HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARA!

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [7:17 PM]

Hawking's book dealt with themes that bothered the cosmic physics community 20 years ago. Now cosmic scientists wrestle with different questions. Einstein once said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe was that it was comprehensible. Steven Weinberg, the author of a brilliant but much earlier history of time called The First Three Minutes, put the same thought another way: the more the universe seemed comprehensible, he said, the more it also seemed pointless. Hawking's gift to the reading world was to spell out the same big and hugely puzzling questions, in words that ended with a note of hope.

- review of A Briefer History of Time

Also, today I learned that my flute teacher has lines of Sappho (in French) engraved on his flute. "I carved my verses in air..."
and that one fragment that John highlighted and liked so much:
"And in time to come, I say to you,
someone will remember us"

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [6:31 PM]

well, I suppose that despite everything, in some way we're proud that he was a tasper:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/09/24/worldbank.wolfowitz.reut/index.html

Also, today I met a Deep Springs transfer student, Michael, the only one from our year. Over Vietnamese pho and fried bananas (oh so good!) we talked about Jacob. There were other people with us, but they listened as we talked about Jacob and more Jacob. By the end of the nearly-two-hour rant, we gained a few converts to the cult. One of them, convinced that Jacob Eigen was God, "discarded all tendendies towards agnosticism."

And best of all, there's a highly likely possibility that Jacob might come visit Michael here at Yale.
Take that, Harvardians.

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [8:28 PM]

tasp reference of the day:
a dolphin sex joke in The Motorcycle Diaries (the movie; haven't read the book).

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [9:43 PM]

To briefly revive the labor quote tradition, I present my fortune from the Harvard email service:

"People humiliating a salami!"

A lovely way to procrastinate so early in the year. I hope everyone is doing wonderfully.

posted by Eunice   [2:51 PM]

i post this with dr. randall's permission.

Dear Tae-Yeoun,

Thank you so much for my birthday card! It's sitting on the top of my
desk, next to my new plant, and I expect it will stay there awhile. I had
the ugliest room in the ugliest building on campus until this summer, when
Tom helped me paint and redecorate it.
Because so many of my students come from overseas, I try to have something
representing every continent. So far, I have wall-hangings from Morocco,
Iran, India, Guatemala, and Australia, plus a Tibetan rug. Add six potted
plants, and a my Japanese birthday card from you, and the place is finally
starting to look like home.

I had a treat last week when Kelsey and Tara invited Tom and me over for
dinner in their charming new apartment. Alex Y was there too! He had a few
weeks to spare because U. of Chicago doesn't start until later in
Sept. Dolora and Eric were not able to attend, and I'm sorry for them
because I certainly enjoyed myself very much. I'd been grieving all week
over the loss of New Orleans, and worried about how Katrina has ruined so
much of my home state, so you can just imagine what a refreshing change it
was to talk with Kelsey, Tara, Alex, and their friends about everything
from Tara's class at the Business School (!) to 1980s movies, to Cher videos.

I hope you are enjoying your new year at Yale. Please give my best to Alex
B and Adrian when you see them. Dolora and I still think about you often.

D'Arcy Randall

Well? Kelsey? Tara? Alex?

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [9:15 AM]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELSEY!

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [11:08 PM]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONICA!

now that adrian's taking chinese :) i want to reference a labor quote from tasp: "wo wang le zhenme xie kuai le de le..." (- adam's birthday, at the card signing)

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [8:53 AM]

What is real?
How do we know what's real?
If man ever stumbled upon the right answer, would he still ask the question?

Duibuqi wo dei zao le. Zaijian!

posted by Adrian   [11:25 AM]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN AND DR. RANDALL!

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [5:40 AM]

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