Bits

1.  As always, Chicago was quite fun.  It was nice to see so many friends.  Special thanks to JR for showing me around the U of Chicago campus; I'd never been there before and getting to poke around (albeit briefly) the Seminary Co-op bookstore was a definite highlight of the trip.  Oh yeah, another plus was seeing Obama's house up-close.  Not that I'm a stalker.

2.  Meanwhile, IU hired Tom Crean to be its head basketball coach.  I'm pleasantly surprised: he's saying all the right things, even down to the "I want to recruit players who know why we wear the candy-striped pants."  IU will be back in the Final Four within 5 years.  You heard it here first.

3.  A Seaver College graduation I may actually attend: Lasorda and Scully are the speakers.

4.  There are no more miserable web interfaces than library catalogs.  Most library catalogs are horrible; librarians are the first to admit this.  Worldcat Local looks fantastic, though - and thankfully we're getting it.  For a look at a first adapter, check out U-Dub.

5.  Speaking of librarian things, mad props to E. Henderson, our relatively-new special collections librarian.  Yesterday he hosted a special collections open house, and I was stunned to see some of the things we have hidden back in the climate-controlled vaults: first editions of a number of rare books (Uncle Tom's Cabin, Don Quixote), bibles from the 16th century, personally autographed presidential materials from Eisenhower forward, etc...now all displayed in an attractive setting back in Payson's special collections room.  Who knew there was more there than surfboards?

6.  It will be nice to have Elrod here.

Comments

[Me]

I got so excited about my trip that I canceled the two exams I had scheduled for tomorrow and Friday.

I'll see you in the morning!