More Father's Day happenings

The F1 stopped by to give the Phactor a decent bottle of bourbon, and it is much appreciated.  Really good bourbons are out of her budget, but they're sort of out of my price range too.  It was very thoughtful, and a bit old fashioned (pun).  A bit later Komi called, a foreign student from years ago, but as loyal as a hound dog, to wish the Phactor well.  This was from a time when we had a monopoly on students from the 4-lettered African countries: Togo, Chad, Mali. It was good to hear from him.  More recently we've had two German graduate students living with us, sequentially, for about 2.5 months each, both charming in their own way.  And this is one of the great things about working at a university, interacting with students, especially foreign students who need generous people like us. It has never struck me as fathering, my interaction with foreign students, but it has been quite rewarding as a sort of mentor.  And the F1 has made us very proud by being very welcoming to these interlopers, these surrogates, giving them a younger view of life in the USA, to the point of really befriending a couple of them.  In fact in combination, our influence on one of the recent visiting borders resulted in several interesting reactions: 1. spiced pecans were a huge hit, as they have been with many others, and 2. her Father got a gift of bourbon (curiously the same brand the Phactor just received).  It's not the same, it's not really fathering, but how nice of them to just remember that you helped them out, and taught them a little something.