Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Harvard at San Diego

Best Baby:  Willie Alford III
Best Band:  The makeshift band put together at the last minute by several Harvard alumni
Best Bar:  Clearly not in Old Town or at the hotel but it didn’t matter
Best Brothers:   Dave and Paul Scheper (Matt Foley was a no show, much to Jay's chagrin, so there was no competition)
Best Class:  1981
Best Cookie:  Saturday pregame tailgate (and there was no line)
Best Former Player I Hadn’t Seen in 32 Years:  Bob Woolway
Best Future Grandfather: Brian Hehir (checking that phone conscientiously)
Best Golfer:  I don’t think I heard who won but Tim Crudo assured me he was the worst
Best Hat:  Harvard hat with embroidery
Best License Plate:  My former roommate Loreen and I happened to park behind this car on Friday at a camera store miles from anywhere (see photo).  It turned out she knew the driver, a former baseball player named Dave Knolls.  He came to the party on Friday and the game on Saturday.  She also recruited him to be an alumni admissions interviewer!
Best Party:  Friday Night Reception
Best Plane/Adjacent Seat Companions:  Dan Mee going toward San Diego and Paul Brennan on the way back
Best Rate:  Marriott Courtyard (although I still think we need a hotel with a real bar - I liked the bar at the Marriott Coronado)
Best Roommate: Loreen
Best Score: Harvard 42-USD 20
Best Tee Shirt: See the onesie on Willie Alford III above (they should sell these at Dillon)
Best Trip for Golf: Paul Connors, returning to Atlanta for the Georgia Tech game
Best Victor: But I plan to continue calling him Orazio
Best View: From Wally Bregman’s infinity pool looking down into a valley (photo does not do it justice)

Best Weather: San Diego
Best Weekend: When can we do it again?  October 4, 2014 in DC

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Danger Calling (Book Review)

Title:  Danger Calling (Benbow Smith #2)
AuthorPatricia Wentworth
Publication:  J.B Lippincott Company, hardcover, 1931
Genre:  Mystery          Setting:  England and Paris 

Plot:  When Marian Rayne breaks her engagement to Lindsay Trevor a few days before the wedding, he is devastated. Everything is suddenly meaningless, including his job at a respected publishing house, which means it’s exactly the right moment for the mysterious Benbow Collingwood Horatio Smith to ask, “How would you like to die for your country?” 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Saracen Lamp (Book Review)

Title: The Saracen Lamp
Author: Ruth M. Arthur       
Illustrator: Margery Gill
Publication Information: Atheneum, 1970 Hardcover
Genre: YA, Multigenerational

Plot: The book begins in 1300 when a French girl, Melisande, prepares  for her marriage to an English knight her father met on (the Ninth) Crusade.  Her trusted friend, Joseph, a Saracen servant, makes a beautiful lamp, gold with stained glass, to take with her.  Part I of the book is about Melisande’s life in England as she adjusts to married life and a new country, tries to keep peace with her disapproving mother-in-law, Lady Constance, has a family, and copes with tragedy.  Toward the end of her life, Melisande becomes aware of the presence of a young girl, in a chair with wheels.  She guesses/hopes the child is from the future and will one day live in Melisande’s beloved Littleperry Manor.
16th century Alys takes over the narrative in In Part II.  

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Early Literary Work

I hope my prose has improved since First Grade!  My artwork has definitely not made much progress.