Twelfth Night

How many times have we see this script? How many times have we seen this script at Shakes? How many times have we seen this script in "all men" productions at Shakes? Start the contest in comments. (Clue: Zillion. Two. Two. Weird, but true.)

Thanksiving

We kept it simple this year. A yummy rolled, stuffed turkey breast, a version of apple coleslaw, and the every important mashed potatoes.

Argonautica: Sailors Indeed

Mary Zimmerman's production from the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Inventive, beautiful, physical. Stylishly simple. But, hey, it's sailors right? And they swore like sailors, J***s, F****cking C***st. G***d D****m it. Right out of my own driving down Lake Shore vocabulary. I worry about what I'm going to be like if I'm ever brain-injured, and all the inhabitions are gone. G**d D**m I**t.

Saller Fairwell

Richard Saller, Provost, steps down. He was Dean of SSD prior to being Provost, and an eminent Roman historian. (Classic Roman historian remark: "The budget of the Provost is greater than all of the Roman Empire.")

A class guy. What was so clear from this good-bye is how deeply, personally, professionally he has been admired by all in attendance.

And, there was a cavalcade of great speeches and performances, including a hysterical tribute by Hanna. That would be Mrs. Hanna Holborn Gray to you. Cherished. Watch out Ellen Degeneres.

Double Bill at the Humanities Festival

We went to two lectures at the Chicago Humanities Festival, the first by Patty Nelson Limerick, my most influential college professor and senior advisor, and the second by Roger Myerson, from our own U of C Department of Economics. It was really, really great to see Patty. Roger made a nice case for restraint in international diplomacy, using game theory.



Patricia Nelson Limerick: The Baskes Lecture in History

A much-admired and compelling historian of the American West who teaches at the University of Colorado, Limerick explores the legacy of our nation’s westward expansion, aggression, and conquest. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 for her work.

This annual lecture recognizes a generous contribution to the Chicago Humanities Festival by Julie and Roger Baskes.

Charles Storch of the Tribune reported on her talk:

In honor of Billy the Kid, races are held in New Mexico in which participants lug tombstones. In Pleasant Valley, Ariz., parades are held to commemorate the bloody Graham-Tewksbury feud. "How is it," asked Nelson Limerick, "that some very brutal episodes of projectiles entering the bodies of humans get to be so fun?" The University of Colorado professor and author observed our tendency to romanticize the depraved and homicidal. As a scholar and as a recent widow, Limerick said she had no truck with trivializing death. Yet she enlivened her account of one deadly range war with witty asides. Her conclusion is that "a human population shaken by the prospect of death does what it can to get away from it, and popularizing feuds is one way."

Roger Myerson: Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict

Cooperative and non-cooperative game theory, primarily devised for its economic applications, can provide unique perspective into the behaviors of nations and the politics of war. Myerson is a professor in the Department of Economics, University of Chicago, anddirector of graduate studies. His book, Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict, is the standard textbook on the topic.

Milton Friedman Documentary Screening

The U of Chicago is one of the co-producer of a very good documentary about Milton Friedman. It will have a national broadcast on PBS in January, but we had a preview of some of the film with comments by Gary Becker and our own Mark Hansen, the Dean.

Memorial Service for PDT in Napa

Click here for complete photo album. Go to November 2006. The password is the name of the street we live on in Chicago.