Lawrence Ferlinghetti profiled in New York Times....

One of my favorite poets, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was featured in an article in a recent Sunday New York Times:

Great profile of him by the Times. See my posting, "And, me? I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder....Davesday in San Francisco," for my encounter with the man.

Winnie writes, "Fall is just coming in Taiwan"...

Winnie sent me these pictures from Taiwan:

She writes:

The leaves begin to turn to red now.....We had a family trip to Qing Jing Mountain [this is oolong tea country, I believe...dlp], where is about 2.5 hrs driving distance from Tai-Chung City. We stayed one night in mountain and really enjoyed the quiet moment and fresh air there. After spending 4 years in Natural State, I found I am in love with trees.

We had a family reunion in Qing Jing Mountain to celebrate that I finally received a certificate of Assistant Professor from the Dept of Education. Qing Jing is a beautiful place. I will take you to there when you are here. I promise!

Thank you for that promise, Winnie. By the way, see how she downplays the certificate of Assistant Professor? Congratulations, Winnie!

Penn State wins a share of the Big 10 football championship and a BCS bid...

With a win over Michigan State, the Penn State football team won the Big 10 championship and a BCS rating that will yield a major bowl bid (see: "Lion Kings! Penn State wins Big Ten Crown with 31-22 Win over Spartans" and "Spartans Defeated By No. 5 Nittany Lions, 31-22").Penn State now must wait until the BCS selection show on Dec. 4 to find out its bowl assignment. Michigan State finishes 5-6 on the season and is not bowl eligible.

The team was back in town by 10:00 pm (amazing because the game was over just before 8:00 pm in Michigan!). The team came to Rec Hall on the Penn State Campus, were about 8,000 people waited to greet them. Sue Paterno met up with JoePa and gave him a big congratulatory kiss. Poor Joe looked beat. He has a bad cold, and he looked really frail.

Joe spoke. The three team captains spoke. They carried the Big 10 trophy in and out of the arena. Here is my photo of the ceremony taken from my cell phone:

A very nice game and celebration!

It's almost done...Fall is just about over...

The leaves are raked. A few oak stragglers will fall yet. But, most of the the leaves on trees in my yard have gone from moist green to vibrant yellow/red to desiccated brown. Here is a leaf on my porch:

Autumn Day
--by Rainer Maria Rilke

Lord, it is time now,
for the summer has gone on
and gone on.
Lay your shadow along the sun-
dials and in the field
let the great wind blow free.
Command the last fruit
be ripe:
let it bow down the vine -- 
with perhaps two sun-warm days
more to force the last
sweetness in the heavy wine. 

He who has no home
will not build one now.
He who is alone
will stay long
alone, will wake up,
read, write long letters,

and walk in the streets,
walk by in the
streets when the leaves blow.

Translated by John Logan, 
Homage to Rainer Maria Rilke

We had snow in October. Just a little. The cold wind has bitten me the last few days. One day we will wake up with snow sticking to the trees. We will need to blow the snow from our driveway. Winter will arrive fully and without apology.

"Nuts & bolts" finished...

We completed our day-long seminar on the Nuts & Bolts of Your Regional Economy yesterday. Long haul, and tiring for the presenters as well as for the participants. We do it again in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on 20 January 2006.