Notes from today

• It was several weeks until I realized that the flat, loud rattle I hear every 50 minutes or so is a bell, signifying the start or the end of classes in the building. A reminder that I work on campus.

• Every Thursday, at 1pm, there is a bell concert in the tower just outside my window. I just learned that the University has a carillonneur, Lyle Anderson, who runs the show and who also works for Wisconsin Public Radio. 

• I bought a slice of pizza today for lunch from three skinny boys in the lobby of our building doing a fundraiser for the table tennis team.

• COWS was included, along with Van Jones, as an influencer of President Obama and a member of the Red Army: The Radical Network That Must Be Defeated to Save America. How cool is that??