The day started with us taking Sydney on a walk on the "Beech Trail" at a nearby park. Yes, I'd initially heard "Beach Trail" which was certainly confusing. Sydney doesn't get out for an official walk very often, and was something like taking a toddler around the block. He had to check out every leaf, not only every tree. The walk was interesting. We discovered an oil well in the park, and it was like disappearing into the forest. I could imagine the Seneca tracking through the trees in search of deer. However, we only saw a couple of squirrels.

Then it was off to see if we could find parking in Oakland, near the University of Pittsburgh. I'd not been worried about getting there in time, till there was a breakdown in the Liberty Tunnel, going into town. Fortunately, this didn't take as long as it could have, and we found parking not too far from the Cathedral of Learning.

We walked over to campus and took a quick look around. I had no idea Stephen Foster was a Pittsburgh native! (What's this "My Old Kentucky Home" stuff??) This tower was built in the 1920s to bring some sophistication to the industrial City of Smoke. It is 42 stories high. Classes started in 1930. Pitt is now especially famous for its medical school, and the transplant capital of the world. It also, according to Rick, has one of the best philosophy departments in the country. The added bonus is that Rick has always been a Steelers fan.
We checked out the inside of the Cathedral of Learning, which is very Gothic looking.
This is the Commons. There are students everywhere, talking, reading, studying, but it maintains a hush. We went to the information kiosk (I was looking for a book about the geology of Pennsylvania, as well as a history of Bushy Run) but it was only about the Nationality classrooms. We looked around outside a little then went up to the 10th floor to Rick's office.

There's a wonderful view from it! The Heinz memorial chapel is in front, I'm not sure what the Greek-looking building is, and behind it is the Cathedral of St. Paul. Rich, growing up Catholic in Pittsburgh, astounded me by telling me he was never in the Cathedral! We were properly astounded by the view.

Never mind that you have to wiggle around, lean around, twist and turn to see it. Rick refers to his office as the "broom closet." It's what you get for being the most junior faculty member.

Once we looked around the office (not that all three of us could fit into it at once!) Rick took us off to the Original Hot Dog Stand, which used to be there when Forbes Field was. Forbes Field is the site of my very first baseball game, which is why I like it. The Original Hot Dog stand serves a "medium" size order of french fries big enough to feed 20, so we shared that. Rick was a bit surprised that I didn't want to try any of the beers. He said it was a good idea when dealing with Freshmen. We talked about the family and the neighborhood and I told Rick about my whale-watching day. He listened carefully to my announcement that I had thought whales were mythical before actually seeing them.

Rick had office hours from 2 to 3, so he took us to the Pitt bookstore (as I wanted to find that history book and a geology book) and left us to our own devices. The bookstore was wonderful, and included a book on Carnegie's Dinosaurs as well as the history book and a book about Pittsburgh. No geology of Pennsylvania, however. Oh, well. I got postcards of smoky Pittsburgh and Forbes Field, etc. After scouring the place, we went back to campus and looked at a log cabin which is LIKE the one that started Pitt, though that was a different one and downtown. Just before 3 we went back to Rick's office and went with him to get coffee and go to his class, on the 3rd floor. We passed a couple of the Nationality Rooms and I can see why the University brags them up. They are set up as classrooms of each of the countries, such as Armenia, in 1900 or so. At the classroom, we found seats on the side, halfway up, and Rick brandished his laser pointer that we'd given him and started his lecture:

INFORMAL LOGIC FALLACIES

The definitions: Rick's examples: My thoughts: AD POPULUM: When arguer appeals to bandwagonning, snobbery, or fear of being different than the majority in order to influence the arguee. "The most popular perfume..." "50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong." 1. Everyone does it, that makes it OK. 2. Look at the polls! 3. The people in Europe can't believe we're so hung up about sex. ARGUMENT FROM IGNORANCE: The arguer claims that a lack of evidence for some claim constitutes evidence for that claim's negation. Either side on the existence of God. He was talking to someone who didn't believe there were whales, as she'd never seen them. "In charity, I could assume she was joking, but I didn't want to push it." I'm going to kill him! AD HOMINEM: This fallacy is committed when the arguer ignores the merits of his/her opponent's argument, and rather makes some reference to the arguer himself with the implication that this somehow discredits the argument.      1. ABUSIVE: When the arguer verbally abuses his/her opponent rather than addressing the complaint. I read her other book, and she's stupid. This is Wowbagger's main argument style. Why should I pay attention to Rick, since he misspelled "to" on the screen? Let's not believe Starr because he's dislikable.      2. CIRCUMSTANTIAL: When the arguer rather than addressing the opponent's argument, merely points out that their opponent's circumstances may be influencing their position. Clinton comes from a broken home, so he can't be blamed.      3. AD HOMINEM TO QUOQUE: When A. argues that some activity is wrong, and B. responds by merely pointing out that A. executes that activity him/herself. Hyde, the whole Clinton "defense."

Such a bunch of zombies! Rick kept trying to pull some glimmer of intelligence or interest out of them, and there they sat, copying word for word and V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y! "I grow impatient with your slow penmanship." At one point he was attempting to teach them Californiaspeak, such as "Dude!" used as an interjection.

He finally dismissed the class and we went to talk to him.

I told him he'd misspelled "to" on the "ad hominem" page, which I thought was a rather clever self-referential example, only he hadn't noticed. I also explained he was Dead Meat about the whole whale discussion.

We left and went to the elevators to look UP, to see if there were good views at the top. The elevator went to 36 (actually the 37th floor, since there's a Ground floor.) There were good views in two directions, so we walked down a flight to see if we could get the other directions. Disappointingly, there was an office right there, so Rich started down another flight, and a student came along, said "there are great views from the Honors Office!" and dragged us into a seminar room where two professors were chatting. They were all interested in Rich getting decent pictures, and then we got to talking about the Honors Program at Pitt. It's a good deal different from, say, Gonzaga. Anyone whose grades and/or evaluations qualify can be in the program. "Pitt's Honors College has, in its 10-year history, produced more Rhodes and Marshall scholars than any other school in Pennsylvania." The professors suggested we join: gee, did they want our money? I wrote a thank-you last week and got a nice response.

We stopped at the Cathedral on the way back to the car. 3.5 miles total walking, that day. On the way home we stopped at the West End Overlook near where Rich used to live. Leaving it we wound up at a dead-end Rich had to back uphill out of. No fun at all. When we got home, Rich's mom and sister had made golapki. This made Rich's day! Also, there was a funny Thanksgiving card from Roni, though for a short time Mom didn't remember who she was!

Rich, having spent Sunday watching football, watched the Monday Night game, even when we got back to the motel, which annoyed me.