Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!

Most readers of this blog (family members and Facebook friends) already know that last weekend I was a listener-contestant on the NPR news quiz (from Chicago Public Radio) Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! But, since this blog functions not just as a news-spreading tool but also a scrapbook/journal, I thought I'd record the experience here.

It was really fun to play on one of my favorite radio programs! Mike and I went to a live taping of the show in Chicago in August 2008, which was one of our favorite Chicago adventures, so I had an idea of how the taping would go. A few months ago I called the radio program to see if I could be a contestant. Then one of the producers called me just a few weeks ago to let me know that I'd been chosen. (I don't know why. Because I live in Laramie, WY? Because I'm a librarian? Because my voice sounded good on their voicemail? I have no idea how they choose contestants.) So the producer called me at the beginning of the show and I waited for the host, Peter Sagal, to ask me some questions. I'd been following the news extra closely that week and got all three questions right. My prize? Carl Kasell's voice on my home answering machine!
Now we just have to figure out what we want Carl to say and email the script to producer Emily Ecton. Then Carl will record the message in studio and we'll get a CD in the mail. Call me in a few weeks to see what he says!

Multi-media Entertainment

It's been an action-packed week in Laramie. I'll go in reverse chronological order and tell you what Mike and I have been up to.
Last night we saw Ani DiFranco live at University of Wyoming. Ani is a feminist folk singer who became quite prominent in the 1990s. She is remarkably prolific and has released one album per year since 1990. She owns all of her own music and has never been under the thumb of any studio, since she started her own record company: Righteous Babe Records. Ani came to my attention in my Women & Gender Studies classes at USU and I've been a fan since then, but have never had the chance to see her live. Then she came to Laramie! She is absolutely amazing on guitar. Her songs tend to be political, but one of my favorites that she played last night is about being a new mother. It's called "Present/Infant":

lately i've been glaring into mirrors
picking myself apart
you'd think at my age i'd of thought
of something better to do
than making insecurity into a full-time job
making insecurity into an art

i fear my life will be over
and i will have never lived it unfettered
always glaring into mirrors
mad i don't look better

but now here's this tiny baby
and they say she looks just like me
and she is smiling at me
with that present/infant glee
and i would defend
to the ends of the earth
her perfect right to be

so i'm beginning to see some problems
with the ongoing work of my mind
and i've got myself a new mantra
it says: "don't forget to have a good time"
don't let the sellers of stuff
power enough
to rob you of your grace
love is all over the place
there's nothing wrong with your face
love is all over the place

So that was cool. It seems like a long time since we went to a rock concert.

Tuesday night we saw a UW production of Hamlet. It was quite excellent. There were two guest stars: Pete Simpson, Jr. played Hamlet and Pete Simpson, Sr. played the ghost of Hamlet's father. The Simpsons are part of one of Wyoming's most important political families, and some of them are theatrical to boot! (Al Simpson, former senator from Wyoming, is now co-chairing President Obama's commission on reducing the federal debt. He's probably the most well-known in the family, and Pete Sr.'s brother. This is completely tangential, but I highly recommend Al Simpson's interview in Newsweek. The best part is how he describes Rush Limbaugh: "I never considered Rush-babe to be anything more than an entertainer. He gets people all riled up all day long, get them filled up with gas, ulcers, heartburn, B.O., and fear. Hell, that's pretty good. You really are an entertainer if you can get that done!" Oh, and how he describes the filibuster: "It's like a big old hobnail-boot ass-kicking machine.")

I meant to review Hamlet and got sidetracked with Al's colorful way of speaking. We enjoyed the play very much and were impressed with the students and guest actors.
Finally, on Monday night my book group discussed this really amazing novel, The Secret Scripture. It's really beautifully written, with descriptions like poetry. The main character and narrator is a 100-year-old woman named Roseanne Clear who has been in mental hospitals for about 60 years. She writes her history -- and the history of Ireland -- on sheets of paper that she found and hides in the floorboards of her room. Some of the members of my book group thought the book was depressing, and Roseanne's story is a sad one, but as a narrator she is never mournful or despairing. I highly recommend the book.

I love Laramie. There are so many great things to do, even though it's quite a small town. And the people here are just the best. Even though it's mid-April and winter lingers (the forecast says we'll have 3-7 inches of snow between now and Saturday morning), I think we made the right choice when we decided to move here.

Spring Break 2010: Black Hills

Mike and I took a few days off at the beginning of University of Wyoming's spring break to drive to the southwest corner of South Dakota to see the sights. We had a great time! The weather was nice -- 40-45 degree highs and lots of sunshine -- and the Black Hills were just beautiful.

Here's a shot from Custer State Park. When we got up to higher elevations, it was really misty. There are so many pine trees that the mountains look incredibly green, even at this time of year.
This is Pactola Lake, between Custer and Deadwood. As you can see, it's frozen solid.We stayed in Custer, SD. Here's a view from Main Street. :)
Our first real stop on the trip was Mt. Rushmore. It was quite impressive. We were interested to learn that the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, had planned a much more complete sculpture with chests and arms for the presidents. The mountain carving began in 1927 and was expected to take five years and $500,000. Carving and blasting continued through the 1930s (and the Great Depression) and the federal government allocated $1 million to the project, but the project came to an end in 1941 with the death of the sculptor and the U.S. involvement in WWII. Isn't it interesting to think that this national icon was supposed to take a much different form?
On day 2 of our trip we went to the Wind Cave (pictured above), which is the 4th longest cave in the world. We had a cool tour of some of the caverns. It's called the wind cave because there is a very strong wind that, depending on air pressure outside the cave, either blows into or out of the cave. On the day we visited, the wind was blowing into the cave at 30+ miles per hour!
We also went to the Crazy Horse memorial on day 2. This is another major mountain carving in the Black Hills that depicts the Indian warrior Crazy Horse. It's a work in progress that was started in 1947 and is not federally funded. Apparently the government offered money to the sculptor, but he was a big believer in free enterprise and said he would only accept private donations. The sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, seems to have been quite a character. He lived in a tent next to the mountain when he first started work on it. His wife and 10 children have continued the work since he died in 1982. As you can see in the photo above, the face of Crazy Horse is completed and his arm above the horse's head is taking shape.
This is a scale model of the Crazy Horse mountain. It will be carved in the round, unlike Mt. Rushmore. The story is that Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear asked Ziolkowski to carve the mountain to "show the white man that the red man has heroes, too." In some ways it seems a bit sacrilegious to see the Black Hills, a sacred place to the Lakota, blasted away for the 4 dead presidents and for Crazy Horse. The unmarked Hills are more beautiful and more spiritually powerful than the ones that have been dynamited. At least that's what I think.
Also on day 2 we drove to Deadwood, the famous Old West mining town. It's in this narrow little gorge, with houses built way up the hillside. Casino revenue has allowed the town to do a lot of restoration, and there are some fabulous old buildings from the 1880s.
Here's main street in Deadwood. Around the Black Hills (and around the West) there are several little towns, notably Keystone, that are built to look like the mythic "Old West." Deadwood is the real deal and it feels authentically gritty.

On our last day in South Dakota, we went to the Badlands. The landscape there is beautiful in an otherworldly sort of way.
We took lots more photos than the carefully selected ones here. If you'd like to see all the various views of Mt. Rushmore, including plenty of up-the-nostrils shots, see our Black Hills Flickr set.

Boston -- ALA Midwinter

Beacon Hill (I hear this is John Kerry's neighborhood)

The Cheers bar!

I traveled to Boston last weekend for the American Library Association's Midwinter meeting. It was a good trip. Here's a photo of the exhibit hall, where library vendors come to give away tote bags, books, drinks, etc.
I got to hear Al Gore speak about his new book, Our Choice. I have very warm feelings for Al, as he was my first-ever Presidential vote in 2000 when I was 18. This is not a very good picture, but it was the best I could get in the convention center ballroom
Although much of my time was spent in meetings, I spent one afternoon on the Freedom Trail with two friends from work. It's a tour of some important historical sites in Boston. Here are a few images from the trail:

Ice skaters in Boston Common, the oldest park in the country, established by the citizens in 1634.
The old statehouse in Boston. The Declaration of Independence was read to Bostonians from this balcony.
Here lies Paul Revere.

As a Westerner, all these sites seemed truly, impressively old. It was interesting to note just how many public, democratic gathering places are built in to Boston's downtown area.

The Boston meetings were great. I got to catch up with librarian friends from Utah State and from University of Illinois. I got some good ideas from the Instruction Section meetings I went to, including one that I used in class yesterday. I also had yummy seafood!

Holidays 2009-2010

Mike and I traveled 1800 miles over winter break, first to Fairview, ID to visit my family.

Dogpile Christmas morning!

Then to Albuquerque, NM to spend time with Mike's family.

Here we are on Sandia Peak. There was hardly any snow in the valley, but tons up at the top!

We had a fabulous time in all of our travels and were really blessed to see so many of our family members over the holidays.

I want to highlight a few knitting-themed gifts that I received.

My mom knitted me these awesome felted clogs in University of Wyoming colors. They are so warm and toasty!
My lovely friend Heather sent me 500 grams of this beautiful blue baby alpaca from Peru, where she spent the holidays. As you can see, I have a project going.
My mother-in-law, Sheri, brought me this amazing knitting bag from a knitting shop in Alaska. (If you can't tell, it has cats on it!)
It opens up to all these neat pockets for circular knitting needles, double-pointed sets, and all your little knitting tools. I love it!

Happy Trails: Elna Baker

I meant to review lots of books on this blog, and I haven't done that. But I simply had to review a recent book titled The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker (I had to check that title three times to make sure I got all the words in the right order). I felt compelled to review it not just because I really liked it, but also because it spoke to me as a Mormon woman who was single until the advanced age of 25. (That may sound young to some of you, but census data from 2000 says that Utah women marry for the first time at 21.9.)

Elna Baker is a 27-year-old Mormon comedian living in New York. She's single. She's lived in New York since she was 18 and a freshman in college. Her book is the most honest account of Mormon singlehood that I've ever read. She's honest about the problems of celibacy, of dating outside the faith, and of gendered expectations for women within the Mormon church. She's very funny, a bit self-absorbed (it's a memoir, so of course she is), and a good writer.

One of my favorite stories from the book is related to the title and involves a fantastic fortune-cookie costume. You can see Elna herself tell the story here:


I highly recommend the book. But if you have preconceived notions about what Mormon women are like (or if you're offended by cursing and talk about sex), prepare to be shocked.

Feeling grateful

I'm extra glad right now to have chosen library science over a PhD in literature. A New York Times article last week said: “Students thinking of going to graduate school in English should understand that right now their chance of landing a job that provides them a livable wage is 50-60 percent,” said Rosemary Feal, executive director of the M.L.A. Who knew it was that bleak???