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Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Programs
The academic standards and curricula of ACM Programs are rooted in the liberal arts. They emphasize the interdisciplinary educational approach, intimacy of small classes, focus on independent research, and discussion-based learning that characterize liberal arts education at ACM colleges.
The programs accelerate and deepen students' scholarly and personal growth through structured interactions between selected topics and distinctive locations. They offer educational experiences unlike those found in conventional classrooms.


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During the recent National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama gave a speech for the fifth year in a row.
Before a flock of armed and winged bird-like drones head my way, I want to express my peaceful intentions. I merely want to show an example of talking truth to a demagogue such as our President, while letting his followers know about it in non-belligerent terms.
Obama's speech was high on Scripture and Christian thought. There was hardly a mention of pretend victims that our President needed swoop in and save from some straw man enemy AKA Republicans His speech was relatively short.
Getting into Barack's mind, I can speculate what he was thinking: "Okay! Speech given—can't wait to get out and prep for my three-day golf lesson from Tiger in West Palm Beach. Hope I don't run into that schmuck, Limbaugh! To Hell with that sequester I came up with! Let the Republicans burn with it!"
If you can't excel with talent triumph with effort
But much to Obama's surprise, a mere peon of the people, a doctor of no royalty, but a simple, bright, God-believing MD gave a speech that was critical of Barack's policies.
After quoting four verses from the Bible, Dr. Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon talked about how PC is preventing people from saying what the really feel. Carson said it had a muzzling effect on the population and it's something that goes against the very principals of the founders of the country.
After telling his life story of poverty and early poor school performance, he relayed how his illiterate mother took charge. Even though she had plenty of adversity, she would not make excuses for herself. She told her boys that they had the power to do whatever they wanted, if they did the work.
Mom prevented him and his brother from hanging out with friends and watching a lot of TV. She forced them to read and deliver her book reports. Of course, Mom couldn't read the boy's summaries, but Ben and his brother didn't know this. So, mom dressed their papers up with all sorts of seemingly critical marks. The boys were sold long enough to discover that studying would be their way out of poverty.
Splicing his speech with Biblical reference, the doctor took the place of Obama's fawning press and sycophants for the final ten minutes of his talk.
He talked about us following the path of the Roman Empire and warned that the same implosion they did to themselves was happening to us right now.
Ben cited G0d as an example of replacing our complex tax code. For this example we'll use G0d's tithing of ten percent. If a man makes ten billion dollars he should pay one billion. If another makes ten thousand then he would pay a thousand. Nobody needs to use their power to humiliate or punish anyone with a tax code! G0d doesn't!
He finished with the story of why the eagle was picked as our national symbol. Much to my chagrin; it wasn't because of its bald head. It was because he could soar high above the fray, but only by using his left wing and right wing—working in full balance.
Thank G0d we have citizens like Dr. Ben Carson. I believe it's our job to bring these messages to "low information voters" as Rush calls them. We need civil and intelligent candidates like Dr. Ben Carson who aren't afraid to speak truth to bullies and demagogues. As all surgeons know, you don't have to bludgeon someone just to make a point.
As a sidenote, Dr. Carson was the recipient of criticism from the right and left. Specifically, fellow JWR columnist Cal Thomas and his Liberal cohort and friend Bob Beckel denigrated Carson for his speech on such hallowed ground. Below is the counter to their unnecessary rabble.
"In a democracy as big and as diverse as ours, we will encounter every opinion. And our task as citizens — whether we are leaders in government or business or spreading the word — is to spend our days with open hearts and open minds; to seek out the truth that exists in an opposing view and to find the common ground that allows for us as a nation, as a people, to take real and meaningful action. And we have to do that humbly, for no one can know the full and encompassing mind of God. And we have to do it every day, not just at a prayer breakfast." Barack Hussein Obama--minutes before Dr. Carson's speech.

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This interview was originally broadcast on Sept. 13, 2012.
Before comic W. Kamau Bell became host of the political humor show Totally Biased, which mixes standup, sketches and interviews, he had a one-man show called The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour.
"If you bring a friend of a different race, you get in 2 for 1," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
Bell is not joking. He wants people of all races at his one-man show.
"I knew if I did a show about race, I wanted to make sure I didn't just get a theater audience, because otherwise, generally, a theater audience is a more white audience," he says. "And I knew that if a black guy was on stage doing a show about race and racism and he was doing it in front of all white people, then it becomes like court testimony. And I really wanted to make sure that there was people in the audience who could either affirm what I was saying or disagree with what I was saying in front of other people."
Bell's current late-night show has a bit of his own biography, he says.
"I don't look the same as the people who are on late-night TV, which means I don't have the same life experience, which means when I look to sit down and create these pieces with the writers, I'm trying to find an angle in it that's more personal to me," he says.
And that means addressing race. Bell says he didn't set out to be a political comedian — it just turned out that way because he has always been interested in race issues.
"Nobody considered my act political until America got a black president," he says. "I talked about race a lot. It just became that, once Barack started running for president, I started to care a lot about the presidency in a way that I hadn't cared before. Because everyday on TV, I saw this black guy who was under a microscope, and I felt like there was some percentage of me in that guy that I didn't see in, say, George W. Bush or even Bill Clinton ... and so my act — really, I got labeled a political comedian; that wasn't the thing I was trying to do."
Bell says he approaches political events a little differently than other late-night comedians.
"A lot of times people think comedy is making fun of things, and I feel like, no, it can also just be making fun out of things," he says. "That, to me, is the kind of comedy I always like to do, where you can make jokes about the thing without making fun of the thing."
Totally Biased, which is produced by Chris Rock, returns to TV this month. It'll be airing on FX's new sister operation, FXX.
Bell, based in San Francisco, is the founding member of the comedy collective Laughter Against the Machine. He co-hosts the podcast The Field Negro Guide to Arts & Culture with Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid.
Interview Highlights
On being called out on prejudices he didn't realize he had
"When I started doing my solo show, one of my good friends, Martha, said to me, she's like, 'Kamau, you can't end racism and make sexism worse.' And I was like, 'What do you mean by that?' And she went through my solo show and pointed out all the different parts of it that she felt were sexist. And that's a good friend, a friend who will tell you that in a way that you can hear. And that was a real revelation for me, is that you can't sort of pick your issue over other people's issue — that if you want to end the ignorance of something, you have to end all the ignorances or at least not make some of the ignorances worse."
On being open about his dislike of actor Tyler Perry
"There's this thing with black people that we, sometimes we feel like we have to have a unified front, and we have to protect things even if we don't like them, because we know that at any point, one of us can get snatched up and be accused of something we didn't do. And I sort of felt, under the protection of a black president, maybe we could have some more independent opinions. Unfortunately, that hasn't changed as much as I thought it would."
On being in an interracial marriage
"Sometimes people will say if you are in an interracial relationship that you're somehow a sellout or you're taking the easy route, or something like that. And, literally, if you want to talk about race a lot in your life, marry a person who is a different race than you — because that will become a topic in ways that it probably wouldn't if you marry a person of the same race."
This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross. Our first guest today is W. Kamau Bell, a standup cominc who got his big TV break because of Chris Rock. Rock liked Bell's sharp and smart brand of political humor enough to offer himself as executive producer of a proposed TV show starring the African-American comic.
That program, called "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell," premiered last year as a weekly show on the FX cable network. Each installment featured standup comedy, brief sketches and an interview and focused on both politics and race. Beginning this month, the series returned on a new network, FX' brand new sister operation, the FXX Network, where Bell now hosts "Totally Biased" five nights a week and live. Terry Gross spoke to W. Kamau Bell last September, near the end of his FX show's original six-week launch.
W. Kamau Bell , welcome to FRESH AIR. So how would describe your show for somebody who's never seen it?
W. KAMAU BELL: It'd say it's a very left-leaning, liberal, politically charged, social politically charged comedy show from a 6'4", 250-pound black man who is steeped in the Bay Area.
GROSS: I love hearing people's early bad material. Would you grace us with a really bad joke from your early act?
BELL: Oh my God, it makes me - it literally makes my stomach hurt to think about that. I was - my palms are literally sweating.
GROSS: You're welcome.
BELL: Yes, only because you're Terry Gross, and I'm honored to be here will I actually tell a joke from my early act. Otherwise I would never do this. I think it was a joke that went somewhere along the lines of - I haven't told this joke in forever.
I met a woman last night, and she said I want you to take me home, and I want you to make love to me all night long. That's not my fantasy. My fantasy is that a woman says I want you to take me home and just do your best, just try real hard.
BELL: If it doesn't work out tonight, come back tomorrow. That was - that was sadly my closer.
GROSS: Compare that to how you recently opened your act. And I'm not talking about your TV show, I'm talking about the act that you did, "The Bell Curve: Ending Racism" in one hour. You'd open with Tyler Perry jokes.
BELL: Yeah, I think at the point that I was doing the Tyler Perry material, I cared a lot about the Tyler Perry material and I never really cared about that joke I just told you. That was a joke that was written because the audience thought it was funny at that time, whereas the Tyler Perry joke that I did that's on my last CD, "Face Full of Flour," was a joke that literally the first time I stepped onstage to do it, I was afraid that the audience might turn on me because I was in front of a lot of black people.
But what happened is that it was a sort of a release. Like they were like, you're saying the thing that some - that many of us think. And to me that's the kind of material I always want to be going for.
GROSS: What was the thing? What were you saying about Tyler Perry?
BELL: I mean, it was - it's probably explicit for NPR.
GROSS: That's why I'm not playing the record. So yeah, you can clean it up for us.
BELL: I mean, it was really just the idea that, like - and this two years ago. And that's the thing about my act is that it's really - what I cared about two years ago is not necessarily the same thing I care about now in the same way. So it's like a little snapshot. And at that point, Obama had just won the presidency, and I said that, well, now that Obama's won the presidency, there's something I've wanted to say for a long time that I feel really passionate about, and now I feel like that we have a black president I can get this off my chest.
And it was basically (beep) Tyler Perry.
BELL: Because at the time, I felt like you couldn't really - there's this thing with black people that we - sometimes we feel like we have to have a unified front, and we have to protect tings that even if we don't like them because it's - we know that at any point one of us can get snatched and be accused of something we didn't do.
And I sort of felt like under the protection of a black president, maybe we could have some more independent opinions. Now unfortunately that hasn't changed as much as I thought it would. So, you know, I wouldn't do that joke again today.
GROSS: So in talking about how you look for your angle on a joke, after Congressman Todd Akin talked about how if a woman is the victim of legitimate rape, her body has a mechanism to shut down and prevent pregnancy. I mean, there's comic gold there, but everybody had done their jokes by the time your night came around, which is Thursday night. So how did you decide what you were going to do with that?
BELL: Well, I think one of the things I have on my side is because I'm, you know - you know, even just looking at me, I don't look the same as the people who are on late-night TV doing those jokes. And I don't - which means I don't have the same life experience, which means when I look to sit down and create these pieces with the writers, I'm trying to find an angle in it that's more personal to me.
And my solo show and my comedy is always a little bit personal about my life. So for me, when Akin says, you know, that the body has a way to shut that down in legitimate rape, my brain goes to slavery, you know. And so - and then through that, like, that's like, you know, that's clearly not true because - and so from that is where we had the opening line of the show.
GROSS: Which was?
BELL: Which was: Todd Akin, if there's no such thing as legitimate rape, then how come there's so many light-skinned people walking around Alabama?
GROSS: I thought that was really funny.
BELL: Yeah, we - I mean, we really - you know, and that was a line that, you know, we have this writing staff, and we come up with these things, and sometimes we write these things in the room, and somebody goes: Can we say that? And we go: I think we can.
BELL: Like, and part of it is really FX allowing us to sort of do what we want to do. All the feedback they've given us about the show has sort of been do the show you want to do. And when they do give us critical feedback, generally I agree with them.
GROSS: Being an African-American comic during the period when America has its first African-American president, have you noticed racial things and thing about how he's treated that have made you think about race in ways you hadn't thought about it before?
BELL: Well, yes, I think that's why my act has gone in such a political direction because I see the ways in which Obama's treated, you know, across the spectrum, as things that are connected to his race for me, that I can't help but separate them. And sometimes those things are good things, and sometimes those things are bad things.
Like very recently, you know, Obama's in Florida, and he meets the owner of that pizza restaurant, and the guy picks him up and gives him a bear hug. And there's a part of me that goes that guy likes him, and he's excited to see Obama, and he loves Obama, so he picks him up.
But the other part of me is like I've never seen that happen to a president before.
GROSS: I know. I thought, like, really that seems very kind of, you know, adorable on one hand, but it's crazy. You're not supposed to touch a president unless he extends his hand to shake hands with you.
BELL: It's adorable, and it's also frightening to me. I mean, there's a side of it that, like - you know, and there's an interesting part because Obama gets picked up, and you see his arms go out, and he looks to his right, and I feel like he's looking at the Secret Service, going like hey guys, uh, still the president over here.
BELL: For at least the next few months. And then when he comes down, he looks at the guy in the face, and Obama looks ashen. And nobody's really talked about that. He looks like a guy who's like - for a minute I thought maybe this was over. And, you know, I'm sure he's away of the responsibility and how, you know, nobody's ever picked him up like that. And then - you know, and yet I connect that in some way...
And I'm not mad at that guy. I think he had no bad intentions. But again, I've never seen anybody do that to a president before. And then you look at Jan Brewer, you sticks her finger in the president's face a few years ago, and that's another thing. That doesn't happen to presidents, where a governor would stick their finger in a president's face. And to me that's very much connected to race.
GROSS: Now what kind of race consciousness did you brought with, because from what I've read your mother was really into like African-American studies and, you know, talking about equality.
BELL: Yeah. My mom was actually working on her PhD at Stanford in African-American literature, but they wouldn't let her finish it because at that time in the '70s Stanford did not believe African-American literature was a valid field of study.
So from that point forward, my mom just sort of said I'm not going to do this and she went her own way, and she worked in the textbook industry, and she self-published her own books of famous black quotations because in the '80s there were no compendiums of books of African-American quotations. There are now because of her example.
And she sold like 50,000 copies from our car, you know, basically, because this was before the Internet when you had to just sort of go hat in hand to places and sell your product. And so she was always a self-starter. And because we moved a lot, every time we went to a new city and she would always try to put me in private schools, she'd go to the school and be like, do you teach African-American studies here? And they'd be like, no. And she'd be like, well, you do now.
BELL: And she would come in one, you know, one week or a couple of days and go - and teach about African-Americans studies, and she would show slides of Africa because she knew that people at that point, kids thought Africa was just a jungle and Tarzan. And she would go here's Africa, here's buildings, here's people doing regular things that you do here. And so my mom always showed me that - be the change you want to see and be the example.
GROSS: So when you were going to private schools, were they racially mixed or predominantly white?
BELL: I mean at that point the private schools I went to, they were predominantly white. There were always other black kids there but it would be that weird thing, sometimes you'd go to a private school, and there'd be one other black kid in your grade, and I always got the feeling from that kid that they were like, I can't be friends with you because that's going to remind everybody else that I'm black, so I'm going to have to let you go your own way...
BELL: ...which I understand in theory, but yeah, so there was always, there was usually some weirdness around that. And I sort of struggled with my own black identity for a lot of times because I was like, you know, I sort of got that message that maybe black isn't a great thing to be.
And then through growing up and doing my solo show and reading a lot - "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" changed my life and that was the point in which I was like I can define my own blackness.
GROSS: Was there ever a point when you were one of the very few black people in your school where you felt like you had to play the role of the black guy? Do you know what I mean, that you had to stand in for all black people and be, I don't know, whatever it is that the white friends that you had wanted you to be as the black person in the group?
BELL: First of all, I love the way you said the black guy.
GROSS: Yeah.
BELL: I like the bass in your voice, Terry.
GROSS: Thank you.
BELL: There are times when, you know - you know, and every black person I think has this, where you'll feel put in a position to either speak up for the race or have opinions about things that you haven't actually expressed knowing about.
I'm a fan of music. I don't have the biggest knowledge of hip-hop, and regularly people, especially when I was younger, would start conversations with me about hip, hop and I would have to sort of choose to fake my way through it or else feel like I was going to look uncool.
And so, I mean and that's not the worst position to be in, but also I had times where I had friends where would say something to me like - a friend of mine says to me Kamau, you're black but you're not black black.
BELL: And I immediately knew he was like, you're black but I still have my wallet and I appreciate that.
BELL: Like he was associating blackness with the kind of thing, a negativity that he doesn't see in me and he thinks he's complimenting me, you know. And if I - and I have to choose to take it as a compliment, or else I lose a friend.
BIANCULLI: W. Kamau Bell, speaking to Terry Gross last September. More after a break, this is FRESH AIR.
BIANCULLI: Let's get back to Terry's 2012 interview with W. Kamau Bell. His new season of "Totally Biased," which now appears on the new FXX network, is presented every weeknight and is performed live.
GROSS: You're wife is white, and you've talked a little bit in your act about what it's like to be a couple with a white woman.
GROSS: Reactions that you get from strangers and the reactions that you get from African-American women. So can you talk a little bit about that?
BELL: Yeah. I mean it was funny. The first time me and my wife went out together, it wasn't even officially a date. We were in a taqueria in San Francisco, and a black woman and a black man came into the taqueria. And the black woman looked visibly shaken and kept looking and was really sort of like just agitated.
And my then friend, who became my wife, was like, what's wrong with her? And I was like - and she had never experienced that. I was like I think she's mad that we are together.
And my wife was like, really? Like she just couldn't - and she's a cosmopolitan person, but she's never seen anything like that, whereas I sort of had smelled that before. And the woman just got really mad and really like agitated, so much to the fact that after they got their tacos, her, the guy she was with literally escorted her out of the place and put her in the car the way a cop puts somebody in the back of a car...
BELL: ...like sort of put his hand on the back of her head and sort of like gently guided her down into the car because she was so agitated. And, you know, and that's in San Francisco, you know what I mean? That's not in the backwoods of someplace. That's in San Francisco.
GROSS: Did she say anything to you?
BELL: On her way out she said, hmm, you dating a white girl 'cause you can't handle a black woman. And I very - looked at her and said, maybe.
BELL: Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm a trifling Negro. Thank God there's white women to take this trifling Negro off your hands. And that's...
GROSS: Did you really say that to her?
BELL: I said - I didn't say that to her. I said that at another time.
GROSS: Yeah. OK. I was sort of wondering like how quick are you and how willing are you...
BELL: How willing am I too entered the fray?
GROSS: Yes.
BELL: Well, no, generally as a comic, the reason why I think I'm a comic because I think of the good things later.
GROSS: Yeah. Sure.
BELL: If I thought of the good things at the time, I would then be a, you know, I don't know, less popular with people.
BELL: A lot of the thing that makes me a comic is the thing that makes me go home and go, what, I should've said something different. Oh, I know what I should've said. I'll go say that on stage.
GROSS: So you have a daughter. I assume she's lighter skinned than you are. What reaction do you get to that?
BELL: Well, the funny thing about my daughter is that when she was born she came out white, like very pale white, so much so that like when we brought my wife's family around, like I remember my brother-in-law - my wife's brother - literally looked at her and looked at me and I felt like he was going like, dude, I got to tell you something.
BELL: But I know, because black people sort of know this because we have more, probably more experience with this, that the color that a kid is when they're born changes. It's even true of white kids, that their color, 'cause they come out one color.
The funny thing was is that - so my daughter immediately started getting darker, but I always said that we didn't know where her color would start, and so I always said I would track her color every day to see where her color would start by using the cover of Michael Jackson's CDs...
BELL: ...in reverse chronological order.
BELL: You know, I would just be like, oh, today it's "Bad," yesterday was "Dangerous," maybe we can make it to 'Thriller." It's never going to be "Off the Wall," who am I kidding?
GROSS: So has having an interracial marriage affected your views about race and what it means, like what race means?
BELL: Well, yeah. I mean I think it has affected my views about race. Sometimes people will say if you are in an interracial relationship that you're somehow a sellout, or you're taking the easy route, or something like that. And literally, if you want to talk about race a lot in your life, marry a person who is a different race than you because that will become a topic in ways that it didn't, that it probably wouldn't if you marry a person of the same race because I mean we've had a lot of things, you know, just in, you know, I'm aware that when I'm hanging out with my wife's family that I'm the only black person around.
And I'm aware that if my wife's, her cousins start talking about Obama, and they're very conservative, they start talking about Obama in ways that makes me want to like - ah, you know.
BELL: But I also want to make sure I can come back for Thanksgiving. And I get very - and so I just spend a lot of time being quiet and mentally jotting down notes to use in my act. But, yeah, so it certainly becomes a bigger part of your discussion. But I also feel like that it's not the biggest part. The biggest thing that separates me and my wife is the fact that my wife is Catholic and I like to say I'm sane. You know what I mean? So that's way bigger for us than race.
GROSS: So what have you learned by being married to a white woman about race that you didn't know before - about how white people perceive African-Americans or some white people perceive African-Americans, about your own preconceptions about white people?
BELL: Well, I mean - let me say this - I, you know it's funny how I feel like I have to say I've grown up around white people.
GROSS: That's right. Right.
BELL: Some of my best whites are friends.
BELL: I've spent a lot of time, you know, it wasn't really like such a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" scenario with my wife's family. But it was this thing where, you know, like I always felt like my wife's family, it sort of took them a while to warm up to me. But I don't think it was because I was black, I think it was because I was a comedian.
BELL: I think my un-famous comedian trumped black with her family.
GROSS: Right.
BELL: But I also feel like that, you know, the real change is that since we've had a daughter, my wife told me that her mom was like, uh, so does that mean that Sammy's(ph) black? Because she just never thought about that, you know, and in her life, I'm sure when she grew up and got married and had kids and thought about her kid's kids, she didn't picture a black granddaughter.
Now, she's a great grandmother and I don't feel like she's ever done anything to Sammy - I don't think she's treated Sammy worse because she's black, she loves Sammy, but I think it's somehow altering her perception of the world in a way that I think is awesome.
Now, for me, the other thing is that when Sammy was first born, Sammy was very light, and I would walk around in the world with this baby who looked to be white and we got a lot of weird stares because, you know, a black guy with a white baby is not the most popular color combination, you know.
BELL: We're all very used to the white guy with the black baby because you're like, oh, that's very nice of you to adopt that child from that place. But with me it was a whole different thing. We got a lot of stares and a lot of questions that I had to deal with while at the same time knowing that I didn't care what people thought because this was my daughter.
And this is a true story. When my daughter was born, you know, it's a very emotional moment, your kid is born, they hand you the kid, they wipe the kid off, and you're just sitting there with your kid. And I actually realized when I looked in my daughter's eyes that it was the first time in my life that I was looking at somebody and they didn't think of me as black, that I knew for sure that she didn't think of me as black. She just thought of me as dad. Well, at that point she probably thought of me as ah.
BELL: She thought of me as the one that didn't have milk. But that was a very important moment for me to realize that this is actually, that that's how embedded race is in me, which I think it's kind of sad but also that how exciting a moment that was for me that I know for sure this person doesn't think of me as black.
GROSS: Now, so much comedy club material is about sex and about being great at it or being terrible at it or getting it or not getting it or - anyway. So you've actually worked at a condom store and at a video store that sold adult videos. So I'm thinking you must have material galore, even though you're not the kind of comical who talks a lot about sex. What were those experiences like?
BELL: I mean, you know, I think the reason that I don't talk about those experiences a lot of stage is because I know comics who do incredible sex material, and I feel like that's not my strength. So I would, you know, I would gladly give those stories to those comedians if they wanted them.
But the - working at the video store, I mean it was one of those video stores that you walked in and it was like this is the worst video store I've ever seen. They only had like "Jurassic Park III..."
BELL: ...and like "Home Alone 4" and you're like how does this video stores survive? And then there's a door in the back that leads to stairs that go up and it's all the porno that's ever been created in the history of the world, and that was the video store I worked at.
BELL: All the videos downstairs were dusty. And I didn't know that I was going to work at that store. I thought that I was working at a really bad video store until they sat me down and explained to me what was happening upstairs. And you get a real window into male humanity in that way because it was also a video store, again, it was in Chicago on the edge of the gay area so we had probably twice as much gay porn as we had straight porn.
And I think that's actually where I started to learn about the fluidity of human sexuality because I would regularly see guys who were renting from the straight side of the porn section - over time they rented so much straight porn that they would start to leak over to the gay side of the porn section.
BELL: Just because I think they were like, I've seen everything this combination of people can do and so let me go look over to this combination. And it really was an eye-opener to, like, oh, I guess human sexuality is on a spectrum.
And you know, it was a very funny time. I also had a guy say to me one time, like, man, I see you here all the time. And I remember thinking, no, I see you here all the time.
BELL: I get paid to be here.
GROSS: Well, W. Kamau Bell, it's really been great to talk with you. Thank you so much.
BELL: Thank you for having me. This is an extreme honor.
BIANCULLI: Comedian W. Kamau Bell, speaking to Terry Gross last year. His TV series "Totally Biased" now appears each weeknight on the FXX cable network. I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Red Sox - 421 702 011 - 18 23 0Let's go through the Red Sox lineup for this crazy game:
Orioles - 006 012 100 - 10 15 1
Ellsbury: 2-for-5 (7 PA), 2 walks, 4 runs*: Youkilis reached base in 13 consecutive plate appearances in this series, making outs in only his first at-bat on Friday and his last at-bat today. (The MLB record is 16, set by Ted Williams in 1957.)
Pedroia: 3-for-5, walk, 4 runs
Martinez: 5-for-6, double, 4 RBI
Youkilis*: 3-for-4, 2 walks, 2 runs, 2 RBI
Ortiz: 0-for-5, walk, RBI
Drew: 1-for-1, double, run, 3 RBI
Baldelli: 2-for-5, home run, 2 runs
Lowell: 3-for-6, double, run, 3 RBI
Reddick: 2-for-6, home run, 2 runs, 2 RBI
Lowrie: 2-for-5, walk, run, RBI
In the first four innings, the Red Sox had 32 plate appearances -- eight in both of the first and second innings, and 12 in the fourth. Boston set season-highs in runs and hits.
Buchholz (4-9-7-4-3, 76) was not sharp. After Boston grabbed a 7-0 lead, he allowed five hits and six runs in the third. He was pulled after the first three Orioles reached base in the fifth.
There were 372 pitches thrown in this game, 213 by the Orioles. Nine of the 10 pitchers allowed at least one run.
Redsox.com says Victor Martinez will be behind the plate this afternoon and Jason Bay will get the day off -- to rest what he called "a little humidity cramp" in his right hamstring.
J.D. Drew (sore right groin) may also spend another day on the bench.
I've been trying to move around, trying to get some blood going, just kind of seeing how it responds. ... It's aggravating. I feel like I was feeling good at the plate (11-for-his-last-25). That's one of the unfortunate things. When I hit that ball down the line [on Wednesday night], I just kind of felt it when I rounded first, and I knew right away that I was going to have to come out of that game. I didn't know whether I should stop the inning. Luckily, [Jason Varitek] hit the double in the gap. I could pretty much walk home.George Kottaras was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a lower back injury that he has been dealing with for roughly a month. He says he hurt it in batting practice.
When Josh Reddick, with the Sea Dogs in Pennsylvania, was told on Friday to pack his bags, he thought he had been traded or was being promoted to Pawtucket. He made his major league debut at Fenway Park later that evening.
Next week's starters: Jon Lester and Brad Penny in Tampa on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by John Smoltz, Josh Beckett, Buchholz, and Lester in New York. Joba Chamberlain will open the four-game series for the Yankees.
Yankees/White Sox at 2 PM.


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DURHAM, N.C. - Junior Chris Mengel captured a doubles victory and clinched the team win in singles to help the fourth-ranked Duke men's tennis team sweep No. 28 VCU, 7-0, Tuesday afternoon at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The matchup between the Rams and Blue Devils was originally scheduled to be played outdoors, but was moved inside due to inclement weather. Duke advances to 12-2 on the season, while VCU falls to 11-4.
"It was a really good match for us," said head coach Ramsey Smith. "I thought we started off well in doubles and was very impressed with our singles. We have been working hard on a couple of things over the last two weeks and I thought we really improved on those things. Overall, it was a solid team win and a good 7-0 win over a very good VCU team."
Duke utilized a quick start in doubles to take the opening point for the 13th time this season. The Blue Devils captured the first win of the afternoon on court three, as the 46th-ranked pair of junior Fred Saba and Mengel defeated VCU's 38th-ranked tandem of Alejandro Argente and Jaime Vazquez, 8-3. Saba and Mengel captured the first two games on the court to go up an early break and never looked back, capturing the duo's 16th victory of the season.
At the No. 1 position, the fourth-ranked tandem of senior Henrique Cunha and sophomore Raphael Hemmeler jumped out in front of the Rams' pair of Alexis Heugas and Dylan McCloskey, 4-0, before the VCU duo was able to hold serve and take its first game. Cunha and Hemmeler went on to seal the doubles point for Duke with an 8-2 victory and posted their team-leading 21st win of the season.
"We got off to a fast start on one and three," Smith said. "That helped to relax everybody and give us team momentum. Those are the two best spots for VCU, they are both ranked at one and three. For us to dominate at those two spots gave us a nice boost heading into singles."
Playing in their first match since being listed in the top-10 of the doubles rankings earlier this week, sophomore Jason Tahir and freshman Michael Redlicki stayed on serve throughout their match on court two against VCU's Max Wennakoski and Michal Voscek, but it was left unfinished at 5-5.
The Blue Devils continued their dominant play in singles, as Hemmeler recorded the first singles victory of the afternoon on court five over Voscek, 6-3, 6-3. The win gave the sophomore his team-leading 22nd victory of the season, as he remains perfect when playing from the fifth position at 8-0 on the season. Moments later, Redlicki gave Duke a 3-0 lead after winning his match at the No. 3 position over Claes Goransson, 6-3, 6-0. Mengel sealed the team win for Duke at the No. 4 spot in the lineup, as the junior defeated Argente in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
"I thought I played well, I got off to a fast start," Mengel said. "I played aggressive. I think that favored me against him [Argente], individually. I thought everyone did a good job in the first match we have played in two weeks. We came out and played well."
At the No. 6 position, Tahir dropped the first set of his match against VCU's Vazquez, 4-6, before coming back to win the match to a third set tiebreak, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (9), while Cunha defeated 99th-ranked Heuges in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. After falling down a break early in his match, 0-2, at the No. 2 position, Saba won six consecutive games to take the first set, 6-2. The junior edged 15th-ranked Wennakoski in a third set tiebreak, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8).
Up next, Duke will travel to Berkeley, Calif., to face California for its final nonconference match of the season Sunday, March 10 at 4 p.m. The Blue Devils will return home to open their conference schedule against Wake Forest Friday, March 15 at 1 p.m.
Tennis Match Results
VCU vs Duke
Mar 05, 2013 at Durham, N.C.
(Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center)
#4 Duke 7, #28 VCU 0
Singles competition
1. #9 Henrique Cunha (DU) def. #99 Alexis Heugas (VCU) 6-4, 6-2
2. #46 Fred Saba (DU) def. #15 Max Wennakoski (VCU) 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8)
3. #31 Michael Redlicki (DU) def. Claes Goransson (VCU) 6-3, 6-0
4. #70 Chris Mengel (DU) def. Alejandro Argente (VCU) 6-1, 6-2
5. #44 Raphael Hemmeler (DU) def. Michal Voscek (VCU) 6-3, 6-3
6. Jason Tahir (DU) def. Jaime Vazquez (VCU) 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (11-9)
Doubles competition
1. #4 Henrique Cunha/Raphael Hemmeler (DU) def. #39 Alexis Heugas/Dylan McCloskey (VCU) 8-2
2. #9 Michael Redlicki/Jason Tahir (DU) vs. Max Wennakoski/Michal Voscek (VCU) 5-5, unfinished
3. #43 Chris Mengel/Fred Saba (DU) def. #38 Alejandro Argente/Jaime Vazquez (VCU) 8-3
Match Notes:
VCU 11-4; National ranking #28
Duke 12-2; National ranking #4
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (5,3,4,6,1,2)
Match moved indoors to Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center


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Understanding the communication of whales is important not just for expanding our knowledge, but also for protecting this endangered species. LTU/MCS is now taking part in a large international project that aims at profiling the way whales communicate. The project includes several years of audio data acquired by using special audio sensors attached to the whales, and while watching the whales in their natural environment from ships. LTU's part in the project is to develop pattern recognition and machine learning algorithms, and apply these algorithms to mine hours of data recordings and tens of thousands of whale communication recording samples. Our machine learning methods are trained with the help of over 800,000 volunteers who annotate the data manually. Our first findings have been accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
In the project LTU is part of a collaboration that includes researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, St. Andrews University, Oxford University (UK) and TNO (Netherlands). The project also involves LTU student Carol Yerby, who is one of the authors of the paper.


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This piece is from Martin Geysler's collection - Social Media What We Think About it.
If you subscribe to a lot of blogs and invest time in sharing useful content with your audience this workflow will help you streamline your process.
One of the most powerful dynamics of social media is the democratization of information. The more you can read, learn and share, the more value you should be able to extract from various digital channels.
Tapping into Web 2.0 to stay educated and informed is a labour intensive proposition.
**The tools are free but your time comes at a cost, so the more efficiently you can mange the process the better.
**If you subscribe to a lot of blogs (and other RSS feeds) and invest time in sharing useful content with your audience this workflow will help you streamline the process.
Before getting started there is one important caveat I need to mention.
**This is a broadcast tactic that will help you become more efficient at scheduling and sharing information. It's one small piece of digital communication puzzle.
**To get the most out of social media you need to make connections and build relationships by engaging in real time. Enough said, let's proceed.
Read more: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/buffer-and-google-reader/
Via Martin Gysler, janlgordon


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Column published March 6, 2013 in The Mexico Ledger
100 Years Ago
"Have you seen the new nickel? It has arrived in Mexico. It is thoroughly American, the low relief designs on the two sides depicting, respectively, an American bison and an American Indian. The place of the classical figure of Liberty, with regular features and Grecian nose, which decorates the old 5-cent piece, is taken by the head of an Indian. On the opposite side appears the bison. There is no capital "V" on the new nickel. Instead, under the buffalo, appears the words "Five Cents." On the same side is the rest of the legal inscription, "United States of America" and "E Pluribus Unum.' "
50 Years Ago
"Another stretch of Interstate Route 70, in Callaway County, is included in the state highway bid call for March 29. The commission is asking for bids for 10.8 miles of grading, bridging, both single and dual lane concrete pavements, and signing, from Auxvasse Creek east to Route YY. The project includes a 37-foot continuous plate girder and I-beam bridge over Auxvasse Creek, a 198-foot continuous I-beam underpass at Routes Z and CC, a double culvert at Whetstone Creek, 206-foot continuous I-beam underpass at Route D, and a 198-foot underpass at Williamsburg Road."
25 Years Ago
"Officials of the Van-Far R-1 School District received a pleasant surprise on Thursday when they were notified that the district had been chosen to receive a $242,000 combination grant/loan for the removal of asbestos from the high school building. The award consists of a $111,712 grant and a loan of about $132,000, to be used to remove 40,000 square feet of asbestos-containing ceiling materials from 17 classrooms, five hallways, the library, the music room, the cafeteria, three storage rooms and the administrative offices."
10 Years Ago
"The Community R-6 FBLA Chapter competed in the District 7 Contests on Feb. 27. The contests were hosted by the Hannibal-LaGrange PBL Chapter. District winners are: Missy Becker, Brandon Schafer, Matt Dubbert, Ambry Schuessler, Kayle Wieberg, Rick Hollowood, Derek Stuckenschneider, Curtis Willingham, Kyle Fennewald, Kaylee Gieseker, Tiffany DeOrnellis, Jill Stuckenschneider and Karl Frank."
The Yesterday In Mexico column is published daily in The Mexico Ledger.
An expanded column is published on Fridays.
Call the circulation department (573) 581-1111 for subscription information.


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This Newport Brass 2152/VB Venetian Bronze 9\\" Rainshower Showerhead is a genuine Newport Brass manufactured shower head, perfect for both residential and commercial applications. This shower head has been constructed out of a solid brass metal, to ensure that it's durable and long lasting. This Newport Brass 2152/VB Venetian Bronze 9\\" Rainshower Showerhead is coated with an illustrious venetian bronze finish. This fixture has a beautiful lasting hue that helps to coordinate with nearly any bathroom decor; this stunning finish not only looks fantastic, but also protects this fixture's exposed metal parts from corrosion and any other water damage that may occur during use. This shower head features a bell shaped dome with a 9" shower face with multiple shower outlets, designed to bring you the rejuvenating feel of a relaxing rainstorm. Due to this products design and unique shape it has a water flow rate of 2.0 gallons per minute (GPM). This Newport Brass 2152/VB Venetian Bronze 9\\" Rainshower Showerhead comes with a Limited ten year Newport Brass Warranty against tarnish and manufacturer defects. This product has been tested by the ASME, IAPMO, and IPC; and they found it to be compliant with their standards and regulations.
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Governor Mark Dayton last week proposed his state budget. Included in that overall budget was his proposed budget for public education.
Details of the proposed budget include:
Governor Mark Dayton last week proposed his state budget. Included in that overall budget was his proposed budget for public education.
Details of the proposed budget include:
Proposed $344 million for E-12 Education. The Governor's budget increases E-12 funding by an average of $72 per student in FY2014 and an average $339 increase per student in FY2015 through these investments:
Proposed $125 million for Special Education. The Governor's budget invests in special education reform, providing needed funding and greater funding equity for schools.
Proposed $118 million Increase on the Formula. The Governor's budget increases investments in the school funding formula, providing $52 in new money for every student in the state.
Proposed $44 million for Early Childhood Education Scholarships. The Governor's budget provides scholarships that help 10,000 more children attend high quality child care and preschool.
Proposed $40 million for All Day Kindergarten. The Governor's budget invests $40 million to help Minnesota school districts provide optional All-Day K to students free of charge.
Proposed $10 Million for Teacher Evaluation. The Governor's budget begins a new teacher evaluation system that supports teachers and will result in better student achievement.
Proposed $8.9 million for English Language Learning. The Governor's budget extends funding for ELL from 5 to 7 years to help develop language skills for full participation in the classroom.
Proposed $9 million in Savings. The Governor's budget achieves savings through forecast and accounting efficiencies.
Proposed $4.5 million for Regional Centers of Excellence. The Governor's budget establishes six new Regional Centers of Excellence to help the state's most struggling schools, with a focus on Greater Minnesota.
Proposed $1.8 million for Paperwork Reduction. The Governor's budget permanently reduces special education paperwork, giving teachers more time in the classroom and less time filling out forms.
Proposed $1 million for School Bullying Prevention. The Governor's budget invests in a School Climate Center to provide guidance, training, and support to schools to create safer environments for students to learn.
St. James School District Superintendent Becky Cselovszki commented on the proposal, "The good news is the Governor has made education a priority in his budget. Although I see some changes that will benefit our local school district, there are a couple of other areas that concern me.
"The proposal starts with a recommendation of a one percent increase in FY 14 to the general formula, which translates to $52 per pupil.
"That sounds good, but it goes on to recommend pupil weightings in the current formula be changed.
"Kindergarten would go from a current .612 to a .55, grades 1-3 from 1.15 to 1.0, grades 4-6 from 1.060 to 1.0, and grades 7-12 from 1.3 to 1.2. So we get more on the formula, but each student generates less money towards that base formula, so it is not really a $52 per pupil increase."
Lee Carlson, who is President of Education Minnesota, St. James said, "Credit is due Governor Dayton for clearly starting with an investment approach to education in Minnesota, preschool to college, without using gimmicks. That was not the case for many years and it is a step in the right direction but he won't straighten out the mess quickly.
"Additional credit aligns with his willingness to seek out input from educators. Governor Dayton is showing outstanding leadership by following through on his promise to increase funding for education."
Cselovszki continued,"There is also a provision for changing the extended time revenue, which would allow some additional funding and discretionary spending in the compensatory formula, if students were in school longer. Northside is needing to look at this concept due to its priority status, thus this might provide a few additional dollars for a change.
"All-day Kindergarten stands to generate some additional funding in FY15, when the governor proposes to increase the pupil weight from .55 to .7 (keep in mind we are currently at .612). The original task force recommendation was for a weight of 1.0.
"Education shift buy back-The Governor's plan is to repay the shift by the end of the 2016-17 biennium. This will help for cash flow purposes for the district, but this is not "new" money and it was the hope of the educational task force and administrators around the state that the buy back would be more gradual, so that new money could be infused into a finance model that has seen stagnate funding for many years.
"The Governor does increase funding in the area of special education by 13%. The changes are not until FY15. There is also a lot of emphasis on paperwork reduction in this area. If he gets this piece accomplished, he will be a hero in the eyes of special educators around the state of Minnesota."
Carlson said regarding the special education funding, "Education funding is a complex issue and outcomes can be hard to recognize. For instance, more money for special ed funding means more money for all students as schools currently have to do a cross subsidy to find funding for special ed created by underfunded mandates from the government."
Cselovszki said there were some unknows concerning the special education proposal, "I do not know of the model that he is proposing and I am assuming it would require more training for implementation, so hopefully the outcome is really a reduction in effort."
Cselovszki continued, "ELL-The funding was extended for these students from 5 to 7 years. This will generate a few additional dollars to support our ELL program.
"Teacher Growth and Evaluation - in FY 15 there is $22 per student for districts not in Q-Comp (we are not) to assist with meeting the legislative requirements for teacher evaluation systems. St. James school district has been progressing with a model and has been very proactive with this legislation, so this money will aid in supporting those efforts that we already have in place.
"Integration Aid - This is our CRIC program. There is a new formula being proposed which focuses on the minority district (which we are), thus we would see a bit more revenue in this area. The focus of this program would be on closing the achievement gap, which would allow more discretionary funding.
"The last piece that is not directly tied to education, but when we talk referendum it matters is the proposal of a $500 homeowner's rebate towards property tax. This looks like a one year rebate. In the educational task force this property tax reduction was more permanent and part of the educational formula to buy down existing operating referendums. This was what I consider to be the biggest disappointment in the budget. One time rebates are nice at the time, but long tern they so not help the system.
The Superintendent indicated that even the proposed increased funding might fall short of the District's needs when factoring in inflation, "It is amazing how so much money can result in so little when all is said and done. People need to realize that if St. James were to actually net a one percent increase in new revenue, then he problem is that our inflationary and settlement costs are around three percent. So financing our educational system remains a huge concern."


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Ed. Note: This article was originally published Nov. 2, 2011.
Photographer Jon Crispin has a fascination with things that are left behind. Those are his exact words. "Even as a kid I was trying to get into places I shouldn't go," he says on the phone.
In the '80s he was basically given free rein to document abandoned asylums in New York state. He has also worked closely and often with the New York State Museum, including on some Sept. 11 preservation projects.
Crispin's latest fascination is with old suitcases — discovered by the New York State Museum in an attic of the Willard Psychiatric Center in Willard, N.Y. "The cases were put into storage when their owners were admitted to Willard sometime between 1910 and the 1960s," Crispin explains on a Kickstarter page, where he is raising funds to continue photographing. "And since the facility was set up to help people with chronic mental illness, these folks never left."
There are about 400 suitcases in the collection, many of them empty. The contents in the suitcases — and the suitcases themselves — have been wrapped in archival paper by the museum. Crispin's stylistic approach is to photograph the wrapping, the exterior, the interior and finally details of the contents.
"I try to make them look as beautiful as they are," he says. "And they're touching too. My goal as a photographer is to have people react." The suitcases contain letters that were never mailed, diaphanous cigarette papers, a glass bottle of glycerin left behind by a craftswoman — tiny parts of a forgotten whole.
"I am so interested in these cases," Crispin writes. "And I am totally wigged out by being able to photograph a representation of the lives of people who struggled so much to make it in a very stressful and confusing world." You can follow the suitcase documentary project on his blog, where he muses in real time with each photograph.
Willard, New York was a company town. And that business was running the Willard Asylum for the Insane, as it was called. When patients died, employees at Willard couldn't bear to throw away their belongings. So instead, they sorted them alphabetically, separated them by male and female and stowed them in an attic. Decades later, 400 suitcases were rediscovered and their contents were meticulously catalogued by staff at the New York State Museum.
Jon Crispin is a photographer who had already been taking pictures of Willard, the building. The New York State Museum let him photograph these suitcases, and he produced some incredible time capsules, capturing each person - clocks, hairbrushes, military uniforms, personal letters, all histories of Willard's mental patients over 50 years.
And because of medical privacy rules, Jon is limited in what he can say about these patients, but you are not. So tell us your stories. If you had a loved one in an asylum in an earlier generation, what was their experience? What was life there like? Call us at 1-800-989-8255. Our email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. And you can join the conversation on our website. Go to npr.org and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Jon Crispin joins us now from a studio in Charleston, South Carolina. He has photographed about 80 suitcases from Willard. An essay about those photos was recently published on Slate.com. Jon, thanks for joining us today.
JON CRISPIN: Ari, it's great to be here.
SHAPIRO: Tell us about how this project started. How did these suitcases end up in your viewfinder?
CRISPIN: Willard was being closed by the Office of Mental Health in New York state as an asylum, as a psychiatric center, and converted to a facility for treatment of people who've been convicted of crimes - a treatment center for drug and alcohol abusers. And some of the staff at Willard was given the job of going through all of the buildings, of which there are many, and determining what things should saved and what things should be disposed of. And Bev Courtwright, who was an employee at Willard, was going through an attic space of one of the main buildings at the institution, and she opened a door and saw an attic filled with these suitcases.
It's just an amazing - it was an amazing rediscovery, as you said, because the staff at Willard was aware of the cases. And as people would die or leave the facility, their cases would be saved, and so Bev rediscovered them.
SHAPIRO: Really says something about the relationship between the employees and the patients, the relationship between the town and the asylum, that they would keep and preserve these.
CRISPIN: Yeah. It's so amazing. I think Willard is a very unique place. As you said in your introduction, it's a company town, basically. Willard is a small town about 45 minutes northwest of Ithaca. It was actually considered to be the possibility of being the original site for Cornell University. It's a beautiful setting on Seneca Lake. And the real main industry in the town was the psych center. So there are multiple generations of families who have worked and worked very closely with patients.
SHAPIRO: And I want to let our listeners know if you are listening to this conversation in front of a computer, you can go to npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION and look through a slide show of these photographs. And, Jon, you know, when we describe photographs of suitcases, I'm sure people imagine clothes and undergarments, you know, the things that people need for daily life. These suitcases have very, sort of, personal, distinctive things in them. The first image in the slide show, for example, is a collection of green - I think they're hairbrushes. Tell us about these.
CRISPIN: Well, that was the first case I photographed, and it was just - for me, it was quite an emotional experience. I was given the opportunity to photograph the cases. And New York State had done an amazing job of preserving the contents and the cases themselves. They're all wrapped in an acid-free paper. And each item in the case was catalogued by the museum and wrapped very carefully. And every time I would look at a case, it would be wrapped. There would be string around it. And I would untie the string, unwrap the case and open it up and never really knowing what I could expect to find.
That case belonged to Freda, and she clearly had very beautiful things. And that particular set, the greenness of it, the beauty of the case itself, really set the whole tone for me. Each time I would come across a case, I would just be in awe of what I might find inside of it.
SHAPIRO: What were some of the most surprising things you came across?
CRISPIN: There were a lot of clocks, which is kind of unusual when you think about someone being in an institutional setting. There were surprisingly a lot of small carved wooden dogs. I kept finding those. There were - but there were various things. A lot of people brought news clippings, especially there were a lot of World War II clippings about the war. People brought complete sets of silverware. There were personal diaries, day-to-day diaries of people's lives at Willard.
I think one of the questions a lot of people ask is whether or not people who were there had access to their cases. And it's quite clear that they did, in most cases. Some of the items were tools that could have been used in making leatherworks or knitting and things like that. Obviously there were people at Willard who were there as patients who had been nurses, and one of the cases contained an amazing set of hypodermic syringes and still some elements of - remnants of her life as a nurse. So...
SHAPIRO: Incredible.
CRISPIN: ...it was very varied. Everything was - every case was very different. There were wooden legs and false teeth and personal hygiene items. So it was just a very wide range of objects.
SHAPIRO: Let's go to a caller, Vicki(ph) in Marietta, Ohio. Vicki, I understand you used to work at Willard?
VICKI: Yes. I was blessed to work there from 1974 to 1979. And I had moved to the area from Ohio and happened upon that as a place of employment. And the thing that stuck out to me the most in that encounter from employment-wise was the way so many people were related and interrelated. And so it became more like a family facility, you know, where even though it was huge at that time, like 1,500 residents, at that time so many of the local people worked there that I felt like it made a total difference than the stories you hear about some facilities like that.
SHAPIRO: What kind of work did you do there?
VICKI: Well, I was one of the mental hygiene therapy assistants. So you took training, you know, kind of like an LPN, passed meds, therapy programs, modalities for the clients. And the thing was, at that time, there was no lockdown. It wasn't like, you know, you think about some psychiatric hospitals. And the patients were free to roam the whole grounds. They had a huge recreational building. They had a theater. They had an ice skating rink. They had just everything there that, you know, people could go fishing.
It was self-sufficient at one time. And I was telling the person I was speaking with that you develop such relationships with the patients, that I live just like a block away and one of the patients came over when I had my child and brought me a lilac bush he had pulled up from the grounds there at the hospital.
VICKI: So, I mean, it was just the relationships were so rich and it gave me a whole different perspective on mental hygiene and mental health. You know, you had manic-depressives who would go home for a while and come back in. And it was just a great blessing of an experience, professionally and in every way, humanitarianly.
SHAPIRO: What a beautiful story. Thank you so much for calling, Vicki.
VICKI: Oh, well, thank you so much for paying attention to this because I feel like a lot of the issues we're dealing with today is because we don't have those services that we had at that time to help people come in and get steady and then get back on their feet and go back out into, you know, the public.
SHAPIRO: Hmm, yeah. All right. Well, thanks for the call.
VICKI: Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.
SHAPIRO: And, Jon Crispin, you've been working with Willard for so many years now, first photographing the buildings, now photographing the suitcases. What have you learned about the relationship between an asylum and the patients and the staff? I mean, what sort of insight can you bring to these challenges that we still face today in helping mentally ill people?
CRISPIN: Mental health and the treatment of mental health is a really difficult issue for a lot of people to talk about. And one of the things that Vicki said that I think is just so important is that the nature of Willard was different than most other institutions. I spent a lot of time photographing other abandoned asylum buildings in New York State, and Willard was really unique in that the patients were free to roam around. I would be - when I first started photographing, I was using a four-by-five view camera and I would set it up on a tripod and put a cloth over my head and I'd be focusing the camera and looking at the buildings.
And people would walk up to me, and I honestly at times was not able to discern whether or not people were patients or staff or even doctors. And people would talk to me, and it was a very different kind of environment. It was more like a college campus. And that's not to say that there weren't things going on at Willard that were difficult, difficult for the staff and difficult for the patients.
Overcrowding was always an issue in the New York State asylum system. But the state was really trying to help people. And what I came away with was a healthy respect for both sides of the issue: a complete respect for people who have mental health issues and who were struggling, but also a respect for the people who work at these facilities and who are really doing the best job they can.
SHAPIRO: Let's take another call from Maureen in DeKalb, Illinois. Hi, Maureen. You're on the air.
MAUREEN: Hi there. I'm just calling because my grandfather's name was James Ward in River Rock, Arkansas. He was also kind of a famous character. His name was Whistling Jim. And he was institutionalized on two different occasions in the State of Arkansas lunatic asylum in the - I believe in the 1920s. And he actually ended up dying in the facility and he had told his family not to let him - not to put him in the lunatic asylum for the second time because he had a feeling that he would - his body would be exhumed or something and he would die there.
Well, anyway, that's family history. He was indeed killed there. He was beaten by the guards that were working there evidently. And 50 years after he was killed, they indeed did exhume his body and he was covered in bruises and such, they could tell. And he is the reason why the state of Arkansas shut down the lunatic asylum in Little Rock.
SHAPIRO: Wow.
MAUREEN: And he was in the lunatic asylum in the '20s I believe.
SHAPIRO: And do you have any artifacts from the time that he spent there? I'm so sorry for what happened to him. Do you have any relics, mementos?
MAUREEN: Well, he wrote two books. And one of the books - I believe the name was "My Experiences As a Lunatic in the State of Arkansas Lunatic Asylum." That was one of them, and I don't know what the other book is. I have copies of both of them, though.
SHAPIRO: Language alone shows how much things have changed since then, I guess. Thanks so much for the call, Maureen.
MAUREEN: Yeah. Yes.
SHAPIRO: We're talking to Jon Crispin, a photographer who has documented suitcases owned by people who left the Willard Asylum for the Insane. And you're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And Jon, were there people who suitcases you found that you just had to learn more about who they were as individuals, who you sort of tracked down the story of their lives?
CRISPIN: It's really interesting. When I first started shooting, I thought it was really going to be important for me to be able to tie a medical story, medical history to the cases and the objects in the cases. And New York State has basically collected every record of every person admitted to any New York State institution since the middle part of the 19th century.
And I'm actually working in parallel with a poet whose name is Karen Miller. She's a psychiatrist and a poet in the Boston area. And she actually has access to medical records. So I do have the ability to find things out about these patients. But partway through the project I got a response of one of my posts on my WordPress site from a woman saying, you know, I don't really want to know specifics about these people. I like to look at the objects and I like to build up a story on my own of what they might have been like.
So I do know quite a lot about the patients. Karen is doing a very incredible job of writing poetry about the lives that people were living at Willard. But I, in a way, I now prefer to be a little bit separate from the story of people's medical history. It's just more important for me to see the objects as representative of what they might have been like as people.
SHAPIRO: Let's take another call from David in Sioux Center, Iowa. Hi, David.
DAVID: Howdy.
SHAPIRO: Go ahead. Tell me your story.
DAVID: I just had to call in. I just remember working for a facility about 30 years ago right after I got out of the service, and as I explained, when you get out of the armed forces, the first thing you want to do back in the world, as we used to say, was do something significant, and an opportunity to work in a facility with handicapped individuals was perfect.
One of the things I most remember is that when we would receive clients there from county homes and so on. I remember one gentleman in particular who was deaf and he signed to a number of us after he worked there for just a couple of weeks how thankful he was that he could finally work. And it was just an amazing experience to see how happy people would become through work.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
DAVID: Amazing. Another thing that I thought was really funny - we'd have tours come through and one of your other callers mentioned something about this but it really struck a chord with me because it was so fun to watch tours come through and look at me.
SHAPIRO: And wonder, are you staff or you're a resident?
DAVID: I wonder if this guy is quote-unquote normal. I remember coming down a ladder one time, and one of the tour guides and I were good friends anyway. And Leo looked at me and said, well, hi, Dave, how you doing today? I said, good, Leo, how are you? And then he noticed that I put about 20 pencils in my pocket to show that I was significant, you know?
DAVID: And he started laughing. The tour group never caught on to what was going on. They still kept staring at me, but we just had a blast.
SHAPIRO: That's a great story.
DAVID: The best place I ever worked.
SHAPIRO: David, thanks so much for sharing your experience with us.
DAVID: Thank you.
SHAPIRO: And Jon Crispin, I want to thank you for sharing your experience with us as well. Just stunning photos and remarkable stories.
CRISPIN: Thank you so much, Ari. I really appreciate it.
SHAPIRO: Jon Crispin joined us from a studio in Charleston, South Carolina. He is behind a photography project that documents what's inside suitcases found at the Willard Asylum for the Insane, as it was called. His photos will be featured in an exhibit at the Exploratorium in San Francisco starting April 17th. And you can see some of those photos now at npr.org. Just click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Tomorrow, drones soaring through American skies. Join us for that. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Ari Shapiro in Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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WNBA Legend Accused of Assaulting Ex-Girlfriend
A former Women's National Basketball Association star has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault after an altercation with her ex-girlfriend, ABC News reports.
Chamique Holdsclaw, 35, was arrested Thursday on two counts of aggravated assault and has been ordered not to contact her ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lacy, 29, who claims Holdslaw hit her car with a baseball bat and fired a gun inside the vehicle.
Tracy Flanagan of the Fulton County Georgia Sherriff's Office charged the former University of Tennessee basketball player with first-degree criminal damage to property, second-degree criminal damage and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Holdsclaw is currently being held in jail on a $100,000 bond and will not be released until she is given an ankle monitor, the article notes.
"She will have to wait her turn. There's no express line," Flanagan told ABC News.
Atlanta police issued an arrest warrant for the athlete on Tuesday after she allegedly had an altercation with Lacy, who is also a former WNBA player. Holdsclaw allegedly followed her ex from her workout to a friend's home. The police report states after Lacy pulled her vehicle over, Holdsclaw approached her with a baseball bat and smashed the driver's side window and then the rear passenger window. Holdsclaw then pulled out a gun inside the car, fired it, then fled the scene. Police say they found bullet shells inside Lacy's car.
"I want to thank my family, friends, fans and Shock family for their concern during this difficult time. I have never felt more love from my fans in supporting me," Lacy, who was not hurt, said in a statement.
On Thursday Holdsclaw turned herself into police but before surrendering herself, she tweeted, "Everything is a lesson learned. We all make decisions good and bad. As long as we grow from them that's all that matters. #lessonlearned" on Nov. 13.
Holdsclaw, who will appear in court on Nov. 30, is an accomplished athlete. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star, National Collegiate Athletic Association champion and gold medalist in the 2000 Olympic Games. Her autobiography, "Breaking Through: Beating the Odds Shot After Shot," came out earlier this year.


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After a few month together, Rihanna has dumped Drake ... again.
Your move, Chris Brown.
"Rihanna and Drake had another fight," a source told Us Weekly. "He is too in love with her, which has always been the problem. They have been fighting, but that could all change any day now. It is how it always is with them."
It's kind of like Rihanna's broken record
After having an on-again, off-again past -- when she wasn't having her on-again, off-again past with Brown -- Rihanna and Drake seemed to have it together in February.
But last week when Rihanna threw a post-Met Gala bash, Drake wasn't around. Another source confirms they are "currently on yet another break."
She must not realize Chris Brown is still in jail.
Back in June 2012, Drake, Brown and their entourages got into a brutal fight at WIP nightclub in downtown Manhattan. Rihanna "loves this!" a source told Us Weekly at the time. "Men fighting over her? Are you kidding? Of course. (She) loves the drama."
Contact Tony Hicks at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/insertfoot.


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After his defeat in California's 1962 gubernatorial election, Richard Nixon famously said to reporters: "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
As county commissioner Kevin McCasky leaves office to become president of the Jefferson Economic Council, we here at Evergreen Newspapers will miss getting our own kicks from the target-rich environment he has provided.
Over his years as a commissioner, McCasky has graced our pages for:
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Well here I am. Stuck in a position that I do not want to be in. I currently have some tickets for sale. They will be sold to whoever can get the money first. I have 5 tickets in total.
Two tickets in Section 108 Row 29 Seats 21-22
They are $129.00 taxes incl. They also come with an autographed 2008 Chiefs yearbook.
I also have three seat in Section 321 Row 31. They are $59.00 taxes incl.
Anyone interested please send me a PM ASAP!!


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I am pretty sure that Confucius and I would be homies. You know, pondering all life's enigmas.
Linking this up on Tidy Mom...and Mingle Mondays at Add A Pinch
One word immediately popped into my head when I saw this-irresistible!
You're a very dangerous woman my friend. Very dangerous.
We love pretzel M&M's! I've made cookies, but not blondies. Can't wait to try these!
WOW! I'm going to make these as soon as it's not 90* outside!
Pretzel M&Ms are my favorite. I can't buy them because of how embarrassingly fast I eat the bag. I can't wait to make these!
So much yumminess in one blondie! You've done it again, Shelly:)
Ooooh goodness. Heavenly!
OH. MY. GOSH. I want to eat this right now! I am so making this the next time we make a dessert!!
By the way, I think fireworks are overrated too!
I think it is hilarious and delusional that I tell myself as I scarf down the bag of m&m's convincing myself that I am really just eating pretzels and those are healthy ya know. . . great treats here, nothing delusional about that.
Is it even legal to look at pictures of caramel swirled pretzel m&m blondies on a Friday morning before breakfast? Oatmeal doesn't seem so appealing now...
Pretty cool....You, Me & Confucius - we'd be buds. It's amazing the weird thoughts that I ponder...
Blondies look amazing!
Wow these look like massively tempting! So many good ingredients!
huh. well i don't eat beef jerky on road trips but i do eat Peanut M&Ms and potato chips . . . wonder what's up w/that . . . never, ever do i ask about a hotel gym which might explain my backside . . . Meg Ryan . . . well . . . don't have a smart comeback for that one . . . am w/you on the whole fireworks thingie . . . and no, there is most certainly NOT anything better than Cracker Barrel Hash Brown casserole because TECHNICALLY it's a potato and there simply isn't anything better than a potato . . .
Psh. Fireworks.
I had no idea Cracker Barrel had a potato casserole. Now I have more questions... thanks so much.
Um..YUM! Can't wait to try these little puppies! Thanks!
You are too funny! I am so with you on the fireworks. I don't get what the big deal is! These treats look so delish!
ugh...preach it on the fireworks. They're cool and all, but SO overrated. I would rater not see them every year, but the hubs is fireworks lover, as is his fam. By the way, I can't add my two cents about the has brown casserole, as I live in California and don't have the pleasure of having a Cracker Barrel close to me at all.
OMG - I am making these this weekend. I have everything but the M&Ms but I can fix that. Thanks for sharing!
As always, you knocked it out of the park! These look sinfully delicious. Thanks for sharing.
I had not seen Meg Ryan...ugghh, she used to be the cutest...why?
So glad you asked all those important questions because these blondies look fantastic! I love pretzel M&Ms:-)
ahhh get in my mouth NOW.
that looks lush :D want so much
Looks so delicious and fudgy... Yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmm...
It's probably a good thing that I'm not your neighbor. I would weigh 500 pounds. But it might be worth it for all the laughs! :)
Stop! This is just too good. I'm putting together a care package for my husband and now i'm going to have to add these too! annnnd steal one for myself... :)
Mercy! These bars look sooooo good! Why DID Meg Ryan do that to her face? So sad!
Would it be weird for me to tell you I love you?
Because I kind of do.
This recipe is everything that's good about sweetness and saltiness and chewiness.
Also whenever I think about Meg Ryan I just picture You've Got Mail Meg. It's much less distressing, if sadly untrue in the present day.
You. Are. Genius. These look amazing!
it is teriffick super
I have yet to bake with pretzel m&ms as well! Definitely need to work on that since these sounds great.
OH my god I just looked at that meg ryan picture and I almost vomited. NOT. GOOD.
It's a good thing I had these blondie pictures to set myself straight. SO. GOOD.
Those look so good! And poor Meg so DOESN'T.
I didnt even know pretzel M&M's existed!!!! Ive been leading a deprived life. Maybe they arnt in the UK...i sincerely hope this is not the case.
Anyway, this recipe. Jaw on floor. Caramel swirled blondies alonnneee = massive win. Gorgeous :)
This is my first visit to your blog! It will not be my last. I am going to be baking up a storm and I have to say I will most likely weigh 1000 pounds soon! I can't wait to try some of your recipes!
Luks yum
First tym here...Happy 2 follow u
Yowza!!! Pretzel M&Ms are my favorite. Add caramel and a cookie?! I'm in!!!
I really liked its presentation it really looks delicious and palatable. I love the taste of caramel and cookies alone but to combine this i think it really tastes like heaven.
Thanks for the the laugh. These blondies look sooooo delicious. I think I will make some today, if I can find the pretzel m&ms :) I too have wondered the same thing about meg ryan. Surgery does not always make things better LOL!
I love reading your bog! You tell the funniest stories and your food is so yummy!
Too funny! My daughter bought a can of beef jerky last time we were on vacation...lol Meg Ryan does look bizarre. Maybe she went to the same plastic surgeon as the Jacksons:)
There are no words to describe this delectable treat other than to say you seriously are a goodie genius.
Adding caramel to pretzel m&m's... ah, I might be in heaven. Yum!
Are these legal? You are an absolute brilliant baker -- caramel, chocolate, pretzels, M&Ms in a blondie - sheer genius!
Pretzel and caramels are two of my favorite things. Add blondies and M&Ms? Oh my.
it peeves me to think of unwrapping all those caramels, but this is one time when it'd definitely be worth the hassle! :)
I just want to eat the batter... that picture of the batter spooned out has my mouth watering for sure.
I just made these this afternoon and they are delicious! I didn't feel like running out to get the preztel M&M's, so I used 2 cups of chocolate chips instead. Amazing. Thank goodness I have an office full of people to share these with tomorrow - or I'd be eating the whole pan myself.


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EDMONTON - Alberta's mental health system suffers from poor integration, a dearth of public information on how the system works and a lack of clarity on how funding is spent, a private legislature report has found.
"Somewhat surprisingly, very little information on the organizational structure with respect to the delivery of mental health and addictions services could be found in publicly available sources," says the report, which was obtained by the Journal.
"Perhaps more surprising is that communications with (health officials) … did not prove fruitful in ascertaining and describing the structural and governance components of the model of delivery.
"This reality poses difficulties in describing what services exist and who delivers them."
The report was written a year ago by a group of legislature researchers for the all-party Families and Communities committee. Although the report's findings have been discussed openly by MLAs at committee meetings, the report itself has not been made public.
NDP health critic David Eggen said he was particularly concerned that the report's authors couldn't find information showing how mental health funding is spent. The report notes that Alberta Health Services spent approximately $520 million in 2010-11 on mental health and addictions, while the provincial health ministry also puts substantial funding toward the issue. But in both cases, "details are lacking on how this money was distributed," the report said.
Eggen said this makes it all but impossible for legislators to monitor if proper resources are going to psychiatric beds, outpatient programs, housing supports and other areas of the system.
"From what we are seeing here, we may have the least accountable mental health service in the country," he said. "The absence of data means a lack of transparency, and a lack of leadership. How do you get into the system? How do you get out? Where is the money being spent? This is chaos."
Rachel Notley, the NDP representative on the committee, said it's similarly unclear how much of the system is privately funded, though she suspects it is a substantial percentage.
The report notes that the province relies on non-profit organizations, municipalities and for-profit entities to provide many mental health services in Alberta. That includes mental health housing units, which are "constantly in high demand and short supply," the report says.
Health Minister Fred Horne said he hadn't seen the committee report, but agreed improvements are needed in how different parts of the system work together and how people access it.
He said much of that integration work is already underway based on a mental health strategy the province released in 2011. Among other things, that strategy calls for addictions experts and mental health experts to work together, since many patients suffer from both. Horne said the province also needs to do a better job of taking services to where clients are, such as schools, rather than waiting for clients to come in for help.
"It takes a bit of time to transition, just in terms of how services are delivered and how professionals work ... but it's well on the way," he said.
"I have no doubt we will be putting more money into mental health in the future, but I don't think money is the only problem by a long shot. Mental health has to be part of mainstream health care."
As a key part of that initiative, the province expects to release next week a comprehensive analysis of the system that looks at how services are provided and funded, and identifies where the major gaps are, Horne said.
The $500,000 study led by University of Alberta scholar Cam Wild, has been in the government's possession for several weeks, or even months, but has yet to be made public.
"I haven't had it very long, but I really wanted to study it and meet with the author," Horne said. "That will go a long way, because it includes an inventory of all the mental health services in the province, which we've never had before."
Notley said it is "criminal" that the Wild report has taken so long to be released, adding that NDP attempts to obtain it through an access to information request were denied.
But regardless of what the report recommends, Notley said the Tory government can't be trusted to fix a mental health system it all but broke back in 2008 when it reorganized everything under Alberta Health Services.


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LONGMONT -- Data storage drive-maker Western Digital is increasing its physical footprint by about a third and will be adding at least 18 new engineering jobs to its facility in Longmont, which will push it over the 200-employee mark locally.
The company has announced it is adding an additional 18,000 square feet to its existing 43,000, bringing the facility at 1951 S. Fordham St. to 61,000 square feet, an increase of 30 percent.
The company said it also anticipates adding 18 employees probably within the next three months, and it is not ruling out also transferring employees into Longmont from some of its other facilities, according to Harold Teague, vice president of the Longmont Design Center.
He said the increase in demand for the company's data center products, particularly as more data centers shift to so-called "cloud" storage, is driving the growth locally.
"It's escalated the importance of the Longmont Design Center beyond even what we originally thought," said Teague, who, in a different role with the company, helped pick Longmont as the spot to open a new design center in 2007.
"The Longmont Design Center is the primary talent pool in the company for delivering the silicon (chips), which supports all of our products, but especially our data center products," he said.
He said unlike some companies, Western Digital's design centers -- such as the one here, and in its hometown of Irvine, Calif. and in San Jose, Calif. -- are not product-specific, but instead serve a certain function that is valuable to a variety of the company's products. The silicon chips designed in Longmont, Teague said, are "the heart" of the company's storage devices.
"It's the master of what goes on in the drive, and everything else in that drive it controls," Teague said.
He said that the additional space would have a combination of uses, but expanding the new product testing area is one critical need. The extra space also will allow room to keep adding employees as the need arises, he said.
"We are very flexible on where we put people and we view Longmont and the surrounding area as a tremendous talent pool," Teague said. "That's why we located there in the first place."
Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Work at Home as a Medical Transcriptionist
Demand for medical transcriptionists is soaring! Join a field that pays well and gives you the flexibility of working at home, in a medical office, or in a hospital. Learn proven strategies for where best to learn medical transcription, how to market your business, grow a client base, equipment, software, transcription machines and electronic transfers, working for a service and much more.
Instructor, Deborah Burns, will share her many years of experience as a business owner in this exciting introduction to the field of medical transcription. 3 hours. Room 1683
CS 51-60 Th Dec. 12 6:30–9:30 p.m. Fee: $40 $20 material fee paid in class
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They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.
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© 2011 Southwestern College, 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910. (619) 421-6700
The Southwestern College is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Thank you for visiting the Southwestern College website.


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First of all I have to apologize for not updating this blog lately. I've been working like crazy on the new site. A lot of stuff to do, a lot of things to consider. A lot of plans, a lot of dreams. But this also means that we have something to show you.
What's irevuo?
Well, irevuo is going to be a platform meant to encourage and promote aspiring artists from around the world. It's going to be an online magazine and a place where artists showcase their works.
Right now, irevuo is a static page. And a logo. Do you like the logo? I think it's pretty cool. We're working on the wordpress platform as we speak.
Why irevuo?
It's short. That's why. It's short and has a very romantic, almost artistic, appeal. It's like Spanish, but it's not. Also "revuo" means journal in Esperanto. And the" i" might come from a million different places: interconnected is a nice word.
What now?
Right now, I'd like you to check out our Facebook page and our Twitter. Let's connect, let's see how many likes irevuo gets.
What's new?
You can support our dream to create a quarterly magazine here. You can buy digital and print copies, and you can also buy advertising in the January issue of our magazine.
What if you exceed your goal?
Our goal is to reach our goal, but let's just say we do receive more money than we asked for. Well, we're not going to waste them on wine and cigars and a couple of bathrobes. Instead, we're going to do our best to develop this idea even further: printed magazine (a quarterly magazine), a special place to showcase visual artists (like a bunch of portofolio sites), and just spreading the word. Maybe a contest. Yeah, we'd love to finance a contest sometime in the future.
But right now, we're just shy of reaching our goal. That's the dream… to earn enough to build a fantastic website.
And a big, big thank you
to all of you who supported us. We are grateful that because of you, we can spend 15 hours a day glued to a chair, staring at a computer screen. Yes, we love to do that, and we also love to do something we're passionate about. And this, irevuo, especially what we want it to be and what we feel could become, is something we're really passionate about.
And now for a short commercial break:
Another way to support us is by ordering something from our shop. You'd also be like walking, talking ads.
Talk soon,


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Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp have gone their separate ways.
"It was the distance," a source reportedly told People. "She lives in New York and he resides in Indiana. It was the long distance that ultimately was the cause."
I blame Obama.
The 62-year-old singer apparently wouldn't move to New York for Ryan because they don't have cows and tractors there. And Ryan, 52, wouldn't move because, well, its Indiana and "Green Acres" was all just a big lie.
"I'm too sensitive to live there," Mellencamp told Rolling Stone in December. "I can't see poor people. I can't see the suffering. I can't see the trash on the streets. I'm not leaving Indiana. I'm going to die here."
Right. Just like the cows and tractors.
The pair dated for three years after Mellencamp divorced Elaine Irwin.
People.com reports the "Sleepless in Seattle" actress is reuniting with Tom Hanks in new film "Ithaca," while Mellencamp is working on his 22nd album.
Contact Tony Hicks at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/tonyhicks67.


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Masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy on display in Baker Library through December 23, 2013
This art exhibition has been supported by leading calligraphers and scholars around the world. It is designed in conjunction with both Dartmouth's "Year of the Arts" and Professor Wen Xing's "Chinese Calligraphy and Manuscript Culture: Orchid Pavilion" course. Exhibition sections:
See photos and more information on the Chinese Calligraphy and Manuscript Art website.
The exhibition is generously supported by the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost as part of Dartmouth's Year of the Arts initiative in collaboration with the Dean of the Faculty, and co-sponsored by the Leslie Center for the Humanities, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures, the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Program, and the Hood Museum of Art.
Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.


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Wendell Barnhouse is a nationally-known and respected columnist who has spent over 20 years covering collegiate athletics. He has reported from 25 Final Fours and more than three dozen bowl games and has written about the Big 12 and its schools since the conference's beginning. Barnhouse will be updating the Big 12 Insider on happenings and behind-the-scenes information about the conference.
Read ESPN.com's Mechelle Voepel's report from Hartford on last night's battle between top-ranked Baylor and No. 3 Connecticut.
Travis Hines of the Ames Tribune, who does an outstanding job covering Iowa State basketball, has compiled info from all of the NCAA Tournament bracket projections regarding the Cyclones.
When travel problems slowed West Virginia's trek to Iowa State, some quick thinking allowed the Mountaineers to get some important practice time.
Baylor coach Scott Drew continues to push the Bears' program to unprecedented heights.
Kansas freshman Ben McLemore got a lot of attention for his 360-degree slam dunk against Texas.