It’s Me Again (Part 11)

April 13

The conservation movement, born in the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, came late, but mercifully not too late to save what is left of our fauna and flora.  ~  Edward O. Wilson

The Saturday morning doughnut run pretty much defined the winter . . . ~ Me

There is a new epoch for individuals over the age of 75.  It’s called the Age of Major Surgeries.  ~  Me

March 4

Follow up: Our Alex Cards hosted the Willmar Cardinals in section playoffs yesterday afternoon (March 5). As usual, Willmar got Hadley Thul in early foul trouble and she had to sit out a good portion of the 1st half. That must have made her mad. The 2nd half started with Hadley making a layup and then a 3-pointer as the Cards erupted for a 54-point 2nd half. (We played so well that one of my teammates from the Fat Boys Walking Club opined that our girls team would have beaten his high school boys team (of which he was a member) from the 1960’s.) We host Sauk Rapids-Rice for the section championship next Thursday.

[As noted in the previous post, I went to the Alex-Willmar game on January 27. It is now over a month later and this is the next game I was able to attend – once again the opponent is Willmar and it’s the first game of the section tournament . . . ]

When I was in high school, I was certain that being an astronaut was my goal. It was a very important time – Sally Ride was making her first flight into space and she had a real impact on me. ~ Karen Nyberg

[Pre-game warm ups. That’s 8th grader McKinley Hoelscher in the boot – she actually had regular playing time with the varsity this year . . . ]

I used to not like being called a ‘woman architect.’ I’m an architect, not just a woman architect. The guys used to tap me on the head and say ‘you’re OK for a girl.’ ~ Zaha Hadid

[Final instructions from Coach Kohler . . . ]

Mankind has made giant steps forward. However, what we know is really very, very little compared to what we still have to know. ~ Fabiola Gianotti, Higgs Boson physicist

[Overseen by the Amazing Mr. Ripley . . . ]

When you put the helmet on, it doesn’t matter if you are woman or man: your mission is to compete to win. ~ Milka Duno, Race car driver

[Sophomore Hadley Thul practicing free throws . . . ]

 I’m not a woman at Google, I’m a geek at Google. And being a geek is just great. ~ Marisa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo

[And again, with freshman Kate Hennessy practicing 3’s behind her . . . ]

Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going. ~ Nichelle Nichols, former NASA ambassador & actor

[SCORE!]

I have never let gender get in my way. ~ Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder of Biocon

[Mr. Ripley practicing his craft . . . ]

If you’re beautiful, you’re led to believe that you can’t also be smart. ~ Danica McKellar, Mathematician

[Exiting, stage left . . . ]

When I was young I was very interested in science and technology, and my dad brought home the first computer. I played pac man and I was hooked! ~ Regina Agyare, Founder of Soronko Solutions

[Hadley wins the opening tap . . . ]

I believe every single woman could accomplish what I’ve accomplished. ~ Weili Dai, Co-founder of Marvell Tech

[It looks like the ref is pointing in our direction, a turnover caused by Ms. Thul (11), perhaps . . . ]

Now we’re in an age where technology is mandatory, and we wanted young girls to have this understanding and know how to build an app. ~ Peta Clarke, Technical lead at Black Girls Code

[The stylish Coach Kohler . . . ]

When I was a kid we’d rent Indiana Jones movies on VHS tapes. It inspired a whole generation of scholars because we saw the excitement, and the passion, and the drama. ~ Dr. Sarah Parcak

[Hadley passes right; sophomore Chloe Scholl (15) sets a pic . . . ]

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. ~ Marie Curie

[Another committee meeting . . . ]

Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. ~ Rosalind Franklin

[Sophomore point guard Allie Haabala (33) walks it up. Her strength is the transition game, after a rebound or turnover, she will race the ball up the court looking for an easy basket . . . ]

We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. ~ Marie Curie

[Hadley takes advantage of her height to pass over the opposition . . . ]

For whatever reason, I didn’t succumb to the stereotype that science wasn’t for girls. ~ Sally Ride

[KXRA broadcasters DMac and Russ Hinrichs . . . ]

Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t. ~ Gertrude B. Elion

[Willmar shoots; Hadley and Kate (43) have inside rebounding position . . . ]

Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise. ~ Grace Hopper [Aside: I had a Nerdanian clock in my office.]

[A very impressive display by our Cards . . . ]

I once wrote a book on women in science. I realized when I was interviewing them that they were the equivalent of writers, or anyone else who tries to make art out of life. Through science they had reached the expressive. ~ Vivian Gornick

[Celebrate!]

Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. ~ Rosalind Franklin

[As next year will be a season of Great Expectations . . . ]

March 8

Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow.  ~  John Stuart Mill

[Yup, here I am in the St. Cloud hospital again, supposedly for the insertion of a single stent. A preceding angiogram determined, however, that it would be too risky and I would be better off without it. And so it goes . . . ]

March 11

It’s March! It’s Minnesota! It’s the time of year the natives follow the girls and boys state hockey and basketball tournaments. And those confluence of events, by state statute, conspire to place the entire month in a hazardous weather warning. This morning’s doughnut run, for example, was a death defying endeavor. The latest storm of the century was just beginning with continuous wind and snowfall until 9:00 tonight (possibly beginning again after midnight). But the Alex boys team is in the state hockey tournament, the girls basketball team will be in the state tournament next week, and the boys basketball team will play for the section championship next week . . .

America’s national parks are “the best idea we ever had . . . ”  ~  Wallace Stegner

Spring beckons! All things to the call respond; the trees are leaving and cashiers abscond. ~ Ambrose Bierce

Spring is nature’s way of saying, Let’s party! ~ Robin Williams

The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter! ~ Jen Selinsky

In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Yes, I deserve a spring – I owe nobody nothing. ~ Virginia Woolf

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. ~ Lewis Grizzard

In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours. ~ Mark Twain

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment. ~ Ellis Peters

March 12

Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer. ~ Anita Krizzan

[Again, so delighted the doctor persons forbade me from shoveling snow all winter – working on a lifetime exemption!]

She turned to the sunlight, And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbor: “Winter is dead.” ~ A.A. Milne

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~ Anne Bradstreet

Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again. ~ Gustav Mahler

March 14

Tennessee has now given the entire country an object lesson in critical race theory better than any AP history course ever could have. Everybody sees it now. Everybody knows it now. Everybody gets exactly what is going on. ~ Elie Mystal

[In a twist of fate, senior college fell on the same day as Tuesday Nightclub was performing at the Garden Bar. So we students all decided to dine here, but in the excitement forgot it was National Pi Day . . . ]

March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like. ~ Garrison Keillor

I’ve been arrested for ‘stealing’ my own car, only to be released. ~ Congressman Jamaal Brown

[Other admirers of the local entertainment scene . . . ]

Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects.  ~  Lourens Bass Becking

[Clap while you eat . . . ]

Nature is wild, nature is ancient, nature is pure, this essentially American credo [conservation] declared, and nature should not be managed except to blunt the corroding effects of human interference.  ~  Edward O. Wilson

[The aforementioned Tuesday Nightclub . . . ]

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.  ~  Alexander von Humboldt

[Joined on this occasion by a tenor, fresh from his attendance at Senior College . . . ]

. . . even though extinction rates are soaring, a great deal of Earth’s biodiversity can still be saved.  ~  Edward O. Wilson 

Both teachers and learners go to sleep at their post as soon as there is no enemy in the field.  ~  John Stuart Mill

[Well-known local theatre folk . . . ]

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. Suppose any party, in addition to whatever share it may possess of the ability of the community, has nearly the whole of its stupidity, that party must, by the law of its constitution, be the stupidest party; and I do not see why honorable gentlemen should see that position as at all offensive to them, for it ensures their being always an extremely powerful party. ~ John Stuart Mill

March 18

My problem is white comfort with Black death. I am personally tired of white comfort with black death. ~ Congressman Jamaal Brown

[The Saturday morning doughnut run is still taking place in the dark of night in single digit temperatures. Probably has something to do with “wokeness.”]

Spring is the time of the year, when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade. ~ Charles Dickens

Generations of have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell; the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.   ~  Gerard Manley Hopkins

Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

POOR MARCH. It is the HOMELIEST month of the year. Most of it is MUD, Every Imaginable Form of MUD, and what isn’t MUD in March is ugly late-season SNOW falling onto the ground in filthy muddy heaps that look like PILES of DIRTY LAUNDRY. ~ Vivian Swift

Up Next: I believe there’s about two catch-up posts left . . .