And they call it, Pappy Love…

Valley native Pappy’s Seasoning vacations in historic Philadelphia after a busy Memorial Day Weekend.

Photo credit: Mr. Valley Notebook.

 

Former illegal immigrant makes good as brain surgeon

Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa was a farm worker in the Central Valley before moving onto Berkeley, Harvard, UCSF and John Hopkins University.

He’s caught the attention of various media, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to spread an interesting life story with a Valley connection.

• Here’s a link to an interview from the New York Times

I was a farm laborer in the San Joaquin Valley, seven days a week, sunup to sundown. I lived in this little trailer I paid $300 a month for. It didn’t take long to see that farm work was a dead end.

-Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa

Here are links to other articles about Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa:

• Reader’s Digest
• Hopkins Medical Magazine– A magazine for the John Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Medical School.
  
• Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Bio of Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa
  
• DOME, a Johns Hopkins’ In-house publication
  
• Science Daily
• NPR

 

Unauthorized supplement to Brain Drain Chronicles

Also, we weren’t sure how to approach this, since this whole blogging protocol is so new, but there’s a really good thread about our Brain Drain Chronicles going on at the online community FresnoFamous.com.

We put the link in one of our comments, but it’s too hard to see, so here it is for those on the run.

Also, we’re probably speaking to the choir, but another place where engaged citizens could discuss issues raised by the interviews is Creative Fresno’s Mindhub, an email list-serve you can sign up for here.

For some reason that mimics our entire nerdy childhoods, people would rather talk about us, than to us. And maybe that’s why we left you, Fresno cool crowd. That’s right, we left Y-O-U. (And just so you know we’re now super-skinny and much hotter than when we left.)

Kidding aside, we understand that sometimes it makes sense to talk to a crowd of friends versus a super-square couple you haven’t met. That’s why we have each other, and as we always say, “@7 l3@57 We GoTz EaCh 07H3R “

 

Brain Drain? Brain-storm!

We’ll keep publishing interviews with the Valley diaspora— it seems to be of interest to us and many people– but our intention was not to build a site solely around the brain drain. It can be a bit of a downer, and a little misleading about our true feelings about the Valley. (Hint: It is the navel of our universe.)

In fact, we got into a little brain-storming session this weekend on Valley bumper sticker slogans. Husbands and wives are known to create a language of their own, so at the risk of not making sense to anyone at all…

The San Joaquin Valley!:

• Not just where your rental lives
• It’s what’s for dinner
• Plant your roots in fertile soil
• For people who like a challenge
• Home is not a four-letter word
• Don’t hate us because we’re bountiful
• Flat is beautiful
• God’s Gift Basket to the World
• Eat your food on its own turf
• Where money grows on trees

and last but not least,

• Make love; not meth

What do you think, shall we sink our (future) life savings into a jingle-writing business?

Vote for your favorite here at Twiigs.

 

Car theft reminds us of the Valley too…

Stolen in Bakersfield, CA May 8, 2008

Originally uploaded by Riverrider

Modesto and Stockton made the top 10 lists of U.S. Metropolitan areas with the highest auto theft, according to a 2008 National Insurance Crime Bureau study released in April, but car theft has always been part of our Valley memories.

At least these owners had some scenery to enjoy while waiting for a ride.