Globe’s Mandela pictures beautiful

At the top of Page 1 of the May 13 Boston Globe was a beautiful picture of Nelson Mandela, 86, and his wife, Graca Machel. He is smiling and holding up the diploma of his honorary degree, which he received from Amherst College at a ceremony held at St. Bartholomew Church in New York City. Doctors recommended that he limit his travel while in New York, so 400 Amherst students and 150 faculty and staff travelled by bus to the city. Mandela addressed a total of 1,300 people there. He is in this country to launch the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust, which will raise money in the United States to support his foundation’s charitable activities in Africa. While here, he is to visit Bill Clinton in Harlem and President Bush in Washington, D.C.

His wife, the former minister of education for Mozambique, also was presented an honorary degree from Amherst College for her vigorous support for the world’s children.

Next year, Amherst will be the first U.S. college to receive Nelson Mandela scholars. The students who will receive full scholarships, will be from either South Africa or Mozambique.

Mandela had also received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in 1998.

His speech at St. Bartholomew urged the nation’s top colleges to open the doors to the brightest students from across the world, not just the privileged.

“Today we ask Amherst College, and all of America’s great colleges and universities, to do more,” he said. “The challenges of ensuring full access, according to the ability rather than wealth and privilege, have not been set. Until they are, we will forfeit some of the talent and genius that the world sorely needs. We cannot afford that loss.”

The Globe article said Amherst consistently ranks high among the nation’s selective schools for its campus diversity. Amherst spokesman Paul Statt said 35 percent of current students are nonwhite.

Nelson Mandela is a remarkable man. He spent 27 years imprisoned, and then became president of South Africa.

Art gallery gifts on display

The art gallery at the University of New England, Westbrook College Campus, has its recent acquisitions, more than 50 works from 27 artists, on display through July 3. They all are gifts, and it is an exciting exhibit, mostly photographs, in both color and black and white, and also some oils and works on paper on the second-floor gallery.

There was a large crowd of viewers at the opening reception Tuesday evening, May 10. President Sandra Featherman greeted the guests and gave thanks to the donors.

I was especially interested in Jack Montgomery’s picture, “Ring-Necked Girl, Thailand,” of a pretty young girl, wearing earrings, and with a scarf over her neck. I was very curious about it – is it worn for just a special occasion?

Others I enjoyed were Verner Reed’s pictures of Sen. John F. Kennedy, Hyannis, and of Edmund S. Muskie, waiting for the Gubernatorial Election results, holding a long cigarette in one hand; Mark Emerson’s two pictures of the rocks and stream at Screw Auger Falls Gorge, Bear River, Grafton Notch State Park, Grafton Township, Maine – an area my family knew well, near where we visited at the hotel in Upton; Judy Ellis Glickman’s two Great Diamond Island cottage scenes, and a sad one, a view of Exterior, Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland; Richard Sandifer’s two pictures of Mexican girls; an oil painting, in the upstairs gallery, of two girls in ballet costumes and pointed slippers, talking together, “The Gossipers,” by Lewis Kromberg; Lawrence Polans’ Tea House Garden, Kyoto, Japan, was lovely, as was his View of Mountains at a Monastery, outskirts of Lhasa, China. I have happy memories of my visit to Tokyo and Kyoto, too, and was pleased to see a roomful of Polans’ Asian photographs at the gallery’s lower level, too. Among them was one of a man being shaved, outdoors, sitting in a reclining chair.

I hope many will attend this exhibition; it is outstanding, and admission is free, with many parking spaces, too. The gallery is situated at the end of the campus street, off Stevens Avenue. The hours are Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 1 to 4 p.m.; Thursday, from 1 to 7 p.m. or by appointment, 1-207-797-7261.

Poem available at Walker Library

I received a nice note from Pat Larrabee, children’s librarian at the Walker Library. She had read the “Ramblings” column about Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

Her letter:

“I was pleased to see your recommendation of reading ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ as a celebration of Patriot’s Day. To make it, and other well-known poetry, more interesting to young children, there are picture book versions available with no abridgment, but greatly enhanced with fine illustrations. We, at Walker Memorial Library – of course – have two such versions of that favorite poem. We also have a lavishly illustrated version of “Hiawatha.” A number of illustrated poems are readily available here, including Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'” Whittier’s Barbara Frietchie,” and one of my favorites, but perhaps not a bedtime choice, Robert Service’s “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”

Thanks for the literary plug! Your column remains high on my favorite list!”

Thanks, Pat – nice letter. You may remember that I have written about “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” a favorite of mine, too. In fact, Alaska is one place I’ve visited where I would love to return. Sam’s last words were:

“Please close that door,

It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear

You’ll let in the cold and storm –

Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee,

It’s the first time I’ve been warm.”

Recipe

Today’s recipe is one that Beverly O’Gara submitted to the Westbrook Democratic City Committee’s 1994 cookbook, “Kick Up Your Heels in the Kitchen.”

Sweet and Sour Chicken

1 bottle (8 oz.) Wishbone Russian Dressing

1 Env. of dry onion soup mix

1 jar (10 oz.) of apricot preserves

4 whole chicken breasts, split into halves.

Combine Russian dressing, soup mix, and preserves. Place chicken breasts in well-sprayed shallow baking dish. Pour sauce over chicken and bake at 350 degrees for one and a half hours. Baste twice. Delicious served over rice.

Isn’t Bill O’Gara lucky to have such a good cook in the house!