ALUMNI EVENTS ALUMNI You SUPPORT the Mission

MAGAZINE Holy Fajitas!

Food Studies

Ace of Cakes

Edible UMBC: Winter 2010 Winter NONPROFIT ORG NONPROFIT POSTAGE U.S. PAID UMBC 21009 Permit #200 MARCH Week UMBC Career 22 – 26, 2010 March day All UMBC Campus your tune fine to looking you’re Whether as volunteer to want or skills, career own has Week Career students, to a resource you. for something http://www.careers.umbc.edu/careerweek Hippodrome the at STOMP 25, 2010 March show 8 p.m. reception, pre-show 6:30 p.m. Baltimore Theatre, Hippodrome featuring popular show, this for CYA Join everything rubber with from made music sink! $ kitchen the – to chairs hoses to http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/stomp

Professor of psychology Dr. Carlo Carlo Dr. psychology of Professor people how studies who DiClemente, behaviors health and addictive change exercise, diet, drugs, and alcohol including “Changing on talk a give will smoking, and about more read and early, Register Habits.” speakers. D&D upcoming other http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/discussions Dessert & Discussion Dessert 23, 2010 February 6:30 p.m. UMBC Campus

http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/hof [email protected]. $ contact Kevin Gibbons-O’Neill ’86 at ’86 at Gibbons-O’Neill Kevin contact earlier that day. For more information, information, more For day. that earlier as seats at the basketball double header double header basketball the at as seats admission to the induction dinner, as well dinner, induction the to admission Athletic Hall of Fame. Tickets include include Tickets of Fame. Hall Athletic alumni inductees into the UMBC the into inductees alumni BWI Airport Marriott Hotel, Baltimore Hotel, Airport Marriott BWI UMBC eightJoin new welcoming in 6 p.m. cocktails, 7 p.m. induction dinner induction 7 p.m. cocktails, 6 p.m. Induction Dinner Induction 6, 2010 February UMBC Athletic Hall of Fame of Fame Hall UMBC Athletic FEBRUARY

UMBC MAGAZINE County Baltimore Maryland, of University Circle 1000 Hilltop MD 21250 Baltimore, ALUMNI EVENTS ALUMNI You SUPPORT the mission...

They’ll supply the VISION.

Walk into any classroom at UMBC, and you’ll find America’s future blossoming before you. One student may discover a cure for cancer; another could pen the next Tony-winning play. In an ideal world, their potential would be limited only by their willingness to study and to dream.

But, did you know that nearly half of UMBC’s undergraduate students applied for financial aid this year? Others juggle part-time – or even full-time – jobs while enrolled in class, yet many still struggle to pay their tuition each semester. That’s where you come in.

Alumni support provides crucial scholarship funding for UMBC’s best and brightest. Make your gift to the UMBC Annual Fund today.

Wanna be a celebrity culinary www.umbc.edu/exceptional entrepreneur like Ace of Cakes star Duff Goldman ’97? Our Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in the Humanities for Visit www.facebook.com/umbcgoldchallenge 2009 offers a few hints: Don’t to learn more about the GOLD 1000! sweat the numbers. Don’t get complacent. And prepare for some hard knocks. 20 By Ana Marie Cox www.umbc.edu/magazine CONTENTS

Dig in to a winter issue with features dedicated to alumni departments and scholars who devour the culinary world. Plus: Gaze greedily on a selection of our favorite spots to dine on and To You 2 off campus.

From You 3

Up on the Roof 4 14

Hidden Treasure 5 Edible UMBC

The News 6

At Play 8 UMBC American studies professor Warren Belasco has pioneered food studies’ Discovery 10 explosive growth in the classroom and the larger How To 36 culture. By Phoebe Connelly Class Notes 38

Then and Now 46 26 Over Coffee 48 The Scholar at the Supermarket

UMBC alumnus Father Leo Patalinghug ’92 finds the divine in cuisine and competition. His quest may yet make him one of America’s best-known Catholic priests. By B. Rose Huber on the cover 30 Heather Gleason ’08 enjoys Prosciutto Wrapped Diver Scallops at Catonsville Break Bread. Break Boards. Break Dance. Gourmet on Frederick Road. Photo by Melissa Van der Kaay.

Visit UMBC Magazine online at www.umbc.edu/magazine for plenty of web extras! Thoughts, complaints, suggestions about UMBC Magazine? Get in touch at [email protected]. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

2 TO YOU

Welcome to the Winter 2010 issue of UMBC Magazine! The magazine’s staffers have had their taste buds tickled and their bellies filled as we put together an issue that our staff focuses on food. (Excuse us if we’ve put on a few pounds Editor in the process.) Richard Byrne ’86 We also have not been starved for outside attention as Associate Editor a university or a magazine. Check out our “News” section Jenny O’Grady (pages 6 and 7) for stories about Time magazine’s recognition of UMBC president Design Director Freeman A. Hrabowski, III and the bevy of awards that UMBC Magazine already Jim Lord ’99 has picked up in its first months of existence. Designers But I want to spend a few moments articulating a particular hunger that we have Michelle Jordan ’93 at UMBC Magazine that needs to be satisfied. A craving, really. Melissa Van der Kaay Feedback from the readers of UMBC Magazine. UMBC News Staff In the coming months, we will be seeking out such feedback in formal ways, B. Rose Huber including a reconvening of the original focus groups that helped shape the initial Kavan Peterson vision of the magazine two years ago and a survey that we’ll be sending out Contributing Writers randomly to a wide cross-section of readers. Phoebe Connelly Ana Marie Cox But we really want readers to talk to us in other ways: especially with ideas for Joab Jackson ’90 stories, letters to the editor, and submissions to our class notes section. Jeff Seidel ’85 The first two elements are easy enough. We are delighted when we hear about an Joel N. Shurkin alumna or an alumnus whom a reader thinks we should profile, or a memory that James Taylor ’74 a reader thinks would make a great article. And we are eager for any thoughts you Editorial Intern have about the magazine in general or any stories in particular – positive or negative. Holly Britton ’11 Our decision to increase our type size between Winter 2009 and Summer 2009, for Contributing Photographers instance, was directly related to reader feedback. Tom Altany Tracey Brown Class notes, however, are a different issue. Traditionally, they are a vehicle to let Chris Hartlove your former classmates know about career achievements, marriages and new arrivals Michelle Jordan ’93 to your families. And we want all those submissions. Jim Lord ’99 But we’re also hoping that you’ll share other thoughts and memories with us in Erin Ouslander ’03 Melissa Van der Kaay the class notes: Have you run a marathon? Taken up a new hobby? Just returned Kevin Weber from a fabulous trip? Let us know about it. You can submit a class note on our Administration website, or send it along to UMBC Magazine, UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Greg Simmons ’04, M.P.P. Baltimore, MD 21250. Vice President, Institutional Advancement Thanks again for reading! See you again in spring! Miriam Tillman — Richard Byrne ’86 Assistant Vice President, Marketing & Creative Services

Sandra Dzija Director, Alumni Relations & Annual Giving

For information on the Alumni Association, please visit http://retrievernet.umbc.edu or call 410-455-ALUM.

For information on giving to UMBC, please contact the Annual Fund at 410-455-2210 or visit www.umbc.edu/exceptional. www.umbc.edu/magazine

FROM YOU 3

UMBC Magazine welcomes your letters I am an immigrant (from England), had PAPER TRAILS to the editor on any issue related to the applied for U.S. citizenship when I reached A few months back, I was surprised to content of the magazine. You can e-mail 18, and was eventually assigned a hearing receive the summer 2009 issue of and ceremony date at the U.S. District UMBC comments to [email protected]. Faxed in the mail as I was previously Court in Baltimore. On the evening of Magazine comments can be sent to 410-455-1889. unaware that UMBC had a publication. I April 4, 1968, I took an overnight flight You may also send letters to “Letters to the recall enjoying the issue greatly and found from Los Angeles to Baltimore, arriving Editor,” UMBC Magazine, UMBC, 1000 the magazine to be a great way to keep in on the morning of Friday, April 5. My Hilltop Circle, Administration Building, touch with alumni. stepmother drove me to the Federal Baltimore, MD 21250. Courthouse for the hearing and ceremony, I was sad, however, to discover that I never and a couple of hours later I left as a new received the inaugural issue. Likewise, I have ED-DITIONAL citizen of the United States. not received the current issue either. As I frequently travel by train, I would really I graduated from UMBC in 1972. Tuition As we were walking from the courthouse appreciate it if I could get copies of these was $750 per semester. to where the car was parked, I was stopped issues and continue to get this publication I read your article about Dr. Edward Orser by a police officer and strongly advised to in the future. I know the magazine is (Summer 2009). I was part of his senior get off the streets and out of uniform as also published online, however, I am old seminar on Ellicott City. It was a highlight quickly as possible. When I asked why, he fashioned and still like to read off a piece of my last semester there. The American told me – in language far too offensive to of paper. studies major well equipped me for be printed – that Dr. Martin Luther King, graduate school. It is an excellent major. Jr. had been assassinated the night before. I really loved UMBC and I try to stay as That was the first news I had of the event. I attached to the university as I reasonably I went on to seminary in Washington, D.C. spent the weekend at my father’s house in can. This magazine was a great way for me and am retiring on July 1st, after 36 years Montgomery County watching the news to feel reconnected to the school I will of service to churches in the Baltimore almost in a state of shock, and eventually left forever love. I hope you can accommodate Washington Conference of The United to be back in California by Sunday night. my requests. Methodist Church. That is now a pair of dates I cannot forget. — Thomas C. Sova, IV ’02 I will continue to work part time, serving It is also a very vivid pair of memories – Ellicott City two small rural churches on Sundays in becoming a United States citizen, and not northern Baltimore County, MD. ten minutes later being told to get off the Richard Byrne replies: Done. And we urge — Rev. Darryl C. Zoller ’72, American studies streets of Baltimore for fear my Marine any alumni who are having trouble getting a copy Pastor, Bixlers and Millers United Corps uniform might start a riot. of any issue to let us know. We’ll get you the issue(s) Methodist churches, Manchester In the next few years, I eventually came to you missed and update our mailing lists to make UMBC as a student and then spent several sure that you receive each issue in the future. years working in the Baltimore-Annapolis OATHS OF TWO KINDS area before moving out of state. I do not I have just finished reading the excellent often get to the Baltimore area, but next CORRECTIONS article by Christina Ralls about the creation time I do I will make a point of looking for of the Baltimore ’68: Riots and Rebirth this artwork – as well as visiting the UMBC In the article “Incubate/Innovate” (Fall public art project (Fall 2009). campus, which I am sure has changed 2009), the name of Semih Oktay ’93, greatly in the past 35 years! Ph.D., mechanical engineering, I would like to add another perspective to long-time faculty member at UMBC those times. After I graduated from high — Graeme C. Payne ’75, political science and founder of CardioMed Device school (Springbrook, Silver Spring, 1967), I Lilburn, GA enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. By April Consultants, was misspelled. of 1968, I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, UMBC Magazine apologizes for the error. California. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

4 UP ON THE ROOF

UMBC President Freeman A. Q. This semester, the UMBC campus Hrabowski, III, takes your questions. held a series of discussions and lectures marking the 50th anniversary of C.P. Q. You are well-known for your Snow’s 1959 essay “The Two Cultures.” unending energy. Many students and What’s your view on the relationship alums marvel at it and wonder: What between the sciences and humanities is your secret? Do you have any advice at UMBC? for staying energetic and healthy while — Richard Byrne ’86, English, maintaining a busy work schedule? Editor, UMBC Magazine — Julia Tillman ’07, Modern Language and Linguistics A. In my speeches and talks, I like to quote Daniel Pink and his book, A Whole New Mind, A. Balance in life is so important. I am thrilled about left and right brain thinking. to be moving towards my 40th wedding anniversary and my 40th reunion from Ours has been the [information] age of the college. So I’m reflecting this year about what’s “knowledge worker,”…but that is changing… important in life. And what I’m thinking We are entering a new [conceptual] age… about more and more is balance. animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life… Our brains are divided themselves orally with confidence will be That has everything to do with positive into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is increasingly important as we find ourselves energy and creating a spirit of optimism sequential, logical, and analytical. The right challenged by new problems. and hope. Don’t allow things like financial hemisphere is nonlinear, intuitive, and holistic… difficulties to lead to depression and negative Today, the defining skills of the previous era – More and more, leaders on the political side thinking, because it doesn’t help. It’s important the “left-brain” capabilities that powered the and the scientific side need to recognize to be realistic. But it’s also important to information age – are necessary but no longer what different disciplines bring to the table believe that where there’s life, there’s hope. sufficient. And the...“right-brain” qualities as we try to solve these problems. The more Laughter is the elixir. Laughter can be so of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and grounding leaders have in different disciplines, rejuvenating even in the midst of great meaning… increasingly will determine who the more comfortably they can discuss the difficulties. I believe humor and positive flourishes and who flounders… [P]rofessional integration of perspectives. energy go together. If you hear a room with success and personal fulfillment now require a People are starting to understand, too, that laughter, you’ll hear a room where people can whole new mind. it’s not enough to be trained in one discipline. be far more productive. If everybody’s gloomy This speaks to a need for people to be broadly The most interesting discoveries will come and there’s a self-pitying environment, you just educated, and to be able to put their lives in through interdisciplinarity and collaborations don’t get as much done. context. Whether they are planning to be an across disciplines and across institutions. artist or a scientist, they need to understand I also get such positive feedback from That’s the point Daniel Pink is making. The the history of ideas, appreciate ethical students, faculty and staff every day. People logical analytical approach is just not enough. thinking, and being able to think about the who are proud of UMBC and proud to be Innovation and creativity have a lot to do role of technology in society – including the a part of this community. I am energized. I with being able to get beyond a traditional growing relationship between humanity and think we energize each other. approach and connect ideas that may seem artificial intelligence. These are all questions distant from one another in interesting ways. that educated people will have to grapple with for a long time into the future. To send a question to President Hrabowski, visit www.umbc.edu/magazine. So I believe that a liberal education is more important than ever. Teaching students how to think critically and write clearly and express www.umbc.edu/magazine

HIDDEN 5 treasure

UMBC’s Department of Theatre productions garner raves from local critics and audiences. Their latest performance, an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Crystal Egg, was conceived and directed by Colette Searls as a fantasia featuring puppets and advanced animation by the Imaging Research Center. “You won’t see this technique in even the biggest and best regional theaters, such as Baltimore’s CenterStage,” said The Baltimore Sun. Photo: Rich Riggins UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

6 the NEWS

Arbutus ♥ UMBC Prized Profession UMBC is a community that is surrounded by two other communities – Arbutus and Catonsville. But UMBC Magazine may be a relatively young publication, many who work and study at the university don’t but in two recent competitions, our peers have already know much about their neighbors. taken notice of the new kid on the block. In August, Arbutus did its part to change that The first issue of the magazine – Winter 2009 – dynamic by welcoming UMBC back to campus with received an Award of Excellence in the 39th Annual snazzy black-and-gold “Retriever Believer” banners, University & College Designers Association Design emblazoned with the names of local businesses and Competition. The contest recognizes the best of the hung along the town’s main drag. Arbutus’ Hollywood exceptional design work done to promote educational Theater even put the welcome up on its marquee. institutions at the college and university level. The initiative was spearheaded byTerrence Nolan UMBC Magazine’s first two issues – Winter 2009 ’82, political science, president of the Arbutus and Spring 2009 – also garnered two awards in the 2010 Council for Advancement and Support of Education District II Accolades competition, which honors a range of materials published by colleges and universities in support of their mission. UMBC Magazine took a bronze medal in the category which judged four-color magazines in their entirety. The magazine also took home an Honorable Mention in the category of staff writing, including features on UMBC “artist-in-residence” Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher’s collaborations with the Imaging Research Center, a profile of American Studies professor Ed Orser, and other feature articles. Business and Professional Association. “UMBC CASE’s District II is the largest geographic unit represents multimillions in state payroll as well as of the worldwide organization, comprising more millions in student purchases,” he observes. “That’s a than 700 colleges and universities in Delaware, the huge economic growth pull for Arbutus that in 35 District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, years has never actually come to fruition.” Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, West Arbutus has also taken up other outreach initiatives Virginia and the Canadian province of Ontario. in concert with the Greater Catonsville Chamber — Richard Byrne ’86 of Commerce, and its president, George Brookhart, including a survey of the UMBC community on its views about its neighboring towns. “First, we had to identify what the students, faculty and staff ’s needs are,” Nolan says. “And then focus on what Arbutus can do to make that happen.” Nolan also cites a bus tour of both communities for incoming freshman during fall 2009 orientation as a big success. He adds that Arbutus is well past the planning stages to provide an even quicker link between UMBC and its businesses via a bike and walking path. Approval and funding await other two other communities’ completion of similar plans. — Richard Byrne ’86 www.umbc.edu/magazine

Time Keeper UMBC alumni know that the university’s honor for each of us to be a member of the the state and community college level (Juliet president, Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, UMBC community.” García of University of Texas at Brownsville and is one of the most highly-regarded figures Among the impressive company that Eduardo Padrón of Miami Dade College.) in higher education leadership. But that UMBC and its president are keeping? The head Hrabowski used the national platform notion recently received some concrete of the University of California system (Mark to talk about UMBC’s national reputation acknowledgment from one of America’s Yudof), the presidents of three major public for diversity and excellence in science and leading newsweeklies. research universities (E. Gordon Gee of The engineering, but also pointed out its role as a In the November 23, 2009 issue of Time Ohio State University, Mary Sue Coleman of liberal arts institution. “I often say to people magazine, Hrabowski was ranked among the University of Michigan, Michael Crow of that yes, over half of our students are in science “The 10 Best College Presidents” in a special Arizona State University), three leaders of elite fields, but the other half are in [liberal] arts,” education package published by the magazine. private schools ( John Sexton of New York he told Time. “We’re working to build a “This recognition reflects the campus’ University, Scott Cowen of Tulane University university that has first-rate research across success and the high quality of the academic and Ronald Liebowitz of Middlebury College) all disciplines.” experience here,” says Hrabowski. “It’s an and two innovators tackling challenges at — Richard Byrne ’86

Socks, Squirrels and Songs You’re UMBC’s Office of Alumni Relations story, UMBC’s a capella singing group Mama’s months. And check out the first one at and Annual Giving. You want to motivate Boys provided the human talent. Thus was a the GOLD Challenge’s Facebook fan the university’s alumni to participate in a new campaign aimed at raising money for student page at www.facebook.com/ “GOLD Challenge” program to get 1,000 scholarships launched on Facebook, YouTube umbcgoldchallenge. new graduates of the last decade to give at any and Twitter. — Richard Byrne ’86 amount before June 30, 2010. O’Grady is Start with a sock puppet. Throw in a song. proud of the Then get busy social networking. results – achieved The GOLD Challenge campaign launched with maximum in December with a video starring Professor T. ingenuity and a. Skwirl, one of a pair of sock puppet squirrels minimum fashioned by Jenny O’Grady, director of alumni outlay. “We and development communications, and Erin did it with Ouslander ’03, visual arts, designer for zero budget,” the university’s creative services team, over a she says. November lunch hour. Look for “We were looking for something all more videos alumni have in common,” O’Grady says. “No featuring matter when you attended UMBC, everyone squirrels remembers the squirrels.” and other UMBC The first ad focused on Timmy, a student a capella groups – as who’s coping with the high costs of college well as the stories of and needs a helping hand from young alumni. current scholarship Using a modified Subway jingle to tell Timmy’s recipients – in coming UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

8 AT PLAY

Gael Force World Class Coach Catonsville’s a long, long way from Tipperary, but a local band with a strong UMBC connection is Lacrosse has been kind to Ricky Fried ’88, history. bringing Ireland and other musical ports of call a lot His stellar career at UMBC landed him a spot on the closer with their music. university’s All-Time men’s lacrosse team. Fried has Five of the six members of fiddlin’ around (yes, since become a star head coach in the burgeoning the name is lower case) call UMBC their alma mater field of women’s lacrosse at The Johns Hopkins or their workplace. Tara Ebersole ’08, Ph.D., University and at Georgetown University. public policy, Dave Aylsworth ’74, American Last summer, he earned an even more prestigious Studies and Sarah Moreland ’97, M.S. electrical honor when he was named head coach of the 2009- engineering, are alumni. Eric Ebersole is a lecturer 2013 U.S. Women’s Lacrosse National Team – a job in UMBC’s sociology department, and Terry he will hold along with the Georgetown job. Aylsworth is the executive administrative assistant in Women’s lacrosse is second only to women’s golf in its growth as an NCAA sport over the last decade. Fried was an assistant coach with the American team that won the gold medal at the Federation of International Lacrosse World Cup in Prague last summer. Now, he looks forward to the chance to hold on to that title in 2013. “You get an opportunity to work with elite athletes,” says Fried. “At [this] level, that’s the pinnacle of women’s lacrosse. It’s a great responsibility and it’s a privilege to be in that position. I’m excited about the challenges.” the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Fried began his coaching career as an assistant (Akron University graduate Bill Batman rounds out with the men’s team at UMBC. After a stint at The the group.) Gilman School, he became an assistant coach for The band’s layered sound – which weaves mandolin, the Johns Hopkins women’s team. Fried stayed at harmonica, flute, fiddle, and a traditional Irish drum Johns Hopkins for nine years before taking over at called a bodhran into a more customary guitar, bass Georgetown. The 2010 season will be his sixth as the and drums – offers a myriad of musical possibilities. Hoyas’ head coach. “We can go from traditional Irish to eclectic, and — Jeff Seidel ’85 then we fill in the rest,” Terry Aylsworth explains. “We’ll throw in some bluegrass, some Johnny Cash, or any music we want to play that doesn’t have a niche.” The band’s musical mix often changes with the audience. “We tailor our music sets to our crowds and venues,” Dave Aylsworth says, “so there’s a large variety between gigs.” Those appearances are increasing in frequency and prestige, including the Catonsville Arts & Crafts Festival and the Maryland Avenue Irish Festival in Annapolis, but Dave Aylsworth insists that fiddlin’ around is all about the love of music. “We’re not out to make money,” he says. “We’re out to have fun.” — Holly Britton ’11 www.umbc.edu/magazine

Shots on Goal UMBC men’s soccer team was great in 2009, “To be honest, I always believed boasting 14 wins and the two top scorers in that this team could be as good as we NCAA Division I soccer. But the future were this year. No one expected this, promises even more success, because the but we believed,” said Houapeu. Retrievers did it all with a team that featured Among the season’s other significant only one senior on the entire squad. tallies: The Retrievers’ 14 wins came with only • Houapeu and Bulls both scored six losses, including a heartbreaking 2-0 loss 15 goals, combining for 30 of the to SUNY at Stony Brook in the America team’s total of 43 goals. East championship game. (A win would have • The Retrievers’ road victory over secured the team an NCAA tournament bid.) top-seeded New Hampshire in an But UMBC will return its dynamic scoring America East semifinal was Coach duo – rising senior Levi Houapeu (left) Pete Caringi’s 200th win at UMBC. and rising junior Andrew Bulls (right)– for • The 14 victories in 2009 were the most next year’s campaign. After Bulls led the entire since the Retrievers won 15 games in 2000. nation in scoring for most of the season, • The Retrievers’ 9-0-0 start to the season Houapeu pipped him at season’s end with 43 was the best in school history. total points and 2.15 points per game. Bulls — Jeff Seidel ’85 finished second in the NCAA with 41 points and 2.05 ppg.

Sole Power UMBC attracts students from many corners When Figueroa contacted UMBC’s Alex. of the globe. And sneaker artist and media and Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, the staff communications major Martin Figueroa at the center gave his fledgling enterprise a ’11, has figured out a way that these homesick leg up by putting him in touch with experts students can tap their heels together and to help him get his new business launched. remember that there’s no place like home. He’s Figueroa hopes to be marketing his work painting the skylines of their hometowns – or professionally later this year. any other image that represents their personal — B. Rose Huber style – right onto their sneakers. Figueroa started drawing sketches on his own shoes three years ago. Before long, friends asked if he would paint their shoes. Figueroa has now designed more than 25 pairs of shoes, with prices starting at $100 a pair, and decided to start a business. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

10 DISCOVERY

A Date with Darwin Forgive Sandra Herbert if she’s a bit exhausted as only unearthed Darwin’s passion for studying and 2009 comes to a close. theorizing about geology, but also drew clear links Herbert, a professor emerita of history, is one between that early work and his later revolutionary of the world’s foremost authorities on the work work in biology. of Charles Darwin, whose theorizing on natural The biggest connection, says Herbert, was how selection and evolution revolutionized the course Darwin and others built theories from the diligent of scientific thought. And 2009 held not one but work of 18th and early 19th century geologists to two significant Darwinian anniversaries: the 200th construct a geological record of the planet through anniversary of his birth (on the same date, February analysis of various layers (or “strata”) of the earth’s soil 12, 1809, that Abraham Lincoln was born) and the and rock. 150th anniversary of the publication of his classic text, “By 1850, it was clear that if you go through the On the Origin of Species. strata of the earth’s crust, you’re seeing the history of life on the planet,” she says. Geologists of that era “became very interested in when different kinds of life enter into the fossil record. And they knew that mammals came in much later than, say, fish…. So quite apart from the theory of evolution, there was already a growing understanding about the history of life on earth. And Darwin just presumed on that. He built on that. And offered an explanation as to why this was so. Why some species had become extinct and why others had replaced them. And he posited that newer species had come from the older ones.” Herbert says that celebrating a Darwin year not The “Darwin Year” saw Herbert giving lectures only focused attention on the English scientist’s at venues including the Library of Congress work, but also helped attract funding for a variety and participating in events from Stockholm to of Darwin-related projects, including an expedition Cambridge – the university where Darwin studied made by Herbert and other American and British and later taught as a fellow at Christ’s College. scholars – mainly geologists – to the Galapagos Herbert was a distinguished visiting scholar at Christ’s Islands to retrace the geological work that Darwin College in the 2006-07 academic year, where she had done there on the voyage that changed science helped plan events for the Cambridge celebration and history. and worked in the Darwin archives. The journey resulted in a paper published earlier “The invitations started coming in 2005,” Herbert this year in Earth Sciences History, and Herbert says that says. “It really was a bigger deal than we expected.” it demonstrates what historians and geologists could Herbert has edited groundbreaking scholarly accomplish working together as teams. “It was a lot of editions of Darwin’s working notebooks – including fun,” she says. “Lots of the other work I have done was the famous “Red Notebook,” which he started after manuscript work. Transcribing. It’s things you do like a his voyage to the Galapagos Islands, and in which he monk. This was more congenial. People with different worked through early versions of evolutionary theory. areas of expertise and knowledge coming together to Her recent work on Darwin has excavated his answer each others’ questions.” early work as a geologist. Her book Charles Darwin, — Richard Byrne ’86 Geologist (Cornell University Press, 2005) not www.umbc.edu/magazine

The Science of Salt Sign of the Times UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Hours before a snow storm roars in, trucks hit This finding does not mean the frogs are Visual Culture (CADVC) has received the road to spread a coarse form of table salt on thriving in salt, Swan emphasizes. “We don’t know a $400,000 grant from the National highways and streets. Salt is a cheap and effective what’s going to happen once they are adults,” he Endowment for the Humanities. The way to keep roads clear. It lowers the freezing says. “There could be less genetic variability; they grant will fund For All The World To point of the water on the road, creating brine could produce fewer eggs, natural selection could See: Visual Culture and the Struggle which does not crystallize as the snow falls. occur at a faster rate.” Their larger size might make for Civil Rights, an exhibit curated by Some 20 million tons of sodium chloride are them easier prey for natural predators, for instance. Maurice Berger, a senior research spread on roads every winter. But what happens Swan adds that salt’s effects on other creatures scholar at the CADVC, on the role of to all that road salt when the storm passes? It is in a salt-tainted pond were more predictable. Tiny visual images in the battle for civil washed into the soil, the water table and eventually invertebrates near the bottom of the food chain rights in the United States. The exhibit our drinking water. called zooplankton die off in the salt, triggering will appear at New York’s International Chris Swan, associate professor of geography both an increase in algae and a disruption of the Center of Photography in May and at and environmental systems, studies the lingering food chain for other creatures who dine on them. the Smithsonian Institution’s National effects of road salt. His preliminary findings Despite these findings, Swan is not yet ready Museum of American History in June are surprising. to endorse a ban on road salt. Authorities using 2011 before concluding its tour at the The chloride in sodium chloride is the main it are generally responsible, he observes. But he CADVC in fall 2012. Yale University problem, Swan says. Sodium atoms tend to stick emphasizes that the long-term effects of road salt Press will publish a companion book to whatever is around them; chloride goes into are largely unknown. to the exhibit. the water. Vestiges of chloride from winter deicing “I don’t say salt is bad – just yet,” Swan insists. can be traced well into the spring in soil samples, “But if you put value on ecological communities, in the storm drain system, and in natural bodies of what you are going to see [as a result of road salt’s water. Swan’s lab also found increasing amounts in use] will be different.” Baltimore’s drinking water. While the amount still Does Swan put salt on his own sidewalk at is far below dangerous levels, the water eventually home in Columbia? He does. But he says that he may become undrinkable. makes sure he doesn’t overdo it. To measure possible effects in nature, Swan and — Joel N. Shurkin a graduate student, Robin Van Meter, put common grey tree frogs into a 500-liter artificial pond and added salt in varying concentrations. Amphibians are believed to be extremely sensitive to salt, so the researchers expected the frogs would get easily stressed and perhaps sicken, die, or become dwarfed and stunted. The reverse happened, Swan found. They grew from tadpole to adult frog a few days earlier and seemed to be a bit larger. Ernest C. Withers - Sanitation Workers Assemble in Front of Clayborn Temple for a Solidarity March, Memphis, TN, March 28, 1968. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Museum Purchase, © Ernest C. Withers, Courtesy Panopticon Gallery, Boston MA I AM A MAN, 1968. © Emerson Graphics. Collection of Civil Rights Archive/CADVC- UMBC, Baltimore, MD UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

Creating a Smarter Web DISCOVERY Imagine entering a conference room for a meeting. computers, as well as people, in mind. Why couldn’t Your cell phone exchanges virtual business cards with computers share their information as easily as cooks the phones of everyone else in the room. Your laptop sharing recipes on Facebook? Berners-Lee called this automatically uploads slides for your presentation concept the “Semantic Web.” directly to a projector on the table – without the aid People view Web sites with computers, and can of a thumb drive. understand and differentiate between the sorts of data If UMBC computer science professor Tim Finin that these sites display. Computers do not. The text gets his way, a concept dubbed the “Semantic Web” of a name and the text of an address, for a computer, will make such meetings a staple of the future. are simply strings of data. The Semantic Web is the A professor at UMBC since 1991, Finin has effort to annotate all data in a consistent way, so it can long been an esteemed researcher in the field of be understood by computers in such a way without computerized artificial intelligence. Last year, the additional boxes or schematic frames. “Just as the Web made people more intelligent, the Semantic Web would make our computer programs more intelligent, because they would find the same information in a form that they could ingest and understand,” Finin says. Finin has led a number of different projects at UMBC that demonstrate how the Semantic Web would work in real life, including a concept called “intelligent spaces” that would allow direct information sharing via portable devices. “The idea with these intelligent spaces is to have the devices be active in trying to understand who is in the room, and Computer Society of The Institute of Electrical and why they might be there,” he says. Electronics Engineers selected him to receive its Will the Semantic Web snowball catch on like the esteemed Technical Achievement Award. first Web did? “It’s totally impossible to predict how He began his explorations into artificial these things unfold,” he says. But if it does, we’ll have intelligence, or AI, as a student at the Massachusetts Finin’s work to thank. Institute of Technology in the late 1960s, when asking – Joab Jackson ’90 computers to recognize human speech and play chess were the frontiers. Those challenges have long since been conquered, but the search for smarter and better artificial intelligence continues. The newest frontier of AI seems to be in better harnessing the power of computer networks. “When the Web happened in the mid 1990s it surprised everyone at how profoundly this changed the way we could exchange information,” Finin says. “There seems to be something special about the way the Web works and the way people connect to it.” When Sir Tim Berners-Lee first thought up the idea of a Web of hyperlinked pages, he had www.umbc.edu/magazine

Let it Snow On May 7, 1959, notion of two cultures has been used to help English novelist C.P. explain the decline in the prestige of the Snow (left) gave a lecture humanities and the increasing corporate and at Cambridge University, governmental presence in research universities. “The Two Cultures But Snow’s most enduring and useful concept and the Scientific is that of a mutual linguistic and conceptual Revolution,” that has incomprehension across the lines he drew 50 helped define debate on years ago. the relationship between branches of human This past autumn, UMBC’s Human knowledge – especially the sciences and Context of Science & Technology Program literature – for five decades. (HCST) and the university’s Dresher Center As Stefan Collini notes in his introduction for the Humanities created a series of five to a new edition of the lecture published by lectures – and an introductory level class – Cambridge University Press to celebrate its celebrating and critiquing Snow’s essay. The 50th anniversary, Snow’s essay was a limited lectures drew prestigious scholars from as and imperfect formulation of the two cultures far afield as the United Kingdom (Cardiff he described. His definition of “literary University and the University of Warwick) to intellectuals” was narrowly drawn and quite discuss and debate the influence of Snow and specific to England. And Snow’s optimism his ideas on the history of knowledge, cultural in science’s ability to solve human problems politics and climate change. has been undermined by a multiplicity of The result of the lecture series, saysJoseph ethical concerns. N. Tatarewicz, director of the university’s “Ideally,” continues Boehling, “neither faculty Yet the essay deftly captured a specific and HCST program, was the stimulation of a in the sciences and technology nor those in the continuing rupture between researchers in campus-wide discussion that was “beyond my humanities work in ways that are immune to the the so-called natural and physical sciences and expectations.” He observes that “competition approaches of the others’ field. We share many their colleagues in the arts and humanities – as for scholars during this 50th anniversary year similar concerns and goals in our research.” well as the awkward straddle of those in the was intense, and we managed to attract some Tatarewicz concurs, and notes his current social sciences between that divide. Snow’s of the best scholars from a variety of disciplines work interviewing founding faculty for and institutions to visit UMBC. Also gratifying a history of UMBC has pointed to a was the diversity of the audience – humanists, convergence of ideas and disciplines in the social scientists, physical and natural scientists “The university began university’s first years. “There wasn’t enough from on-and-off campus were there for all faculty for full departments of everything,” the events.” in an atmosphere of he observes, “so the university began in an Rebecca Boehling (right), director of the atmosphere of interdisciplinarity and extreme Dresher Center, says that the lecture series interdisciplinarity and collegiality. During this series, it felt like we had “seemed a good way to address head-on both resurrected some of that early spirit.” extreme collegiality. differences between the humanities and the sciences with regard to the visibility of — Richard Byrne ’86 During this series, it felt their research, as well as to reach out to the sciences – so that UMBC faculty and students like we had resurrected outside the humanities might become more aware of both the historical dimension of some of that early spirit.” these tensions.” Taneytown Deli & Sandwich Shoppe 10 Mellor Avenue, Catonsville 410-747-2673

For the UMBC Magazine team, a trip to Taneytown Deli for a Fudclucker sandwich inspires poetry.

Oh, towering pile of chicken-y chunks, Your layers of goodness delight me so! Whenever my day has me in a funk I know to the Taneytown I must go. But how to do justice this tasty treat, when the sum of its parts equals more than simply a “sandwich,” some bread and some meat? How do I show you I’m more than a fan? A salad of chicken, but so much more: Almonds and lettuce and celery, too, and bacon – crisp bacon! – slices galore, stacked on a pretzel sliced neatly in two. Toss aside futile thoughts of dieting, the battle’s lost: I must eat the whole thing. — Jenny O’Grady

Photo: Michelle Jordan ’93 www.umbc.edu/magazine

Food is not only a means of individual sustenance. The act of sharing a meal helps to form and sustain communities as well. UMBC is no exception. Whether it’s a student and a professor discussing a term paper over a cup of coffee from Au Bon Pain or an off-campus expedition to a restaurant in Arbutus, Catonsville or Ellicott City, food and drink help cement the university community together.

And as 2010 dawns, almost anyone would agree that today’s UMBC students, faculty and staff are luckier than ever in their choice of eateries. The Commons boasts sushi, pizza and barbecue. The University Center now has a Chik-Fil-A and a Starbucks. And the university’s main food provider – Chartwell’s – has refurbished the dining hall into a spiffy new space called “True Grit’s.” Off-campus, the options are also increasing, while long-time student favorites such as Sorrento of Arbutus and the Double T Diner are still going strong.

In this issue, UMBC Magazine spotlights food in our communal lives. We asked Jeffrey “Duff ” Goldman ’97 – star of the Food Network show Ace of Cakes – to share his thoughts on how to turn culinary passion into a thriving business. We talked with Warren Belasco – professor of American studies – about how his scholarly pursuits have made “food studies” a nexus of cross-disciplinary research. We interview another alumnus – Father Leo Patalinghug ’92 – whose telegenic combination of spirituality and food has left him poised to perhaps become UMBC’s next Food Network star.

We’ve also highlighted some of the places on and off campus where the UMBC community loves to eat, with a few of the entries provided by two UMBC students – Stefanie Mavronis ’12 and Evan Ponter ’12 – who write the university’s new food blog: UMBCeats (http://umbceats.com/).

We hope this trip through UMBC’s culinary highlights jogs your memory and entices you to share some of your own food memories about UMBC. Where did you eat when you studied here? Did we miss a favorite?

Send us your thoughts or stories about food and UMBC to [email protected] or to UMBC Magazine, UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250. We’ll select a healthy sampling to publish online and in our Spring 2010 issue – and the top three food memories will earn a delicious prize.

— Richard Byrne ’86 UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010 True Grit’s UMBC Campus 443-612-3663

16 UMBC’s dining hall has been around for as long as there have been 16 dormitories. But that space – so familiar to anyone who’s lived on campus – was revamped this year into a new space called True Grit’s. And what does that swipe of the campus card get you these days? Some things never change: eggs (including an omelet station) and cereal at breakfast; the student staples of salad and pizza and pasta at lunch or dinner. But True Grit’s has added some new twists to campus dining: sandwich station chefs will craft a delicious cold-cut sandwich to your specification at lunch; and dinners often feature specialty foods (steak, funnel cake, cheese steak) and seasonal themes (Oktoberfest and Thanksgiving dinner). If you’re on campus, check out the new school eats in an old school space.

Photo: Melissa Van der Kaay — Evan Ponter ’12

Sorrento of Arbutus 5401 East Drive, Arbutus 410-242-6474

If there’s any off-campus restaurant that is associated with Photo: Michelle Jordan ’93 UMBC, it’s Sorrento of Arbutus. Founded just a year before UMBC in 1965, Sorrento has been a high-profile booster of the university (and especially its athletics program). But the restaurant’s continuing popularity with students is based on its fresh and tasty hybrid menu of Italian (pizza/pasta) and American (fried chicken/steak sandwiches) foods. And, yes, that is shrimp and crab on the pizza toppings list! — Richard Byrne ’86

Intercultural Language Exchange Harbor Hall, UMBC Campus

Looking for global cuisine and conversation on campus? Harbor Hall’s Intercultural Language Exchange (ILE) floor is the place to be. Students on this floor dish up meals from every culture around the globe in a communal kitchen, with chances to engage with native speakers and organized discussions between faculty and students on the menu as well. Alas, these meals are invitation only! One of the perks of being a UMBC student committed to living, learning and sharing in a global context. — Holly Britton ’11 Photo: Chris Hartlove www.umbc.edu/magazine

Indian Delight 622 Frederick Road, Catonsville 410-744-4422

Lunch is the time to get Indian food. That’s not to say you can’t have a perfectly delicious dinner at Indian Delight, but you’d be missing out big time. Lunch means a “who-can-eat-the-most-plates?” buffet challenge. Lunch means piling spicy vindaloos on top of creamy spinach saags on top of savory chickpea masalas, letting one flow into the next until that magical moment your bite tastes vaguely of pumpkin pie – then mopping it all up with a triangle of toasty naan. Lunch means leaving room for sweet kheer pudding, knowing you probably shouldn’t, but doing it anyway – because it’s there. — Jenny O’Grady Photo: Michelle Jordan ’93

Paul’s Restaurant 5507 Oregon Avenue, Arbutus 410-247-5620

Want a diner experience that’s just a few minutes’ walk from campus? Paul’s Restaurant’s hearty breakfasts and lunches (hint: try the crabcake) are served up by cheery waitresses with Baltimore accents thick enough to make you think you’ve walked into a Barry Levinson film. No fast food here; everything is cooked up fresh and worth the brief wait. Besides, Paul’s has free Wi-Fi and Keno on the TV screens to pass the time. — Richard Byrne ’86

Photo: Michelle Jordan ’93 Double T Diner 6300 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville 410-744-4151

18 Going to the Double T Diner in Catonsville with a large group of friends in the middle of the night has been a rite of passage for UMBC students since the university’s founding. It’s very close to campus, open 24 hours a day, and has a huge menu that blends delicious specialty items into a traditional diner menu. Decorated with booths and jukeboxes, the Double T is a terrific (if busy) spot for a midday conversation or late-night study break. And make sure you don’t forget the dessert! — Stefanie Mavronis ’12

Photo: Melissa Van der Kaay

H-Mart 800 North Rolling Road, Catonsville 443-612-9020

Adventure? World travel? Near campus? The Catonsville branch of Korean supermarket chain H-Mart has beckoned UMBC students in a wide array of languages for years. Don’t be daunted by aisles crammed with products in unfamiliar alphabets. Each whim of the international cuisine lover is indulged here. Seafood, spices, noodles, sweets? Check. Less than 10 minutes’ drive from campus? Check. Ethnic tunes, videos and a concession stand round out an international experience that’s a perfect match for UMBC’s diverse community. — Holly Britton ’11 Photo: Melissa Van der Kaay www.umbc.edu/magazine Catonsville Gourmet 829 Frederick Road, Catonsville 410-788-0005

Seafood is the specialty at Catonsville Gourmet Market 19 and Fine Foods – a restaurant that reminds you just Photo: Melissa Van der Kaay der Van Melissa Photo: how close UMBC is to the Chesapeake Bay. Fresh fish is cooked to order with a wide array of sauces. Crab and shrimp are woven into appetizers, salads and main courses. Oysters are served half-shell or cornmeal-dusted and fried. The crowds and rave reviews let you know that a fresh modern take on fine dining has arrived in Catonsville. — Richard Byrne ’86 UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

20 www.umbc.edu/magazine

The (Business) 21

WorldAccording to Duff Wanna be a celebrity culinary entrepreneur like Ace of Cakes star Duff Goldman ’97? UMBC’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in the Humanities for 2009 offers a few hints: Don’t sweat the numbers. Don’t get complacent. And prepare for some hard knocks. By Ana Marie Cox Images courtesy of Charm City Cakes UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

ook at the numbers and pugilists. “There’s something about Jeffrey “Duff ”Goldman 1. Lose the Fear losing your fear [and] being able to do ’97, history, is a business Goldman’s first lesson is, if nothing something without worrying about whizL of the first order – a thriving else, a great attention-getting failing... if you’re worried about failing, entrepreneur whose successful cake device. “I’d take everyone out in the chances are you will,” he says. making business was launched into the parking lot,” he says after some Fearlessness has served Goldman the stratosphere by a hit reality show. thought, “and make everybody well. He started Charm City Cakes in But as any viewer of Food punch somebody else in the face.” 2000, baking pastry in his Baltimore Network’s Ace of Cakes can tell you, How’s that, again? “Well, it’d be apartment after a decade and a half in the 34-year-old celebrity cake maker fun, first of all,” he says. Beyond the the restaurant business left him feeling has become a financial success shock value of the experiment, like he “didn’t have balance” in his life. and certified phenomenon in the though, Goldman points out there’s an What he really wanted was to be in a exploding media niche of televised enduring – if painful – wisdom to be band, he reminisces. But he also needed cooking without compromising his won from any parking lot beatdown. to make a living. He hatched a plan, and scruffy, scrappy look and ethos – The lesson goes back to Goldman’s rehearsed it to himself: “Alright, here’s tattoos, goatee, baggy jeans and all. own coming-of-age woes in junior what I’m gonna do: make cakes, out Catching up with Goldman on high. “It used to be the scariest thing, of my apartment, guerilla style... and tour for his newly released book, Ace of getting punched in the face,” he recalls. be in a band,” he says. He planned on Cakes: Inside Charm City Cakes (William But after being on the receiving end of baking cakes for 10 months out of the Morrow Cookbooks), it seemed his first major fist-to-face encounter, year and touring during the other two. a good moment to ask him to play Goldman gleaned a crucial insight: Almost 10 years later, Goldman’s professor for a day. What would be his “All of a sudden, I was over my fear band – “...soihadto...” – has a record advice to a class of business students and I was able to fight better.” deal and toured for two months looking to adapt his life lessons into It’s a benefit he sees accruing to in 2009 and into 2010. It will be an a crash course of entrepreneurship? his class of fledgling M.B.A.’s-cum- eight-week working vacation from

Goldman’s initial business plan was to make cakes 10 months a year and tour with his band “…soihadto…” for the other two months. www.umbc.edu/magazine

3. Get a Good Number Cruncher Goldman’s quest for perfection doesn’t rule out practical considerations, though. Hence the third lesson in Goldman’s emerging curriculum: “Choose a good accountant.” It’s an important step for any business, and Goldman admits that he didn’t get it quite right at the beginning. “My first accountant would just The cake artist at work: “Never get complacent.” yell at me: ‘You have the multi-million dollar business that something, and really throw caution to do the business Charm City Cakes has become. to the wind,” he observes, “it makes part! You have to do And Goldman’s 15 employees? They taking on a new venture not as scary.” the business part!’ get two months vacation as well. “Paid,” Goldman was an ardent graffiti artist And I would say, Goldman says. “We seem to attract in his youth. He recalls being chased out ‘Hey, man, I’m just the kind of people that need [that of train yards, cops at his heels. And just a cake decorator.’” time] to take off and do whatever.” as the hidden lesson of face-punching is Eventually, fearlessness, so the lesson he takes from Goldman found a 2. Slap Some Color on It graffiti boils down to a business-worthy more understanding slogan: “Never get complacent.” numbers guy who has The baking side of Goldman’s baking/ “That’s the worst thing in the world,” let him take care of band business plan has attracted a lot Goldman continues. “In business, in the creativity and of business, a lot of attention and a lot entertainment, in anything in your the cakes. “I found of money. Plus, the runaway success of life, is to get complacent. Never the ones with the Ace of Cakes – now in its fourth season get complacent, never ever ever. nicer offices and on Food Network – allows Goldman That’s when ratings go down.” the friendlier and colleagues to turn down most Avoiding complacency isn’t of the orders that come through the just about not getting caught. transom. They’re often too busy baking It’s about getting better. cakes for, say, a Harry Potter premiere. “Things can always get better,” he says. Or the cast of Lost. Or Michael Jordan. “We’re not the best cake decorators on As Goldman warms to the idea of the planet, but we’re pretty goddamn his own business class, he has another good, and when we do stuff, we’re important lesson to impart: “Go always like: ‘How can we make this paint some stuff.” Preferably public better? How can we make this more property, he adds. Preferably in the accessible, how can we make this middle of the night. Preferably in edible?’ We’re constantly perfecting letters three feet high. “When you do and changing the way we do things.” UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

staff,” he says. “It’s almost like when Hire your friends? Goldman says sure, but “I’ve only hired the ones that have a knack for making beautiful stuff.” you go to Chinatown, if you go to a restaurant and there’s no white people “Succeeding in business is not difficult. wisdom on its head. The show’s opening in there, chances are the food is really The way to do things right is to not features a catchy little summation of good. Look for an accountant who do them wrong. I know it’s a really Goldman’s career that ends with the looks like he’s got his finances in order.” simple, stupid idea but I came out declaration, “So I decided to make of the bathroom with this idea.” cakes my way, and hired the most 4. Right = Not Goldman interrupts his epiphany in talented people I know: my friends.” the rapid-fire free-associative manner Sure enough, even a casual Wrong (101) that fans of Ace of Cakes will readily viewing of the show gives a glimpse Goldman circles back quickly to recognize: “That’s the name of my class! of a workplace full of inside jokes, the quality control side of things, ‘The way to do things right is to not do affection and camaraderie. Thus with a deceptively straightforward them wrong.’” 101. Or something of lesson five in the Goldman plan: fourth principle of business that sort. “There’s no get rich quick; if Go ahead and hire your friends. success: Don’t do it wrong. there was, everyone would be doing it.” “I think most Harvard M.B.A.s He lays out this lesson as a Zen koan. would probably say: ‘Don’t hire your “I had kind of an epiphany,” Goldman 5. Sure, Hire friends, you don’t want to deal with the says. “At a restaurant, the service was nonsense.’ And I can understand why. I great and the food was really good and Your Friends think you have to have a certain kind of there was a cool vibe. I get up and go It turns out that one critical key to not friend and a certain kind of business,” says into the bathroom and the bathroom getting things wrong is solving a critical Goldman. “But our business has grown is beautiful. Really nice bathroom. I was issue facing most company managers: so organically… I have a lot of friends, and like, ‘Wow.’ I’m kind of always sizing Finding the right kind of employee. I haven’t hired them all. I’ve only hired thing up, whether it’s a cake or a business.” Any viewer of Ace of Cakes knows the ones that have a knack for making Goldman emerged from his pit that this is yet another instance where beautiful stuff. For making nice cakes.” stop, he says, with a simple realization: Goldman has stood conventional www.umbc.edu/magazine

years in culinary school and realizes that smile. And that mortgage payment or 6. Keep it Loose. But “nobody ever asked me why I wanted that problem at work or that problem Keep it Tight. to cook – and that is a huge part of in their love life or whatever it is has This organic process feeds on itself, cooking. If you don’t love [cooking], gone away, just for a second. Because Goldman insists. His already close- it’s the worst job in the world.” I made ’em a cake. I love that.” knit team tends to select for people A lot of people who become chefs who aren’t intimidated by personal because of what they’ve seen on banter in close quarters, and who tend cable – whether it’s his show, Top Chef, to pick up quickly on inside jokes. or The Next Food Network Star – are Conversely, Goldman says he’s also destined to be bitterly disappointed. developed a heightened sensitivity “One thing that’s very dangerous is to people who could introduce that the Food Network and Bravo disputative or disruptive vibes into and all these shows glamorize being his hyper-collegial workplace. So, a chef,” Goldman says. “If someone lesson number six: Make sure the wants to become a chef with the goal person you hire belongs on the team. of getting on TV, it absolutely, 100 “Like when they were looking at percent, will not happen. Period.” Terrell Owens for the Ravens, I was, A more appropriate goal, Goldman like, ‘Oh no, that’s horrible, he’s a team insists, is “being an awesome chef. killer,’” says Goldman. “I’ve played a lot That’s the only goal you can have.” of sports and in a lot of what I do, I’m But experience has taught him more like a coach than a business owner. even that’s not enough. “You have to Who’s going to work? Who’s going ask yourself, why do you want to be to step up? Who’s going to have the an awesome chef? You want to be an team’s best interest at heart? Especially awesome chef because you want to give now that we’re all famous and stuff.” people joy. You want to give them that piece of magic that you have brought to them. That you have brought to 7. Happiness Rules. For your kitchen… To be a chef is to want You. For Everyone. to please people. I had a job where I Of course, before hiring one’s friends was making $14,000 a year but I knew and building a team, one needs a strong people were enjoying my food, and sense of mission. That’s not just found that was all I needed. Well, that and in the casual corporate-branding sense the food I stole out of the locker. of the term, but via what Goldman “Now, having worked in the calls a “philosophy of cooking.” business for as long as I have,” Goldman’s final lesson? Do concludes Goldman, “my greatest whatever you do not just because joy is not just creating, but it makes you happy, but because creating and seeing the look on it makes other people happy. people’s faces when I give them Goldman says he’s still a little something…. Seeing that reaction shocked when he thinks back to his and knowing I’ve made someone UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

26 The Scholar at the

UMBC American studies professor Warren Belasco has pioneered food studies’ explosive growth in the classroom and the larger culture.

By Phoebe Connelly www.umbc.edu/magazine

27 Scholar at the

“You did not go into food as an tale in which his own diet and a United States during the early 20th academic in 1972,” Warren Belasco fascination with how the mechanics century and the rise of motel chains told an audience of fellow scholars of everyday phenomena (cars, which led to the publication of his in Oxford, Mississippi this past Coca-Cola, drive-ins) fit into wider first book,Americans on the Road: From October with a smile. “That was patterns of cultural discourse. Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945, in 1977. not something you did.” “Our tastes,” Belasco writes in When he first interviewed at UMBC, So how did a professor of American Food, “are as telling as our distastes.” the then-dean greeted the news of his studies at UMBC who did so end up as scholarship on the roadside food chain one of this country’s most prominent ood has always been a key element Howard Johnson’s with a derisive, “that researchers on food and culture? In his Fin America’s melting pot culture, sounds like fun.” Belasco says he “knew 30 years at UMBC, Belasco has not but its ability to speak to the culture immediately I was on to something just pioneered a discipline that has now of everything from business to politics that was not safe in academics.” captured the popular imagination. He has placed the topic squarely in the Belasco’s nose for the wider cultural also has helped define what we mean sights of scholars who are seeking patterns in everyday phenomena when we talk about food studies. His ways of examining how we live. eventually led him straight to his latest book, Food: The Key Concepts, is For instance, Belasco gave his own plate. As a graduate student at the an introductory textbook for students October talk at the second annual University of Michigan in of the burgeoning discipline. Viking Range Lecture, which is named the 1970s, high meat And just why was he showing the oral for, and funded by, the manufacturer prices forced historians of the Southern Foodways of high-end, commercial-grade Belasco to Alliance – an institute of the Center for ranges marketed to home cooks. the Study of Southern Culture at the Belasco told that Mississippi audience University of Mississippi – slides of his that he “backed into [food studies] 1970s dinner of soybean stroganoff? through something else.” In To hear Belasco tell it, his own his case, it was research journey into food studies mirrors the into leisure automobile path that the topic has taken to wider travel in the acceptance in the academy and in cultural discourse. It’s a personal UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

28 drop meat from his diet. He also is the associate editor – in 1996. elasco’s analysis of the intersection discovered Francis Moore Lappé, Belasco also worked his academic Bof food and wider culture has whose influential 1971 book,Diet interest into pedagogy, first offering a only deepened in subsequent years, for a Small Planet, put forth the case course dedicated to food studies as a moving from studying cultural shifts for vegetarianism as a means of senior seminar in the American studies in consumer taste to a meditation on dealing with global food shortages. department in 1985. In 1990, that same how human beings have used food as a Making connections between his course became a regular offering for means of charting our desires and fears. personal diet and the planet led Belasco UMBC undergraduates. In his 2006 book, to examine the alternative food In 2008, he published Food: The Key Meals to Come: A culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Concepts, a slim introductory volume to History of the Future of He watched as that subculture food studies. (The best part of American Food, Belasco argues surged into mainstream, and his studies texts may be their indexes – in that “the struggle first scholarly book on food, Food you can find listings for Hank for the control of Appetite for Change: How the Williams as well as “free lunch.”) Belasco the food supply Counterculture Took on the dedicated Food to his students, and says is an old tale, Food Industry (1989), it’s the interactions with his classes that to be sure, as examined how goods like make the work rewarding. are so many herbal tea and granola Food culture’s emergence into the of the stories we tell went from signifiers of radical scholarly and cultural limelight may about the future.” The food supply has culture to grocery store staples. mean an increase in funding, or the been used as a rationale for westward Belasco was not the only scholar odd phone call for an op-ed, but does expansion, a dream of a dazzling focusing on food in the late 1980s. The it mean that food studies have carved technological future, and a portent of Association for the Study of Food a permanent niche in academia? uncontrolled population growth. and Society began holding an annual “At this stage we are at the level of Belasco argues that to truly be a conference in 1987. The association individual courses,” Belasco says. It has savvy consumer in a world where we began publishing a journal – Belasco become an accepted focus for professors. are simultaneously encouraged to eat (Gone, he says, are the days where you exotic, natural and super-supplemented were advised to wait until after you had meals, we must recognize how food secured tenure to tackle food studies.) is, and has been, marketed as a vehicle Perhaps more interesting is where of hopes. Culinary innovations have his students are taking the discipline. always been sold with a combination Quite a few of them, he observes, have of “false dichotomies, inappropriate ended up not in the classroom, but in analogies, questionable assumptions the kitchen. and dubious calculations,” he says. Belasco’s most famous former It is a verdict that should give pause to student is Duff Goldman ’97, those who are hitching their hopes on who started Baltimore’s Charm the locavore or “slow food” movements City Cakes, and became a foodie that are exciting interest at the moment. star with his Food Network show Slow food movement advocates Ace of Cakes. (See page 20.) argue in favor of locally-sourced cuisine, Goldman and other students who the preservation of regional agriculture have studied with Belasco may have the and food customs, and call for cooking and the commerce down, but consumers to resist industry and the UMBC professor says that there is intense processing. The movement value in examining the phenomenon for was founded in Italy in the late 1980s, its other societal effects. “I feel like I’m and the first United States chapter Warren and Amy Belasco harvest corn at their giving them a political background they was formed in 2000. The turn toward first community garden plot in Ann Arbor, MI, in probably aren’t getting in cooking local food goes hand in hand with the early 1970s. school,” Belasco says. the return of concern over industrial www.umbc.edu/magazine

food, explored most famously by relations. The tradition of the Baltimore’s school 29 Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. White House state dinner for lunch program about “In some ways it’s just another wave of visiting dignitaries continues getting UMBC students interest brought about by worries in the (and is so recognized as a social involved in efforts to present, and also, marketing and the event that President Obama’s transform the school refinement of consumer capitalism as first dinner was crashed by two lunch program, to feature people expand their tastes and turn to would-be reality television stars). fresh, locally grown food. food as an area of discrimination, even Belasco traces political Geraci took over the lunch more so than they have in the past,” dining back to Thomas program in 2008. A chef by Belasco says. Still, as he points out in Jefferson, the second training, he helped transition New Meals to Come the “‘gee whiz’ almost president to take up Hampshire’s school lunches to include always trumps the ‘bummer.’” As much residence in the new locally sourced produce. His goal as the current food movement may capital. Three to four is a scalable, farm-to-fork model appear to trade on the horrors of nights a week Jefferson for creating school lunches and industry, it’s the appeal of down-home would gather groups of getting kids excited about food. “To goodness that is successfully sold in the as many as twelve guests teach a kid how to cook, there’s math, market. There, too, is a danger of to feast and discuss politics. there’s science, there’s art,” Geraci told culinary backlash. Belasco points to the While he may have tended the Baltimore City Paper. “There’s music, criticism Michelle Obama has received toward French cuisine, by when you integrate the cultural aspects. for her work around improving diet, necessity, he sourced everything You teach it all, but you use food as such as starting a White House garden locally. “It was an interesting the platform.” Belasco is not surprised and working to open a weekly farmer’s attempt to set a tone for the to see food becoming the common market blocks from the Oval Office. new republic,” Belasco says. language. “There are not that many Belasco is turning to his own back Gardening has its place people working on food, but there are yard for inspiration for what comes as well. Slave gardens at the a lot of people working around it.” next. He works in Baltimore, but since turn of the 19th century Food may have secured a place in the 1979, he has lived with his wife in provided the income that academy, but what happens next on our Washington, D.C.’s Takoma Park. allowed individuals to plates is still an open question. “In many He took a sabbatical for the 2008-2009 buy their freedom and get ways meat is the real crunch problem of academic year to focus on his next work, their start as independent the future,” Belasco says. There a food history of Washington, D.C. purveyors of food. This is growing demand as western Belasco considers himself to have seed capital helped cement tastes for meat-centric “fingers in both cities.” Local food the rise of the black middle meals spread. “The studies means defining the class in Washington. “It’s not hopeful side of me food shed – the combination of an original insight,” Belasco says there will be more cuisine, suppliers and traditions that says, “but it’s another way of and more attempts to help define the ways people thinking about Washington.” figure out how we can consume food. Belasco says have our hamburgers Washington offers a unique take f the nation’s capital is a city and eat them as well.” because it is a city of visitors. Iof visitors, Belasco argues “So much of Washington’s food that Baltimore is a city of culture is political, particularly among homebodies. “Baltimore is a the rich,” Belasco says. The joke about city of local associations and food in Washington may be the culture affiliations,” Belasco says. He of high priced dinners funded (at least has formed a working group until 2007 ethics reform) by lobbyists on food issues in Baltimore seeking the ears of politicians. with a handful of other UMBC But he also observes that gastronomy professors. Belasco reached continues to have a place in diplomatic out to Tony Geraci, who runs UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

30 Break Bread. Break Boards. Break Dance. www.umbc.edu/magazine

UMBC alumnus Father Leo Patalinghug ’92 finds the divine in cuisine and competition. His quest may yet make him one of America’s best-known Catholic priests. By B. Rose Huber Images courtesy of Grace Before Meals UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

ev. Leo Patalinghug ’92, into the camera lens and deadpanned: political science, says he “Food Network, you lied to a priest!” R never gets nervous when he When the priest accepted Flay’s hosts his popular online cooking show, Throwdown challenge, the heavens Grace Before Meals. But even he might seemed to open up in a cloudburst of confess to having a bit of anxiety at a people, cameras, lights and activity. taping of his show that was also filmed Flay’s assistants emerged to help him. by the Food Network last June. Iron Chef Flay – a master of Tex/Mex As a rule, Patalinghug concentrates cuisine – broke out his famous spice rub. intensely on whatever task is at Patalinghug recalls that his hands were hand. He often grows impatient, for shaking, so he started cutting onions for instance, if he needs more than one his fajitas. But within no time, Patalinghug take for a segment of the show. and Flay bantered as they cooked. That keen focus on the immediate “You know who taught me how is likely why Patalinghug didn’t notice to cut? Mother Theresa,” the priest Bobby Flay – star of the network’s hit enthused as he prepared his dish. “When show Iron Chef America – lurking just I was a seminarian, I’d go into the soup to his left as he cooked, waiting to kitchens, and Mother Theresa said, ‘OK, challenge the priest to an impromptu brother, your job is to cut vegetables.” culinary contest for his other show, Patalinghug whipped up a sweet steak Throwdown with Bobby Flay. fajita infused with Asian flavors as his When a producer finally alerted entry. Flay took a spicier route and created the priest to Flay’s presence on the a red-curry marinated skirt steak fajita. set to propose a steak fajita contest, Then, almost as suddenly as the challenge Patalinghug finally recognized one of was issued, the fates of both chefs’ dishes the Food Network’s biggest stars and were in the hands of two local food writers exclaimed: “My sweet Jesus! What in that the Food Network enlisted as judges. the heavens are you doing here?” As the judges critiqued, Patalinghug Patalinghug recovered quickly, at least pulled out a rosary and began praying. for the camera. He simply looked back “Do you want one?” he teased Flay.

Patalinghug squared off in a televised fajita battle with Iron Chef Bobby Flay… and won. www.umbc.edu/magazine

The Iron Chef asked what number “Hail Mary” he had reached. Patalinghug admitted that he had lost count. Eventually, the judges rendered their verdict. Patalinghug’s fajita had scored higher than Tex-Mex virtuoso Bobby Flay’s. The priest beamed as the crowd cheered and Flay offered his congratulations. The contest with Flay aired nationally on the Food Network this past autumn, raising the national culinary profile of the telegenic 39-year-old priest even higher. (He already has a schedule bursting with public appearances centered on cooking and Grace Before Meals.) But the televised throwdown Patalinghug, center right, with Pope John Paul II. with Flay also showcased other elements of Patalinghug’s personality: But through the years, Patalinghug the meal times made us brothers,” his love of competition, his quick has also found time to become a black Patalinghug says. When he returned to wit and his devotion to God and belt in karate, a champion stick-fighter, America after his studies, he decided to the Roman Catholic Church. and a competitive break dancer. bring the positive benefits of his seminary The latter devotion, says Patalinghug, Patalinghug’s spiritual journey meals to the families in his parish. is the most important of all. Indeed, has literally taken him around the His experiences in using food as television show and public appearances world – from his birthplace in the an ingredient in his ministry inspired and a lifetime of competition in Philippines to his years at UMBC as Grace Before Meals – which has grown everything from the martial arts to break an undergraduate to a stop in Italy, quickly from a blog to a recipe book dancing, he insists, is all about connecting where he studied to be a priest at the to the online cooking show. The people with God through what he calls North American College in Rome. show’s premise is simple but profound. the “greatest gift of all” – the family. As the youngest of four children, In a world of fast food, reality TV “We have so many blessings in Patalinghug says he spent a great deal and jam-packed schedules, bringing life,” he says. “It seems that my life’s of time in the kitchen with his mother, parents and kids together for meals is calling has been to help people who was a self-taught cook. The family a way to facilitate real communication. recognize those blessings, beginning had moved to the United States from Good meals, Patalinghug argues, with the gifts on the table and the the Philippines, and having fewer can make better families. people with whom you share it.” amenities than before, his mother had Patalinghug blames fast food and to learn her way around the kitchen. fear for the disintegration of the family Keep It Simple She often put Patalinghug to work, meal. Fast food was supposed to stirring a pot or chopping vegetables. help families spend time together, he Cooking isn’t Father Leo Patalinghug’s It was in Italy, however, that observes, but Americans have abused only passion. Patalinghug saw the power of food its convenience. “Like other gifts that As an ordained Catholic priest, of and what it could do for togetherness. have come our way, such as the internet course, God is passion number one. At the North American College in and even love and relationships and Patalinghug lives in Emmitsburg, Rome, he and his peers were required sexuality,” he argues, “we are abusive Maryland, where he directs the Pastoral to have a meal together each day. with it, so I think we bought into it.” Field Education program for future “Even though we were classmates, Fear of happiness is another factor, priests at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

34 he continues. “I think there is this fear observes, and Patalinghug hopes that in people,” Patalinghug says. “They Grace Before Meals helps families look don’t believe, and I use that word at their meals together like holidays. very pointedly, that God wants them to be happy and to have a peaceful, Hobbies and Holiness loving relationship with each other.” Patalinghug says that when he was Patalinghug has honed his culinary ordained, he gave God everything – skills and his message over countless including his hobbies. And cooking meals prepared and eaten with families is not the only hobby that followed in the parish. Often, they are seeking the this priest into his ministry. priest’s counsel and advice. Sometimes, Patalinghug’s older brothers, for he finds that family members have instance, sparked his early interest in trouble speaking with one another. martial arts. He began studying at age “I just tell them, let’s talk about these 8 and held a junior black belt in his things, and in the process, I’ll make you hands by the time he was 12 years-old. a pretty darn good meal,” Patalinghug When he was 17 years-old, he opened a karate school with his brother as he “When you get down to the academic pursued – and won – international championships in full-contact stick definition, food means ‘to bind’ in Latin. It’s fighting. Patalinghug still uses martial arts when he teaches youth groups and religious because it brings people together.” engages in other work with adolescents. Break dancing – a popular artistic form when Patalinghug was growing up in says. Most of the time, he adds, it works. the hip-hop happy 1980s – was another The meals that Patalinghug urges hobby in which the future priest excelled. families to prepare and eat together He started break dancing with a group of are not fancy. He uses simple tools friends at Columbia Skate Land. Despite and simple ingredients in familiar the fact that they didn’t look the part (“We places, which he says makes meals were all Filipino kids,” he says. “Our fathers, satisfying and memorable. all American doctors.”), Patalinghug’s Taste buds are not the only thing a good crew was good enough to dominate meal can satisfy, Patalinghug observes, local contests –including the 1983 pointing out that Jesus imparted many of Maryland Break Dancing Competition. his most important teachings over meals. But it was only in his sophomore year “Sometimes, when people hear at UMBC that Patalinghug decided to the word ‘religion’ they hear different take his hobbies – and his life – in a more things depending on where they’re at in spiritual direction. UMBC had impressed their faith,” he says. “But when you get him as a place where faculty wanted down to the academic definition, food students to “actually learn something,” means ‘to bind’ in Latin. It’s religious and Patalinghug dove into a number because it brings people together.” of extracurricular activities, including When we share meals with others, he singing in UMBC’s Camerata, working says, we share stories. Many faiths have for the Student Government Association, narratives and celebrations linked directly and a stint as a disc jockey (“Leaping with food, all of which have been passed Leo”) for UMBC’s radio station. down through the ages. Most holidays Patalinghug was also deeply involved of any sort have meals at the center, he in local Catholic churches, serving as the www.umbc.edu/magazine

35 In one episode, Patalinghug arrives at the home of a family that will soon host a party for one hundred people. Humorous quips and a concoction dubbed the “Orange Dew Drop” – Patalinghug’s tasty version of a traditional screwdriver – get the party started early. “Jesus is going to have to multiply food, and to get us started, we’re just going to make ourselves a little drink,” he jests. He also involves family members and a neighbor in the process, asking them about their favorite drinks. Together they share stories and laughs, as they sip on Father Leo’s cool and colorful drinks. “You can see just how easy it is,” he says. “The food is just the means, not the ends, and that’s important. It’s just a means.” With increasing fame (he already has a publicist to help him handle it all), what the future holds for Patalinghug is still up in the air. He insists that he’s coping through a combination of prayer and modesty. Patalinghug, left, won international championships in full-contact stick fighting. “I think God is very honest with me in telling me what I can and can’t music director for his home church and “Many of the people were not happy do,” he says, “I don’t have the messiah as a youth minister at another church. with the Catholic Church at the time, complex; I know I can’t solve the And he was beginning to sense that he and I remember finding myself defending world’s problems. I make dinner might have a vocation to the priesthood, the teachings but enjoying the debate once in a while, it’s no big deal.” spurred on in part by conversations and appreciating the fact that they In the near term, if the Food that he had with friends out on the offered the debate,” he says. “I found a Network or another channel calls patio between UMBC’s University real comfort in Catholic tradition.” him, Patalinghug seems eager to bring Center and Chemistry building. Patalinghug entered the seminary a the message of Grace Before Meals to He recalls that space as a “hideaway year after graduation. He spent much a wider audience as he teaches at the hut” for him and his friends, whom he of that year in prayer. “I was scared to seminary and works with youth groups. dubs the “philosophers” of UMBC death,” he says, “I didn’t understand it at Where he’d like to go ultimately, in that era. “We were just college kids the time.” He was ordained in 1999 and of course, should be no surprise. hanging out.” He remembers, “I wasn’t served as a parish priest for five years in “Hopefully Heaven,” Patalinghug says. afraid to chat things out with them and Westminster before becoming a faculty “That’s the direction I’m trying to live, have healthy discussions about life.” member at Mount Saint Mary’s in 2007. and if God wants me to move in different Challenging religion courses in his directions, I’m not in bad company.” curriculum also led him to ponder his Food, Faith and Future future. Deep questions welling up inside Watch a few episodes of Grace Before him found answers that led Patalinghug Meals and you get the sense that to a higher power, and though he Patalinghug will do anything to examined a number of religions, it was break the ice of familial stress with Catholicism in which he found peace. food – and even a stiff drink or two. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

36 HOW TO How To Build a Ramen Bridge With Dr. Timmie Topoleski, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Back in 1958, when the late Japanese food Step 2: magnate Momofuku Ando developed his first package of ramen – a dried noodle Test the Structural Integrity of Your Materials requiring boiling water and a simple flavor packet to deliciously “activate” in your lunch bowl – little did he know he had created what would become a staple of college culinary life. He probably also didn’t realize the wavy bricks held yet another potential use: noodle bridge. In honor of UMBC Magazine’s very first food issue, we asked UMBC mechanical engineering professor Dr. Timmie Topoleski to consider ramen as a legitimate building material. If you build a ramen bridge, how much weight could it handle? Tools of the Trade Step 1: 1. Oodles of noodles! (Costing around a quarter Set a Reasonable Goal per packet, we splurged and How big should the bridge be? How got some extra ramen for much weight should it bear? Why build lunch.) it? (We’re chalking the last one up to 2. Hot glue sticks. (Topoleski “scientific curiosity.”) Uncooked ramen comes in solid bricks supplied sparkly hot glue, measuring around 4 by 3.5 by .75 inches. thanks to his kids’ craft (Appetizing, right?) As Topoleski supply. Pretty, but not discovered, the bricks aren’t as randomly necessary.) constructed as they might seem at the 3. Hot glue gun. (The bigger bottom of your lunch bowl. In fact, each the better.) has a noodly cuff on one end, perfect for 4. A workspace you don’t joining to another brick. mind littering with tiny Kept uncooked, ramen makes for a fairly pieces of dried noodle. And predictable building material. So, how best glue droplets. to arrange it to make the strongest bridge possible? I-Beams? T-Beams? Flat or For this project we decided to build a end-to-end? Considering the wavy pattern ramen bridge that would hold any or all of of dried noodles, Topoleski decided the following: 1) a True Grit puppy toy, 2) to try a two-tiered alternating hinge, a cow femur (used in Topoleski’s real-life similar to what you might find in brick research on wear and resistance in artificial wall construction. joints), or 3) as many packets of ramen as possible, weighing three ounces apiece. www.umbc.edu/magazine

Step 3: “spot weld” plan cost approximately one RESULTS stick of hot glue per weld, so for a structure 1) The seven ramen bridge Determine the Best Method seven ramen bricks long and two high, held one 20-ounce True of Bonding he used a little more than a dozen sticks Grit stuffed puppy or seven for mortar. packages of ramen (21 ounces total) Step 5: 2) The three ramen bridge held 25 packages of ramen Test, Test, Test! (four pounds, 11 ounces) Now for the fun part: loading weights on top of the bridge until it breaks. As 3) The two ramen bridge Topoleski explained it, engineers learn as held one 20-ounce True much from failures as successes. Good thing, Grit stuffed puppy and a Knowing the obvious option of using considering how quickly ours collapsed. 2.7-pound cow femur uncooked ramen bricks, Topoleski also considered wetting the noodles and Balancing the span of ramen across a gully reshaping them to dry in another form. approximately two feet deep, we first tested However, given the time constraints of a guy the seven ramen bridge with the 20-ounce who is not only a popular professor but also True Grit stuffed puppy. When that broke involved in numerous campus groups, we all in half after around 10 seconds, Topoleski decided to keep things simple – and dry. used the fallen halves of the bridge (three and four spans each) to test again, this time “What we need is something that will piling packets of ramen noodles as high as penetrate and interdigitate with the fibers possible. When those also broke, he tried [of the noodles],” he decided. Elmer’s glue? a tiny two-span bridge, which held the Takes too long to dry. The silicone he uses in his joint research? Much too expensive. Hot glue? Cheap, strong and fast-drying. Eureka!

Step 4: Bridge Construction Armed with a baggie of hot glue sticks and enough ramen to feed sixty college freshmen, Topoleski started gluing…and dog and the hefty cow femur for nearly 30 gluing…and gluing until he had what we seconds. Seems that shorter is sturdier in called “the seven ramen bridge.” Using his the case of ramen. “For an off-the-cuff experiment, it’s not too bad,” said Topoleski. “We definitely learned this is not the best way to make a ramen bridge!” — Jenny O’Grady UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

38 CLASS NOTES

Sideshows featuring amazing feats and astonishing freaks became an industry in the United States in the 19th century. But these traveling caravans have been on the endangered list in recent decades. Collecting the artifacts and celebrating the artistry of this vanishing industry has proven addictive to James Taylor ’73, interdisciplinary studies. Taylor’s magazine about the sideshows – James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On & Off The Midway – has been featured prominently in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun. His collection of sideshow memorabilia was the backbone of Baltimore’s late, lamented American Dime Museum, and it can now be seen as you sip a beer at one of Washington D.C.’s hippest taverns: the Palace of Wonders. UMBC Magazine asked Taylor why he loves the sideshow – and keeps its manifold wonders in the public eye. Why do I love sideshow and its talent: all the sword swallowers and magicians and knife throwers and jugglers and ventriloquists and fire breathers and human blockheads? There’s an easy answer: Because it’s a kick, a rush, a thrill. Tell me anyone doesn’t get a bit of an adrenaline surge watching Zamora the Torture King launch into his body-skewering and literally electrifying (himself, that is) act? I once watched two guys – big www.umbc.edu/magazine

as linebackers, the pair of them – pass made his money that he couldn’t believe below her waist. In her heyday in the 1930s out stone cold, falling over at the ankles that what he was doing was legal. and ’40s, she was billed as “the World’s while watching Zamora’s act. Another Not that there aren’t trials. Sideshow Only Living Half Girl.” Put “on show” by time, I watched a young girl, staring folk talk endlessly about how horrific her desperately poor parents, and later hard at his final stunt, sit and weep, her things are now or were in the past. My “adopted” by an evil stepmother from eyes never leaving his. Who wouldn’t ma’s late boyfriend, carnival owner Jerry the orphanage where Jeanie’s father had be shocked and amazed at that show? Farrow, owned a monkey show back in abandoned her after her mother died, But there’s a more complicated answer, the ‘50s, a show with an assortment of Jeanie only escaped the stepmother’s too. It might seem strange to most folk. monks, all of which escaped from the clutches when she married fellow freak It’s all about the love that these performers barn he’d housed them in, all of which performer Al Tomaini, “the American have for their craft and their audiences. ran riot throughout Glen Burnie for Giant.” Of course, they were billed as “the Whenever I deliver my “writing in the about a week, and all of which were shot World’s Strangest Married Couple.” real world” spiel to a classroom of students, dead by police before Jerry’s – and Glen When I met her toward the end of her I tell them that you have to decide first Burnie’s – nightmare ended. A horrifying life, I asked her what it meant to be a freak what you love, and then whether you can story by today’s standards, not so in the act in the sideshows. After hearing all that (or even want to) make a buck off it. 1950s when I grew up. And in the telling, life drama, I asked her how she’d sum up I don’t mean to be crass, but it remained one of Jerry’s most uproarious such a life. Jeanie looked me dead in the this is America: You better be tales, a tale of near financial ruin for face and with a grin said: “I had a ball.” makin’ the moolah, or you’re just him but always hilarious despite that. That’s why I love this weirdness un-American, some poor loser. The wild stories are verbal armor against that doubles as entertainment. I love That’s a particularly brutal – and more truly horrific circumstances they knowing there’s a business, a world, unlovely – life assessment for many face almost every day. But what you hear where people so love what they do – creative folk in this country. But I make even more than that in these over-the-top, entertaining us – that, even though they that judgment because I’ve seen that half-fabricated-for-entertainment- often pretend otherwise, they would interplay of love and money at work – up effect tales – the carnival folk call them work just for the thrill of thrilling us. close, alive, livin’ and breathin’, right in “jackpots” – is the obvious love and the And while it may seem strange, front of me – in the lives of the people outrageous passion that these show weird, bizarre, exotic or unusual who still work the midways. It’s a sight people have for the work they do. to you, love can look all of those I’ll remember till the longest day I live, as Take the late Jeanie Tomaini, a ways sometimes, now can’t it? the old-time sideshow guys used to say. performer born with literally nothing These oddball jugglers, hula hoop manipulators and fire breathers will tell you flat out that they’re in it for the money… which they’re not making. They’re starving to death. They’re limping along at best. Many of them can’t figure out how they’re going to make it to the next show. Most people would ask: “Then why do you keep doin’ it?” One of the best answers was told to me by showman Mark Frierson many years ago. When he mounted and trouped out his first show, Frierson told me he had so much fun while he UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

40 UMBC Class Notes is compiled by UMBC Magazine staff from items submitted online and by mail by 1971 1974 alumni, as well as from news articles Linda Dunn, history, retired in December David Young, sociology, was named as a and press releases received by the 2009 after a distinguished 34-year career recipient of the 2009 Leadership in the Law university. This edition of Class Notes at the University of Delaware. She was Award by the Maryland Daily Record. He is a contains information processed by that university’s assistant director of career judge in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. December 11, 2009. planning and placement, assistant dean of undergraduate programs in the College of CL A SS NOTES How to Submit Class Notes Business and Economics, and manager of college communications, outreach, and alumni The deadline for submitting Class Notes for the programs. After teaching in Howard County 1975 next print issue of is March UMBC Magazine public schools for five years, Linda went on to Michael J. Quinn, philosophy, studied with 15, 2010. We cannot guarantee the publication earn her master’s degree from Towson University Tom Benson and Ed Orser while at UMBC. He of class notes received after the deadline as and her doctorate from the University of went on to receive both an M.A.R. from Yale production schedules and resources require Delaware. She writes: “While I will treasure the Divinity School and his law degree from the strict deadline compliance. Notes may be fond memories of my colleagues for a lifetime, I University of Connecticut. An attorney with submitted online at www.umbc.edu/magazine look forward to an even more enriched life with Polito & Quinn, LLC, located in New London, or by mail at: – Class Notes, UMBC Magazine family, friends and opportunities for travel.” CT, Michael has been listed in Connecticut Alumni House, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, Magazine as a SuperLawyer for the past five MD 21250. consecutive years. He currently lives in Old Lyme, CT. Photo Guidelines Digital photos should be taken on the highest- 1972 quality setting. They should be 4 x 6 inches or Manus O’Donnell, English, received the larger and 300 dpi. Save the attachment as a 2009 Picot Floyd Public Service Leadership TIFF or JPEG. Questions? Please e-mail to award by the American Society of Public 1980 [email protected]. Administration (Sun Coast Chapter) for James E. Crisp, economics, published an extraordinary leadership and accomplishments article “For Baltimore Nonprofits, New 990 is as a public management executive. He currently More Than Just a Tax Form,” in the August 21, works as an assistant county administrator 2009 issue of the Baltimore Business Journal. Crisp in Hillsborough County, FL, and has two leads Gross Mendelsohn’s healthcare group and 1970 children: Katey (28) and Manus (Manny, 23), is a member of the firm’s nonprofit group. He is a Dick Bond, psychology, and Carol Hesson who graduated with a degree in computer member of the Maryland Association of CPAs, Bond, psychology, wrote to say that they engineering in 2007. American Institute of CPAs, LifeSpan Network have been married for 38 years. Carol recalls and Maryland Association of Nonprofit having the privilege of taking UMBC’s very first Organizations. retriever mascot to lacrosse games in that era. (Dick played on the team as a student.) They Dean Pappas, political science, was named also recall Casino Night, a tug of war across assistant vice president and assistant general the library pond and missing a concert by the counsel, federal legislative and regulatory popular band Chicago (when they went by the Carol Hesson Bond ’70, escorted the original affairs, for Allstate Insurance Company. He will name “Chicago Transit Authority”) because UMBC Retriever mascot to her husband Dick head up the company’s federal affairs office in Dick “figured they would be some kind of Hesson ’70’s lacrosse games in the early days of Washington, D.C. way out psychedelic group.” Two years after the university. graduation, the couple moved to Connecticut and later moved to Southern Florida, where they live today. 1981 Frances Allen Nickolas, American studies, Walt Steffens, English, retired in July 2008 works with her husband Pete Nickolas ’71, after 24 years of service in the Federal Bureau ancient studies, in his dental practice in of Investigation. He recently announced his Westminster. She wants to say thanks for the intention to run for the position of Sheriff of note of appreciation by Paul Kriewald ’72, Queen Anne’s County in the 2010 election. history in the last issue of UMBC Magazine. 1983 Jean Palazzo Prunesti, visual and performing arts, writes with news of her three children. Her daughter Aileen attends Loyola University as a graduate student in speech www.umbc.edu/magazine

41 pathology. Her son Dominic Anthony majors in computer science at Stevenson University. Her youngest daughter, Mary Catherine, is a sophomore at Howard Community College BUILDING AND BONDING who majors in elementary education. to detect IEDs with aerial electromagnetic sensors. The group recruited Donlan as a project director on the new effort, dubbed “Yellow Jacket.” He began work on the project in the autumn. 1985 On his tour of active duty in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 (including a stint in Fallujah), Donlan says Alan Feiler, English, works as a writer and that he “encountered multiple IEDs on a daily managing editor for the Baltimore Jewish Times. basis, either disarming them or finding them.” An award-winning journalist, he writes about Helping his fellow solders identify and neutralize a wide array of topics, from contemporary the threat, he adds, proved a strong lure to sign faith matters and political coverage to capital up for Yellow Jacket. punishment and the arts. He and his wife, Donlan’s tasks at UMBC may not have taken Hannah, live in Mount Washington and have on the life or death quality of his work as a Marine, but his steady efforts as the university two children, Mira, 11, and Joshua, 7. erected new structures and renovated key buildings were a crucial element in UMBC’s growth. Donlan succeeded the late Richard Butler in 1994, first as associate director and later as director of facilities management. 1987 In Donlan’s tenure, UMBC constructed Steven Needleman, biological sciences, If you marvel at how well UMBC’s buildings have the Information Technology and Engineering graduated from medical school in Chicago been maintained over the last decade or so, you (ITE) building, the Public Policy building, in 1991, completing his residency in can point to the hard work of James Donlan the Physics building and a number of new residential buildings. “In the 1990s, there was anesthesiology at George Washington ’85, economics, who until recently served as the university’s director of facilities management. construction fence everywhere,” Donlan recalls. University Hospital in 1995. In 1998, he left the “As I look back at it now, it seems like we were United States Air Force with the rank of major, In that position, Donlan supervised the maintenance of 3.6 million square feet in UMBC’s building everywhere.” and for the last eleven years, has worked as a staff 49 buildings. He also guided the university Yet Donlan feels that UMBC has retained a lot anesthesiologist at Baylor Medical Center in through some of its most challenging renovations of what made it special for him as a student in Grapevine, Texas. Steven and his wife, Shannan, of major buildings and constructions of new the 1980s. “The campus has doubled in size,” he have two childen: Taylor, 7, and Reagan, 5. buildings in the past 15 years. observes. “But it still feels small. It’s big enough And while his departure means the university that it has all of the amenities of a larger school, has big work boots to fill, Donlan is tackling a but it’s still small enough that it feels like a challenge that will call on his organizational skills, family.” (Indeed, his son Justin Donlan ’11 is a and the experience he has gleaned from his years student in UMBC’s Honors College.) 1988 at UMBC and his experiences as a colonel in the Out of all his accomplishments at UMBC, United States Marine Corps Reserves: leading a Donlan points to the renovations of the biology Darren Hitt, mechanical engineering, was project designed to combat the deadly improvised and chemistry buildings as the most satisfying. featured in an article in The Baltimore Sun for explosive devices (IEDs) that are a favored weapon “The biology and chemistry buildings were two of research that he and a team at the University of insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. the toughest jobs we did,” he says. “We did both of Vermont’s School of Engineering are doing Donlan says that he is sad to leave UMBC. of them in occupied settings.” on silicon chips and propulsion systems. The “But the opportunity presented itself to work on a The chemistry renovation posed vexing problems for Donlan and his team to solve. team received a $750,000 grant for the research, project with a significant impact on saving lives,” he says. “That made the decision easier.” “We were building a building on top of a and has partnered with engineers at NASA’s building,” Donlan recalls. “The building was Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. It was Donlan’s work on a recent tour of duty as a Marine combat engineering officer in the built like a tank. The air handling systems and Marine Corps’ War Fighting Lab in Quantico, VA, everything else were in the basement. At [the Jeffrey A, Wothers, economics, has been that led him to his new position. The lab, he says, time of the building’s construction], that was named to the Carroll Hospital Center’s board of “finds scientific and technological solutions to great idea. It worked well. But when you’ve got directors. He is the managing partner at Niles, problems the Marines are having in combat.” The to replace those systems, there’s no way to get Barton & Willmer, L.L.P. goals of such work, he observes, is to find ways to back in there. So we actually had to take the “harden vehicles and protect people.” mechanical rooms that were in the basement and Donlan’s work in that group led him to put them on the roof.” participation in a joint working group on the Sensitivity to the important research that deadly explosives culled from all branches of was happening in both buildings was also a key the armed forces by the Department of Defense. element in both successful renovations, Donlan 1989 says, because any mistakes “could have a “It is sort of a Manhattan Project to predict and Lou Weber, economics, has worked in prevent IEDs,” says Donlan of the Joint Improvised devastating impact on researchers’ careers.” telecommunications with Verizon at the Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO. — Richard Byrne ’86 United States Department of Justice. He After Donlan’s tour was up, he was contacted currently works with the company at the U.S. by CenTauri Solutions – a defense contractor Department of Agriculture. which had won an $11.7 million bid with the Pentagon and JIEDDO to work on new techniques UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

42 1990 The Art of Educating Lou Gieszel, English and M.P.P. ’06, has been named as president-elect of the academic, the behind-the-scenes,” she recalls. “It Association for Conflict Resolution, a awakened a world I didn’t know was out there – a professional organization dedicated to world of possibilities.” enhancing the practice and public understanding After taking a master’s degree in teaching at of conflict resolution. He is the deputy executive CL A SS NOTES the Corcoran, Pasquini ended up working at the director of the Maryland Mediation and gallery full-time. She quickly worked her way Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO), and a up into her present position as director of Youth member of the board of directors of the Institute and Family Programs, where she drew upon her UMBC experiences to spark a renewal in the for the Study of Conflict Transformation. Gallery’s Corcoran ArtReach program – which brings the gallery’s art to disadvantaged children Carolyn Barranco Russell, psychology, lives in the Washington, D.C. area. in Severna Park. She is married to Steve Russell, ArtReach works in partnership with community and has a son and a daughter. She writes that she centers in District neighborhoods. Pasquini and keeps busy with her family business, teaching and other members of the Corcoran Gallery develop attending family sporting events. curricula specifically geared towards each individual community, complete with lesson plans, slides of Corcoran art exhibits and a brief outline of each work. ArtReach students also get a chance to explore the Corcoran itself, and the program augments 1991 When Laura Pasquini ’98, visual arts, started individual coursework with monthly family Andrew Thomann, English, works as a her studies in art at UMBC, she thought she workshops that incorporate parts of the gallery’s copywriter for Intelsat, the largest satellite wanted to be a museum curator, creating exhibits exhibits collection into broader contexts. Pasquini services provider in the world. He lives in that set great art in narrative contexts. points to “Creatures of the Deep” workshops that Shepherdstown, WV with his wife, Michele, and Pasquini did end up working at the Corcoran the program offered last October in concert with their two children, Mark, 11, and Skye, 9. Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., one of the most the gallery’s “Sargent and the Sea” exhibit. These prestigious museums in the United States. But family workshops used John Singer Sargent’s she did so in way that’s making a difference for paintings as a springboard for an examination of thousands of young people and their families by sea creatures, providing a fun, kid-friendly science opening up the Corcoran’s magnificent collection lesson communicated through art. and the gallery’s other assets for learning. Pasquini says that exciting student interest is 1993 As the director of the Corcoran’s Youth and the key element in ArtReach’s success. “Art has Tony Gallahan, theatre, is on the board Family Programs, Pasquini has revamped and value and meaning,” Pasquini insists. “It isn’t of Mobtown Players. He was that company’s revitalized the gallery’s approach to education with supposed to be dead on the wall. It isn’t about a artistic director in 2006. Since graduating, he the aim of “empowering kids to confidence.” Most lecture – it’s about the experience, about making has worked in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and notable among her achievements is the growth a learning connection [for the students] between New York. in Corcoran ArtReach – an after school program what they saw on the wall to what they see in that collaborates with community centers to reach their own lives.” 150-200 disadvantaged students a year. The culmination of the ArtReach experience is Michele Kraus, ancient studies, has returned In one evaluation of the program, a parent a chance for students to create their own works to college to pursue “a new and much more called Corcoran Artreach “the best youth arts of art using techniques and knowledge gleaned rewarding career path” as she earns her master’s program in the area.” And this success has also in their classes. The work is both displayed in degree in acupuncture from Tai Sophia Institute brought Pasquini recognition, most recently as the community galleries and professionally framed in Columbia. winner of the 2009 UMBC Outstanding Alumni of and hung (with accompanying silkscreen text) in the Year award for a graduate in the visual and the Corcoran Gallery of Art itself. performing arts. Pasquini says that ArtReach has become “a Pasquini points to a junior year internship at place of learning through visual learning, creating UMBC in the university’s Center for Art, Design an experience for people that brings [art] to and Visual Culture as a key moment in choosing life… It empowers kids to talk about art. It ignites 1994 a career in arts education, one which she says curiosity and higher thinking skills. Seeing [the Joey Pulone, information systems “changed my career and life outlook.” students] gain confidence in themselves and their management, spent 12 years as a graphic Working in conjunction with Arbutus art…it’s incredible.” designer before plunging head-first into his true Elementary School, Pasquini designed a program — Holly Britton ’11 calling, photojournalism. “Since then,” he writes, to introduce and integrate students into the world “I’ve been shooting newspaper and magazine of art that included talks, tours of the UMBC Fine For more details about ArtReach, check out assignments, documentary projects, and growing Arts Gallery and the creation of original works www.corcoran.org/artreach/index.php of art by students. The important thing, Pasquini a successful wedding/portrait photography recalls, was to find and reinforce connections business.” He lives with his wife, Debbie, and between art and the students’ experiences. three children – Max, 9, Liv, 7, and Sofie, 6 – in Her enthusiasm for the project steered Ellicott City. His brother-in-law is Mike Rund Pasquini away from an intended career as a ’02, American studies. museum curator. “I realized I didn’t want the www.umbc.edu/magazine

43 Janis Vasquenza, nursing, was featured in an Bennett Moe, visual and performing October 2009 story in the Frederick News-Post arts, and his wife Diane Stephenson-Moe about nurse practitioners. Vazquenza returned to ’90, psychology, work as consultants and 2003 school to receive her master’s degree so that she contributors to the nationally syndicated Jennifer Cohen Kirschbaum, English and could help fill a shortage of nursing educators. column A+ Advice by Hall-of-Fame educator modern languages and linguistics, married Leanna Landsman. George Kirschbaum, Jr., on November 15, 2009, in Alexandria, VA. They live in Arlington, VA. She is a project coordinator for Computech, Inc. 1995 Kisha Fields-Matthews, political science, Ryan Heilman, ancient studies, teaches 1999 recently received a promotion to vice president history in Carroll County. Lola Eniola-Adefeso, chemical at Integrity Title and Escrow Co., L.L.C. She engineering, was featured in the National is also the newly appointed board member of Institute of General Medical Sciences’ journal Success in Style Womens’ Org., an organization Findings for here work with white blood cells. promoting success and mentoring for Her work involves designing artificial white disadvantaged women in the workforce. Kisha 1996 blood cells to deliver medicines safely and has two childen: Joshua, 20, and Nathaniel, 11. Vikki Valentine, English, is a digital science effectively to diseased tissues near the heart. editor at National Public Radio. She was part Karl E. Strauss, political science, was of a team of editors for NPR News’ Climate Jennifer Rabenhorst, biochemistry and presented in October 2009 with the Ohio Connections that won a 2009 National Academies molecular biology, received her M.D. from the State Bar Foundation Community Service Communications Award for a yearlong University of Maryland Baltimore and finished Award for the Ohio Bar Association’s Fourth multimedia project that tracked the impact of her residency at Georgetown University Hospital. District – which encompasses Lucas, Ottawa climate change with stories from around the She founded and serves as president of Integrative and Sandusky counties. Strauss is an associate in world. Valentine took her master’s degree from Family Medicine, LLC, and is currently finishing the health law practice group of Toledo law firm the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of a master’s degree in acupuncture at the Tai Sophia Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick. L.L.P. Medicine at University College, London. She was Institute. She has been happily married for three Timothy Young, psychology, began a 2007 recipient of a Knight New Media Center/ years and lives in Clarksville. performing stand-up comedy while earning his USC Annenberg Science Fellowship. Angela Scott, interdisciplinary studies, law degree from the University of Baltimore. obtained a J.D. from the Catholic University Though he works for Lexis Nexis as a strategic of America’s Columbus School of Law and an account manager in their federal government L.L.M. degree from Georgetown University market division, he also recently launched his 1997 Law Center. She also completed an international own stand-up promotional company and talent Marlene Troutner Reese, sociology, married human rights law program at Oxford University. agency, Coming Distractions. Mark Reese of Linthicum on November 3, 2007. She is currently a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Jessica L. Schachter, English, published Angela’s other honors include being selected as a Members of Delta Sigma Theta pose at the a children’s book, My Book of Happy Maryland Bar Association Leadership Academy Old School Throwback Party held at UMBC’s (CreateSpace), in September 2009. Fellow, a Maryland Bar Foundation Fellow and 2009 Homecoming. Top L-R: Janice Johnson an American Bar Association Scholar. Armstrong ’00, Afro-American studies, Dawn Page ’95, health science and policy, Susan Mark Tyler, history, and his wife, Jodi Meyers Wellington Bland ’96, Afro-American studies. 1998 Tyler ’99, biological sciences, recently Bottom L-R: Kisha Watkins ’00, biological celebrated the birth of their second daughter, sciences, Kamili Jackson ’97, ’99 M.S. Corris Davis, biological sciences, became Sophie Elizabeth. Their first daughter, Dayna president of the Mid-Eastern Association of mechanical engineering, Nichole Richmond Blair, is now two years old. They currently live in Pinkney ’92, economics. Educational Opportunity Program Personnel Salisbury, where Mark works as a child support (MEAEOPP) on October 1. She is the director enforcement prosecutor and Jodi plans to of the Upward Bound Program at UMBC, practice as a pediatrician. which has been continuously funded since 1989. Upward Bound promotes the development and the enhancement of students’ basic skills, academic and cultural enrichment and helps provide the motivation necessary to matriculate 2002 at and graduate from college. Leah Concannon Mayer, psychology, and her husband, Patrick Mayer ’02, political Jeannie Marsh, American studies, is science and philosophy, became the proud currently pursuing a Doctorate of Ministry in parents of their daughter, Olivia, on July 22, the arts and theology, after receiving her master 2009. She currently works at the New York of divinity degree from Wesley Theological State Office of Children and Family Services. Seminary in Washington, D.C. She is pastor at Her brother, James Concannon, is a graduate Cresaptown United Methodist Church. student at UMBC. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

44 Michael Karabinos, history, completed his master’s in library science from the Catholic University of America, and now works as a map librarian with the National Geographic Society. He and his wife, Ding Ren ’05, visual arts, live in Washington, D.C. Ding received her M.F.A. in photography from George Washington University. CL A SS NOTES 2006 Kelly Mattingly Harden, American studies, teaches kindergarten in Anne Arundel UMBC’s 2009 Homecoming drew a bevy of alums to campus, including (L-R): David Indek ’09, County. She is working on her master’s degree financial economics; Maria Parson ’04, psychology; Irina Vishnevetsky ’99, psychology; Lauren in special education. She married Eric Harden Chhay ’03, biochemistry and molecular biology; Jay Lagorio ’08, computer science. ’05, mechanical engineering, in June 2007.

Christopher Reese, political science, in addition to attending Temple Law School, is 2004 2005 busy planning his December 2010 wedding Myriam Montanez Comito, modern Patrick Arnold, history, earned his law with his fiancéeSamantha Waide ’08, languages and linguistics and education, degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center and mathematics and education. married Christopher Comito ’04, practices law in southern New Hampshire. In information systems, in March 2006. Their son, early November, he was elected to the Board Cristobal, was born in October, 2007. Myriam of Aldermen (City Council) in the City of has taught Spanish for Howard County Public Manchester, NH. Schools for the past six years. Chris is a business 2007 Animari Fermaint, interdisciplinary analyst for T. Rowe Price. Radhika Chandrasekaran, biochemistry, and molecular biology, writes that Hurricane studies, has enrolled in a nursing program in Julia McCrossin, English, is currently Katrina and reports of the spread of infectious York, PA. “I am looking forward to changing pursuing her Ph.D. in English at George diseases in its wake changed the course of her careers,” she writes, “as psychology turned out Washington University, where she also works as interests from cellular research to public health. not to be the career I expected it to be.” a graduate teaching assistant. In addition to being She pursued a master’s degree in public health Eric Anthony Grollman, sociology profiled in GW’s newspaper and presenting in epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public and psychology, is a regular writer for the her research at numerous conferences, she Health at Emory University, spending part of her Kinsey Institute’s Kinsey Confidential blog. published her first journal book review in the time working in India, Rwanda and Zambia. After The Kinsey Institute, named after the famous June 2009 issue of The Journal of Popular Culture. completing her master’s degree, Chandrasekaran Indiana University-based sex researcher Alfred Her research on the representations of body worked in the Office of the Armed Forces Kinsey, provides sexual health information size, ethnicity and nationality, and consumption Medical Examiner in the mortality surveillance and new sexuality research findings through in Willa Cather’s novel, Death Comes for the division. That job led to positions with Booz Allen Kinsey Confidential. Eric adds a sociologist’s Archbishop, was published in November 2009 as Hamilton as a researcher in the Armed Forces perspective to the site. At IU, he is now a Ph.D. part of the collection, The Fat Studies Reader. Health Surveillance Center and her present job student and instructor teaching courses on working in Cairo, Egypt, with the Naval Medical sexual diversity. Lori Quintavalle, American studies, is a Research Unit-3 in Cairo, setting up sentinel teacher at Haddonfield Memorial High School surveillance of infectious diseases throughout the Jessica Martin, business technology in New Jersey. She teaches health and physical Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. administration, is pursuing an M.S. in human- education classes, and also coaches soccer, centered computing at UMBC. She works as an basketball, and track. Crisandra Bailey Harrison, English, met IT specialist at the U.S. Department of Treasury. her husband Brian Harrison ’04, psychology, Monica E. Williams-Randall ’04, Ph.D., through the Humanities Scholars Program Christiana Mercer Rigby, environmental policy sciences, has held many positions at UMBC, where they were also members of studies, married Nick Rigby in August 2009. in finance and policy. She now serves as the the Honors College. Married in Baltimore After moving back to the D.C. area from associate vice president for public policy in June 2006, they own a home in Rochester, England, she began working at the National and government relations at Coppin State NY. Both are currently pursuing graduate Breast Cancer Coalition coordinating advocacy University. She lives in Bowie with her husband degrees at the University of Rochester: Crissi is training programs. Her sister, Regan Mercer, Alan and their daughter, Maya. working toward her M.B.A. in marketing and graduated from UMBC in 2006 with a degree competitive strategy, while Brian is earning his in psychology. Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a specialization in children with autism. Crissi and Brian both work at the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, in the admissions office and as a project manager, respectively. www.umbc.edu/magazine

45 2008 Adam Cohen, history and English, and BIOENGINEERING & BLITZING Huyen Nguyen ’08, English, were married in Gaithersburg on October 25. The ceremony was But Coley heard the call of athletics – and performed by Rabbi Jason Klein, director of the gridiron, in particular – as she sprinted for UMBC Hillel. a doctorate. It began one night while she was playing pickup basketball one night, when she Tal Levitas, political science, is managing received an offer to try out for the Pittsburgh the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring. He is Passion, a team that was playing in a women’s also working on getting his video production football league. While Coley had played some company off the ground. rugby while she was at UMBC, she had never really considered playing football. Coley made the team and quickly fell in love April Lewis, sociology, works for Playworks with the game. She joined the Pittsburgh Passion (www.playworks.org), a non-profit group that as a safety and linebacker in 2006. Coley played allows her “to do what I do best, which is play with the Passion for three seasons until moving to all day and bring safe, organized play back into a new expansion team in the women’s league – America’s inner-city elementary schools.” the Pittsburgh Force – this past spring. “I’m an aggressive person, but I’m always Friends We Will Miss thinking, always calculating,” says Coley. “One thing that was hard for me for football was that Richard Butler, the former director of facilities our coaches tend to want us to be animated, and management at UMBC, passed away in August they want us to growl. They’ll say, ‘You girls aren’t 2009 after a battle with cancer. He was associate mad enough, aren’t angry.’ If a player comes my director of facilities management at UMBC way, I’m going to get her, but I don’t have to growl from 1980 to 1991, and was director from 1991 at her or anything like that.” until his retirement from the university in 1994. Coley prefers to let her play do all the talking. Another one of her favorite plays came when she had to cover a wide receiver who was talking Linda L. Fannon ’75, interdisciplinary trash at the line of scrimmage. Coley gave no studies, passed away on September 29, 2009. verbal response, but instead flattened her talkative opponent when she tried to catch a pass only Teresa Pomeroy, an accounting associate in moments later. As the player lay stunned on the UMBC’s Office of Institutional Advancement, ground, Coley quietly reached down and helped passed away in October 2009. She had worked Brooke Coley ’03, chemical engineering, her up. at the university since 1987, beginning as an remembers it as a dream play for a football “She didn’t say another thing the whole game,” defense. recalls Coley with a smile. assistant with the university’s food services and Two defenders burst through the offensive moving to the financial services division in 1992. Coley isn’t sure what the future holds for her line just moments after the snap, trapping the professionally, but she professes that she’d love to Pomeroy worked in institutional advancement quarterback in the backfield. One defender tackles return to UMBC – which she says is “like a second from 1999 until her death. the quarterback, allowing the second defender to home to me” – as a teacher and researcher with zero in on the ball and yank it loose. Dr. Timmie Topoleski, who was a mentor during Md Akilur Rahman, a sophomore economics As the football falls from the quarterback’s her undergraduate years. major, passed away on August 28, 2009, just hands to the turf, the second defender alertly Coley picked UMBC and the Meyerhoff before the start of the fall semester. Services were scoops up the ball and scampers all the way program over Duke after receiving acceptance held in his hometown of Dhaka, Bangladesh. down the field for a 41-yard touchdown. letters to the schools only one day apart. Coley Coley was the second defender on the play, said her trip to UMBC during the Meyerhoff and the touchdown she scored were the John B. Schwartz passed away on October selection process quickly sold her on the school, first points ever tallied by the Pittsburgh Force: even though she had spent lots of time talking 14, 2009 Schwartz was the first undergraduate a women’s football team that began playing program director in the Information Systems with her family about her love for Duke. last year. Though Coley is now busy crunching data and Department. He was with the department She still smiles broadly when she talks about finishing her doctoral thesis, she says she will from 1982 until his retirement in 2003. The the play. “I go in the history books for our team. continue playing football this spring. She views department has a John B. Schwartz Scholarship, For the first TD to be a defensive TD; I wasn’t the three-hour practices that the Force holds which is awarded to students each semester. expecting that at all,” says Coley. “It was cool. It three times a week during the season as great was a really good feeling.” outlets for relieving academic stress and staying Coley is a Tidewater, VA native who played four in shape. sports in high school. But as a member of the “Football used to be a game I watched on TV,” tenth class of Meyerhoff Scholars at UMBC Coley said. “I watch the game differently now. (M10), Coley decided to limit her pursuit of Now I know what it means to be a player.” athletic glory as she pursued a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. — Jeff Seidel ’85 After graduation, Coley began working toward a Ph.D. in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She expects to receive her degree this spring. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

Ancient studies at UMBC has always meant travel, as we discovered when Phyllis Hicks Clark ’70, history, shared her photos with UMBC Magazine of a 1969 ancient studies trip to Greece. Forty years later, UMBC students went back to Greece on an ancient studies-organized trip. Here are some photographic relics of both journeys.

The amphitheatre at Epidauros (330 BCE), shot in 2009.

1969 UMBC sojourners caught Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on film at an Athens market. www.umbc.edu/magazine

THEN & NOW 47

Billy Johnson, a current student in Ancient studies, at the Temple of Athena Aphaea on Aegina.

Phyllis Hicks Clark remembers that “most of us had never been on a plane before.”

Larry Wilder ’70, biological sciences, at Olympos. UMBC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2010

48 OVER COFFEE

What was it like in the early days of UMBC? Judge Levitz: My wife and I started UMBC the first day it opened. We were two of the original 600 students in September 1966. There were three buildings built…. It was all mud. They put down wooden planks so you could walk from the parking lot to these three buildings. But the great part of it was that everybody knew everybody… and since they had the vision of what this was going to become… they brought in some really high powered professors to start the departments. And the neat part about being the first students was that we were always the senior class… and we always had the top professors throughout our four years…. I found one of my bills and it was $250 a semester. The UMBC campus in that era reverberated with social and political issues of the day. What about your generation, Alicia? Wilson: Before 9/11 we were a different generation. I think 9/11 made us more aware of the significance of the actions we take on Judge Dana M. Levitz ’70, theater and other liberal arts major – other than theater, a daily basis and how they impact the world. in my opinion. But there’s no advantage to Alicia Wilson ’04, political science, And also gave us a greater awareness of how it… What did you study? have more in common than legal the world views us… and our responsibility careers. Both are also winners of Wilson: Political science. (Laughs.) not just to those we pass on the street or UMBC’s Outstanding Alumni of the see on a daily basis but our responsibility to Judge Levitz: See? (Laughs.) Theater was Year Award (Judge Levitz in 1993, people that we never see. And people who a phenomenal preparation. When I started and Wilson in 2009). may not yet be born. We have an obligation at UMBC, the major was called “speech to make an informed decision on how we Judge Levitz was a member of UMBC’s and theater….” You took not only courses live daily. That fired a lot of my generation up first graduating class. He retired from in speech, giving a speech, but also in oral to promote change and feel like we had the a long and distinguished career on interpretation. How do you read something? power to do so. Maryland’s Circuit Court last year. How do you take a script or a document Wilson is an associate at Gordon, and read it for dramatic effect…There were So what attracted you to attend UMBC? Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger and courses in performance…. You have to read, Wilson: Dr. [Freeman A.] Hrabowski. His Hollander. She was a Sondheim scholar understand the motivations of a character, the passion for this school and for the students and the recipient of a prestigious Harry emotions, and convey it to an audience. What really inspired me. Knowing that I would have S. Truman scholarship. better preparation could a trial lawyer have somebody who made a conscious effort to than that? It literally is the ideal preparation. know my name, learn about my background, How did studying drama help you become a and try to help me achieve my dreams was good trial lawyer, Judge Levitz? How did liberal arts help you prepare for law school? so appealing that once I came to UMBC… I Judge Levitz: I think the vast majority of didn’t want to go to any other school. college students who think they want to be Wilson: Political science exposes you to so lawyers major in political science…. Political much of the world. It shapes your views of — Richard Byrne ’86 science has nothing to do with law school or those issues that you want to advocate for, and the practice of law. I’m not saying that it’s not that you become passionate about, because worthwhile. It’s certainly as valuable as any you gain knowledge of the intricacies of those issues.