Conference on World Affairs

Each year in spring, the University of Colorado at Boulder, hosts a weeklong event called the Conference on World Affairs. If you think that sounds like a pretty broad topic for a conference, you can't even begin to imagine the reality. Here is a smattering of the titles of some of this year's talks:

-Tiny Houses and Liveable Cities
-Bioengineering: Designer Babies and More
-Brexit and the Future of the EU
-Do Your Brain a Favor: Spend Time Outdoors
-The Power of a Story
-Laughing Matters: Humor in an Unfunny World
-Space Tourism for Fun and Profit
-China and North Korea: It's Complicated
-Fireside Chat: Dogs and Us
-CWA Book Club: Hillbilly Elegy Discussion
-The Best Two Parties Money Can Buy
-Oh Heck, I'm Up to My Neck...in Student Loans

I heard about the CWA only last year, after it had already ended, and I was determined to attend this year. It's free and open to the public without registration; anyone can browse the catalog of panel discussions and performances and show up to learn about whatever topics strike their fancy. In browsing this year's offerings, I was intrigued to note that speakers ranged from CU professors to eminent inventors and adventurous to MacArthur Genius Grant winners to celebrity chef Rick Bayless. Needless to say, my hopes were high.

I was not disappointed. Despite a somewhat hectic week, I managed to attend four talks and a movie screening. I was actually rather grateful for my busy schedule; selecting panels to attend would have been all but impossible without constraints to work around. Nearly everything sounded fascinating. I found myself drawn mostly to sociology and education, and attended "Education: Separate and Still Unequal" (about de facto school segregation); "At-Risk Kids: Breaking the Cycle"; "Let's Talk About Race"; and "Will Congress Ever Work Again?" (in which one panelist compared Trump to a yeast that was causing conservative mindsets to ferment and another, memorably, quipped that he was more like a yeast infection). Sessions were either 50 or 120 minutes long, depending on how meaty the topic, and I found that the time flew by.

I was particularly inspired by a speaker who appeared in two sessions I attended ("Separate and Still Unequal" and "Race"), James Bell. Mr. Bell is the founder and head of the San Francisco-based Burns Institute, which works on equity in the judicial system, particularly as it is applied to youth. After spending his childhood in Alabama during Jim Crow, Mr. Bell moved to San Francisco to attend UC Hastings for law school. He was one of the first students admitted as part of affirmative action protocols and was, therefore, one of the only black students in the school. His reception, he said, wasn't always warm, but as a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, I think it's safe to say he's had the last laugh. During the wrap-up comments in one panel, he said that this was his first time at the CWA. He'd had a great time, he said, and it had exceeded his expectations. I was delighted to hear that he'll be returning.

Ed and I also went to a screening of a film I'd wanted to see anyway called The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. I simply cannot recommend this documentary highly enough. It tells the story of a group of international musicians who share their stories, cultures, and backgrounds through gorgeous music and deep friendships. We couldn't stay after the final credits, alas, but one of the musicians from the film was there to discuss it with audience members. SO cool.

So if you're itching to visit Colorado, learn something new, or both, consider heading to this part of the world in mid-April next year. The only possible negative aspect of coming to Boulder for the CWA is agonizing over the seemingly endless line-up of lectures, discussions, and performances.

Blood on the Boards: Life in the Wild West

We moved into this house in January, which isn't exactly prime time for viewing wildlife. Still, I have been a little disappointed that we haven't had more interesting sightings. The most unusual animal Ed and I had spotted prior to the end of March was a coyote trotting across the face of the hill opposite us. And that's not really all that unusual. We see deer constantly; rabbits frequently; and thanks to Mischa or perhaps the cats, field mice (or at least their remains). There are magpies and sparrows all over the place, but considering how much time I spend gazing out the window, I'd been hoping for something a little bit more exciting. Recently, I got my wish.

I was standing in the kitchen when something on the railing of our deck caught my eye. It was a beautiful hawk of some sort, and I immediately called Ed to come see it. Because he entered the room from a different angle, he had a different vantage point, and so he was the first to spot the carnage. Our deck was covered with gray feathers. In the center was a small pool of blood. And upon closer examination, the hawk perched above its handiwork had a few downy feathers caught between two of its talons. The perp seemed obvious.

Murder scene

We gazed at it for a while while, speculating. We concluded that the victim was probably one of the pigeons that has been hanging around on the ridge line of our roof. Then Ed just had to get a closer look and maybe a few photos, so he army-crawled toward the window. The hawk didn't care for this and flew away. But it was back again a few minutes and kept flapping off when we got too close, then returning. This caused us to wonder whether it had left some of its meal behind, but when we searched later we were unable to find a single body part. It's rather difficult to believe that a smallish hawk wolfed down an entire pigeon, but I'm not sure what else to think.

This is the best photo Ed was able to get. 

Debate about what kind of hawk we have for a neighbor have ensued. Some people who saw the pictures that Ed managed to take believe it was the ferruginous hawk and others believe it was a prairie falcon. Having looked at the pictures of both, all I can say is if they pretty darn similar to me and I can't commit to one or the other. 

Prairie Falcon

Ferruginous Hawk

Whatever it is, I have seen it several times since that day, hanging around in trees near the house. I suppose I should feel sympathetic toward the pigeon population, but it's pretty great to have our very own hawk. I hope it sticks around.

Wait, Wait!

I'm put off writing at least one blog post about India because the prospect of sifting through hundreds of photos and attempting to sum up a trip like that is intimidating. One thing I've done to entertain myself while I'm stalling has been to drive into Denver to watch something I'd never seen before but was intimately familiar with: a live taping of the radio news show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

I'm a big fan of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. My family sometimes spent Saturday mornings walking quietly around the kitchen while preparing and eating a late breakfast, all the while listening, rapt, to this hilarious show. Once, while driving through Georgia, I got pulled over. I didn't bother to argue with the policeman or try to justify the fact that I have been speeding. I took the ticket as quickly as possible because it meant being able to turn my radio back on faster and thus get back to the show. So the prospect of seeing it in person was exciting, if a little strange. Would the hour's drive to Denver and the price of the tickets be worth seeing at something that was meant to be listened to (for free)?

In short, it was. We arrived to find the entry to the Buell Theater absolutely jammed with people. Everyone seemed excited, and it took ages to pack them all into the theater, so we started a little late.

Poundstone

The show itself lasts 45 minutes on the air, but we sat in the taping for over two hours and even left before Peter Segal, the host, re-recorded some of the flubs after the official end. I knew that there would be some editing and some content that didn't make it onto the show in the end, but I had no idea there would be so much. Paula Poundstone in particular added to the timestamp. She was the funniest comedian of the three on the panel, and one of her trademarks is going off on long, rambling rants about whatever topic happens to be on the table. She alone was probably responsible for  at least half an hour of the runtime. 


It's always a little strange to see people whose voices you know well. I always imagine what radio personalities look like an almost always turn out to be dead wrong. Tom Bodett looked younger than I thought he would and Paula Poundstone was older. Peter Segal was shorter and Bill Kurtis was rounder. At first, it took a little while to reconcile these strange appearances with the voices that were so familiar, but eventually I settled in.

Bodett

Segal

Kurtis

 Each show features a famous a guest, and this time it was John Hickenlooper, democratic governor of Colorado. Although Colorado is a thoroughly purple state and therefore John Hickenlooper is controversial by virtue of his party identification alone, this was not an audience that had mixed feelings about him. (When you figure that the liberal public radio station listeners who filled the theater had been culled from an already liberal geographic area, you can probably imagine the kinds of content that got these people fired up.) I have never heard a politician so whole-heartedly cheered. The crowd was beside itself, and although I didn't know a lot about him before seeing the show, he did, indeed, seem like a pretty nice, regular guy. His term limit is up in 2018, and Peter Segal tried several times to elicit his commitment to running for president during the next election. Hickenlooper dodged these questions gracefully and winningly and was even a good sport about all the pot jokes that are par for the course when someone interviews a Colorado politician.

John Hickenlooper

Listening to the show on Saturday morning was quite interesting. I knew that quite a lot was going to be cut out and I wondered how they would do it. I found that although editors did cut liberally even changed the order of some of the things, the whole show ran perfectly smoothly and I didn't feel as though listeners were missing out on too much of what I saw live. However, Ed and I both agreed that we were glad we had gone. The experience of being surrounded by so many enthusiastic audience members while listening to a show that I usually hear on my own was a fun experience.