Wishing everyone a Happy Spring 2023 semester!

 

 Happy Holidays! 

Sources to Get News From

Some of the news sources that I read regularly to stay informed about developments, locally, around the globe, and beyond:

1. Chambanamoms: https://www.chambanamoms.com/category/blog/news/
2. Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/
3. Illinois Public Media: https://will.illinois.edu/news
4. Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/
5. Kathimerini: https://www.kathimerini.gr/
6. Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
7. NBC Sports: https://www.nbcsports.com/nba
8. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): https://www.bbc.com/
9. The Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/
10. The News-Gazette: https://www.news-gazette.com/
11. The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/
12. Simple Flying: https://simpleflying.com/
13. Smile Politely: https://www.smilepolitely.com/
14. South China Morning Post: https://www.scmp.com/
15. Swissinfo: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng

Butterfly: The New Frontier for Fitness Fanatics

Olympian Dara Torres

In June 2010, Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Helliker, in the article For the Athlete Who Has It All, wrote “Like many fitness swimmers, I can go mile after mile of freestyle without stopping. But a single lap of butterfly leaves me gasping. In an age of ultra-marathons, Ironman triathlons, and crowds chugging up Mount Everest, long-distance butterfly swimming is becoming a new frontier for fitness fanatics. The mere sight of a swimmer doing lap after lap of butterfly garners attention of the sort that merely finishing an Ironman triathlon no longer generates.”

More on the butterfly.

Freestyling

Olympian Chad le Clos

At the end of this post I share a playlist that I created with a set of what I deem to be high quality and helpful YouTube videos to assist you in learning and improving your freestyle stroke.

Please ensure that you practice your swimming in a pool facility that has an on-duty lifeguard for your safety and the safety of others.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM0F90isOuwumrWJjrbZeWUX94CvH3elH

Snippets of Wisdom from Legendary Journalist Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward - American renown journalist and author - visited the U of I campus on Tuesday, January 26 as part of a new lecture series about Abraham Lincoln. In what was an educational and entertaining talk, Woodward explained how Lincoln relates to our times and compared some of his traits as well as presidential themes with those of recent presidents.

In my own words, here are some of the insights that Woodward shared and resonated with me:

• The job of the President is to figure out the next stage of good for the majority of the people of the country and then develop and implement a plan to achieve it
• Presidents should be tough in their articulation of what the USA is ready to do in order to preserve its interests
• President Obama does not like war and he believes that it is a manifestation of human failing

Two concepts that will remain with me are "executive supremacy" which I understood as something that President Lincoln believed in as well as "strategic patience" which is something that I believe the Obama White House practices.

Finally - again in my own words - Woodward shared a joke that his father told him about lawyers: you should always listen to lawyers because they have something important to say... unless you listen carefully.

The dead die when they are forgotten!

When someone experiences the loss of a loved one, soothing words can sometimes offer solace and hope for the future.

During difficult times of loss, the poem that I am sharing below has offered me great comfort and hope for the future over and over again. I hope that you find it as soothing as I did. It provides a very powerful message. Please feel free to share it with your friends and family.

She is not dead*

You did not die!
Your fragrance is still present in my room as if you just left me,
and on the sofa your unfinished embroidery remains, and the sheet of music you played is on the piano.
Your picture is always there on the table staring at me with its serene gaze,
and it’s not the wind but you who opens the door half way to enter in the evening hours.

You did not die.You’re in everything and everywhere:
In the stripped petals of roses, in the sigh of the wind, in the clouds that turn gold when the day is about to end,
and even in the nights I sense you lying here next to me... You did not die. It does not matter if the months go by:

The dead die when they are forgotten!


Poet: Kostas Ouranis

* Poem translated from the Greek original to English by Dr. Arthur G. Nikelly and appears in ‘The Romantic Poetry of Greece: an Anthology 1860-1960’ published in 2009.