Three Beautiful Things 02/22/13: Hult Plaza Coffee Shop Debut, George Wickes, Latrell Drops Smack on Derrick

1.  Finally.  After many months of having Patsy recommend it, I finally tried the Hult Plaza Coffee Shop and enjoyed corned beef hash, feathery hash browns, a couple of eggs, English muffin, a couple or three cups of coffee and all the water I could drink.  The atmosphere was friendly, leisurely.  George, the cook, was running the place solo, but seemed to be keeping up with phone in to go orders as well as serving those of us in the place.  I'll go back.

2.  The Hult Plaza Coffee Shop is a great place to stop and have some breakfast on any day that I decide to go to the University of Oregon and take some pictures.  I did that today.  I walked to the coffee shop and then walked to the west side of campus.  I enjoy my favorite picture so much that I don't know if it is any good when standards of good photography are applied to it.  It's a picture of George Wickes, Professor Emeritus of English, dressed as I've seen him dressed for the last thirty-four years since first meeting him, bag slung over his shoulder, walking in the little plaza in front of Prince Lucien Campbell Hall where the English Department is housed.  The picture tells of an elderly scholar, who completed his Bachelor's Degree in 1944 and his Ph.D. in 1954,  not only dressed for his work, but working.  He's about ninety years old. He's headed to his office for his Friday office hour, in support of the course he's teaching in Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

3.   Derrick told me a great story at Billy Mac's this evening.  When he was twelve and a ballboy for the Blazers, he got cussed out, royally, but for no good reason, by Latrell Sprewell.  As Jim Rome would say, "How sick is that?  How awesome is that?  Dude's twelve years old and Latrell drops an m.f. bomb on the kid.  So, you can't go all Boston Strangler on coaches any more so you drop vile smack on a twelve year old?  Way to keep it classy, Latrell."