Tiger of the Week: Jodi Picoult ’87

Life is good for Jodi Picoult ’87. Last week, Handle With Care, the author’s 16th novel, debuted in the No. 1 spot of the New York Times Best Sellers List for fiction. It is the latest in a string of successful books about families and relationships.

Picoult routinely writes about gut-wrenching family situations — in Handle With Care, parents grapple with medical ethics and personal morality after the birth of a severely disabled child — but the author says her life at home has been free of such drama. “I had an incredibly happy childhood,” Picoult told USA Today earlier this month. “I married a terrific guy [fellow Princetonian Tim van Leer ’86] when I was 23. I have great, well-adjusted kids.”

On top of that, Picoult is our Tiger of the Week. What could be better?

Read two Jodi Picoult ’87 essays from PAW’s archives:

Against the current, Picoult’s recollection of her experiences as the first woman coxswain for a men’s heavyweight crew at Princeton (July 3, 2002)

Writing a challenging read: Why I write banned books (June 8, 2005)

(Photo courtesy JodiPicoult.com)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

New art by Weatherford ’84 on display in Los Angeles

The work of Los Angeles-based artist Mary K. Weatherford ’84, including “January cave,” right, is featured in an exhibit at ACME., a gallery in Los Angeles, through April 18. Curated by New York painter Stephen Westfall (who has lectured at Princeton), the exhibit, titled “The Ballad That Becomes an Anthem,” also includes works by Mary Heilmann, Chris Martin, Rebecca Morris, Amy Sillman, and Westfall. Weatherford’s paintings of vines and caves have been called “complex ruminations on spatial depth” by C Magazine.

For Nelson ’77, a whirlwind tour with Shakespeare and Chekov

(Photo by Joan Marcus)

During the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s production of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” this winter, Mark Nelson ’77, center, playing the Lord of Sicilia, was “trying to keep order in the court” between Hermione (Rebecca Hall) and Leontes (Simon Russell Beale). A member of the Bridge Project, the new classical repertory company comprised of American and British actors, Nelson is on a five-month world tour performing “The Winter’s Tale” and Tom Stoppard’s new version of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”

The Bridge Project (created by British director Sam Mendes, actor Kevin Spacey, and Joseph Melillo, executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music) is headed to The Singapore Repertory Theatre March 26-31; the Edge in Auckland, New Zealand, April 8-12; Teatro Espanol in Madrid April 18-29; the Ruhr Festival in Germany May 3-13; and the Old Vic theater in London May 23-Aug. 15. The group completes its tour at the ancient theater of Epidaurus in Greece Aug. 21-22.

Felix ’97 stars on Web series

Actor Todd Felix ’97, who has appeared on TV in CSI, Felicity, ER, and The Mentalist, is taking on a new medium as a star of the Web series My Two Fans. The show follows the life of an average late-20’s single woman, Kate Maxwell (played by Barret Swatek) as she rebounds from a broken heart with the help of her two fans — Franklin (Felix) and Teddy (Bill Escudier). As fans, not friends, they insert themselves into Kate’s life, root her on through life’s ups and downs, and clean up her dating disasters. The series launched its first webisode March 9. To watch the show, visit www.mytwofans.com.

Programming note: Reid ’66 to debut ‘Sick Around America’

“Sick Around America,” T.R. Reid ’66’s documentary follow-up to 2008’s “Sick Around the World,” will debut on Frontline March 31 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS stations. The program takes a look at health care in the United States, focusing on the uninsured or underinsured and highlighting problems that small businesses face as they try to insure their employees.

Items for this post were prepared by Katherine Federici Greenwood and Brett Tomlinson.

President Tilghman speaks with Charlie Rose

Tiger of the Week: Denny Chin ’75

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ’75, a district judge since 1994, is “known in the legal community as even-tempered, fair, witty, and unafraid to make tough decisions,” according to Reuters. Those qualities were tested under an international spotlight March 12 when Chin’s Manhattan courtroom handled a key hearing in the case of Bernard Madoff, who was charged with 11 counts related to a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Chin made a decision that drew cheers from dozens of people in his Manhattan courtroom. After listening to three jilted investors and hearing Madoff’s admission of guilt, the judge ordered Madoff to jail, revoking bail and setting June 16 as the date for the fraudulent financier’s sentencing. He also ensured that Madoff’s victims would have an opportunity to speak at the sentencing. But Chin was not a complete crowd-pleaser — Bloomberg.com reported that he quieted investors’ jeers on at least one occasion. For his poise under pressure, Chin is our Tiger of the Week.

The applause at the end of the proceedings did little to mask an unpleasant reality. As Lev Dassin, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted, investors are unlikely to recover more than a small fraction of their losses.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Winners in winter

For Princeton athletics, the list of 2008-09 Ivy League champions expanded by three during the winter season, with women’s squash, men’s squash, and men’s swimming capturing team titles. The men’s hockey team missed its chance at the Ivy crown but will play for the ECAC Hockey championship — and an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Championships — in Albany, N.Y., March 20-21.

Women’s squash had the most impressive run of Princeton’s winter season, winning all 13 of its matches en route to a third consecutive win at the Howe Cup, the sport’s collegiate national championship. The Tigers were dominant at times, winning by a 9-0 or 8-1 score in more than half of their matches. But they also were outstanding when tested. Princeton beat Harvard 5-4 on two occasions — first to wrap up the Ivy title Feb. 8 and then to win the Howe Cup a week later.

In men’s squash, Princeton’s championship was its fourth in four years, an unprecedented feat that highlighted the contributions of senior stars Mauricio Sanchez, Kimlee Wong, and Hesham El Halaby. The Tigers challenged 10-time defending champion Trinity in the national final and lost 5-4 in a contest decided in the fifth game of the ninth match.

The men’s swimming team captured the Ivy title for the third time in four years. The Tigers won the final four events of the championship meet, held March 5-7 at DeNunzio Pool, to extend their lead over second-place Harvard. Doug Lennox ’09 scored wins in the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly events, shattering his own meet records in both.

The most decorated individual athlete of the winter may be men’s hockey goalie Zane Kalemba ’10, who earned Player of the Year honors from both the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey (as well as Goalie of the Year in ECAC Hockey). Classmate and swimming star Alicia Aemisegger also added to her impressive résumé, earning the Swimmer of the Meet title at the Ivy championships for the third straight year. Aemisegger will compete at the NCAA Championships March 19-21.

Senior thesis spotlight: Cracking the code

With funding from the history department, Kelly Stewart ’09 spent her winter break traveling to libraries and archives in Cuenca, Spain, where the 12th-century law code Stewart is studying for her senior thesis was written.

Stewart is examining the Reconquest period, when Christians regained control of the land from Muslims, and the legal code that was intended to create a more stable, family-oriented society. The Fuero de Cuenca, the code handed down by King Alfonso VIII, was seen meant to represent stability, law, and justice in the region. As “one of the first of its kind,” Stewart noted, it was admired and imitated by Christian settlements in the area.

“What disappoints me is that it’s impossible to know how these laws were enforced,” Stewart said. She is intrigued by some of the trial-by-battle rules, which declare God’s intervention as a deciding factor in a fight to the death, as well as laws that protected women and their honor.

While exploring Cuenca and researching at the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid, the Cuenca Provincial Archive, and the Catedral de Cuenca, Stewart was able see architecture from the time period. And at an 800th anniversary event at the Catedral, she saw a page from the original code displayed, written in Castilian.

Some of the most rewarding experiences of her trip were learning to navigate through the old town, walking on its hills, and seeing the cliffs and rivers that mark important geographical boundaries. Cuenca sits perched between two gorges, part of its defense against invaders.

“It really does bring the project to life by seeing it in context,” Stewart said. By Julia Osellame ’09

Above, Kelly Stewart ’09 in Cuenca, Spain. (Photo courtesy Kelly Stewart ’09)

Read other senior thesis spotlights: Chip Snyder ’09 on safari | Adrian Diaz ’09 gets ‘Lost’ | Rosa Marie Maiorella ’09 researches ‘boogie houses’

More from ‘Joker One’ author Campbell ’01

Author and former Marine Lt. Donovan Campbell ’01, featured in the Books and Arts section of PAW’s March 18 issue, spoke about his new memoir, Joker One, with Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air March 5.

Click here to listen to the interview and read an excerpt of Campbell’s book at NPR.org.

MFA Boston displays works collected by Horace Wood Brock *75

When it comes to art in the era of $17-million Damien Hirst sharks, Horace “Woody” Brock *75 is a contrarian. “Splendor and Elegance: European Decorative Arts and Drawings from the Horace Wood Brock Collection,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, includes many works that Brock has bought since earning his Ph.D. in mathematical economics. The works include Louis XIV clocks, George II chairs, and Tiepolo drawings — each of superb design, workmanship, and quality.

“The kinds of things I have loved have become ever more unfashionable since I began collecting 30 years ago,” Brock writes in “The Truth about Beauty,” his essay in the MFA’s catalog. “Beauty per se is out, and ‘interesting’ shock-art is in. As for my love of elegance, God forbid! This is today’s form of ‘the love that dare not speak its name.’ As a result of such changing tastes, there has never been a better time to acquire works of great beauty and elegance.”

The fruits of Brock’s countless hours visiting collections, working with dealers, and studying art — mostly English, French, and Italian works from 1675-1820 — can be seen in Boston until May 17.

After Princeton, Brock founded Strategic Economic Decisions, a consulting group that advises governments, corporations, and private investors on economic risk. Of the prospects of financial gain as an art collector, he says, “I realized as an economist that attempting to ‘beat the market’ or find bargains would prove ill-fated.” By Richard Trenner ’70

Works on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, include at top, Resurrection of Christ, a drawing by the Italian artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo; and at left, Louis XVI mounted vase (beau bleu vase Daguerre ovale or cassolette à monter), from the French Sèvres factory, about 1786-88, with mounts attributed to Pierre Philippe Thomire.

Richard Trenner ’70, who taught writing at the Woodrow Wilson School for 10 years, is a Princeton-based writer, editor, and communication consultant.

Panelists debate ‘justice after Bush’

In the wake of President Barack Obama’s historic election, scholars continue to look back and re-evaluate the conduct of the president who came before, George W. Bush. On March 10, four experts met at a Princeton panel discussion of “Justice After Bush: Should Former Administration Officials be Prosecuted?” sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School Program in Law and Public Affairs. The panelists discussed the feasibility and rationale for prosecuting the Bush administration for war crimes.

István Déak, a premier scholar on World War II war crimes and emeritus professor at Columbia University, began the talk with a brief history of postwar prosecutions and purges in Europe, where hundreds of thousands were either executed or forced from official positions after the Allied victory.

“The Nuremberg trials are not the example for us,” Déak said. Instead, he instructed the audience and panel to consider a policy more in line with a purge, which would dishonorably discharge people at fault. In Austria alone, he said, 300,000 civil servants from teachers to postmen were dismissed for their association with the Nazi party. “The aim of the purges was much more than punishment, [it was] the idea of changing society,” he said.

With a much more opinionated view, Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has been coordinating litigation on behalf of the Guantanamo Bay detainees, ardently supported harsh prosecution of the Bush administration. “You have to have criminal accountability to deter torture in the future,” he said.

Charles Fried ’56 opposed Ratner, finding his moral stance dubious. Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School whose former posts include U.S. solicitor general and associate justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, said that extending prosecution to members of the National Security Agency’s team, for wiretapping domestic phones and cyberspace, is equivalent to a “fetishization of law.”

“There is something odd about this certainty because it’s beginning to look a lot like the prosecution of losers by winners,” he said. “It’s beginning to look like vindictiveness.”

Scott Horton, a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, agreed and suggested that an overtly non-partisan commission would be a better solution than prosecution to get at the truth behind war crimes allegations against the former administration.

Said Horton, “Truth is the mainstay of our democracy.” By Julia Osellame ’09

New book: Helping kids face shots

Almost any parent knows how frightened small children can become when faced with the prospect of getting a shot. As a child, Daphne Nizza Shaw ’93 had that fear of needles. She remembers running away from a nurse on one occasion. Her mother eased the dread by promising to buy her a toy after her doctor’s visit. Today, as a pediatrician in Texas, Shaw helps her own little patients deal with their fear of vaccinations. One tip she offers parents is to bring distractions — a stuffed animal, bubbles, or book — to her office.

After hearing so many children ask her, “Do I need a shot?” Shaw decided to offer her own distraction: a picture book about a little girl who tries to get out of shots by promising to clean up her doctor’s office. Shaw wrote the story, illustrated it, and published No Shots for Me. In the end, the character gets distracted by her imagination and braves the shots, realizing that vaccinations aren’t so bad.

Shaw counsels parents to talk to their children about shots well before they need to get them and to be honest that shots do hurt. “I don’t advise the sneak-up approach,” she says, referring to some parents’ strategy of withholding the information until the moment before the child faces a nurse holding a needle. Telling kids a month in advance, however, can provoke anxiety. Parents, she adds, should explain that vaccinations deter serious illness that can hurt much more than one shot. Shaw has noticed that patients who “think about other things or sing or blow bubbles or listen to their favorite book being read … can be distracted enough to be done with the shot before they knew it happened.”

Shaw has donated proceeds from the sale of her book to benefit organizations, including Texas Children’s Hospital and an organization that benefits Houston’s homeless, and she plans to donate a portion of future proceeds to the Lisa Bryant ’93 Scholarship Fund. By Katherine Federici Greenwood

UPDATE: The book can be purchased at www.noshotsforme.com. Princeton alumni can put “PU” on their name line when purchasing a book to direct a portion of the proceeds to the Lisa Bryant ’93 Scholarship Fund.

Fictional Princetonians: Answers

Congratulations to James Steward, who earned a copy of The Best of PAW by correctly answering all six of the March 4 Weekly Blog quiz questions. For those who were stumped, the correct responses are listed below.

1. Mel Ferrer ’39 played Robert Cohn in the film adaptation of The Sun Also Rises.

2. Doogie Howser was the precocious TV doctor who, according to the script, earned his Princeton diploma at age 10.

3. Cameron Diaz played fictional alumnus Mary Jensen in the 1998 comedy hit Something About Mary.

4. Batman attended Princeton — and dropped out — in the 2005 Christian Bale film Batman Begins.

5. Jude Law played wealthy (and fictional) alumnus Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

6. With a big job promotion on the horizon, Jack Donaghy of TV’s 30 Rock quipped, “I wish I had a Princeton reunion right now.”

Tiger of the Week: Howard Gordon ’84

Jack Bauer, the hero of TV’s 24, devotes his life to protecting the world from terrorists. Off screen, producer Howard Gordon ’84, actor Kiefer Sutherland (who plays Bauer), and others on the show have turned their attention to another global threat: excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

This month, 24 announced that it has become TV’s first carbon-neutral show, fulfilling a goal that Gordon outlined two years ago. Using compact fluorescent lighting, biodiesel-fueled generators, renewable electricity sources, hybrid vehicles, and digital scripts, the show cut more than 40 percent of its emissions. Producers bought carbon offsets to make up for the rest.

Gordon gets our nod as Tiger of the Week for following what he calls a “passion project.” He said in a news release that he has one additional goal in mind: “inspire our audience to make changes in their own lives.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

A playful take on Purim

Daily Show writer Rob Kutner ’94 and friends will present their annual sketch-comedy show to celebrate the Jewish holiday Purim at 92Y Tribeca (200 Hudson St. in New York) on Mar. 9. This year’s show, “The Shushan Channel,” was created by writers from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Simpsons, and it stars Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver. The event promo below — a Mad Men spoof called “Meshugene Men” — has several alumni connections: Kutner and Sheryl Zohn ’95 wrote the piece, Ellie Kemper ’02 stars in it (as Joan Holowitz), and Rebecca Gold ’09 provided production assistance. Gold is a member of the Princeton improv comedy group Quipfire!, and Kutner and Kemper are Quipfire! alumni.

Fictional Princetonians: A Weekly Blog quiz

In the new film Watchmen, a fictional Princeton alumnus named Jon Osterman ’52 *58 accidentally becomes trapped in a nuclear experiment that gives him superhuman powers (and a glowing blue body). The fate of Osterman, a.k.a. “Dr. Manhattan,” may be unique, but the presence of a Princetonian in a movie is not.

Last year, Burn After Reading, written and directed by Ethan Coen ’79 and his brother, Joel, featured former CIA analyst Osbourne Cox ’73 (John Malkovich), and another film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, included a Princeton astrobiology professor named Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly). The trend carries over to books and TV, too. Author John Grisham admitted that parts of his recent novel, The Associate, initially were set at Princeton’s law school — until he realized that Princeton has no law school.

How well do you know Princeton’s fictional alumni? Take our Weekly Blog quiz, which covers Tigers in the movies, on TV, and in novels, and send your answers to btomlins@princeton.edu. If you answer all six questions correctly, you could win a copy of The Best of PAW, 1900-2000. (One winner will be chosen randomly from the correct entries.)

1. The character Robert Cohn in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises was an undergraduate boxing champion at Princeton. Which real-life 1939 alumnus played Cohn in the novel’s 1957 movie adaptation?

a. Jimmy Stewart

b. Jose Ferrer

c. Mel Ferrer

2. Neil Patrick Harris played a precocious TV doctor who, according to the script, earned his Princeton diploma at age 10. Name the character.

a. Doogie Howser

b. Billy Kronk

c. Mark Greene

3. There was “something about” fictional alumna Mary Jensen in a 1998 comedy hit that starred Ben Stiller and this actress in the title role.

a. Jennifer Aniston

b. Drew Barrymore

c. Cameron Diaz

4. Former Tiger football star Dean Cain ’88 donned a cape as TV’s Superman in the 1990s. What other comic-book hero attended Princeton — and dropped out — in a 2005 Christian Bale film?

a. Spiderman

b. Batman

c. Ironman

5. Jude Law played wealthy (and fictional) alumnus Dickie Greenleaf in a 1999 role, while Matt Damon’s character simply pretended to be a Princeton man. Name the movie.

a. Good Will Hunting

b. The Talented Mr. Ripley

c. Six Degrees of Separation

6. With an apparent job promotion on the way, which character from TV’s 30 Rock quipped, “I wish I had a Princeton reunion right now”?

a. Tracy Jordan

b. Liz Lemon

c. Jack Donaghy

Senior thesis spotlight: Oahu’s ‘boogie houses’

For sailors stationed at Pearl Harbor during World War II, going to “boogie houses” and “climbing the stairs” were euphemisms for visiting brothels in Oahu.

Rosa Marie Maiorella ‘09 spent her winter break conducting research for her history senior thesis, poring over military papers, news articles, oral histories, and board of health reports housed at the Hawaiian State Archives in Honolulu and at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, to study the social and political effects of those prostitution houses. The brothels were frequented by approximately 250,000 men per month during the war years.

Long before the war, the brothels were openly accepted and regulated. Formally registered as “entertainers,” Oahu’s prostitutes paid taxes and were examined every week by doctors required to report venereal diseases to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among citizens. Though prostitution was a viable “job,” prostitutes were restricted to the red light district, were not allowed to walk the streets, and could not go to public beaches. “They were second-class citizens,” Maiorella said.

Then the military arrived.

Sailors lined the streets around brothels, waiting to pay $3 for a three-minute interval with a prostitute and goading the military police to lift social stigmas and restrictions against them. During the war, prostitutes began to move into residential areas where they could live normal lives and commute to the red light district where they worked.

“They really saw themselves as patriots who were helping the war effort,” Maiorella said of the women who also rolled bandages, gave blood, bought war bonds, and volunteered with wounded soldiers in addition to working as prostitutes.

Though the prostitution houses were forced to close in 1944, many citizens of Oahu still supported the brothels. Alice Kamokila ran for and won a race for territorial senate on the platform of reopening the houses in order to protect women from sex crimes and regulate the spread of STDs.

“What’s significant is that the military was actively partnered with civil government in regulating Oahu’s prostitution,” Maiorella said. By Julia Osellame ’09

Above, Rosa Marie Maiorella ’09 in front of the Kamehameha Statue at the old Judiciary Building in Honolulu. (Photo courtesy Rosa Marie Maiorella ’09)

Read other senior thesis spotlights: Chip Snyder ’09 on safari | Adrian Diaz ’09 gets ‘Lost’

Commemorating U.S.-China diplomacy

At a Jan. 11-12 commemoration of the 30th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations, held in Beijing, the 45-member American delegation included five Princetonians: (left to right) Mary Wadsworth Darby ’72, senior sesearch scholar at the Chazen Institute of Columbia Business School and a China Institute trustee; Ginny Kamsky ’74, chairwoman and CEO of Kamsky Associates and chairwoman of the China Institute; Edward Cox ’68, attorney, Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler; R. Stapleton Roy ’56, former U.S. ambassador to China and current director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States; and Sara Judge McCalpin ’82, president of China Institute. The Princetonians were part of a delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter. The Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, the Kissinger Institute on China, and the United States sponsored the event.

(Photo courtesy Sara Judge McCalpin ’82)

Tiger of the Week: Jim Hanks Jr. ’64

Of the many successes corporate lawyer Jim Hanks Jr. ’64 has accomplished in his life, he surely never could have predicted the one that would bring him international attention: being a passenger on US Airways Flight 1549, better known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.” All 155 people on board survived the plane’s emergency landing in the Hudson River off midtown Manhattan Jan. 15.

In the weeks since, Hanks, a partner in Venable LLP, has been speaking with grace and good humor about the day, giving interviews to publications and television stations in the United States and Europe. He was seen most recently Feb. 28 on CNN’s Larry King Live, along with other passengers and crew members. Now he’s in PAW’s spotlight as our Tiger of the Week.

In an interview in January with his hometown newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, Hanks described the harrowing moments after the landing. “We got a lot of people off the raft,” he told the newspaper. “Then I heard somebody behind me yell, ‘Get the old guy up! Get the old guy up!’ And I looked around because I hadn’t seen any older gentlemen that we might need to take care of first. I looked up and realized that the guy was talking about me.”

The next day, Hanks flew home to Baltimore, after thinking briefly about taking the train - especially because geese, which caused the plane to lose its engines, could be in the sky again. “But,” he concluded, “I’m not about to let a bunch of geese run my life.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.