I can't take much of the credit for this, but an orchid I bought recently with partially grown flower buds has fully flowered! It's a Neofinetia falcata, which is apparently a very popular houseplant in Japan and was originally cultivated as such in the 1600's. I acquired it on a trip to Bird's Botanicals, a really cool orchid cave in Kansas City.
General Interest
Neighborhood Yard Mushrooms
I like to walk to the local farmer's market, and on the way there's this yard that has some interesting fungi. I took some photos!
Summer Beetles
Speaking of houseplants, since most of mine summer outdoors they get frequented by a lot of insect life. Many are non-descript, most are difficult to photograph, but occasionally I manage to digitally capture a few! These two aren't ones gardeners particularly want to see, but hey. They were there, I was there, my camera was there. Behold the green june beetle, Cotinis nitida, and the Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica.
Don't Use the Bank of America Travel Center
I (and several travelers I know) have the Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card, because it has no foreign transaction fees which makes it useful for international travel. The credit card is associated with the Bank of America Travel Center, which is advertised as providing double reward points on flights purchased through the Travel Center. I decided to buy my tickets to my art residency this summer at La Maison Verte through the Travel Center to take advantage of the reward points, but when a problem cropped up with part of the flight, Bank of America wouldn't help. Bank of America acts as a third party between you and the airline (much like reserving a car or hotel through a third-party site like Expedia) and everyone pointed fingers at everyone else when the problem arose that cost me a rather high surcharge to fix. I've actually had this third party shenaniganery happen before with a site like Expedia (and learned to book car and hotel rentals directly as well), but in that case I was still able to do a credit card chargeback to fix that problem. In this case, though, because Bank of America is both the vendor and the creditor, they found against my chargeback request as well as my refund request.
The credit card itself is still good for foreign travel, but I won't be using the Bank of America Travel Center to buy plane tickets again. My recommendation is to buy directly from the airlines.
Houseplant Photos!
I've been enjoying the end of the summer by spending more time with my plants. Here are some photos of my flowering plants from the past few weeks! They are, from left to right and top to bottom: Copiapoa hypogaea, Euphorbia platyclada, Gymnocalycium baldianum, Saintpaulia spp., and Senecio jacobsenii. Not pictured due to less impressive and difficult to photograph well flowers (but still appreciated!) are several Aloe and Haworthia spp. Not pictured due to missing the flowering entirely is Echinopsis "Dominos," though it has a second flower bud growing so we may yet get to see it this year!
Global Environmental Problems with Eating Meat
The Washington Post recently covered this topic with some details I didn't know about before - like Denmark considering a tax on all red meat and the fact that of all the nations studied, the US could reduce its health care budget the most by cutting out American consumption of meat due to our country's ridiculous average diet. Check it out!
La Maison Verte Travels Part 5
Day 14 was sunny again! I took a midday walk around the village to appreciate the weather, and as I was walking by a house, Erica (a transplant-turned-local orginally from Mexico) popped out to tell me about her bikes and how we at La Maison Verte should feel free to use them. I then decided to pretty much invite myself into her garden to see it as the glimpses from the exterior of it were enticing, and then once in her garden her husband Morgan proffered some wine, and lunch... before I knew it, I'd spent the whole afternoon there, and gotten to sample homemade yogurt and rhubarb crumble (as well as veggies and salad) to boot. Morgan then told me they were going to go wade around in some flooded road puddles later on and that I should come. To be honest, it didn't sound that appealing but when in France... I went. At first we were supposed to walk but then everyone decided to ride bikes. I am not great at riding bikes; I have one that I can just about get around on if I'm riding mostly flat streets, but it's a cushy bike that's been measured to my body, and I also haven't ridden on it for a few years now. The bikes that are here are of random heights, hard seats, narrow wheels, and the terrain is variable. I was not interested in riding a bike. I thought I'd just bow out gracefully from the puddle-wading, then, but Morgan decided I would ride sidesaddle on the back of his bike instead. It was hilariously awkward but moderately functional, so I just went with it. The flooded road had a series of "puddles" that escalated quickly into pools and then frankly effectively turned into a stream. We had a good time for a bit, but then the skies opened up and started raining hard. And lightning followed, which freaked everyone out because we were all in water, surrounded by metal bridges. So we all raced back. The rain started to turn into hail, then rain, then hail. It was a crazy but weirdly enjoyable end to the afternoon.
Day 15 was back to poor weather and I stayed inside working on artwork.
Day 16 Mathilde needed to go to Troyes to pick up some materials for the café she's constructing in the town (which will be the sole shop once it opens next year), so she brought us and Patricia along for the ride. Troyes has a number of medieval churches, a tool museum that Patricia really likes, and is generally a nice small city. We went to the biggest church, toured the tool museum, wandered about for a little while, and then all headed back. I wanted to explore it more so I decided to head back soon. Then I checked the weather forecast. The only probably nice day was the following day; all the rest of the days in the extended forecast projected a lot of rain.
So on Day 17, I worked in the morning but went in the afternoon back to Troyes just to wander around for myself. While at the train station, Mathilde was waiting to pick up some people from the other side of the tracks and we chatted across them talking about my visiting Troyes and my future plans for Paris until my train arrived. I got on, and saw her through the window signalling NO, GET OFF! I was so confused; I asked people on the train if this went to Troyes, and they said yes, but Mathilde was doing acrobatics on the other side viewable through the windows so I got back off, ran to the end of the train where there was a gap we could yell across, and she yelled, "That's not the train to Paris!" as the train made a noise that indicated it was about to leave. I yelled back, "I'm going to Troyes!" and ran back to try to get the last door on the train to open. I was in luck - I think perhaps the conductor saw the drama happening as I got a door open, stepped in, and the train immediately took off. Since I'd been so cooped up in Marnay, it was nice to get to explore a new city on my own (and pop into some actual shops!). Unfortunately, the prices on things here are really high. I kept seeing things for 30 euros that would probably go for around 5-10 dollars in the US.
Day 18 was rainy again, as predicted. Nonetheless, a British expat-turned-local named Andy had promised me he'd take me to a gorgeous botanical garden/greenhouse in a park in a town about an hour away called Sens, and we decided to go that afternoon. Melanie joined us. When we got to the park, there was about a fifteen minute walk inside to get to the greenhouses, and Andy was worried they'd be shut due to the weather (there was already some flooding in the park) but we figured we'd see when we got there. Along the way, we got to see some white swans, geese, ducks, and then a black swan. The black swan was such a character. He knew he was beautiful, and wanted to be appreciated. Once he saw us, he swam back and forth on a patch of stream like it was a catwalk, and he'd slow down and pirouette when he came to where we were to turn around. We enjoyed the show for a while, and then tried to leave, but he moved the show up along with us like he didn't want us to go - but still with the overall affectation that he was deigning to display for us. It was hilarious. Melanie and I had to use the toilet, though, so we eventually left him and made our way to the WC. I believe this was my first squatty potty. I know I've seen them before, but I think I've never had the courage to use one until now. They're actually quite easy to use, luckily! Then we went into the greenhouses which were thankfully open. They were really, really well put together. There was an outdoor cactus and succulent section, a semi-tropical outdoor garden, an indoor cactus and succulent section, and a winding indoor tropical section. I'd be happy to have the whole greenhouse transported to my house. I knew more about all the plants than Andy and Melanie, so I told them trivia and then spotted some Mimosa pudica. Neither of them had encountered the plant before (which I thought a little odd of Andy since it's a moderately common European houseplant) so they were thrilled to experience its sensitivity. On the way back, Andy took a detour and showed us two local dolmens (one up close and the other from afar) dating back to the early Neolithic period. They're like mini-Stonehenges, and it was really interesting to get to see them. He also drove us past a menhir, which is a monolith from the same era. This whole afternoon was a pretty much ideal excursion to my taste, so I was pretty satiated with my somewhat more eventful week and returned to the studio feeling much less cooped up.
Day 19 was entirely a studio day. I sculpted with QCC on the door, which I'd finished preparing a few days earlier after finally getting Leo to fix the bottom of it, getting Kinga to loan me her scrapers, and after spending a long, hot afternoon myself scraping all the old paint off the door.
Day 20 was also committed to artwork.
Day 21 I mostly worked in my studio, but in the evening we took a quick trip over to the neighboring town of Saron-sur-Aube where we'd be participating in the Art & Jardins 2016 festival exhibition and sale. We got to see some of the sites some other artists would be exhibiting in, and then got to visit the house we were displaying in so we could discuss who wanted what space and how we planned to exhibit. I brought quite a large stack of my greeting cards with me since I knew I'd be participating in this, so hopefully they sell well!
Day 22 was another studio day.
Day 23 was primarily another studio day, but at 8pm we all went over to Mathilde's house for apéritifs and entrées (the latter of which, in French, means appetizer and not the main course) with many of the core group of friends (Erica, Guillon, Abril, Leo, Kinga, Patricia) and some new faces as well. It was a lot of fun, and I learned I like prosecco!
La Maison Verte - Artwork 3 Progress Pics
I was much better about taking progress photos for this piece! Here are some images documenting my process on Under the Bonnets.
La Maison Verte Travels Part 3
On Day 4, Kinga stopped by with a heat gun that works very well, so I was able to continue to begin a couple pieces of artwork! I took another walk through the Jardin Botanique and then worked in my studio until evening. We had been invited to an annual neighborhood event starting at 7:30pm - the fête des voisins, known in the US as a block party. Neighbors in the vicinity brought potluck dishes and beverages and we all doused ourselves in mosquito repellent and had a convivial gathering until the streetlights went out at 11pm. I brought broccoli fritters and wine, but people didn't start eating until at least a half an hour after the start so my fritters cooled and weren't so tasty. Other people made great food, though! I also got to know a little bit better the villagers, though I am definitely hampered by my lack of French. I had thought that most French would understand Spanish, as that's been my experience previously, but at least in this region if they know a second language at all it's a little English. Which is of course welcome, but I am feeling the language barrier strongly compared to my travels in other countries.
Day 5 was market day in Nogent-sur-Seine, the nearby town with the train station and grocery stores. Paula and Adrian were nice enough to let me tag along (and to wait for me since I was much slower given the newness of everything). Market day is like a farmer's market plus a pop-up dollar store; I bought a new cardigan which has already proven to be a great purchase given this unseasonably cold and rainy weather, and I also bought some fresh produce and some desserts from the boulangerie (bakery) nearby. They also drove me to the grocery store to get a few more staples; I then led four store clerks and a helpful English-speaking customer in a quixotic quest to find me popcorn kernels. Apparently that's a really strange request; they sell buckets of carmel corn in the front of the store, but people don't make their own! I personally really prefer very lightly flavored popcorn - just a little salt, usually - and everywhere else I've been that's an easy accommodation but apparently not here! When I got back from shopping I was pretty exhausted. I may have still had a little jet lag, plus I didn't get enough sleep the previous night. Either way, I slept for the next few hours and then puttered around in the studio for the rest of the evening.
Day 6, Sunday, is brocante day in France. Every Sunday during the summer a different town or two holds a brocante (basically a flea market or boot sale). A large number of the locals go to these regularly; apparently it's the only way to buy dishes/bikes/easels if you're trying to save money. I was warned that they're not worthwhile if it's raining, but Adrian and Paula wanted to go despite the weather so I tagged along. It was enjoyable to see one, but the rain did deter most of the vendors from even attending and those that did quickly covered up (or just packed away) their goods right when we arrived as the rain picked up. So it was mostly a soggy bust. When we got back, more studio time! The rain is annoying for excursions, but great for my studio practice...
Day 7 was Monday, a day when pretty much everything including the Jardin Botanique is closed in France. It was also still raining. I took a walk around the village despite the rain as I was feeling cooped up. After visiting the storks and the town center, I inveigled my way into CAMAC, the other artist residency. I explored the gallery (and saw an interesting sculpture of an elongated soccer ball which I enjoyed) and the studio of one of the artists, and then as I was heading back out that artist, Augustine, actually spotted me and invited me into his room. He was leaving the next day (he was a May resident), so I was fortunate to get to see and discuss his artwork with him before he left. While discussing his work, he asked me what I planned to work on and I brought up 3P Quick Cure Clay. He was really interested, so I invited him back to my studio then and there since he was leaving the next day. We acquired another interested artist-turned-temporary-CAMAC-cook, Sasha, and set off for my studio. I showed QCC to them, and they both marveled at it - in fact, Augustine was super excited and interested in it and wanted some for himself. I told him to give me his contact details and I'd pass along the website where he could buy it. Augustine was also particularly enthusiastic about the two works-in-progress I had, which was very heartening. Particularly since these type of heavy relief pieces are somewhat new to me, I'm not 100% certain of what I'm doing so hearing positive feedback was really nice. They also gave me some constructive criticism, which I later incorporated into the piece and agree that it was helpful.
Day 8, Tuesday, was still very rainy. I had breakfast and then spent most of the late morning and early afternoon planning what I wanted to do/see in Paris on Thursday, because Paula had to go into Paris that day for a doctor's appointment and so it would be a cheap and guided way to ease into visiting the city to go with her. It is supposed to rain on Thursday, so though my first desire is to see the Jardin des Plantes and associated zoo, I decided to stick to more indoorsy activities. I've already made the rounds of the tourist destinations (the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Cœur, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, and so on) so I'd like to get a more local taste. I'm planning on hitting up some local markets and concept stores, and also hope to acquire more socks. I only brought five pairs, and given the weather and the fact that Europeans eschew dryers, it's a bit of a problem. After making all my plans, I realized I'd pushed lunch until very late and was starving. I popped downstairs to urgently make food... and the gas was finished. No more cooktop for me. I walked over to the Jardin to ask if they could kindly switch the gas over, but when they came it turned out the other one was also empty and no one had bothered to refill it. I was not amused, as I was at this point in full-on hangry mode. Finally it turned out that the electric plate on the cooktop was still functioning, so I used that and satiated myself. Then Patricia and I consulted on when I could go to the grocery store tomorrow, but it turned out that tomorrow was inconvenient for her so it would be better to go that evening. So we went out to get more groceries (and stopped at a local hardware store to get spray varnish for me as well; I can never bring it because it's an aerosol) and while out she invited me over to dinner. She also invited Andy, a British transplant to Marnay, and we had a very enjoyable evening - to the point where we outlasted the streetlights and Andy had to drive me the few blocks home because without the lights it was pitch black outside!
La Maison Verte Travels Part 2
On Day 2, Patricia very kindly took me on a tour of the Jardin Botanique de Marnay in the morning. For such a small town (Marnay has 247 residents), the garden is surprisingly large - 2 hectares - and contains a wider variety of plants than I would've guessed, as well as a small greenhouse. It really is quite beautiful. She also took me on a tour of the village, which is so tiny that it has no shops at all. A woman drives a van through every day except Wednesday to sell bread - a mobile bakery - but otherwise all shops are to be found in neighboring towns. The local attractions are the Jardin and CAMAC, which is another artist residency. It's an older, much more expensive, fancier (i.e. residents have private bathrooms and are provided food) residency; from both a fiscal as well as a focal matter point of view, I'm pleased with La Maison Verte.
That evening was Paula's residency exhibition, despite it being Wednesday and not the final Friday of the month. (I inquired as to why, and was told the garden's director had another obligation on Friday so it was moved.) Paula is a Professor Emeritus from the University of Mississippi and does a wide range of work in a variety of media, with figurative gestural work being the main focus though other subjects are also explored. The event was nicely populated, and I met many of the other people who make up the main group of friends and neighbors involved in La Maison Verte. Unlike many rural towns, a large portion of the residents here are actually international transplants, which I found really interesting.
On Day 3, I took another trip to the Jardin Botanique and also make a trip down the road to see a stork nest that Paula and Adrian had told me about. Then it started raining, so I broke for lunch and then started some work. I'm using 3P Quick Cure Clay on this residency, so I put a a little down and went to cure it... and I killed my heat gun. Every other electronic I've ever used internationally has worked just fine with a standard adapter, but apparently my heat gun required a voltage converter as well. Since I didn't use one, I fried it. I panicked a bit, as I really need a heat gun ASAP in order to progress artistically with what I'd like to do on this residency and am not even sure where to acquire one around here, but after talking with some of the locals, it appears that one of the other people who helps run the residency, Kinga, has two heat guns herself and will lend me one. And this new one will natively function with the outlets, so I shouldn't have any problems. Fingers crossed!
La Maison Verte Travels Part 1
The flights over were the smoothest international trip I think I've ever had. Both left approximately on time and landed approximately on time, my one layover was short but not stressfully so, none of my luggage was lost - it was as enjoyable as long, overnight travel can be. Figuring out how to get to Marnay via train in Charles de Gaulle airport was a little harder, but I had scheduled myself a couple hours of leeway time to arrange it so I had time to sort it out. I ended up needing to buy a train ticket into Paris, and switch lines once before taking a separate train out into the provinces. There were a lot of stairs involved, and with my two fully stuffed bags (the biggest one weighed 49 pounds, and the smaller went unweighed but I'd guess approximately 35-40) I was a bit of a sight. Luckily that meant that for most of the stairs (though sadly not all) I was helped by very nice strangers because on the few staircases I had to manage on my own I had to take the bags one at a time, one stair at a time!
Waiting for my last train involved sitting in an open-air atrium, and I couldn't help but notice it was quite cold. Surprisingly cold, given that I've been in the region before - earlier in the year, even - and also had looked up the weather as an added precaution when packing. I'd decided to only bring two long-sleeved shirts, a light jacket, a light cap, and four pairs of socks to go with a pair of sneakers; the rest of my wardrobe is filled with tank tops, shorts, skirts, and sandals. Locals have confirmed that it decided to be unseasonably cold, but that that may continue so I might be buying some more cold-weather clothing while here.
One of the people who created and runs the residency, Patricia, was waiting at Nogent-sur-Seine to pick me up. Nogent is a nearby town (about an hour's walk but a 7 minute drive, apparently) big enough to have a couple grocery stores and the train station. We stopped to get groceries, and then after getting locked out of the car and having a nice stranger help us get back in, we headed to La Maison Verte in Marnay-sur-Seine.
La Maison Verte lives up to its name, literally - it is painted dark green - and the ground floor has a large studio work space, a living room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. The second floor contains three bedrooms, one with a desk inside and one with a separate small desk/studio space as an attached-but-separate room. I was given the bedroom with the attached-but-separate small studio space, which is quite nice. I am a little saddened that the bathroom is on a separate floor, though!
Typically residencies here run exactly one month, so there are two artists here for the rest of May - a married, retired couple named Adrian and Paula who are actually in the process of moving permanently to Marnay from Oxford, Mississippi. Their daughter is one of the artists coming in for the June residency period and she's a pescetarian.
I'm a little odd in that I requested to stay a little longer (five and a half weeks); I did that because the closing exhibition for the residents is on the last friday of each month but since that's June 24th for June 2016 residents, that would only give three weeks to prepare!
I was supposed to go with Patricia to check out Le Jardin Botanique later in the afternoon, but after sitting down I was pretty sure I was done with learning new things until after I slept so I pushed it off until the following morning. My next request would probably have rendered that visit unaccomplishable anyway - I wanted to turn my heater on since it was very cold in the house. This request seemed simple, but the radiator didn't want to work. Patricia called on some colleagues to help figure out how to get it on again, but after turning on the main heat in the house (no luck), learning there was a gas tank responsible, turning that on (no luck), checking on it, learning it was out of fuel, and then telling me that getting fuel was not possible due to strikes, they found a portable electric heater somewhere in the town for me! That all took around two hours, and after that excitement I fell asleep for the night.
"Travel far enough, you meet yourself." - David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
I'm departing for my artist residency in France tomorrow - wish me luck!
Bison Are the First National Mammal!
in General Interest, News
How cool is this - President Obama has signed the National Bison Legacy Act making bison the first national mammal (though bald eagles are still secure in their national animal status).
To celebrate, here's a gallery of all of my bison paintings completed thus far!
Spring 2016 Student Art Exhibition Reception Photos
Here are the Spring 2016 Student Art Exhibition photos! We invited local artist Beth Snider to be our guest judge in handing out Miller Awards, so you can see her presenting those in a couple photos. 44 students exhibited in the show (which ran from April 29 through May 5). Classes I taught that were represented include Typography, Printmaking, Painting I & III, and Advanced Studios in Mixed Media and Tattoo Design.
Graduation for the Class of 2016
Yesterday we had the baccalaureate and commencement ceremonies for the University of Saint Mary's 2016 graduating class. It's always a little tough, in that I am proud of the seniors' accomplishments and hopeful for their futures, and yet also a bit selfishly sad to see them leave.
Animal Autonomy Is Becoming More Academically Accepted
I feel like there's a new groundswell of acknowledgement regarding animal sentience and intelligence happening lately in the academic arena, and I'm digging it. Here's Dr. Frans B.M. de Waal discussing his perspective in "What I Learned From Tickling Apes," published in The New York Times.
Mimosa Pudica Remembers You
in General Interest, News, Plants
Here's a neat article from The New York Times on one of the plants I work with in my interactive installations, the Mimosa pudica or "sensitive plant." I do have to qualify their results, however, because none of the plants I've grown has ever stopped recoiling from human touch/interaction. I wonder just how repeated their "repeated exposure" was.
Linguistic Relativism and Color
I was discussing with my colleague Susan this afternoon how I've read that men are more likely to have color identification and distinction issues in part because they are culturally raised with a more limited color vocabulary - girls are encouraged to learn names for (and wear) a wider variety of colors, and so women become better able to distinguish color differences in part because of their vocabulary. I've also read that young Western children kept away from cultural discussion of the sky as blue often label the sky as "nothing," "white," or "grey" before being taught the appropriate answer. These types of studies demonstrate that how we perceive the world is not only down to our biology but also to cultural and linguistic cues.
I decided to try to relocate another study I'd previously read about, so as to refresh my memory on the exact details and perhaps learn more. The research focused on an indigenous people who had in their language a different color category for what in English we would call a variant of yellow-green but at the same time did not linguistically differentiate blue from green. I remembered that I had looked at two circular grids, one having all green squares with one being very slightly different in hue and value and one having one cyan square and all the rest green squares. The all green grid was as easily scanned and the odd one out identified by these people, while the blue and green grid was a stumper. For Western people, the difficulties were reversed. After a decent amount of googling, I learned the tribe was the Himba of Namibia, the two grids can be seen here, a clip from a BBC documentary explaining it is here, and, if you're so interested, you can read an academic study on the topic entitled "Knowing color terms enhances recognition: Further evidence from English and Himba." As you'll find out if you watch the BBC clip, the Himba also label the sky as black and rivers as white, and have a more limited color vocabulary than English speakers use.
I also, in my research trail, learned a few other facts from various sites:
- This overall topic is called linguistic relativism and as it applies to color, there is still some debate as to how relativistic (versus universal) color differentiation actually is.
- Very young sighted children are no more reliable than blind children at correctly identifying color (sometimes up until the age of four).
- [In] languages with fewer than the maximum eleven color categories, the colors followed a specific evolutionary pattern. This pattern is as follows:
1. All languages contain terms for black and white.
2. If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains five terms, then it contains terms for both green and yellow.
5. If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown.
7. If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains terms for purple, pink, orange, and/or gray.
- Despite blue appearing sixth in the color evolution hierarchy, English has the most descriptors for blue, followed by green and then pink. Despite that, we do not (unlike Russians, for instance) separate out light blue as a distinct category from blue (like pink is distinct from red... as opposed to light red). Koreans have two separate categories for green, but the Japanese only relatively recently split blue from green and as a result they often refer to green items colloquially as blue, like traffic lights.
- Homer described the oceans as wine-dark and green as the color of honey.
I am fascinated and somewhat alarmed by the thought that English is holding me back from the world of green that the Himba and Koreans get to experience. I've wished for the mantis shrimp's color spectrum vision and ultraviolet perception in the past, but perhaps I don't even need more rods and cones - perhaps all I need is new words. Though since the brain stops developing around age 26, it sadly might already be too late for me.
Someday I'd Really Like to Meet a Woodcock
I'd like to meet a woodcock primarily because they are ridiculously proportioned animals that I'd enjoy drawing and painting, but also because they have a really cute bobbing walk and their mating call is called "peenting," which you cannot deny is an adorable name.
Here's a short clip of a woodcock dancing:
And here's one of peenting mixed into a snippet of Collective Soul's famous "Shine" song:
Anti-Intellectualism - an American Cultural Failing We Need to Fix
in News, General Interest
Most Americans know who Albert Einstein was, but comparatively very few people know who Neil deGrasse Tyson is. They know who Kim Kardashian is, though! In the present in the United States, entertainment and lowest-common-denominator appeal are revered and expertise has less impact than demagoguery. When people stop admiring intelligence, they stop working to attain it. That's where we are now. The United States has a lot to learn from other older, more mature cultures, and I hope we can wisen up soon.