Judging

A new activity! Today I joined Jack, and almost 200 volunteers, as judges for the Connecticut Invention Convention -- an annual statewide contest for children from kindergarden to middle school. It was held in the Gampel Pavilion at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Participants -- more than 600 students -- were winners from school and district competitions. Judges worked in teams of two or three -- and here's the group of 5th graders that co-judge Ram and I listened to describing and demonstrating their inventions. There was a special portable music stand for a clarinet player (also called Jillian), an ingenious mail alert system where a light lit up or a buzzer sounded once mail was detected in the box, and a bag with special custom-made pockets for a child to use when cleaning their room, and a device to throw a ball for an energetic dog. Each student had responded to a need that they perceived, and had kept a notebook with details of how they thought out and prototyped their solution. we just had to list the top three from our group of 10 -- there were no ultimate winners or losers. I had a good time!

On the way home we stopped at Foxwoods Casino -- no, not to gamble , but to see the exhibition of Titanic artifacts. The exhibition was dedicated to the last living survivor, Miss

Minvella Dean, an Englishwoman, who died last year at 98. About 15 years ago my father and his sister came to the US on the QE2, and Miss Dean was also a passenger. My aunt, Miss Heather Dean, was frequently mistaken for the other, more famous passenger! The exhibition was interesting (judged OK but not great) but we did not linger at the casino.

Finally, we christened the our barbecue. We judged it a winner!