The View From Saturday

Mrs. Olinski watches the contest from the aisle. She is sitting beside Dr. Roy Clayton Rohmer, the District Superintendent for Clarion County. As they watch, Mrs. Olinski thinks about her prior interactions with Dr. Rohmer. When Epiphany won the middle school championship, Dr. Rohmer had asked Mrs. Olinski how she had chosen her team, to which she jokingly replied, “In the interest of diversity, […] I chose a brunette, a redhead, a blond, and a kid with hair as black as print on paper” (22). Dr. Rohmer responded by lecturing Mrs. Olinski on “multiculturalism,” to which she said, “Oh, […] then we are still safe […] You can tell the taxpayers that the Epiphany Middle School team has one Jew, one half-Jew, a WASP, and an Indian” (22). Dr. Rohmer demonstrates his ignorance by insisting that the “Indian” team member must be called “Native American” (despite the fact that Julian’s family is from India) and by asking Mrs. Olinski how she would feel being called a “cripple.”

The redhead among Mrs. Olinski’s Souls is Nadia Diamondstein. Nadia hits the buzzer first when the New York Commissioner of Education asks the second question: “What is the name given to that portion of the North Atlantic Ocean that is noted for its abundance of seaweed, and what is its importance to the ecology of our planet?” (24).