SF Report

Went to San Francisco for work, but had time to visit my brother M. and family (M. and M., wow love the M family) in Los Altos and my sister P. and hubby R in Napa. Brother B. also came to Napa for the weekend. Woo, hoo, love the new work--just enough travel, not too much, at least that's what I think at this stage.

Off, Regional Rounds 1 and 2

Took Friday off for my version of the High Holidays. Go Nevada. Go Xavier. Love the upsets.

Lorna Simpson

And to balance out last night's foray into predictive analysis, I went to hear Lorna Simpson talk at Northwestern U. Arrived late (it's a long drive from far south to far north) but great to see her. Lorna developed Interior/Exterior, Full/Empty, one of her early film installation pieces at Wexner and did some work at the Walker. She almost used our house as one of the background locations, but it didn't work out...dang.

Jack Noonan

Went to hear the CEO of SPSS. SPSS stands for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, and was basically invented by a former faculty member here. The program has changed pretty significantly, and now at least one priority for the company is predictive analysis for business. Who would have thunk a year ago I'd be attending such a thing?

Laura Letinsky opening at Ren

Went to a Tuesday opening at the Ren. Really interesting photography--we had seen at Monique's booth at the Art Fair, but great to see more, and to meet the artist who teaches at the U of C.

Duke vs. Carolina

It's always good to have a win over Carolina.

Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Ambassador to UN for Mexico

An interesting talk at the U of C. Very candid, very funny. The phrase that sticks is "ranch diplomacy": Bush invites folks to the ranch, everybody's impressed, they are all friends.

clas.uchicago.edu/publications/lac/Vol23No5.pdf

Ballet Boyz

Went to see Ballet Boyz at the Columbia Dance. Generally a pretty good program. Finally got to see a ballet by William Forsyth, and learned that Phillip Glass wrote some interesting string quartet music.

Cubs Tix on Sale

Man, oh, man, tried to get Cubs tickets, and how things have changed from a year ago. I think last year I didn't get to it until April, and I still got some decent games. This year, I tried the Internet on Friday, but ultimately couldn't get through until Saturday. I've got three games, and mostly up in the boonies. Wow! Maddux better deliver.

Crossing 1 Billion

The University of Chicago is in the middle of a $2 billion campaign, and today we celebrated crossing the halfway mark.

Sex and the City, the Final Episode

Had a great party for the final episode of Sex and the City. My brother K. and his son S., who is at Northwestern Medical School, joined us for the festivities. (Thank goodness, because S., the proprietor of Bar 16 in the NW Med School dorms took over bar duty making the cosmos: efficiency and style ruled.) The tone of the evening was also was set by opening a three liter bottle of Berringer Merlot, a gift from my sister P., given to us some time ago for Christmas. We served lasagna. Ms. S threated to make rumaki, but it didn't happen. How do they say: a good time was had by all. And we learned that Mr. Big has a name.

Steve Levitt lecture

Went to a lecture by Steve Levitt last night, the young rock star of the Econ Department. The title of the talk was: From Sumo Wrestlers to School Corruption: An Economist Looks at the Real World

Here's the official description:

What do sumo wrestlers and elementary school teachers have in common? What kind of economist studies game shows, gangs, and lojack? Is this what they're teaching in Econ 201 these days? At the University of Chicago, economists believe the tools of economics can unlock the answer to just about any question. Micro-economist Steven Levitt, who was recently hailed by the New York Times as "the most brilliant young economist in America," exemplifies this tradition. Having tackled topics as arcane as sumo wrestling, penalty kicks in soccer, lojack, the link between abortion and crime, drunk driving, and drug-selling gangs, Professor Levitt won the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal, given biennially to the country's best economist under 40. In this special program for Chicago alumni, Professor Levitt describes examples of his work on corruption in unusual places and shows how cutting-edge economics can be used to catch the cleverest cheaters.

He was great. Interesting, clear, a gentle sense of humor.

Sex and the City Dinners

OK, I'm not sure I want to do this again soon, but hosting dinner for the eight consecutive final episodes of Sex and the City has turned us into a dinner party machine.  We've got the preparation down.  We've served lamb kabobs, borscht (in honor of Baryshnikov), Texas Hospitality Chicken, turkey chili, and the turkey cutlet version of  Il Fine Del Mondo, among others, it's all fading together. (Damn those Cosmos.)   I don't know how that Julie did it cooking every night--I'm going to be happy to reclaim some of my weekend--though it has reminded us how easy it is to have a few people over.

Little Night Music at Shakespeare

For Valentine's Day, we went to see a great production of A Little Night Music at the Shakespeare Theater.  Really well done.

Another Week at the U of Chicago

This week I’ve been to lectures/programs/donor receptions with Bruce Cummings on Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth about North Korea, Iran and Syria, John Mearsheimer in an informal talk on why our strategy in Iraq was so ill conceived, Danielle Allen  “on translating ancient greek lyric poetry” (she swears she’s being literal in her translations, but it comes out in this beautiful street vernacular) {and oh, by the way, her next book is on Brown v. Board of Ed.}, and, oh yes, the Bontecou exhibition at the MCA.