The Doctor is in.

October 2014

Nathanael Mimics The Flash

Nate got one chance to run a 5K this season, at the Twilight XC Invitational in Marysville. In the large Open race, he finished 6th, with a faster time than his high school best when he ran a 17:10 over the 3.0 mile Millersylvania course. This year's race was a 17:08 over 3.1 miles. (Of course, he reminded me that he ran at a faster pace than that over twice the distance in college. See the boxed quote below.)

Coach Sloan calls Nathanael an Assistant Coach, not just a volunteer assistant. He said he's been getting in a lot of running as he runs with the fast team members and then loops back to run with the slower guys. Ed also says he's growing in his maturity and coaching skills.

One reason I still take pictures of Coach Ed Sloan's athletes, season after season, is because he's a very talented and dedicated coach. He and his wife Sabrina (from Korea) chose not to have kids -- his students and runners fill that role -- as do his Korean nieces and nephews. He may be as politically left as I am right, but we manage to get along. I'd enjoy his stories more on our long bus rides together if my hearing was better.

At SPU, Nathanael's running is still remembered. This item appeared on the spufalcons.com web site this month.

In spite of the proximity of the meet, this is SPU's first trip to Lake Padden since 2010.
-- That year, the Falcons wound up making three trips to the Lake Padden course – twice during the regular season and once for the NCAA West Regionals.
-- In those meets, the leading times for Seattle Pacific were 23:10.3 by Natty Plunkett on the women's side and 33:57.4 by Nate Sleight for the men.

My Heroes on TV

I've lived long enough for my boyhood heroes to become TV stars. Gotham, showing pre-Batman Gatham City airs on Monday nights on FOX. The Flash is new on the CW at 8:00 on Tuesdays, followed at 9:00 on ABC by Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. On Wednesday, Green Arrow is shown on FOX on the show Arrow. In the first episode of Season 3, we meet Ray Palmer, whom all fans of DC comics know to be a great hero known as the Atom.

Jeannie Beth is the Evil Second Sister!

This month we got this brief, happy email from Jeannie Beth.

Hi Family,

    I will be playing Regan (second daughter of King Lear) in SPU's winter
    show, King Lear.
    EEeeeeeeEEEEEeeEEEEkk!!!!!!!!!
    I am so Excited!!!!! :D
    Love,
    ~JB

Jeannie Beth did not audition for the SPU fall play, Lost in Yonkers, because she dearly wanted to be in the winter play, Shakspere's King Lear. It also gave her knees more time to heal. With only three female parts, it was a gamble. Theatre Professor George Scranton, who is retiring this year, will be playing the title role. It will be amazing.

  Regan is the middle child of King Lear's three daughters and is married
  to the Duke of Cornwall. Similarly to her older sister, Goneril, Regan is
  attracted to Edmund. Both sisters are eager for power and even
  convince their father with false flattery to hand over his kingdom.

Just as she followed in the footsteps of Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker, the part of Regan was played by Diane Rigg in the Sir Laurence Olivier version of King Lear.

Bits and Pieces

♦ The Apostle Paul cuts to the chase at the end of Romans 14. " . . . everything that does not come from faith is sin." Romand 14:23b

I had this Greek verse on my office PC as background wallpaper when my boss stopped by my office — a first time since I moved to the first floor. He asked if it was Russian or Greek. (He is more interested in college and professional sports.) I think he was impressed that I could read Greek. (I'm impressed that I can read ANY Greek.) My translation sounds like Yoda speaking: "All that is not of faith sin is."

♦ Walking up 100th Avenue NE toward home, depressed and grumpy after a difficult day at work, a car comes down the street, and from the back seat through an open window a high school student yells, "Hi, Doc!" The day is redeemed.

♦ On October 27-28, the School of Business. Government, and Economics underwent another AACSB "maintenance of accreditation" site visit.
I went into the meetings with misgivings. The school has not been as well managed in this past year as earlier. However, on the evening of the 28th, we received this glowing report from Dean Williams.

Great news and certainly the answer to our prayers (as well as recognition of all our hard work)! The AACSB visitation team, comprised of the business school deans from Baylor, Abilene Christian University, and the University of San Diego, informed us this morning that they are going to recommend to the AACSB that our accreditation be renewed for another 5 year period. The AACSB itself will review that recommendation in December and vote on it shortly thereafter – we should get formal approval in January.

This is unofficial so please don’t externally circulate this information, particularly via social media, until we get that official notification in January. Then you can go nuts with the social media stuff.

That said, this really is outstanding news and a beautiful outcome to a very big team effort. Many thanks to all the faculty and staff who pulled together to help us build the report (50 pages, with hundreds of pages of documentation) and who participated in meetings with the visitation team. And thank you to EAB members . . . And very big kudos to Kathy Stegman and Dick Sleight for all their work in supporting the visitation team and all the drills they went through finding old data and updating notebooks. Speaking of drills, my personal thanks to Gary Karns for all his heroics in answering the visitation team’s many last-minute requests for revisions of our data analytics and presentation.

My Quote from October

God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing.

— The traditional prayer with which the University begins each year.

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