October 8, 2009
Blog profile: “Ron’s View” has personal takes on education, family, sports and really good food
Members of the UW community are increasingly expressing themselves in personal blogs about their interests, professional matters or some combination of the two. University Week will occasionally feature brief profiles of these blogs and their authors.
Ron Irving, UW professor of mathematics, has served in several capacities since coming to the UW in 1980. He was divisional dean of natural sciences from 2002 until 2006, when he was named interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, a position he held through March 2008. In 2001, Irving was the recipient of a UW Distinguished Teaching Award.
He also writes a blog called “Ron’s View,” with well-written, thoughtful posts on various topics of personal and professional interest. Recent posts have included comments on a Harper’s magazine article about the arts and humanities being de-emphasized in favor of science and math; a warm remembrance of a New York caterer and cookbook author; thoughts on James Fallows’ notion of airline security measures as “security theater” and how his family came to enjoy zucchini pancakes recently. Oh, and then there are the parrots playing basketball, too.
You can read Irving’s blog here.
University Week asked Irving some questions about his blog.
Q: How long have you been writing this blog, and how did it get its start?
A: I started the blog exactly a year ago. After a year as chair of the Math Department and six years in the arts and sciences dean’s office, I had some free time before resuming my teaching duties in the department. I also had some ideas for writing projects. There were some old mathematical projects. But I also wanted to write about some other interests. It occurred to me that I might be able to test the waters of non-mathematical writing through a blog before proceeding to the larger-scale projects. So I gave it a try, writing at first about sports, politics, travel, food, language.
The number of posts on politics surprised me, as I have generally been pretty low-key about my political interests, but I got swept along by last fall’s election campaign. What I don’t generally write about are the subjects related to my own professional work — mathematics or educational issues.
Q: Who is your intended audience?
A: I didn’t anticipate having any audience initially, except maybe for my immediate family. The blog really was just a forum for writing. And the audience remains small. Some family members. Friends. Friends of friends. Friends of friends of friends. My sister, who has lived in Paris since 1980, reads it, and what’s interesting about that is that it has shrunk the distance between us in unexpected ways, as she now knows a lot about what floats around in my head, topics we have never talked about.
Russ McDuff, the director of the School of Oceanography, reads it, and through him, so too do his sister and her partner in Santa Cruz. I’ve never met them, but in turn I now read their blogs, so we have become blog pals. I occasionally get comments from total strangers, like someone who responded minutes after I wrote about Bill Russell.
Getting back to the initial question, I have no specific intended audience. Family, friends, and whoever else cares to read what I have to say.
Q: Have you had any interesting interactions with readers, through comments or e-mails?
A: In June, Gail and I were walking on Foster Island when a ship’s bow suddenly appeared way above our heads. In due course, the full ship revealed itself, as big a private yacht as I had ever seen. Its name was Archimedes. I went home, Googled it, and found some Web site at which people can write about sightings of large yachts. The sightings for Archimedes revealed that it had worked its way down the east coast, through the Panama Canal, and up the west coast, reaching Seattle some days earlier.
I wrote about what I had learned, including the speculations (all without evidence) about Archimedes’ ownership. Johnny Depp. Paul McCartney, then Paul Allen and Bill Gates. I took none of this seriously. Two weeks later, I heard from an Archimedes staff member expressing concerns about ownership rumors and asking me to “retract/delete the secion of [my] article regarding ownership of the Archimedes.” I have no desire to spread falsehoods, but I clearly labeled them rumors in my post, saying that none of this could be taken seriously. I didn’t see much point in deleting the passage, as it was part of the entire experience of seeing, then reading about, the ship.
Q: What are your best — or worst — experiences in having a blog?
A: The best experience is the benefit that writing always brings, forcing me to think more clearly as I wrestle with putting ideas into words. Mathematics, by its nature, requires logical thinking and careful writing in order to convey ideas with accuracy and precision. As a dean, I approached memo and e-mail writing in the same spirit. Clarity, precision, logic. In the blog, I get to carry these same principles over to a wide range of subjects, though with less success.
What has been most disappointing is that my vocabulary isn’t as rich as I would like when I try to express myself not just clearly but with a little more style or elegance or pizzazz. I’m stunned by how often I’m led down the path of cliche. Time and again I recognize how pedestrian my writing is.
The best and the worst are really one and the same — the joy and agony of trying to write well. On a different level, the best experience is what I’ve already described, finding a readership among family and friends who, through the blog, have gotten to know me better. My thoughts don’t surprise my wife or son. They’ve heard it all before. But others get to be surprised.
Q: Do you have any plans for where you’ll take the blog in the future?
A: I anticipate that the blog will stay pretty much as is. The larger plan is to spend some writing time outside the blog so that I can begin some of the more ambitious projects of a year ago that the blog was intended to prepare me for. And within the blog, I want my writing to get better. Practice, practice, practice.
I should add three blog-writing principles that I try to adhere to:
- Don’t just say what’s on your mind. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not always interesting.
- To add interest, take advantage of the medium by adding links to related material.
- Think of blog posts as research reports, not diary entries. In this spirit, quote supporting evidence, provide alternative arguments, avoid solipsism.
Suggest a profile: Do you know of a blog written by a member of the UW community that would be of interest to UWeek’s faculty and staff readers? Drop us a line at uweek@u.washington.edu.
Previous blog profiles:
- On Aug. 20, we profiled the blog at the the UW Libraries Media Center. Read that story here.
- On Aug. 6, we profiled Dave Bacon and his blog, “The Quantum Pontiff.” Read that story here.
- On July 23, we profiled Elizabeth Lowry’s blog, “Seattle Backyard Farm.” Read that story here.
