"Full House"

My essay, "Full House," appears in this month's issue of Hippocampus Magazine.

Full House
by Kathryn Bold

I’ve pulled the Yahtzee game from the top shelf of a hall closet, where my mother has kept it in her home for more than 30 years.

“Don’t open that box,” Mom warns me, when I carry it into her bedroom. “It will make you cry.” But I ignore her.

I set the game on a card table near her bed. My mother can’t play anymore. The cancer has left her too weak to even throw the dice. She sits propped up against a pillow, her birdlike hands picking nervously at her comforter, watching me with wary eyes. I lift the lid of the well-worn box and pull out the score sheets.

Back in the 1970s, my family began an odd tradition of saving our used Yahtzee scorecards, and now I’m sifting through a stack of them about 50 deep. We never threw them out, even after we’d filled out all of the squares on the Yahtzee grid, because along with our tallies we would jot little notes in the margins. Usually we’d record the date, the location (“at grandma’s house!”), and any significant events (birthdays and anniversaries pop up with regularity). Sometimes we would editorialize on our opponents’ skill (or lack of it) and whatever else came to mind as we waited our turn.

Over time, the scribbles became an account of our family history, like Egyptian hieroglyphs or ancient cave drawings.

More >> www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2014/09/full-house-by-kathryn-bold/

"Standing on protocol"

(Occasionally, the University of California newsroom reposts my stories, which I appreciate.)

By Kathryn Bold, UC Irvine Monday, April 14, 2014

Before alumnus Roy Fielding settled on his dissertation topic at UC Irvine, he did a bit of writing that arguably changed the world.

In the early 1990s, the software researcher at the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences (then the ICS department) helped put a vast virtual world at the fingertips of computer users everywhere. The familiar HTTP acronym at the start of Web addresses is the standard — or protocol — for transferring documents. Fielding was a principal author of the version still in use today.
More:  bit.ly/1sIYt20.

Here are a few recent profiles of people I found intriguing:

Role model: UCI drama alumnus Jeff Greenberg (right) has found big success behind the scenes as one of television's most influential casting directors. He's helped populate sitcoms with some of their most memorable characters, from the snooty Niles to the effusive Cam

No mere flight of fancy: Though he's already made great contributions to aeronautics, UCI engineering professor Robert Liebeck won't give up on two things: teaching and an experimental plane that could transform air travel.

Brilliant disguise: Al Valdez has gone from undercover cop who infiltrated dangerous street gangs to college instructor. The UCI alumnus and lecturer shares his often-harrowing experiences with students, giving them an education in real-world criminal behavior. Shown: The many faces of Valdez during his undercover days. 

 

 

ZotZine receives second CASE award

ZotZine, the online campus magazine I edit, has received a second award from CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, adding to the Gold Award it won in 2010. Here's my favorite issue, which deals with a subject close to my heart -- saving the ocean.

Campus profiles

I've met many interesting students and alumni at UC Irvine. Here are a few favorites:

•  No stopping her: On the skating rink, she's the fierce roller derby player B-Train. In the business arena, she's Bethany Semeiks, with a 'Wicked' apparel company and a newly minted M.B.A. from UCI. Don't get in her way. Photo by Steve Zylius/University Communications. 
• Killer instinct: Neuroscientist James Fallon went searching for the biological hallmarks of a murderer — but the trail led a little too close to home.
• Youngest in his class: For Brandon Gross, 14, being the youngest student at UCI is no big deal.
  
• Meeting the walrus: For rock journalist David Goggin '69, meeting John Lennon was among the highlights of his UCI days.
• Changing the world, one cartoon at a time: Michael Ramirez ’84 collects a second Pulitzer for political cartoons that make people laugh – and think.

Billion-dollar kitty

Writing press releases for Hello Kitty, star of gifts and stationery giant Sanrio Inc., allows my inner kid to come out and play. Special thanks to Orsi Public Relations for these fun assignments.
A favorite example:

Hello Kitty: Livin' the Lifestyle

She’s not a movie star, politician or supermodel, yet millions of people would know her adorable face anywhere. She’s Hello Kitty, the feline phenomenon who’s evolved into a pop culture icon and a true lifestyle brand. Introduced in 1974 by SANRIO, Hello Kitty continues to enhance her popularity with a new generation of fans and is achieving the kind of fame and following reserved for true celebrities. Continued >>

Winning Hemingway entry

In 2002, I won the International Imitation Hemingway Contest with my entry, "The Old Man and the Flea."

Reprinted in a 2007 textbook called The Writer's Eye: Composition in the Multimedia Age, it begins:

He had been bad. He knew that. He had been bad and peed on her bed and in the end there was nothing anybody could do about it. She had yelled at him that time, screaming terrible things in that way women do when you have broken their trust and trampled on their hearts and urinated on their pillow. Bad dog, she’d said. He remembered it now. And he was a bad dog. A bad, old dog with a cranky disposition and a weak bladder.
Continued >>

The prize was a trip to Italy, and when I went to Harry's Bar in Venice I toasted Hemingway -- and my cranky old Scottish terrier.