All tagged 2020/01
Granular materials — like sand, rice, or powdered pharmaceuticals — are everywhere, yet their behavior is poorly understood. In some ways behaving like liquids, in other ways behaving like solids, such materials have unique properties and pose unique questions to answer. Swarthmore College physics professors Cacey Bester and Amy Graves received an NSF grant to study granular materials.
The other week, I was in Texas when I received a push notification from the Nest Cam we have keeping an eye on our yard. The notification arrived just after the school bus would have dropped the kids off, so I tuned in to say hi. It took me a second or two to realize what was going on. My son was throwing the football with the UPS guy.
At the meeting of the Swarthmore Borough Council Public Safety Committee on Monday, January 27, the conversation revolved around two intersections on Yale Avenue: the intersection of Yale and Cornell, and the intersection of Yale and Chester Road. Several borough residents came to the meeting to voice their concerns.
September through May, the List Gallery’s 1,200-foot space presents about a dozen exhibitions, featuring the college’s alumni (such as MacArthur Fellowship recipient Njideka Akunyili Crosby ‘04), emerging talents, and some of the leading artists of our time.
The very next day after I met Rogers Stevens, I was in the CVS south of Swarthmore on Route 320 when “No Rain” started playing on the overhead sound system. Stevens, an attorney and a guitarist, lives in town — it was probably just as likely that he’d have been in the CVS as that I was. “No Rain,” which topped the charts in the early nineties, is a song with an immediately recognizable jangly electric guitar intro, and it was Stevens who played it.
The Summit School, on Plush Mill Road in Wallingford, was the subject of the Nether Providence commissioners meeting on January 23. The site has been slated for redevelopment as green space including, possibly, a small amphitheater and recreational facilities, according to the township.
Mark your calendars! Tell your neighbors! On Saturday, March 28, the Swarthmore Senior Citizens Association and the Borough of Swarthmore will present the Third Annual Senior Wellness Fair — same time as last year, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., and same place, the Inn at Swarthmore. This year’s theme: Benefits and Challenges. Swarthmore citizens of every age will have the opportunity to hear from distinguished experts in the field of elder health and well-being.
The new building, a 158,000-square-foot home for Swarthmore’s biology, engineering, and psychology departments, was first conceived in 2011 as part of an institutional strategic plan. In December 2012, the college announced a $50 million gift to be used toward the project. This, the largest gift in the school’s history, came from alumnus and philanthropist Eugene Lang ‘38, who died in 2017.
New Occasional Feature
I’ve been noticing that Venus is very bright in the western sky after sunset. For the next few weeks, you can look for it between dusk and about 8 p.m., above and to the left of the place the sun has just set. Venus always appears near the sun in the sky. This is because Venus’s orbit is smaller than Earth’s, so when we’re looking toward the sun, we see them close to each other.
The next time you are in Swarthmore, stop by Executive Cleaners on S. Chester Road or GSM Advisory Group’s office on Park Avenue to find your favorite flavors and support our Cadette troop!
December saw a dearth of submissions, but in the past fortnight, a plethora of reports poured in. Anthony Addison saw this full-coated red fox in its winter colors in his yard on Cornell Avenue in Swarthmore.
Concern about the intersection of Yale and Cornell avenues was raised again at Swarthmore Borough Council’s first legislative session of the year. Michael Carey reported on behalf of the Finance Committee that borough revenues were higher than budgeted in 2019, and expenditures were lower. And giving the annual State of the Borough address, Mayor Marty Spiegel compared Swarthmore to what people want in a place to live, according to surveys. “We fit almost a perfect profile,” he said.
Jill Gaieski was recently sworn in as the borough’s newest council member, and with her partner Lori Knauer she is working hard to open Swarthmore’s first wine bar. She also had a couple of other interesting careers in her past.
Pamela Boyce Simms, an environmentalist, activist, herbalist, leadership coach, and neurolinguist who recently moved to Swarthmore, envisions Community Supported Enlightenment (CSE) as preparing people for the problems that will inevitably come with climate change. And she sees plant medicine as a portal to a larger mission of self-transformation.
The first Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board meeting of 2020 began with a report from the board’s student representative, who reported that the high school’s Diversity Trainers went to Strath Haven Middle School to educate students about diversity and inclusion. Afterwards, the focus topic was the presentation of the proposed preliminary 2020-21 budget.
The pronunciation of “Swarthmore” — both the borough and the college — has long been a subject of disagreement and sometimes contention. There are those who pronounce both r’s in the word, and those, like SEPTA conductors, who drop the first one and say it “Swathmore.” We now have the survey results, and the R’s have it.
The Actors Co-op has only been open since October, but already they’ve had their first celebrity visit. Aubrey Plaza, who is probably best known for her role as April Ludgate in the TV show “Parks and Recreation,” stopped by to talk with members and guests in a hastily organized gathering on a Sunday afternoon in late December. The Actors Co-op offers classes in film and television acting for adults and children.
Cave explorer Thomas Hawkins will recount some of his adventures from Guatemala to Borneo, Hawaii, Mexico, and Kyrgyzstan, offering glimpses into deep time, both geological and biological.
Monday, January 20, 2020, marks the 25th anniversary of this federal holiday celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here is a partial listing of local events and volunteer opportunities.
It’s Thursday evening at the Swarthmore Community Center, and Michelle Frumento is getting ready to teach “drop it” to a room full of humans holding the leashes of excited dogs. This is beginner manners, one of several dog-training classes Frumento has been offering out of the community center for the past five years. Manners, not obedience.
