July 2009
New-found gold: The Golden Girls
During Reunion Weekend, two alumnae flagged me down asking if I, as a student worker, could drive them in a golf cart to Flanagan's. Technically, I couldn't — we were supposed to adhere to the strict rules for where golf carts could and couldn't go on campus. But I thought, "Hey, my shift is almost over, and they are so eager to get to the bar." I drove them as far as Garden Apartments on Stewart Street and during the ride listened to them leave messages for friends who couldn't make it to the reunion. The funniest messages ended with one of my riders desperately saying, "Oh no, I can't remember The Golden Girls theme song!"
"The Golden Girls?" I thought. Wasn't that some outdated show with old women on it? Why did these two alumnae, somewhere around their late-20's, know The Golden Girls theme song and have an inside joke about it?
A week later, when I turned on the TV, there was my answer, or what I assume is the answer after watching one episode. The show is hilarious. A viewer could watch it from 6 p.m. to midnight and never get bored. I know, because I have. When I moved back home last week to begin my job in Michigan, I was happy to find that my mom found it just as funny. We now sit on the couch every night and laugh out loud at the raunchy jokes that were ahead of the times. They're even funnier when delivered by 50-year-old women.
Now that I've found a new favorite comedy, I wonder, was that the same reason these old roommates needed the words to The Golden Girls theme song? Did they used to take a break from the stress of school work and the library by gathering together in a living room and laughing at cross Dorothy, naive Rose, easy Blanche and ancient Sophia? If you're these alumnae (and can remember the golf cart ride), please let me know!
And even if that wasn't the joke, I still want to thank them for sparking my curiosity in another generation's funny women ... and for that $3 tip.
Two 2008 grads making a splash on YouTube
Two messages with YouTube links landed in my inbox today, both about 2008 grads on the move, though in very different ways.
By day, Jacqueline Harrill is a mild-mannered Nestle salesperson. After hours, she's a triathlon training machine, each week swimming four times, biking 100+ miles and running 40+ miles. She's won three triathlons in her 20-24 age range and has her sights set on the Ironman in Hawaii.
Ben Rivet is making a different kind of splash — in music. His music video, shot entirely on an iPhone, has logged more than 52,000 views and drawn more than 100 comments as of this posting. You'll spot some familiar Dayton locales in the video, such as the Oregon District.
Football 101
I’m not a big sports fan, and when I attend baseball, basketball or softball games, I’m only there for the Cracker Jacks and hotdogs.
Football was no exception … until I attended the Flyer football team’s third annual Woman’s Football Clinic, an educational sport and fundraising event for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Teaching the details of football, UD head football coach Rick Chamberlin and more than 10 of his assistant coaches actually got me stoked about football season.
And not just because of tailgate dinners.
Of the 60 women in attendance, most of them football moms or ardent UD sports fans, I — not knowing the difference between “fumble” and “offsides” — guarantee I knew the least about the game coming into the event.
But after several presentations over dinner on the UD Arena Time Warner Flight Deck, I learned the meaning of umpire signals, the offensive and defensive positions and duties and different plays used on the field.
Now I have two tickets for the Flyers' first game, and I’m looking forward to more than concession stand treats.
Going for gold
The Flyer football team had to leave the field — the 2009 summer Olympics was held on its practice grounds near the UD Arena.
The Olympics for 5- to 11-year-olds, that is.
More than 800 young athletes from 14 local YMCA branches competed in the softball throw, high and long jumps, 100-yard dash and other competitions at the event hosted by the UD Division of Athletics last Wednesday and Thursday.
Decked in matching colors, teams of 20 competed for first, second and third place trophies, and the largest trophy — standing taller than most children — given for the best team spirit.
But as boys and girls dashed following an "on your mark, get set, go,” or raced the relay batons to teammates, none seemed too interested in awards.
“It’s just about having fun and exposing the kids to all kinds of games to help them find their talent,” said event volunteer and men’s basketball player London Warren, one of many UD athletes helping at the Olympics. Warren grew up playing sports at the YMCA and, like several other volunteers, didn’t hesitate to compete with the kids.
Blue Sky's in Dayton
Choreographer Rodney Veal is videotaping his dancers on local rooftops, in dilapidated building, on stairs, outside and with splashes of paint wailing at them from behind the camera.
Veal, a Dayton native, is focusing on the emotional consequences of Dayton’s struggling economy as one of five artists on campus this summer with the Blue Sky Project.
Veal — along with a painter, a sculptor, a photographer and a videographer — can be spotted working in Marianist Hall, the Theatre Building, ArtStreet and even rehearsing with area high school students in the grasses of Humanities Plaza. And blogging about it all.
“(The project is) challenging me to be more than just a ballet choreographer,” Veal said.
He's clipping videos and designing a sculpture made from recycled audio parts for a backdrop for Blue Sky Project's final performance in August.
Echinoderm sandwiches
How do you raise young paleontologists? Feed them clam chowder, shark soup and echinoderm sandwiches.
Geology professor Michael Sandy gave a presentation by the same name at the North American Paleontological Convention at the University of Cincinnati last month. Among the 500 scientists were Sandy and UD associate professor Dan Goldman.
Scientific literacy was a theme, and Sandy presented on creating an inquiry-based activity adaptable for grade-school through undergraduate students — a fossil-hunting fieldtrip, specifically to the Miocene deposits of Aurora, N.C. The attendees got their hands dirty, washing rock samples and identifying shark teeth. "Ooh, look at this one," says one scientist on camera. (Watch the second video for a taste of his presentation.)
Sandy, who is famous for his tours of local paleontology sites including Caesar's Creek and Clifton Gorge, already feeds his students a rich diet of brachiopods. Watch that first bite; it can be habit-forming.
Beware: Over-studied law student on edge
Too much studying makes for short tempers, and law students are no exception.
They’re antsy — chewed pen caps, furrowed brows and knees unconsciously bobbing from a mixture of nervous energy, frustration and sleep deprivation.
“Twenty days ‘til judgment day,” said one student in Keller Hall before turning back to the law book in front of him and promptly ignoring me.
“Judgment day” for him is the Ohio Bar Examination.
The three-day test, which covers 12 topics of law, determines whether graduated law students are allowed to practice, said Becky Cochran, law professor and director of the Road to Bar Passage, a preparation course.
“Anything students learn in law school, from day one on, is fair-game for this exam,” she said. “That’s three years of studies to review in a few weeks. Not to mention the large amount of debt they’ve acquired and chunk of their lives they’ve dedicated to school. Everything rides on this exam, so if they weren’t stressed, I’d be worried.”
Cochran offered to ease the tension and introduce me to some of her law students studying for the bar, “so they won’t snap at you on accident,” she said.
She pulled Andrew Madden, one of around 75 students taking her semiweekly prepclass in Keller Hall, over to talk. I was happy to see Madden actually smile. He didn’t seem to be on edge.
I soon learned otherwise. Since graduation in May, he’s spent around 60 hours a week studying and taking daily prepclasses. He’s just as nervous as the rest of the law students — he just doesn’t show it.
'Smarties' take over campus
Ask most children why they love summer. “No school!” will be their response.
But this week, more than120 Dayton-area children sat in Kennedy Union classrooms studying and building solar cars. They observed chemistry reactions in Wohlleben Hall and dropped eggs from two-story windows to test gravity.
All these students agree — learning about energy, heat transfer and solar engineering is way cooler than going swimming and playing video games during summer.
The third- through eighth-grade children are part of an annual weeklong, advanced education seminar called the Summer Laureate. Each was recommended by his/her teacher as a “promising young scholar” and selected by program director Lelia Boyd according to grades and test scores.
“It’s more fun than school because we’re learning through hands-on experiments,” said 
one sixth-grader as she decorated her miniature solar car with hearts and flowers.
She wants to be an engineer. Over lunch in the Hangar, she and her friends agreed all-A report cards were the only way to go. (One boy shrugged, regretfully admitting a B in art class.)
“These students are smart,” said Boyd, who did her doctoral studies in gifted education and founded the program in 1982. “They need the extra challenge — more than ordinary classrooms have to offer.”
Boyd said accelerated education classes are the first programs to be cut when school finances are tight. But the UD campus won’t see her program leaving any time soon, she said, especially in the economic recession when students need it most.
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