Doing a Double Take

So, of the three universities I attended during my long pursuit of my Ph.D (1977-1990), one has lost track of me, or so I conclude from the fact that their alumni folks never contact me. For which I'm grateful.

The other two send me their alumni journals. These I confess I skim rather than read. I'm occasionally rewarded by some news of interest. The latest examples of which are various pieces from Marquette about the recent Tolkien exhibit, which I enjoyed v. much, and a reference to the establishment of a Marine Biology Program at S.A.U. (Southern Arkansas University). This latter surprised me, because the campus is in Magnolia, Arkansas. And while I don't expect the average reader of this blog to know the whereabouts of Arkansas's county seats, suffice it to say that Magnolia is in the south-west corner of the state (the ArkLaTex). A long way away from the sea.

In fact, so far away that the closest ocean to my home town is distant in time rather than space. This land was once all underwater as part of the Western Interior Seaway --which is the locally excavated fossil proudly on display on the SAU campus is an ichthyosaur ('Elmer').

This new program turns out to be piggy-backed on an established program run by the University of Southern Mississippi. That all makes a lot more sense.

So now SAU students can join forces with the Mississippians, on projects such as  monitoring baby sharks and baby rays.

--John R.

--current reading: catching up on Internet deprivation from the roughly twenty-four hours our internet was out yesterday/today.   

otherwise, betwixt and between