On Tuesday evening the Knight Wallace Fellowship sherry nights began with a visit from Daniel Okrent, the former Public Editor of the New York Times. Dan spoke about his role at (and his special place somewhere removed from) the Times, a position was created after the Jayson Blair incident. After Dan's Q&A session, two of the Fellows gave presentations on their lives and motivations as journalists - leaving the rest of us a little sick at the thought of having to follow up with our own in the coming months.
By the time the talk was winding down we could smell the waiting banquet (prepared by two different Fellows each week, and their spouses if they're very lucky). Semiha (CNN Turk) and Tony (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) set an impossibly high standard with their "Turkish soul food", including some incredible keftes and some cubes of peynir. You can see this classy pair pictured above (thanks to Sedat for the photo).
Today Charles (Eisendrath, the program's director) and his wife Julia invited the spouses and significant others of the 2005-06 Fellows to lunch at Wallace House. What a bunch of beautiful, intelligent and genuinely warm women! Note: there are some male spouses of Fellows this year but they weren't at today's lunch). I was especially inspired by Rainey's career - she's a museum curator at the Boston Historical Society but while in Ann Arbor is spending some time at the Clements Library with their phenomenal collection.
This Thursday we're looking forward to hearing Dan Gillmor address us in the backyard of Wallace House to deliver this year's Graham Hovey lecture.
Another 30 degree Celsius day! Can our luck last?
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