Missouri Humanities Council's E-News December 2004

Volume 1, No. 12: December 10, 2004

Monthly E-News from Michael Bouman, Executive Director
Missouri Humanities Council

Contents:

The Hidden Humanist - Part I
Chautauqua Profile - Theodore Roosevelt
The National Museum of the American Indian
Call for Proposals for Next Year's "America The Bountiful" Program Bureau
READ from the START Benefits from Local Fund-Raisers
Read MOre Holiday Gift Idea
Food Quiz
Dawn Schwab's Pick of "Web Resources for the Holidays"

In Search of the Hidden Humanist

This is a true story, I hope the first of a series. If you've got one like it, send it to me and I'll see if I can work it into what I hope will become a serial portrait gallery of wacky, off-beat, quirky streaks in the ordinary people who share and shape our lives.

The other day as I strode toward my dentist's chair I asked, "Do you still like being a dentist?" Taken completely off guard, "Hermey" (a made-up name to protect his professional image) said, "You know, I've been doing this for twenty-three years and I have lost count of how many teeth I've filled, filed, or scraped. I could do this in my sleep at this point. What really makes me look forward to my work is the chance to talk to each patient about films."

"Dental films?" I might have asked. But that would have been a gag (no pun intended). I knew Hermey liked to strap a virtual reality thingy on my head during dental work so that I could watch the first twenty minutes or so of some interesting DVD movie. He has hundreds of them cued up in a carousel DVD changer, and I have seen the first part of any number of cool things. For example, when he last had to excavate one tooth for a crown he showed me a DVD on the development of the atomic bomb. Every so often I suggest he show his patients famous dental scenes from the movies, such as the scene where Alan Arkin concretizes a woman's mouth in The In-Laws, or the scene where Dustin Hoffman experiences an in-depth gum exam at the hands of the sinister Lawrence Olivier in Marathon Man. Hermey does not show those clips.

Hermey told me that he liked to psych out each patient's potential for taking interest. He had recently bought a DVD of a famous French film based on a French book for a patient who taught French Literature. This backfired, apparently. The professor knew the book and film inside-out. Other patients challenge Hermey in their apparent impassivity and lack of imagination. He tries to find their imaginative core. His faith in humanity is inspiring, isn't it? He can't believe there is any such thing as an unreachable dental patient. What a professor he would have made! We'd have all gathered around a table at Starbucks after going together to see the latest art-house flick at the Tivoli, and talked for hours about this or that.

So, twice a year I see the first twenty minutes of something novel after ten minutes of chat, not about my teeth and gums, but about what's interesting in the world. Hermey has found a way to merge his passion with his day job. He's my archetypal "hidden humanist." Can you profile someone like that?

Chautauqua

Next year's Chautauqua season introduces the theme of "America The Bountiful" in connection with our tour of the Smithsonian exhibit, Key Ingredients. The theme also resonates with an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities titled, "We The People." Our Chautauqua looks at the notion of American bounty as connected with natural wealth, human hope, and social conflict over how we slice the bountiful pie. The tour begins in Pike County, location of the international fruit tree business, The Stark Bros. Nursery, continues in Osage Beach, and concludes in Diamond, Missouri, birthplace of George Washington Carver.

We will highlight one of the five Chautauqua scholars in each of the coming e-news issues. This month we introduce Doug Mishler, who has written a note about why Theodore Roosevelt's voice is an important part of "America The Bountiful."

http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Dec04/TR_essay.htm

There are abundant materials on the World Wide Web about Theodore Roosevelt. I found this one very appealing:

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/index.htm

National Museum of the American Indian

Last month a group of Missouri exhibit designers and tribal heritage curators traveled to Washington, D.C. to study the exhibits at the new National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution. The group included designers Greg Olson, who is the Exhibit Specialist with the Missouri State Archives, and Delilah Tayloe, Curator of the Sikeston Depot Museum. Tribal heritage curators on the trip were Sandra Kaye Massey, NAGPRA Representative for the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, and Glenna Wallace, Eastern Shawnee Tribal Secretary.

They are working on tribal heritage exhibits that will go on display in local museums in Northeast and Southeast Missouri in mid-2005. The trip to Washington provided an opportunity to see how tribal curators from numerous Native American communities had developed multi-media displays on their cultures for a fairly limited amount of space. Sandra Massey and Greg Olson have both written pieces about the experience of that visit. I hope you have a chance to go there some day! It is a magnificent addition to the cultural interpretation at the Smithsonian Institution.

Sandra's essay is at http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Dec04/nmai_massey.htm

Greg's essay is at http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Dec04/nmai_olson.htm

http://www.nmai.si.edu/ is the web site of the museum.

Program Bureau Requests Proposals from Speakers

Whether it be "Save the Pine Trees!" or "Pass the Cookies and Eggnog!" we all have holiday thoughts and feelings that connect us with America's bounty. From conservation to traditional foods for certain occasions, the topic "America the Bountiful" is as broad as America herself.

Programs and presenters are being requested for the 2005 Program Bureau. Proposals for Chautauqua-style "living history" performances, lecture-style presentations or book discussion proposals are being sought The theme, "America the Bountiful" allows for wide interpretation and may include any number of topics: Food and related Production Industries, Agriculture, Horticulture, Agri-Industry, Food Processing, Conservation, Food in Culture, etc.

Proposals are accepted from anyone who is professionally qualified in the humanities; a historian, writer, poet, teacher, biographer, or storyteller, or a professional in a library, museum, or historic site.

For further information about "America the Bountiful", the Bureau, or guidelines for application

http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/speakers/proposals.htm

READ from the START Benefits from Local Fund-Raisers

Season's Readings! Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Verizon have launched their MILLION BOOKS FOR A MILLION CHILDREN Holiday Book Drive for this 2004 holiday season. Beginning Thanksgiving weekend, shoppers at any Barnes & Noble location have been able to purchase a book for a child of any age and Barnes & Noble will make sure it gets delivered into the right hands. This is a marvelous opportunity for people to share a favorite book and the joy of reading with a new young reader.

Stacey Oliver, store manager of the Jefferson City Barnes & Noble, has again this year selected the READ from the START program at the Missouri Humanities Council as the recipient of all books purchased at their location for the MILLION BOOKS FOR A MILLION CHILDREN Holiday Book Drive. The RFTS program was extremely proud to be the recipient of these book donations during the 2003 Holiday Drive last year as well. Stacey has posted the RFTS book list to give shoppers the opportunity to purchase any of our seven titles used in the program or they may purchase any alternative title they wish and these will be given to parents for their children as "bonus" books.

All books will be distributed through READ from the START programs scheduled in Jefferson City and the surrounding region throughout 2005.

Anyone interested in contributing to this drive to benefit the RFTS program may do so through December 31, 2004, by visiting the Jefferson City Barnes & Noble Booksellers location at Wildwood Crossing, 3535 Missouri Blvd.

READ from the START is also one of the programs that will benefit from the 12th Annual Cattle Barons' Ball at the St. Joseph Country Club. This is a "black tie and blue jeans" affair sponsored by one of our partner organizations, the Heartland Foundation, on Friday evening, January 28, 2005. Cocktail hour runs from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., with dinner and dancing following. Tickets are $60 per person. Donations and tickets purchased before January 19 will be recognized in the evening program under the following categories:

Cattle Baron $500.00 and above
Trail Boss $251-499
Cowboy $121-250
Ranch Hand $1-120

Co-sponsoring the event are the Heartland Regional Medical Center Auxiliary and the Missouri Beef Industry Council. Proceeds will benefit the Missouri Cattlemen's Children's Fund, emPower Plant (a citizenship project for youth in Northeast Missouri), and READ from the START. Please make checks payable to: Heartland Foundation, 3620 Frederick Ave, St. Joseph, MO 64506. Your contribution, less $25 per ticket, is tax deductible. For more information, call the Foundation at 816-271-7200 or 1-800-447-1083.