happy birthday

Yesterday was the day: Johnny Appleseed turned 235 years old. Amber and I hosted simultaneous birthday parties for him. The guests were exquisite. The cider flowed. We talked foraging--from apples to purslane to sumac. We ate, and I gave them the task of furthering Johnny's mission with apple seeds from the best apples I have eaten this year. They were packaged and everyone took one home. If you'd like one too, shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Here are some images. Wish you were there.

Golden Parachutes

The words Golden Parachutes sounds really raunchy to me. You know why.

President of Brandeis University, Jehuda Reinharz, has resigned. I'm going to reproduce the letters between Reinharz, the board of trustees and the Brandeis community, but first, I'd like to know how that Golden Parachute is going to affect Brandeis. The university was in some bad finances when I left last spring, as indicated by layoffs and the Rose Art Museum. They broke ground on a new humanities center costing millions, but were laying off support staff. And now, Reinharz, the president who forced the University to buy a bigger house for him, the president who didn't show up to Carter's talk, the president who has elbowed the trustees into an awkward situation with the Rose, and who has allowed the trustees to remove Palestinian children's work from the library, will walk away with an untold chunk of change.

And all I got was this lowsy button.



Letters below:

September 24, 2009


To the Brandeis Community:


I wanted to let you know that I have made the decision to step down from the presidency of Brandeis University. I have reached the conclusion that now is the right time for me to focus on the next chapter of my career. I have notified the Board of Trustees and they have requested that I continue in my role for this upcoming academic year and stay on as president until a successor has been selected up until June 30, 2011 if necessary. Following the completion of my term as President of Brandeis, I expect to be the president of a significant foundation, where I can address issues facing the Jewish community at the national and international level.


Serving Brandeis for nearly three decades has been a great honor, which I have enjoyed immensely. Ours is an active, engaged community; one that is both intellectually strong and fiercely passionate; it is one that has never failed to make me proud to be a part of Brandeis. I believe the future is very bright for the University and I am confident that my successor will take Brandeis to even greater heights.


I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who have helped make Brandeis one of the great universities in this country.


Sincerely,
Jehuda Reinharz, President
Brandeis University

Below you will find my letter to Mal Sherman, Chairman of the Brandeis Board of Trustees, and his response.

August 31, 2009


Mr. Malcolm Sherman
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454


Dear Mal,

I am writing to inform you of my intent to resign as President of Brandeis University. I am letting you know now so that ample time is available to plan for a smooth transition.

As you can imagine, I do so with a great mix of emotions: pride at what we have collectively achieved over these last sixteen years; confidence that this is the right juncture to hand the reins over to the next leader; and a bittersweet feeling of nostalgia and fondness for the Brandeis family that has been my own for almost thirty years. During my tenure at Brandeis, I have had the opportunity to work in partnership with some of the brightest minds in academia.

It is now time for me to enter the next chapter of my professional life. I plan to continue to serve in the non-profit arena at the national and international level where I can address issues facing the Jewish community. I have already been approached by two foundations to run their organizations at the conclusion of my time at Brandeis.

I feel strongly that this is the right time for me personally to move on to a new challenge. Many of the goals that I set out for my presidency have been accomplished. I will leave the University in good condition with a strong foundation on which to build in the future. The Brandeis of today is significantly different than it was sixteen years ago. It is a stronger brand, with a national and international reputation for academic excellence. It is dramatically more diverse in its student body. It offers a substantially larger curriculum with new creative areas of study. It has state-of-the-art facilities that enhance the teaching and learning experience.

The challenges facing all educational institutions of higher learning in the coming years are considerable. I remain steadfast in my commitment to leading Brandeis until new leadership is in place and will work tirelessly with the campus community and friends of the University to ensure Brandeis’ success. I have enjoyed the challenge of leading Brandeis and will always be ready to be helpful in any way I can.

Sincerely,

Jehuda Reinharz, President
Brandeis University



September 24, 2009


President Jehuda Reinharz
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454

Dear Jehuda,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I accept your letter of resignation with reluctance but with the understanding that you have thought long and hard about this decision. As you know, we would have greatly preferred that you complete your term. But we appreciate your willingness to continue leading Brandeis for this academic year and until a successor has been named. We also understand that your commitment to stay on as President will not go beyond June 30, 2011.

While at this time it is difficult to think about Brandeis in the absence of you as its visionary, we feel fortunate that you will hold the position of President Emeritus, working with the Board and Brandeis following your tenure as president.

When you became President in 1994, you set ambitious goals for yourself and for the University. Your dedication to the achievement of these goals has been extraordinary. While many leaders of higher education are professionally fulfilled after a few years of service and a few accomplishments, your unusually long commitment to the Brandeis community is a testament to your character and devotion.

In partnership with your talented staff and faculty, you have succeeded in strengthening all aspects of the University from the physical plant to the curriculum to university finances. You have guided this University in prosperous and difficult times with an unwavering focus on providing all students with an exceptional education.

Under your leadership, we have witnessed a heightened profile within the international academic community and an exceptionally diverse student body ethnically, racially, religiously and geographically.

One of your accomplishments that I am most proud of as Chairman of the Board is the increase in financial assistance to our student body and indeed that 72% of our students receive some form of financial aid. As we both know, access to education changes one’s life. We need only look at our impressive alumni who have made tangible imprints on all sectors of our society.

Your pursuit of excellence on behalf of Brandeis has been incredible and I feel privileged to have worked alongside you for the past sixteen years. Please know that we all recognize that your hard work and dedication have kept this University on its path of greatness and will allow us to continue to flourish in the future. All of us on the Board of Trustees have the utmost gratitude and admiration for your leadership and stewardship.

Sincerely,

Malcolm Sherman
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Brandeis University

even though we're as american as, there will be no apple pie

My friends, it is that time of year again. Apples are everywhere. The trees down the street from me are dropping their worm-eaten sweet little things, and the orchards are overflowing (mostly with honeycrisp, but I won't complain). I've gone out and picked sacks of these volunteer apples around town and am currently making a batch of apple butter. And yesterday I made apple muffins with some leftover crab apples. Today, I have spent the afternoon thinking (in my sweet smelling apartment, thank you apple butter) about Johnny Appleseed.

You know, readers, this is not an uncommon experience, me sitting at my desk thinking about Johnny Appleseed. It is no more uncommon than me cracking open a book about Plymouth Rock, or Rushmore, or the Transcontinental Railroad. But this week I do it in preparation for an event: Johnny Appleseed's birthday. He's turning 235 years old, this Saturday, and we're celebrating. We'll say grace, and I'll bust out eight or nine dishes filled with apples and other delicious things.

I've got the Swiss Gourmet (one of my favorites, in homage of another Apple Legend, William Tell!), the Cox's Orange Pippin (hello motherland, England), and some American apples foraged and bought. I've even got some east-coast not far from Leominster (where Johnny was born--thanks Pennie!). If you're in Iowa City (which precious few of you are), stop by the old homestead at 7pm and eat and drink, pre-temperance style.

going to the chapel and we're going to get married

In Minneapolis, we went to the cemetery to see HHH's grave. While wandering and trying to find it, we passed the mausoleum. My companion said we should go in and see it, as it is quite beautiful. Outside, there are women in pale purple floor length dresses standing around, waiting. There is a big car with the hood up and two men wrapping matching purple streamers everywhere. They're preparing for a wedding. How strange, I thought. How cyclical, my companion thought.

Yesterday, I was rereading Foucault's "Of Other Spaces." There is a section, which I am going to replicate here, that speaks of the cemetery:

"It is a space that is ... connected with all the sites of the citystate or society or village, etc., since each individual, each family has relatives in the cemetery. In Western culture the cemetery has practically always existed. ... Until the end of the 18th century, the cemetery was placed at the heart of the city, next to the church. ...It is in a time when civilization has become 'atheistic,' as one says very crudely, that Western culture has established what is termed as the cult of the dead. Basically, it was quite natural that, in a time of real belief in the resurrection of bodies and the immortality of the soul, overriding importance was not accorded to the body's remains. On the contrary, from the moment when people are no longer sure that they have a soul or that the body will regain life, it is perhaps necessary to give much more attention to the dead body, which is ultimately the only trace of our existence in the world and in language. It is from the beginning of the 19th century that everyone has a right to her or his own little box for her or his own little personal decay; but on the other hand, it is only from that start of the 19th century that cemeteries began to be located at the outside border of cities.In correlation with the individualization of death and the bourgeois appropriation of the cemetery, there arises an obsession with death as an 'illness.' "

What a throwback, then, to be having a wedding at the cemetery. Sure the space is lovely, but aren't you terrified, newlyweds, that the dead are going to infect you? Aren't the dead bodies, rotting in their own little personal boxes with their own little personal decay, going to, as Foucault would make us believe, kill your marriage preemptively. How positively liminal and retro of you!

don't fence me in.

i can't stand fences.

hello star of north

it is good to meet you Minnesota, even in the dark.

i can't get this song out of my head

I'm thinking a lot about Jesse James lately, and in between verses of the famous song, I found this in a 1882 newspaper:

"Special dispatch to the Globe-Democrate:
St. Joseph, Missouri, April 3.--The city has never in its history been so thoroughly and intensely shaken with excitement as to-day. The streets are thronged with wild and excited men, who are rushing about, for what they do not know, nor can they tell. About 8 o'clock in the morning a man who has passed here as Charles Johnson drew a murderous Colt's forty-one-caliber revolver, and, aiming at a man who has resided in the south part of the city since November and gone under the name of Howard, from the rear, fired. The ball entered the back of Howard's head, and he fell to the floor a corpse, the blood oozing from the wound in a perfect stream. Howard never spoke a word, but expired almost instantly."

experiments in local local

View fruit, nuts, other edibles in iowa city in a larger map

take a look at that!

this is my quick (and growing) map of fruit and nut trees (plus other edibles) around iowa city. i've got a growing pile of walnuts in my cupboard, but there are plenty falling right now. eat up! and please add to my list if you know of any!

neighborhoods

Iowa City, for as midsized as it is, has more neighborhoods than Boston, it might seem. There is Plum Grove historic district, Brown Street historic district, Northside, Goosetown, College Green, Longfellow, Dearborn, and so on.

The areas are decorated, for the most part, with lovely little signs:

(images from Flickr).

Somehow, my street appears to be outside of these mess of neighborhoods. I might be between Goosetown and College Green, or maybe Governor-Lucas district.

What kills me is that the Iowa City Historic Preservation handbook has no maps. Where am I?

Historically Accurate!!!!

Do you see that, reader? Are you as thrilled as I at the scene? You should be, let me tell you why...


Historically accurate paint. My whole apartment is now painted a fresh coat of valspar Woodrow Wilson Putty, or something like that. Painted the same color as a president's home! Yikes, does it get better? Well, if I had Lincoln White Sash it might be a bit better, but ...

on walden pond

it must be a regional love, here they're loving grant wood but hating hard on my dear walden pond. twice in one week, Thoreau has been called a hack.