missing the Purple Valley

an LA Times paen to my alma mater and its surroundings

Williamstown is a magical place that I love to visit. It's my ideal of a place to live in the US as well, a small country town in New England, equipped with its own small college to keep cultural life vibrant and active but not so urbanised that it stops being essentially countryside. Mountains, forests, rivers, plus good libraries and a few good restaurants--all that's needed for the happiness of body and soul, IMO. If I don't stay in DC and I don't end up in the UK long-term, I'll be aiming for some place like Williamstown, either in the US or Canada. I don't know whether living in Williamstown itself would feel too much like living the life of Peter Pan. It would be neat being somewhere that was both familiar and about which I still had a lot to learn (having ever only seen it really from the student perspective), but it might be a bit hard to avoid becoming a curmudgeon, someone who can never let go of the past. Might be better to find some place in VT, NH, or Maine.

I liked the mention of the documentary, though. Brian Dowling played against Tommy Lee Jones in college? Despite Jones's film career, I think it will be BD who has the longer legacy. :-)

(no subject)

and an interesting piece on the powers of the Supreme Court

By an emeritus professor from Williams (maybe our most famous). And, yes, I did just get an alumni e-newsletter, how did you guess? ;-)

Historicon 3: the games (other people's games)

So, I had signed up to help run one game, and I had registered to play in two others. For HMGS events, you get to register ahead of time for one game each day, plus select another (if it's available) when you get there, and basically plead for a place in others if they aren't full :-). ( Read more... )