Yikes

It suddenly feels a lot like winter today in Vermont, although the precipitation is still rain and not snow.  Here's a picture, sadly blurry, that I snapped last month looking out over Lake Champlain which gives us a gloomy sense of what awaits.  Can't believe I was reveling in 80 degree weather and sunshine in Abu Dhabi a week ago.

Happy National Day

Happy National Day to all my friends in the United Arab Emirates

Exiles On Main Street

Just back from a wonderful trip to Abu Dhabi for Thanksgiving break, and doubtless I'll have more to say about that in the days to come (including a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner provided by my great friends Mel and Rob, in which Laura and her sister Heather got to experience their first Thanksgiving - and the mystery that are candied yams).  In the meantime, here's an odd sign for a maid service that we came across.  On the one hand it seems like a clumsy name, but considering the prevalence and status of foreign workers in the UAE it might be dead on.

Being a visiting professor was a great gig there, but we were also clearly just mambers of the food chain of foreign workers (although pretty near the top).

The Greatest Gig

I had one of those reminders today about why I have the greatest job in the world.  It was late afternoon and I should have been packing for my trip to Abu Dhabi tomorrow, but instead I was sitting in my office working up material for class tomorrow.  My excellent and far more brilliant friend David Kite was sitting in his office across the hall.  David was working up material for a discussion tomorrow on Chinese Buddhism while I was putting together a Powerpoint with musical links for a discussion that somehow tied together Igor Stravinsky, Miles David and Neil Young.  Essentially it was about the artistic desire to blaze new territory, fight against conformity and expectations, and the audience's inability to "get it" (which, in my fevered brain anyway, logically tied together Rite of Spring, Bitches Brew and Tonight's the Night - and I'm sure that somehow passages from W. Sumerset Maugham's The Moon and Six Pence will sneak in).  And while the logic might be undeniable only to me, it was another reminder of what a gift it is to be a teacher.  In addition to helping developing mind to think, I'm also being paid to create.  I ran back and forth to David's office several times so that we could swap ideas.  It was amazing and just left me energized and thankful.  And, if nothing else, I get to play Young's Tired Eyes, one of my all-time favorite songs, from Tonight's the Night, the greatest album in rock history (this clearly deserves its own blog posting), in class.  What a gig.

More Winchester

Now, a logical person might point out that if I'm way too busy (which I am) to post appropriate commentary, then I must also be too busy to post.  Sure, a logical argument, but this is also why the brain is the most over-rated organ.  I can only blame my excitement at actually finding my camera, and also the very warm memories of an amazing trip.

A typically overcast English day, which was a very welcome change of pace after a year without rain and blistering heat in Abu Dhabi.

Laura honing in with her impeccable sense of direction.

A beautiful little corner of the world.

After a year of the glossy and new, real history did my heart good.

The Round Table, from which I was fired for general bad behavior and churlishness.

Truthfully, everything after Elizabeth's death in 1603 is trivial current events.  As one of the popes, and thus her enemies, suggested, only she is truly a king.

More dissertation flashbacks.

Obviously, I never commit a nuisance so this didn't apply to me.

A photo of some nature shit, which is obviously Laura's influence on me.

Winchester Cathedral

And more pictures from the UK - and once again thank God that I found my camera. I bought the one I have, not because it takes great pictures, but because it is shock-proof and water-proof and sand-proof (which, in order, in what happened to three cameras in the space of two months). When I couldn't find my camera I was kicking myself for not buying an idiot-proof camera, but it came back to me. So, expect to see many pictures of my epic visit to the UK. It's hard to believe that a British historian wouldn't actually make it to the UK until he was fifty-two, but I can only blame poverty and the excellence of British historians and their ability to put almost every document on microfilm. I think on the night I first met Laura she abused me because of the fact that I had never made it to the UK, and that I had to go there - and so I suppose it was inevitable and appropriate that she played tour guide on my first trip. Here are some pictures, sadly more quickly that they deserve to be presented, of our visit to the Winchester Cathedral.

Obviously too pretty to be my tour guide or my girl friend.  She's celebrating the fact that she finally dragged me to the United Kingdom, which I think is near England.

Inside Winchester Cathedral.  I'd hate to think how many cathedrals I've been to in the last decade, but how could one ever truly get tired of them?

Having flashbacks of Fox's Martyrs from graduate school.

More old history stuff that Laura suffered through, and which insured that we had to go find nature stuff.

Appropriately creepy, and it naturally reminded me of the Labyrinth on Castle Hill in Budapest.

I am not a huge Jane Austen fan, but it was still wonderful to visit her tomb - and it made me want to delve into her novels again.

It is not actually a statue of the excellent Bob Mayer, but it's pretty damh close.

Reflections at 600 (postings, not years)

It always mildly amazes me when I reach some sort of milestone on this silly blog - just as it amuses me that anyone reads it (which, oddly, they do).  So, here we are at another milestone, in this case my 600th posting.  As I've said before, it either means that I lead an interesting life or am immensely self-absorbed (both of which are probably true).  I suppose I should be writing something utterly profound at this moment, but I guess all I really have to say is that I'm happy.  For the first time in a long time I feel confident about the future, and that I'm heading in the right direction, and not heading there alone.  And is so often the case, the simplest epiphanies are the best.

A nice picture from the New Forest in the UK (more on that later).  As Archer would say, "hurray for metaphor."

GOE Tailgating Excellence

Several weeks ago a group of the Gentlemen of Excellence were together and the topic of college football came up, which is always a popular topic when Lange is involved.  I asked the seemingly innocent question (I was trying to contribute because I don't know much about college football) - did you guys ever think about getting together to watch a college football game?  As with most things associated with the GOE it quickly turned into an event or even an EVENT (although I am trying to ignore the call for resurrecting the chicken wings eating competition, which is the definitive GOE EVENT).  The decision was made that yes, definitely, the GOE should attend a college football game and tailgate (a concept that I had to explain to my girlfriend Laura, who was mystified by the language and proposed that I needed to express it in British English).  Now the issue became where.  Vermont is known for many things, but major college athletics, especially football, is definitely not one of them.  The University of Vermont nor Champlain College (more on this later) do not play football, and, for that matter, Champlain doesn't have any teams beyond the intermural or club level at all (something which I really like about us).  We finally decided to attend Middlebury College's final game of the season versus Tufts, which turned out to be a fantastic day.  Middlebury is about an hour south of us and it's a beautiful drive down with some stunning views of the lake.  We set up our grill and Kevin Andrews, grillmaster, cooked up some delicious brats, sausages and hot dogs.  I was charged with the less complicated items such as buns and chips and donuts - and adult beverages (who knew that Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale would be so good - I don't normally get a craving for pumpkin in my beer, but I may have to stock up since it's a seasonal selection and will be gone soon).  The weather was beautiful, the game was great, and the conviviality was typically extraordinary.  At a certain point I suggested that we should do this at least once every football season because tailgating at Middlebury was a blast.  Further, I proposed that since Champlain doesn't play football we should essentially invent an imaginary football team for the school with an imaginary schedule (featuring games against Notre Dame and Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati [all alma maters] and, for some reason, the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League and a loser leaves town [or at least loses their school name] game against Canada's Champlain College).  This would allow us tailgate at Champlain every other week when the imaginary team was playing an imaginary home game (sort of).  My suggestion was that we should tailgate in front of Aiken Hall, where most of our offices are located, although I really liked the idea of tailgating in President Finney's backyard (although we'd have to run when he came out and found us there).  As is often the case with the GOE this has completely taken on a life of its own, featuring discussions relating to posters and documentaries and, my personal favorite, Andy Burkhardt's suggestion that the Beavers (Champlain's team name for our non-teams, which is actually true) should play in a floating stadium on Lake Champlain called the Beaver Lodge.  Obviously, much more on this later.  It feels great to be home.

The beautiful field of the Middlebury College Panthers.  This shot doesn't do it justice because there are mountains in the background.  It was a great game, including a crazy long fumble recovery and pitchback return for a touchdown.  The Panthers won the game and thus their league.  Go Panthers!

Kevin Andrews, Grill Master and Man About Town.

Classic tailgating fare.  So delicious.

Steve Wehmeyer and his daugther Daria playing football, an essential part of any successful tailgating.  One of my favorite moments of the day was my conversation with Daria where I tried to talk her into attending Middlebury, and she said she might although it would have to have a good art program (she's in 5th grade).  Daria rules!

Laura tells me that I only tend to post pictures of myself on my blog when I'm happy.  I'm happy.

The Gentlemen of Excellence tailgating.  An epic day, which ended up at the St. John's Social Club for games of chance.  What amazing friends I have.

The Movie Experience

And here's a typically over the top UAE experience - the Vox Gold ticket.  For a year I had been waiting around to see a movie in the Vox Gold theater at the Marina Mall, which they describe as "the movie experience."  I don't know if it's that amazing, but it was fun.  Laura and I were going to go, but somehow never did - although we saw a ton of movies.  So, my last chance was when my sister Lisa and nephew Garrett were visitng.  After a day spent touring the Burj Khalifa we waited until after dark, and thus when we could start eating during Ramadan, and made it way to the Marina Mal to see the new Spiderman moviel.  With a Vox Gold ticket, which was something like $40, which at least does keep out the teenagers mindlessly texting and even talking on their mobile phones.  Before the movie you order the drinks and food you want, which are delivered to you by a waiter during the movie.  You watch the entire thing reclining in a recliner, warming yourself under a blanket.  Like I said, it's so Emirati.

Lisa and Garrett climbing into their recliners, and resting up after a crazy day featuring a drive to Dubai and a trip up the Burj Khalifa.

Lisa checking out here swag, including the blanket and her 3D glasses.  Ice cream was on the way.

Garrett and I philosophizing about Spiderman, or maybe contemplating another trip into the desert at Liwa.

Herbert Scudder

A picture that my cousin Patrick posted on Facebook, that I then swiped.  This is my grandfather Herbert Scudder, better known to his grandkids as Papaw or Jum (although there are disagreements in regards to the spellings of both options).  As I've often said, he's the last Scudder who was worth a damn.  A very gentle soul who I miss a lot.  This is a picture of him from his time in the Pacific during World War II.  After the war he, for some reason, brought back a set of nut crackers that looked like a woman's legs, which had to be squeezed together to crack the nut.  It led to a decades long battle with my grandmother Maude that mirrored the mirrored the major prize leg lamp argument from A Christmas Story.

Land of the Engs

And thank God I found my camera. Not since I lost hundreds of pictures of western China when my camera went missing in Barcelona have I been so worried. I've been waiting to get to England forever, and then I came back and couldn't find my camera for well over a month. But now that it's shown up expect lots of UK postings. It was an amazing trip and can't wait to go back, and I suspect I'll be there a lot.

If It's Thanksgiving This Must Be . . .

. . . Abu Dhabi.  Continuing my pattern of always being overseas on Thanksgiving and July 4th I'll be heading back to the United Arab Emirates a week from today to visit my friend Laura.  It will be odd to head back, especially after spending an entire year there last year.  It feels like I'm just getting back into the swing of life here in Vermont, so I don't have any idea what my feelings will be when I step off the plane.  Here's a picture of me at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  My camera went missing for around a month, and, thankfully, I finally tracked it down after class today.  I was afraid that I had lost all of my England pictures, but they've showed up and expect lots of UK pictures.

When you're up on the observation deck at the Burj Khalifa you're so high up that about the only way to get a picture with you in it is to sit on the floor.

Diomedes Lopez, Legend and Humanitarian

I guess I had been terribly amiss in posting anything to this blog.  I ended up picking up an overload class and that has slowed everything down.  While taking a break from grading online Frankenstein and Winesburg, Ohio essays I visited my blog and realized that I had managed only one post in October and nothing at all in November, so I thought I should at least throw something up quickly so that I don't forget how to post altogether.  And since I'm already missing baseball it seemed logical to put up something on the one perfect sport.  During the last game of the Vermont Lake Monsters season they always have a player jersey auction to raise money for charity.  I have tried to pick up an actual player jersey on the last day several times, but always failed.  My son and I would normally try to figure out who the worst player was an bid on that jersey, figuring that there would be little competition.  It makes sense, but somehow we never made it work.  And this brings me to the last game of this season, and the most excellent Diomedes Lopez.  Now, Diomedes may turn out to be a very fine player and I hope he makes it to the big leagues someday (where I root for him, as I do all ex-Lake Monster and Expo players).  That said, he's never done much for the Lake Monsters, which made him a popular player with the Gentlemen of Excellence.  For example, this season in 51 games he managed 11 hits for a .216 average, with no home runs, 2 runs scored and 1 RBI.  So, obviously, he has developed legendary status with us.  Well, that and his rather unique name.  When he came up to the plate, which wasn't often, we would try to get a chant of Di-O-Me-Des going, which tended to only draw mystified stares from the other fans.  Now, fast forward to the last game of the season, which I ended up going to alone because none of my friends wanted to take in another game (to their never ending shame).  Anyway, at the appropriate time I put in my bid for $50, which was the minimum bid, for Diomedes and waited, anxiously, for the results.  It was different this time because there was both a silent auction (where you would return repeatedly to the sheet to up your bid) and, if there were still active bidders, a live auction.   I came around to check on the status of the process in the 7th inning and saw a big sheet of pages, and next to it one lonely sheet.  The guy in charge of the bidding held up the pile of pages and said that there would be a live auction for those players, and then picked up the single sheet and said, "And Mr. Scudder, here's your jersey."  I felt a mixture of joy, shame and sorrow.  They told me to come back in a half-hour and pick up my jersey at the souvenir booth.  When I arrived they souvenir booth they asked me if I wanted it at the end of the game or come back the next day when it was clean.  One of the cool things about the auction is that you're supposed to be able to come out on the field and just take the dirty jersey off the players out on the field.  Of course, my response to this question was, "How could it be dirty, he never plays?"  Suddenly the man said, "Oh, that's right, he's been promoted, so the jersey is already clean and ready for pick-up."  This left me even more stunned.  Diomedes had already been on the Lake Monsters for two years, and if you spend two years at short season A you are, by definition, not much of a prospect.  Nevertheless, and in the face of all logic, Diomedes has, in fact, been promoted to the Stockton Ports of the Class A Advance California League, for which he perforned admirably - with a .286 average, one home run, a RBI and 3 runs scored.  I could not be happier for him.  Even though I did not have a class the next day, I went up to campus anyway, proudly wearing my number 30 Diomedes Lopez jersey, to mock my friends for their lack of faith and moral courage.  DI-O-ME-DES!!!