Congratulations, Juliana!

Hickory International Council and the Great Decisions Meetings.

The Hickory International Council is another great reason to live in Hickory, the Friendly City in North Carolina. 

The council sponsors many different items, one of which is the Great Decisions meetings which take place on six Tuesday evenings beginning in September of each year.

We’ve been meeting now for three years, and while we haven’t really made any decisions yet, we sure have talked about many of the great decisions that are now knocking on our national and International doors demanding to be let in or responded to.  In these discussions we have several study guides, including a small book from the Foreign Policy Association of America, and roughly a 25 minute film about the topic for the evening shown before each meeting.   Here we find out what is behind and underneath the current news  stories, you know, the important stuff.  Those details that are often not covered very well on TV or on the net.  

The Hickory International Council also meets on the third Thursday of each month on the second floor of Patrick Beaver Library beginning at 5:30.  Come on by, find out what you have been missing, meet some new friends.  Reach out and touch the world.

Hambly and Jackson, Harp Artists in Chapel of Rest, Lenoir, NC

Gráinne Hambly and William Jackson are perhaps the two most accomplished and famous harpists in the world, and Sunday afternoon September 13, 2013, they delighted a full audience in the small Chapel of Rest in Happy Valley, North Carolina, just north of Lenoir.  

                                                    She played Irish harp, he played a Scottish harp.  I couldn’t tell the difference and didn’t ask them later when we had an opportunity while talking with them, but I remember that she used more dramatic gestures while playing and he used almost none in his work.  I did ask why they did not use sheet music and they said, smiling,  that was "the way they did it".

 Besides playing both solo and duets, Gráinne also accompanied William on a concertina, and William accompanied her on a penny flute and with an Irish bouzouki.  Gráinne pointed out how the harp is often used with other instruments, but it also has music that is unique to it alone.

     The Chapel of Rest has a reputation of being haunted, and it IS haunted – at least by the story that a former pastor was distraught over his wife’s affair with another man.  The preacher had gone to the church to pray about the matter on a Saturday night, and then hanged himself from a beam on the ceiling of the church.  He was found, hanging there the next morning by the arriving congregation.   We also have it on good faith that that did not happen.  But then the person who discounted that story had other stories to tell that sent chills up the spine almost as good as the music produced by two of the most famous harpists in the world.  

Today, the chapel was clearly haunted by beautiful music and a cool breeze drifted through the open windows carrying the slight tang of apples in its air.  

http://champlainvalleytradarts.com/grainne-hambly-william-jackson/

http://www.harpagency.com/artist1.htm

Oktoberfest in Hickory, 2013.

Wow.  What a show!  Another of the great things about living in Hickory, the friendly city.  Somebody said that Hickory’s Oktoberfest had been rated one of the best in the US.  Don’t know HOW that scoring came about but If you go there, you will know WHY it happened.

(These pictures will enlarge if you tap on them)

It’s big.  Especially big for a town the size of Hickory.  And it’s even bigger than it IS, because all the stuff is going on all the time and all at the same time.  

There’s a lot of food here.  My wife and I got bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard at the Berliner Kindl pavilion.  The sausages were not good and neither of us could eat the meat.  Would be interested in hearing from others to find out what experience they had.  Normally I wouldn't mention this but since we paid $16 for the 2 sandwiches, the Berliner Kindl should be interested in some feedback from their clients.

Alcohol is definitely present.  Beer, especially some good craft brews are available.  Under the big tent where the Oompah Band presents their magic, there is both bottle beer and draft.  The Wine Shop has tables in front of their shop where wine and beer are obviously enjoyed and yes you can hear the music.

Music is the heart and soul of the big Oktoberfest and you can’t get away from the sound of music if you are in downtown Hickory.  That’s why everybody is “dancing” as they walk along the sidewalks, “conducting” with the mementos they have bought as they walk along or perhaps just tapping their toes if they are sitting and eating.

And for me, the greatest treat of all is the Oompah Band, playing polkas and dance tunes and marching music, on and on into the smiles of the enthusiastic audiences seated and standing and dancing in front of them.

They will be there again TODAY, Sunday October 13, 2013, so what are you doing reading this now?  You can do that tomorrow!  Get downtown!! Now!!!

"It's Not You, It's Me" - Footcandle Film Society in Hickory, NC

One of the nice things about living in Hickory, the friendly city, is the Footcandle Film Society.  They bring some of the most enjoyable films that have been made, many of which have flown below the Hoopla Level, right here to us.  Tonight we saw “It’s Not You, It’s Me”, and after the viewing we talked with the writer and director of the film, Nathan Ives who was present. 

The performance was at the Carolina Theater in downtown Hickory, and it featured an innovative view into some of the different dimensions of the human psyche, particularly into the mind and emotions, and all of this done in an innovative and delightful way.

Here is more information about the movie:   http://www.mulefilms.com/projects/inyim/     also: http://www.haute-lifestyle.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=577:its-not-you-its-me-review-romance-for-all-of-us&catid=168&Itemid=435.

The movie will be shown again at the Carolina Theater in Hickory at 7:00 p.m. on both 10/13/2013 and 10/15/2013.  Price will be $10, If not a Footcandle member,  and no minors.  

Thanks again to Alan Jackson, founder and developer of the Footcandle Film Society of Hickory.

Belfast Boys – in Hickory, NC, Oct 2013.

At about ten o”clock tonight, the Irish sun rose out of the Irish Sea to shine  brightly – one might even say “loudly” (at times) – over McCroskys Irish Pub in Hickory, the friendly city, in NC.

The “Belfast Boys”, Adrian Rice and Alyn Mearns, played some of the great songs of Ireland, using guitar, mandolin and the souls of Irishmen everywhere.

The evening was magnificent.  It was filled with good food, good music, good beer and a lot of clapping of hands and swaying of bodies, not all of them rigorously Irish, but still, mostly dedicated to a musical study of  Irishology.

Jon Meacham at LRU in Hickory, NC 2013.0912

Illuminating.  Funny.  Riveting.  A masterful performance tonight in Hickory, the friendly city, by a masterful performer. 

Winer of Pulitzer Prize as an author, also an executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, former editor-in-chief of Newsweek, contributing editor to Time Magazine, editor-st-large of WNET, and  –  well, he has accumulated a lot of honors in his first 44 years.  The next 44 will be positively amazing.

A very enjoyable evening.  He revealed some of the brilliance of Thomas Jefferson, and also a bit of his dark side too.    All this was interspersed with funny comments.  Jokes that took maybe 8 or 9 seconds to tell, then a 5 second comment even funner than the joke was, then a  couple of comments even funner than that and THEN a funny word that summed it all up.  We listened, enjoyed, learned and applauded. 

Above all, we got the  image of our country being born with considerable labor pains.  Meacham made it clear that this country was built by people who maybe didn’t even really like each other, but they learned to work out their differences and build something that was not what they wanted, but it was representative of all of them.

Questions were opened but there were none!  So that lasted about 30 seconds and we walked out each of us with our own unasked questions.  I wondered if Meacham thought the nation would have survived if it had not been born in an act of treason to the British King?  I also wanted to find out how religious Meacham thought the Founding Fathers really were.  He mentioned Jefferson as being “different” about that issue, and also Benjamin Franklin “tempered” Jefferson on at least one occasion about that.    

Squeeing - A Billboard Nation.

Are we becoming a Nation of Headlines?   I’ve said it before, and I’ve heard a lot of other people say it too:  “I know what  you mean – I saw that article too, I didn’t READ it, but I saw the headline.”  Of course we’re talking about the internet, mostly Google and especially Facebook and Twitter.  We’ll read a Text maybe on our smartphone, but that’s short and pithy, kind of like an abbreviated headline.  

So we get a lot of information this way, we get a lot of facts, well, almost facts anyway, but at least we kind of know what’s going on and what is important.  It’s like driving down the highway.  There are billboards all over the roadside (at least in America, most civilized societies have abolished them).  The key thing about the billboard is the amount of information it squeeses.  Sometimes you will see one that is covered with print and you can’t read it as you go by.  You don’t know what it said.  The billboard experts will help you with your that.  They will condense it to no more than eight words.  That’s all that most people can read whizzing past at highway speed.  

Then there are Bumper Stickers.  Same thing.  Designed to grab shattered attention.  Not to explain but to exult.  Squeeing more in aggregate than in distinction, and the value is measured not in output but in Goob’ls, or voluminous intake of squees occasionally followed by Got-its, a sense of primitive communication and quietly screamed in the manner of a grunt.       

Well, the wheels of time turn, grinding very fine or perhaps not so fine at all, especially if you don’t have time to grind, barely even time to turn, certainly not to explain yourself, because the person you are squeeing at already understands and knows.  But it still helps to be herd.  I mean heard.  

sticking to it

Hello tower, this is Cat 35, just landed on runway 18, taxiing in

Amelie's in NoDa

2013.0815Th1220.  Ate in Amelie's up in NoDa.  This was our second time.  Ate here last year on August 16th, looks like a pattern developing. 

 Last year I had a truly magnificant Croque- monsieur, this time a “simple” Jamón with Cheese.  The cheese was melted into the jamón and into the flaky baguette-croissant and the whole thing was all dribbled internally with varying amounts of sweetness and hotness  scattered here and there.  So cool I ate it sitting on the ceiling.  Nobody noticed me up there because I fit right in  – at Amelies.  You know what I mean if you have been there.  And if  you haven’t,  you need to go.

Wife also had a chocolate thing with a lot of creeeamy soft yellow stuff inside trying to get of its shell. 

Where is Amelie's?  2424 N Davidson St #102, 

Charlotte, NC 28205.  Phone 704.376.1781

http://www.ameliesfrenchbakery.com

Hours are tricky:  24/7/365.

I hear it gets kinda spooky around two in the morning.   But haven’t been there then – yet.

The selection of pastries and deserts are the nearest thing I have ever seen to the streets of Paris.  Absolutely recommend Amelies "in the highest!"

Hickory Crawdads Win Big

It was a great night for baseball in Hickory.  I could almost hear Harry Caray calling muffled from somewhere deep in my memories “It’s a BEAUTIFUL baseball night here in Hickory!  Come on DOWN to LP Frans Stadium!”   And it WAS a beautifully cool evening with nice breezes blowing wonderful smells and familiar sounds across the stadium.

We took two teen-age granddaughters with us and I was GIVEN 4 free tickets for “my service” to my country (the guy selling me the tickets spotted my military ID card which was partially visible in my wallet).  “Thank you for your service.” He said as he handed me the tickets.  I was amazed, stunned, astonished. 

The Hickory team is nicknamed the “Crawdads” and casually called “Dads”.   And they have a VERY rhythmic person inside a dramatically friendly costume who plays the role of "Counsellor Crawdad" .  The “Dad” was a big hit with the kids, and played significant roles in between inning events. 

Game ended in the bottom of 9th inning with two outs when  Lewis Brinson, batting with a runner on base, hit a 3-2 pitch for a walk-off home run.  He could barely get to the plate because of his ecstatic teammates. 

The between-innings distractions from the loud speakers and impromptu performances by enthusiastic volunteers that I had found annoying last time seem to be developing their own kitschistic persona.  The crowd obviously recognized and joyfully participated in the joyous nonsense.

One of the side effects is that there are loud-speakered comments between pitches, which shut down before the next pitch.  .  .  BUT the crowd learns to do that too!  Even when the home team is putting on a late-game rally!  Last night the crowd finally broke through and started carying on the cheering  and shouting as Nomar Mazara (the batter before Brinson) hit his long fly ball to center field.  

Yea!  Yea!

Springtime

I wandered out on a cool day last week, walking around my property with Winter, who has really enjoyed his visit this year.    I had noticed he seemed to be a bit out of sorts since the about the middle of February. And now, suddenly he "froze" as he glanced to his right - and he turned white with shock. What's the matter? I asked as I looked in that direction. He didn't answer, and then I saw her! A young lady, dressed in a daffodil yellow dress, swinging on a tree limb - she looked to be about 20 or so years old. Then, amazingly, I noticed that I could see her dress was very flimsy! Astonishing! And in such cool weather! Let's go see who she is, I said, but Winter replied that he thought he better leave. I looked back at the girl, and noticed that I could not only see partly through her clothes, but also through her body! And as I watched, she slowly disappeared! I looked back at Winter, but he too was gone. I pulled my jacket about me and looked again at the now bare branch. The girl was clearly gone, but the forest seemed different than it had before she showed up. Back at the house I found a note from Winter thanking me for the wonderful season, and saying he would see me next year. He had taken his Canon and his other things and a couple of my snowdrifts and icicles. He said he didn't think I would mind. I didn't. He said he would send some more early in March when he gets where he's going. I wonder who the girl was? And why is it sometimes you can see her and sometimes not?  And why do the forests look different after she shows up?

Dr. Brian Raichle, ASU, and Hickory's Science After Dark. Bistro 127.

Dr. Brian Raichle from the Department of Technology & Environmental Design at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC presented the Science After Dark series Tuesday night, April 9, 2013, at Bistro 1-2-7- in Hickory, NC.  

His topic was “Renewable Energy:  Present and in Your Future”.  This was a snapshot of current energy generation and consumption patterns, including but not limited to renewable energy.  He pointed out that many homeowners do not know how much money they pay monthly for their electricity and the average homeowner has no idea of how many kilowatt hours his house uses each month.  And here is the beginning of the process of getting control over your electricity consumption profile.

Dr. Raichle described state-of-the-art technologies with an emphasis on those suitable for the average homeowner to adapt.  He described the rapid fall in the construction costs of adding solar energy to your home and showed how we can all begin with a simple installation that will provide power to the grid that can reduce the monthly energy costs of our own home.  Then of course, we can proceed to increase that amount as we wish to do so.

Dr. Raichle’s presentation was dynamic, vibrant and very personable.  He answered questions and encouraged questions and discussion from the participants during his presentation.  He got his ideas across so well that many of us were figuring out costs and payback data.  This is an example of why Hickory’s version of “Science Cafés”, which we call “Science After Dark” does so well.  Here is the place where we can hear a qualified scientist speaking about some of the events which are changing our world.  But rather than being in a college classroom atmosphere we all are gathered in a pub, cafe or bistro, and the presentation is informal and we – us neophytes – can actually ask these people questions that have bothered us about their topic.  

For more information see http://sciencecafes.org/what/

http://www.catawbascience.org/sci_afterdark.html

http://www.catawbascience.org/events_cal.html

TEDxHickory 2013

Would you like to make a presentation at TEDxHickory?  You can DO it! Yes you can – don’t worry about the people up there on the stage struggling with the floor covering, the lighting, the microphones, losing their places, and all that.  There’s ANOTHER way, maybe a BETTER way to get your ideas across at TEDxHickory!  

Emily Miller
"Craftomics"

There is a Magic Key that a lot of people find at TEDs.  It is called the Key of Networking. And even before the main show begins, Networking is well under way.  Networking begins an hour or so before the performers even get on the stage, and then there is a lunch break, (Networking break), probably another break later on, and when the show is over, sure some of the people will rush out and run away, but those who have important questions to ask, or things they want to say or talk about, will hang around for a while to get to know other attendees.  It’s a great opportunity to meet the people who are making Hickory into the city it will be ten years from now.  This is the place to bring your ideas, your questions about the future, and general outlines of things you are trying to bring into our community right now.  

Get some really good business cards made up.  I print mine out on my computer, but next year, before TEDxHickory 2104,  I will go by a fine shop in Hickory and get some professional cards made and I will take those with me.  I urge you to do the same.  Why?  At TEDxHickory, everybody you meet will ask you “what brings you here”, or “what do you do?”  And you will be ready.  Your business cards are your introduction.  And if those people are curious, or maybe say something like “that looks interesting”, you might have some small handy brochures printed on stock paper and about the size of a postcard or an envelope.  They can be professionally prepared also, printed on slick paper, perhaps folded over one time.  And for those people who have deeper questions, you will have some handouts won’t you?  And – oh yes – don’t forget to ask THEM those same questions:  What brings YOU here, and what do YOU do?  And listen to them.  And ask them questions.  Get their business card and see if they have any handouts.  You might want to contact them in the future.

Ted Abernathy
"Technology ~ Competitiveness"

A lot of the presentations at TEDxHickory mentioned significant hot-button items such as Curiosity, Innovation, Creativity, Ideas, Imagination and other concepts and everyone agrees that these issues are “great” but there was not much discussion about what those things ARE, or how to find or develop these concepts and feelings.   And this is where you can break through the crowd, and rise above the questions.

Remember those brochures and handouts we talked about earlier?  Those you are going to prepare and bring next year?  They really NEED to have some of those great ideas right out there in front, rousing curiosity, ringing bells, pointing out how you search for and recognize problems in your work, and how you find and apply skills and knowledge to create something new, or a better way to do an old project.  Show how you ask yourself and your fellow workers important questions, and how you and they search together for and recognize clues that can lead to a really creative product or service.  

Belfast Boys at McCrosky's on St. Patrick's Day in Hickory.

Adrian Rice

Ireland came to Hickory today in the form of leprechauns, fairies, tallll green hats, a lot of good Irishish food and, and the Belfast Boys!  Indeed, Alyn Mearns and Adrian Rice, both born and raised in Belfast, Ireland, brought the soul of their native land into our new neighborhood bar and grill here in Hickory, just 5 minutes from where yours truly lives.
 But the place was packed, both inside and outside, and this was right after noon on a Sunday.  The Belfast Boys played from 1 p.m. until 3:30, then left for another stint at Rock Barn, also here in Hickory from 6 to 9 p.m. Last night they were playing in Raliegh.  When you're good, when you're THIS good,word travels fast.

Alyn Mearns

Hickory Community Theatre, Southern Exposure

The Hickory Community Theatre is one of about six or seven community theatres in the community counting those at the college and the university.  The talent is amazing and the presentations are delightful. 

Tonight, at the Hickory Community Theatre, we saw "A Southern Exposure".  This play is the story of a young college student, struggling to leave the nest, where she was raised by her grandmother and two great aunts.  

Callie Belle, a young Kentucky woman raised by her cranky, controlling grandmother and two eccentric, doting aunts, is about to tell them she’s moving to New York City — with her boyfriend!  Will her fairy tale hopes be dashed?  Will she realize her own self-worth?

Well, you will have to drop by and see the play, now playing until March 24, to find out the answer to these questions.  We saw it tonight and enjoyed it.

Hickory Museum of Art, Ekphrastic Poetry

Art of Poetry

Saturday, March 16

2 - 3:30 PM

FREE Admission

The Hickory Museum of Art (HMA) will conduct an ekphrastic (poetry about art) walking tour through its exhibits this Saturday. The public is invited to attend this free event. Enjoy poems written about works featured in the following exhibitions: A Tribute to Will Henry Stevens (1881-1949); IMAGE*INATION: Catawba Valley Camera Club Exhibition; The Birth of a Collection; The High-Speed Photograph of Harold “Doc” Edgerton; Discover Folk Art; and Studio Art Glass from the Museum’s Permanent Collection.

The poets featured during this tour include: Scott Owens, Ann Fox Chandonnet, Betty O’Hearn, Brenda Smith, John Womack, Anthony Rankine, Cynthia Rand, Doug McHargue, Mel Hager, Patricia Deaton, and Kelly Demaegd. 

The Movie "Amour".

The movie "Amour" was shown at the Carolina Theater in Hickory, Thursday night sponsored by the Footcandle Film Society and the Hickory International Council.

Not an easy story to take in.  A French couple, man and wife, both in their 80’s who live in Paris  and therefore probably lived through the German occupation and liberation of WWII .   Both are well-educated and they apparently have significant money for retirement and also the excellent French health-care system is available to them.  Still they strive to handle a health issue on their own resources –  which are non existent.  Their effort doesn’t work and they have problems they can’t handle.  They also have no real friends who can help, and one daughter who works elsewhere.  No professional medical help was present at any time, even after a major surgery had taken place.

I found the story hard to believe or accept and that detracted from the movie for me.  Symbolism was present but not really directive.   The acting obviously required extensive preparation and work by the female lead, Anne, (played by Emmanuelle Riva) and she played that marvelously.  The physical resources brought to bear by the actors in the story were constrained to bare minimum physical rehabilitation, no real mental activity was applied toward the illness and recovery, some emotional work was done with paintings that were very dark, and singing of childhood songs. The spiritual aspect was totally absent from the film and that seemed strange. 

Sandra Beasley in Hickory NC, Poetry Alive

Sandra Beasley spun out some of her poetry Tuesday night and wove it through an enchanted group of fellow poets who sat intrigued at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in Hickory.  She showed us another look at ourselves, from a view we don’t believe if we ever even see it, while she kept sprinkling oogley-googley all over us.  Scary stuff for a guy like me.   “But it’s our first date”  she said, “Huh?” I replied, but then she kept on climbing out and all I got were references to Greek platypuses who play fugues on the piano about nailed troubadours – or trapdoors – I’m not sure which.  

Well, this probably began way back when I was still asleep, earlier in the afternoon.  When I woke up, Sandra was explaining "sestinas" to us and I thought she was joking.  She was really good.  She kept a straight face and I started chuckling.  Some of the others looked at me and held their fingers to their lips.

OK - enough of that.  Sandra Beasley is a resident of Washington, D.C., down here working for a while at LRU.  If you ever get a chance to see her and listen to her, then that will be your Lucky Day.  Meanwhile, she has been kind enough to put some of her poems in books, and you can view them by clicking one of the URLs below.   

http://www.sandrabeasley.com

http://sbeasley.blogspot.com

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sandra-beasley

P.S. I've just started on my first sestina.  It will be about Sandra Beasley.

Cantú-Barrera in the Hickory Museum of Art

Guitar magic took place in the Coe Gallery at the Hickory Museum of Art on March 8, 2013, 7:30 p.m.  The maestro was Francisco Javier Cantú-Barrera, who was featured as a “specialist” in classical guitar.  He performed pieces written by himself,  Heitor Villa-Lobos, Isaac Albéniz and Joaquin Rodrigo.

It was a joy to see someone play such obviously difficult chord and stroke actions without apparent effort, sometimes almost caressing his insturment and bringing out tender notes that hung in the gallery for a moment, sometimes just barely discernible, and then disappearing as deeper melodies swept in from a source of great power.  In the finest Latin tradition Maestro Cantú-Barrera played his guitar once or twice as one might play a drum, drumming with both hands, on the body of the guitar and on the frets without interrupting his elegant playing of the guitar with the strings and frets – rhythm, melody, and wow.  A marvelous act of creation with with a sense of ease and familiarity.

  

The presentation was free and open to the public.  More than that we were PAID, in a sense to attend, in the form of snacks and wine.  My estimate of the audience was between 40 and 60 (I don’t do crowd estimates), and it took place in a gallery that was hung with the impressionistic art work of Will Henry Stevens.









                                                                                                   

Hickory Museum of Art with Blue Ridge Realists

 Good art and good music, gourmet snacks, wine, conviviality, teaching and learning, what could be better than all that?  The Hickory Museum of Art put on a three-tiered performance Saturday night, February 9, 2013.  From the rarefied atmosphere of level three of the museum, filled with amazing folk art and appreciative visitors and viewers, down to the second level where discussions of the Blue Ridge Realists art, including its creators, were taking place. One of those discussions is shown in the top photograph being led by the museum’s curator, Lisë Swensson.  

Finally coming on down to earth in the lower level where that gallery was also filled with more work by many of those artists, and there were still more snacks there, and the room was filled with the beautiful harp music of Joan Johnson, a member of the Western Piedmont Symphony, also here in Hickory.

Juvenal

The clouds have come from all around!
They’re gathered here, and are staring down
looking at how we twist and writhe
as the wild, ragged wind plays keen with us.
Their cloudy arms now thrust out wide
and we fear for the thumb to appear and decide.

Humans Evolved From Turkeys?

Well, that’s what I got from the presentation given by Dr. Howard Neufeld, professor of biology at Appalachian State University last night as part of the Hickory Science Museum’s “Science After Dark” series.  This was the first science event to be hosted at Bistro 127, and it was very tasty.  My wife and I enjoyed a marvelous Margherita pizza and good draft ale.

Oh,  to get back to the presentation.  Actually Dr. Neufeld didn’t really say mankind had descended from turkeys but he did show an interesting graph revealing that the United States had “evolved” in the process of believing the theory of evolution far enough that it was now head and shoulders above the nation of Turkey, but ONLY the nation of Turkey. The graph, compiled by Jon Miller and published by National Geographic Society (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060810-evolution.html) showed America lagging FAR behind the other developed nations of the planet Earth concerning belief in the theory of evolution.  Not much was said to address the question “why?”, but it was pointed out that not much attention is devoted to the theory of evolution in the nation’s schools.  Members of the audience indicated that might be because of the requirements of testing the nation’s students.  The issue of religion was mentioned by some of the audience but not really considered.

Dr. Neufeld discussed at length, the “evolution” of the development of the theory of evolution, showing that it really was not the brilliant concept of one man, but that many people, Including Darwin, explored and discussed together the idea and the development of the theory..  And of course, that “theory” understood by many Americans – you know – that mankind descended FROM the apes, was pointed out to be a gross misunderstanding that was never considered by the theory’s developers.  A diagram showing the generally accepted process was presented and explained.

At any rate, it was a packed room.  Many people from Hickory showed up to see the presentation, eat and drink well at Bistro 127, and then to ask questions afterward.  Good job Bistro, Dr.  Neufeld, and the Hickory Science Museum for bringing science to the people of Hickory.  

This was our fifth, we had seen previously a presentation on Dark Holes, another on Dreams, another on the Search for Extraterrestrial Beings, and one on Climate Change.