In Ann Arbor
Riding North
We rode north through the green hills and trees beneath the blue sky on a Saturday afternoon a few days after school began again. We rode in a red convertible with the top down, four college students looking to escape the little town and seize some culture for the weekend, rocking to Stairway to Heaven with the wind beating our faces.

The primary colors are brilliant, almost searingly beautiful and memorable.

The Meaning of Cubism for a Little Girl
"Mom," said the little girl. "Is that a Picasso?"
"Yes," her mother said, looking at the black skull.
"Mom, what is a Picasso?"

Seizing Culture
A bookstore, an art museum with Picasso and Ansel Adams exhibits and a coffee shop with books--thus the cultured life of academia.

I'm packing the basic writings of Heidegger, but no one seems to notice.

We sit in the coffee shop and read for Monday's classes, mentioning Heidegger, Picasso, Blake, Miles Davis, Beethoven.

Blake spoke of the fall with the imagery of grapes bleeding.

Heidegger had classes at 7 a.m. and caused a stir among students throughout Germany with the power of his lectures. One of his students described it as "the full concentration of all the powers--the powers of genius--in a revolutionary thinker who actually seemed himself to be startled by the intensity of the questions growing more and more radical in him."

The Singular of the Word
He didn't know what was incorrect with the phrase "another criteria has." I pointed out that "criteria" was plural though generally, like "media," used for the singular as well. He didn't know that so we looked up "criterion." The dictionary makes the note that some plural words are now used without hesitation, giving the example of agenda. So the singular is agendum, which we didn't know and are now looking for opportunities to use.

The Feeling of the Rocks
The buildings around the University of Michigan campus are beautiful, with lots of brick and rock and climbing ivy. It feels like solid academia. It feels like Oxford should feel like. It feels scholarly to walk on green lawns between rock walls covered in ivy.

I love the feel of this glorious world of academia.