October 2008: A Monthly Review

The Fall brings the best weather of the year to the Midwest. The days are mildly warm to briskly cool, with skies either softly overcast or bright and casting long shadows. This fine weather is joined with brilliant displays of colour, as the foliage turns from greens to soft browns, golden yellows and fiery shades of pink, orange, red, and purple. I even saw some red maples (Acer rubrum) that were so intensely hued I would call them 'vermillion'. Of course, an occasional shower or blustering wind usually only adds to the moody drama of the season. With the coming of cooler nights I've begun to prepare for the bleak time to come by taping up window cracks and draping my down comforter on my bed. However it has yet to get so bad that I have needed to run the heat or wear my fur-trimmed parka…. but those days will be here before too long.

I gave a seminar talk for my graduate program about my work involving the phylogenetics of , in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. The talk came off well enough though its preparation was a bit rushed as the date for it was bumped up two months earlier, so an important guest speaker could be accommodated in December. Of course, the afore-mentioned 'big shot' then later canceled anyway…

For a few days this month, Washington University was a focus of national political interest as the school was hosting the 2008 vice-presidential debate between the basically decent Joe Biden and the completely deplorable Sarah Palin. I don't put much stock in debates as a way to determine a candidate's stances or competence and so tried to ignore the event. That was occasionally difficult to do however, due to ad hoc security fencing, placard-waving supporters and crowds forming around stages, booths and television cameras…

A small event back home inspired a good amount of social interest and networking on my part. My Class of 1988 from Alhambra High School in Martinez, California, celebrated its 20th Anniversary Reunion. Even though I wasn't able to attend the reunion in person (and technically I 'graduated' a year early with a CHSPE) I was still intrigued enough to reintroduce myself to many old friends and acquaintances online. Most of these 'meetings' took place on Facebook, though several of my 'best friends' from high school are also on MySpace, which I prefer. I'm happy to say that most of the people I knew well seem to have done well for themselves. Of course more than twenty years have passed since I last saw most of them, but I hope that we will stay in some sort of contact into the future. Thanks to the Internet, such connection is now a more reasonable possibility.

For several years now I've held St. Louis' version of Halloween in ever-lower esteem, due to several unpleasant experiences. I had hoped this state of affairs had reached its nadir in 2007, when Brian Crisp and I were attacked in the Delmar Loop by a gang of thugs. The follow-up response from the U City police was also uncommunicative and sub-satisfactory. This year I stayed home and had a good time cozily watching a movie alone. However, I learned a couple of days later that a police officer was shot and killed in the Delmar Loop by an ex-con. It happened within an hour of the time the year before when I was attacked… a coincidence of course, but a telling one. At least I can assume that this time, the police are taking the matter seriously.