 One of the topics that surfaced repeatedly during our strategic planning discussions was how important it is to provide all members of the HMC community with time and opportunities to pursue their passions. Our students, faculty and staff are extraordinarily bright and creative and have an incredible range of talents and interests, some of which you will learn about in the following pages. In this spirit, I thought I’d tell you about the passions I have been pursuing in my first year at Mudd.
The biggest new passion, of course, is Mudd itself—the warm community and the combination of rigor, excellence and fun. A more surprising new passion is my skateboard. I’ve always wished I knew how to ride one. At the end of our strategic planning workshops in October, I decided it was time to learn. I bought a skateboard, helmet and every kind of protective padding that I could find and began practicing on the Mudd campus. I frequently have to jump off the skateboard to avoid colliding with someone or something, so I can only practice when my legs are not stiff, which is fairly rare when I’m in intensive marathon training. Despite only practicing once every few weeks, I’m happy to report that I can now turn in both directions, and can make it from one end of the campus to the other without falling off. Now if I could just learn to stop without jumping off...
Still another new passion is running marathons with my daughter. Last summer, Sasha decided she wanted to run her first marathon in Sacramento in December with the goal of qualifying for Boston. I was thrilled when she asked me to join her in Sacramento. To qualify for Boston, Sasha needed to finish in three hours and 40 minutes (a pace of about 8:20 per mile). Due to my advanced age of 55, I could qualify by finishing in four hours and 15 minutes. Unfortunately, I severely twisted my ankle while running three weeks before the marathon. I was determined to recover in time for the marathon and spent many hours alternating my foot between hot and cold baths. The day before the marathon, I tried running and was amazed to find there was no pain. Sasha and I both had wonderful races, finishing in 3:39 and 4:02 respectively. With great excitement, we made our plans to run Boston together.
Sasha and I arrived in Boston to find it in the middle of a nor’easter. The forecast for marathon day was head winds up to 50 m.p.h. and torrential rains. As we caught the buses for the starting point at Hopkinton at 6:30 a.m., the rain and winds were as bad as predicted. Amazingly the rain ended as we started our race, and we both had a wonderful time. Sasha’s goal was to improve her best time by 11 minutes to 3:28 (sub 8-minute pace per mile). Mine was to run very slowly so that my legs would stay fresh for the hills between miles 16 and 21. Sasha finished in 3:28 (that girl’s timing is incredible), and I finished in 4:31 with the freshest legs I’ve ever had at the end of a marathon.
Of course, the two longest-standing passions in my life are mathematics and painting. On the mathematics side, Art Benjamin persuaded me to write an article for Math Horizons about the mathematics underlying Lumines, a Tetris-like video game of which I am a huge fan. I happily spent many hours analyzing Lumines as well as playing it. I’ve spent lots of time painting as well. Painting Mudd students for the holiday card and Inauguration invitation was particularly fun. There have been many landscapes painted from photos taken while hiking in the San Bernardino mountains and several paintings of birds, as well as one particularly beautiful cat.
All in all, it’s been a fabulous year for both new and old passions, and not just for me as you will discover in this issue. 
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