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Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman, in his Feb. 22 conversation with Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. *97. (Photo by Beverly Schaefer)

By Brittany Urick ’10

The Center for African American Studies hosted a conversation between Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. *97 Feb. 22 in McCosh 50. Packed with students and members of the community, the lecture hall became a forum for debate toward the end of the hour, as both Glaude and audience members challenged Steele on how he reconciles his conservative stance with the economic inequality and dearth of opportunity facing black Americans today.

Steele brought a sense of humor to the discussion but fiercely defended his views, which he attributed to the values of sacrifice and self-sufficiency instilled by his mother.

“The promise of this country wasn’t what was promised to her,” Steele said. “It was what was promised to me. She found a way to help me realize it.”

On the topic of bipartisanship, Steele said the concept, as many envision it, is “a fiction.” While achieving consensus in a tension-filled political climate is important, finding common ground in order to move forward does not require giving up what one believes, he said.

Dan Feyer ’99, right, with brother Stephen ’03 at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. (Photo by Gretchen Margaroli)

Solving a Sunday crossword puzzle is hard enough. Try doing it on stage, in front of hundreds of spectators — in under eight minutes. Impossible? Not for Dan Feyer ’99. And that’s why he is the new American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion.

Feyer, a music major at Princeton who now plays piano accompaniment for off-Broadway musical theater productions in New York, got hooked on crossword competition after seeing the documentary Wordplay on PBS three years ago. He’s quickly climbed the ranks of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, winning top honors in just his third year as a contestant.

The secret to success is practice, Feyer told PAW. He solves up to 20 puzzles per day and has been known to complete 10 or more during a half-hour subway ride to work.

This year marked the first time that Feyer reached the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament final, a three-person onstage showdown. Contestants wear headphones that play white noise, to block out the commentators and crowd noise. When Feyer marked his final letter, he double-checked the puzzle, turned to the judges, and said, “Done.”

“It was very exciting, but I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d gotten everything right,” he said. “So when I finished I was kind of looking around for someone to give me a thumbs-up or a nod or something.” After a brief pause, that affirmation came. Feyer smiled and took off his headphones.

Feyer, who earned $5,000 for his victory, is not the only Princetonian word whiz. He was joined by two other alumni in the top 10, Kiran Kedlaya *97 and Stella (Daily) Zawistowski ’00, who finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Below, watch a YouTube video of the tournament final (or view a high-resolution version here).

With a 21-2 record and a 16-game winning streak, Princeton WOMEN’S BASKETBALL has leapfrogged perennial Ivy League favorites Harvard and Dartmouth and earned national attention, drawing a handful of votes in both of the major top-25 polls. The Tigers also made a certain four-star general take notice. Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87, on campus to receive the University’s James Madison Medal, gave the team a shout-out during the opening remarks of his lecture Feb. 20.

Princeton has dominated Ivy opponents, winning its first nine league games by an average of 22.8 points. No Ivy team had led the Tigers in the second half of a game. A victory over Cornell Feb. 26 would give this year’s team the program record for wins in a season, but the ultimate goal is still on the horizon: an outright Ivy title, which would give Princeton its first trip to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

In MEN’S BASKETBALL, Princeton had one of its best shooting performances in recent memory Feb. 19 when the Tigers drained 13 of 19 3-point attempts in an 82-58 win over Yale. But the following night against Brown, Princeton struggled from behind the arc, and the Bears took advantage, pulling ahead in the final four minutes to win 57-54.

Big day for ’64

On Alumni Day Feb. 20, former Rep. James Leach ’64 received the Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor conferred on Princeton undergraduate alumni. But Leach wasn’t the only ’64 honoree: James Madison Medalist Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87 noted that he is an honorary member of the class. He was inducted at Reunions last May, the morning before he delivered the Baccalaureate address for the Class of 2009. Petraeus even brought his orange-and-black plaid ’64 blazer back to campus — though he confessed he had not yet found an occasion to wear it.

Heard on campus

(Photo by Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications)

“The truth is that the surge of ideas was even more important than the surge of forces, though clearly, the increase in forces enabled us to implement the new ideas.”

— Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87, commander of U.S. Central Command, explaining the importance of “big ideas” in the success of the 2007 U.S. troop surge in Iraq.

(Photo by Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications)

“If 400,000 American soldiers sacrificed their lives to defeat fascism, if tens of thousands gave their lives to hold communists at bay, and if we fought a Civil War to preserve the union, isn’t it a citizen’s obligation to apply perspective to incendiary remarks that once summoned citizens to war? … Asserting that someone who prefers another approach or is a member of a different political party is an advocate of an -ism of hate that encompasses Gulags and concentration camps is out of bounds.”

— James Leach ’64, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, on hyperbolic political rhetoric that includes labeling opponents “fascist” or “communist” and raising the threat of secession.

The blanket of snow that remains in Scudder Plaza complements the white facade of Robertson Hall in this photo, taken Feb. 17. (Photo by Marianne Nelson)

Michael Burlingame ’64 traces his passion for Civil War history back to a freshman-year course on the subject at Princeton, taught by David Herbert Donald, and his latest work, the two-volume biography Abraham Lincoln: A Life, included research compiled over the course of three decades. Last week, on Lincoln's birthday, the author and historian was rewarded for his longtime devotion to the field when his Lincoln biography received the 2010 Lincoln Prize, a $50,000 award that is one of the most prestigious honors in Civil War studies.

The prize is sponsored by Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Lewis Lehrman, co-chairman of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, called Burlingame's book "a landmark of American historical scholarship." "Every member of the literate general public, interested in Abraham Lincoln, is surely indebted to Burlingame for his tireless research into archives and newspapers never before examined," Lehrman said.

Burlingame, the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair of Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, joins a list of distinguished Lincoln Prize winners that includes Donald, Burlingame's mentor during his Ph.D. studies at Johns Hopkins; Princeton emeritus history professor James McPherson; documentary filmmaker Ken Burns; and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

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 book: You Can Count on Monsters, by Richard Evan Schwartz *91 (A K Peters)

The author: About seven years ago, Schwartz made a simple book of black-and-white drawings of monsters — each one associated with a number — for his precocious daughter, then five, to help her learn about prime and composite numbers and factoring. A couple years later, he expanded the concept, eventually covering numbers 1 to 100 and making a poster of the fun monsters. “The National Science Foundation (main division) liked it so much that they have a giant one hanging in their office,” he said. Last year, he turned the poster into a colorful book.

Math has been like a “constant companion” to Schwartz, today a mathematics professor at Brown University and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2003. One reason he likes math, he said, is “the fact that there is (usually) a way to decide if a mathematical statement or argument is true. So talking about math is much more productive for me that talking about lots of other subjects, like politics.”

The book: Intended for elementary-age children, You Can Count on Monsters first explains the basic ideas of multiplication, prime and composite numbers, and factoring. Then for each number, from one through 100, the book’s left-hand pages depict the number broken down into its prime factors using dots and factor trees, and on the facing page, there is a playful monster that relates to the number.

By Brittany Urick ’10

While resourcefulness and networking are two skills any Princeton student hopes to hone before leaving campus for the real world, Genevieve Ryan ’11 mastered them prior to becoming a Tiger. As a teenager, Ryan, with the help of a few influential Washingtonians, authored “The American Presidents,” a song designed to help children remember the occupants of the Oval Office. The tune has received national recognition in the last few years.

“People don’t know as much about our government as they should, especially about its leadership, so I think [the song] is a fun and educational way to learn about the highest office in our country,” Ryan, a Maryland native, said about her creation.

Ryan, who is majoring in politics, began the project at age 12 when her father asked her to memorize the presidents as a Father’s Day gift. She constructed a series of couplets to the melody of William Tell Overture to help her remember the proper order. Her parents, impressed by her ingenuity, encouraged her to further develop the song as the American equivalent of a popular British tune that lists the order of the country’s kings and queens.

This week’s snowstorm gave Princeton students a rare day off from classes Feb. 10, and members of the Princeton Tower Club took advantage, turning the club’s front lawn into a snowball free-for-all. (Photo by Zachary Ruchman ’10)

Three of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture have Princeton ties: A Serious Man was written and directed by Ethan Coen ’79 and his brother Joel (the pair also received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay); The Blind Side is based on a book by Michael Lewis ’82; and Up in the Air is based on a novel by Walter Kirn ’83. [Oscar.com]

Stony Brook University mathematics professor Dennis Sullivan *66 is one of seven winners of the 2010 Wolf Prize in Mathematics, a prestigious award based in Israel. The prize committee selected Sullivan for his innovative contributions to algebraic topology and conformal dynamics. [Jerusalem Post]

Physician and women’s health advocate Donnica Moore ’81 appeared in a January Good Morning America segment about “America’s Dirtiest Hotel Rooms.” [ABC News]

From Feb. 3 through Feb. 11, The Weekly Blog is posting audio from Back Story, a radio show produced by undergraduates in Dan Grech ’99’s fall journalism course, “The New Audio Age of Journalism.” The second complete episode of Back Story will air Feb. 14 at noon on WPRB.

In September 2008, one freshman arrived at Princeton after gaining a great deal of notoriety among her classmates. A couple of months prior, her essay on elitism, now known on campus as “The Manifesto,” made its way to the Internet. It’s contents shocked some, humored others, and received attention from blogs like IvyGate and Gawker. Ian Auzenne ’10 gathers reflections from several undergrads — including the essay’s author.

CLICK HERE TO OPEN AUDIO IN A NEW WINDOW.

In Jared Schutz Polis ’96’s first year in Congress, CNN cameras followed the Colorado Democrat for an online series called “Freshman Year.” (Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz also was profiled.) In the series, viewers saw behind-the-scenes moments, like Polis checking in with constituents via Facebook, filming the introductory video for his Web site, and winning a “Congressional Jeopardy” game against fellow representatives.

Now, early in his second year, Polis has been keeping his name in the news with his work in Washington and at home in Colorado. One of the few openly-gay members of Congress, he has been a leading voice in the push to end the military’s don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy, and late last month he introduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that Polis said “puts [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] students on an equal footing with their peers, so they can attend school and get a quality education, free from fear.” He compared the bill to Title VI, which provided the same sort of protection for minority students in the 1960s, and Title IX, which helped put women on equal footing in the ’70s.

Polis also has proven his skills as a fundraiser: The Denver Post reported that in 2009, his political action committee gave more than $400,000 to Democratic members of Congress in swing districts and national political campaign groups, “writing checks for fellow freshmen representatives at a rate that rivals the fundraising clout of even Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”