The Book: Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America by Gigi Georges, Ph.D. Harper Collins, 2021. Also available in paperback and through your public library.

The Community: USM OLLI Members

Dr. Georges, who has a home in Downeast Maine, spent four years from 2016 to 2020, interviewing and getting to know five teenage girls living in three coastal towns in Washington County. Downeast reports on the challenges facing those coastal communities and the choices the girls make between honoring the traditions of Downeast Maine while navigating their own paths. 

Dr. Georges will join us at Wishcamper to discuss the book and introduce OLLI members to one of the girls we meet in the book, now a mature young woman. Participants will attend an opening lecture by Dr. Georges, followed by facilitated breakout discussion groups and lunch. The event will conclude with a panel discussion.

Participants must register for the event and are responsible for obtaining the book. There will be a $50 charge which will cover lunch, the speaker’s fees and transportation costs.

Watch for further details in an email blast. Seats are limited!

Registration will open February 1, 2024.  



An Invitation to This Year’s

Teacher Forum

Many schools have a Staff Room where teachers gather to socialize, laugh and share the joys and challenges of their classrooms. It’s also a place where teachers learn from one another.

A school staff room is the model for this year’s Teacher Forum, taught by fourteen experienced OLLI teachers in nine 1-hour modules. Topics address classroom management, course design, OLLI’s presentation platforms, (in-person, remote or hybrid). One session focuses on finding the platform that fits the teacher’s style and course content. Four sessions are dedicated to mentoring models, collaborative teaching, asking reflective questions and writing an inviting catalog description that accurately describes the course. Finally, a panel of Fall Term first-time OLLI teachers will describe their OLLI teaching experiences.

Consider joining us if you are thinking about teaching at OLLI. We are always looking for new members for the OLLI faculty. You can register when you sign-up for Spring session courses on February 14. Please be in touch if you have questions (lrsullivan72@gmail.com). Maybe we’ll meet in The Staff Room in March!

—Louise Sullivan

for The Teaching & Learning Committee

“India’s Daughters”

at OLLI and the Camden Conference

This riveting tale of the struggles of two young Indian women first appeared as an online series in this fall’s New York Times. Now it provides the backdrop for a USM OLLI course underway and also the February 2024 Camden Conference on “INDIA: Rising Ambitions, Challenges at Home."

Titled “India as Portrayed by Indian Women’s Fiction Writing” and taught by OLLI veterans Kathleen Sutherland and Betsy Mayberry, the course highlights “India’s Daughters” in its reading list.

Meanwhile, up in Camden, an author of the series, Emily Schmall, will appear as one of ten experts on India in this winter’s Camden Conference, produced live in Camden, Maine, with live-streaming venues on the big screen at Luther Bonney Hall at the University of Southern Maine as well as in Rockland at the Strand Theatre.

All three of these venues provide a high-quality, in-depth experience exploring a topic of urgent global interest. India has recently surged into first place as the world’s most populous nation. Its economy is on track to become one of top five of the globe. As a nuclear power, what role will it take on the global stage in coming decades? The Conference will explore answers to this and other pressing questions

The three venues for the Conference also provide the opportunity to meet with others interested in the topic for lively discussions leading to deeper understanding of a complex and vibrant country.

For more information on the speakers and to register for any venue or for virtual attendance in your own home, see camdenconference.org

The Camden Conference is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization focused on “fostering informed discourse on world issues.” It carries out its mission with community events in local libraries, with high school and college student involvement, and with the annual weekend Conference, taking place this year on Feb. 16–18.

Reflections 2024 Submissions Are Open

OLLI members are invited to submit poetry, prose, photos, and other artwork to Reflections, OLLI’s annual art and literature journal.

Reflections, published in print and for the past few years also electronically, has been around almost since OLLI started. It provides an opportunity for OLLI members to share their artistic and literary talents.

Many of the contributions are inspired by, or the products of, the many writing and art courses OLLI offers.

There are four phases in the life of each issue of Reflections.

First, submissions are sent as email attachments to the submissions manager. The submitted piece and information about the contributor are assigned a number. Then the submitted piece and the contributor’s information are stored separately.

Second, the selections committee evaluates each submitted piece. The selection process is “blind.” The committee members do not have information about the contributors. The members of the committee come to an agreement about which submissions will go into Reflections.

Unfortunately, not every submission is selected. Every year, there are more submissions than we have room or budget for in the journal.

Third, the identifying numbers of the selections are then conveyed to the production manager. The production manager matches the submissions to the names of the contributors.

Four, after copy-editing and proofing the written submissions, the manager sends the entire package to the OLLI office for the designer and printer it has hired. The production manager works with the designer to answer questions and address any issues that might arise.

Rules for contributors

Every literary journal, including Reflections, has requirements for submissions. The requirements for submissions are below.

SIG Corner

February 2024

Hmmm…Have you attended any Special Interest Group recently?

This is a reminder that the Eclectic Dialogue Junction: A Tapestry of Conversations meets the second Thursday of each month via Zoom. Its first conversation was held on January 11^th.

Trivia, Pictionary, and the Virtual Book Exchange are now included on line under the SIG registration designation.

The process is to register in a SIG once for the year spanning July 1 to June 30.

Then you are notified of time, date, and content of the next program or meeting. Once registered, you then decide whether or not to attend. Easy, peasey! Please remember to sign up for your favorites again on July 1^st.

Looking Ahead: The Women’s Lunch Gathering SIG will launch on March 11^th and will be held on Mondays from 11:35 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. in the Forum throughout the Spring Term. The plan is for this SIG to resume gathering again during the OLLI Fall Term.

Oh yes, please remember to bring your lunch!

Enjoy and revel in your SIG experience!

—Paula Johnson, OLLI Advisory Board SIG Coordinator

News from the Science

Reading Club

Want to discuss something other than politics? Our Science Reading Special Interest Group (SIG) talks about other current issues—like those below from our reading of the January 2024 Scientific American. Join us!

•  Why are many of Alaska’s rivers and streams now bright orange? In 1975 remote Alaskan rivers were proclaimed “the clearest, purist water I have ever seen flowing over rocks” by author John McPhee. What’s happened?
• Do dietary supplements get the screening and testing that would verify claims of safety and efficacy?
• How can a case be made for spending money now on a variety of issues from preventive health measures to space exploration to prevent larger, more expensive but likely necessary, expenditures later?

—Elizabeth Housewright

ehousewright@gmail.com

Barbara Barrall

OLLI member Kathie Harper has notified us that former OLLI member Barbara Barrall died on January 19 in Florida at the age of 88.

From Kathie’s email to OLLI: “I was requested by Barbara Barrall that she wanted her OLLI friends to know that she was on Hospice Care in Florida where she had moved last year to live with her daughter.

“Now I have the sad news to relay that she passed this afternoon. She has been a good friend to me and always someone I enjoyed being with in class. As [OLLI instructor] Tan Larrabee said, she was a light to be reckoned with. If I remember correctly, I think she said she was there from the beginning of OLLI after she moved to Maine from California.”

A brief obituary appeared in the Tampa Bay Times.

1. Who has two birthdays, one on December 25 and another on June 25?

Answer: Paddington Bear. Paddington Bear first appeared in the 1958 book, A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond. Bond based the book on a lone, forlorn-looking teddy bear that he bought for his wife on Christmas Eve in 1956. In an article about Queen Elizabeth having two birthdays, the Star newspaper reported that Paddington’s “…adopted family, The Browns, agreed bears ‘just like the Queen’ should have two birthdays every year.” Fun fact: a stuffed toy Paddington was the first item the British passed through to the French when the two sides of the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) were linked in 1994. (The late Queen Elizabeth II’s two birthdays: https://www.royal.uk/queens-birthday)

2. What is the only capital city in the world that is located in two continents?

Answer: Istanbul, Turkey. According to WorldAtlas.com, Istanbul, previously known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the only major city that is transcontinental (Europe and Asia) and dates back to 660 BCE. You can take a short ferry ride across the Bosphorus and travel from Europe to Asia and back before lunch! There are only five transcontinental cities in the world: Istanbul, Suez, Magnitogorsk, Orenburg, and Atyrau.

3. What popular piano duo first met in elementary school and attended Juilliard School of Music in New York City together?

Answer: Ferrante and Teicher. Ferrante (1921–2009) and Teicher (1924–2008) met when they were nine and six years old, studying classical piano at Juilliard. Wikipedia says their easy-listening music, sequins and ruffles, and pompadour hair styles may have been schmaltzy, but they sold over 88 million records worldwide. You can see and hear the Grand Twins of the Twin Grands playing the theme from Exodus here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wq0RB6wTU

4. Who was the first President of the United States to have a pet in the White House?

Answer: John Adams. Adams brought his two dogs, Juno and Satan, and his two horses, Cleopatra and Caesar, when they moved into the newly finished White House in 1800. (George Washington lived at Mount Vernon during his presidency, so his dogs and horses didn’t count.) James Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump are the only presidents who did not have a pet at the White House, though Johnson left flour out to feed some white mice that lived there. Truman gave away a cocker spaniel he received as a gift while living at the White House, saying they preferred to be a pet-free family. There have been some very unusual pets at the White House over the years!

Learn more at https://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/whitehousepets-1/

5. Dolphins can stay underwater for a long time. What land animal can hold its breath longer than a dolphin?

Answer: The sloth. Sloths have the slowest metabolism of any animal. They can reduce their heartbeat by one-third and can hold their breath for 40 minutes. Sloths hold themselves still much of the time that they are in trees to protect themselves from predators. They can swim three times as fast as they can move on land and move with more agility in the water—helpful adaptations because they are more visible and vulnerable to predators when in the water.

Check them out at https://www.forestwildlife.org/how-long-can-a-sloth-hold-its-breath/

6. What New York City mayor endeared himself to his constituents when he read the comics over the radio?

Answer: Fiorello LaGuardia. In July 1945, the union that delivered newspapers was on strike. Papers were printed but not distributed. LaGuardia had a weekly Sunday broadcast (1942 to 1945) on WNYC, “Talk to the People.” He decided that he would read the comics on the radio so children would be able to keep up with their funnies, e.g., Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie. Many think he realized that the comics were important to the adults too. He read the comics, with surprisingly expressive and animated voice, at the end of three Sunday broadcasts that month. For many, his readings of the comics were their most vivid memories of him. It was a savvy, politically brilliant plan. You can hear LaGuardia reading some of Little Orphan Annie in this NPR story:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97621982