Isn’t it amazing how serendipity can make one aware of
\n things at just the right time. Of course, one never knows about those
\n things of which one is unaware, does one? Before getting hopelessly
\n confused in a metaphysical Mobius strip, let us recount an incident from
\n our class yesterday.<\/p>\n
We were using the Boston Globe Calendar section to practice a language
\n function – making suggestions, and a cultural skill – finding stuff to
\n do during the weekend in this marvelous cultural cornucopia of a metropolitan
\n area. One student would say, for example, that she felt like seeing a
\n movie. Her partner would politely inquire as to what sort of movies
\n she enjoyed. According to the answer, they would look for a movie in
\n the Calendar that fits the bill.<\/p>\n
Well, one of the “categories” of cultural activities was “Lectures”.
\n We heard some of the students snickering at that one. One whispered,
\n “Let’s skip that one”. <\/p>\n
Now, all of these students are in the process of entering American universities
\n to get degrees of one sort or another. One of the things they need is
\n the ability to understand high-level discourse in
\n a lecture
\n setting. We wanted them to understand that on any given day in the Greater
\n Boston area one could go to several dozen nondescript rooms and anonymous
\n lecture halls and listen to some of the top minds in as many fields hold
\n forth on the subject of their research, their area of expertise, their
\n passions. For free.<\/p>\n
So we seized the teaching moment, as we say, and had them all open their
\n calendars to the “Lectures” section. And discovered,
\n in our attempt to impress them with the variety and intellectual interest
\n of what was available this week, and found two of my oldest friends and
\n running mates, one from East High School and one from the Harvard Cultural
\n Anthropology program.<\/p>\n
The Dowbrigade will never forget being the 7th Man on the US Student Actually, the Dowbrigade doesn’t know a pawn from a peon, and was not However, we have always believed that our energy and spirit contributed The truth is the main reason the US won is that the entire Soviet Bloc Ken went on to Yale and MIT and is now Professor of Economics at Harvard Catch him Tuesday at 6 for The International Debt Crisis: The No sooner had we digested that than we saw, as we read down the list His latest book is called One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest<\/a>, and is the story of the Dean of Ethobotany, Prof Richard Schultes,<\/a> The last time we saw Wade was in a dugout canoe on some forgotten Amazonian Amazing the stuff that goes on in this burg. We are going to miss Isn’t it amazing how serendipity can make one aware of things at just the right time. Of course, one never knows about those things of which one is unaware, does one? Before getting hopelessly confused in a metaphysical Mobius strip, … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/rogoff2.jpg\")
On Tuesday, Ken Rogoff <\/a>is speaking at the JFK Jr. Forums (we assume
\n at the JFK School of Government) on “The International Debt Crisis: The
\n Next Generation”. In our 3,000 student public high school, Ken was the
\n smartest kid in the gang, and a charter member of our “counter-culture
\n clique”. At the time he was the US Junior Chess Champion, and the youngest
\n IM in American chess history.<\/p>\n
\n Chess Team at the World Championships in Haifa, Israel in 1970. We were
\n actually working on Kibbutz Ha’mapil at the time, but Ken, who was playing
\n first board on the American Team, invited us to the tourney and somehow
\n got us on the roster as “last board” so that we had a complete set of
\n credentials and passes.<\/p>\n
\n much help to the group during the all-night skull sessions working through
\n the suspended games while the player who would actually finish the game
\n got a good night’s sleep, to be informed in the morning of the best line
\n of
\n play.<\/p>\n
\n to the American victory. Yes, somehow, despite a hazy two-day period
\n in which team performance was affected by a batch of windowpane acid
\n (emphatically NOT touched by Ken, who would never so much as try a toke
\n of pot for fear it would alter his photographic memory), the Dowbrigade
\n can lay claim to being a member of the 1970 World Student Chess Championship
\n team.<\/p>\n
\n and the Cubans had boycotted the event due to its taking place in Israel.<\/p>\n
\n as well as Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development<\/a>.
\n But we haven’t seen him in years as he spends most of his time at his
\n “other” job as Chief Economist and Director of Research of the International
\n Monetary Fund<\/a>. Since we last saw him Ken has truly ascended to become
\n one of the Masters of the Universe, and we intend to ask him for a job.<\/p>\n
\n Next Generation – he was always into Star Trek…..\n<\/p>\n
\n with our students, that the very next night Wade Davis<\/a> was giving a lecture
\n on “The Realm of Vanishing Cultures” at the Cambridge Forum at the First
\n Parish Church in Harvard Square Wednesday (no time given, call 617-495-2727).<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/wadedavis.jpg\")
<\/a>Wade
\n was in my class at Harvard, one of a small group in the Cultural Anthropology program,
\n and we shared an interest in Ethnobotany and organic intoxicants
\n both in and out of the classroom. The Dowbrigade was sidetracked for
\n 10 years during a research trip to the Peruvian Amazon and ended up
\n a language teacher. Wade went on to become the leading Ethnobotanist
\n of our generation, as well as something of a pop icon as author of “The
\n Serpent and the Rainbow”, a sensational dramatization of his doctoral research
\n searching for the true “Zombie Powder” among the vodun priests and witch doctors
\n of Haiti. This popular audience bestseller was made into a major motion
\n picture, with if memory serves, Clarence Williams III of Mod Squad fame
\n as the chief Zombie. A smashing success.<\/p>\n
\nwho at one point disappeared into the Rain Forest for 14 years. Wade
\nand the Dowbrigade both took his course; Wade went on to be his
\nprotegee.<\/p>\n
\n tributary in the Peruvian jungle. He was heading out, we were coming
\n back. It will be good to touch base again on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\n it, as usual, and inevitably return, as always.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"