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Panelists critique the Lewis Library

Most students seem to like it. Most alumni seem to hate it. And the faculty? A panel of four experts and “interested semi-amateurs” gave the Frank Gehry-designed Lewis Library mixed reviews.

The four panelists and moderator Gideon Rosen *92, philosophy professor and chairman of the Humanities Council, which sponsored the event, spoke Nov. 19, one day before the dedication of the new science library at Washington Road and Ivy Lane.

Architecture dean Stanley Allen *88 was the most sympathetic. He said the building combines Gehry’s “exuberant forms” with “low-tech” details that bring to mind the architect’s early work. He gave Gehry points for “making the best of a bad situation” on a difficult and tight site, and defended him after a questioner asked about the “environmental message” sent by a building with so much glass and open space.

Esther da Costa Meyer, associate professor of art and archaeology, took pains to be diplomatic. First, she lauded some of the “beautiful interior spaces,” including the reading room known as the Treehouse because its users have a view over the tops of trees. She continued: “That said, this is the most exasperating building to find your way around in. … Once you get to the Treehouse, there is this sense of catharsis - but it’s short-lived, because you realize you’re going to have to find your way out again!”

William Gleason, associate professor of English, studies how American writers represent architecture and buildings, including libraries. He considered the message of the library’s design, which provides for books in the basement while the upper floors are used for reading, computer use, and “social networking.” Gleason called that approach disorienting but efficient, and noted the disconnect between scientists and humanists on such matters. As a member of a committee exploring the renovation of Firestone Library, Gleason heard scientists ask if they needed any books in the library. “The humanists were horrified,” he said.

The strongest criticism of the Lewis Library came from the panel’s Hal Foster ’77, a professor of art and archaeology who has questioned Gehry’s work in the past. Foster began with a rather backhanded compliment: “As far as Gehry goes, it’s a good building,” he said, before launching into a critique of its “dead spaces,” “programmatic confusion,” and other shortcomings. Nor did Foster think highly of the Princeton’s other massive construction project: the collegiate gothic Whitman College, completed in 2007: “It’s said they complement each other - so two wrongs make a right.”

And what of the “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” the Richard Serra sculpture that now stands right outside the library’s door? Before the library was built, people who walked through the large sculpture would exit onto a wedge of grass; now, with little warning, they come right up against Gehry’s building. The building “really is a disservice to Serra,” said da Costa Meyer, who suggested that the $1 million sculpture is now “shoehorned into a back lot.” On the sculpture’s sad fate, the panelists all seemed to agree. By Marilyn Marks *86

Tigers show their stripes at ‘The Game’

In his Nov. 21 column, David Brooks of The New York Times submitted — apropos of the emerging Ivy League-heaviness of President-elect Barack Obama’s projected cabinet — that, “If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.”

Princetonians might have been justified in taking issue with Brooks’ statement … if they weren’t likely to be at said game, too.

Nov. 22 brought the 125th football face-off between Harvard and Yale. Ho-hum — n’est-ce pas? And yet “The Game” in fact served as an impetus for a rallying of Princetonians from Boston and beyond. Some alumni spent the better part of November planning pub crawls, tailgates, pre-parties and post-parties, negotiating rides from New York, buying plane tickets from D.C., and designing T-shirts. The theme? “You can stop arguing… you both suck.”

Admittedly, this reporter was able to locate scores of freewheeling Tigers but no centralized, official unofficial Princeton tailgate in Saturday’s sea of crimson and blue. Nevertheless, the benefit of being so unequivocally above the fray — particularly when, with the wind-chill factor, the midday temperature in Boston was 15 degrees Fahrenheit — was having the option to simply cancel plans to stand around a parking space and move the party indoors to reunite with friends and show off our new T-shirts, above, at John Harvard’s Brew House. For the record, Harvard won, 10-0. By Rachel L. Axelbank ’06

Senior Thesis Spotlight: Getting ‘Lost’

Mayday! Mayday! Oceanic Flight 815 is down.

Cut to scene walking along the beach. Fast-forward through survivors arguing by the scene of the crash.

Adrian Diaz ’09 has been turning a careful eye to her television as she examines the narrative structure of ABC’s Emmy- and Golden-Globe-winning series Lost for her senior thesis.

Inspired by a lecture given by associate professor Jeff Dolven on Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Diaz was prompted to study what she saw as a similar interplay between memory, flashbacks, flash-forwards, and storytelling in the popular TV drama. “In Lost, the way things happen is different from the way it’s told,” she said.

Diaz has been intrigued by the way memory, knowledge, ritual, and group hierarchy have played out in the series. In her work, she has isolated a taxonomy of knowledge that shows how the characters use scientific, rational, and religious knowledge along with gossip to control others. Dr. Juliet Burke, a fertility doctor recruited to the island, for example, is manipulated in such a way that the leader of The Others, Ben, gains control over her expertise. Diaz also anticipates that the process of coercion within the two rival island groups, The Others and the Oceanic Six, can be related back to secret societies.

“The whole show is a process of revealing a secret,” Diaz said. “The characters are lost on the island and the audience is also lost in an attempt to figure out what is going on.”

The hardest part of her project may be bringing it to an end, since the show itself will still have a sixth season after the senior thesis is submitted. With a focus on seasons one through four, Diaz said, her thesis will inevitably mention the apocalyptic motifs already present in the show.

“I think I will focus on analyzing how knowing an ending is coming affects how we think of the show,” she said. By Julia Osellame ’09

An opera, born in a garage

On a hot summer day five years ago, composer Mark Zuckerman *76 was puttering in his garage and spotted his neighbor, poet and writer David Herrstrom, across the street. Zuckerman, who has written choral music, chamber music, and for orchestra, wanted to compose an opera. He asked his neighbor if he would write the libretto. Neither of them had ever tackled an opera, and although they had been friends in the small artistic community of Roosevelt, N.J., for about 30 years, they had never collaborated on any projects. Herrstrom was up for the challenge. “I guess we both felt life was short and why not go for broke,” said Zuckerman. “We knew this wasn’t going to be a short-term thing and were both looking forward to spending years together on this.”

The two men have worked on their opera, The Outlaw and the King, since 2003. Act II will premiere at the Nicholas Music Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., Dec. 1, at 8 p.m. (Act I premiered two years ago, also at Rutgers.) The opera is based on the biblical story of King Saul; David, the warrior and Saul’s son-in-law; and Saul’s son Prince Jonathan. The cast for Act II is comprised of four male characters and a trio of women portraying the voice of God. The opera is scored for woodwind quintet, harp, and percussion.

Herrstrom chose the story — a tragic tale that explores how David’s growing love of himself as the chosen one leads to the destruction of his adopted father and brother — and recruited neighbors to stage a dramatic reading in Roosevelt’s borough hall in 2005. Roosevelt, built during the New Deal as a utopian cooperative for immigrant Jewish garment workers and farmers and their families, became an artists’ haven, home to painters, sculptors, playwrights, poets, and composers. Living in such an artistic community, said Zuckerman, who was a N.J. State Council on the Arts Fellowship Recipient in 2004, helps feed his creative juices. “Almost the entire town gets involved with artistic goings-on in one way or another,” he said. By Katherine Federici Greenwood

Above, composer Mark Zuckerman *76 at work. (Photo courtesy Mark Zuckerman *76)

Fehlandt celebrates with a signature solo

When Tina Fehlandt e-mailed renowned choreographer Mark Morris, with whom she had danced for 20 years, about a piece of his she could perform at Princeton’s bi-annual faculty dance concert, he suggested Peccadillos, a signature solo set to short piano pieces for children composed by Erik Satie. When Fehlandt, a lecturer in theater and dance, performs it Nov. 21-22, at the Patricia and Ward Hagan ‘48 Dance Studio at 185 Nassau St., it will mark the first time a woman has ever performed the work. It has been danced only by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Morris, and current Mark Morris Dance Group member Joe Bowie. Fehlandt, who retired from dancing with the Mark Morris Dance Group in January 2000 and turned 50 earlier this year, says, “It seemed appropriate to do something special to commemorate such a momentous occasion!”

Peccadillos, which originally premiered at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2000, is “a 10-minute solo with nine different sections, each with its own distinct mood,” explains Fehlandt. She likens it to a “young child playing make-believe. … The dancer is in her [or] his own world of make-believe.” Critic Tobi Tobias described it as “a charming little joke and turns out to be a tragedy in miniature.”

Fehlandt, who is teaching Beginning/Intermediate Modern Dance Technique and staged a Mark Morris work at last year’s spring dance Festival, is among several faculty members and guests performing or having their choreographed works performed at the concert, Now Dance. Elizabeth Schwall ’09 will dance Cloud Song, choreographed by Ze’eva Cohen; Rebecca Lazier will present Terminal, performed by her New York dance company Terrain; and Dyane Harvey will perform The Corner, a work-in-progress based on the life of Muhammad Ali. Now Dance begins at 8 p.m. Nov. 21 and 22. By Katherine Federici Greenwood

Above, Tina Fehlandt danced front and center with other Mark Morris Dance Company dancers. She will perform Peccadillos at the faculty concert, Now Dance. (Photo by Tom Brazil)

Early freeze

Cold temperatures on Nov. 19 put a hold on the water flowing from the Fountain of Freedom in Scudder Plaza.

(Photo by Lolly O’Brien)

Political activism in a digital age

In his Nov. 13 campus speech on the “cute cat theory of Web activism,” Ethan Zuckerman, a research fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, talked about how social activists are using Web-hosting sites to combat government censorship. Zuckerman, who helped to found the Web-hosting service Tripod.com, has developed a weak test for the success of a user-generated content system: If it does not attract pornography, then it does not work. If users actually begin to use the site for political activism, he argued, that’s an even stronger measure of the participatory media’s success.

Zuckerman recalled an example from his days at Tripod in the mid-1990s. He was surprised to see Malaysia ranked third among Tripod’s user countries, behind the U.S. and Canada. “What are we hosting here?” Zuckerman asked political scientists at Williams College.

The political scientists found that Tripod was hosting the Malaysian political opposition movement, which used the site to push for imprisoned Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s return to power. The Malaysian government’s heavy investment in Internet infrastructure allowed the Web to become a powerful propaganda tool for the opposition.

Trivial uses of the Web can play a role in fighting what Zuckerman called “an increasing censorship trend” in some countries. When governments block sites used by activists, they anger citizens who use these sites for banal purposes. The group of citizens who visited the site “to see the video of the cat flushing itself down the toilet” begins to ask the government why it was shut down. In this way, censorship heightens political tensions. Zuckerman advises activists to use banal sites like Google’s “Blogger” because government opposition simply “is not going to take down Google.” By Sarah Harrison ’09

Filmmaker Davids ’69 probes ‘missing years’ in Jesus story

Paul Davids ’69’s latest film, the feature documentary Jesus in India, which explores where Jesus might have lived and what he did from age 12 to 30, will premiere nationally on the Sundance Channel Dec. 22, with a repeat broadcast Dec. 26. Those years, sometimes called the “missing years,” are noted in only one sentence in the New Testament, said Davids, but an ancient tradition in India suggests that Jesus traveled throughout India and lived with both Hindus and Buddhists before returning to the Holy Land to begin his public ministry.

In his controversial film, Davids, the producer and director, follows a former fundamentalist Christian from Texas, Edward T. Martin, who was ousted from his church for wanting to explore those years in Jesus’ life, as he searches for answers and evidence of Jesus’ travels in India. Princeton’s Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels appears in the film. By Katherine Federici Greenwood

For his film, Paul Davids ’69, at left above, interviewed Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a representative of the Vatican in Washington, D.C. Balducci died in September. (Photo courtesy Paul Davids ’69)

View a trailer for Jesus in India

Author outlines recommendations for Obama in the Middle East

As President-Elect Barack Obama sets the U.S. agenda in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he should learn from the policies of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, author Yossi Klein Halevi argued in a Nov. 10 speech at Robertson Hall entitled “Israeli Society and Politics After the Gaza Withdrawal.”

Nov. 4 marked the 13th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination by a right-wing Israeli who opposed his peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians. Halevi, at right, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Israel and contributing editor of the New Republic, explained that “Rabin is responsible for two Israeli policies” that could shape Obama’s involvement in the Middle East: the Palestinian peace process and the prevention of a nuclear Iran.

Halevi urged Obama to “resist the advice of well-intentioned but wrong-headed advisers…urging you to go for a comprehensive agreement” between Israel and Palestine, despite all past failed attempts. The new president, he said, will have to understand a paradox in Israeli public opinion: “There is a profound Israeli willingness to adopt the two-state solution. There is an understanding that the occupation is a long-standing disaster [for Israel], but most Israelis don’t believe that peace can be attained.”

Secondly, Halevi said Obama must operate on a tight timetable in preventing Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities. If it does, “the appeal of Hamas will almost be certainly irreversible,” he said. A nuclear Iran will mean a “decisive end for any chance for a negotiated end to the Middle East conflict. … No country with Iran over its shoulder will dare enter into a peace agreement with Israel.”

Halevi advised Obama to “be humble in your expectations” but work for “the limited goals that you set for yourself.” By Sarah Harrison ’09

Above, author Yossi Klein Halevi. (Photo courtesy Tzahy Lerner/Wikipedia)

NOTE: The third paragraph of this item was updated Nov. 12 at 2 p.m.

Fall champions crowned on busy sports weekend

On Friday, Nov. 7, the Princeton men’s hockey team dropped its home opener to Cornell, and the football team fell to Penn a few hours later. But those two losses were offset by plenty of Princeton wins in an exciting weekend of overlapping fall and winter sports.

In the brief period between the men’s hockey loss and football’s opening kickoff, Princeton fans at Class of 1952 Stadium cheered a Tiger victory as field hockey shut out Penn, 5-0, to win its fourth consecutive Ivy League championship. Coach Kristen Holmes-Winn’s players tried on new Ivy-champion T-shirts and hoisted the league trophy.

On Nov. 8, women’s soccer, paced by two goals from senior Taylor Numann, topped Penn 2-1 in overtime at Roberts Stadium. That victory earned Princeton a share of this year’s Ivy title, along with co-champion Harvard. While the Crimson received the league’s automatic spot for the Women’s NCAA College Cup, the Tigers reached the 64-team field with an at-large bid.

Men’s water polo, host of the CWPA Southern Championships at DeNunzio Pool Nov. 8 and 9, topped George Washington, 16-9, in the opening round and advanced the tournament finals with an 8-4 win over Bucknell. In Sunday’s championship game, the Tigers completed their title quest, beating rival Navy, 12-11, to win the Southern crown for the first time since 2004. Junior Eric Vreeland’s goal put Princeton ahead with 1:29 remaining.

Women’s volleyball, women’s hockey, and men’s hockey each won weekend games, and the men’s soccer team tied nationally ranked Penn. The final tally, Friday through Sunday: nine Princeton wins, three losses, one tie, and three championships.

Professors respond to Obama’s victory

This is what comes to mind when Cornel West *80 thinks about the election of the United States’ first African-American president:

First, tears: “the tears of my mother, almost 80 years old,” the tears that signify both “great suffering and great hopes” for the end of the age of Reagan, with its “indifference to the poor, the weak, the most vulnerable.”

Next, symbolism “without measure,” in the idea of Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson Obama ’85 in the White House with their two daughters paying on the manicured lawn — “with that puppy.”

But let’s not forget the questions, West says. West — scholar, public intellectual, hip-hop artist — would say this to Obama: “I want to know, now that you’ve won, what you’re really made of.”

West was one of five professors on a panel convened less than 24 hours after the votes were counted. Everyone - panelists and audience members alike - still seemed giddy over the results. When Obama’s name was announced, audience members (many of whom were sent from the overcrowded Friend Center lecture hall to watch the proceedings on simulcast) rose to their feet to applaud. “Oh, happy day!” said Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 as she began her presentation, taking the words from Edward Hawkins’ gospel song.

Other panelists were professors Julian Zelizer (history), Eddie S. Glaude Jr. *97 (religion and African-American studies), and Farrah Griffin (Columbia University, African-American studies). Together, they discussed the challenges that would face Obama after January.

Cross country teams win Heps

On Oct. 31, Princeton’s men’s and women’s cross country teams swept the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships for the third consecutive year — an unprecedented feat. This year’s meet included a narrow win by the men and a dominant race by the women. For more details, watch PAW’s exclusive video.

Students cheer returns at ‘White House bicker’

Groups of friends left their reading assignments and problem sets behind on election night, and no, they weren’t heading out to The Street. “White House bicker,” an event sponsored by the class governments, P-Votes, Whig-Clio, and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, drew large crowds as students gathered to get free T-shirts, kettle corn, apple cider, and donuts while they watched the results roll in. For many students, this was the first presidential election in which they were eligible to vote.

Those not willing to brave the crowds at Whig Hall gathered for televised viewing of the results in the residential colleges, eating clubs, and at the Frist Campus Center. Student groups like the James Madison Program provided pizza and dessert for their members while tracking the results on the big screen.

At Whig, cheers erupted as electoral vote projections came in for the respective candidates. Republican stalwarts held out, hopeful that red would creep over the map, but it was clear that the majority of students — 79.3 percent, according a Daily Princetonian poll — supported Barack Obama. By Julia Osellame ’09

Above, students at Whig Hall watch the early returns Nov. 4. (Photo by Julia Osellame ’09)

Names in the news, election edition

A Princetonian — future first lady Michelle Obama ’85 — will take residence in the White House for the first time since the final days of Woodrow Wilson 1879’s presidency. The new presidential spouse told Reuters that her first job will continue to be “mom-in-chief” for daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

In other news from the Nov. 4 election, Jared Polis ’96, D-Colo., became Colorado’s first openly gay congressman, winning handily in the state’s 2nd district. Woodrow Wilson School graduate Leonard Lance *82, R-N.J, right, won a seat in the House of Representatives, beating Democrat Linda Stender in a hard-fought race in New Jersey’s 7th district. And Lance’s classmate, Jeff Merkley *82, D-Ore., went to bed late last night with a narrow lead in a too-close-to-call race for a U.S. Senate seat.

Alumni incumbents fared well. Rep. Jim Marshall ’72, D-Ga., left, had the most significant challenge, retaining his seat by winning 55 percent of votes in his district. Rep. John Sarbanes ’84, D-Md., won by a wide margin, earning a second term. Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels ’71 also had a strong victory in his re-election bid.

(Photos: Lance — Wikipedia; Marshall — Congressional Pictorial Directory)

Rock, paper, scissors — shoot!

Twenty-one Princeton students, including PAW contributor Sarah Harrison ’09, left midterm studying behind Oct. 28 to participate in the debut Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament in Dillon Gym, organized by the Intramural Sports Office. Harrison filed this report for The Weekly Blog.

The best Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) competitors pay no attention to the strategy of their opponents. That tactic worked well for Zacch Olorunnipa ’11.

Olorunnipa reached the finals of the RPS draw, beating out the strategies of other players like senior Rob Barnett, who followed a preconceived pattern in every game he played, and junior Ian Auzenne, who worked off his opponents’ actions.

Auzenne followed a “very complicated” method in which he tried to anticipate the first move of each opponent. Most amateur players draw scissors first, Auzenne explained. He “typically throws down a rock.”

Auzenne sized me up as an amateur, so he was shocked when I started with paper. “So rarely will people throw a paper on the first draw,” he said afterward. Paper trumped rock, and I moved on.

My amateur moves carried me to the finals, but I met my match in Olorunnipa. Olorunnipa “didn’t watch anyone else play,” trying to focus only on “feeling the vibe of the room.” Watching other players would have knocked Olorunnipa off his own game.

Either Olorunnipa’s focus paid off, or my amateur tactics caught up with me. I drew scissors first and he crushed me with his rock. Olorunnipa took home first prize, an iPod nano. By Sarah Harrison ’09

Above, RPS champion Zacch Olorunnipa ’11, top, and runner-up Sarah Harrison ’09. (Photos courtesy of the Intramural Sports Office)

Names in the news, campaign edition

Princeton alumni hit the trail in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, with Tigers popping up on both sides of the aisle. For Sen. John McCain’s camp, Meg Whitman ’77, the former eBay CEO, talked technology in northern Virginia Oct. 27. (McCain has mentioned her as a possible treasury secretary.) Steve Forbes ’70, a former presidential candidate, also supported McCain in Virginia, speaking at an Oct. 25 rally. And actor Dean Cain ’88 took McCain’s side in a debate with fellow celeb Sheryl Crow on Larry King Live Oct. 13.

Sen. Barack Obama has received support from former congressmen Sen. Bill Bradley ’65 (D-N.J.) and Rep. Jim Leach ’64 (R-Iowa), as well as Paul Volcker ’49, the former Fed chairman, who has served as an economic advisor for the Democratic candidate. Eric Schmidt ’76, the CEO of Google, offered his endorsement Oct. 20 and has talked about technology at Obama events. And of course, Michelle Obama ’85 and her older brother, Craig Robinson ’83, the men’s basketball coach at Oregon State, are lending their voices to the campaign.

New books: One Family’s Response to Terrorism

In Susan Kerr van de Ven’s recently published memoir, One Family’s Response to Terrorism (Syracuse University Press), the daughter of alumnus Malcolm Kerr ’53 recalls her family’s search for justice after Kerr, the president of the American University of Beirut, was assassinated nearly 25 years ago. The story traces van de Ven’s exploration of evidence, more than a decade after the murder, and the family’s U.S. court case against the Islamic Republic of Iran. It also includes memories of Kerr, family photos and letters, and reflections on violence and politics. Van de Ven, who holds a Ph.D. from Harvard, runs a creative writing program for children in Cambridge, England.

Visit PAW Online for a list of new books by Princeton alumni and faculty.

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Polcer ’58 running for jazz

Pounding the pavement, mile after mile, might not appear to have anything to do with jazz, but cornetist and swing jazz bandleader Ed Polcer ’58 will bring together his passion for both when he runs the New York City Marathon Nov. 2 to raise money for the Jazz Foundation of America. Polcer got involved with the organization, which helps support older jazz and blues artists, three years ago and today works with its development department. The New York-based group, founded in 1991, provides emergency-housing funds for rents and mortgages, finds jobs for musicians in public schools, and, in partnership with a New Jersey hospital, arranges free health care.

Polcer, who took up running in 1994 at age 57, will have company — his wife, Judy Kurtz, a singer and actress who performs with Polcer in concerts and jazz festivals, will keep pace with him. This will be Polcer’s 10th NYC marathon and Kurtz’s 13th. They hope to raise as much as $100,000 for the Jazz Foundation. As of Oct. 15, they had collected $20,000 in pledges. In addition to keeping him in great shape for performing gigs, running for the Jazz Foundation, says Polcer, is his way of “addressing the needs of some of our country’s great jazz artists who are self-employed, with no corporate pensions and health/retirement plans as safety nets.” By Katherine Federici Greenwood

Above, Ed Polcer ’58 and wife Judy at the 2006 New York City Marathon. (Photo courtesy Ed Polcer ’58)

Young guns top alumni in men’s lacrosse

Youth trumped experience at Class of 1952 Stadium when former members of Princeton’s men’s lacrosse team returned to campus to take on the young Tigers in the annual alumni game Oct. 19. In an uncharacteristic loss for the alumni, the undergrads stomped them out, 17-4.

Princeton head coach Bill Tierney does not take this game lightly. His players stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the sideline, dressed in their black uniforms, and at halftime, they formed a tight huddle around Tierney to talk strategy. Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, volunteer assistant coach Bryce Chase ’63 had to yell to grab the attention of alumni, dressed in a hodgepodge of lacrosse shorts, running shoes, and in a few cases, business casual.

But the alumni can still play. Just ask goalie Howard “Cookie” Krongard ’61, former inspector general of the State Department. “I think I’m in pretty good shape,” said Krongard, who has rarely missed a chance to strap on his goalie pads and face the undergrads. He even practiced with the team the day before. Practice seemed to pay off when he came up with a big save against freshman Oscar Loynaz.

This year’s freshman class “adds a lot” to the team, said Krongard. With more speed on the team, Krongard thinks it will be a good year for Tiger lacrosse — and he should know what a good year looks like. Princeton did not lose an Ivy League game during his three years as a starter. By Sarah Harrison ’09

Names in the news

On Oct. 16, The New York Times profiled Amit Chatwani ’04, a blogger and author who satirizes the lives of young investment bankers — a tough job in a down market, according to Chatwani. “It’s just not the same to kick them when they’re down,” he told the paper. … On Oct. 15, poet and Northwestern University professor Reginald Gibbons ’69 was nominated for a National Book Award for his collection of poems Creatures of a Day. The National Book Award winners will be announced Nov. 19. … An Oct. 17 Washington Post review complimented the “haunting, bracing, and ultimately heartbreaking” accounts of Robert Kennedy found in former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach ’43’s new book, Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ. … NPR’s All Things Considered looked back at Adlai Stevenson ’22 and his presidential candidacy in 1952, one of the first times in which television played a major role in the election’s outcome. … Standup comedian Jeff Kreisler ’95 will join four other performers to “rant, vent and occasionally educate audiences on campaign topics” at the Gotham Comedy Club Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m., according to Time Out New York.

A musical mix of old and new

Pianist Andy Luse ’02 founded a concert series, Classics on the Rocks, two years ago to attract young adults to classical music performances. Luse and his colleagues have been drawing in younger crowds by spicing up the traditional classical music experience. Presented cabaret-style in small venues like restaurant lounges and clubs in the Washington, D.C., area, the concerts mix jazz, pop, and other styles with classical compositions.

The next performance will take Classics on the Rocks outdoors July 9 at Strathmore, an arts center in North Bethesda, Md. The concert will feature the Dvorak Piano Quintet and a flute-marimba combo with percussionist Paul Fadoul. For more information, visit www.classicsontherocks.com. By Katherine Federici Greenwood

More at PAW Online

PAW’s Web Exclusives for the June 11 issue include:

Songs from Rackett, the rock band that features professors Nigel Smith and Paul Muldoon. Click here to listen and here to read an interview with Smith.

A profile of alumna Lauren (Holuba) Nelson ’04, who received the Shield of Sparta: Heroine of the Infantry, the highest honor given to a military spouse by the National Infantry Association. Click here to read more

The story of the Fred Almgren ’55 Memorial Relay, an annual competition in which mathematicians from Princeton and Rutgers run from Fine Hall to New Brunswick. Click here to read more

Gregg Lange ’70’s Rally ’Round the Cannon column, covering an important transition in the history of Prospect Avenue. Click here to read more

Names in the news

Sports Illustrated featured Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson ’83 in a June 3 story that covered the challenges of his new job and life on the campaign trail with his sister, Michelle Obama ’85, and her famous husband. … In other Obama news, Princeton astrophysics professor J. Richard Gott III *73 and a colleague have deduced, using statistical analysis of polls, that if the general election had been held in late May, the presumptive Democratic nominee would have lost to John McCain, while McCain would have lost to Hillary Clinton. … The Sacramento Bee profiled minor league baseball star Will Venable ’05 and his father, Max, the hitting coach for Will’s team, the Portland Beavers. … An eye-popping final ride in the freestyle kayak event propelled Dustin Urban ’07 to a first-place finish at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colo., June 7. Among the winning moves, according to the Vail Daily: an air wheel, 360-loops in both directions, and a McNasty followed by a monster loop.

Farewell for the summer

This edition of The Weekly Blog is the last of the academic year. The final print edition of PAW, featuring coverage of Reunions and Commencement, will be published July 16. The Weekly Blog will return Sept. 17.

Visit the PAW Web site for Reunions videos, slide shows, and breaking summer news.

Reunions 2008 draws 20,000

With more than 20,000 alumni, family members, and friends attending Reunions Weekend, it may seem difficult for one person to stand out in the crowd. But Malcolm Warnock ’25, left, drew a remarkable amount of attention in Saturday’s P-rade.

Carrying the Class of 1923 Cane as the oldest alumnus at Reunions (for the fourth time), Warnock rode through campus to waves of applause and cheers. He is 102 years old, set to turn 103 later this month, and the next-oldest alumni in the P-rade were nine years behind him in school. But Warnock did not see reason for all the fuss. “I have received today more completely unwarranted attention than I have ever received in my life,” he said.

The Class of 1983 led the P-rade as this year’s 25th reunion class, and its reunion was the first to be held at Whitman College. Co-chairman Steve Simcox ’83 summed up the new site in one word: “spectacular.” While bands played and class members danced in the Class of 1963 Courtyard, others found a spot for quiet conversations and coffee breaks a staircase away in the Chester Courtyard, where baristas were on duty from morning to midnight.

Photos by T. Kevin Birch

Remembering 1968

Forty years ago this week, the normally festive Princeton Reunions took on a sober tone as visitors mourned the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s funeral train passed through Princeton Junction on Reunions Weekend, bringing the tragedy of the previous Tuesday evening even closer to the thoughts of alumni.

The University cancelled the annual alumni baseball game and rerouted the P-rade to keep festivities on campus, ending the procession at Blair Arch, where the Alumni Association held what William A.B. Paul, the secretary for the Class of 1918, called in his PAW Class Notes column a “dignified meeting” followed by “thoughtful discussions about the turbulent conditions today and those student agitators who are so hard for old Princetonians to underst0and.”

Duncan van Dusen ’58 wrote in PAW’s Class Notes that while Kennedy’s death caused a drop in Reunions attendance, there were some positive returns for those who came to campus. “The modified schedule of events provoked much discussion about the future of the United States, where we are going, and where we ought to be going,” he wrote. “Liberals, moderates, and reactionaries, all equally concerned, exchanged ideas without blows, often nearing agreement if not as to programs, at least as to the problems.”

Answers to the Reunions 2008
Princetoniana Challenge

Congratulations to Ashley Prescott ’06 and Jonathan Sapan ’04, who each scored a perfect 10-for-10 on the Princetoniana Challenge. Both winners received copies of The Best of PAW: 100 Years of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, edited by J.I. Merritt ’66. For readers who were stumped by the quiz, an annotated list of answers is printed below.

Where is…

1. A building that once served as the nation’s capitol for the Continental Congress?
Nassau Hall served as the headquarters of the Continental Congress from July-October 1783.

2. This display containing skeletons of a modern and a prehistoric tiger?
The skeletons of a modern Bengal tiger and of its evolutionary predecessor, a 28,000-year-old Smilodon or saber-tooth tiger, are on display at the Frist Campus Center, 100 level, by the windows at the rear.

3. The “Fountain of Freedom,” in the center of which is one of the largest bronze castings in the world?
The Fountain of Freedom was designed by James Fitzgerald in 1966 and rises from the Scudder Plaza pool in front of Robertson Hall.

4. The grave of Nathaniel FitzRandolph, donor of Princeton’s original campus?
It is under the eastern arch of Holder Hall and Rockefeller Hall, and there is a plaque explaining the significance of the site. FitzRandolph solicited donations of land and money and donated some of his own land as well. His family’s burial ground was here.

5. This parking garage, which won a design award from the American Institute of Architects?
The parking garage is next to Bowen Hall at 70 Prospect Avenue (between Olden and Murray Place). Built in 1991 and designed by Machado Silvetti Associates (Boston), the garage won a design award in 1993 from the American Institute of Architects.

6. The statue of a dean who argued about the location of the Graduate School with a future president of the United States—and won the argument?
A statue of Andrew Fleming West (class of 1874), first dean of the Graduate School, is in the Thompson courtyard of the Old Graduate College. Although Woodrow Wilson, as president of Princeton, wanted to build the Graduate College in the main part of campus, West thought that it should have a separate location. West won the argument in 1910 when alumnus Isaac Wyman (Class of 1848) died, leaving a bequest that helped to fund West’s plan. “We’ve beaten the living,” said Wilson to his wife, Ellen, “but we can’t beat the dead.”

7. A building in the shape of an octagon?
The octagonal Chancellor Green building, designed by William A. Potter and dedicated in 1873 as Princeton’s first freestanding library, is now part of the Andlinger Center for the Humanities.

8. This stained-glass window, called the “Seven Liberal Arts Window”?
The Seven Liberal Arts Window, designed by William and Annie Lee Willet, is at the west end of Procter Hall at the Graduate College.

9. A flag from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton IV, which sank during a battle in 1944?
The flag is in the University Chapel. It came from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton IV, which was commissioned in 1942 and had one of the most distinguished service records among Navy ships during World War II until it was sunk in 1944 during the Second Battle in the Philippine Sea. James Forrestal, class of 1915, presented the ship’s flag to the University when he was Secretary of the Navy in 1944-45.

10. This word carved into the pavement?
This inscription is on the path from the Dinky to the new Whitman College. It refers to the wording of the letter sent to accepted applicants during the 1988-2003 tenure of Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon. A dormitory at Whitman College is named in honor of Dean Hargadon.

Images courtesy of the Princetoniana Committee. Visit the Princetoniana section of the Princeton University Website for more Princeton lore.

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Princeton astronomer recalls a once-in-a-lifetime star sighting

On Jan. 9, 2008, Alicia Soderberg, a postdoctoral research associate in astrophysics at Princeton, was studying the X-ray emissions conveyed from space by NASA’s Swift satellite when she recognized an extremely bright light on the screen of her computer, saturating the satellite’s view “as if we had pointed a digital camera directly at the sun.” That light, Soderberg and colleague Edo Berger later confirmed, was a supernova — an explosion of a massive star.

Seeing a supernova is not unusual — the stars are brighter than 100 billion suns. But in the vastness of space, there generally is a delay of days or weeks between a supernova’s explosion and its discovery by astronomers. By then, “most of the fireworks are already over,” Soderberg said.

Soderberg is the first astronomer to observe a supernova in the act of exploding. Her finding, named Supernova 2008D, is described in a paper to be published in Nature May 22, and in a May 21 teleconference, she described the experience as being at the right place, at the right time, with the right telescope. “I truly won the astronomer’s lottery,” she said.

Soderberg had been studying another supernova, SN 2007uy, in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, located 90 million light years from Earth in the constellation Lynx. Seeing two supernovae in the same galaxy in a matter of weeks is extraordinarily unusual — a one-in-10,000 chance, she estimates. A typical galaxy produces one supernova every 100 years.

The Princeton group’s discovery sparked a campaign of observations from telescopes in the United States and beyond, including the Hubble Space Telescope.

The use of an X-ray flash, rather than optical observation, to detect a supernova marks a “paradigm shift” and could lead to more discoveries, according to Robert Kirshner, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University and one of Soderberg’s mentors. Kirshner also stressed that luck was only part of Soderberg’s find. “If you’re active and you’re energetic, it helps a lot because you manufacture your own luck, in a way,” he said. “There’s nobody who’s more focused and energetic than Alicia Soderberg.”

Courtesy of NASA/Swift/Skyworks Digital/Dana Berry

This digital animation shows an artist’s rendering of the shock wave discovered by Princeton University’s Alicia Soderberg and a team of scientists. A supernova is born when the core of a massive star (the blue orb) runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity to form an ultradense object known as a neutron star. The shock wave erupts and ripples through the star, emitting X-rays (seen here as bright white light). The remnants of the explosion cool (the white light gets smaller), and then the visual light from the supernova glows (seen as yellow clouds). The fading white dot in the middle of the animation represents a newly born neutron star.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the frequency at which supernovae occur in a galaxy. It is about once every 100 years.

Down and up, 1,000 times

On May 5, with his hands pressed against the hardwood of the Princeton Seminary gym, Ryan Bonfiglio ’01 completed 1,000 push-ups in 20 minutes and 50 seconds, besting a mark from The Guinness Book of World Records set by fitness guru Jack LaLanne on the national television show You Asked For It in 1956.

The high-speed push-ups, completed in sets of 25, were recorded by a digital camera that also captured Bonfiglio’s “official timer” - a wristwatch positioned on the floor.

Bonfiglio, a former Princeton wrestler, is not new to breaking world records. In 2004, he set the record for most pull-ups in one hour: 507. That record was broken when a competitor chinned-up over 600 times in 60 minutes. Bonfiglio contested the mark, arguing that chin-ups and pull-ups use different muscles and therefore are different exercises, but the Guinness Book officials were firm in their refusal to differentiate.

LaLanne’s “quickest completion of 1,000 push-ups” category has been retired by the The Guinness Book of World Records, so Bonfiglio is looking to challenge a related mark: most push-ups in one hour. Record-holder Roy Berger, a Canadian who was proclaimed “Mr. Push-up” by Muscle & Fitness Magazine, completed 3,416 push-ups in an hour in 1998.

Photo courtesy of Benjamin Robinson

Names in the News

With the Boston Celtics rolling toward the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals, ESPN told the story of how Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck ’83 came back home to Boston and stepped into one of the most cherished corner offices in town. … Wendy Kopp ’89’s Teach for America continues to grow, according to a recent AP report, and Kopp expects even more expansion in the next two years, as the group aims to increase its corps of first- and second-year teachers from 5,000 to 8,000. … Princeton musicologist Simon Morrison *97 is helping to revive Prokoviev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet” for a series of July performances at Bard College. … Two hundred years ago, China was the world’s greatest economic power, Princeton economics professor Burton Malkiel *64 told CFAs at a recent conference. Malkiel expects that China will regain that position in the next 20 years. … William Zinsser ’44 wrote a May 18 New York Times essay about the most peculiar Manhattan office he ever occupied and its most memorable perk: a fireman’s pole that connected the fifth and fourth floors.

The Countdown:

Days until Reunions 2008

Take the Reunions 2008
Princetoniana Challenge

Think you know the Princeton campus? The Princetoniana Committee has a quiz for you. Before you march in the P-rade, use your walking shoes and the help of friends and family members to track down answers to these 10 questions. Each object, architectural detail, building, or place is located on campus, stretching from the Graduate College to the E-Quad. Send your answers to PAW for a chance to win one of our prizes. Entries must be received before June 4, when we will post the answers on The Weekly Blog.

Where is…

1. A building that once served as the nation’s capitol for the Continental Congress?

2. This display containing skeletons of a modern and a prehistoric tiger?



3. The “Fountain of Freedom,” in the center of which is one of the largest bronze castings in the world?

4. The grave of Nathaniel FitzRandolph, donor of Princeton’s original campus?

5. This parking garage, which won a design award from the American Institute of Architects?


6. The statue of a dean who argued about the location of the Graduate School with a future president of the United States—and won the argument?

7. A building in the shape of an octagon?

8. This stained-glass window, called the “Seven Liberal Arts Window”?



9. A flag from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton IV, which sank during a battle in 1944?

10. This word carved into the pavement?





Images courtesy of the Princetoniana Committee. Visit the Princetoniana section of the Princeton University Website for more Princeton lore.

Inside PAW-litics

PAW will host its first Reunions panel discussion, “PAW-litics 101,” on Friday, May 30, at 1:30 p.m. in the Frist Campus Center’s air-conditioned Film/Performance Theater (room 301). The event will provide an insider’s look at the 2008 presidential campaign from alumni journalists Jim Kelly ’76, managing editor of Time Inc.; Kathy Kiely ’77, a reporter for USA Today; moderator Joel Achenbach ‘82 of The Washington Post; Todd Purdum ’82, national editor at Vanity Fair; Juliet Eilperin ’92, a reporter at The Washington Post; Rick Klein ’98, senior political reporter for ABC News; and Andrew Romano ’04, an associate editor at Newsweek.
More information about the full calendar of Reunions events can be found online at the Alumni Association’s Web site.

Reading period

John Edwards ’08 catches up on some reading on Cannon Green May 7, during the spring semester reading period. Spring finals begin May 14.
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Seniors honored for top research

Since 2004, the Princeton Undergraduate Research Symposium has provided students with a chance to share some of what they have learned in their independent work with a wider audience - and win prizes in the process.
This year, 42 undergraduates participated in the event’s poster presentations, held in the Carl Icahn Lab atrium March 7. Contestants were judged on a range of criteria that included creativity, scientific thought, demonstration of skill, and communication. Biology and engineering were the most popular categories, drawing 20 and 15 entrants, respectively. Molecular biology concentrator Ryan Corces-Zimmerman ’08 earned the top overall prize and first place in the biology category for his study on how a specific protein affects the longevity of C. elegans, a worm commonly used in lab research. Jerry Moxley ’08, another biologist, placed second overall for his work examining how spotted antbirds search for their prey. Raleigh Martin ’08, a civil and environmental engineer who won the engineering category, placed third overall for his senior thesis examination of Beijing’s summer-season climatology.
Other honorees included Kevin Kung ’08, who earned first place in physical sciences and won the Interdisciplinary Award, and Catherine Digovich ’08, the first-place winner in social sciences.

The Countdown:

Days until Reunions 2008

From self-published to ‘really’ published

Two years ago, Ann Herendeen ’77 was featured in a PAW story about alumni authors who had decided to self-publish books. Herendeen marketed her novel, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, with advertisements and press releases, but she told PAW that she did not have the “thick skin” required to sell books through those channels. As it turns out, she didn’t need it.
A year-and-a-half after releasing her book, Herendeen received an e-mail from an editor at HarperCollins asking if the rights were available. Before long, she had a contract and a small advance. The newly packaged book — a romantic comedy about a rich gay gentleman, his wife, and his lover, set in early 19th-century England — was published in April to positive reviews. Library Journal called it “a brilliant exploration of love, sexuality, class, and gender, but above all, it is a wonderful love story.”
Going from self-published author to “really published,” Herendeen says, “feels like being Cinderella after her first visit from her fairy godmother. Now I get to go to the ball!” By Katherine Federici Greenwood

Names in the news

Alumnus Robert Caro ’57 and professors Paul Muldoon and Kwame Anthony Appiah will be among the eight scholars and artists inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters May 21. … Boston Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino ’67 will deliver the commencement address at Boston University May 18. … Forbes profiled Thomas Wu ’94, a managing director of Hopewell Holdings in Hong Kong and son of Gordon Wu ’58. While Wu admitted that he has much to prove, in part because of his famous father, the magazine said he deserves credit for aiding Hopewell Holdings’ recent turnaround.
The Sun-Times asked prominent women in Chicago what they would change if they ran the city. Ariel Capital president Mellody Hobson ’91 suggested adding a “financial literacy” program to the curriculum in public schools. … In the May 12 New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell highlighted the work of technology innovator and sometimes dinosaur-bone hunter Nathan Myhrvold *83. … The Washington Post marked the passing of Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Warner ’43. Warner’s first career was in the Foreign Service, but he became better-known for his writing, beginning in 1977 when the first of his four books, Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay, won the Pulitzer for nonfiction.

PAW on the ’Tube

PAW’s online coverage of Reunions 2007 captured these scenes from the P-rade as well as other campus events that can be viewed at PAW’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/PAWstaff) or on PAW’s Web site. The YouTube channel also features archived PAW videos of the November 2006 bonfire, classic bonfires from 1926 and 1948, and coverage of Reunions 2006.
Other Princeton-related YouTube videos worth a look include footage of today’s students playing intramural dodgeball and broomball, a brief clip of a 2007 University Orchestra concert in Budapest, the Princeton University Band’s irreverent recruiting video, and a mid-1960s selection from I’ve Got a Secret with Steve Allen, featuring a classic Triangle Club kickline.

The Countdown:

Days until Reunions 2008