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Author Archives: Boz
Master, Mentor, Friend
This is the last installment of my reminiscences about my decades-long and life-altering relationship with Professor John V. Mering, 1931-2009. Vicki/Victoria I spent hours during the summer of ’74 in the office of the history graduate students. We discussed history as … Continue reading
Codifying Honor
I first saw the topic discussed on Facebook by the gay son of a dear Mormon friend. It then flooded the mainstream press, including ABC, CNN, Time, and the New York Times. I am referring to the noisy and–to me, at least–disturbing public controversy about the honor … Continue reading
The Mering Chronicles (cont. from 6/11)
Hang-ups, hanging out, and hanging on I visited Dr. Mering’s office often to receive assistance with my writing, to ask for suggestions for outside reading, or simply to satisfy his curiosity about how “this girl from a little mining town in the West” … Continue reading
Posted in education, history, memories, people
Tagged coming of age, definition, education, history, language, mentor, word
4 Comments
Dr. John V. Eckleburg?
I am now going to debunk all my foregoing pretensions to serious intellectualism.
Posted in humor
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Rites of Passage Part III: John V., Il Miglior Fabbro
Learning at the feet of the master In furtherance of my naïve but exuberant efforts to learn how to think, my history T.A.-cum-guru John Hosmer suggested that I take a class with his Ph.D. advisor, John V. Mering. It was the … Continue reading
Posted in books, education, history, memories, people
Tagged argument, historiography, history, language, mentor, professor, Reconstruction, slavery, Strunk and White, student
5 Comments
Rites of Passage Part II: My Endless Summer of Thomas Wolfe
A naïve and sheltered twenty-year-old baby boomer from a copper-mining town in Arizona who asked her revered teacher/guru for a list of books to teach her how to think, I probably didn’t expect the internal cataclysm that ensued. But I … Continue reading
Posted in books, history, memories, people
Tagged adolescence, angst, coming of age, Look Homeward Angel, Southern literature, Thomas Wolfe
3 Comments
Rites of Passage Part I: A Motley Pentateuch
Spring 1973: As an overachieving, overprotected, overweight college sophomore, I approached the end of the spring semester with the dread of impending loss. In addition to my accustomed success in school that year, I had incrementally begun the process—equally exhilarating and … Continue reading
Posted in books, education, memories, musings, people
Tagged angst, history, journey, mentor, rites of passage, Thomas Wolfe
4 Comments
The Prison of “I Am”
For a number of years in my late twenties and early thirties, if I didn’t have a long, skinny, brown More cigarette between my lips or fingers, I was nonetheless enveloped in a malodorous, smoky haze that I am sure … Continue reading
«Ponctuation»
On the evening of March 17 of this year, listening to All Things Considered as I began my long drive home, I felt fat tears welling up in my eyes and coursing freely down my cheeks. As part of her series entitled … Continue reading
A Few Things I Know
Geese cackle, feathers tickle, Belts buckle, beets pickle. 1543: Annus mirabilis Crest has been shown to be an effective, decay-preventive dentifrice that can be of significant value when used in a conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional … Continue reading