UCLA History: 4 Grads
June is graduation month for most UCLA departments. Above four UCLA grads pose for the camera in 1939. (Yours truly is traveling for the next few days so blogging may be lighter.)
miscellaneous
Evaluation
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this instructor? Exodus 4:10: Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” We don’t know how the Israelites evaluated what Moses had to say on a scale from 1 to 10 – ten is the obvious upper bound in his case – but those who are non-eloquent might take comfort from today’s Inside Higher Ed: Imagine you receive the same lecture twice:…
Those Empty Westwood Stores
Despite efforts to revitalize Westwood, there remain all of those empty storefronts up and down Westwood Boulevard between campus and Wilshire. Yet there is lots of foot traffic related to the university in Westwood and the proximity of a large student community. So why the empty stores despite all of those students? The LA Weekly thinks it has the answer: Living in Westwood is like being trapped in Footloose’s Bomont, Georgia.* There are no clubs, no open mics, no student centers, no anything. It’s bad. They’re even shutting down one of the only two bars students go to with much…
UCLA Pre-History: Cemetery
The veterans’ cemetery in Westwood long predates UCLA’s presence in the area. The cemetery dates back to 1889 and originally was meant for Civil War veterans. However, the statue at the Wilshire Blvd. entrance (see photo) refers to the Spanish-American War of 1898: “The United Spanish War Veterans monument, also known as the Spirit of ’98, is a bright white marble composition of three figures completed in 1950 by sculptor Roger Noble Burnham. The memorial crumbled after a 1971 earthquake. In 1973, sculptor David Wilkens re-created the monument out of concrete and plaster, reinforcing it with rebar. The plaque from…
Movie Delay
The old AVCO movie theater on Wilshire a block or so east of Westwood Blvd. was supposed to be reopened by now after reconstruction as a high-end, upscale affair with prices that seem beyond student budgets. According to LAObserved, the reopening has been delayed until maybe Thanksgiving due to discovery of asbestos issues in the theater. That is, the revamped theater will be open again around Thanksgiving or beyond as-best-as we can tell. Full story at http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2013/05/delay_in_opening_wes.php.
UCLA History: Smile for the Camera
UCLA Dentistry grads in 1968
Verily, verily, Harvard seems to be in the news these days
First there was the Ferguson apology: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-be-really-famous-at-harvard.html. And now there is the Richwine PhD. From Inside Higher Ed today: Veritas: Goddess of Truth Debate over a new Heritage Foundation report critical of proposed change in immigration laws has set off scrutiny and criticism of Harvard University for approving a dissertation in 2009 by one of the report’s authors. Some critics say that the dissertation’s suggestion of a long-term gap in the IQs of Hispanic immigrants and their descendants and the IQs of other groups is based on discredited theories that have been used to justify many forms of discrimination over…
Mothers’ Day Contest
Yesterday, we posted a story related to Mothers’ Day. Today, we have a contest. Let us know the whose mother is shown in the photograph and who she is. The first to do so will win acclaim on this blog. Answers can be sent to daniel.j.b.mitchell@anderson.ucla.edu. While you are working on the contest – and with Memorial Day just two weeks away – here is some World War I music aimed at cheering up mother.
For Mothers’ Day: A complicated story of two mothers involving a UCLA student in 1957 and a TV star
For a time, the LA Times had a blog which recounted old stories from the newspaper. On Oct. 16, 2007, the blog provided background on a complicated story from 1957 involving an unmarried UCLA student who became pregnant and initially gave up her baby for adoption. At the time, being an unwed mother was something of a scandal and a quiet adoption was the standard solution. In this case, however, the student had second thoughts after a few months. She didn’t sign the papers that would have finalized the adoption and demanded the baby back from the adoptive parents. Perhaps…
UCLA’s Hammer Museum Nailed It
Some readers may recall our blog entry of April 13 with the image above which involved the quest by UCLA’s Hammer Museum for a grant for a project to use the many empty Westwood stores and, hopefully, to rejuvenate the area. The Museum was successful in obtaining the LA2050 grant. From the Museum: We are pleased to announce that the Hammer Museum will receive a $100,000 grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation to implement our urban renewal project Arts ReStore LA: Westwood. Thank you for the overwhelming support and to everyone who made this possible. The Hammer was one of ten…