Madness indeed

March Madness got even crazier tonight when Duke got sent home by Michigan State. It was a close game all the way. with numerous ties and lead changes, but this time Duke was not lucky at the end. Michigan State managed to pull out a one-point win. Virginia is the only #1 seed left in the tournament. One of the final four teams is Texas Tech. I think it's the first time they've been in the final four. That's the school that Paul's wife, Jenny, went to. So we can root for them. Disappointed Tar Heels fans can take a little comfort from Duke not making it to the final four.

That's basketball!

The 'Heels were overwhelmed by Auburn last night. Auburn scored 17 3-pointers - the most 3-pointers ever scored against the 'Heels in Roy Williams' 16 years as coach. Two 'Heels players had the flu but were playing anyway. The final score was Auburn 97, UNC 80. It was sad to see, but that's what can happen. In another game last night, Duke got lucky for the third time - Virginia Tech could have put the game into overtime in the last second but missed an easy layup, so Duke advances to the Elite Eight with a 2-point win - their 3rd close call in a month -  and the 'Heels go home. The basketball gods are cryptic!

Meanwhile, Ellen feels better today, which is what is really important. We'll be singing at a funeral at Guilford this afternoon. No game to watch tomorrow!

I've been working on the program for A Moment for Peace which is a First Friday event in Brattleboro, April 5th. I'll be teaching a group of songs from an Asian hymnal, Sound the Bamboo. One of the songs is a Taiwanese hymn titled Watch the Bush of Thorns, by Chun-ming Kao. Here is what i have to say about Kao:

Chun-ming Kao was born in Tainan, Taiwan, June 6, 1929, and graduated from Tainan Theological College and Seminary. He was a dissident under the Nationalist Kuomintang government in Taiwan, urging the government to respect human rights, hold national elections, abolish martial law and declare Taiwan an independent country. He suffered a long period of political and religious persecution including imprisonment from 1979-84. His Christ-like demeanor throughout his suffering earned him immense respect, and the text of this hymn, which draws on the image of God making herself known in the "burning bush," reflects his "theology of suffering."

 We don't have hymns like this in our hymnals:

Taiwanese hymn

 

Chun-ming Kao and his wife, Le-tin Li

Coping

I just cancelled my reservation for Saturday and Sunday night at Princeton theological seminary. Ellen has developed lower back pain which is going to make a trip to Princeton impossible this weekend. It is most painful when she's sitting. It's not so bad when she's lying down or standing up or walking. But driving is about the worst. She is very disappointed. I hope she's going to get better and if she doesn't this weekend , she said she will go see a physical therapist. Meanwhile she's cooking, etc., which involves standing and that's ok. But I am not used to seeing her wincing. I'm really feeling for her! 

We have gone to a couple of Hallowell sings, and we have a Hallowell leaders meeting coming up in just an hour or so.

I spent the morning today at the Subaru dealership while the car was being worked on to the tune of almost $500! Potholes had done a number on our steering and suspension. Oh well !  I was able to make good use of the time because I brought quite a bit of work with me. 

Sunday in Maine

We went to church with Jim at the First Universalist Church in Rockland. Mary felt she was coming down with a cold with a scratchy throat and was at the contagious stage, so she stayed home. She and Jim were in charge of coffee hour, so Ellen filled in for her. Mary had made a coffee cake Saturday evening - it was a pot-luck coffee hour, so many others brought snacks as well - and Ellen took care of cutting the cake into nice-sized portions before the service. Jim meanwhile was also on tap to hand out bulletins and help take up the offering. It was a "hymn sing" service, so there was no choir or sermon. We sang a lot of good hymns, several of which were unfamiliar, from the Unitarian hymnal. Some of the hymns had been chosen by the lay leaders of the service, but many were called out by members of the congregation. We all agreed that it was a satisfying selection. One of the selections was The Blue Green Hills of Earth, which is familiar to us from  the Paul Winter Missa Gaia. That was requested by a man ahead of us in the pew who turned out to be Roger Moody, who is author of a book Jim had lent to Ellen to read while she was there at the house, a book about the history of Maine logging and logging boats titled, Logging Towboats and Boom Jumpers, The Story of O.A. Harkness.  It's a fascinating book which is particularly interesting in describing the "boom -jumping" steel-hulled boats that could actually climb on top of a bunch of logs in the water and ride over them. Who knew?

Sanctuary of the First Universalist Church of Rockland, ME

An old boom-jumper

Of course, we bought a New York Times and worked on the Spelling Bee puzzle, after we got home. It was a bit unusual this week - the 3-pointer was "renewable," which tells you what the letters were. We both managed to get 19 points, which is genius level. The only word I thought of which Ellen missed was "newel" as in "newel post." Ellen got a couple I didn't, including the obvious "newer" which was stupid of me because I had "renew," "renewal" and "renewable." Why didn't I have "newer?" The brain is an odd thing! We both missed the Times' "bwana" and "wannabe." We didn't feel too bad about that.

The highlight of the afternoon was the Round 2 game between UNC and Washington. UNC won handily. Washington was no pushover - a tougher team than Iona had been, but UNC performed more consistently against Washington both defensively and offensively, and ended up winning by 21 points I think. They will now play Auburn in the Sweet Sixteen next Friday evening. We also watched the Duke game against Univ of Central Florida (UCF). Duke won by 1 point. UCF almost exactly replicated UNC's experience in the ACC final: both teams were behind by 1 point in the final 14 seconds, both had two missed shots in those final seconds and thus lost by one point. No commentator that I have read has pointed out this similarity, or commented on how lucky Duke has been. If UNC had made one of those baskets they would have won the ACC championship and Duke might not have been a #1 seed in the NCAA. If UFC had made one of those baskets, Duke would have gone home. UNC and Duke could meet each other a fourth time this year in a championship. Both will have to get by some very good teams to get into the championship, but that is not impossible. If they do meet for the championship I think it might be for the first time in NCAA history. That would be an epic game. And having beaten Duke twice this year and lost a third game by only 1 point, they could win, Zion Williamson notwithstanding, We'll see!

We ended the day watching an old P.D.James mystery, Devices and Desires, featuring Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgleish, going back to 1991 - available on YouTube. Compelling story and  it brought back a lot of memories.

We are now in Bath and on our way home. 

Later:

We are home, we've warmed up the house, and are now cozy in bed. 

Tomorrow I have an appt. with my dermatologist and on Thurs. an appt. for the car with Subaru. 

Maine excursions

This morning Jim, Mary and Ellen were working with a couple of guests in making ID name buttons for a Contradance Festival next weekend. They were using button-making machine, which is sort of cool.

Then this afternoon, we all went to Hope, ME to (1)an art show Jim had mounted in January at the Hope Library, which is still up, so we got to see it, and (2)a sugar house called "Sparky's" which was part of state-wide "Maine Maple Days," where you could see the sugar-making operation and get some free samples. On the way back we stopped at the Rockland Coop and I got Marshmallow Root and Protein Powder.

Sugar-making in the 1950s in Dummerston

The old-fashioned buckets

Sugar-making in Maine in 2019

The sap tank

Maple goodies for sale

The poster for Jim's show

One of our favorites

Another favorite

The Tolles Cottage on Cape Porpoise, ME

In Maine

We are at Jim and Mary's place in Owl's Head.  We are about to watch UNC play Iona University (New Rochelle, NY) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. A 1-seed against a 16-seed - it should be an easy win for UNC but you can never take a team for granted. Last year, a 16-seed team beat Virginia in the first round - first time ever.

The trip over was messy - rain and snow, foggy, lots of getting splashed by trucks.  BUT, I had bought new windshield-wipers, and they are great. I splurged - $50 for the pair - and maybe it will be worth it.

On our way over we stopped at Antioch University in Keene, where John works, for a lecture by Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, who was lecturing by Skype (or something like Skype) - what is now called a "low-carbon" lecture - i.e., does not involve  the lecturer flying to the audience.  Her image was projected on the wall. She was an engaging lecturer, and was particularly effective in summarizing research on why people hold the views they do on climate change and global warming. Two basic ideas - political identity overwhelms scientific facts,* and hardly anyone  (both Democrats and Republicans) thinks climate change will affect them personally even when they admit it will profoundly affect others.  Dr. Hayhoe still holds out hope that we can do something to reverse the trend of global warming without giving up our American  highly consumer-oriented way of life, at least not right away. John asked the final question and he questioned her on that. Her response was that she recognized the problem - she realizes that her relatively modest lifestyle still requires "four planets" to sustain (and we only have one) - but that initially, in order to engage the apathetic public into making changes, we have to go after the "low-hanging fruit" like recycling, solar farms and electric cars, and not overwhelm people with draconian measures right off the bat. Sacrifices can come later.

Well, maybe.

(*This is not entirely fair. Democrats get the scientific facts completely.Their political identity predisposes them to listen to science. Republican ideology flies in the face of scientific facts even when those facts are staring them in the face. Theirs  is essentially a belief that combating climate change will curtail individual freedom, lead to stronger government and cost too much, and thus it must be denied. Some evangelicals believe that a loving God would not allow it to happen. On the other hand, a few others believe it presages the end times, and trying to reverse it will only delay the second coming).

Dr. Katherine Hayhoe

Back to the game:
The Heels trailed by 5 at the half! But now they are up by 17 with 4 minutes left.

Later:

They won. They'll play Univ. of Washington Sunday eve.

Good report

I had the endoscopy Tuesday afternoon. It went well, and Dr. Potash reported to Ellen that he found only a moderate constriction in the esophagus which he dilated, and no inflammation or cancer. So that is a good report. I personally never saw him - I was asleep by the time he came into the room and by the time I was awake in the recovery room he was long gone. My new med for anti-acid is working well - better than the omeprazole did - and I am eating normally.

All of that esophageal stuff has pretty much dominated the past 10 days, but we have had time for a few other things. We  had lunch with Katie and Savanna, and I went to the Shutesbury, MA library and borrowed a couple of books by Richard E. Kim (a Korean author who lived in Shutesbury until his death in 2009); then we went to see Max Feinland in Grease at Northhampton High (high energy); we went to a vigil for the Christ Church, NZ massacre; we went to a Blanche Moyse Chorale concert Sunday afternoon - music of Clara and Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms - a lovely program; we went to Tom and Nancy's Ragle's house Sunday evening and watched The Wife on their screen - and ate popcorn. Fun!  I went to River Singers rehearsal last night but didn't try to sing, just listen. Tomorrow is Hallowell rehearsal and Friday we'll go to Maine for the weekend. So life goes on.

Shutesbury Library - small but charming. 

Kate Judd, rabbi,  and Javed Chaudri, Muslim,  at the Vigil Sunday

More on Richard E. Kim in a later post.