The Magazine of the University of Oregon Spring 2012 Power Hungry Shannon Boettcher focuses on solving the huge solar-energy storage challenge Kim Stafford on Oregon Patriotism • A Kalapuya Feast • Rose Bowl Win From I 0,000 B.C. to 1945 A.O. All Agriculture Was Organic. We owe the future. ' :•. • ' ' ~/~~th • %i • OREC0 1' Pinot Gris ~~~ ---~Oregon wines ---------.----.. ·-, 1·~ 1,033 Certified Organic Acres Family Owned & Independent l!) NEW Learn More: www.kingestate.com ... ~ . fW King Estate uses estate grown organic grapes and sustainably [!] . iP= APP farmed grapes from our extended family of growers. Il The Magazine of the University of Oregon Spring 2012 • Volume 91 Number 3 27 Here Comes the Sun? OregonQuarterly.com FUEAT RES DAEP RTMENTS 27 4 ED ITOR’S note POWER HUNGRY 6 Letters by Todd Schwartz 8 U PFRONT | Excerpts, Exhibits, Explorations, Ephemera UO assistant professor Shannon Boettcher ’03 is searching for a Focus on Footwear solution for low-cost, high-volume by Thomas J. Connolly, photos by Coming Up Roses! capture and storage of solar power. Brian Lanker 32 Hello Yellowstone by W. Andrew Marcus, James E. 32 Meacham, Ann W. Rodman, Alethea Y. Steingisser ROSE TO POWER Girls Will Be Boys and Photos by Jack Liu Boys Will Be Girls by Peter Boag Photos of the first UO Rose Bowl win in ninety-five years. Bookshelf 16 U PFRONT | News, Notables, Innovations 34 Rerailing the Brain Train Native Foodstuffs KALA PUYA CUISINE Preserving Arabic Manuscripts 34 by Bonnie Henderson UO Says Goodbye to Lariviere, Welcomes Berdahl Back Albany chef Matt Bennett debuts camas bulbs and wapato tubers for The Best . Place to Nap New York City diners. Around the Block: Miller’s Courts -by-nc-sa-3.0 P ROFile: Yvonne Braun T A O 39 44 OL D OREGON O REGON PATRIOT IN Joy in the Making Tough TIMES HI, Cc-swAINB HI, Workplace Revolution D by Kim Stafford Not Your Everyday, An exploration of what it means to Cookie-Cutter Boosters ISHNA DAYANI ISHNA Patriot of Place belong to a place. The Copper Menagerie KR 39 IU, IU, An Oregon Family L Takes Center Stage JACK JACK COVER | UO assistant professor Shannon , UO Alumni Calendar Boettcher in his lab. Photo by Michael rmott McDermott. Class Notes Decades 64 duck TALES Absurdity, Annotated by Mark Blaine FROM TOP: MICHAEL MCDE MICHAEL TOP: FROM THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 1 Look Forward to Summer! You’ve Got Options Schedule available online march 9 in Oregon Summer offers courses, registration begins may 7 workshops, seminars, and institutes, ranging from two days to eight weeks. Schedule your studies 2012 Summer ScheDuLe tightly or settle in and take your time. Summer First four-week session: June 25–July 20 affords flexibility. Second four-week session: July 23–August 17 Dig in the Eastern Oregon Eight-week session: June 25–August 17 dirt. Discover Portland’s Eleven-week session: June 25–September 7 course offerings at the White Stag Block. Or, dabble in an elective you’ve wanted to take in Eugene. uosummer.uoregon.edu Once a Duck, always facebook.com/uosummer a Duck Whether you’re an alumnus, 541-346-3475 the child of an alumna, or the friend of UO alumni, find out what makes being a Duck something you won’t soon 2012 Summer Session forget. Important information University of Oregon about courses, housing, registration, and fees can June 25–September 7, 2012 be found on the Summer Session website. The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. 2 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2012 © 2012 University of Oregon DES 0212-189g Look Forward to Summer! You’ve Got Options Schedule available online march 9 in Oregon Summer offers courses, registration begins may 7 workshops, seminars, and institutes, ranging from two days to eight weeks. Schedule your studies 2012 Summer ScheDuLe tightly or settle in and take your time. Summer First four-week session: June 25–July 20 affords flexibility. Second four-week session: July 23–August 17 Dig in the Eastern Oregon Eight-week session: June 25–August 17 dirt. Discover Portland’s Eleven-week session: June 25–September 7 course offerings at the White Stag Block. Or, dabble in an elective you’ve wanted to take in Eugene. uosummer.uoregon.edu Once a Duck, always facebook.com/uosummer a Duck Whether you’re an alumnus, 541-346-3475 the child of an alumna, or the friend of UO alumni, find out what makes being a Duck something you won’t soon 2012 Summer Session forget. Important information University of Oregon about courses, housing, registration, and fees can June 25–September 7, 2012 be found on the Summer Session website. The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. THE MAGAZINE OF© 2012 THE UniversityUNIVERSITY of Oregon OF OREGON DES 0212-189g 3 THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON SPRING 2012 • VOLUME 91 NUMBER 3 “Welcome home.” I’ve been greeted this way often since arriving EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Ann Wiens in Eugene as Oregon Quarterly’s new editor, CONSULTING EDITOR even though I’ve never lived here. But I grew Guy Maynard up in Oregon, living in Corvallis until I was a SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Ross West teenager. This seems to matter to people. And ADVERTISING DIRECTOR they seem to understand why, decades later, Susan Thelen I’ve come “home.” ART DIRECTOR Tim Jordan Shortly before I left Chicago, my home for PUBLISHING ADMINISTRATOR Shelly Cooper the past twenty-one years, Guy Maynard sent PORTLAND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR me a draft of Kim Stafford’s essay, “Oregon Mindy Moreland CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Patriot in Tough Times,” which appears in this Jack Liu, John Bauguess issue. In this loving tribute to his native state, PROOFREADERS John Crosiar, Scott Skelton Stafford asks, “What does it mean to be a patriot of a place—not a nation, not a cause, Oregon Quarterly’s future editor in an INTERN Oregon forest in the 1970s Elisabeth Kramer but a place?” EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Mark Blaine, Betsy Boyd, David Deyhle, Kathi O’Neil Dordevic, Kim Evans, David Funk, Kathleen Holt, Stafford’s question reminds me of a conversation I had in a bar in Bowral, Australia, Mark Johnson, Alexandra Lyons, Holly Simons, where a small group of people from far-flung places had gathered for a conference. Mike Thoele, Barbara West One was from Idaho; one was from Finland; one lived in Australia, but was a native WEBSITE OregonQuarterly.com of Scotland. The latter asked those around the table what signaled “home” to them. OFFICE ADDRESS Was it a scent, a sound, a flavor? For him, it was color—the blue-green of Australia’s 10th and Mill Building 360 East 10th Avenue, Suite 202 eucalyptus forests are distinct, not at all like the yellow-greens of Scotland. Eugene OR 97403-5228 Phone 541-346-5045 Fax 541-346-5571 For me, the trigger is scent. As I traversed the 2,400 miles from Chicago to Eugene with EDITORIAL my Midwestern BFF—who gamely agreed to join me on this cross-country road trip 541-346-5047 in the dead of January—I could track our progress by scent as surely as by the Inter- ADVERTISING 541-346-5046 state mile markers. From my Chicago street, where the metallic smell of the “L” train SUBSCRIPTIONS mixes with those of melting snow and Thai cooking; through the cornfields of Iowa $30 per year domestic $40 per year international and Nebraska; the bunchgrass rangeland of Wyoming; brief hits of pine as we climbed E-MAIL through mountains, then descended again into the sage-scented shrub steppe of Idaho [email protected] and Eastern Oregon, each new-but-familiar scent signaled progress as we headed west. OREGON QUARTERLY is published by the UO in March, June, August, and November and distributed free to alumni. Printed in the USA on recycled paper. For Stafford, salmon represent the ultimate Oregon patriots. “Every salmon is trying Copyright 2012 University of Oregon. All rights reserved. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect to go back to that place,” he writes. “Every salmon is a patriot of a place, willing to the views of the UO administration. die to get there.” Fine for salmon, perhaps, but I’ve lived happily in many different CHANGE OF ADDRESS Alumni Records, 1204 University streams, never feeling a strong compulsion to return to the one of my childhood. Until of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1204 now. Before mature salmon navigate (by scent) to their home streams, they go out 541-302-0336, [email protected] and swim in the big salmon ocean, experience the exciting vastness of the sea—only ADMINISTRATION Interim President: Robert Berdahl later developing that all-consuming desire to return home. Acting Provost: Lorraine Davis; Vice President for University Relations: Michael Redding; Vice President I came back to Oregon because I missed the coast, I missed the mountains, I missed for Finance and Administration: Jamie Moffitt; Vice President for Student Affairs and Interim Vice President the rivers, the mud, and the trees. I missed the smell. I came because Oregon Quarterly for Institutional Equity and Diversity: Robin Holmes; Vice President for Research and Innovation: Kimberly is an exceptional magazine, and I’d be a fool to pass up the chance to be a part of it.