Pauline Lerner, A Curious Character

Why I came here and what my name is about

I used to have a personal website with verizon.com, but they have removed all their personal websites. I am moving some of the pages from my Verizon website to this site, and I will add new posts here.

"A curious character," besides describing me, is homage to the late Richard Feynman, who used this phrase to describe himself in the titles of two of his books. He was a great physicist (Nobel laureate), teacher, writer, speaker, adventurer, problem solver, Renaissance man (interested in everything), and jokester. I learned and laughed from everything he wrote that I've read. I hope to be one of many who carry on his approach to life.

From my old Website to my new one

Many people have told me that they feel like they know me personally even though they've never met me because they've read my old website, especially "My Life and Times: An Illustrated History" (see below).

Here is the way I introduced myself on my old website. "I am a teacher, musician, scientist, reader, writer, photographer, and generally curious character." I hope that you will see some of each of these parts of me in my websites.

I have kept other websites, and I invite you to look at them so that you will know and understand me better.

Muse's Blog
Pauline Lerner's Violin Studio
Violinist Seduced by a Viola
Violinist.com, which is no longer current

I love taking and editing photographs, and I've posted many of them online. Here is a sampling of my albums.

Spring, 2014, Madison County VA

Summer 2014, Madison County VA 2014

Florida, Winter 2014

Butterflies 2007

(Another) Butterfly album

(Yet another) Butterfly album

Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2006

Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2003

Sometimes when I'm jamming with my friends at CABOMA (Capitol Area Bluegrass and Oldtime Music Association), I pause and photograph people having fun playing music together, outdoors whenever possible.

We play outdoors in a park whenever we can.

I have several albums of CABOMA photos:

You can also see some of my photos from the last few years on my Facebook page. I will repost on Flickr some of my old albums when I get the chance.

My Life and Times: An Illustrated History

1945

WWII ends

1946

A soldier and a WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps), newly home from the war, marry.

1948

The soldier and the WAAC have a baby girl -- me -- on July 4, 1948 in Baltimore MD. I am their only child.

1952

My parents convince me that the fireworks on the Fourth of July are for me.

1950-1954

McCarthyism almost ruins many people, including my parents.

1955

I learn to read, feel a thrill, and then spend much of my childhood reading, the latter evoking my mother's disapproval. However, I embark on a lifetime of reading and loving it.

1957

Russia launches Sputnik, the first man made satellite, and disgraces the U.S. as the Cold War rages. The American educational system, especially science education, undergoes scrutiny and reform. My father drives me to the country at night and we watch Sputnik through binoculars.

1958

Leonard Bernstein teaches me and other children about classical music on nationwide TV. I start taking violin lessons. Years later, I buy some of the episodes of the show on DVD.

1960

John F. Kennedy takes office as the youngest American President and ushers in an era of hope.

1961

Cuban missile crisis. Like many people, I wonder whether I would die during the night from a nuclear attack.

1962

President Kennedy orders federal marshals to the University of Mississippi so that James Meredith, an African-American, can enroll there. The nation is wracked with racism, violence, and hatred.

1963

I play in a community symphony orchestra for the first time, starting a life-long passion.

Martin Luther King, a proponent of justice and love, says, "I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood." I go to the Civil Rights March with my father.

President Kennedy is shot and killed - by whom? Like many others, I feel that my life is shattered.

1964

The Civil Rights Act is passed.

The Beatles come to the U.S.

1965

I was graduated from high school and matriculated into Goucher College, a small, (then) women's, liberal arts college in Towson, MD.

Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, the New Lost City Ramblers, Theodore, Ian and Sylvia, Norman Kennedy, Bob Dylan, Mabel Carter, Jean Ritchie, Alan Lomax, Gordon Lightfoot, Josh White, Mississippi John Hurt, Odetta, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Ronnie Gilbert, Jean Ritchie, and Alan Lomax -- a mind-blogging convergence of talent -- perform at the Newport Folk Festival.

1968

Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated.

Soviet tanks roll into Prague.

American tanks roll into Miami for the Republican National Convention.

Police use violence on demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The Tet offensive is a military victory but a psychological defeat for the U.S. in Vietnam, and opposition to the war increases.

LBJ (President Lyndon Baines Johnson) announces negotiations to end the war in Vietnam.

I marry my boss. (He would remain my boss.)

1969

I graduate from college as a chemistry major, cum laude.

1971

National Guard troops kill four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State College.

1973

I earn my PhD in biochemistry from the University of Maryland. I do mean *earn* -- with blood, sweat, and tears.

1974

President Nixon resigns before he can be impeached.

I start work as a research scientist at the National Institutes of Health.

1980

I start work as a science reviewer and regulator at the Food and Drug Administration.

1981

The American hostages in Iran come home.

1987

I buy a camera with my income tax refund money and start doing nature photography.

Jascha Heifetz dies.

1988

My divorce is finalized after a long, hard, costly battle.

1989

A brave young man momentarily stops the tanks in Tienanman Square. I pause from moving into the condo I bought to protest with overseas Chinese at the Chinese embassy. It was a David and Goliath moment.

The Berlin Wall comes down as the Communist empire crumbles.

1990

I start attending a Unitarian church, rising above my antipathy to organized religion.

1991

The Communist Empire collapses as the Soviet Union dissolves.

1992

I start playing in a ceilidh band (Celtic music).

1993

I start tutoring and teaching English to Chinese immigrant kids and others.

1994

After 27 years of imprisonment , Nelson Mandela is elected as the first black President of South Africa.

1996