Home again and desperate for local material. When we were sitting at the dinner table Thursday evening I noticed a nest under the eaves of our front porch where a downspout creates a little nook. A beautiful chubby robin flitted in and out with bits of material, sometimes sitting on what we assume are eggs. The most direct view through a window on a cloudy day wasn't very clear but when I stepped out on the porch the bird stayed in nearby trees. We hope to see some little peeping beaks soon.
My sister and brother-in-law have spent their careers at Penn State. They are a bit puzzled why the university feels the need to replace a sizeable and architecturally interesting art museum with another about twice as big. They thought it might have something to do with rich alumni donating more art than there were walls to hang it on, so they would build more wall space so rich alumni would donate more stuff. Or something.
Gotta get some new local material but it's supposed to rain most of today. We'll see.
Penn State has a remarkably large art museum with an interesting collection. So, because they have rich alumni, they are building a new one almost twice as big. The entrance to the current one has these sculptures of Nittany Lion paws (see yesterday's post). My brother-in-law, the witty psych professor, says that they are sometimes referred to as faux pas.
American colleges and universities all have some sort of mascot or character. I think it's a federal law. My school, St. Louis University, is in the running for the most absurd with the Billiken, https://www.slu.edu/about/key-facts/what-is-a-billiken.php. Penn State has the Nittany Lion, named for wildcats that may once have prowled Mt. Nittany down the road. (It's in the middle of the Alleghenies.) There is a statue in the center of the campus where every single graduate must get a photograph. The eyes seem awfully blank to me.
Home tonight.
Hello from Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, the somewhat sardonic name used by locals for the area around the town of State College and Penn State University. My sister is retired from many years in administration and her husband is a senior member of the psych department. We visited the university arboretum and gardens yesterday. One of their projects is to encourage pollinators of local plant species. This hive is in sort of a glass and wood case, which I gather is opened periodically. It lets bee-phobic people like me get a close up view.
I spent most of yesterday hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law in State College, Pennsylvania, home of Penn State University. They spent their careers there, she in administration, he in the faculty. No new images from here so I'll roll the tape back a bit. This statue is near the Jewel Box glass house we've seen lately. I know this is a traditional image and story, but one wonders about the effect of preaching to creatures without language and brains the size of macadamia nuts.
But look at those cool platform sandals.
If Kevin McCarthy can get away with it then so can I.
We've been through this airport a few times but I don't know my way around. I'll take a beacon when I see one. On to central Pennsylvania today.
