| scholar.social | @TusculumPearson |
...so I got to spend time with these fine young people who organized a quiz tournament at Farragut High School and I have new best friends and I love them dearly
and Kevin got his revenge before I left https://mastodon.social/media/003-sYSSwklqQvUM480 https://mastodon.social/media/LpsdEx2P41Atv0o6lCg
Four years in a row now, on the first day of classes for the fall term, I've worn this shirt.
I worked at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, VA for three years. It ran out of money to operate in May 2014. It left a lot of students without a campus home, and it left a lot of faculty without a job.
Wearing this shirt is a very weak tribute. But I'm going to continue to make that tribute, because so many loved ones still feel that loss. https://mastodon.social/media/SIc4BfyACNt1dE_dekg
The day before.
I'll send this pic out tonight and start to stir the student populace a bit, but this is the classroom where a lot of things went right last spring in organic chemistry and when I'll start to get the sophomores starting general chemistry ready for the heavy lifting to come.
I've gotten past much of the angst (especially the current-events fed angst) and arrived at anticipation and excitement.
Away we go. https://mastodon.social/media/ezL-MstY0OgnSifwAYg
Every now and again, I look through the "on this day..." feature on the Failbook. It is a weakness. But I do this.
It reminds me that, two years ago, in a conservative university town in middle Tennessee, I went to a church that was willing to put this on a billboard.
That church no longer exists.There are many reasons. But there is also the very real sense it couldn't shake a certain reputation in the community, and I get very sad over that. https://mastodon.social/media/kFJQqBHrB1k8fo84sUI
It's always a good evening when your youngest child comes upstairs from a shopping trip and declares "PAL'S PICNIC."
Pal's is the beloved fast-food restaurant chain of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. They employ people very seriously and they're actually a national model of food-service efficiency. You need to eat Pal's when you come visit.
Specifically, pick up the drive-through and come to our back porch. https://mastodon.social/media/jFQCC5n0bzwcqw_tg6o
By the way, Lincoln Memorial University is exactly that - a living memorial to Abraham Lincoln, and an institution dedicated to the quality of life in and around the place of Lincoln's birth and youth.
There's a museum and library of Lincoln artifacts on campus as well. Much of the fundraising for the museum was done by Harland Sanders. THAT Colonel Sanders.
Do I have to tell you this is one of my favorite places in the world? https://mastodon.social/media/9d1aQc2tXO9bbrd2yRc
I went back to the Gap Creek Coffeehouse, to get the caffeine that would get me through meetings at the medical school at Lincoln Memorial yesterday.
That isn't wasn't there anymore. But the setting is as beautiful as ever. And the front door was every bit as welcoming.
Good place to get a sandwich, too, if you're ever in the area. https://mastodon.social/media/2tX5PS4GzLo1LsNCDHk https://mastodon.social/media/sbBtHgnbU8iUIX0QUN0
So, one of the first pictures I ever took on my iPhone and shared with the world - in August of 2013 - was of this sign, at the Gap Creek Coffeehouse in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, right down the road from Lincoln Memorial University.
I've always been DEEPLY fond of this sign. For obvious reasons. https://mastodon.social/media/37YXwydJAFcwgqsbph4
Quinn, my eldest (there on the right) mentored Upward Bound (high school) students in ecology this month at East Tennessee State. They finished their program today with research proposal presentations.
There is a moment when you see not merely what the next generation of scientists look like, but what the next generation of leaders looks like. And there, on the right.
I lost my breath there for a moment. #smallstories https://mastodon.social/media/-fhLFb_5l83yOMQ-kic
