{"id":545,"date":"2008-11-15T04:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-15T04:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2008-11-15T04:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-15T04:50:00","slug":"on-the-other-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"On the Other Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had to appear early this morning for a teleconference about some emergency preparation stuff and had a chance to visit with the local community college president while we waited for the conference to start. He was also in attendance at the play last night. Given my quasi-review of\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>David Ives<\/span><\/a>\u00c2\u00a0‘\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>All in the Timing<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00c2\u00a0of yesterday, I thought some of you might be interested in his reaction to the production.<\/p>\n

He was able to give a different prospective since he had his grade\/middle school aged son and daughter with him last night. His first comment was that although he was sure a lot of the\u00c2\u00a0literary, scientific, and mathematical references went right by them, they still thought it was a funny. They just interpreted the humor on a different level. For example, they took the ice axe stuck in the head of Trotsky as sight gag – and thought it was funny. I suspect that may be the mark of a good playwright – he\/she can entertain and get the message\u00c2\u00a0across\u00c2\u00a0to a wide range of audience backgrounds. It is a skill I have often admired but seldom evinced.<\/p>\n

The president himself had a similar reaction to the play as I did. He <\/span>*knew*<\/span><\/span> there was something he should remember about Trotsky’s death, but couldn’t quite connect it in his mind. He was planning to look up the details this morning after our teleconference. I pointed him to the Time article and left it at that. We’ll see what he has to say on Monday since I have another meeting he will be at then.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, he was completely taken aback by one of the actors in the production. He has the actor in a philosophy class he is teaching this term. (He decided to teach a class this term just to be sure he had a handle on the issues his faculty face day-to-day.) He said “the young man has never said a word in class discussions and even one on one, getting him to talk is like pulling eye-teeth.” Thus he was shocked to discover this young man starring as Trotsky in\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>“<\/span>Variations on the Death of Trotsky<\/span><\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span>“\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>and as Alan in<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>“<\/span>The Philadelphia<\/span><\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span>“<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Both very outgoing, voluble, and extroverted roles. It yielded a completely different view of the young man’s personality and abilities.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n

Other than that the day was one of usual hassles. It was a good day to be inside since the <\/span>NWS Wind Warning<\/span><\/a> was in effect again. I’m convinced that there must have been a change in policy, they didn’t use to issue warnings for 40-50 mph winds. The cold front dropping in from the north was evidently in a hurry. My own view is that it could have detoured to Nebraska and I would not have been disappointed. At least it is supposed to be back into the 50’s by Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had to appear early this morning for a teleconference about some emergency preparation stuff and had a chance to visit with the local community college president while we waited for the conference to start. He was also in attendance at the play last night. Given my quasi-review of\u00c2\u00a0David Ives\u00c2\u00a0‘\u00c2\u00a0All in the Timing\u00c2\u00a0of yesterday, I … Continue reading On the Other Hand<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[165,554,553,555],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dljones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}