Towel Day!

Tomorrow is Towel Day. There will be an observance of Towel Day at the local book store downtown. We will be performing a reading of the original BBC radio script of THHGTTH. Join us! Read! There are many prime parts still up for grabs. (I've already got dibs on Arthur Dent.)

If you can't be there, then just carry a towel all day. After all, a towel "is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have."

I'd have rather been Bogart. . . .

Your Score: John Wayne

You scored 33% Tough, 23% Roguish, 14% Friendly, and 28% Charming!

You, my friend, are a man's man, the original true grit, one tough talking, swaggering son of a bitch. You're not a bad guy, on the contrary, you're the ultimate good guy, but you're one tough character, rough and tumble, ready for anything. You call the shots and go your own way, and if some screwy dame is willing to accept your terms, that's just fine by you. Otherwise, you'll just hit the open trail and stay true to yourself. You stand up for what you believe and can handle any situation, usually by rushing into the thick of the action. You're not polished and you're not overly warm, but you're a straight shooter and a real stand up guy. Co-stars include Lauren Bacall and Maureen O'Hara, tough broads who can take care of themselves.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the
Classic Dames Test.

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

A good day

Saturday was the graduation at the small college at which I teach. We only have about 550 students, so there were not very many graduates (and many of those do not participate in the graduation). Thus we probably had fifty or sixty grads marching. The faculty rent full regalia each year; I took the advice of older colleagues, who said that if they had it to do over again, they would purchase their own robes. It was expensive, but it will save me money in the long run. The picture above shows the English professors-- one of which is retired, one is retiring this year, and one retires next year. That means that I will be the associate chair in my third year! Absurd. This will be the last time that the four of us will be gathered together again....

Anyway, it was a great graduation. The weather was beautiful and the ceremony dignified. The best part (for me) was when I discovered that the students of the college had selected me for the "Faculty of the Year" award! Not bad for my first year, eh?

We landed in a good place

Larry, a good friend and one of my former mentors, asked me if I'd landed in a good place. Yes. Here is a picture of me from a few weeks ago, playing disc golf with my lovely wife. (She's taking the picture.) In the background is the college's library building. We have a full 18-hole disc-golf course on the campus! I played yesterday with the chemistry prof; he won by one stroke. . . er, throw. (He says that he won by two, but that's because he charged me with a silly penalty stroke.) Good times.

OMG!

A coworker gave me a bag of six morel mushrooms. I had never had (or heard of) morels before moving the Wisconsin. Click for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

I soaked them in salt water for several hours (to kill any critters). Then I sliced them lengthwise and sauteed them in butter. I grilled some sirloin steaks and topped them with feta cheese (and left this on the grill to melt the feta slightly). I roasted some fresh asparagus, drizzled with olive oil and a bit of the Greek seasoning.

The steak and asparagus, though excellent examples of the respective dishes, were nowhere near as amazingly delicious as the morels. The flavor is indescribable. I'll try-- steaklike, but more complex and subtle. . . .

Wow.

Wow.