First Cubs Tix of the Year: v. Reds

Electric Zambrano!!!



"Carlos Zambrano tossed six strong innings but took his first blemish in the month of May. Juan Pierre collected a pair of hits, and Jacque Jones launched his ninth home run of the season, but the Cubs were unable to complete the sweep."











Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care. Damn that K. Griffey, Jr.

Dysfunctional Family Theater Can Be Fun!

OK, so our running joke about going to see Steppenwolf is: "another dysfunctuional family evening..." Love Song, their current offering, was actually a funny dysfunctional family. As always, a strong cast. As Ms. S said: "if this script had been around, we would have been using the scene with the reclusive brother and his possibly imaginary girlfriends as audition material..." Sam Shepard and Patti Smith, where is that Cowboy Mouth...

Bike the Drive

The fifth annual, one of our favorite Chicago events. Bloody hot and humid, but still fun. Ms. S did the sensible thing and pedaled only while it was still fun. They had photographers all over the route, hence the dual pictures of Mr. P.

John List: Inaugural Lecture

John List delivered his inaugural lecture on natural field experiments. He's done some work by going to sports trade shows to see how people value objects (they value stuff they have in hand more, even if they've been given it for free)...but who knew, he also has papers on philanthropy, for example, do matching offers work.

Bill T. Jones

Bill T. Jones was the final speaker for the 2005-2006 University of Chicago Presidential Fellows in the Arts series. Classic Bill. I would go see him read the phone book, anytime....

How cool that it was at the U of Chicago.

Also went to a wonderful party for Lois Stein, the Dean of Students for the Social Sciences Division, who is retiring.

Ms. T and Mr. S's wedding

My nephew graduated from Northwestern Medical School on Friday, and got married on Sunday. You may now address him as Captain.

Alison Winter Salon

A nice salon for work featuring Alison Winter. Her most recent book developed a social and cultural history of mesmerism in Victorian Britain...but she talked about stuff she couldn't fit in the book which was related...the emergence of baton conducting for orchestras. Think about it. Discuss.

Nixon In China

The reason we subscribed to Chicago Opera Theatre. Pity the supertitles didn't work, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Ms. S Goes Teaching in Texas

A good thing to be doing as one gets older. I'll let her tell y'all all about it.

The Abduction from the Seraglio

We continue to be really glad we subscribed to Chicago Opera Theater.


Chicago Tribune review:
Abduction' skips the lighter side
Chicago Opera Theater leaves much of the laughter out of its Mozart offering
by John von Rhein
May 4, 2006

A Muslim ruler forced into exile by his European enemy abducts a Spanish lady and her maid only to learn the power of forgiveness by the final curtain. His act of noble renunciation at the climax could be taken as an eloquent plea for better Western/Islamic relations.

You want topical? Mozart's 1782 opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio" delivers more than a few timely messages to our troubled world.

Justin Way's new production for Chicago Opera Theater touches on this topicality, updating the action to around 1914 when the Ottoman Empire was gasping its last and class divisions still meant something. His staging largely ignores the laughter in Mozart's miraculous music to focus on the darker aspects of the singspiel, with its stretches of German dialogue alternating with some of the composer's most glorious if vocally demanding arias. This "Entführung aus dem Serail" is not exactly a barrel of laughs...

Chicago Convenes

We're at $1.5 billion for the University's campaign. Convenes is a big thank you party for donors.

"The day of festivities honors and celebrates the generosity of those who have contributed to the progress of the Chicago Initiative. Chicago Convenes also showcases the intellectual vitality and the architectural beauty of the University, with faculty members offering classes and seminars and sharing their latest research, and with behind-the-scenes tours of new campus facilities."




The panel I help organize:

Reading the Black/White Divide: Forward, Backward, or Stalemate?

Social scientists from the Departments of Political Science, Economics, and Psychology will explore our society’s racial gaps from different perspectives, including examining racial differences in people’s response to Hurricane Katrina,the determinants of the black-white skill gap among young people, and the exploration of stereotyping and prejudice through research involving
videogame-like simulations.

Faculty Panelists: Joshua Correll, Michael Dawson, Derek Neal