italianate architectural style. It was the president’s home until 1998, and is now it’s a museum and meeting center. I’ll show it to you one day, probably in the spring.

cycling / history / markers / photo / We Learn Wednesdays / Wednesday — Comments Off
6
Nov 24

Incomplete stories on two wheels

It was 80° on Nov. 5th, we have had three-tenths of an inch of rain since the end of August (and all of that in September).

The farmers are merely moving dust around in their fields. Nothing weird at all, here.

That was early in my ride today, and it looks over processed, but it’s an over-processed sort of day, isn’t it? Later in that same ride, when the colors were softer, and the breeze just a tiny bit cooler, and my legs a bit more tired and the sun challenging me to a race …

I’d gone down a road I usually come up, where I was passed by a giant ambulance and, soon after, almost watched a minivan almost drive itself into a head-on collision. I turned right instead of going all the way down that road, cutting across to another road that I went up this afternoon, rather than going down, as I usually do. I crossed a busy intersection and then had one long straight shot with a little breeze at my back. And then I took the longest, most sensible route home.

We won’t have too many more seasonably warm days this fall, best to eek every second out of it if you can. Anyway, that was today’s ride. Let’s talk about what I found on a different ride.

We return once again to We Learn Wednesdays, where the historical markers search continues, because from time-to-time I ride my bicycle around looking for them. This is the 53rd installment, and the 85th marker in the We Learn Wednesdays series. And we’re at the Friends Burial Ground.

We’ll talk about the tree in the next installment. The burial ground dates back almost to the beginning of the white settlement. (A few Dutch had set up nearby, but they got outnumbered pretty quickly.) The English Quakers showed up in 1675, even before William Penn arrived. This was Fenwick’s Colony. A cavalry in Cromwell’s army in England, a Quaker convert and a lawyer, Fenwick advertised this place, “if there be any terrestrial “Canaan” ’tis surely here, where the land floweth with Milk and Honey.”

We learned about Fenwick earlier this year (here and here) and when people back in England learned about his vision, they started pouring in.

It’d take another decade or so for the settlers to build their first meeting house, but the people were firmly rooted. Some of the old names on these markers still have descendants around here. And a lot of the local names are repeated here in the stonework. There are more than 1,000 markers here now sitting behind this low brick walk alongside one of the busy modern downtown streets.

There have been three dozen interments here this century, the most recent in 2020. She was from right nearby, and had worked at Penn State for a quarter of a century. She started as a secretary and eventually became an assistant dean.

Not all of the notable stories are deep in the past.

The next time we return to the marker series, though, we’ll go back to the 17th century one more time, and we’ll learn about that Salem Oak. If you have missed any markers so far, you can find them all right here.