from the president

Man Reading. Young Girl Reading, Jean-Honor6 Fragonard. National Gallery of Art John Singer Sargent Courtesy of the Reading Public Museum. Reading. .

On the cover: Ashley Agcaoili '15 Photo by Ross Mulhausen Book lovers

To be honest, I didn’t even know George only have been written in Victorian Eng­ Probably a good thing I didn’t discover it in Eliot was a woman. Not until graduate land. Its not a story, exactly, but what Eliot the ’60s. I was so much younger then. school, at least. I had studiously avoided read­ called a “particular web,” a complex tissue Did I mention I fell in love with this ing any Victorian novels in college, mainly of interconnected narratives linking scores book? Not just the book itself, I mean—as because the professors who captured my of characters with one another, and with absorbing as it was to the imagination and imagination at the time drew me into explor­ the twisted course of history, too—from the the heart (especially for a young man who ing the mysteries of other books. democratic reforms (and resistance) of mid had lived through the tumult of the ’60s and I marched through line after line of 19th-century Europe to the dramatic devel­ had chased a dream or two into disappoint­ Shakespeare and Herbert and Milton and opments in medical research and treatment ment). No, I mean I fell in love with Mary Donne with one of them. Was guided by at the time; from the emergence of revolu­ with this book. On one of our very first eve­ another into the attics and railway stations tionary scientific theories like evolution and nings getting to know each other, there in of Moscow and St. Petersburg as sketched cell structure to the intellectual transforma­ Connecticut where we met, we spent a long out in the novels of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. tions of secular humanism and the higher dinner together talking into the night about Took epic journeys across the seas and under­ criticism. a novel we both loved called Middleman!]. ground with Homer and Virgil, Dante and Big stuff. Big book. Nearly a thousand (She, of course, had read it back in college, Joyce. Examined life’s meaning through the pages in my marked-up, tattered-and-dog- and I, at the time, was teaching it—again— eyes of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine. eared Penguin English Library edition. to college students in my Victorian-novel Struggled with Hobbes and Hume, Kant and Complicated cast of complex characters: an course.) We shared our admiration for this Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Hegel. There idealistic young doctor, a passionate politi­ big, big book that night, its profound effect were exotic excursions beyond good and evil cal reformer, a devout and decisive young upon the way we saw things, its artistic bril­ to the mystical East by way of the Vedas, the woman, an indecisive and directionless liance and intellectual depth, its emotional Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita. Powerful dilettante, an ambitious but misguided intel­ wisdom. Pure love. stuff in the late ’60s. Covered the Bs from the lectual, a manipulative financier, a shallow Like anyone, we had both loved and lost Bible and Blake and Benjamin, to Buber and but well-meaning politician, and so many at that point in our lives, made our own Beckett and Bellow. Did a full semester tuto­ others. Through its tangled web of deeply share of mistakes amidst whatever triumphs rial on Saul Bellow—Saul being pretty big, human stories and missteps, the book is we could claim, experienced a few noble even before he won the Nobel, especially in about how big dreams and great ambitions impulses running up against walls of imper­ Chicago. I even managed to make it through can get frustrated by petty circumstances, fect conditions and limitations. The book most of Wordsworth’s endless autobiographi­ a cold dose of reality, and what seem like had become part of our life stories by then, cal poem, The Prelude. We called it “The small, insignificant decisions (that turn out the lens through which we viewed them, its Quaalude.” It was the ’60s, remember. to be big-time disasters). It is about what strands woven into the tissue of our own Not a page of Dickens or Hardy or happens next, when you find out the world hopes and histories—separately, and yet Conrad, though. Nothing from Eliot or the is not “ideally beautiful,” when you realize also bound together with invisible threads Brontes or Thackeray or Trollope. Amazing that your best actions are “the mixed result of unseen connection. Reader, I married her that these writers would someday define the of young and noble impulse struggling (Mary, I mean, and soon after). No mistake field of my scholarly expertise. (Strangely, against the conditions of an imperfect social about it. It really is some book. I’m glad I one of the very first graduate seminars I took state, in which great feelings will often take finally got to it. Its been with me just about turned out to be on the novels of Joseph the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect every place else I’ve managed to go since, Conrad—all of them—and it was taught of illusion.” It is a series of snapshots of the and so has Mary. by that same Saul Bellow fellow, way out in way that “every limit is a beginning as well Too good to be true that George Eliots Boston. Four years later we would be faculty as an ending,” and how “a past error may real name also was Mary? Mary Anne Evans, members together back in Chicago, which is urge a grand retrieval.” Its about the way we There’s a story in that, too. another story.) live now and how we correct for error. But the book I finally fell in love with was Virginia Woolf called Middleman!] one of them. It was George Eliots Middle- “magnificent,” and one of the few books march. A masterpiece in any century, it could in English written for grown-up people.

winter 2014 arches 1

TEPIDWINTER SUN

As if the short hours of sunlight following the equinox aren't enough, this season we've been layering on the gray with a lot of morning fog. But sometimes the gloom can make for spectacular pictures, such as this one Ross shot looking through the President's Woods.That's Collins Library on the left, the Music Building (which turned 60 this year) right of center, andThompson Hall on the right.

winter 2014 arches 3

BAT NIGHT! Slater Museum of Natural History docent Jaella Levien '14 holds out a Cuban funnel-eared bat (Chilonatalus micropus) on Bat Night, an open house on the night before Halloween featuring the museum's bat collection. This Chilonatalus is one of the more than 2,000 bat specimens housed in Slater, including the only spotted bat (Euderma maculatum) specimen in Washington. photojournal

APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE Here's one that had us puffed up witli'pride: In December, at the annual Murdock College Science^ Research Program Conference, students from colleges all over the Northwest made 30 oral presentations and 212 poster presentations.Thirteen cash awards were given, two of which went to Puget Sound undergrads. Biochemistry major Kathryn Ginsberg '14, seen here, received an awarcjfor her work with Associate Professor of Chemistry Dan Burgard monitoring trace levels of pharmaceuticals in wastewater. And physics major Benjamin Boe '15 received an award for his presentation "Coupled vibrations between musical drumheads," advised by Associate Professor of Physics Rand Worland. m. 'S : ’ ; h

6 arches winter 2011

Ostransky: As seen in a November 1969 newspaper clipping, and in a portrait by local photographer Gayle Rieber from September 1990. syllabus

Getting to know Professor Ostransky

Students in Music 333: Western and World Music Since 1914 get the first look at the university archives' recently acquired Ostransky papers

Jazz, it has been said, is restless, and figuring The man was, shall we say, a presence. Sharkey loved music and had aspirations out its beginnings and evolution has been a When his papers became available to view for his son to become a child prodigy and confounding task for music historians. Puget for the first time in the university archives, virtuoso violinist. Young Leroy was given Sound Professor of Music Leroy Ostransky Associate Professor of Music Gwynne Kuhner violin lessons and practiced in the back of ’48, P’74 was one of the first to try. Brown ’95 saw a remarkable opportunity for the saloon, but he failed to meet his father’s “He was a pioneer in the area of jazz her music history students to experience, just high expectations and was beaten regularly. education in higher education,” said James across Karlen Quad, what it’s like getting Ostransky had no talent for the violin; he Sorensen, dean of the School of Music when their hands on primary sources. preferred playing piano and jazz. At age 14 he Ostransky died in 1993. “Leroy was one of The class split into teams and dug into 18 was sent to a reform school after he stole 212 the very first to bring jazz into the academy.” archival storage boxes containing Ostransky’s library books. The following year Ostransky Ostransky also was a composer (he wrote compositions, scholarly work, correspon­ ran away; he supported himself painting five symphonies and a comic opera called dence, and even his lecture notes and class houses and playing piano in jazz clubs. The Melting of Molly); the author of five quizzes. They learned that Leroy Ostransky During World War II, Ostransky was books on jazz (his The Anatomy of Jazz was was born in New York City on Jan. 17, 1918, drafted into the Army and stationed at Fort for years a standard text on the subject); a to Russian immigrants. In his memoir, Shar­ Lewis, Wash. There, he served as music columnist for the Tacoma News Tribune (his keys Kid, he recounted his difficult childhood arranger for War Bond shows from 1944 to “Notes and Comments” appeared in the growing up on the Lower East Side. His fam­ 1945. After the war, he married and enrolled morning edition for 23 years); and he had ily made whiskey during Prohibition in the at Puget Sound, where his talents were a radio show called Oh, Oh, Ostransky (dur­ back of the saloon they owned. Ostransky quickly recognized and he was hired to teach ing which he accompanied himself on the described his father, Sharkey, as “the only Jew music theory. He formed and directed the piano while commenting on current events with a knife scar on his jaw, a tattoo on his Workshop Band, which was one of the most and telling jokes). In 1975 People magazine left forearm, and tears in his eyes every time popular organizations on campus and per­ named Ostransky one of the 12 greatest he heard a cantor chant the ‘Kol Nidre’ on formed at freshman assemblies, Homecoming teachers in America. his Victrola.” shows, and other events.

8 arches winter 2014 After graduating with honors from the On Ostransky's newspaper column: o 2 ! college in 1948, Ostransky earned a masters “While trying to get a better sense of his . •S’ degree at New York University and a Ph.D. personality and writing voice, we found that 2 at The University oflowa. In 1952 he joined many articles contained sarcastic hyperbole. the CPS faculty; he retired in 1983. For example, in a column titled ‘Richard He was observant and opinionated, an Wagner: Gentleman,’ Ostransky wrote, astonishingly prolific writer, performer, and ‘Richard Wagner was born (his only redeem­ composer, and, lucky for us, he saved every­ ing quality)...’ and ‘to say that Richard Wag­ thing. After studying the collection, Professor ner was absolutely no good would be giving Browns students wrote about their findings. him the best of it.’ Here are some of their observations: “Ostransky often wrote in a Q&A format in his column, answering readers’ questions On letters to his wife, Natalie, while in about music and life, much like Dear Abby, New York working on his master's: but as if Abby wrote like Peter Schickele. “Letters between him and his ‘Darling’ were “‘Q: Could you send me a picture of exchanged almost daily. The material in the Beethoven? I saw him on TV. He was very letters includes the happenings of Ostransky’s handsome. I like him very much. Does he day, the progress of his compositional work, work for Walt Disney?’ Notes on his opera, The Melting of Molly: and the discussion of colleagues and teachers. “‘A: Unfortunately, Beethoven is not on “The Melting of Molly has the premise of a girl “The deep nature of Ostransky’s relation­ the Disney payroll at this time. The television who is trying to lose weight. The beginning ship with his wife is evident in the frequency bit on which you saw him was strictly a one- of the score has a typed, spoken introduction of their writings and in the manner in which shot deal. I am forwarding your missive to that includes the very memorable line, ‘Great Ostransky discusses and is clearly dependent CBS, which, my contacts tell me, is working eating, like making love, requires total surren­ on receiving her letters. For a period of time out a 26-week option deal with Beethoven der to the subject at hand.’ In the score there (roughly from November 1955 to February that includes a capital-gains arrangement and are a lot of altered musical notes and quite a 1956) Ostransky makes statements in practi­ 80 percent residuals.’” few written-in stage directions (in red pencil), cally every letter about waiting for the mail­ such as ‘wait for laugh.’ One line, from the man and whether or not a letter from her was song about food, is particularly punny, ‘Low delivered.” tea, high tea, god almigh-tea.’”

A fWTATfOrf F0ft HO On lecture notes and exams: “Ostransky’s lecture notes and final exams give testimony to his emphasis on teach­ ing and understanding jazz in context. His exams and notes are held together by a com­ mon thread—a focus on the social, musi­ cal, and developmental history of jazz as an organic and dynamic field of music. Decades before Lewis Porter published his article on Coltrane’s contributions to form in jazz, Ostransky emphasized the importance of form in the study of jazz—as can be seen by his numerous exam questions regarding the crucial influence of the blues form on jazz music.”

PRIMARY SOURCES In the Collins Library Shelmidine Room, students pore over 18 boxes of papers. Left: one of the documents they reviewed—an Ostransky composition from his Songs for Julia (1973), with the author's performance notes.

winter 2014 arches 9 Shelf Life

We ask profs about important books i specialties, and what th

One of the great joys of working at a college is hanging out with the faculty and talking about their work. Walking across Karlen Quad, say, we run into a professor friend, and we always ask, “So, what’s been catching your attention lately?” The resulting conversation is usually brief and informal but fun and really interesting, and it leaves us wishing we could collect these encounters in a more comprehensive way for Arches readers because we know you like this sort of thing, too. Then it came to us: What better unifying theme for a feature on faculty work than the books our teachers are reading to teach themselves? As it happens, the Arches intern this year, Ian Fox *14, is himself an avid book collector. A prize-winning collector, in fact: He got the top prize in the library’s book- collection contest last year for his assemblage of books on Batman from the 1930s to the present. A perfect correspondent! So we sent him out onto the campus to sit with professors in their office libraries and ask them what’s on their shelves. It’s an overworked word, but we can’t come up with a fairer one: What he encountered was passion. Ian said he concluded the assignment feeling privileged to talk with so many professors about what they love. (He interviewed many more than are on these pages.) He said he learned about the profs as people, absolutely, but also he learned about knowledge. How do we interact with the world? What marks have people left? How can we approach the future? Cool. On to the books, then:

_ Geoffrey Block HPflj M Nancy Bristow Ken Clark V- 1 PROFESSOR OF MUSIC ^ T PROFESSOR OF HISTORY INSTRUCTOR IN GEOLOGY (teaching emphasis: classical MU (with a focus on the Vietnam : (creator of Puget Sound's and romantic periods, and -j^Hu and civil rights eras) geology rock garden) musical theater) v.Vf

What books brought you into your field? What book brought you into your field? What book brought you into your field? ► Opera as Drama and The Beethoven ► Tire Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey ► Earth, Frank Press and Raymond Si ever Quartets, Joseph Kerman What are your favorite books to teach? What is your favorite book to teach? ► Beethoven: Studies in the Creative Process, Lewis Lockwood ► Beloved, Toni Morrison ► Geomorphology: A Systematic Analysis of Late Cenozoic Landforms, Arthur Bloom ► The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, “A masterfully constructed novel,” said Beethoven, Charles Rosen Professor Bristow. “My favorite book in “Most landforms that exist now are the world to read—and to teach. Though younger than 1 million years old, which is ► Essays in Musical Analysis and The Main a modern novel, its also the best resource less than 1 percent of Earths history.” Stream of Music and Other Essays, Donald for students to understand the horrors Francis Tovey of slavery. Morrison calls on all of us to What is one must-read book in your field? “These writers continue to exert a major know the past, to recognize the triumphs ► Principles of Geology, Charles Lyell impact on my thinking and writing about and the traumas that came beforehand. “Lyell was the founder of geology,” music and music history.” And that’s why I teach history.” Professor Clark told us. “He came up with What is your favorite book to teach? ► Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale the idea of ‘uniformitarianism,’ which says that the processes we see today also ► Opera & Ideas: From Mozart to Strauss, Hurston happened in the past.” Paul Robinson ► Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered

“I enjoy observing the sense of discovery from All Sides, Christian Appy What book did you read most recently? students often experience when they ► Patches of Fire: A Story of War and ► Generations: The History of Americas grapple with the notion that not only words Redemption, Albert French Future, 1584—2069, William Strauss and but music itself can express great ideas.” ► Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story, Neil Howe Timothy B. Tyson What are must-read books in your field? ► The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City What are your favorite pleasure reads? ► All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses in American Memory, Edward T. Linenthal ► The Fourth Turning: An American of Musical Borrowing, J. Peter Burkholder : Prophecy—What the Cycles of History Tell ► Georges Bizet: “Carmen,” Susan McClary What are must-read books in your field? ! Us About America's Next Rendezvous with ► The Romantic Generation, Charles Rosen ► Eve Got the Light of Freedom, Charles Payne , Destiny, also by Strauss and Howe ► The Oxford History of Western Music, ► At the Dark End of the Street: Black ► Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien Richard Taruskin Women, Rape, and Resistance—A New “I’m interested in a whole lot of things,” History of the Civil Rights Movement from said Clark. “Geology might be third or What book did you read most recently? Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, fourth on the list. Ethics, then history, are ► Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer Danielle L. McGuire one and two.” “A book about the history and practice of ► Tire Fire Next Time, James Baldwin memory that emphasizes the use of visuals ► The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and to remember things.” the Making of Modem America, Kevin Rozario What are your favorite pleasure reads? ► The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Robert Caro What are your favorite pleasure reads? “The most exciting book I’ve read in three ► Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien years. Also, anything by David Lodge.” ► Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling ► And over the last few years Professor ► Detective fiction Block has been working his way through ; ■ Julian Barns, Brian Morton, Philip Roth, ! Richard Russo, and Meg Wolitzer.

winter 2014 arches 11 Karl Fields Dexter Gordon “I also love teaching Du Bois and PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PROFESSOR OF Washington, whom I already mentioned, POLITICS AND EAST ASIAN COMMUNICATION STUDIES as well as novels, one example of which is: STUDIES AND DIRECTOR OF AFRICAN ► Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale AMERICAN STUDIES Hurston “These provide such striking yet different What book brought you into your field? What books brought you into your field? interrogations of black life in the United ► TJje Gate of Heavenly Peace: 77ie Chinese Rhetoric States.” and Their Revolution, Jonathan Spence ► The works of Kenneth Burke, most Must-read books in your field? significantly A RJjetoric of Motives What are your favorite books to teach? Rhetoric ► Propaganda, Jacques Ellul ► Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (Ghosh ► Aristotle’s Rhetoric, translated by W. Rhys ► The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory will be receiving an honorary degree at Roberts of Effects, Marshall McLuhan and Commencement this spring.) Quentin Fiore (Yes, “Massage” is the ► Plato’s Gorgias and Phaedrus, translated by ► When the Emperor Was Divine, Julie correct title. Its a pun on McLuhan’s Benjamin Jowett Otsuka oft-quoted phrase: “The medium is the ► A Grammar of Motives, A Rhetoric of ► Nanjing Requiem, Ha Jin message.”) Motives, and Language as Symbolic Action: “You can overcome distance, but you can’t African American Studies Essays on Life, Literature, and Method, overcome time. Novels transport students Kenneth Burke ► The King James Bible to a time/place.” ► The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argu­ “Encountered before beginning my mentation, Chaim Perelman and Lucie Must-read books in your field? formal education; the single most signifi­ Olb rech ts-Ty teca cant book in the framing of my literary ► The Origins of Political Order, Francis African American Studies Fukuyama education.” ► Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin ► MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The ► The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois ► Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975, ► Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington ► White Over Black: American Attitudes Chalmers Johnson “These address the condition of the black Toward the Negro, 1550-1812, Winthrop ► The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and struggle for survival within the context of D. Jordan Friedrich Engels white domination in the United States.” ► TJoe Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison ► Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of ► The Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James World War II, John Dower ► Hoe Color Purple, Alice Walker ► The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon ► The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith What book did you read most recently? What are your favorite books to teach? What book did you read most recently? The Good Lord Bird, James McBride “I do most of my teachings from ► The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri collections of essays because they give What are your favorite pleasure reads? my students manageable chunks of What are your favorite pleasure reads? “I am generally a nonfiction reader, and challenging academic work that is not ► Wolf Hall or Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary I love to read revisionist historical works distilled for didactic purposes. Two of my Mantel that make visible hidden elements of die favorites are: ► Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner past, especially as those elements relate to ► Race, Class, and Gender in the United ► John Adams, David McCullough people’s struggles to achieve equity and States: An Integrated Study, Paula S. human dignity. This love began with my ► Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, Rothenberg reading C.L.R. James’ The Black Jacobins, Laurence Bergreen ► Contemporary Rhetorical Tloeory: A Reader, the classic historical novel employing revi­ ► Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag John Louis Lucaites, Celeste Michelle sionist lenses to address significant gaps in Montefiore Condit, Sally Caudill traditional historiography.”

12 arches winter 2014 m

Alison Paul Loeb ■I Tracy Hale PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY ■ ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF H ENGLISH (teaches early American lit., and in the Gender Studies Program) What books brought you into your field? What books brought you into your field? ► Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James ► Being and Time, Martin Heidegger Joyce ► Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant ► Middle march, George Eliot ► Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, ► To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf Richard Rorty

What are your favorite books to teach? What are your favorite books to teach? ► Moby Dick, Herman Melville ► Lhe Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli “I think people don’t realize that, while it’s ► Tlje World as Will and Representation, “I think people a classic, it’s a hilariously funny, kind of Arthur Schopenhauer bawdy, almost lunatic book.” ► On the Genealogy of Morality, Friedrich ► Edgar Huntly, Charles Brockden Brown Nietzsche don’t realize ► Tfje Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson “Each of these books is extremely well written, very strange, and provocative, “The perfect ghost story. I still can’t read it that, while it’s when I’m home alone.” which leads to great class discussions.” ► Anything by Edgar Allan Poe Must-read books in your field? a classic, it’s a Must-read books in your field? ► 'Lhe Republic, Plato ► The Failures of Integration, Sheryll Cashin ► Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes “Shows how our society’s segregation is hilariously funny, destructive to the moral and ethical fibers * Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant of our democracy.” “The future of the human race was envisioned in the first book; the human ► Guy land, Michael Kimmel kind of bawdy, self was discovered in the second book; ► A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration and the limits of human knowledge were of Mrs. Maty Rowlandson, Mary White charted out in the third book.” almost lunatic Rowlandson ► Democratic Personality, Nancy Ruttenburg What book did you read most recently? ► The Map and the Territoiy, Michel book •;” ' What are your favorite pleasure reads? Houellebecq ► In the Woods, Tana French -ALISON TRACY HALE ► The Secret Histoty, Donna Tartt What are your favorite pleasure reads? ► Origin, Diana Abu-Jaber ► Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon ON MOBY DICK ► Tloe Archivist, Martha Cooley ► To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf ► Scandinavian mystery books, authors like * Anything by Henry James Henning Mankell “The first novel blew my mind as a freshman in college. The second novel is What books did you read most recently? the most emotionally moving book I have ► Dark Matter, Michelle Paver ever read. And anything by Henry James is ► Where Light Is a Place, Beverly Conner aesthetically ravishing and psychologically (who is an English instructor at UPS) profound.” ► A Visitfrom the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan ► The Panopticon, Jenni Fagan “I can’t afford not to read for pleasure.”

winter 2014 arches Mita Mahato What are must-read books in your field? Patrick O'Neil ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ► The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, PROFESSOR OF POLITICS AND OF ENGLISH and Ethics, Arthur Frank GOVERNMENT (with a focus on visual media) “A seminal book when it comes to the (teaching focus: authoritarian­ role narrative can play when discussing ism, democratization, and the ! health and when coming to terms with Middle East) our ill bodies.” ► Graphic Women: Life Narrative and What literary work brought you into your What books brought you into your field? Contemporary Comics, Hillary Chute field? ► The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli ► Maxis, Art Spiegelman ► ‘Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” P.B. ► The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides ► Illness as Metaphor, Susan Son tag Shelley “Opened my eyes to historical forces “His poetry and William Blake’s poetry ► Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and explained by the people who were living inspired me to be an English major as an Visual Representation, W.J.T. Mitchell them.” undergrad. When I’m in need of a spark, I ► Ways of Seeing, John Berger ► The Histories, Herodotus still go back to them.” What books did you read most recently? “The first book on comparative politics. Everyone should read some Herodotus.” What are your favorite books to teach? ► New School, Dash Shaw

► The People of Paper, Salvador Plascencia ► Fran, Jim Woodring What are your favorite books to teach? “A difficult book to teach,” said Professor What are your favorite pleasure reads? ► Sleeping on a Wire, David Grossman Mahato, “but it’s a good example of how ► Middlemarch, George Eliot ► Tlje Origins of Political Order, Francis I, as a teacher, have the opportunity to Fukuyama bring people to a book they wouldn’t read ► Stranger Things Happen: Stories, Kelly “Best book in the social sciences to be put otherwise.” Link out in the last 50 years. Volume one traces ► The Arrival, Shaun Tan ► As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner the origins of human organization back ► What It Is, Lynda Barry ► Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 5,000-7,000 years. Last year Fukuyama “I like to crush students’ [images they got ► The Pox'table Frank, Jim Woodring spoke on campus in a two-session lecture. from film/television adaptations] of Mr. On the second night he presented his Darcy, but doing so in a way that brings ideas for the [upcoming] second volume them to see what a genius writer Jane of this book, which he said was the Austen was. It’s just a well-crafted book.” first time he had publicly presented the material from it.”

What are must-read books in your field? ► On the Middle East: Righteous Victims, i Benny Morris; and Six Days of Wax': June 1967and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Michael Oren

i

14 arches winter 2014 ► On Iran: A Histoty of Iran: Empire of the

Mind, Michael Axworthy The Republic ► On the U.S.: American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, Robert Meditations on First Philosophy Putnam and David Campbell

What book did you read most recently?

► A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Critique ofPure Reason Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, David Fromkin “Unbelievably dense work. I’m totally “The future of the human race was struggling with it, but it does a great job of tracing present-day conflicts to their roots.” envisioned in the first book; the human

What are your favorite pleasure reads? self was discovered in the second book; ► The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty— Delhi, 1857, William Dalrymple “Sweeping narrative that reads like a novel and the limits of human knowledge but is deeply rooted in history. All of his books are accessible, interesting, and were charted out in the third.” amazingly well researched.” ► Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, also by Dalrymple -PAUL LOEB Carolyn Weisz Must-read works in your field? PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY ► 7he Psychology of Diversity: Beyond (teaching focus: social perception, Prejudice and Racism, James M. Jones, racism, and research methods) John F. Dovidio, and Deborah L. Vietze “A good, cutting-edge textbook on the social psycholog)' of diversity.”

What book brought you into your field? ► Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture, Susan T. Fiske and Shelley E. Taylor ► Psychology and Life, Richard J. Gerrig and Philip G. Zimbardo ► Generation Me: Why Todays Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, “As an undergraduate I thought I would Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever be an English major because I thought Before, Jean M. Twenge that books, and more particularly fiction, analyzed human nature, and I was fasci­ ► “A Threat is in the Air: How Stereotypes nated by that. But then I took an intro- Shape Intellectual Identity and duction-to-psychology class with Philip Performance,” Claude M. Steele Zimbardo (at Stanford) and found that (in American Psychologist) psychologists addressed the same ques­ What book did you read most recently? tions—about the nature of human nature ► The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and well-being—from a scientific perspec­ Rebecca Skloot tive. That course and that textbook shifted my academic pathway from a focus on What are your favorite pleasure reads? literature to articles and books on science ► The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell and psycholog)'” “I’ve been in the same book club for about What are your favorite books or other written 17 years, and my all-time favorite book works to teach? from it was 7he Sparrow, It’s science fic­ ► Interpersonal Perception, Edward E. Jones tion that explores the nature of human relationships and the natural world.” ► The Narcissism Epidemic, Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell ► He, She and It, Marge Piercy ► A Hope in the Unseen: An American “I don’t generally like science fiction, but I Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy do like Tlse Sparrow and He, She and It. ” League, Ron Suskind ► The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: ► “Affective Forecasting: Knowing What to A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, Want,” Timothy D. Wilson and Daniel T. and the Collision of Two Cultures, Anne Gilbert (in Current Directions in Psycho­ Fadiman logical Science) ► Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang I take my coffee black now.

by Gianna Olson '16 Winning entry

say it in

six wor

On October 21, to celebrate the National Day on Writing, the Snow falls and college’s Center for Writing, I’m seven again. Learning, and Teaching by Dylan Russom '14 sponsored a six-word Honorable mention memoir contest. “Prizes. Fame. Brevity,” urged the poster announcing the event. And the winners are:

I still travel to Neverland daily.

by Amy Nichols '14 Honorable mention

winter 2014 arches 17 from the archives

The people of Puget Sound: Coolidge Otis Chapman

Beginning in the early 1980s, students who have completed requirements of the Honors Program graduate as Coolidge Otis Chapman Honors Scholars. But who exactly is this Coolidge Otis Chapman? And why are Honors Program graduates called Chapman scholars? 1 Coolidge Otis Chapman was born in New York in 1895, married in 1926, joined Puget [ Sounds English department in 1932, retired in 1959, and died in Tacoma in 1966. He was tall (6 feet 3 inches—always in the back row in photographs) and a slender 150 pounds. He did not come from humble beginnings. Coolidge was the oldest of three sons; his father was a successful architect and builder in Woodmerc, Hempstead Township, Nassau County, Long Island, N.Y. All three boys were shipped off to Hoosac School, an Episcopal boarding school in Hoosick Falls, N.Y. After graduating from Hoosac, Coolidge enrolled at Williams College but transferred to Cornell University before graduating. There he earned bachelors, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees. His 1925 masters thesis, Tlje Diction of the Middle English Purity, was the beginning of Coolidge s lifelong research interest. He spent several summers and his 1949-50 and 1955-56 sabbaticals at his alma mater, where he pursued research on the “Pearl Poet,” author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and considered to be “one of the four great writers of medieval England.” In 1951 Cornell University Press published Chapmans book, An Index of Names in Pearl, Purity, Patience and Gawain, “from poems of the late 14th century,” according to the Nov. 1, 1951, issue of The Trail. The book includes some 250 names “from the Bible, from the classics, and from medieval romances.” Since 1951 the book has gone through several editions. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. In 1926 Coolidge married Helen Hume; he was 31, she 30. Two years later the pair trav­ eled from New York to Europe, arriving July 8 at Plymouth, England, on Holland Americas

1

!

In class, Jones Hall, 1951. (From the Tamanawas with the caption: "Dr. Chapman's class discussed world literature during the Renaissance.")

18 arches winter 2014 Rotterdam. They returned from France three Literature: “First semes­ months later on the Rijtidam, then moved to ter: reading in selected Williamstown, Mass., where Coolidge began translations from Old a four-year teaching stint at Williams College. English prose and In 1932 the pair came to Tacoma. They had poetry, and in Middle two children, John and Helen. Coolidges English other than Chapman waits for a bus in the CPS bus shelter. When the very tall College of Puget Sound salary in 1940 was Chaucer. Second semes­ Professor Chapman was not standing, he tended to slouch a bit. ter: rapid reading of $2,600. (From the 1949 Tamanawas with the caption: "My lazy day") At CPS Coolidge Otis Chapman found Chaucer in the original. what he was looking for—a physical and Discussion and reports.” intellectual home. Fie teamed up with Julius Old and Middle English Literature alternated of distinction is perhaps best understood Peter Jaeger to form a dynamic duo that tow­ ever)' two years with Chapmans yearlong Lit­ through the increasing quality of the fac­ ered over the English department for decades erature of the English Renaissance course. ulty. Certainly it never has been better, but and epitomized across the campus intellectual When interviewed in 1947 by a Trail one of the greats of the past who could be standing in teaching and rigor in research. reporter, Professor Chapman named Dante, slipped into the current professorial milieu Jaeger, who himself came to Puget Sound in Chaucer, and Wordsworth as his favorite and counted among the best is Coolidge Otis 1929, was chair of the department until he poets. But, he said, “Each is so great in his Chapman. His approach to teaching was retired in 1952. Chapman took over the chair own way, that I cannot say which of them I thoroughly modern. He declared that ever)' in 1952 for the last seven years of his Puget admire most.” Professor Chapman went on, class meeting was a new experience. “The Sound career. Jaeger and Chapman were the “The purpose of literary studies is not merely students make them interesting. Each student only full professors in the English department to learn the names, dates, and works of the brings a new mind, and I learn as much from for more than 30 years, until Harold Simon­ principal writers, but to build a philosophy of them as they do from me—maybe a little son attained that rank in the 1960s. life by which one can live.” Apparently Pro­ more.” As soon as Chapman arrived at Puget fessor Chapman was good at transferring this Professor Chapman enjoyed seven years Sound, he and Jaeger restructured the Eng­ enthusiasm to his students. The Trail reporter of retirement before passing away of cancer lish departments literary studies curriculum. wrote: “Professor Chapman is so deeply inter­ at age 71 on Aug. 29, 1966. Twelve years Introduction to English Literature and World ested in his profession that his classes vibrate later, someone who had known Chapman Literature, both yearlong courses, were under his interesting lectures. Dr. Chapman well became director of a reinvigorated Hon­ required of all majors. Majors then selected is regarded by all who know him as one of the ors Program, designed to be integrated with upper-level literature courses from two most understanding and kindest professors at the new core curriculum. Professor Robert groups. Group I—Professor Chapmans bai­ CPS.” Albertson ’44 was instrumental in helping liwick—included medieval literature, Renais­ Chapman retired from teaching at the to shape the form of the Honors Program, sance literature, and Shakespeare courses. end of the spring 1959 semester. A banquet which continues essentially unchanged in its Group II—Professor Jaegers area—consisted attended by colleagues and students was held purpose to the present day. Since its imple­ of 18th- and 19th-century literature courses. in his honor at the Top of the Ocean restau­ mentation in 1979-80, the Honors Program Both profs had on occasion taught pretty rant. President R. Franklin Thompson pre­ has promised that those who complete much everything in the department, includ­ sented Chapman with an inscribed silver tray, requirements of the program, including the ing required composition courses, but their and Dean John Regester spoke of Professor critically important honors thesis, will be basic teaching and literary research interests Chapmans humility. In response to the acco­ designated Coolidge Otis Chapman Honors complemented each other perfectly and made lades bestowed upon him, Professor Chap­ Scholars at graduation, with that designa­ for a smooth-running department. The two- man said, “I think some of the things they tion appearing on die academic transcript. group classification of upper-level literature said about me were pretty much exaggerated.” And so the legacy of a tall, thin professor of courses continued in the English department Humility indeed. literary studies lives on. Believing, as he said, from the early 1930s until after 1959. In writing about the history of our col­ that purposeful literary study can help “build Here is the description of a typical lege, we sometimes emphasize too much its a philosophy of life by which one can live,” Coolidge Otis Chapman upper-division buildings and administrative leaders. Devel­ Professor Chapman continues to inspire stu­ course, the yearlong Old and Middle English opment of the college to its current level dents today. — John Finney '67, P'94

winter 2014 arches 19 Shock and awe Media ■gHfj We got a nice note from Professor We didn’t plan it this way, but it certainly is a happy ■j \/-A Emeritus of Biology Ernie Karistrom, KgS: letting us know about a chapter in a new circumstance: For this edition of Arches in which the written word is a theme, we received a record number of notices for new r ' “i book called Full Rip 9.0, which is about alumni and faculty books and CDs—so many of them that our the inevitability of a quite-awesome little staff regrets not having the resources to provide our usual i V* jfl earthquake in Western Washington. The reviews. (Fervent apologies, authors; there were just too many of H chapter that Ernie tipped us off to is on you!) Readers, we hope, will follow their interests with a Google Professor Emeritus of Physics Frank Danes' discovery search for more information on these good books. — CL of the Seattle Fault. I In November 1965, Professor DaneS published a short paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research that presented an unsettling new theory: An active fault cuts NEW FACULTY-AUTHORED BOOKS east-west across Elliott Bay and south Seattle. Few suspected that Seattle was in danger of an earthquake when Danes began the work that appeared Introduction to International in the report, but he'd had an intimation. In 1961 he had Political Economy ; borrowed a gravimeter from the University of Minnesota David N. Balaam, Bradford Dillman and used it to measure the gravity near his home on Professors of International Political Mercer Island. Economy 608 pages, softcover "I ran a little survey," he told Arches back in 2005, Pearson "and it was pretty obvious that something was going on." There were nine co-authors on his Geophysical Research paper, all of them high school students. Their help was funded by a grant focused on introducing kids Dave Balaam, Mike Veseth, and others wrote the first Introduc­ to the natural sciences by having them work on a real tion to International Political Economy in 1996 because there ? science project. really wasn’t an introductory text for the discipline. The book Surveying from Tacoma up to Seattle, DaneS and his has been the go-to text for undergraduate I PE courses worldwide ever since. student team found three areas where the gravitational Balaam and Brad Dillman are the lead authors for this sixth field differed distinctly from an adjacent location. "We edition, which includes contributions from six other Puget traveled together, and the kids took turns taking the read­ Sound faculty members. New material includes an examination ings. We found a huge anomaly (or consistent change in of the Arab Spring, the use of drones, “fracking,” and Brazil’s gravity! at a line that ran roughly between Hood Point and rise. The authors take a look at the global financial crisis and the south Seattle," said DaneS. European debt crisis, both still in full swing as the volume took During the intervening 50 years, geologists have shape. And they examine political gridlock in the U.S. and other made huge strides in understanding when the Seattle reasons that national and international institutions have made Fault zone last moved, where it runs underground, and scant progress toward addressing challenges related to global what drives the movement. Recent evidence shows that energy, food, and the environment. — Greg Scheiderer Tacoma sits astride a massive fault complex, too, like the one in Seattle. "The more we look, the more we find," USGS geolo­ gist Brian Sherrod told us. "Frank Danes found the faults, and we're just proving they're active." Full Rip 9.0 is by Seattle Times science reporter Sandi Doughton, and it’s a fun, fascinating, and a little, ummm, unsettling read.

20 arches winter 2014 NEW FACULTY-AUTHORED BOOKS (cont.) NEW ALUMNI-AUTHORED BOOKS

Communicating Sustainability The Book of Important The Amber Panels of s for the Green Economy Moments Konigsberg (marketing) (fiction) (novel; adventure/history) Richard Wiley'67 Eda Gurel-Atay MOM I David Eilers '91 Assistant Professor of Business nsonnmQ and Leadership Co-edited with Lynn Kahle Community Godfather: How TheWednesdays

Sam Volpentest Shaped the wednEso*y4 (children's novel) Extreme Wine: Searching the History of Hanford and the Julie Wallace Bourbeau '96 \JIN£ World for the Best, the Worst, Tri-Cities (biography) a the Outrageously Cheap, the C. Mark Smith '61

•Mltol!?’*1 Insanely Overpriced, and the Undiscovered Divided We Fall. Ignorant (market analysis) The Child as Natural We Fail. MikeVeseth '72 Phenomenologist (commentary) Professor Emeritus of (philosophy/psychology) A.J. Williams '04 International Political Economy Talia Welsh '95

Where Light Is a Place (fiction) A Million Steps Beverly Conner '78 Live Happy (...damn it) (travelogue/memoir) Instructor in English (memoir) Kurt Koontz '86 Jennifer Cramer-Miller '87

Growing Green Two Ways! GROWING GREEN (memoir) Views ofTacoma and TWO \\AYSI Darrell Reeck Monochromatic Dan Surrounding Area:Through an Retired Professor of Business L\ (illustrated children's book, Artist's Eyes and Leadership in rhyme) (photo book for visitors) Allison Edwards Gharst '00, Carolyn Burt '70, M.Ed.'88 J IT *: M.A.T.'OI

Teaching with Story Ii'.li hill * Simple Summer: ■! Story (teacher's resource) A Recipe for Cooking and m Margaret Read MacDonald Entertaining with Ease | P'93,'96; Jennifer MacDonald (cookbook) Whitman '93, M.A.T/94; and Jonathan Bardzik Nathaniel Whitman '94 photographed by Sam Armocido '08 MUSIC

Prayer as Night Falls: You've Got Me Experiencing Compline (music EP) (spiritual life) Naomi Rykert LaViolette *98 a Kenneth V. Peterson '68 winter 2014 arches 21 Close-uDs

1. What we are looking at: 2. What we are looking at: 3. What we are looking at: 4. What we are looking at: A derivative of Scharrer's ODBP Liquid crystals being cooled after Specimen collected from maple A 30-micron-thick transverse liquid-crystal molecule with a heating from the nematic phase trees along Interstate 5. Fungal spinal cord section from the L4 five-carbon terminal alkyl chain. into regular crystals. hyphae (white hair-like structures) region of a mouse spinal cord. It displays how this liquid crystal from a breach in the This single image is a compilationprotruding Entrant: Mary Packard '15 stays fluid and in the nematic lower cortex of a folios lichen of three images illustrating that phase all the way down to cool Major: Chemistry (Parmelia spp.). Holdfasts (darker spinal circuitry can be reactivated temperatures. Equipment: Nikon Labophot 2 root-like structures) extend out as a result of Paw Withdrawal of the lower fungal cortex. These Learning. Entrant: Ed Vinis '14 POL microscope equipped with a structures allow the lichen to cling Mettler Toledo hot stage FP82HT Entrant: Sophia Raefsky '14 Major: Chemistry and a FP90 central processor to its substrate. Major: Exercise science Equipment: Nikon Labophot 2 Entrant: Kelsey Crutchfield- (People's Choice Winner) POL microscope equipped with a Peters '14 Equipment: Zeiss Axiophot Mettler Toledo hot stage FP82HT fluorescent microscope; pictures Major: Biology and an FP90 central processor. were taken using Image-Pro Microscope had a USB attach­ Equipment: Scanning electron software. ment connecting it to a Dell microscope computer. (Judges' Choice Winner)

22 arches winter 2014 We were intrigued last summer when we saw the announcement for a student microscopy-image contest sponsored by the Puget Sound science-core facility (the lab where imaging and detection instruments are kept; www.pugetsound.edu/ sciencecorefacility), and by Nikon Instruments and Leica Microsystems. The contest guidelines called for any image taken on a microscope at Puget Sound; no digital editing allowed. The judging took place in September. Here are some of the entries:

20 um

5. What we are looking at: 6. What we are looking at: One 7. What we are looking at: Visual­ 8. What we are looking at: The Root nodules of Scotch broom less-than-24-hour-old Drosophila izing dPRL-1 during embryogenesis. nematic phase of a tetramethylated (Cytisus scoparius) prepared as melanogaster embryo, stained These fruit fly embryos are stained oxadiazole core-based liquid crystal cross-sections then illuminated for DNA (DAPI) and dPRL-1 (Cy3). for DNA (DAPI, blue) and dPRL-1 cooled to room temperature. In with confocal microscopy. The plant dPRL-1 (fuchia-color) is our pro­ (Cy3, orange, our protein of interest the bottom left the nematic phase tissue auto-fluoresces in response tein of interest in Professor in the Saucedo lab). It's interesting is crystallizing, demonstrating the to three wavelengths of light, Leslie Saucedo's lab, as it is over­ to note the dispersal of dPRL-1 in delicate balance between the nem­ revealing what may be vascular expressed in many mammalian the younger embryo (top) as com­ atic (liquid crystal) phase and the bundles around the inner edge of cancers. pared to the more developed one slightly more thermodynamically (bottom). favorable crystalline phase. each nodule. Entrant: John Valenzuela '13 Entrant: John Valenzuela '13 Entrant: Robin Harkins ’13 Entrant: Michaela Alden '13 Major: Molecular and cellular Major: Biology biology Major: Molecular and cellular Major: Biochemistry biology Equipment: Nikon D-Eclipse C1 Equipment: Fluorescent light Equipment: Nikon Labophot 2 Confocal microscope and EZ-C1 microscopy (200X): Olympus BX40, Equipment: Fluorescent light POL microscope equipped with a software ProgRes C3. X-Cite Series 120Q microscopy (200X): Olympus BX40, Mettler Toledo hot stage FP82HT ProgRes C3, X-Cite Series 120Q and an FP90 central processor

winter 2014 arches 23 first person ......

As our Arches student intern enters his final semester, thoughts on what college means TheThomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation commits When my roommate Brian and I were freshmen, we had $2 million in support of a new a shtick. Anytime we did something a little wild or irre­ sponsible we would just say one word: “College.” When Athletics and Aquatics Center we bought tons of cookies at Safeway? College. Stayed up Counting toward a dollar-for-dollar match pledged watching a movie on a school night? College. Drove 25 by a group of Puget Sound trustees, the gift miles for a burrito? College. brings us S4 million closer to the $17.5 million But entering my last semester of college I’m starting to goal for the center and our $125 million goal reflect on what “college” and my time at Puget Sound have overall. The new center is a key component really meant to me. Yes, it’s been cookies and movies and of the college's strategic plan to strengthen a distant burritos, but of course there’s been much more. For comprehensive academic-residential learning me, college has been about community. It’s been about try­ experience, providing physical fitness facilities ing leadership roles. And it’s been about exploring who I am for the entire campus community and supporting by critically engaging with the world. academic programs in exercise science, physical When I began, community just sort of came with signing up for college. But as therapy, and occupational therapy. time has gone on I’ve found that community—like everything—is what you make it. Sure, after a while I felt comfortable in a community of people who smile as you Take a virtual tour and see for yourself! walk by. But communities also are units formed around common goals. Hillel, the pugetsound.edu/aquatics-center Jewish student organization that I’ve gone to every week for the last four years, is a community. My fraternity is a community. KUPS is a community. Even those of us who seem to reside in Diversions have a mini community. I tried my hand at leading a lot of things in my time here. I think at one point I was president of three clubs and on the executive committee of two others, not to mention my three jobs. And while some of my tries at leading were more successful than others, I learned from them all. Without this space that we call college, that sort of intense leadership training would never have been possible. As I look toward the job market I’m soon to enter, I’ve found myself wondering: Did I make the right decision about choosing a college? I’m hoping to go into pub­ lic radio, so why didn’t I go to journalism school? The answer is the last meaning of college: Exploring myself. Going to J-school might have taught me technical skills, but the liberal arts are about the intangibles of a deeper education: How to think. How to write. How to critically engage with the world. And most important, how to explore, be curious, and more deeply understand yourself. Any technical skills that I’ll pick up will only stand on top of the liberal arts foundation I’ve built. I’ve grown in unexpected ways in my time at Puget Sound. When I entered, for exampie, I was intent on being a politics and government major and on one day running for public office. But in my freshman seminar I found a new passion in

KtNDtRWQ English studies and a new goal—radio. “College” encouraged me to explore new UNlVt RSITV or PUGET SO- ". dimensions of myself and the world of ideas and experiences around me. Over the years, I’ve found myself using the word “college” outside of Brian’s and my shenanigans. When I walk out of a professor’s office having spent an hour dis­ THE CAMPAIGN cussing literary theory? That’s college. When I leave the library after hours of writ­ FOR UNIVERSITY ing a paper and smell the crisp night air? College. When it takes me half an hour to get my food ^because I keep running into friends in the SUB? College. [OFAKIND] OF PUGET SOUND College no longer means what it did four years ago. Now, college is a space Cre £°U!? aI1°We^1 co exPlore and grow and blossom. Now, its defined by experi­ $109.2 MILLION RAISED* ences College isnt just a noun—it can also be a verb that you apply after gradua­ tion. And as I enter my last semester, I hope to “college” well. $125 MILLION GOAL — Ian Fox '14

*AS OF DEC. 31, 2013 We ride the bus with the womens and mens basketball teams on the longest, wildest, funnest, and ultimately

most inspirational road trip of the season.

by Chuck Luce

photographs by Ross Mulhausen

winter 2014 arches 25 homework and can even tell who completed the now Falling on Cedars is the book David Coach Loree Payne, in her fourth year at Guterson is best known for, but it’s Gut- Puget Sound, arrives with tonights supper: a assignments, and when. The men’s basketball erson’s second novel, East of the Moun­ six-box stack of pizzas she just picked up from team uses Hudl, too. Men’s Head Coach Justin S Little Caesars. So much for the glamour of the Lunt told me he is a “Hudl-aholic.” So the tains-, that I’m thinking about as Arches photog­ rapher Ross Mulhausen and I leave our offices head-coach job at a top-tier NCAA Division teams watch a lot of Hudl. and head to Memorial Fieldhouse. East of the III college. Couple of minutes later, and we’re Mountains is about a lot of things, but mostly rolling down 11th Street. Couple of minutes 4 p.m. By the time we reach 1-5 the bus is it’s about the value of life, and it plays out over after that, and the pizza is gone. quiet. The 16 players have arranged themselves the course of an epic road trip from the Puget as they do on every trip, whether an odyssey like Sound lowlands, over Snoqualmie Pass, and 3:45 p.m. Coach Payne passes out the trip this one or across town to PLU. One person into Washingtons apple country. We’re going to itinerary. On the schedule for the next 24 per pair of seats so there’s room to stretch out be traveling east, too, with the basketball teams hours: and sleep. The two seniors at the rear; juniors, by bus to Northwest Conference opponents 9:30 p.m., check in to hotel sophomores, and freshmen in order forward Whitman College, way over there in Walla 11 p.m., curfew from there. Coaches up front. Ross and I at Walla, and Whitworth University, in Spokane. 9:30 a.m., light practice at Whitman gym the back. Around the Puget Sound athletics department 2:30 p.m., depart hotel for pregame meal On-bus activities: watching the movies, they call this trip “going to the W’s.” 4 p.m., depart for Whitman messing around with phones and iPads, knit­ It’s a six-hour drive. After dark. In winter. 6 p.m., beat Whitman (Which will be an un­ ting, sewing, reading. Over the pass. Which together have a way of dertaking. The Whitman womens basketball This trip is a little unusual in that it’s during making arrival times, shall we say, approximate. team is undefeated and ranked #4 nationally the college’s wiinter break. Normally the players Me ’n Ross will be riding with the women’s in D-III.) would be using bus time to study, but today team outbound on this rainy Thursday after­ The players have brought along DVDs to they get to read for pleasure; no homework! noon and returning with the men just before play on the bus’s video system. Payne an­ They’ve been passing around The Fault in Our dawn early, early, early Sunday morning. nounces: “For movies, pick three and submit Stars, a novel about a 16-year-old cancer patient them to the coaches. The players discuss their who meets and falls in love with a former Thursday, Jan. 9,3:15 p.m. At the field choices. 21Jump Street, they agree, and the basketball player who lost a leg due to cancer, house, the bus is waiting. We introduce our­ animated Disney film Brave. They’re also reading books assigned by Coach selves to the driver, Tom, a grandfatherly and, lh“ rre SayS’ No! No! We JUSt Wam PaXne: The Energy Bits, The No Complaining we will learn, very punctual man who is if not to war u ■ Rule, Training Camp, and Soup by the team- officially then certainly in practice the team’s This is a joke. Hudl is a software program building and leadership guru Jon Gordon. More exclusive driver. He’s been taking the women to that allows coaches and players to review video on that project in a bit their games since 2002, and he and his bus will clips of games and practices and evaluate J be with the team all weekend. The players begin LCf“o“sLTfic ii,d-0H 0,PPOnenB’ Plays 5:°5 P.m. Darkness. Slow going over Sno- arriving, hefting travel bags, and big pillows will be facing. “It really helps playeSef7 Taffi™ ^ "*** * Sn°Wing £arneS' and fuzzy blankets. can see themselves,” Coach Payne told me m°Vmg' 3:30 p.m. The team boards and gets settled, “See how they do things. They might think chatting excitedly. As if there’s some sort of they are executing an action correctly, but 5:30 p.m. A tray of chocolate chip cookies made by one of the players is passed around. invisible choir conductor present, every few when they can observe themselves from off minutes they bust out in unison a few lines of the court they see how to do it better." The song lyrics unrecognizable to this geriatric cor­ software resides on the Web. All the players 5*30 p.m. Restroom stop outside Richland* respondent. have logins, and coaches assign them Hudl From experience, the players avoid the onboar toilet. Grody, they told me.

26 arches winter 2014 1/10/14 5:43 p.m.

9:30 p.m. Arrive at Best Western, Walla The mens team arrives. They sit in the of the next nine minutes they tied the game. Walla, on schedule. The coach has room as- stands behind the women and cheer them on Sank a few 3-pointers, the Puget Sound bench signments worked out ahead of time. Four heartily. lumping up and roaring their heads off at each players to a room. one. With 2:30 left in the game they were 8 p.m. Mens game begins. up by 8, then they slipped a little and ended Friday, Jan. 10, 7 a.m. Chowing down on regulation locked at 80 points apiece. In the the hotels free continental breakfast. five-minute overtime the Loggers just couldn't A RESERVE OF HEART seem to sink a field goal. Final score 94-87, 9:15 a.m. On the bus for the short ride to I wish I could report some W's on the trip to Whitman. But man. It was one of the most Whitman and a light practice before tonights the W's. Alas, the teams lost all four games. remarkable comebacks I've ever seen, and game at 6. Turns out that they were expecting They were, each one, tough losses—closer that's from a guy who's been around the game us at 9 a.m. and another team will be practic­ than you might assume from seeing the of basketball for a while. Heck, I was playing ing at 10, so the women have only half an scores alone, but I won't take up space with the sport back when Converse Chuck Taylor I hour to get the feel of the gym. Team meeting play-by-play accounts and stats. You can find All-Stars were the high-tech basketball shoe, after the shoot-around to go over the scouting all you want of that sort of thing in press not a fashion choice for lead guitarists in indie report. Then back to the hotel. reports and on the colleges' websites. I do rock bands. The guys battling back with such want to offer a bit of detail on the Whitman heart and coming so close to pulling off an 2:30 p.m. Back on the bus. Destination: The games, though. The women were facing one astonishing win was a joy to watch. Tiki Teriyaki Grill for the pregame meal. A of the top-ranked teams in the country, and Hawaiian joint. Coach Payne says its a great they played a close first 15 minutes. At half­ little reminder of home for the two players on time they'd done a pretty good job of meeting 10:50 p.m. Switching to the mens bus, now. the team from Hawai‘i. Good food and huge Coach Payne's goals. But one stood out: con­ Silence after a loss. The team has not eaten portions. This correspondent pigs out on fish taining their opponents' field-goal percentage. since afternoon, so we drive around looking tacos. The Fighting Missionaries were making more for a grocery store that’s still open. Find an than half their shots—which is excellent—and Albertsons that’ll close at 11. The coaches run 4:40 p.m. Now back at Whitman, they crank that ultimately proved too hard to overcome. in and fill a shopping cart with every premade up the tunes on the gym sound system as the In the men's game, after a nerve-wracking first sandwich they can find, plus a bunch of Gato- women warm up. half during which Whitman pulled ahead and rade and chocolate milk, and vegetable platters the Loggers then caught up several times, and fruit. 5:30 p.m. Pregame review. Coach Payne the teams went to the locker rooms with goes over the scouting report again and a list Whitman up by nine. In the second half, the 11 p.m. Logger Head Athletic Trainer Craig of about a dozen specific goals for die game: Missionaries continued to add to their lead. Bennett calls his colleague at Whitworth— How many rebounds they want; how many By the 12-minute mark they had clawed ahead Craig knows everybody in his field since he’s turnovers; how many fouls; how many points by 18 points in an every-bucket-an-effort-of- president of the Washington State Athletic they want to limit the Whitman star player to. complete-exhaustion, diving-on-the-floor, Trainers’ Association—and asks if some of dogfight of a game. (By the time it was over, our guys can come over in the morning for 6 P-m. The gym sound system, which has 60 personal fouls had been called. Talk about ice baths, which will help them heal from been working fine and loud up until now, a war.) Things were starting to look bleak. And the battering they took during the Whitman mysteriously ceases functioning when it comes then ... and then something remarkable hap­ game. Amazingly at this hour Craig reaches the time for the national anthem. So the crowd pened. Somehow the Loggers reached down Whitworth trainer, who says, sure, by all means sings it a cappella. into their socks and found a reserve of—what bring them in; we’ll have it all set up. to call it? Resolve? Fortitude? Over the course Class act, those Whitworth folks.

winter 2014 arches 27 1/1 (1/M 8:50 p.m. ;

11:05 p.m. Now ready to head out on the do. Despite the long previous night they are, understatement of the century. There were four-hour drive to Spokane, the bus driver, umm, pretty awake by the time we head back posters with big glittered letters that would Elizabeth, stands to make an announcement: to the hotel. Coaches then go to Costco, a be hung in the locker room, a cardboard “So its blowing pretty good out there,” she couple of doors down the road from the hotel, "bus" (complete with tickets) to illustrate says. “When were topping the hills the bus to buy lunch and bring it back. The Energy Bus, and a couple of remark­ is going to get knocked around a bit. Don’t ably high-production-value videos that the worry. If it feels like were weaving in and out 5 p.m. Team meeting to go over the Whit­ students filmed and edited. A hoot to watch, of our lane its not me falling asleep. Its just worth scouting report and review films of the but, more important, many good points the wind.” Pirates’ plays. On Hudl, of course. made about attitude and team building. Very comforting. Logistics managers I could cite a million 6 p.m. Women’s game tipoff. examples of this, too—the details of plan­ 11:30 p.m. While the players try to doze, ning practices and organizing game days Coach Lunt, who is sitting in front of me, is 8 p.m. Men’s game tipoff. and coordinating all that with the students' reviewing on his iPad stats and films of the Both teams play close, punishing defensive academic work—but here’s an example from Whitworth team. This he does the entire trip contests. They try so hard, but their fatigue the trip. When the men's team got to the i and even after we reach Spokane. Tonight he shows in the last few minutes. hotel in Spokane at 3 a.m., after the players J will get three hours’ sleep. had their room keys and were off to bed, I overheard Coach Lunt arranging with the Saturday, Jan. 11,3 a.m. Arrive at the Qual­ WHAT COACHES DO desk clerk to extend the hotel's breakfast ity Inn near Whitworth University. Check-in Even those of us who work at places like hours so the guys could get a little extra rest is mercifully quick because the coaches have Puget Sound have scant idea of what a after such an unbelievably punishing game arranged things ahead of time. coach's job at a Division III college is all about. but still get some decent food. We see them at games, sure, nervously pac­ 4 a.m. Can’t sleep. Too wired after that crazy, ing the sidelines. Diagramming plays during emotional game. Can’t imagine what the play­ timeouts. Hollering directions. What we don't Sunday, Jan. 12,7:15 a.m. The original ers and coaches are going through. see so much, but what constitutes a huge plan was to head for home after the Whit­ part of their jobs is them as: worth game. Drive all night and get back 9 a.m. Continental breakfast again. Coach Teachers. I could write an entire article on around 4 a.m., which would save the cost of Lunt decides not to have a light practice. The this topic, but here's one example. Earlier in another night in the hotel. But there was a team is familiar with the Whitworth field these pages I mentioned that Coach Payne raging snowstorm in the mountains on Satur­ house, and it’ll be more beneficial if they had given her players reading assignments. day, and getting across Snoqualmie Pass was can just spend the day resting. Plus, nobody She divided the team into groups of four, iffy. The coaches and drivers decided it’d be is bummed that they’ll be able to watch the and each group was to read one of the Jon safer to stay and make the attempt in daylight. Seahawks’ playoff game on TV. Gordon books. They then had to dream up So, first thing on Sunday, the players are presentations in which they summarized the sprawled around the hotel lobby, luggage ) 10 a.m. On the bus for the short ride to themes of the books and talked about how at the ready. They have recovered from the Whitworth. As promised, the Whit train­ those themes applied to the team. Each loss—back to their usual good-natured- ers have two nice big pools full of ice water player also was to talk for a few minutes bantering selves—but they are seriously ready ready. Try to imagine the last time you took a about what in the book made a personal to go home. The bus driver, Elizabeth, enters screaming dip in a glacier-fed mountain lake impression on her. A week after the W's trip and heads straight for Coach Lunt. Points out and what it would be like to sit immersed I was invited to watch the presentations. something on her cellphone. Brief conversa­ in it for 10 minutes. Thar’s what our players To say they were creative would be the tion. They nod in agreement. Coach turns to

28 arches winter 2014 1/11/1? 8:58 p

the team and announces: “All right, boys, were know your opponents really well. But, hey, 3 p.m., precisely Arrive at Memorial Field- staying another night.” we’re all Tacomans, and you don’t leave a house. Home. A trip that should have taken Dead silence from the guys. comrade-in-arms on the battlefield. Coach a little over four hours took eight. Back just Then he says, “Nah. Just kidding.” says, “Of course we’ll pick them up.” in time for the teams to do it all over again. The lobby explodes in relieved laughter. Wednesday is PLU. Noon, milepost 74 Traction tires required 9:05 a.m. On 1-90, sage prairie and hay fields for trucks and buses, so we pull over to chain roll by, tans and grays under a metallic sky up. Elizabeth told us earlier that so far this AN INSPIRATION from horizon to horizon. Coach Lunt checks winter she hasn’t had to install chains. She’s So what's the takeaway? What did we learn the WSDOT pass reports. Snowing hard at actually looking forward to it. “I killed it in on this epic trip east of the mountains? To Snoqualmie, and it is closed to trucks and training,” she said. Still, not exactly a snapjob begin with, this. I think: If you are ever feeling buses. on a bus. There goes another half an hour. negged-out about the state of the world, feel­ Swell. ing pushed down by the human greed and We’ll be pulling off at Ellensburg to con­ 12:35 p.m. Back under way. Clunking along lies and bad behavior that the media seem I sider options. at 15 mph. to get such delight out of rewarding with notice, all you have to do is hang around with 10:40 a.m. In Ellensburg. Snoqualmie Pass 1:30 p.m. We progress all of one mile in an some Puget Sound student-athletes. They are is still closed, so we decide to hit a pancake hour, but (yay!) the temperature is rising and smart, funny, selfless, tireless, and unflap­ restaurant for brunch (“$10 maximum,” calls snow has turned to rain. Chains can come off. pably positive. An inspiration, to be sure. Coach Lunt), hoping that by the time we get Pull over at first opportunity, and 15 minutes But—mostly—what we observed is that the done the pass will open. Which turns out to later we’re climbing the pass at normal speed. players, trainers, and coaches take care of be the case. Hour and a half from now and one another, and that, ladies and gentlemen, we’re home, we think. But ... not so fast. 1:40 p.m. We pull off the road at Exit 43 is what sport, and life, are all about. to meet the PLU team. Their hobbled bus 11:50 a.m. OK, I swear I’m not making this (transmission busted) is parked at the base up. The Pacific Lutheran basketball teams had of the exit ramp. Our guys crowd into the RS. Since PLU got wrapped up in this story their “going to the W’s” trip concurrently with back to leave open seats up front for the PLU it seemed appropriate to report on how the ours, playing on opposite nights. So they’ve players. The PLU teams have been waiting in games against them went. We won ’em both. been living a parallel experience. Our driver’s the cold and wet for three hours. (Unlike us The women, handily. They moved the ball phone rings. It’s her dispatcher. He tells her they sent both groups on a single bus.) Our with terrific snap and dominated the boards; that the PLU bus (same transportation com­ women’s-team bus, which was ahead of us, the best I’ve ever seen them play. The men, pany as ours) has broken down near the top of picked up the PLU women. We have 22 open well, we’ll try to forget the first 10 minutes. the pass. Can we pick up the PLU teams and seats, and, good luck, there’re 20 PLU coaches But as I’m learning is characteristic of their bring them to Tacoma? and players still needing a lift. The PLU guys team, they hung in there—simply refused to This might be a little awkward. board, looking thoroughly wiped. As the first lose and gutted out a victory. We’re talking about PLU, here. I hesitate player steps on, he says, “Thank you. Thank to say the crosstown rivalry between the two you. Thank you for stopping. This has been Like Arches on Fncebook to see an album of schools is bitter, but it’s certainly intense. This the trip from helL ” additional photos from the trip. is the team we’ll be playing on Wednesday, Rolling again, heading for Route 18 and three nights from now, in a match that for Tiger Summit. Players don’t interact much, Chuck Luce is the editor of this magazine. both men and women will be of hard-fought but the coaches from both schools sit together Ross Mulhausen is in his 26th year as the league importance. Nothing like getting to up front and have a long, laughing exchange. university photographer.

winter 2014 arches 29 assmates I Your paper and ink social networking site since 1973

36 Alumni news and correspondence

40 Alumni Association news and events

43 In memoriam

47 Scrapbook I /■xMm . .

' ■

WHAT WE DO: Caleb Brown ’03

Alternate reality

Otters the size of skyscrapers. Track runners leaping from a fiery explo­ sion. Skydivers jumping out of airplanes into the jaws of a giant floating shark. These are the kinds of scenes depicted in Caleb Browns surrealist paintings. r “In a culture where we’re inundated with so many images all the time, we experience a kind of image numbness,” says Caleb. “(For me] to make one still image that has any sort of gravitas or bring any atten­ tion to it, it had to be ridiculous and overblown. My paintings are es­ sentially about the modern world, but I’m talking about them in these overblown parables.” Surrealism traditionally deals with the subconscious, often ab­ stractly and in the most Freudian sense. Caleb’s paintings are surreal, for sure, but his work isn’t necessarily inwardly drawn. In fact, it deals with concerns about the world at large, such as climate change, genetic engineering, and cultural trends. And did I mention the giant sharks? There are giant sharks. m Beyond the immediacy of Caleb’s work is a surprising tension be­ tween the ridiculousness of what’s depicted and realist-level detail. Ca­ 111:- leb says he takes inspiration from Flemish religious oil paintings of the 15th century. In these altar pieces, fantastical stories from the Bible are depicted with such realism that they result in what Caleb describes as a “heightened reality.” Born and raised on the very northwest tip of Washington state, Caleb found himself indoors often, hiding from the rain. He took up painting from a young age and has been making art ever since. Caleb majored in studio art at Puget Sound, and after leaving Tacoma he spent a couple of years in Port­ land, Ore., before moving to the East Coast to get his M.F.A. at Boston University. Up until grad school, Caleb considered himself a much more traditional painter, focusing on por­ traits and still lifes. But he realized that to say some­ thing meaningful about the world, he could create an exaggerated parallel universe to critique our own. The effect is stunning. Tiger Diver 1 offers an im­ Caleb, in N.Y. mediate satirical quality with its giant white tiger underwater, but looking closely for more than a moment, one finds deeper, darker implications: a disturbing critique about scientific experi­ mentation, the treatment of animals, and the perversion of nature. Caleb currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., working full time for fa­ mous pop artist Jeff Koons (whose stainless steel sculpture of a balloon dog recently became the most expensive item sold at auction by a living artist). Caleb’s first solo show, A Modem World, opened in September at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles. It featured seven paint­ ings, the culmination of three years’ work—each painting takes between three and six months to make, and he’s not slowing down. “Right now I’m making another giant otter painting. I keep work­ ing in series to flesh out this world that I’m building,” he says. “By repeating these motifs over and over, you make these unbelievable situa­ tions more believable as you paint the world.” — Kevin Nguyen '09

Otter City 1, oil on More of Caleb's paintings at artistcalebbrown.com canvas, 2012, 35"x 28" winter 2014 arches 31 •

WHAT WE DO: UA, studying oxidative stress and heart disease. Sally Purdom Dickinson \'97 Her interest in basic biological research dates back to her days as an undergraduate at Puget Sound. Wear your vegetables So how would a topical broccoli-based preparation differ from the sunscreens cur­ Coming soon: sunscreen made with broccoli? rently available in stores? Sally’s research shows that sulforaphane is a highly adaptable, highly effective agent when it comes to inhibiting cancer-causing pathways while activating che- ith skin cancer now one of ab°of slnsceed f0r limi'ed,,Un eXP°rSUre and smdy'in collaboration with Johns the most prevalent forms of usema;vf r T' WC " Stl11 Sr'ng far t0° H°Pkins University will rest a topical broc- cancer, researchers are using savs year'” Sa"y C0li SProut Morion °" 'h<-' skin of patients to every tool at their disposal vLlZn 7' 8 f°r betterLmCthods “ « if the compound is effective in “he context ____ to fight the disease. Tie able nd man KI '"r ' H IH’ ofsimulated sunlight. Previous studies have tool of choice for Sally Dickinson? Broccoli. Phane iv he 8C U ^ ^ sh°'™ ^ ** “'act is quite safe for both A diet heavy in cruciferous vegetables, such Tn he Zen T '^ »d oral administration. If the research as broccoli sprouts, has shown potential risk- "CCr CaUSCd by »**■ Mir believes there could be reduction properties for colorectal, prostate, and other cancers. Sally’s research currently focuses Sally is a research assistant professor in the "ZX t , on how sulforaphane—a naturally occurring compound in broccoli that has established che- SrrCetlT" 1skladr""ZvkerS,ty0fAliZo,“S'u°"naCanCerta"t 'ions if the dosage is red properly,” she mopreventive properties—could be used to help measu patients reduce their risk for skin cancer. colis chemopreventLpropenZdurlng hT “y T kn°W X X V"7 But instead of eating broccoli to unlock the postdoctoral studies in 2005 in the laboratorv ^ SUnbu™S> " W See'’ ““ risk-reduction nutrients, she’s asking patients ofTim Bowden, one of the UACCs most in 1?'“" * **“*** I to apply small doses of sulforaphane to their fluential research scientists. o . .... , oallys research could lead to a day when skin. Think of it as a broccoli-based sunscreen Prior to joining Bowdens laboratory parents are instructing their children to not additive. Sally earned her Ph.D. through the Genetics only eat their vegetables, but to wear them. “Even though there is heightened awareness Graduate Interdisciplinary Program at the - Nick Prevenas 32 arches winter 2014

i 1

i

; ;•! WHAT WE DO: Bill Crounse ’71

Good medicine

How a student job answering phones led to a media career teaching people worldwide about staying healthy.

: hese days Bill Crounse is senior direc- j tor for worldwide health at Microsoft, j He travels the globe to help organiza- j tions use technology to improve health j care, and he spreads the word on the I----- 1 company’s popular health blog. How Bill wound up in that role he says can be traced back to a college job answering phones at KTNT. Bill was on a pre-med track at Puget Sound when some Phi Delt brothers helped him get the switchboard gig at TV 11 in Tacoma. He thought the station needed a program for teen­ agers and proposed a variety show featuring two alternate for the University of Washington When the Internet came along, Bill recog­ rock bands, fashion, and cars. The station went School of Medicine, but no spots opened up nized it as another platform for disseminating for it and put the switchboard operator in front so he continued in TV, working for several area health information. He got involved with some of the camera for Operation Communication. stations. After the Boeing bust in the early 70s tech startups and was senior vice president and “Every summer during my years at UPS I he became development director at public sta­ CIO at Overlake Hospital Medical Center in produced and hosted this teenage variety show,” tion WGTE in Toledo, Ohio. Bellevue, where he got to know many Micro­ While there he attended the now-Univer- soft people. Eventually they asked him to help : Bill says. - Before long he was working extensively in sity of Toledo College of Medicine, and he lead the company’s worldwide health efforts. TV. “I was anchoring news in the Seattle-Taco- then returned to the Northwest to be a family He has been there for 12 years. ma market before I was old enough to vote!” physician at Virginia Mason Medical Center And all because of a switchboard job, and in Seattle. But he was known as a broadcaster, because Crounse didn’t get into the UW. Television led to love. During his junior : and TV stations wanted doctors on the air. “I would have been a physician. I doubt year Bill took Professor Ernie Karlstrom’s Win- ; terim course on marine biology in Hawai‘i. The “One thing led to another, and within a that any of these other things would have hap­ year of my coming back to Seattle I was doing next January he went again, this time to make pened in my life,” he marvels. regular reports for channel 4,” Bill says. a film about the course for the program North­ Bill is enjoying the fast-paced work he’s west Traveler. Bill met his future wife, Frances It snowballed. Art Ulene of Today saw doing with Microsoft, finding ways for rapidly Bill’s work and set him up as the anchor for Bisschoff’73, on that trip. A few other students advancing technology to improve health, and Physicians Journal Update, a Los Angeles-based telling the world about it. found their betrothed, too. medical program. Bill also contributed to 7he “I guess there’s nothing more romantic than “Its been a terrific ride,” he says. Health Show on ABC. For 20 years he split several weeks living on the beach in Maui with — Greg Scheiderer time between his medical practice and health- girls in bikinis and swimming.” reporting on TV. Following graduation Bill was the number Bill's blog is at blogs.msdn.com/blhealthblog.

winter 2014 arches 33 Jessica Chou

34 arches winter 2014 _ _ WHAT WE DO: “You don’t just get ‘one shot’ in this busi­ ness. You get several shots,” he says. “But I Steve Little 93 purposely made sure I took the worst day jobs possible so I wouldn’t care about them more than the work I really wanted to do.”

All about Steve As if his showbiz war stories aren’t endear­ ing enough, Steve peppers his work history He's shared stage and screen with comedy with disclaimers like, “Not to sound like an egomaniac.” And “Sorry. I’m pontificating A-listers like Melissa McCarthy and Will Ferrell. again.” You almost wish he would boast a little, especially when it comes to talking about his Now the Eastbound & Down star is nailing big break on Eastbound & Down. the industry's toughest role of all: staying “I went in cold to the audition; I’d never met Danny before,” he says of the show’s co­ grounded in Hollywood. creator and star, Danny McBride, who played the obnoxious ex-baseball star, Kenny Powers. But Steve landed the part of Kenny’s sweetly t’s a rare (and very Tacoma-like) cloudy ny stories. It was this distinct comedy voice that loyal and dim sidekick, Stevie. (That actor and morning in Los Angeles, a fitting climate proved his biggest asset upon applying to UPS. character had the same first name was a total for me to catch up with fellow Logger “I wrote a funny application essay. After I’d coincidence.) Steve Little, who lives just down the been accepted, I learned that when the admis- The show quickly became a raunchy cult road from me in the hip neighborhood of sion counselors were reviewing my file they’d favorite, with many rabid fans in Hollywood, Los Feliz. brought in an English professor because they including shock-musician Marilyn Manson, I’d met Steve briefly at a Hollywood Reporter wanted someone with a good delivery to read it who had a cameo in the final season. (“He likes photo shoot last year and at a Golden Globes aloud. That’s what saved me.” to text me weird stuff,” says Steve of Manson, parry the year before, but I had no idea of his Playing against “type” of The Future Actor, showing me a photo on his iPhone that the UPS connection until recently. (As an obsessed Steve majored not in theater but economics, actor had recently sent of himself with rapper fan of HBO s recently departed Eastbound & with a creative writing minor, in which he fur- Vanilla Ice.) : Down, I found this particularly exciting news.) ther honed his comedy prose. He also took a The finale of the half-hour comedy aired on He’s just turned off a football game as I arrive playwriting class, and as part of that he wrote November 17, after four seasons. “My favorite at his apartment, and he is wearing a look very a piece called Swallowing Bullets, which won thing was living on the beach in North Caro­ 1 popular among actors who’ve recently wrapped the Pierce County playwrights contest and was lina during shooting. It really felt like a family.” a project—I call it the “hiatus beard”—and a performed in the summer of 1992 at Tacoma Of the fame Eastbound has afforded him, weekend-appropriate ensemble of jeans and a Little Theatre. Steve is characteristically humble and says he’s T-shirt. Upon graduating, Steve faced the familiar, mostly recognized by “any guy in a sports jer­ Five minutes into our conversation, Steve is dreaded question: What n