WWII in HD, a five-part series written by Bruce Kennedy ’92, is scheduled to begin Nov. 15 on the History Channel. The program will feature 16-millimeter color film footage from World War II that rivals the quality of today’s high definition. [History.com]

Sen. Kit Bond ’60, R-Mo., shared his views on Afghanistan in a Nov. 5 interview with The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. [The Daily Show]

Richard K. Rein ’69, editor and publisher of the Princeton-area weekly newspaper U.S. 1, celebrated his publication’s 25th anniversary in a Nov. 11 column. [U.S. 1]

Author and graphic novelist Douglas Rushkoff ’83 wrote about his latest project — an alternate-reality video game — in a Nov. 10 post for the technology blog BoingBoing. [BoingBoing.net]

Tom Meeker ’56 leads a locomotive cheer in 2006, with student conductor Charles Pence ’07 and drum major Charlie Bergen ’07 looking on. (Courtesy Tom Meeker ’56)

Careful readers of PAW’s Nov. 4 cover story might notice that one Princeton University Band percussionist plays a pair of plastic pumpkins that bear the number “56.” Those homemade bongos are part of a unique link between the band and the Class of 1956.

For more than two decades, Tom Meeker ’56 and his wife, Joanne, have hosted a Class of ’56 tailgate before home football games, and for most of that time, the band has stopped by to play a few songs before entering the stadium.

The tradition began innocently, Meeker says. Joanne was looking for a way to liven up the tailgate, and when she saw the band marching down Roper Lane, she ushered them into the party.

(Click photo to enlarge)

About 160 alumni and current members of the Princeton Footnotes harmonized on stage at Richardson Auditorium Oct. 10 in celebration of the a cappella group’s 50th anniversary.

The reunion included three-quarters of the original Footnotes and representatives of Princeton classes ranging from 1961 to 2013. After a day of rehearsals, alumni took the stage in ensembles of about 20 members, grouped by class year, and performed for 15 minutes — the traditional length of a set in a multi-group arch sing.

At the end of the concert, all of the singers gathered for a set of Footnotes favorites (video of the finale is included below). Afterward, clusters of alumni performed impromptu concerts in archways around campus, said John Preston ’11, who helped plan the weekend’s events.

(Click photo to enlarge)

In advance of this week’s Princeton-Harvard football game — a popular gathering for Boston-area alumni — we present this image from a summer mini-reunion in the city. Friends of Larry Lucchino ’67, CEO and president of the Boston Red Sox, gathered at Fenway Park for an Aug. 11 game between the Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Lucchino is near the middle, wearing a yellow shirt and an orange-and-black Red Sox cap. At front and center is Dick Kazmaier ’52, the 1951 Heisman Trophy winner, who threw the game’s ceremonial first pitch.

(Photos courtesy the Boston Red Sox)

Second charter of the College of New Jersey, 1748 (Courtesy Princeton University Archives)

By Martha Vega-Gonzalez ’09

This is the first article in an occasional series about Princeton history and the University archives at Mudd Library. Vega-Gonzalez, a recent graduate who majored in history, lives and works in New York City as a freelance writer.

Last weekend, the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library put the University charter on display for the third and last time this year. The last time the charter was displayed before that was in 1996, and there are no plans to exhibit it again in the foreseeable future -- so if you missed it this time, it may be a very long time before you get another chance to see it. But if you would like a closer look at Old Nassau's founding document, never fear: Photographs of the charter are easily accessible and a full transcript of the charter is available in Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker's Princeton, 1746-1896.

The most interesting thing about the charter on display is that it's not the University charter, as much as it is a University charter. The charter on display dates to 1748, but as every Tiger knows, the University dates itself to 1746. Indeed, the charter housed in Mudd is the second University charter, which was drawn up after Anglican critics of the Presbyterian institution claimed that John Hamilton, serving as interim governor after the death of Governor Lewis Morris, had overstepped his bounds when he issued the original charter; to resolve all doubts about the University's legality and legitimacy, new Governor Jonathan Belcher issued a second charter in 1748.

Oct. 3 marks the beginning of the Alumni Association’s annual Fall Football Lectures, which will be held before Princeton football’s home dates against Columbia, Cornell, and Yale.

History professor Paul Miles begins the series Oct. 3, speaking about Woodrow Wilson 1879’s role as commander-in-chief during World War I (11 a.m. at the Lewis Library, room 120). On Oct. 31, Halloween morning, psychology professor Bart Hoebel will discuss the neurochemical evidence for sugar addiction (10 a.m. at the Lewis Library, room 120). And the Woodrow Wilson School’s Harold Feiveson will draw on his popular freshman seminar when he speaks about dilemmas in athletics in the final lecture Nov. 14 (10 a.m. at Guyot Hall, room 10).

For alumni who cannot make it back to campus, the Alumni Association archives the Fall Football Lectures online.

In October 1919, a group of students posted an advertisement in The Daily Princetonian urging “any man who can play any band instrument at all” to join a new University band. A few weeks later, the Princeton University Band led triumphant Tiger fans through the streets of New Haven after the football team topped Yale, and the band has been marching (and scrambling) its way around the Ivy League ever since.

The Friends of Tiger Band will celebrate the band’s 90th anniversary with a reception for alumni and friends on the front lawn of Campus Club after the football team’s Oct. 3 game against Columbia. Alumni also are encouraged to play with the band in the halftime show and in the stands during the game.

Denny Chin ’75, pictured, a federal judge who was in the news last spring when he sentenced Bernie Madoff, is expected to be nominated to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. [Wall Street Journal]

Longtime ABC TV reporter and commentator John Stossel ’69 has joined Fox News, where he will host a weekly show on the Fox Business Channel and make frequent appearances on Fox News programs. [Newsday/Associated Press]

Lifelong Chicagoan Michelle Obama ’85 will support her hometown’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics at the International Olympic Committee’s meeting in Copenhagen next month. [Chicago Tribune]

The late George Kennan ’25 is one of two Cold War-era policymakers highlighted in the new book The Hawk and the Dove. (Kennan is the titular dove.) [Washington Post]

About a dozen people gathered Friday in Murray-Dodge Hall to remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the 13 Princeton alumni who died in the terrorist attacks that day.

Normally held in the memorial garden between Chancellor Green and Nassau Hall, the short ceremony was forced inside Murray-Dodge by stormy weather. The names of the alumni who died were recited, and a small bell was rung for each.

PAW remembers these undergraduate and graduate alumni:

Robert L. Cruikshank ’58 was a vice president at Carr Futures.

Charles A. McCrann ’68 was a senior vice president for Marsh and McLennan.

William E. Caswell *75, a Navy physicist, was aboard American Flight 77.

Martin P. “Buff” Wohlforth ’76 was a managing director for Sandler, O’Neill, & Partners.

Robert J. Deraney ’80, a consultant, was attending a breakfast meeting at Windows on the World.

Joshua A. Rosenthal *81 was a senior vice president for Fiduciary Trust.

Karen J. Klitzman ’84 worked for e-Speed, a division of Cantor Fitzgerald.

Jeffrey D. Wiener ’90 worked for Marsh USA.

John T. Schroeder ’92 recently had joined Fred Alger Management as a Nasdaq trader.

Christopher N. Ingrassia ’95 was a partner with Cantor Fitzgerald.

Robert G. McIlvaine ’97 who worked for Merrill Lynch, was attending a conference on the 106th floor of Tower One.

Christopher D. Mello ’98 worked for Alta Communications and was aboard American Airlines Flight 11.

Catherine F. MacRae ’00, was a research analyst for Fred Alger Management.

Remembrances of these alumni, written by family members and friends, were published in the Nov. 7, 2001, issue of PAW and are available here. By Marilyn H. Marks *86

Economist and former Seoul National University president Chung Un-chan *78 was appointed prime minister of South Korea Sept. 3. [New York Times]

Charles Gibson ’65 will retire from his job as anchor of ABC’s World News at the end of this year, his 35th at the network. [New York Times]

Broker-turned-yoga-instructor Lauren Imparato ’02 is “tapping into yoga’s growing appeal” on Wall Street. [Bloomberg]

In a recent opinion piece, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels ’71 wrote about the challenges that state governments are facing this year. [Wall Street Journal]

If they were a circus act, they could be the Flying Slovenskis. Brothers Steve Slovenski ’09 and Dave Slovenski ’12 have excelled as Princeton track athletes — Steve was one of the Tigers’ top decathletes, and Dave won the pole vault at the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships last February — but they appear even more impressive competing against each other in an event they created: the unicycle pole vault.

The younger Slovenski first brought his unicycle to track practice to use it in warm-ups. (It’s similar to pedaling an exercise bike, he says, but it works more muscles.) When Princeton coach Fred Samara saw the brothers riding while carrying poles, he asked incredulously if they were planning to vault off of their unicycles.

“That sounds crazy and dangerous,” Dave said.

“Let’s try it!” Steve replied.

The results of their creative combination can be seen in the YouTube video below, which shows the brothers clearing the bar at up to 10 feet while big-top theme music plays in the background.

Three Princeton alumni — Jeffrey Bigham ’03, Andrew Houck ’00, and Erez Lieberman-Aiden ’02 — have been named to this year’s TR35, Technology Review magazine’s list of top technologists and scientists under age 35.

Bigham, a computer science graduate who teaches at the University of Rochester, was honored for creating WebAnywhere, a free, versatile screen-reading application that converts Web pages to audio for people who have little or no vision. (A video of Bigham discussing his work is available here.)

Houck, a Princeton valedictorian who has returned to the electrical engineering department as an assistant professor, received praise for his work in quantum computing. He has developed a superconducting quantum bit, or qubit, that helps keep quantum information intact for a few microseconds — a significant advance in the field.

Lieberman-Aiden, a Ph.D. candidate in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, was cited for his contributions to advanced models of evolutionary theory, the evolution of language and culture, and the structure of genomes. He also created the “iShoe,” an insole that detects balance problems and aims to help prevent elderly people from falling.

The full list of 34 young innovators is available online and will be featured in the September/October issue of Technology Review.

Russian work premieres with a Princeton spin

Peter Schram ’09 leaps over, from left, Kelsey Berry ’10, Jennie Scholick ’09, and Elizabeth Schwall ’09 in a rehearsal for Music for Athletes. (Photo by Brian Wilson, Princeton University Office of Communications)

“Greetings, highest President Tilghman! And three cheers for Old Nassau!”

These are the cries that opened the world premiere of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Music for Athletes in Richardson Auditorium July 17. The piece, which Princeton music professor Simon Morrison *97 uncovered in 2006 at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow, was performed as part of the sixth annual Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival.

Russian-born pianist Ilya Itin played the music, while a Princeton undergraduate and three alumni — Kelsey Berry ’10, Peter Schram ’09, Elizabeth Schwall ’09, and Jennie Scholick ’09 — danced to Scholick’s original choreography.

The “greetings” to Tilghman are representative of Scholick’s concept for the piece. Playing on the Kremlin’s original intention of glorifying Soviet athletic prowess through the performance, her modern adaptation glorifies Princeton instead.

Names in the news

Hopewell Holdings managing director Thomas Wu ’94 may not be as outspoken as his famous father, Gordon Wu ’58, but a recent profile said he’s a “born entrepreneur.” [The Standard (Hong Kong)]

Physicist Edward Witten *76 gave Vatican officials a primer on particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. [Associated Press]

Columnist Tim Kurkjian talked with Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf ’05 about his Princeton thesis, which tracked the return on investment for baseball draft picks. [ESPN.com]

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00’s film I Bring What I Love, a documentary about Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour, opened in New York June 12. [New York Times]

F. Scott Fitzgerald ’17’s onetime typist recalled that the writer was in the midst of a creative resurgence near the end of his life. [Los Angeles Times]

Photos from the 2009 P-rade

Photos by T. Kevin Birch. Click on each image for a larger version.

Money, Greed, and the Economy: Views from the Fourth Estate

Hear top alumni journalists discuss today’s economic mess and how it’s playing from Wall Street to Main Street, Saturday, May 30 at 10:30 a.m. in McCosh 50. Panelists will include George F. Will *68, syndicated columnist and television commentator for This Week on ABC; Peter Slevin ’78, Chicago bureau chief, The Washington Post; Joshua Micah Marshall ’91, publisher of Talking Points Memo; Shirley Leung ’94, business editor, The Boston Globe; Kim Strassel ’94, senior editorial writer, The Wall Street Journal; Zachary Goldfarb ’05, economics reporter, The Washington Post; and Catherine Rampell ’07, economics reporter, The New York Times. Author and Washington Post reporter Joel Achenbach ’82 will moderate the discussion.

Hand-held help for reuners

This week, the Alumni Association introduced Reunions Mobile, a new smartphone application that allows returning alumni to access a range of information via the Web, including headquarters sites for major reunions and satellite classes, a schedule of open events, news alerts, parking and shuttle information, and weather forecasts. To use Reunions Mobile, enter m.princeton.edu/reunions in your mobile Web browser.

PAW earns gold medal from CASE

The Princeton Alumni Weekly has been selected to receive a gold medal from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for 2008. PAW, now a finalist for the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year, was the only gold medalist among 48 entrants in its category, general-interest college and university magazines with a circulation of 30,000 to 74,999.

The following stories are from PAW's 2009 Reunions Guide, available at class headquarters during Reunions. The guide also includes this year's P-rade map, a trivia quiz about campus architecture, an interview with ABC's John Stossel ’69, a cover illustration by Henry Payne ’84, and more.

Read about: Reunions fashions | Class themes | The Old Guard

New film will focus on RFK funeral train

Oscar-winning director Jon Blair plans to turn his camera on Robert Kennedy's funeral train in the upcoming feature documentary Is Everybody Alright? The film, which draws its title from Kennedy's last words, is based on photographs taken by photographer Paul Fusco of Magnum Photos on June 8, 1968, when mourners lined the track as Kennedy's funeral train passed. Princeton alumni, back for Reunions, were among the mourners at Princeton Junction, above.

On campus, alumni took part in perhaps the most subdued Reunions weekend in history. "The tragic events beyond the campus had members of all classes asking 'why?'" class secretary Martin Lapidus ’62 wrote in PAW's Class Notes. "Reunions is normally a time of levity, but this year, in this troubled world, it was also a time of self-questioning."

Blair's film will explore the interplay of personal memory and major historical events of our time. If you were one of those mourners along the tracks and you would like to share your story, contact Blair (jonrblair@gmail.com, 845-591-3895) or U.S. production coordinator Sheila Maniar (samaniar@earthlink.net, 347-731-7504).

(Photo by Paul Fusco, courtesy Lichen Films)

New book: Detective work

After Peter de Jonge ’77 wrote a not entirely flattering profile of Sarah Jessica Parker for Harper’s Bazaar, he ran into the actress on the street and “she just started yelling at me for like 15 minutes,” he says. That was the most dramatic backlash he experienced as a result of his freelance writing about the rich and famous, and it helped push him to reconsider the line of work.

A part-time copywriter for an advertising agency, de Jonge suspected it would get harder to gain access to the subjects due to PR handling and he grew tired of writing about celebrities.

So when James Patterson, the prolific thriller writer who also happened to be head of the advertising agency where de Jonge worked, asked him to co-author what became Miracle on the 17th Green, de Jonge jumped at the chance. That led to two more co-authored Patterson books, The Beach House and Beach Road, and this month to de Jonge’s first solo work of fiction, Shadows Still Remain.

Published by HarperCollins, the novel is about a scrappy and headstrong homicide detective, Darlene O’Hara, who puts her job on the line to solve the murder of a beautiful but mysterious college student. The action follows O’Hara from gritty dive bars and strip clubs to the provost’s office and library at NYU.

To conduct research for Shadows Still Remain, which The Washington Post called “first-rate crime fiction,” de Jonge spent a couple months hanging out with NYPD detectives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. One homicide detective he met provided much of the inspiration for his main character, as did his own characteristics. “Inevitably you end up putting a lot of yourself in your protagonist,” says de Jonge, who is already at work on his next novel, also starring Darlene O’Hara. By Katherine Federici Greenwood

(Photo courtesy Peter de Jonge ’77)

Hitting the wall

Each week, dozens of students visit Princeton Stadium to scale the Outdoor Action rock-climbing wall. Weekly Blog writer Julia Osellame ’09 made her first ascent and filed this report.

“On belay?” I asked, repeating the standard climbing call to indicate I was ready to begin my climb.

“Belay secure,” Hannah Grimm ’09 replied. Grimm guided the rope, breaking or giving slack depending on my climbing needs.

“Climbing,” I said before staring my assent up the purple trail on Outdoor Action’s indoor rock-climbing wall in the southeast corner of Princeton Stadium.

For a first-time climber, my assent was surprisingly smooth — I made it to the top without a slip or fall. But the strain on my arms proved I was not yet ready for one of OA’s rock-climbing trips off campus to places like Allamuchy State Park or Witherspoon Woods.

April 23 marked my first trip to the climbing wall, an alternative to “the Street” as one of the Princeton’s Alcohol Initiative events. Instead of strolling onto Prospect Avenue, students can visit the rock-climbing wall in the football stadium, where it was rebuilt in October 2007 after the demolition of the Armory, the original home of the OA rock-climbing wall built in 1983. OA supplies visiting climbers with a harness and climbing shoes. And with twelve belay stations, there are plenty of opportunities to learn to climb a variety of difficulties.

Each climb is marked using the Yosemite Decimal System (numeric rankings that describe the difficulty of a climb), and color-coded tape under each climbing hold — fake rocks, as large as your foot or as small as your finger, jutting out of the wall.

With free pizza, music, and rock climbing for undergraduate and graduate students, the rock climbing wall attracts up to 50 climbers a week, Grimm said.

Grimm, a climber since her freshman year, taught me the ropes, guiding me up the 32-foot high, 66-foot wide faux rock wall. After one visit, it was easy to see how climbing culture can grab hold of you. By Julia Osellame ’09

Photo: Climber Maddy Case ’12 scales the OA rock-climbing wall. (Photo by Julia Osellame ’09)

Names in the news

Aaron Cypess ’92, a researcher and physician at Harvard Medical School, earned widespread attention for his research on human brown fat, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April. [CNN, TIME, Scientific American]

F. Scott Fitzgerald ’17 will be enshrined in the New Jersey Hall of Fame May 3, joining fellow alumni Bill Bradley ’65 and Malcolm Forbes ’41, who were inducted last year as part of the inaugural class. [N.J. Hall of Fame]

History professor D. Graham Burnett ’93 discussed the landmark 1959 book Two Cultures with journalist Chris Mooney. [Bloggingheads.tv]

Alumni Eric Lander ’78 and Eric Schmidt ’76 were named to President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, along with Princeton professor Christopher Chyba. [Chronicle of Higher Education]

Q&A with writer, director, and producer Jac Schaeffer ’00

As an undergraduate, Jac Schaeffer ’00 poured her extracurricular energies into Triangle Club, Theatre Intime, and the Princeton Shakespeare Company. But the California native found her calling in film. After earning a master's degree at the USC School of Cinema, she began working as a director, writer, and producer in independent movies and documentaries, following a career path she'd thought about since her teenage years. On April 26, Schaeffer will premiere her first full-length feature, the romantic comedy TiMER, at the Tribeca Film Festival. She spoke with PAW's Brett Tomlinson earlier this month.

TiMER is a love story that also looks at issues of technology in our lives. In the movie, people are able to implant a chip that counts down to the exact moment that you'll meet your true love. Is that an accurate setup?

Yes, that's it.

What happens from there?

Well, the idea is that the technology allows this to happen, but the catch is that if you get a TiMER implanted, in order for you to have a countdown your soul mate also has to have a TiMER. The plight of the protagonist is that everyone around her has countdowns, but her TiMER is blank. Her soul mate does not have a TiMER, so she systematically dates guys who don't have TiMERs and then convinces them to get TiMERs, only to be disappointed time and time again.

Her situation is actually the real-world situation: We're all walking around with a question mark and with doubts and confusion. The fact that the answer is possible for her is what really screws her up. So she sort of gets frustrated with the whole thing and ends up falling for a guy who has a countdown of four months. And then, the story gets fun.

What was your inspiration for this storyline?

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.

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)

Cover-worthy: A Weekly Blog quiz

Do any of these PAW covers look familiar? Even if they don't, you might be able to identify the missing subjects from the clues that accompany them. Take our Weekly Blog quiz and send your answers to btomlins@princeton.edu. If you identify the three missing faces correctly, you could win a vintage PAW poster. Winners will be chosen randomly from the correct submissions.

This 1987 alumna was a P-rade sensation in 1986, rising above the Class of 1946 contingent in a Statue of Liberty costume. (It wasn't the first or last time that her photo was featured on the cover of a magazine.)

PAW's Oct. 21, 1958, cover shows President Robert Goheen ’40 *48 waiting to begin an interview with this famous CBS News reporter. The cover line reads, simply, "Hello, Ed."

This 1996 cover subject -- a Yale Law graduate -- was on hand to help Princeton celebrate its 250th anniversary. He returned in 2006 to speak at Class Day.

Names in the News

Princeton donors Peter Lewis ’55, Gerhard Andlinger ’52, and Dennis Keller ’63 are among this year's "Slate 60," a list of the top charitable contributors in America. [Slate]

Assistant coach Armond Hill ’85 helps to keep the ball moving on offense for the Boston Celtics. [Worcester Telegram & Gazette]

Nobel laureate Gary Becker ’51 is not convinced that the economic stimulus packs enough punch. [CBS News]

San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young ’02 wins the team's Chariman's Award for his contributions to the local community. [San Diego Union-Tribune]

Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 weighs in on the ideological balance on the Supreme Court. [The New York Times]

Mielke ’07's Olympic bid falls short

Alumnus Matt Mielke ’07's quest for a spot on the 2010 U.S. Olympic Curling Team ended Feb. 1 in the challenge round of the U.S. Nationals, held in Mielke's home state of North Dakota. Mielke's team, captained by Matt Hames, won three of nine matches in round-robin play, finishing tied for seventh in a 10-team field. The top four teams moved on to the U.S. Olympic Trials, which will be held Feb. 21-28 in Bloomfield, Colo.

In Brazil, a taste of Princeton

Alumni in South America will gather in Rio de Janeiro from Jan. 26 to 30 to celebrate Brazil’s first local reunion, sponsored by the Princeton Club of Brazil. The five-day program will include receptions and dinners, a speaker series, and performances by the Nassoons, Princeton’s oldest a cappella group, in their first Latin America tour, according to Jill Janaína Otto ’02, vice president of the club.

A panel of notable alumni will discuss economics in South America, and Francisco Gros ’64, president and CEO of the Brazilian oil and gas firm OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações, will deliver the keynote address at the event’s closing dinner. University representatives scheduled to speak at the reunion include history professor Jeremy Adelman, who heads Princeton’s advisory committee on internationalization; Thomas Levin, an associate professor of German; and Luisa Duarte, Princeton’s director of international internships. More information about the reunion is available at www.princetonclub.com.br.

Programming note: Alumnus’ opera

The Outlaw and the King, an opera by composer Mark Zuckerman *76 and writer David Herrstrom that was featured in The Weekly Blog Nov. 24, 2008, will be broadcast on the New Jersey Network’s “State of the Arts” program three times in the coming week: Jan. 16 at 10 p.m., Jan. 19 at 10 p.m., and Jan. 21 at 11:30 p.m. Alumni outside New Jersey who would like to view the program can visit njn.net.

Names in the news

Former Sen. Claiborne Pell ’40 died Jan. 1 at age 90, leaving behind a legacy of educational opportunity for low-income families. [Chronicle of Higher Education]

In its look at Chrysler’s recent struggles, Forbes asked “What would Lee Iaccocca [*46] do?” [Forbes]

The Trenton Devils will retire minor-league hockey standout Scott Bertoli ’99’s No. 19 jersey Feb. 21. [The Times of Trenton]

Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond ’60, R-Mo., announced he will not seek a fifth term in 2010. [St. Louis Post Dispatch]