U of M News Wire
April 3, 2008
University Reveals Winning Apple Name
By Luisa Badaracco
U of M News Wire
The wait is over. The University of Minnesota has announced the winning name of its newest apple, Frostbite.
Formerly known as "MN447," Frostbite dates back to 1921 when the cross-pollinating of two apple blossoms was made at the university's Horticultural Research Center (HRC), now in its 100th year. The apple is actually a grandparent of the most famous U of M apple, Honeycrisp, and joins a long line of successes including Haralson, Zestar and Snowsweet apples. The center is also responsible for several new grape varieties, including the LaCrescent and Frontenac, and plants such as the northern-hardy "Lights" azaleas.
The naming of the apple was chosen following a contest at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum that saw more than 7,000 entries worldwide. Ten Minnesotans who independently submitted the winning name are Lisa Rolf of Eden Prairie, Ted and Caroline Larson of Chaska, Ann Stout of Woodbury, Bonnie Winzenburg of Brainerd, Matt Zitzow of Roseville, Dianne Brackett of Wayzata, Kelly Olinger of White Bear Lake, Cindi Cardinal of Coon Rapids and Linda Davis of Coon Rapids. They will each receive a certificate of congratulations and a basket of Frostbites.
"We're excited to finally have a name," said Jim Luby, a professor in the university's department of horticultural science. "The public interest in this naming was tremendous."
Luby and David Bedford, an apple scientist at HRC, coordinated the judging process. The committee selected two runners-up: "Munchkin" and "Small Wonder."
"It was an exhausting process, but we're very happy with the results," said Bedford.
Frostbite is a specialty apple with striking characteristics -- it is small in size; it has an unusual, almost tropical, flavor; and it is the most winter hardy apple ever released by the university. It is suited for home gardeners and orchards that market directly to consumers.
While the Frostbite name is here, consumers will have to wait to eat the apples. Commercial nurseries will soon start propagating the trees, which will be ready for gardeners and orchards to plant in one to two years. The first trees will then bear fruit to sell around 2014.
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Ralph Rapson dies at 93
The head of the University of Minnesota's School of Architecture for 30 years, Rapson left a legacy of inventiveness.
By Luisa Badaracco
U of M News Wire
Ralph Rapson, celebrated architect and Head of the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota for 30 years, died at his home on Saturday. He was 93.
As the architect of many important Twin Cities buildings, including the original Guthrie Theater (1963), the Philip W. Pillsbury House (1965) and Cedar Square West (now Riverside Plaza, 1973), Rapson had a national and international reputation, designing award-winning buildings across the United States as well as the American embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen. He also designed numerous single- and multi-family housing, churches and institutional buildings, such as the Rarig Center for the Performing Arts (1972) on the Twin Cities campus and the Humanities and Fine Arts Building (1973) on the Morris Campus of the University of Minnesota. One of the last of the second generation of Modern architects in America still practicing, Rapson was at the drawing board the day of his passing.
Rapson's achievements at the University of Minnesota included ushering in a new era of modern design, a dramatic departure from the Beaux Arts tradition that had formerly characterized architectural education at the university. Rapson's vision of an integrated approach to design led him to establish the program in landscape architecture and to advocate for all of the design disciplines being in one unit, something that the university achieved with the College of Design in 2006. He served as the head of the School of Architecture from 1954 to1984, and Rapson Hall -- home of the College of Design's School of Architecture, department of landscape architecture and other units -- is named in his honor. Rapson also helped establish the Ralph Rapson Traveling Fellowship, which enables university graduates and local architects to travel and continue their architectural studies.
"While Ralph lived long enough," said College of Design Dean Thomas Fisher, "to see the demolition of some of his many outstanding buildings -- the Guthrie Theater, the Pillsbury House, the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church -- he also saw a widespread revival of interest in his work over the last decade or two, especially in his low-cost, prefabricated housing ideas and in his light-weight furniture designs. His architecture reflected his personality: modest and unassuming and, at the same time, playful and inventive. Ralph's passing represents the end of an era, not just for Minnesota's design community, but also for American architecture. One of our last living links to the first generation of Modernists, such as the famous Finish architect Alvar Aalto, is now gone."
A graduate of the University of Michigan and Cranbrook Academy, Rapson was a colleague of mid-century modern designers such as Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, and a fellow educator with Aalto at MIT. Rapson also led the architecture department of the New Bauhaus School in Chicago, before coming to Minnesota in 1954, where, in addition to heading the architecture school, he established the firm, Ralph Rapson and Associates, Inc., in Minneapolis. His architect-son, Toby, who graduated from the University of Minnesota and is now the firm's president, eventually joined Rapson. Recent projects by the firm include the State of Minnesota Centennial Building, the Mixed Blood Theater and the Conservatory at the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum.
Rapson's career and his many contributions to the communities he worked in are chronicled in a 1999 book, "Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design," co-authored by Rapson's son, Rip Rapson, Jane King Hession and Bruce Wright. In the introduction, the authors identify the intrinsic spirit that characterized all of Rapson's pursuits -- teaching, design practice, mentoring of students and faculty and community involvement. His drawings, they write, are:
"...always full of people -- not the required scale figures one usually sees in architectural rendering but people with personalities. Indeed, over the course of his career, Ralph Rapson may well have drawn more people than any other architect past or present... This focus is telling, because it shows that he has never lost sight of the fact that architecture is first and foremost, about the people who use it."
Numerous awards have been bestowed upon Rapson, including five national American Institute of Architecture (AIA) awards, the ACSA/AIA Topaz Medal for Educational Excellence, and five Progressive Architecture awards.
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Growing Concerns
A parenting question-and-answer column with Dr. Martha Erickson of the University of Minnesota
Question: When I tell our kids to do anything like clean up their room, help with the dishes or stop playing and get ready for bed, they grumble and fuss – or outright refuse to do what I ask. I feel like I’m spending every evening in a battle trying to get the kids to cooperate. How can I break this cycle?
Answer: Whether it’s a preschool child refusing to pick up toys, a 10-year-old pushing to stay up late, or a teenager trying to avoid household chores, a child’s resistance can make a parent’s hair stand on end. It’s easy to rise to the bait and turn even a minor challenge into a major power struggle, but that ends up being miserable for everyone. Instead, there are steps you can take to prevent or defuse a conflict and help your children learn valuable lessons about respect and cooperation.
• First, make sure what you’re asking of the child is reasonable. For example, a preschooler might feel overwhelmed by being asked to clean up a room independently. But if you say, “Let’s do this together” – and offer encouragement along the way – it’s a do-able task.
• Second, a lot of grumbling can be prevented if you give children a 5 or 10-minute “heads-up” notice that they need to finish what they’re doing so they can put their toys away, get ready for bed or whatever the task at hand is.
Even with those steps, you’re still likely to encounter grumbling or resistance sometimes. When that happens, consider these tips:
• Acknowledge your child’s feelings. When kids grumble, they often just want to be heard. So simply say something like, “Yeah, I know doing dishes isn’t much fun. But it will feel good when they’re all done and you can go play.”
• To the extent possible, offer your child choices. For example, you can’t waver from the expectation that your children will complete their homework every evening. But you can offer choices as to exactly when and where they do the work.
• If your child refuses to do what you’ve asked, calmly state what the consequence will be if your child doesn’t comply within a stated time (usually 5 – 15 minutes, depending on the child’s age and the situation). Without getting carried away by anger, make sure the stated consequence fits the situation. For example, if a child doesn’t help with the dishes when asked, he might lose his TV privileges for the evening.
• Next, step back and allow your child time to comply. When kids are resistant, too often we parents move in closer and increase the volume and intensity of our demands. Then our child matches that intensity by increasing his or her resistance. By stepping back instead, we allow our child to save face and “choose” to cooperate.
• If your child still doesn’t follow through, impose the promised consequence swiftly and matter-of-factly. Shouting or bombarding a child with angry words does no good at this point. He or she needs to see that you meant what you said. Period.
• Once the consequence has been imposed, move on without bearing a grudge. Let your clearly stated expectations and carefully chosen consequences speak for themselves and allow your child see that he or she can start fresh the next time.
• Finally, don’t forget to “catch your children being good.” Let them know you appreciate it when they follow directions, especially when they do so cheerfully.
It’s important to understand that all children are uncooperative at times. And at certain ages, especially during the toddler period and early adolescence, resistance and defiance are especially common as kids struggle to prove their independence. However, professional help is in order if defiance is very intense, lasts for many months, cuts across many situations, and interferes with a child’s ability to have warm, supportive relationships with family, teachers or friends.
Want to hear more parenting advice?
Dr. Erickson and her daughter can be heard every Sunday, from 2 - 4 pm, on “Good Enough Moms,” on FM107.1 radio in the Twin Cities or via Webcast at www.FM1071.com
