Oh, my brain, my brain!

A Word of Thanksgiving

I have much to be thankful for - especially this year. I am grateful that parts of my brain sometimes still work and that I get to live in a place saturated in history that I do not have time to see or research. I am grateful for friends from school who remind me why I came here, for all the people who have emailed to remind me why I will be so glad to be back in Asheville, and Bob, who has done an amazing job of keeping up my spirits, keeping in touch with the kids and keeping everything running smoothly.



This month has been a constant series of reading journal articles and books - and writing papers. Frivolous writing (such as this) and reading (such as a newspaper) have been abandoned for frivolous writing of a different sort. I have written policy memos justifying placements or non-placement in special education, a letter to Barak Obama making policy recommendations for No Child Left Behind, a project proposal to survey neuroscientists and educators about just who is traveling on that bridge between cognitive neuroscience and educational practice - my prediction is that they aren't even on the same highway!

There have been moments of serendipity and they are as follows:

These people spoke to me today at MIT's Learning and the Brain Conference. They allowed the grad students to attend for free if we would do a little slave labor.

John Gabrieli and Maryanne Wolf spoke to our group today. Dr. Gabrieli is a frequent speaker in our program. Both of these people were impressive





M.Wolf's book http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=maryanne+wolf&x=0&y=0

This is the latest Busey accomplishment - - - that we can speak about publicly! Scroll to the bottom of the page.


Em is coming home for Thanksgiving! That is an unexpected surprise. Would anyone be willing to drive out to Seattle to bring her dog to Asheville?

This is what Andy wants for Thanksgiving:

This, according to our son, is a turbaconducken.

Amy is no longer in Thailand. We can say with certainty that she is somewhere in Asia - we think!

A prize goes to the person who can tell me who this is:

Ode to my Laptop

With apologies to anyone who appreciates fine literature...or any kind of literature at all

A friend, you were there through thick and thin
Through four straight papers, when thoughts ran thin.
When talking to Bob - though you kept shutting down,
During office hours, classes and around.
And at the end of the week when I let you lie,
Quietly on the desk...you up and die!

Delayed Musings

This has been a stressful couple of weeks. Papers due back to back and readings that I still haven't finished, so just a couple of thoughts - none of them too profound for I have short circuited that part of my brain and we all know it wasn't up to par to begin with!

This is the most beautiful sight in North Carolina. Last weekend I met Bob in Chapel Hill/Durham. Andy's friend Khristy joined us for a meal which shows great courage on her part. You may notice a shiny object on Meredith's hand. She had just received her Meredith College ring the night before. That is a significant rite of passage and she was overjoyed!

Al Gore came to Harvard to help launch the Sustainability initiative. One would be hard-pressed to prove the Greenhouse Effect that day. It was freezing, but they served hot apple cider, apple crisp, and apples to keep us warm while we waited. He really is a compelling speaker and it was worth the numb fingers and toes to hear him. He is standing on the steps to Memorial Hall where I attend church. In fact the previous Sunday Dr. Peter Gomes spoke from the pulpit about the time he stood on the same steps and "came out" before a distinguished gathering of his peers. He also mentioned that he could not see Russia from his house and worried about people who say that they can. Now in what other Baptist church in America, would you find those two comments in the same sermon? Everyone who sees Guy should thank him for his wisdom and for packing much better messages into shorter periods of time!

Em, here is the picture of my stuffed pumpkin. Thanks for the recipe. I am going to try it again this weekend.

Finally, remember the tree in one of my early ramblings? (the picture with my finger) Here it is now.