A man driving the wrong way died after crashing head-on into a Delaware State Trooper patrol car Thursday evening, according to police.

Police said a 77-year-old Millsboro man was traveling north in the southbound lanes of Route 1 in Dover when he hit the patrol car head-on near the North Little Creek Road exit just before 6 p.m.

Police said the man, who was not wearing his seatbelt, died at the scene. A dog in the car also died.

The 22-year-old State Trooper driving the patrol car suffered non-life-threatening injuries, but was airlifted to Christiana Hospital.

A heavily damaged Delaware State Police Car could be seen as SkyForce10 hovered above. A silver car, identified as a 2010 Chevrolet Aveo was also seen flipped over in the median.

An investigation into the crash continued.

Originally, police had said the driver of the vehicle was a woman.

It was 1964 and Beatlemania was at its peak. A 21-year-old news director, Larry Kane, writes a single letter asking for an interview with The Beatles as they make their first visit to the United States. What he got back was a full itinerary and a check so he could travel with the band to document the historic event.

Now 73, Kane is looking back at his time spent with the band in a new documentary titled ‘Eight Days a Week’ highlighting the ‘English Invasion’. The film, directed by Ron Howard, contains never-before-seen footage and is a glimpse at 21-year-old Kane’s reports from over 50 years ago. 

Take us back to the 21-year old news director—What was it like?

I really was a news director. I had 5 people in my department. It was at a station called WFUN, which stands for Fun. In February of 1964, the Beatles came through Miami on a quick trip. I interviewed them at a sparsely attended news conference at the Deauville Hotel in Miami and that was that.

A couple of months later I had a big adventure—I watched Muhammad Ali defeat Sonny Liston at the Miami Beach Auditorium and the year was an incredible year.

Thousands of Cuban refugees were coming into Miami from Cuba, the war in Vietnam was escalating, the aftermath of the president—I can’t tell you what it was like for Americans being so stunned and shocked by the president being killed and a new president was in power—civil rights was just on the surface of really developing as a major issue nationwide, there had been some tragedies earlier in Birmingham with 3 kids being killed in a church.. It was incredible—Ford Mustang was introduced, which I know sounds funny now when I say that but it was a major cultural event.

How did you get started covering The Beatles?

When I wrote to the Beatles, I wrote to Brian Epstein, their manager, and I asked for one interview in Jacksonville where we were going to take a plane load of kids. He wrote back with a long itinerary of 25 cities in 35 days and a bill for three thousand, one hundred dollars which would cover limousines, cars, airplane, meals, hotels to travel with them in their official party. I picked it up and said, “This is big,” and I went to the station and they said, “Well, we’ll syndicate it and you’ll go with them.”

I said, “Why would I, as a newsman, want to travel with a band? Especially a band that would be here in September and gone in November?” Eventually they sort of forced me and coerced me into going. My mother had seen them on television and she was just crazy about them. My father put his arm around me and said “now, listen Larry, watch your back. Those guys with the long hair, they are a menace to society.” In some ways, they were—they were a menace to me. So, I went on the tour and joined them on Aug 18th 1964 in San Francisco.

For some, that invite would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. What did you think of the offer originally?

I liked their songs, but it was just another hula hoop! They’ll be around for five years and that’ll be it. Then, Ron Howard, this amazing director and his staff, found tapes of me that are in the movie on tour. In one of the tapes, and I can’t believe I said this because I forgot it, I say ‘I think I’m in the midst of a multi-generational culture change that may not be seen for another hundred years, maybe not for another many centuries’—this is truly a change and it really was.[[393640321, C]

You bonded with The Beatles for many reasons, but you mentioned previously your mother passed away. John and Paul also had mothers who passed—were you able to bond?

First of all, I didn’t know that. Nobody really knew about their past while they were in the present. It was a very difficult time for me. My mother was sick for years and any loss is very difficult and I was calling home every day making sure my brothers were okay, my father was okay. Someone on the plane told them. They came to me and talked about how to cope with that.

They talked about how to deal with loss and how to deal with the times of thinking about her and how it never ends. They put their arms around me and it was very touching.

What was it like meeting the group for the first time?

It was very unusual. I came down to the hotel room, George Harrison was in the corner and he was lovely and just very pleasant. I asked him questions about the world’s situation, about immigration, controversies in England. So, I interviewed George, he was very pleasant. I interviewed Ringo, who I found to be very intellectually curious and very strong about human rights and war. Then I met Paul—let me tell you something about Paul McCartney—he has never met a microphone on stage or an audience he didn’t like and he was just charming, very warm. He was very special. I went to John Lennon, he looked at my feet, he looked straight up to my hair and he said, “Who are you? You look like a round peg in a square hole. You, my friend, look like a nerd from the 1950s.” I laughed and I said, “Well, you look like a slob.” We had a conversation about stuff and I walked out in the hall when all of a sudden I feel two arms around me and it was John. He apologized, which he very rarely did. You know, John said in public what he thought in private, and he said, “I’m looking forward to traveling with you.” 

How was your time with the band different than other reporters at the time?

One of the reasons I got along with them so well is because all of the adult reporters asked them questions like, “What did you eat for breakfast? Or “What’s your favorite hemline?” These guys just despised them, these other reporters. I asked them questions about what happened the night before, about music, about the concert, would they-if they had teenage daughters- send them to the concerts and they said ‘absolutely not, no way, unsafe’!

Did you expect that any of your experiences with the band ended up being some inspiration to them to write a future hit?

No, but they did ask me—They had a little tape recorder and they had me listen to 8 Days a Week and I told them to make the opening a little faster… So, it should be Lennon, McCartney and Kane on that song. It was the only time I ever saw them writing and doing things.

You’ve written books about the Beatles, you have been with them physically on that first maiden tour, you’ve been on radio and television—you’ve seen a lot in terms of media. What is it like to be part of the process of making a film?

I had no idea what was going to happen. I was approached in late 2014 to become a consultant since I was one of the few people left who was on the tour. In addition to that, it gave them an opportunity to interview me. I was then flown to Los Angeles and I was interviewed for hours and hours. I outlined, what I thought, were the moments and episodes of the tour. [Throughout the year] they continued to ask for information.

After, they asked me to come to New York, to a small viewing studio to see the movie. I didn’t quite understand why because a lot of people were involved. I watched the movie and I was just tickled by it.

First, I couldn’t believe how much I was in the movie… I was astounded. The second thing was, and the most important, was I got chills watching the movie. I said, “It's taking me back… I’m reliving it again.” I can imagine the people that the people today who are 10, 20, 30 or 40, anyone who has no idea how this began would look at this and say, “oh my goodness! Did that really happen?”

Rock stars get a reputation for partying a lot. What was it like being on the road with the band?

They weren’t crazy wild, they were just like people their age. We did have parties and there was one in particular, in the home of Reginald Owens and Burt Lancaster. Paul McCartney is on the piano with Peggy Lipton next to him, John Lennon is entertaining some people in the corner with stories, Ringo is chatting with a few people playing a little drums, George is reading a comic book and having fun with people, they’re all smoking cigarettes, and all the people there were guests of Capitol Records- many of them were young, Hollywood actresses. They call me up at the hotel, tell me to come over to the house and Jane Mansfield was there, Sandra Dee, all these stars, and this woman came up to me and she was kind of perky. She says, “What are you doing here?” I told her I was a reporter, she told me she was an actress and I asked what kind. At that point she let out a guttural scream, so loud, it lasted a minute. Everyone looked at me and she whispered in my ear she was in horror movies. Nobody else heard that and Paul McCartney said, “I told you Larry, you’re a bad boy.”

How you do you feel about your grandkids going to see the movie and seeing their grandfather with The Beatles?

I think it will be exciting for them when they get older… Back in 1990, my daughter came back from the mall and she was 12 and she said, “Dad, I got this wonderful cassette and you’re going to love it! It’s a group called The Beatles, you’ve got to listen to them. ” I said to her, “We have to have a talk.”

Free parking in Philadelphia is about to become even more limited after the PPA and City of Philadelphia announced the conclusion of two parking promotions.

On Thursday, the PPA and City of Philadelphia announced the end of no meter fees after 5:00 p.m. each Wednesday and on the first Friday of each month in Old City. 

The free parking promotion started under Mayor Ed Rendell back in the 1990's as a way to revitalize Center City.

The end of the free parking comes along with the success of the PPA's pay-by-phone app, meterUp. 

"Beginning October 5 for the Wednesday promo and October 7 for first Friday, meter fees will be required every night, including Wednesdays and first Fridays, up to the time posted on the parking regulation sign on each block," explained a release issued by the PPA Thursday.

The PPA and City of Philadelphia said the conclusion of the promotions is intended to increase parking opportunites for those shopping and dining in the city. The PPA has also increased time limits in the evening on most Center City blocks allowing enough time for people to move their cars without being rushed. 

The naked Donald Trump statue that caused a stir when it was put up in Union Square earlier this summer, prompting one of the most comical Parks Department statements in the agency's history, is now atop a roof in Jersey City, welcoming drivers as they head toward the Holland Tunnel. 

The life-sized sculpture stands in front of a giant billboard showing the American flag and the tag Indecline, the anonymous street artist collective that put naked Trump statues in a slew of cities in August. 

The first round of sculptures, put up in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland and Seattle, were removed. But the one in Jersey City -- along with one shipped to Miami -- is here to stay. 

According to the Huffington Post, New Jersey's Mana Contemporary gallery reached out to Indecline after the August sculptures were hauled off and offered to coordinate the sustained presence of two naked Trumps. 

Both the Jersey City and Miami statues will be installed until the November election, after which they will be sold at auction, the Huffington Post said.

Police say a Northeast Philadelphia pastor's wife shot an armed man who attacked her husband and tried to rob her family outside their home late Thursday night.

Pastor Robert Cook, his 38-year-old wife and their 12-year-old son were returning home just before 11 p.m. when a man armed with what appeared to be a rifle approached them near their front porch. Cook, a pastor at St. James Lutheran Church, and his family live next door to the church at Castor Avenue and Pratt Street.

When the man demanded the pastor's wallet, Cook said he didn't have any money, according to Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. The pastor said he tried to wrestle the gun away from the robber who in turn fought back.

"He hit me really hard in the back of the head with the gun – swung it like a baseball bat – and then everything was like lighting for a minute," said Cook. "I heard my wife saying, 'drop the gun! drop the gun!' I was like 'she's got her gun.' He turned towards her and I said, 'Shoot him!,' Shoot him!' and she shot him."

"I needed to do enough to make him drop the gun or make him go away," said the pastor's wife who asked not to be identified.

The 66-year-old suspect was struck in the leg before fleeing down Pratt Street – dropping his Eagles cap – as Cook chased him. The suspect tossed his firearm under a car and jumped onto the driver side running boards of a passing SUV and escaped, Small said.

Shortly after, a man fitting the suspects description hobbled into Aria Health Torresdale hospital with a gunshot wound. Hospital officials notified police, who then brought the Cook family to the hospital where they positively identified the suspect, Small said.

Cook told reporters early Friday he didn't hand over his wallet initially because "in some cases the armed person will shoot the victims anyways."

Luckily, none of the Cooks required medical treatment, said police.

Cook and his wife both have permits to carry a firearm. Small said the shooting appeared "justifiable."

"When we got our guns we're like, 'we got 'em but we hope we never have to use them,'" said Cook. "But... if it comes down to my family or him, it's him, I'm sorry."

Cook, armed with his gun as he spoke to reporters, said he planned to buy his wife a new gun – an early birthday gift – since her gun was taken into evidence by police.

The shooting is under investigation. Police have not said what charges the suspect, who has not been identified, will face. It turns out his "gun" was actually a black Ramset nail gun with black electrical tape covering the orange handle so it would look like a real gun, said police.

Two cars appeared to collide head-on along a Montgomery County road Friday morning.

The wreck closed Flourtown Road near Joshua Road in Lafayette Hill, Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania before daybreak.

No word yet on the extent of injuries.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead you could see police standing near the badly-damaged vehicles – both with severe front-end damage. Debris scattered across the roadway and a sport utility vehicle apparently took out part of a fence for one of the large properties nearby.

Whitemarsh Township Police remained mum throughout the morning about details of the crash.

Above average temperatures and a dry spell have led us to a drought.

The U.S. Drought Monitor recently updated their drought level analysis, categorizing the Philadelphia area and much of New Jersey under the moderate drought level. That is the first level of drought (D1), categorized from D0 (abnormally dry) to D4 (exceptional drought).

Philadelphia has not seen measurable rain at the airport since Sept. 1, and before that, Aug. 21. The forecast calls for a primarily dry week ahead outside of some possible showers and thunderstorms Sunday into Monday.

The counties under moderate drought include part of Philadelphia County, as well as lower Montgomery and Lower Bucks counties. Also included are parts of Gloucester, Atlantic and Mercer counties as well as all of Camden, Burlington and Ocean counties.

This year, most areas have seen less than average rainfall. In fact, Trenton, New Jersey's annual precipitation is 7.66 inches below average. Philadelphia is 4.5 inches below. And, Allentown is 5.19 inches below. Reading currently has a 6.17 inches annual precipitation deficit. And, Mount Pocono comes in just over 3.5 inches below. Delaware has fared slightly better, with Wilmington only 1.24 inches below average. Atlantic City has seen just enough rain to put the official reporting station at 2.91 inches above average for annual precipitation.

At this point, one strong and steady storm could help alleviate the deficits.

Only a year ago, Philadelphia saw around 10 inches more rain than in 2016. As a result, some people may start to notice lawns and plants suffering compared to 2015.

Louis Holod, Owner of Holod’s True Value Hardware, said it’s not time to panic, yet.

"Most of the grass here is blue grass, and it goes dormant above 90 degrees," Holod said. "Sixty to 90 percent of it will come back automatically. Then you can do your repairs, and spend a lot less money."

If you’re particularly concerned about your lawn, Holod said you can water the area.

"If it’s small enough, water now. If it’s larger, then I’d hold off until we get just one good rain and you can overseed it, but probably the most bang for your dollar would be lime."

Holod also suggests that if you do water your lawn, do so before 10 a.m. because watering at night can lead to fungus problems. He also said not to aerate your lawn until we’ve seen rain, as the soil may be too dry for aeration to currently work.

The head of Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services says his agency has improved the performance of a hotline that handles reports of suspected child abuse.

Secretary Ted Dallas said Thursday that the rate of calls to the ChildLine hotline that are abandoned or deflected has fallen from 43 percent at the start of 2015 to 2 percent.

Dallas says his agency has added staff, upgraded training and improved technology so that all calls are recorded and they're easier to process.

The department reports that it's now processing all child abuse history clearances within the law's 14-day limit, and the average time is about a day and a half. In early 2015, clearances averaged 26 days.

New laws to prevent child abuse took effect in January 2015, increasing calls to ChildLine.

After the Montgomery County treasurer's office put more than 1,000 properties up for sale this summer because of delinquent taxes, hundreds of owners paid what they had owed.

Since the first warning in July, some 600 taxpayers made good on their property taxes, Treasurer Jason Salus said Friday.

"The results of these efforts has been an influx of $2,671,295.73 in delinquent tax revenue to our county, local school districts and municipalities," Salus said in a statement.

Now, it's make-or-break time for the owners of the remaining roughly 400 properties that remain in arrears. All but two of the properties listed by the treasurer are less than $100,000 in arrears. Many of them owe less than $10,000.

Still, one property listed as 810 Chateau Ln, Lower Merion, is an outlier on the list. The property owner, listed as David Cutler, owes $498,710. The only other listing above $100,000 is 405 York Rd., Jenkintown. It's listed owners, Marvin L. and Harriet Weizer, owe $120,273.

The Lower Merion estate is known as Skyview. It was built on 6 acres of hilltop land off Mount Pleasant Road in 1990 by a then well-known builder of Main Line estates, John Kolea.

Real estate records show Kolea sold the property to Cutler in June 1990 for $3.2 million. Cutler could not immediately be reached for comment. He tried selling the residence, which is in the Villanova section of Lower Merion, in 2014 for $8.9 million. It didn't sell. It was again listed this year for $6 million and then $5 million, but it didn't sell again. It is no longer on the market, according to Zillow.

In total, the value of the taxes owed by all 400 properties is more than $3.3 million. But a spokeswoman for the treasurer's office said that total will decrease in the days leading up to the auction next week as some property owners arrange for payment.

A county sale of those properties has been set for 10 a.m., Sept. 22, in courtroom A of the county courthouse, 2 E. Airy St., Norristown.

Second Deputy Treasurer Bridget Lafferty said those on the list have until 5 p.m., Sept. 21, to make arrangements with the county to pay back the taxes overdue, which she said are more than two years outstanding.

Owners of the properties for sale were first notified of the upcoming sale in July, the treasurer's office said.

For a complete list of the properties with delinquent taxes that will be listed for sale if owners do not make payment arrangements, click here.

Valerie Smith (but please call her Val) is into her second year now as President of Swarthmore College. Brooklyn-born, she is the daughter of career educators – her mother is a retired elementary school teacher and her father taught biology. Smith is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Bates College who did her graduate and doctoral work at the University of Virginia before launching a teaching career that distinguished her as scholar of African American history and culture. Smith’s time as a teacher spans more than 30 years spent at Princeton, UCLA and then back to Princeton where she was both Professor of English and African-American studies and Dean of the College before taking the Swarthmore position.

Q: Val, what do you feel are the leadership qualities you nailed to get this job?

VS: I think the search committee was attracted to my history of a collaborative leadership model, something that I think is very important at an institution like Swarthmore that was founded by Quakers and built on a legacy that values consensus as a means of reaching decisions. So my leadership style is very collaborative. When I move to a new environment, I observe carefully and I listen very closely and a lot of that goes into my decision-making process and so I’m deliberative and I think that’s something else that works well in this community. I think also, frankly, the fact that I am a scholar trained in the humanities but with a strong interdisciplinary background and Swarthmore cares so deeply about the academic mind and so I think the fact that I had experience as an academic leader also seemed to be an important fit. And finally, the fact that in my role as dean of a college at Princeton, I displayed the real commitment to helping to improve the experience of students who have historically been underrepresented on that elite campus, it was another value that was as critically important to Swarthmore as it was to Princeton and the fact that I had some experience in that area as well, I think also made me an appealing candidate to Swarthmore.

Q: Listening. People -- colleagues, students and frankly, strangers -- have talked about you being such a great listener. What can the rest of us learn from that virtue?

VS: Well, I think, number one, I think my ability to listen grew out of my teaching style. And so that was valuable to me because it sort of links my academic life with my administrative life. What I think motivates us to some degree is a sense that we make every effort to respect the opinions and ideas of our interlocutors, even if we think we have nothing in common with them. And so I think the first step in the ability to have dialogue, really, and then to help share in solutions is to be able to listen to people. And certainly there are times when I think I don’t want to listen to what other people have to say but I have to remind myself that however right I may think I am about a particular issue, there was usually always something I can learn if I let myself listen to what other people have to say and understand how they arrived at that opinion, an opinion I might not agree with. And also to be open to the possibility that one’s deeply-held opinion might change or be modified or gain nuance if one is able to enter into conversation with other people.

And then, I just tend to find other people endlessly interesting and so while learning to listen is a discipline, it’s also endlessly a pleasure, so I really enjoy it.

Q: So you've had more than 3 decades of experience teaching and getting to know students. Some people feel like these are tumultuous times and I’m sure other generations have felt like that. Val, what are you most hopeful for when you think about the future and what are you most concerned about when you think about the current generation?

VS: I am very optimistic about this current generation. I am proud of their compassion and their activism and the fact that we are cultivating in them a spirit of innovation so that if they see and issue or a problem, they feel like they can roll up their sleeves and try to solve it. And that might be on the environmental front, that might be on the social justice front, that might be on the engineering or bio-medical front, but I think this generation has a spirit of optimism, energy, and a sense that it’s their responsibility to take our world to the next level and I’m very optimistic about that. I’m also hopeful that we can, as a nation, view our place in relation to the rest of the world with greater openness and to embrace our role in the global community. I think of course national identity and our national narrative is important, but the future holds different needs for national identity and our place in the global community. I’m very excited that institutions like ours are places where students and faculty come together from all over the world and get to know each other and I’m optimistic our students will take that awareness and that sense of connection and build a broader and more inclusive future for us.

Q: Val, you mentioned both your parents were educators. Did you feel like it was kind of in your DNA, this vocation or how did you come to it?

VS: I think in retrospect, I believe it probably was in my DNA. Certainly I grew up in a family that valued learning and reading and analytical, critical thinking. And so while I did not begin college assuming I would even get a PhD much less become an academic, there does seem to be, in retrospect, some measure of inevitability. And I actually also had some wonderful teachers who I think also encouraged me along this path.

Q: Can you talk a little bit more about that, I guess in the way in which you think that’s so influential – where one person can make a difference?

VS: I think I’ve had, in the course of my life, a number of very important mentors who believed in me and encouraged me and frankly dedicated their lives to encouraging students they believed had potential. One of my earliest mentors was the principal of the elementary school that I attended. It was a parochial school that was attached to the Baptist church that my family attended and the principal of the school happened also to be the wife of the pastor and she was an extraordinarily brilliant, elegant, confident, spiritual; deeply spiritual person who took all of her students, all of her charges, I think, under her wing and really believed that we had great capacity and potential and did a lot to encourage us. And I think having that kind of exposure that early in my life really sort of instilled in me a sense of confidence I think in my own abilities. And it has meant that for me as an educator, I’ve taken very seriously the role and responsibility of being a mentor and adviser to my students and that’s something I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from and joy and delight in.

Q: How significant is it to you, personally, to be the first African American president of Swarthmore College?

VS: I want to say two things about this. On the one hand, I recognize that I am in this position because of the sacrifices and the aspirations of generations of people who came before me. The students and staff and faculty who advocated for a more open and more inclusive culture on this campus, the presidents of historically white institutions elsewhere around the country who served as mentors to me and others in my generation who helped us and appreciate the fact that this might be possible. It’s also enormously meaningful to members of our current population – students, faculty and staff as well as current alumni, I think, that my appointment has been a great inspiration to people.

So all that, you know, is enormously meaningful to me. But I’m also reminded of the words that Ruth Simmons spoke at my inauguration. Ruth Simmons who was the former President of Smith College and President of Brown University, so the first African-American to be president of an Ivy League University, so she is an important mentor for me as well for my migration. And one thing she said is that clearly this is a momentous appointment, but I’m sure Val doesn’t want only to be remembered as the first African-American president of Swarthmore. So I think even as I recognize this as a really important appointment, symbolically, and actually, literally, I think it’s also important for us to appreciate there is a lot of work that needs to be done and I want to be known as somebody who helped move the college forward in a lot of important ways.

Q: If you were doing a self-assessment on your first year at Swarthmore, what are your key accomplishments, and what is your one skill or goal you’re really going to work on?

VS: I would say I think one of my biggest accomplishments this year has been my efforts to reach out and get to know as many people as I have, both across the campus and the region and getting to know alumni. And I have really, really enjoyed that work immensely. And I have done that in a number of ways, attending student functions and inviting people into the president’s house.

One of my challenges for the future is figuring out time management. I’m going to have to figure out how to dedicate more time to the tough priority issues and figure out what I can delegate. I think this year I really tried to do everything, and that’s not sustainable.

Q: What do you feel you’re most passionate about?

VS: I think I’m probably most passionate about ensuring we create opportunities for everyone, wherever they find themselves, to feel that they are at home in their world and they feel they are highly valued for what they bring to their environment. And so I think that manifests itself in my work in terms of trying to create an inclusive community on our campus, one where whatever one’s station – a student, a faculty member, a staff person – one feels valued, and that one makes important contributions to their life and campus and that we’re always learning. And then I think in my own life, it means an enormous amount to me to be able to find my place and to feel at home in whatever world I occupy. Q: Does that mean being in the moment? VS: Yes, it absolutely does mean be in the moment. Being very reflective and thoughtful about where we find ourselves and what the potential is in each of those moments. For me, it’s also related to the importance of leading a well-rounded life and encouraging other people to lead well-rounded lives.

Q: Race and Real Estate. While you were Dean of the College and Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature, Department of English and African American Studies at Princeton University, you co-edited this book with Adrienne Brown, Assistant Professor of English at University of Chicago.  Why should we buy it?

VS: It grew out of a conference of the same name that I co-organized at Princeton. I’m actually really intrigued by the role of real estate and property ownership. The role these issues play in the making of American citizenship and a lot of the history of racial equality in this country has been played out around who has the right to buy property, where. Most recently of course when we look at the effect of race on mortgages and frankly the role racial inequality played in the mortgage crisis, I mean I think it’s a fascinating story that lies at the heart of “being American” narrative. Our volume is a collection of essays, but what’s special about this book is it takes an interdisciplinary look at this critical question. There are essays from people in sociology, law, literature, history, architecture, sort of all coming at this from a variety of different perspectives, disciplinary perspectives, as well as different points in the historical narrative. So the fact the book puts so many different places in conversation with each other is what makes it such a compelling text.

Q: Val, what’s one thing most people don’t know and might be surprised to find out about you?

VS: You know it’s funny because I feel like in a job like this I’m so public that people know a lot more about me than they did before. Maybe that I’m my happiest when I’m able to get a lot of exercise and so a good day for me is a day when I’m able to take a long walk and have a Pilates class and do some yoga. I think it’s happened like twice! (laughs)

And people know on this campus about me that I love taking walking meetings. I firmly believe you can go places in conversation with people when you are walking that you can’t go when you are sitting with them. So I am thrilled that so many people on campus are willing to take walks with me.