THE WEEKLY BLOG

Triangle toasts the Garden State

What do Bruce Springsteen, pharmaceutical companies, and cranberry bogs have in common? They’ve all called New Jersey home, and consequently, they’ll all be lampooned in the Princeton Triangle Club’s new revue, A Turnpike Runs Through It, playing Nov. 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. at McCarter Theatre.
The show follows a bus tour through the Garden State, led by two expert guides, and no subject is off limits - Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson 1879, even Washington crossing the Delaware. “We’re touching on just about everything we can find,” said club president Kelvin Dinkins ’09, “and ultimately, this writers’ workshop has made it all funny.”
Dinkins, back row, fourth from left in the photo above, will fill several roles, including a cheerleader, a first-grader, a talk-show host, and, in the club’s traditional all-male kickline, the most famous Jersey girl of all (though legally a resident of New York), the Statue of Liberty. In addition to a strong group of returning cast members, the fall show will mark the debut of 14 talented Triangle freshmen. Of the newcomers, Dinkins said, “I think the audience will be wowed.”
The professional staff of this year’s production draws on four accomplished Triangle alumni — director Glen Pannell ’87, choreographer Hans Kriefall ’87, music director Peter Mills ’95, and costume designer David Kaley ’97.
In late January, the club will take Turnpike on the road with a tour of the southeastern United States. Planned stops include Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta, and four Florida performances in Tampa, West Palm Beach, Miami, and Naples.
Tour information is available on the Triangle Club Web site.
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Fresh starts for men’s, women’s basketball

At Princeton basketball’s media day Nov. 6, new men’s head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 was tight-lipped about his team’s starting lineup, focusing instead on his goal of continuous improvement. “If we’re better today than we were yesterday, you’re talking to a happy coach,” Johnson said. So is he happy now? “I’m fairly happy,” he said. “I do think I’d be worried if I felt like this is our best basketball right now.”
Three starters — Kyle Koncz ’08, Marcus Schroeder ’10, and Lincoln Gunn ’10 — return for the Tigers, along with key reserves Noah Savage ’08, Zach Finley ’10, and Mike Strittmatter ’09. Penn, the defending Ivy champion, lost three starters to graduation, including All-Ivy players Ibby Jaaber and Mark Zoller, and Cornell, Yale, and Columbia are positioned to be strong challengers this year. Princeton, which was 2-12 in the league last season, aims to join that group.
The men play two home games (Nov. 11 vs. Central Connecticut and Nov. 14 vs. Iona) before facing Duke at the EA Sports Maui Invitational Nov. 19.
On the women’s side, new coach Courtney Banghart named her starters for Princeton’s opening game at Maryland Nov. 9: Meg Cowher ’08, Whitney Downs ’09, Caitlin O’Neill ’09, Ali Prichard ’08, and Tani Brown ’10. Of the five, Brown has the least experience, appearing in just 11 games as a freshman, but Banghart hopes that her strong front line can carry the team in its early games.
Cowher had a record-setting season in 2006-07, scoring 496 points (17.7 per game) to break the Tigers’ single-season high, set by Sandi Bittler ’90 in 1989. Banghart thinks that her star forward’s best is yet to come, thanks to her improvement on left-handed post moves. “She has a much more diverse arsenal now,” Banghart said. “When someone who is your star also is one of your best workers and is very coachable, that’s a deadly combination. She is both of those things.”
This season, the Tigers will face a challenging non-league schedule as they prepare for Ivy play, with home games against California (Dec. 8), Rutgers (Dec. 12), Syracuse (Dec. 16), and Vanderbilt (Jan. 5).

Jadwin’s wild side

With the exception of the players themselves, few students are more excited about the start of basketball season than Jamie Blackburn ’08, Jakob Deitch ’08, and Dave Valentine ’08, leaders of the Jadwin Jungle student cheering section. In October and November, the three seniors canvassed the eating clubs and residential colleges to recruit this year’s crop of rowdy Princeton rooters.
Getting students to sign up is not too difficult (Jungle members get a free T-shirt — orange and white tie-dye this year), and getting them to show up for a few games is no problem (free pizza is served before tip-off). But to build a consistently strong cheering section, you need a strong core of fans who feel invested in the team, Blackburn said, and “winning helps.” Last year, the men’s team’s 2-12 record in Ivy games took its toll on turnout in the Jungle.
A new season and a new coach have restored some of the excitement, and even if championship play does not return to the court, the three stalwart cheerleaders have learned to devote their energy to more creativity in the bleachers. They’ve helped to develop a few lasting gimmicks — yelling “off the hook” when a Tiger sinks a hook shot, falling backward when a Princeton defender draws a charge, and waving cafeteria trays for 3-pointers (or “treys”) — but Valentine’s favorite idea has remained elusive. “We’d like to get a door so we can hold it up for backdoor [lay-ups],” he explained, “but we haven’t figured that one out yet.”

Early ‘Winter’

Kut Akdogan ’10, left, and Sara-Ashley Bischoff ’09, rehearse a scene from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, the fall show of Princeton University’s Program in Theater and Dance, which debuts at the Berlind Theatre Nov. 9. New York-based director and choreographer Tracy Bersley, a lecturer in the theater and dance program, will direct the production’s five performances, Nov. 9, 10, 15, 16, and 17, at 8 p.m.
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

More at PAW Online

Math lessons - What Carl L. Heimowitz ’64 remembers about his days in the math department are the people - “alternately crazy and great” - doing work that changed the world.

War stories - E.B. Boyd ’89 profiles five young alumni who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rally ’Round the Cannon - Gregg Lange ’70 describes how, in the days before the Nassau Herald or the Bric-a-Brac, the Senior Autograph Book spoke volumes.

Football fails to leash Yale

A year ago, Princeton football’s second-half comeback at Yale helped the Tigers secure a win and a share of the Ivy League championship. While the Tigers slipped out of the Ivy title chase early this year, they tried to pick up where they left off against the undefeated Bulldogs at Princeton Stadium Nov. 10, surging through the defense for 361 yards, compared to 272 for Yale. But a pair of early fumbles kept Princeton out of the end zone, and the Bulldogs eventually broke through with 24 second-half points in a 27-6 victory.
Yale running back Mike McLeod, who averaged more than 180 yards rushing in his first eight games this year, ran for just 107 yards against Princeton. “Our kids just played their tails off,” head coach Roger Hughes said. “I thought our defensive line as a whole did a great job against their offensive line.”
Yale’s defense also was impressive, holding the Tigers to two field goals. Cornerback Casey Gerald said that the Yale coaches made the players watch film of last season’s loss to Princeton during the preseason and a few days before this year’s game. “We’ve had those images of getting beat and giving up plays for about a year,” he said. “[But] it wasn’t a revenge game. It was just us going out and doing what we’re supposed to do.”
Princeton will finish its season at Dartmouth Nov. 17, while Yale will host Harvard in a game that will determine this year’s Ivy champion.
Above: The Princeton Tiger had a grip on Yale mascot Handsome Dan, but on the field, the Bulldogs were harder to contain. Photo by Beverly Schaefer

Princeton’s own ‘de’ Medici’

Peter B. Lewis ’55 was described by President Tilghman as “a modern-day version of Lorenzo de’ Medici” as the University recognized his $101 million donation by renaming the Center for the Arts after him. Lewis, a Princeton trustee and chairman of the board of Progressive Corp., was honored with a series of public and private events Nov. 8 and 9 for his gift in support of the arts.
Lewis received a portfolio of student and faculty art work and signed copies of books by noted faculty authors at a reception Thursday at 185 Nassau St. Thursday evening, and the Lewis family had a private dinner on the stage of Richardson Auditorium with Tilghman, trustees, friends, and faculty. The Lewis Center for the Arts — described by poet Paul Muldoon, the chairman of the center, as “a new iambic tetrameter destined for eternity” — was launched publicly with a celebration of the arts at Princeton Nov. 9 in Richardson. Students and alumni offered a series of music, theater, and dance performances.
“It is a real privilege to be able to do the things I’ve been able to do,” Lewis told the audience. “Princeton makes it a pleasure to give.” By W. Raymond Ollwerther ’71

Alumni in the news, sports edition

Fighting is on the rise in the NHL, and according to an Oct. 30 article in the Winnipeg Free Press, a Princeton alumnus is partly to blame. The Free Press quoted an unnamed NHL executive who said, “Lots of teams saw what the [Anaheim] Ducks went and did last year, getting bigger and fighting a lot and winning the Cup, so they’ve added some size.” Anaheim’s chief enforcer is 6-foot-5-inch, 230-pound defenseman George Parros ’03, “part of the new breed” of hockey tough guys, according to the newspaper. … Former women’s hockey goalie Megan Van Beusekom ’04 helped the U.S. Women’s Select Team to a second-place finish at the Four Nations Cup Nov. 7-11. Van Beusekom made 13 saves and allowed one goal in the Americans’ 2-1 win over Finland Nov. 10. … Men’s track alumnus Chris Banks ’00 placed 89th in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in New York Nov. 3, completing the 26.2-mile Central Park course in 2:30.22. … San Francisco 49ers fullback Zak Keasey ’05 has spent the season moving back and forth between the team’s practice squad and its active roster, where he has become a key special teams player. The San Francisco Chronicle documented Keasey’s journey in two recent stories.

Hoops in Hawaii; cross country championships

Princeton men’s basketball will make its 2007-08 national television debut Nov. 19 against Duke at the EA Sports Maui Invitational. The Tigers, who won their opener against Central Connecticut State Nov. 12, face the 13th-ranked Blue Devils at 9 p.m. on ESPN2. All 12 tournament games will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU.
Viewers also can watch runners from the Princeton women’s and men’s cross country teams on Nov. 19 as they compete at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Beginning at noon, CSTV will air the first live broadcast in the event’s history, and the Princeton women, ranked No. 4 nationally, could contend for the title. The women have won every race they’ve entered this season, including an impressive victory at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, where all seven Tigers finished in the top 25. Three Princeton men qualified for the meet as individuals: 2006 All-American David Nightingale ’08, 2007 Ivy League champion Michael Maag ’09, and talented sophomore Ben Sitler.

A history of currency

A new exhibit at Firestone Library examines the early days of coin collecting, when renaissance scholars used coins and texts to decipher the monetary system of ancient Rome and answer other historical questions.
“Numismatics in the Renaissance,” at Firestone’s main gallery, opened with a daylong conference Nov. 9 and will remain on display through July 20, 2008. In addition to displaying ancient coins that bear the images of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Caligula, and others, the exhibit explains how 16th-century Europeans systematically studied the “material remains” of classical civilization, giving rise to numismatics, archaeology, and epigraphy (the study of inscriptions).
While the faces on coins were the primary source of fascination, the images on the reverse - of animals, goddesses, and symbols - also provided insight for the study of different time periods. The Firestone exhibit presents several books in which early drawings of coins were published and the actual coins represented in the illustrations.
The exhibit highlights the University’s Numismatic Collection, which contains about 60,000 items, including coins, medals, and paper money.

Up with oomph

Men’s basketball center Zach Finley ’10 muscles through the defense during Princeton’s 66-58 win over Iona Nov. 14. The Tigers won their first two games under new coach Sydney Johnson ’97 (profiled in the Nov. 21 issue of PAW) before falling to Duke 83-61 in the first round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational Nov. 19. Through the first three games, Finley led Princeton in scoring (14.7 points per game) and was tied for first in rebounding (5.3 rebounds per game).
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

New book: Persuasion as art

Do you woo? You should, if you hope to succeed in business, according to Wharton professor G. Richard Shell ’71 and colleague Mario Moussa, the authors of The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas (Portfolio). “Woo-ing,” in this case, refers to “winning others over,” a concept coined by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton in their bestseller, Now, Discover Your Strengths. Shell and Moussa dissect the important steps of wooing, from getting people’s attention to closing a deal, using anecdotes about some of history’s “greatest persuaders” and lists of things to keep in mind, including “10 questions for would-be wooers.”
For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

More at PAW Online

Roman ambassador — In the wake of the Art Museum’s recent return of Italian artifacts, PAW revisits the post-World War II story of a well-traveled ancient goat head.
On the Campus — On the Street, the mood has swung from carefree to careful; the Office of Religious Life moves to “humanize” the Chapel.
Rally ’Round the Cannon — Gregg Lange ’70 probes the mystery of why the Cannon on the Green is slowly sinking.

Women’s volleyball jumps into postseason

Princeton women’s volleyball will face Delaware Nov. 30 in the opening round of the NCAA Championships at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y. The Tigers won all 14 of their Ivy League matches and carry a 20-match winning streak into their meeting with the 30-4 Blue Hens.
Princeton (22-3 overall) features three All-Ivy first-team players (Parker Henritze ’09, the league’s player of the year; setter Bailey Robinson ’09, who led the nation in assists per game; and Lindsey Ensign ’09, the team’s top blocker), as well as a veteran coach, Glenn Nelson, who recently set the Princeton record for wins in any sport.
Nelson credits his players for this season’s magical run. “They have such physical talent,” he told PAW contributor Josh Stephens ’97. “I’ve said all along, if you can jump higher and hit harder than the team you’re playing against, you’re probably going to win.”
View the complete bracket for the 64-team NCAA Championships at ncaasports.com.

Faculty in the news

Mideast scholar and emeritus professor Bernard Lewis gave his thoughts about Israel and Palestine in advance of this week’s Annapolis peace conference in The Wall Street Journal Nov. 26 (subscription required). … In presidential politics, history professor Sean Wilentz made his case for Hillary Clinton on the Newsweek blog of Andrew Romano ’04 earlier this month. Meanwhile, colleagues James McPherson and Albert Raboteau signed on to the “historians for Obama” endorsement, released through the History News Network. … Chris Boucek, postdoctoral research associate and lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School, spoke about his research on Saudi Arabia’s program to rehabilitate freed terrorism suspects in a Nov. 22 Boston Globe story. … In its December issue, Smithsonian Magazine profiled photographer Emmet Gowin, a professor of visual arts, and his “most enduring subject,” wife Edith.

Autumn ride

Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, but students like this one in front of Whig Hall were still riding their bikes in sweatshirts earlier this week, thanks to mild late-November weather.
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski