Farewell, (UW Professor) Nancy Kaiser

I found the Spring 1988 (the same year I visited East Berlin) issue of the UW-published Monatshefte. It's the classic Lester W. J. Seifert issue guest-edited by (my ex-linguistics prof) Juergen "Aber Deutsch ist eine leichte Sprache!" Eichhoff - on a free-books cart at the Oregon Public Library yesterday. Pathetically it featured a "5 cent" sticker (& the initials DL) on the groovy green cover.

Inside I found a book review by Nancy A. Kaiser captioned "Women in German Yearbook 1: Feminist Studies and German Culture." I especially enjoyed her phrase "Johnson's critical examination of gendered structures in the West German Peace Movement." It makes me nostalgic for my waning undergraduate-student days. Ah, Madison, Wisconsin - circa 1986...

Have a happy retirement, Professorin Kaiser! Danke noch einmal fuer Deine fantastische Hilfe mit meiner Honors-These ueber die Berliner Mauer!
Dein Freund und Student
Josef C. Mrazek

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

This sounds like my kind of national park:
Whiskeytown - no longer merely a '90s
alt-country band featuring
the younger hipster Ryan Adams,
now a sacred place near Klamath, CA.
"I'm headin' for the golden hills
of Californ-eye-ay / with a mandolin
on my knee..."

http://www.nps.gov/whis

Ode to a Stylish Critic

To a FILM CRITIC & FRIEND

I like your new specs, Mike,
those clear plastic frames
reminiscent of Warhol.
Stay critical & droll:
Keep viewing culture
through non-rosy lenses.
You're top of the heap!
Now, did you keep
the Icelandic ash
Cannes souvenir?

-Joe Mrazek (Madison, Wis./USA)
An INSOMNIAC in the state capital