May 2022

FAMILY UPDATE: We are empty nesters in our same ’70s house tucked in Chapel Hill woods … lately rebuilding window sills with Bondo and replacing chunks of siding. We are basically borrowing this place from the bugs and moss that really own it.

Sue is a homemaker and magpie scrap collector for her collage/assembly art. Daughter Eleanor lives across town in Carrboro, Paris of the Piedmont. She’s an infectious disease fellow at UNC. Daughter Haley lives on a sailboat in Marina del Rey. She is a cinematographer with a great eye, always on lookout for more work in feminist/progressive filmmaking endeavors. Dingo Bodie just found out his DNA results and is a little disappointed at how much pit bull ancestry he has.

CAREER UPDATE: I am mostly very happy with my scholar/teacher post in social medicine, an interdisciplinary department at UNC. Lately I’ve been teaching approaches to biomedical controversies that highlight how social forces shape our science. I also get to serve on thesis/diss committees in anthro, communication, and religious studies. I wish there were fewer meetings about medical curriculum reform and more time to write.

FAVORITE BINGE: “Patriot,” spy dry comedy (which had me from the father/son duet of “If I Needed You” and the too-close-to-home head injury of John’s work competitor). Spoiler: deliveries get waylaid, parking spaces get appropriated, pipelines leak. Also “ZeroZeroZero.” More deliveries waylaid.

CRAZIEST THING GOING ON: We never owned a boat when I was growing up near Annapolis; I worked summers/weekends at a boatyard and on OPBs (other people’s boats). So, came to sailing mostly in midlife. We now have a trailer boat problem (too many hubs and lower units to service). Bay Hen (21', sharpie gaffer catboat, our camper/gunkholer), Mud Hen (17', open gaffer catboat, better for day trips with dog), Jet 14, Laser, 15' Whaler. We sail often on nearby Jordan Lake, and drag the Bay Hen or Whaler to Harkers Island (to fish and camp around Cape Lookout) as often as we can. False albacore coming through soon. Also crazy: Heels in Sweet 16!