Nourishing Mother

That's what Alma Mater means. 
No connection to the Spanish word alma. Alma means soul in Spanish, a corruption of the Latin word anima. Alma in Latin is an adjective that means nourishing.

The Romans used the phrase to refer to a mother goddess, usually Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and grain from whom we get the word cereal. Ceres didn't keep the title for long.

The Catholic Church loves all things Roman. To this day, the Pope lives in Rome, speaks Latin, and dresses in a style worn by 4th century Roman emperors (even the hat). They loved Roman culture so much they kept all the same traditions, renaming Solus Invictus to Christmas, Lupercalia to Valentine's Day, and giving the name Alma Mater to the Virgin Mary.

Yeah, she didn't keep it very long either. The University of Bologna, the oldest operating university in the world (est. 1088), took as their motto the phrase Alma Mater Studiorum. That is, Nourishing Mother of Studies. Since then, Alma Mater just means the place you went to college.

Different schools celebrate the idea of Alma Mater in different ways, with songs, murals, and statues. Remember Altgeld Hall?

What you don't see standing in front of the building is the Alma Mater statue. Here's a close up.

In August 2012, the University removed the statue for $100 thousand worth of repair and restoration. A previous restoration effort in 1981 included sealing the bolts and joints to keep out water. Instead, they managed to seal water inside the statue which caused so much corrosion that University officials were concerned the statue would collapse and squash a student. Once the restoration experts got it back to the work shop, they realised the damage was far more extensive than anyone anticipated. They promised to have the statue back by May 2013, but that deadline now looks a bit optimistic.

Our old buddy Lorado Taft created the sculpture in 1929.

Public Domain

As you remember, Taft also sculpted Lincoln the Lawyer in Carle Park (Lincoln #5).

Alma Mater, cast in 30 pieces bolted together, weighs over 10 thousand pounds. It features a Mother figure with outstretched arms standing in front of two other figures, Labor and Learning.

Public Domain

Taft, clearly perceptive of the psychology of undergrads, hoped that students would climb all over the statue. It has since become the defining symbol for the university. You can find it on the university website, twitter account, and ID card. For big games, like those against the much loathed Ohio State, officials dressed the Alma Mater in jerseys. At graduation, they dressed her in a graduation robe and students stood in long lines to take a picture in front of the her. It was tradition. This May, the graduating class may be the first in 80 years unable to participate in the tradition.

Students are doing what they can to fill the empty place in front of Altgeld and in their hearts.

pic.twitter.com/ihajU2kS

Heather Coit

There's no word yet on the decision between restoring the statue to the original shiny bronze or leaving it rust green.

Fountain of Creation
Lorado Taft continued working well into his 70s, attempting to complete a monumental sculpture up to a week before he died.

Public Domain

He planned to name this work "The Fountain of Creation" and only finished four of the statues. These statues represented the sons of Deucalion and the daughters of Pyrrha. The Greek myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha parallels the Biblical account of Noah. Deucalion built a chest into which he crammed a lot of animals and waited out the rains. After floating around for a while, he sent out a pigeon which returned with an olive branch. After stretching his legs a bit, he wondered out loud how he would go about repopulating the earth. It's a big job and he was only one guy. Luckily, the Oracle of Themis (who apparently was an execellent swimmer) gave them an easy alternative. At the instruction of the Oracle, Deucalion and Pyrrha threw rocks over their shoulders. The rocks thrown by Deucalion transformed into men, those thrown by Pyrrha transformed into women.  

The sons of Deucalion and daughters of Pyrrha finished by Taft were donated to the University of Illinois. The daughters now sit in front of the Main Library.

The sons sit to one side of Foellinger. They look quite glum, so a student gave one a smile.

Q Came

And Q went.

Instead of leaving us with a fancy ski pole gun, it just left 3 inches of snow.

We got a fairly light snow here, compared to what Q did to the rest of the Midwest. Life went on here according to schedule, no school or government closings. We got the snow, but live north of the line where freezing rain fell. When we got up at 6 am, the roads, parking lots, and sidewalks had already been cleared. 

Our neighbors to the West were not so lucky. Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska got well over a foot of snow. Kansas has declared a state of emergency. Flights all over the Midwest, Chicago included, were delayed or cancelled. Traffic deaths in several states have been reported.

In other news, the feral cat that lives underneath our building has not gone anywhere. It sits under our floor and yowls and sounds a bit like small child crying, "Hello?"

So, as we sit and watch TV, we hear:

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

We've mostly gotten used to it, but Crankles is little unnerved. The utility closet has a vent in the floor that opens to the outside. If you look into, you can see the dirt beneath the building. Also, pipes and things. Since the water heater sits in this closet, the feral cat hangs out beneath it to stay warm. Bo and Pig can hear and smell this creature through the door and want to investigate.

Q Arrives Today

ETA 1500 hours.

Towpilot

Nah, man, that's still not it.

But did you know that Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor who played Q (short for Quartermaster) during the golden age of Bond, also starred in the children's move Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? Did you further know that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was adapted from a book written by Bond writer Ian Fleming? Did you even further know that the screenplays for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bond film You Only Live Twice were both written by Roald Dahl, writer of popular children's books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The Witches? Did you finally know that Roald Dahl also wrote macabre short stories for adults, one of which was adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and later adapted for a film by Quentin Tarantino?

None of that matters. Because that knowledge won't save you from WINTER STORM Q.

weather.com

Or maybe it will. Because now you know. And knowing is half the battle. Go Joe.

At 3 pm today, the snow will start to fall and it won't stop until we've gotten THREE INCHES. That is, we're expecting an average snowfall tonight. We're in the AWARE sector of the map. Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri are taking it on the collective, anthropomorphic chin for us. Many thanks to them.

ONE HUNDREDTH POST

Who knew we would make it this far?

Crankles is very excited:

Q Is Coming

I know what you're thinking.

Sony Pictures

No such luck. We're not getting a visit from the MI6 gadget genius. I'm talking about Winter Storm Q (they ran out of clever names like Draco and Gandolf, apparently).

The Weather Channel

It's rolling out of California like bad movies or Hell's Angels. According to the Weather Channel, it's going to leave a "swath of significant snowfall." They also assure us that "Sister Suzie sells seashells by the seashore" and "six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards."

Personally, I hope I don't soak my shoes in steaming snow seeping through the seams because the sun slowly shines on the sanguine Sangamon.

That's enough. These sardonic semantics are silly.

It started snowing at seven. Princess Jiggles and Duke Floppers Crankington are both very concerned.

Altgeld Hall

The Good Ole Days
In 1897, Bram Stoker published Dracula, Bayer invented Aspirin, beer drinkers got their first sip of Dos Equis, drillers discovered oil in Oklahoma, and Altgeld Hall opened its doors.

John Peter Altgeld, the building's namesake, was born in Germany in the town of Selters, a small hamlet dating back to the 1100s. Selters lay near the homeland of the Hessians, Britain's mercenary troops during the Revolutionary War.

Altgeld's parents moved him to America when he was a year old. That year, after an economic collapse stemming from crop failures, the German people broke into armed revolution against the ruling aristocratic class. The German princes stomped the revolution with military force and many of the middle class supporters fled to the United States. Altgeld's parents were likely part of that exodus.

The Altgeld family settled in Ohio and when the Civil War erupted, John Peter Altgeld ran away from home to join, lying about his age. He was only 16. His regiment, the 163rd Ohio attached to the Army of the James (the river in Virginia) and saw action at Petersburg.

This picture is everywhere, so I'm assuming it's Public Domain

After the war, Altgeld worked his way from lawyer to Governor and was sworn into office in 1893, just in time for the Panic of 1893, the worst depression in US history, up to that point. It was even worse than the Panic of 1873, known then as the Great Depression, but not as bad as Great Great Depression of the 1930s. Back then, people thought an unregulated, laissez-faire economy was a pretty good idea, so depressions were deep and often.

Altgeld is most known for his pardon of the Haymarket Bombers and his negotiation of the 1894 Pullman Strike. As you'll remember from a previous post, we celebrate the Pullman Strike every first Monday of September.

The Un-Castle
John Peter Altgeld, in the middle of the worst depression in history, managed to fund architectural projects across the state of Illinois. More specifically the five buildings known as Altgeld's Castles, Gothic Tudor mixes built on five different campuses in Illinois. Altgeld secured prominent Illinois architect Daniel Burnham to design the castle planned for the campus in Urbana. The University Big Wigs had other plans. They pretty much hated the Gothic Tudor style Altgeld had in mind. They said, it's Richardsonian Romanesque or nothing.

Burnham hit the road in disgust. Altgeld caved and brought in our old buddy Nathan Ricker, architect of Harker Hall, who designed the only Altgeld castle built in the Romanesque rather than Tudor style.

In case you need a quick refresher, here's what we look for in Richardsonian Romanesque:

• Belt Courses (prominent horizontal bands)
• Rounded (Roman) Arches
• Pyramidal Spires
• Asymmetrical Plan

Altgeld Hall served as the University library until the construction of the Georgian Revival Main Library across the quad in 1926. Then it housed the Law School until 1955. Since then, math nerds call the building home.

Inside
The central dome inside the building has four Classically-inspired murals representing the four schools within the University. When we went inside, the dome was dark and the murals faded, so I couldn't get decent pictures. I found these (public domain) on the University website.

The Sacred Wood of the Muses - College of Literature and Arts

Arcadia - College of Agriculture

The Laboratory of Minerva - College of Sciences

The Forge of Vulcan - College of Engineering

And Out
Altgeld may not have gotten the crenellated battlements and square windows he envisioned, but he did get his Gothic Gargoyle. Tucked in a hidden corner on the west side of the building, you can find this little guy, the only gargoyle on the U of I campus.

The other Altgeld Castles have more gargoyles and they play a larger role in campus life. At Northern Illinois, the most popular of eleven gargoyles is named Olive Goyle. Olive survived being struck by lightening three times only to be mysteriously decapitated in 1996. Students have since tried to find appropriate replacements, including the occasional Halloween pumpkin.

In 1920, the University installed the Official University Chimes, 15 bells which weigh almost 8 tons together. They sound every quarter hour and play a ten minute concert every day at 12:50 pm.

Parting Shot
Ok, I've got two. Several of our favorite cancer fighting tree, the Canadian Yew, are planted around Altgeld Hall. This time of year they still have their cones, which are itty bitty and adorable.

Also, if you're leaving Altgeld and get the feeling you're being watched, it's probably one of these guys. Satyrs. Part of a bizarre fountain installation across the courtyard from Altgeld.

Prawn of a New Era

Prawn Farming
When you think of Illinois, you probably think of corn, Abraham Lincoln, and seafood. No, you say, you don't think of Illinois Seafood? Me neither, come to think of it. However, Southern Illinois is the Galveston of the Great Plains.

Quoth the Enjoy Illinois Blog:

"Yes, there is Illinois Shrimp!"

To be more specific: there is prawns. What is the difference between a prawn and a shrimp, you ask? For the most part, you can use the terms interchangeably. Colloquially in the UK, people use the word prawns to mean big and the word shrimp to mean small. In the US, we usually use shrimp for the larger variety and prawn to mean small, freshwater species.

Apparently, subject-verb agreement isn't the only convention Southern Illinoyances throw out the window. Prawn farms down in the state tip grow Giant Malaysian Prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii). The species name comes from Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Because Malaysian Prawns turn red when you cook them, they are probably Communist Spies. Therefore we execute them and dine on their delicious carcasses.

The prawns grown in this questionable act, known as Alternative Agriculture, are, according to experts, quite tasty. Farm grown prawns have lower levels of fat, sodium, and iodine and they have higher percentages of protein. There's even a rumor floating around that people with shellfish allergies can gobble away at Illinois Prawns with impunity. The texture, I've read, is sweeter and denser than most shrimp and resembles lobster meat.

According to Prawn Monger Grover Webb (no relation... also not related to Socrates apologist Dan K. Webb), the trick lies in "control feeding." You don't feed the little bugs a few days before harvest, so they have smaller mud veins and a fresher, crispier taste. Farmer Webb produces around 3 thousand pounds of aquatic arthropods a year, most of which he sells every September at the nationally renowned Golconda Shrimp Festival.

If the name Golconda sounds familiar, that's because it's also the name of the diamond region in India where miners found the Hope Diamond.

The Shrimp Festival in question, located conveniently in Golconda on the Shawnee Wine Trail, started 11 years ago, brain child of the Shawnee Freshwater Prawn Growers Association to promote the Illinois Shrimp Industry. During the early 2000s, the Associate counted almost 70 member farmers. The number has since dwindled to around 20. The reason is more nefarious than one might imagine.

The Great Southern Illinois Prawn Boom owed its success to the nearby Illinois Fish Farmers Co-Op Processsing Center in Pinckneyville, which, when built, was the most technologically advanced fish processing plant in the United States. After devouring over $7 million in state grants and losing increasing amounts of money every year, the state sent auditors down south to snoop around. Despite abysmal book-keeping practices, auditors found that the Co-Op had frittered away exorbitant amounts of cash on donations to Shrimp Festivals and to bonus checks for executives even when the notion of a profit had long since become a joke. Basically everything that Goldman Sachs got away with in 2008. The Co-Op, however, was not too big to fail and the state put a padlock on the front door.

As you can imagine, this stuck a fork in the farmed fish industry in Illinois. Latest word on the grapevine says the Pinckneyville prison might take over operations and re-open the processing plant. I think this should be instructive for future economic crises. If prison labor works for Imperial Sugar and Illinois Shrimp, why not the banking industry?

Next Best Thing to the Horseshoe Sandwich
Despite being located thousands of miles from the nearest sea, Chicago has a signature seafood dish: Shrimp de Jonghe. Pronounced like feminist writer Erica Jong, not like sexiest man alive Kim Jong Un.

In the 1800s, Belgian brothers Henri, Pierre, and Charles immigrated to the Windy City and opened the De Jonghe Hotel. You probably see where this is going. In their restaurant, they began serving the shrimp dish which later took their name. It has been a Chicago Specialty, like Deep Dish Pizza, ever since.

Here's a recipe if you'd like to try it:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shrimp-de-Jonghe-105510

River Weasels
Last fall, the state of Illinois opened hunting season on River Otters for first time in 90 years.

The River Otter is the one of the larger members of the weasel family, slightly larger than the average wolverine, but smaller than the average car salesman. Growing up to 5 feet long and weighing in at around 30 pounds, the River Otter has the voracious appetite of its car salesman and wolverine cousins. It will eat anything smaller than itself that moves.

By the 1980s, the River Otter found itself on the Endangered Species list, the population shrank to around 100 individuals. The state paid to have 346 critters trapped in Louisiana and transported to Southern Illinois. After that population exploded.

These hungry critters chomped their way across Illinois like a wave of Langoliers. Bob Bluett from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says:

"A few years after we did our last release, the biologist from Cook County, where Chicago is, called me up. And he said, Bob, I just have to tell you. The first time I've seen this. I saw one endangered animal eating another. And it was a river otter eating an endangered species of a fresh water mussel."

The Otter population, now grown to more than 20 thousand, has decimated fish populations and has begun to travel inland to raid fish farms (and prawn farms). Illinois said enough is enough. From November 2012 through March 2013, you can bag your own River Otter. A trapping license costs $10.50 and the additional Otter Permit costs another $5. The state has set a 5 Otter limit per trapper, but they are offering $70 per pelt.

Hurry and get yours before it's too late.

Parting Shot
I have a quick seafood anecdote. The other night, we had a delicacy that we allow ourselves every once in a great while. Bacon Wrapped Scallops. I found some fat scallops at the seafood counter, bought some bacon, and served them with Brown Rice and a Florentine Vegetable Blend. Delicious. Aine was beside herself with joy. Until bed time.

Let me tell you something. I think it has to do with our floor vents and the fact that we keep the bedroom door closed. When it's bed time, the room is always thick with the smell of whatever we cooked for dinner that night, even though the kitchen is on the other end of the apartment. I don't mind so much when we have Mexican Food or anything made with Beef. But going to bed after cooking Seafood? Needless to say, we had to light a few candles.

Mathews You Can't Refuse

I never imagined I would miss the daily commute. Half the point of working from home is not having to get in your car and face weather and traffic and too many commercials on the radio. I stumble out of the shower, throw on some clothes, and sit down in front of my computer in the morning. I am at work. At the end of the day, I close the Remote Desktop Connection and stand up. I am home. I didn't realize I used the morning commute to mentally transition into my work day and the afternoon commute to decompress. My new transitions are unsatisfactory.

To make up for this, I pick Ainers up from school every day. She takes the bus in the morning around the same time I sit down at my computer and instead of coming home as soon as her last class ends, she waits for me to roll up in the Yaris. This benefits her because she maintains a nine to five day and gets the bulk of her work done before she comes home. She's not up all hours of the night translating.

This benefits me because I get my commute back. Every day around five I leave my place of employment, a tired, spastic Publishing Coordinator. When I pull back into our parking space, I am a relaxed husband, coming home from work.

I spend a portion of every day parked on the same block of Mathews Avenue, waiting for Aine to gather her things and hop in the elevator. Here's what I see.

Foreign Language Building
The University broke ground on the FLB in 1968 and finished the building in 1971. They built it on the site of the Old Entomology Building. That's the study of bugs. Aine thinks it's the ugliest building on campus, but I like it. It looks like an inverted step pyramid jammed into the ground.

The story goes, that the building housed a Super Computer in the basement called Plato and the architects designed it to fall outward if blown up by the Soviets. Meanwhile, the interior layout was supposed to confuse Soviet spies if they ever infiltrated the FLB.

Look at the basement. You can imagine some Top Secret Cold War stuff going on down here.

The truth is somewhat less romantic. The architectural style, known as the International Style, with its boxy, cantilevered construction, was popular in the late 60s/early 70s and, in fact, you can find a smaller building in the same style a few blocks over. Plato was the name of an e-learning system used by the language department and the actual mainframe sat in a building on the other side of campus.

See the inside. Each floor stair steps up to a clerestory that lights the entire interior space.

Despite what Aine says, I find the building very intriguing.

Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
I couldn't find much information on the first of the three buildings across Mathews from the FLB. All I can say is the steeply pitched Gambrel roof with dormer windows and the Palladian-style window in the gable give away this Dutch Colonial Revival. I don't think the window units or security camera were originally part of this building. They were probably added later. Most Dutch Colonial Revivals only have two stories, making this one unique.

The Nesbitt Center provides support for African American culture and leadership in the campus community.

Alpha Omicron Pi House
Sorority girls live in this house next to Bruce Nesbitt. The very clearly Tudor Revival was built in 1927 specifically for the sorority and was enlarged in 1985.

The AOP has no national motto. Each chapter chooses its own submotto. The submotto of this, the Iota chapter, goes: "Alike and Nobleness of Mind." Whatever that means. Their official color is cardinal and their flower is the Jacqueminot Rose. Let me tell you why that's funny. Jessie Wallace Hughan, the founder of the sorority, was a renowned pacifist and outspoken opponent of both World Wars. The rose's namesake, General Jacqueminot, served under Napoleon and distinguished himself in the battle of Austerlitz where the French army slaughtered 40% of the Russian army in a single day.

Also, their unofficial mascot is the panda.

The most famous member of this sorority, Aneta Corsaut, played Andy Griffith's sweetheart Helen Crump.

Channing Murray Building
This building began its life in 1908 as a Unitarian Church. The Unitarians are a sort of unProtestant sect who don't believe original sin, eternal damnation, or the Trinity. They believe Jesus was a human prophet, not the Son of God, and that the Bible was written by humans and subject to error. Famous Unitarians include Founding Fathers and pen pals, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

If you see the half timbering, stucco cladding, square Palladian windows, and steeply pitched roof and guess that this building is a Tudor Revival, then you are correct. And smarter than I was.

The Channing Murray Foundation is a Unitarian organization that holds workshops, classes, and other community outreach programs. Downstairs you'll find a vegetarian restaurant and coffee shop called the Red Herring. This old Unitarian Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Parting Shot

On campus, even the fire hydrants dress to impress.

Constitutional Violations in Chicago

The Double Jeopardy Clause of the US Constitution's 5th Amendment states that no "person [shall] be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." This applied only to cases held in Federal courts for almost 200 years until Benton v. Maryland (1969). Thurgood Marshall, writing for the majority, declared that the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause incorporates the Double Jeopardy Clause, that is, no state can try someone twice for the same offense either.

Last week, the National Hellenic Museum of Chicago trampled our 5th Amendment protections when they retried Socrates. In 399 BC, the Athenian Assembly convicted a 70 year old Socrates of impiety and corrupting the youth and sentenced him to death. In a fundraising bid, the museum hosted not a reenactment, but a second hearing for the alleged offenses.

Socrates

Public Domain

Judge Richard Posner presided over the trial. Judge Posner, graduate of Harvard Law School, was appointed to the 7th Circuit by President Ronald Reagan. He recently handed down the verdict overturning the Illinois concealed carry ban in Moore v. Madigan. Also presiding were the semi-retired Judge William Bauer, educated at DePaul and appointed by President Ford, and Cook County Judge Anna Decamopoulos, who studied law at John Marshall Law School.

Judge Posner

chensiyuan

Representing the 5th century BC Athenian Assembly, was Harvard trained prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald has brought down his share of criminals, prosecuting Mafia boss John Gambino and Governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Patrick Collins, who assisted Fitzgerald in the prosecution of Governor Ryan, filled out the prosecution team.

Patrick Fitzgerald

Public Domain

Dan Webb (no relation), who defended Governor Ryan as well as General Electric and Microsoft in antitrust litigation and Philip Morris in tobacco-related litigation and prosecuted Admiral Poindexter in the Iran-Contra Affair, led Socrates' defense team. He was assisted by Robert Clifford, noted for securing damages for victims of major airline crashes.

Dan K. Webb

Charles Rex Arbogast

Fitzgerald pointed out Socrates' pro-Spartan sentiments, the equivalent of wearing a Gorbachev t-shirt during the 80s. He also noted how prominent students of Socrates' committed crimes against the state, Alcibiades defecting to Sparta and Critias repressing Athenian freedom. Fitzgerald claimed historians have been unfair to Athens and blamed Plato for distorting the facts of the case.

Webb cited the overwhelming lack of evidence in the case and pointed to Socrates' status as a veteran, having served with distinction in the Athenian military and saved the lives of fellow soldiers. He claimed that the speculation on the part of the prosecution endangered the liberties of us all.

A jury of 12 distinguished members of the Chicago community found Socrates guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth... again. Instead of sentencing him to death a second time, the jury opted for a fine of 3,000 5th century Greek Drachmas, an equivalent of $132,000 in 2013. There has been no word on whether or not the defense plans to appeal the ruling.

Public Domain