Philadelphia

Reading Terminal Market

Godzilla-sized apple dumplings made by Amish people

Chandelier at the Academy of Music, where I saw the Pennsylvania Ballet

Spent this past weekend at the SSAWW conference in Philadelphia. It was great to attend an academic affair at which women writers were the focal point rather than an add-on, and it was so nice to see familiar faces including Julie, Maura, Samaine, and Erin. I had a fantastic dinner with Melanie J. on Thursday night, saw an amazing performance by the Pennsylvania Ballet, and met a grad student at Temple who also does work on Gilman. It was so nice to be in a city, where there is a higher percentage of people like me. It felt like a return to civilization. But then I had to go home.

Fayettevizzle

E and I went to Fayetteville, Arkansas a few weeks ago. It's about an hour away. The weather was overcast and chilly, but we had fun checking out the U of Arkansas campus -- Bill Clinton was once on the faculty -- as well as downtown and the Confederate cemetery. We also had some great beer and a tasty lunch at the Hog Haus Brewery, which is owned and operated by two women. The UA mascot is the razorback hog, hence Hog Haus.

Youse guys

Our quest for New York-style pizza brought us to Broken Arrow, where we met Larry, the owner of Uncle Vinny's Pizzeria. Yankees memorabilia and Frank Sinatra on the jukebox were good signs, but even better was talking to Larry, who is -- like me -- a native of Connecticut. Those outside our small state tend not to know that there is, in fact, a Connecticut-style pizza; it's similar to NY-style with spicier sauce, and it's got to be baked (preferably blistered) in a brick oven. When I lived in New Haven, I went to Modern Apizza on State about once a week. Anyway, Larry was a character. He asked, "What brought youse guys out here?" I haven't heard anyone say youse guys since I left the Northeast. It was a favorite of the football coach (e.g. "What happened to that play? Youse guys suck!") Uncle Vinny's was no Modern A, but it was pretty darn good for Oklahoma, where people seem to like their pizzas doughy and cheesy (the antithesis of NY style). Here is a picture of our pie. Larry gave us a cannoli on the house.

My dad's not a phone -- duh!

Eric and I have started watching "Saturday Night Live" again (well, taping it and watching it on Sunday), and we loved the Andy Samberg's digital short this past week. "I Threw It on the Ground" is available on Funny or Die.

In other entertainment news, we recently saw the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra through the performing arts series at my institution. One of the highlights was an actor portraying George M. Cohan who sang and tap-danced "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and "Harrigan." My American lit students are studying drama and their text describes the evolution of theater from vaudeville and melodrama to the Provincetown Players and O'Neill. It mentions Cohan, so I looked around on YouTube for a clip to show in class (here's one of James Cagney as George M). Oddly enough, I also found Jack White performing "Harrigan" live. Maybe he had a sixth grade music teacher like mine at Cromwell Middle School, who covered American musical history from ragtime and blues to Broadway and Beatles. She even showed us a documentary with Baryshnikov.

It's 4:30 pm... do you know where your students are?

Where is everybody?

I can't get used to the rhythm of this campus, which seems more like a community college than a comprehensive university. The busiest times on campus are MWF 9-1 pm. After 2:00 on any given day, it's practically a ghost town. Tuesdays and Thursdays? Skeleton crew time. Yet there are dorms, people live here. Where are they?

They certainly aren't hanging out in the booming metropolis of downtown. As you can see, there is nothing happening. This too is hard to understand and live with. Everything shuts down by 7 pm. Is everyone out hunting or at home watching TV?

Pumpkin shortage

The nationwide canned pumpkin shortage has hit my town. I've been nearly beside myself for a few weeks -- pumpkin pancakes is my favorite Sunday morning breakfast. (Here is the recipe I use. Halve it for two people.) Initially I was certain that my local grocery store was to blame, but then I heard about the shortage. Dragged Eric to a grocery store in Muskogee that promised they had it in stock only to find this was not so. Luckily we found some at another store, and I bought seven cans. I used some to make this luscious pie that is already gone.

In entirely unrelated news, Malka Katt recently had a bath and was not terribly happy about it. Here she is, seeming to say I hate you.

Weekend excitement

We had perfect weather for an action-packed weekend. Saturday we spent the day in Tulsa, which is about an hour and 15 minutes away. Intellectually I realize that Tulsa isn't that far away, but when you're used to riding your bike everywhere it might as well be on Mars. Or maybe I'm just getting old. But when I moved to Davis I thought I would go to San Francisco all the time, and I rarely did. Perhaps the inevitable traffic and parking issues were factors. Anyway, we kicked off the festivities Friday afternoon when we took our neighbor's dog B for a walk. Here are me and B post-walkies on our front porch. (Yes, the dog's name is the letter B. Her collar has a name tag reading "My name is B.")

On Saturday, our first stop in Tulsa was the Greek Festival at the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church. The event attracted a diverse crowd: families, hipsters, nuns, and people there for the food. Eric and I enjoyed chicken kabobs, Greek salad, roasted potatoes, and pastries. Yum! I loved the Greek folk dancing. I really wanted to put on a costume and join in. In the pastry tent we found some imported couscous made by a company called Melissa (which means honeybee in Greek). We then headed over to the Tulsa Zoo, where we saw a baby diana monkey literally bounce off the walls in the primate house and an African lion calling her cubs with a sort of whuffing roar. Also got to see a male giraffe make a special guest appearance. We finished out the day with a meal with the Tulsa Dinner Club, which was part of my campaign to meet people like us and make some friends. The club met at a sushi restaurant in Owasso. I enjoyed my dinner, although the sushi had a distinctly more Midwestern bent than I'm used to (e.g. mayo and cream cheese, no brown rice). Our fellow diners were a motley and somewhat odd collection of people, but it was an enjoyable evening nonetheless.