This week’s 125 Faces
Name: David Tack
Profession: Assistant professor of educational foundations, coordinator of secondary education
No. of years at MSUM: 3
Q: What is one of your favorite hobbies?
A: Oh, well that’s an easy one. I love to golf – if you can call it that – and every summer, we have the Author Open, or the Poet Pro-Am, I guess, with Thom Thammaro and Mark Vinz and Terry Rude, all of the English department, and then me. Although they can kick my butt in poetry, I can hold my own on the course. It’s great fun, and I think it’s really surreal to know that I go home, and I have their books on my shelves. I read them, truly love them and admire what they do as poets. They’re just great, great people. To sit in the golf cart just talking – it’s just the best. I play guitar a lot, so that’s my other one. I’m big into music. My buddy and I play a lot of music together. It’s been awhile since we’ve done live shows, but we still get together and think we’re rock stars.
Q: If you could listen to anything right now in your current mood, what would it be?
A: That’s like asking an English major what their favorite book is. You did state “in my current mood,” and right now, I’ve been listening to Sun Airway, and I really like The Sea and Cake a lot. Their new CD is amazing. But, regardless of my mood ever, there are two albums I would listen to that are always going to be a win. The album that still elevates me to a whole new level would be “The Joshua Tree” by U2. Without a doubt, I don’t know if there’s a more perfect record made from start to finish. Whiskeytown’s “Strangers Almanac” still brings tears to my eyes when I hear it. I remember buying that, and it did not leave my CD player for six months.
Q: What do you think was the weirdest era?
A: I’m going to go through experience. I was born in 1974, and I remember babysitters with bell-bottoms and listening to Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana.” That was pretty messed up. I went through the ‘80s, and later in high school, I embraced alternative – that Seattle scene, with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone – and I just loved that. But I would have to say that mid-to-late ‘80s, early ‘90s was just bizzaro for me. It was such a dichotomous relationship when I think of what my town, my friends and my world, as I knew it, was embracing with the mullet, tearing your muscle shirts, playing hockey and having your hair flapping out the back, and I, as I mentioned, I went the other way. I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, I was pretty good, but I put mousse in my hair, I grew sideburns, and I was peg rollin’ my jeans, buying Gerbeaus – stuff like that. I guess it was the first time I was really trying to establish where I was and break away from the conformity of what was around me.
Name: Lacey SagaProfession: Director of MSUM Early Education Center
No. of years at MSUM: 7
Q: What is one of your favorite aspects of your job?
A: That it’s different every day. I like the aspect the campus brings to it versus just a childcare center that is off campus because it kind of adds more variety.
Q: What is one of the funniest things you’ve heard a kid say?
A: I remember this story because I tell it a lot, but I hear them say a lot of funny things. On our Facebook Page, I write kid quotes of just random things they say during the day. One day, I was doing circle time, and this little boy sneezed all over himself. He was surprised by it, and said, “I just blessed all over myself!”
Q: What is one of your favorite family traditions?
A: We exchange gifts at Christmas, but we draw names, so you don’t have to buy for everyone. But we get everybody a little thing to put in their stocking, so I like picking out the different things that will go in there. You’re not supposed to spend more than $5 on the stocking gift, so it has to be small. Everybody’s is different. You don’t know what’s going to be in your stocking! It’s like being a kid again.