{"id":7071,"date":"2021-07-16T16:09:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T22:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=7071"},"modified":"2021-07-20T13:05:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:05:59","slug":"back-to-the-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2021\/07\/16\/back-to-the-midwest\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am so far behind in my Not A Blogging.\u00a0\u00a0 This post should have been posted back in June,\u00a0 but&#8230;\u00a0 better late than never, right?<\/p>\n<p>ANYWAY&#8230; I was on the road for ten days back in June, to Evanston (where I went to school, 1966-1971), Chicago (where I lived after school, 1971-1976), and Dubuque (where I taught school, 1976-1979).\u00a0\u00a0 It was the first time I&#8217;d left home and\/or cabin in a year and a half, since the start of the pandemic and the quarantine.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to say, it was great to get away from my office chair, even if it was only for a few days.<\/p>\n<p>First stop was Northwestern, and the convocation for the graduates of the Medill School of Journalism, where I was given an honorary doctorate.\u00a0\u00a0 Professor Emeritus Roger Boye gave me a very kind introduction, and presented me with my new hood as Doctor of Humane Letters.\u00a0\u00a0 And then it was my turn.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"George RR Martin Northwestern Graduation Speech 2021\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QRbKkKtjeYo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Northwestern campus has changed a great deal since my days as a student, half a century ago.\u00a0 So has the city of Evanston.\u00a0\u00a0 Old landmarks gone, new buildings everywhere&#8230; but still, enough remained to give me some vivid flashes of memory of years gone by and friends and lovers and teachers who changed my life and&#8230; for good or ill&#8230; helped make me the person I am today.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Wolfe said that you can&#8217;t go home again.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe so, but you can visit.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you, Northwestern.\u00a0\u00a0 It was nice to be back, however briefly.<\/p>\n<p>After Evanston, I spent a few days in Chicago, accompanied by my loyal minion, Sid.\u00a0\u00a0 That was great as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, we had to visit Greektown for some saganaki at the Greek Islands, where I first learned to love flaming cheese while still a student at Northwestern.\u00a0 OPAA!\u00a0 OPAA!\u00a0\u00a0 I also got to enjoy dinners with Mary Anne Mohanraj, one of my wonderful Wild Card writers, and Eve Ewing, who presented me with the Carl Sandburg Award on my last visit to Chicago, both of them amazing writers.\u00a0\u00a0 That was fun too.<\/p>\n<p>While I was in Chicago, I did an interview with the local PBS station.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"George RR Martin Talks NU, Writing and \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3Q6nEhIzkkg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"George RR Martin Interview: Part 2\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/noAXc4VABS0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Next we took to the road, across Illinois and through the scenic and historic town of Galena (Abner Marsh&#8217;s home town) to Dubuque, where I once taught journalism at Clarke College and acted as advisor to the student newspaper, the COURIER.\u00a0\u00a0 The reason for my visit was&#8230; ah, well, no, can&#8217;t tell you that, not yet&#8230; but I got to see a few old friends, eat chili at Mulgrew&#8217;s in East Dubuque and pizza in Dubuque proper, and&#8230; take a ride on the riverboat TWILIGHT.\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, it&#8217;s not a real steamboat, not even a paddlewheeler, but it&#8217;s a cool boat all the same, and I loved sailing down the Mississippi for a few hours.\u00a0\u00a0 I even got to visit the pilot house and blow the whistle.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-7077\" src=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299-166x124.jpeg 166w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0299.jpeg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-7078\" src=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_6055-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_6055-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_6055-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_6055.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-7079\" src=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317-166x124.jpeg 166w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_0317.jpeg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We got back home on June 23rd.\u00a0\u00a0 It&#8217;s always nice to be back in Santa Fe and the Land of Enchantment, but I have to admit, it was great to get away for a few days.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, during my ten days on the road and away from the internet, the email piled up, and I found some eight hundred letters waiting for me on my return.\u00a0\u00a0 Which may help explain why I am weeks late in making this post, but&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s all for now.\u00a0\u00a0 The woods were lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and books to write before I sleep.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am so far behind in my Not A Blogging.\u00a0\u00a0 This post should have been posted back in June,\u00a0 but&#8230;\u00a0 better late than never, right? ANYWAY&#8230; I was on the road for ten days back in June, to Evanston (where I went to school, 1966-1971), Chicago (where I lived after school, 1971-1976), and Dubuque (where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[29,51,308,11,19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7071"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7087,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions\/7087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}