Keith and Margot Clarke once again hosted the annual Christmas dinner for the UCSB Department of Geography at their home on December 7, 2012. At least 75 grads, researchers, faculty, staff, and family friends attended, and the food, the ambiance, and the camaraderie were all super-duper!
Lots of pictures were taken, courtesy of Marcia Zilli, and you can check them out on the Event Photos page of our web site. As for “captions,” here are some random notes about this season’s event which served to bring the Geography Department together by providing a sort of social glue – largely composed of lots of great food and drink – for our multidisciplinary and multi-cultural personnel:
- Dar Roberts contributed a surfeit of wine for the occasion, and he, Mo Lovegreen, and Nancy Ponce cooked three turkeys, lots of dressing, and oodles of gravy for the feast. It’s not that we can’t afford catering (well…); it’s because Geography prefers to be hands-on;
- The weather was crisp and clear, and diners (and pets) were able to spill outside into the Clarke’s beautifully landscaped patio and garden area;
- Waldo Tobler donated a humongous birthday cake for Keith – nope, no leftovers, and, yep, Keith is being coy about his age;
- Keith and Margot’s daughter, Lila (age somewhere between 6 and 60) informed all and sundry that “you can call me anything” when she got fed up with people asking how to pronounce her exotic name;
- Toto toilets “can flush a brick with a gallon of water,” according to the Clarkes (they’ve installed two of them to date and are “saving up” for a third);
- Grad student Bo Romero’s chili-marinated pork got the gold medal for pot luck contributions – Jose Saleta even abandoned his recent foray into being a vegan for the sake of a sample;
- One of the Clarke’s “flamboyant” neighbors got into the spirit of things by inviting the police to join the party (you’ll have to ask Keith to explain);
- Sustainability doyen, Katie Maynard, was the only one that ate sparingly – but only because she planned to follow up the feast with an orgy of swing and salsa dancing downtown;
- And there are lots of other highlights that could/should be added (or not, as the case may be) – feel free to contribute!
Suffice it to say that the Clarkes have been doing this for several years, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted. The tradition of faculty hosting year-end dinner parties really began in the 1990s when the Clarke family opened the doors of their (then) Goleta home to Geography personnel on several occasions. The dinners became an unofficial annual event during Keith’s reign as Chair from 2001 to 2006, and they then moved to Oliver Chadwick’s bailiwick during his stint as Chair of the Department (2006-2009). Dar Roberts, our current Chair, doesn’t have the space to host the event, but he more than makes up for it by generously contributing to the organization and logistics of this longstanding tradition.
They say that “A family that plays together stays together.” Of course, they also say that “Families are like fudge – mostly sweet, with a few nuts mixed in.” Thanks to all friends of Geography for such a tasty mix.
Article by Bill Norrington
