Today's New York Times included an obituary of William N. Lipscomb Jr. -- a native of Cleveland who grew up in Lexington KY and attended UK on a music scholarship (clarinet). He was the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and taught three other Nobel laureates as well. Two excerpts from Glenn Rifkin's writeup:

As Dr. Lipscomb said: "For me, the creative process, first of all, requires a good nine hours of sleep a night."

...

Despite his prowess [with the chemistry set he received for his 11th birthday], Dr. Lipscomb told his son, James, that he received a C in high school chemistry. His grade, based on just the final exam, demanded that he memorize the first 10 elements of the periodic table, but Dr. Lipscomb could not be bothered by such mundane tasks. "I could just look it up," he said. "So I didn''t do it."

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Also in today's NYT: John Amaechi's "Responding to Bryant With a Call for Responsibility." (And, via one of the tennis junkies on my Twitter feed, Brazilian volleyball going pink in response to a similar situation.) In particular:

Right now in America young people are being killed and killing themselves simply because of the words and behaviors they are subjected to for being perceived as lesbian or gay, or frankly just different. This is not an indictment of the individuals suffocated by their mistreatment, it is an indication of the power of that word, and others like it, to brutalize and dehumanize. This F-word, which so many people seem to think is no big deal, is the postscript to too many of those lives cut short.

As for the original apology, I am amazed that people still think apologizing in such a way as to make it clear that it was the victims who misunderstood is acceptable. I had hoped that the sorry-if-you-are-oversensitive school of apology would by now have been thoroughly discredited.

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Some things from today that I want to remember:

Seeing the Eggleston exhibit at the Frist with the BYM. I wasn't in the right mood for it when I walked through it by myself some weeks ago, but today, I enjoyed seeing the portrait of Eggleston by one of his teachers, his shots of puddles in Paris and Coke/peaches signs, and the curator's description of the gelatin/color separation process he favors.

The Front of House cup-and-saucer tandem ("Monaco") used at Watermark. Very nice design -- the bottom of the cup nests into the saucer in a way that both looks good and keeps it from sliding when carried from bar to table.

There was more -- the scent of gardenia lotion on my hands, sniffing TokyoMilk perfumes (and admiring their packaging) at the Willow Tree, some socializing, a bit of planning, the simple pleasure of dozing off on a sofa in the same room as my two favorite creatures, and yet more -- but my eyes aren't staying open. Time to try for those nine hours of sleep. ;-)