Student Life | October 3, 2007 · 2009-07-15 · • Build your resume and communication skills •...
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NEWSROOM PHONE 314-935-5995 E-MAIL US [email protected] ADVERTISING PHONE 314-935-6713 INSIDE: Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Forum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Cadenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Sudoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Volleyball cleans up, as usual New Matchbox 20 album The Lady Bear’s won all their matches at the UAA Round Robin tournament at New York University over the weekend. Sports, Page 4 The group’s new album proves catchy, but is no match for the band’s older material. Cadenza, Page 10 THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 129, NO. 17 WWW.STUDLIFE.COM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007 STAFF EDITORIAL | MAKE DEMOCRACY DAY A WASH. U. HOLIDAY | SEE FORUM, PAGE 6 S TUDENT L IFE BY JEREMY ROGOFF CONTRIBUTING REPORTER As a freelance journalist in Iraq, David Enders reported on stories that often went un- told. In his 18 months in the Middle East—spanning from the outset of the invasion to this summer—Enders ac- cessed areas previously des- ignated unsafe for any west- erner, let alone a journalist. The 28-year-old will speak tomorrow at Washington University about his fi nd- ings and his most recent stint in the Shia-dominated Anbar province, where U.S. forces face new byproducts of war such as ethnic cleans- ing, factional clashes and the growing refugee crisis. Over the summer, Enders, au- thor of the new book “Baghdad: Bulletin,” which chronicles his war coverage, and fi lmmaker Richard Rowley traveled to Iraq and Syria. It was part of a project chartered by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Re- porting in an effort to tell the real-life stories of the citizens in these war-torn regions. Besides spending about two weeks embedded with troops, a common war coverage strat- egy of the media that offers maximum safety, Enders spent most of his time with Sunni and Shia militia groups without any American mili- tary protection. Regarding his most recent reports, Enders fi nds that some of the war’s most alarm- ing issues have received little attention in the day’s public discussion. “The U.S. is contributing openly to war crimes,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem that that’s generally discussed.” Zach Dyer, a Washington University alumnus, was one of the people responsible for bringing Enders to the Uni- versity. “The Iraq subject is inter- esting because it’s a chance to take a topic that is really vola- tile, really important, and on a personal level affects a lot of Americans,” said Dyer. BY ELI KEEHN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER At a panel discussion on Monday night, a Washington University student and two of her colleagues discussed their experiences living and study- ing at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Isra- el, an academic center devoted to promoting peace in the Mid- dle East through educating stu- dents of all faiths and ethnici- ties about the environmental issues faced by the region. Senior Moriah Cohen, an American-Israeli majoring in international studies and envi- ronmental studies, traveled to Arava in the spring of 2007 for her junior year abroad. “One of the most fascinat- ing and effective parts for me was the exploration of histori- cal narratives,” said Cohen dur- ing the discussion. “What’s the historical narrative I learned growing up as a Jew and an Is- raeli and what historical narra- tives did these Jordanians and Palestinians [with whom she studied] learn growing up?” The other members of the panel were Jennifer Golding, a British-Israeli whose father is of Yemeni descent, and Amer Swe- ity, a Jordanian-Palestinian. Sweity described the diffi- culties he had getting to know his roommate, “the first Jew I’d ever known,” saying it took three weeks for their conversa- tions to move beyond an awk- ward, introductory level. He further discussed the difficulties he had upon return- ing home. “My name is on a blacklist in Jordan because I was studying in Israel. It’s [now] very difficult to get a job,” said Sweity. Golding outlined her rea- soning for wanting to study at Arava. “It combines my love for the desert and my love for Is- rael, where love means making them sustainable in terms of the environment and in terms of the relationships we build,” she said. According to Cohen, the Peace-building and Environ- mental Leadership seminars she attended were very mean- ingful. She described them as “deep and intense dialogue ses- sions where we explored our in- dividual and collective cultural identities.” One of the five classes Co- hen took during her semester at Arava, called Water Manage- ment in the Middle East, looked at water from political, social, cultural and ecological points of view, and discussed how and why those factors converge. “Ideally, the environment ought to dictate political poli- cies, and problems arise when politics begin to dictate or af- fect the environment,” said Co- hen. The students were joined by Rabbi Michael Cohen, a found- ing member of the Arava Insti- tute, who underscored that the educational institution has a unique status because it is lo- cated on a kibbutz, or collective farm. “[The kibbutz] serves as a micro level for cooperation on matters of peace and the envi- ronment,” said Rabbi Cohen. In addition, the length of each student’s stay at Arava— anywhere between one month and two semesters for under- graduates—contributes heavily to the Institute’s atmosphere. “The students know they have the time to work through issues, and the time for people to really change,” said Rabbi Cohen. The event was sponsored by Students for a Peaceful Pales- tinian-Israeli Future (SPPIF), a group whose main purpose is to “engage the tough issues of the conflict in the Middle East and try to get both sides to un- derstand each other,” accord- ing to sophomore Robert Fares, the organization’s incoming president. Several years ago, SPPIF sponsored another Arava visit to the Wash. U. campus, which focused more heavily on re- cruiting students to apply for its programs. Admission to the Institute was described as “about as competitive as ad- mission to Wash. U.” The representatives of the Institute are in the midst of a national tour promoting the Institute and discussing their experiences studying there. The final event, according to Golding, will take place at an international peace camp in Yosemite Park outside San Francisco. Senior Moriah Cohen and guests Jennifer Golding, Amer Sweity and Rabbi Michael Cohen (from left to right) spoke at the “Organic Peace” discussion on Monday night. The event highlighted the work of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel to facilitate peace through environmental activisim. SAM GUZIK | STUDENT LIFE Discussion highlights environmental cooperation as gateway to dialogue Journalist to speak on real deal in Iraq BY PERRY STEIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A significant number of complaints have been filed against the Washington Univer- sity Medical Center Redevelop- ment Corporation regarding its alleged abuse of eminent do- main, according to Missouri’s Ombudsman of Eminent Do- main Anthony Martin. “It’s been decimating these black neighborhoods,” said Martin. Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation’s (WUMCRC) stat- ed mission is to revitalize the structures and neighborhoods surrounding the University’s medical campus. To achieve that goal, it is empowered to use eminent do- main because it has been clas- sified as a 353-redevelopment corporation under an old Mis- souri state law. “They have been grandfa- thered into an old law,” said Martin. “The new law says that a city government has to vote to use eminent domain.” Eminent domain is defined as the power of a state to seize private property for public use. Although many of the com- plaints appear to be directed towards WUMCRC, Brian Phil- lips, executive director of the Washington University medical center, said the corporation has not used eminent domain since 1999. “We have not used it in quite a while,” said Phillips. “It is definitely available to us, and we take the use of it very seri- ously.” Despite this, Martin said people’s properties are being seized and blighted in order to benefit the University’s medical campus. This is, in part, made possi- ble through Cortex, a non-profit organization jointly created by five education institutions, in- cluding St. Louis University and Washington University, that de- velops property in order to ex- pand research institutions. “[Washington University] cannot claim they have clean hands,” said Paul Henry, an eminent domain lawyer at Den- low and Henry who represents property owners whose prop- erties have been condemned by Cortex. The Cortex district consists of several hundred acres of land located between the area of St. Louis University Hospital and Washington University’s hospital, Barnes Jewish Chil- dren’s. While Phillips said Cortex is a separate entity from the Uni- versity, Henry said that Wash- ington University is a powerful part of Cortex and St. Louis. “The reason why Cortex is there is to allow the hospital to expand,” said Henry. “The ties between Wash. U. and Cortex are extraordinarily strong.” Cortex was not able to com- ment for this article before press time. However, William Danforth, former Washing- ton University chancellor, was quoted on its Web site. “Cortex is an idea whose time has come. The district is a huge step forward for St. Louis and is a critical component of the redevelopment of the entire area,” said Danforth. Both homeowners and busi- ness owners have been affected by the use of eminent domain for universities’ development. Shenise Pruitt, a mother and homeowner in the Central West End since 1994, said she received a letter of intent from a developer in 2004 stating he wanted her property to build more labs for a university. “It doesn’t matter what it is, Residents question University’s use of eminent domain in expanding med school See EXPANSION, page 2 See ENDERS, page 2
Transcript of Student Life | October 3, 2007 · 2009-07-15 · • Build your resume and communication skills •...
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INSIDE:
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Forum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Cadenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Classifi eds . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Sudoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Volleyball cleans up, as usual New Matchbox 20 album
The Lady Bear’s won all their matches at the UAA Round Robin tournament at New York University over the weekend. Sports, Page 4
The group’s new album proves catchy, but is no match for the band’s older material. Cadenza, Page 10
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878VOLUME 129, NO. 17 WWW.STUDLIFE.COMWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007
STAFF EDITORIAL | MAKE DEMOCRACY DAY A WASH. U. HOLIDAY | SEE FORUM, PAGE 6
STUDENT LIFE
BY JEREMY ROGOFF CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
As a freelance journalist in Iraq, David Enders reported on stories that often went un-told. In his 18 months in the Middle East—spanning from the outset of the invasion to this summer—Enders ac-cessed areas previously des-ignated unsafe for any west-erner, let alone a journalist.
The 28-year-old will speak tomorrow at Washington University about his fi nd-ings and his most recent stint in the Shia-dominated Anbar province, where U.S. forces face new byproducts of war such as ethnic cleans-ing, factional clashes and the growing refugee crisis.Over the summer, Enders, au-thor of the new book “Baghdad: Bulletin,” which chronicles his war coverage, and fi lmmaker Richard Rowley traveled to Iraq and Syria. It was part of a project chartered by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Re-porting in an effort to tell the real-life stories of the citizens
in these war-torn regions.Besides spending about two weeks embedded with troops, a common war coverage strat-egy of the media that offers maximum safety, Enders spent most of his time with Sunni and Shia militia groups without any American mili-tary protection.
Regarding his most recent reports, Enders fi nds that some of the war’s most alarm-ing issues have received little attention in the day’s public discussion.
“The U.S. is contributing openly to war crimes,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem that that’s generally discussed.”
Zach Dyer, a Washington University alumnus, was one of the people responsible for bringing Enders to the Uni-versity.
“The Iraq subject is inter-esting because it’s a chance to take a topic that is really vola-tile, really important, and on a personal level affects a lot of Americans,” said Dyer.
BY ELI KEEHN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
At a panel discussion on Monday night, a Washington University student and two of her colleagues discussed their experiences living and study-ing at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Isra-el, an academic center devoted to promoting peace in the Mid-dle East through educating stu-dents of all faiths and ethnici-ties about the environmental issues faced by the region.
Senior Moriah Cohen, an American-Israeli majoring in international studies and envi-ronmental studies, traveled to Arava in the spring of 2007 for her junior year abroad.
“One of the most fascinat-ing and effective parts for me was the exploration of histori-cal narratives,” said Cohen dur-
ing the discussion. “What’s the historical narrative I learned growing up as a Jew and an Is-raeli and what historical narra-tives did these Jordanians and Palestinians [with whom she studied] learn growing up?”
The other members of the panel were Jennifer Golding, a British-Israeli whose father is of Yemeni descent, and Amer Swe-ity, a Jordanian-Palestinian.
Sweity described the diffi -culties he had getting to know his roommate, “the fi rst Jew I’d ever known,” saying it took three weeks for their conversa-tions to move beyond an awk-ward, introductory level.
He further discussed the diffi culties he had upon return-ing home.
“My name is on a blacklist in Jordan because I was studying in Israel. It’s [now] very diffi cult to get a job,” said Sweity.
Golding outlined her rea-soning for wanting to study at Arava.
“It combines my love for the desert and my love for Is-rael, where love means making them sustainable in terms of the environment and in terms of the relationships we build,” she said.
According to Cohen, the Peace-building and Environ-mental Leadership seminars she attended were very mean-ingful. She described them as “deep and intense dialogue ses-sions where we explored our in-dividual and collective cultural identities.”
One of the fi ve classes Co-hen took during her semester at Arava, called Water Manage-ment in the Middle East, looked at water from political, social, cultural and ecological points of view, and discussed how and
why those factors converge. “Ideally, the environment
ought to dictate political poli-cies, and problems arise when politics begin to dictate or af-fect the environment,” said Co-hen.
The students were joined by Rabbi Michael Cohen, a found-ing member of the Arava Insti-tute, who underscored that the educational institution has a unique status because it is lo-cated on a kibbutz, or collective farm.
“[The kibbutz] serves as a micro level for cooperation on matters of peace and the envi-ronment,” said Rabbi Cohen.
In addition, the length of each student’s stay at Arava—anywhere between one month and two semesters for under-graduates—contributes heavily to the Institute’s atmosphere.
“The students know they have the time to work through issues, and the time for people to really change,” said Rabbi Cohen.
The event was sponsored by Students for a Peaceful Pales-tinian-Israeli Future (SPPIF), a group whose main purpose is to “engage the tough issues of the confl ict in the Middle East and try to get both sides to un-derstand each other,” accord-ing to sophomore Robert Fares, the organization’s incoming president.
Several years ago, SPPIF sponsored another Arava visit to the Wash. U. campus, which focused more heavily on re-cruiting students to apply for its programs. Admission to the Institute was described as “about as competitive as ad-mission to Wash. U.”
The representatives of the Institute are in the midst of a national tour promoting the Institute and discussing their experiences studying there. The fi nal event, according to Golding, will take place at an international peace camp in Yosemite Park outside San Francisco.
Senior Moriah Cohen and guests Jennifer Golding, Amer Sweity and Rabbi Michael Cohen (from left to right) spoke at the “Organic Peace” discussion on Monday night. The event highlighted the work of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel to facilitate peace through environmental activisim.
SAM GUZIK | STUDENT LIFE
Discussion highlights environmental cooperation as gateway to dialogue
Journalist to speak on real deal in Iraq
BY PERRY STEINCONTRIBUTING REPORTER
A signifi cant number of complaints have been fi led against the Washington Univer-sity Medical Center Redevelop-ment Corporation regarding its alleged abuse of eminent do-main, according to Missouri’s Ombudsman of Eminent Do-main Anthony Martin.
“It’s been decimating these black neighborhoods,” said Martin.
Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation’s (WUMCRC) stat-
ed mission is to revitalize the structures and neighborhoods surrounding the University’s medical campus.
To achieve that goal, it is empowered to use eminent do-main because it has been clas-sifi ed as a 353-redevelopment corporation under an old Mis-souri state law.
“They have been grandfa-thered into an old law,” said Martin. “The new law says that a city government has to vote to use eminent domain.”
Eminent domain is defi ned as the power of a state to seize private property for public use.
Although many of the com-
plaints appear to be directed towards WUMCRC, Brian Phil-lips, executive director of the Washington University medical center, said the corporation has not used eminent domain since 1999.
“We have not used it in quite a while,” said Phillips. “It is defi nitely available to us, and we take the use of it very seri-ously.”
Despite this, Martin said people’s properties are being seized and blighted in order to benefi t the University’s medical campus.
This is, in part, made possi-ble through Cortex, a non-profi t
organization jointly created by fi ve education institutions, in-cluding St. Louis University and Washington University, that de-velops property in order to ex-pand research institutions.
“[Washington University] cannot claim they have clean hands,” said Paul Henry, an eminent domain lawyer at Den-low and Henry who represents property owners whose prop-erties have been condemned by Cortex.
The Cortex district consists of several hundred acres of land located between the area of St. Louis University Hospital and Washington University’s
hospital, Barnes Jewish Chil-dren’s.
While Phillips said Cortex is a separate entity from the Uni-versity, Henry said that Wash-ington University is a powerful part of Cortex and St. Louis.
“The reason why Cortex is there is to allow the hospital to expand,” said Henry. “The ties between Wash. U. and Cortex are extraordinarily strong.”
Cortex was not able to com-ment for this article before press time. However, William Danforth, former Washing-ton University chancellor, was quoted on its Web site.
“Cortex is an idea whose
time has come. The district is a huge step forward for St. Louis and is a critical component of the redevelopment of the entire area,” said Danforth.
Both homeowners and busi-ness owners have been affected by the use of eminent domain for universities’ development.
Shenise Pruitt, a mother and homeowner in the Central West End since 1994, said she received a letter of intent from a developer in 2004 stating he wanted her property to build more labs for a university.
“It doesn’t matter what it is,
Residents question University’s use of eminent domain in expanding med school
See EXPANSION, page 2
See ENDERS, page 2
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Editor in Chief: Erin FultsExecutive Editor: David BrodyManaging Editors: Shweta Murthi, Mal-lory WilderSenior News Editor: Sam GuzikSenior Forum Editor: Nathan EverlySenior Cadenza Editor: Brian StittSenior Scene Editor: Felicia BaskinSenior Sports Editor: Trisha WolfSenior Photo Editor: David HartsteinSenior Graphics Editor: Rachel HarrisNews Editors: Josh Hantz, David Song, Andrea WinterNews Manager: Elizabeth LewisForum Editors: Tess Croner, Jill Strominger, Christian Sherden, Dennis SweeneyCadenza Editors: Elizabeth Ochoa, David Kaminsky, Cecilia Razak, Michelle SteinScene Editors: Lana Goldsmith, Indu ChandrasekharSports Editors: Andrei Berman, Unaiz Kabani, Allie WieczorekPhoto Editors: Lucy Moore, Lionel Sobe-hart, Jenny ShaoOnline Editor: Scott BresslerDesign Chief: Anna DinndorfCopy Chiefs: Willie Mendelson, Indu ChandrasekharCopy Editors: Jonathan Baude, Lindsay Garbutt, Jeff Lesser, Cecilia RazakDesigners: Jamie Reed, Kate Ehrlich, Kim Yeh, Dennis Sweeney, Susan Hall, Liz Klein, Zoe Scharf, Niki Dankner, Brittany Meyer, Alyssa Anzalone-Newman, Sophia Agapova, Evan Freedman
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STUDENT LIFE
Senior News Editor / Sam Guzik / [email protected] WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 3, 20072 STUDENT LIFE | NEWS
BY PUNEET KOLLIPARASENIOR STAFF REPORTER
American consumption habits could lead to an economic down-turn as large as the recession in the early 1980s, according to a pa-per recently released by a Wash-ington University alumnus and an economics faculty member.
The study, co-authored by Pro-fessor of Economics Steven Faz-zari and Barry Cynamon, who graduated from the University in 2005 with a major in economics, said that the rise in household spending relative to income over the past 25 years has skyrocketed household debt. Fazzari said that debt spending by households has been a large contributor to the long-term economic stability and growth of the past 25 years. However, the large nature of the increase in debt, they wrote, could lead to greater fi nancial fragility and a downturn in consumption
strong enough to cause a signifi -cant recession.
Cynamon, who is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, was out of the country and unable to be reached for comment.
In the study, Fazzari and Cyna-mon examined the consumption patterns of American households over the past 25 years.
According to the study, one of the causes of the increase in household debt is the infl uence of media and the infl uence of friends and family on the spending habits of households.
According to Fazzari, people feel more inclined to make certain fi nancial choices, such as debt spending, when people they know are doing the same thing.
“It’s more of a sense of, ‘Well I can do this. My neighbors are do-ing this, it’s pretty easy, I don’t re-ally know what the future is going to bring, but everyone else seems
to be doing it, so why am I not do-ing it?’ ” said Fazzari.
Other factors contributing to the debt increase are institutional changes like the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which eliminated tax deduc-tions on all loans except for home mortgage loans. Home equity lines of credit (HELOC), which allow ho-meowners to take out loans using their houses as collateral, became a popular and easy way to acquire fi nancing with tax-deductible in-terest.
According to Fazzari, that act, combined with the steady drop in home mortgage interest rates since the early 1980s, made it easier than ever for consumers to acquire home loans for various spending purposes.
But now, with the recent sub-prime mortgage crisis, in which rising interest rates have led to record levels of foreclosure in the United States, Fazzari and Cyna-mon worry that trouble is ahead
for home mortgages, the interest rates for which have generally tumbled since the early 1980s.
“Mortgage rates got very low, so low that it’s hard to imagine that they could get that low ever again,” said Fazzari. “As interest rates fell during economic weak-ness, people could refi nance at lower interest rates, take cash out or at least lower their interest pay-ments. But we may have run the course on that.”
With home mortgage interest rates potentially having bottomed out and household debt having piled up, Fazzari said that fi nan-cial fragility is now so high that any sudden spikes in interest rates or problems in home or mortgage fi nance could lead to fi nancial troubles for households and huge drops in household consumption.
Fazzari emphasized that there is a realistic risk that this type of economic downturn could hap-pen. With household consump-
tion comprising 70 percent of gross domestic product, were a downturn to happen, it could mean a recession larger than any since the early 1980s recession, in which unemployment reached a post-World War II high of 10.8 percent. Fazzari did speculate that such a recession could fea-ture a decrease in gross domestic product over several quarters and unemployment as high as eight or nine percent.
The paper’s analysis was quali-tative and historical, but not quan-titative; therefore it could not offer a precise prediction of the econo-my’s future. Fazzari described the study as more of a “historical nar-rative” and said that a quantitative treatment of the subject would be a good topic for future research.
“We’re careful to support [the paper] not so much with formal statistical tests as with observa-tions on the economic events of the last 25 years,” said Fazzari.
Econ. study foresees big slump
BY JOSH HANTZNEWS EDITOR
Washington University Assis-tant Professor Paul Shattuck has just published a paper showing that symptoms of autism, like repetitive motion, interaction problems and impaired com-munication skills, can improve with age.
Reported in September’s Journal of Autism and Devel-opmental Disorders, the paper is part of a larger longitudinal study of 400 adolescents and adults with autism and their families conducted by Univer-sity of Wisconsin professor Mar-sha Mailick Seltzer.
“Generally people fell into
one of three groups,” said Shat-tuck, who joined the George Warren Brown School of Social Work this summer. “There was a small group of people who got worse, a medium size who remained the same, but most people got better.”
He qualifi ed his statement though, saying that the magni-tude of improvement is “quite modest.”
“It’s not the case that people are getting better all of a sud-den,” he said.
These fi ndings offer hope to all those who are diagnosed with autism. Statistically, one in 150 children and an unknown number of adults in the United States have autism, a brain devel-
opment disorder that research-ers know very little about.
“I thought it was important to depict what happens to people with autism throughout their lifespan, not just in childhood,” said Shattuck. “It’s important to realize that people have the capacity to grow and improve across their lives. Human devel-opment does not freeze at some point in time. Public service for people with disabilities ends after adolescence, but it should not stop.”
The study’s participants, aged 10 to 52 at the onset of the study, were recruited from ser-vice agencies, schools and clin-ics in either Wisconsin or Mas-sachusetts.
Every 18 months for fi ve years, their parents assessed their symptoms and behaviors in depth. Many participants re-mained stable, but many showed signifi cant improvement. The mean assessment never re-gressed, according to Shattuck.”The fi ndings are valid even though they are based on pa-rental reports,” he said.
Parents were given two standardized measurement questionnaires which have been used for a long time and are known to be reliable.Specifi c symptoms that the study measured include re-ciprocal conversation, interest in people, compulsions, ritu-als and maladaptive behavior
which isn’t unique to autism.The study, however, does not identify the underlying causes of improvement, but this will be an area for research in the future.
Shattuck, who has an under-graduate degree in education, has had a long-term interest in disabilities because his father is a polio survivor and many of his best friends have forms of autism. He also wanted to con-tribute to the fi eld since very lit-tle research has been conducted so far.
In addition to being the lead author on the paper, Shattuck also assisted with data collec-tion, management and analysis while at Wisconsin.
Professor fi nds autism symptoms can become less severe over time
EXPANSION v FROM PAGE 1as long as it’s for the students they just feel like they can take the property,” said Pruitt.
According to Pruitt, she had her home appraised for $410,000. However, the devel-oper only had her home ap-praised for $215,000.
“If you have a mortgage for more than they offer you can’t accept the offer,” said Pruitt.
Pruitt also operated a li-censed daycare center from her home but was forced to close it when her clients left and her property was eventu-ally blighted.
“They demolished my busi-ness so badly that my clients left,” said Pruitt. “My neigh-bors are going through this too. This is the worst I’ve ever seen my block. I haven’t seen any of these movements. Why plant a fl ower when you know
they are going to bulldoze your house?”
Pruitt said she believes that obtaining property in this manner will not be benefi cial for students in the long run.
“The developers don’t real-ize they are putting their stu-dents at risk. You don’t want someone to lose their mind [and hurt a student] because they have no home,” said Pruitt.
Martin said he hopes that University students learn about this issue and start to raise awareness.
“They are not breaking any laws because they have to go through courts to do this. It’s a moral issue,” said Martin. “They don’t have to answer to anyone except the students, [the] public and social [com-munity].”
ENDERS v FROM PAGE 1Dyer went to work for
The Pulitzer Center in Washington, D.C. after graduating last spring.Enders’ reports on Iraq de-serve intense consider-ation, Dyer said, because they ask the essential ques-tion: “What’s the actual situation in the country?”Along with recognition from The Pulitzer Center, an or-ganization that provides in-depth coverage of global cri-ses, Enders’ articles on the humanitarian crises have gar-nered national exposure. His reports are featured in The Washington Times, Democ-racy Now!, Foreign Exchange and al Jazeera English. His most recent byline landed lo-cally, on the front page of the “NewsWatch” section in last Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dis-
patch.Enders, who also teaches
English and journalism at the middle and high school lev-els, has an interest in seeing young people take an inter-est in global affairs. Students should know “how we interact in the world,” said Enders in an interview, and “the best lesson plans are the ones that have a heavy, real-life element to them.”
For students, Enders’ talk may convey the reality of war in Iraq, a version not diluted by politics or network televi-sion producers.
“He’s not pandering to any particular audience,” said sophomore Raghu Har-rington. “The anchors of the major TV stations have a re-sponsibility to be compelling to audience members, but a
freelance journalist doesn’t have that obligation.”
“David brings a very in-teresting perspective to the whole debate,” said Pushkar Sharma, the programming co-ordinator for the Internation-al Area Studies department. “There are very few people who have had that experience with that perspective. We would be wrong not to bring him to campus.”
In addition to his visit to the University, Enders will also speak at area high schools about his reporting, part of the Pulitzer Center’s “Global Gateway” initiative to educate young people on the impor-tance of international affairs.For more information on Da-vid Enders or the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, visit www.pulitzercenter.org.
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The St. Francis Xavier Foreign Mission Society (The Xaverian Missionaries)can help any Catholic young man to answer the Mission Call.
Phone or write to Fr. Joe Matteucig, SX101 Summer Street, Holliston MA 01746
Phone: (508) 429-2144, E-mail: [email protected] us online www.xaviermissionaries.org
Check out our Mission Life Direction Program at: www.missionlifedirections.org
Senior News Editor / Sam Guzik / [email protected] | OCTOBER 3, 2007 STUDENT LIFE | NEWS 3
POLICE BEATThursday, September 27
10:03 a.m. INFORMATION ONLY REPORTS-UNDESIGNAT-ED AREA OFF CAMPUS-Student reported fraud use of his credit card totaling $1500. Disposi-tion: Under investigation.
Friday, September 28
2:42 a.m. LARCENY-WOHL CENTER (R171)-Caller advises person(s) unknown were at the bakery attempting to steal cookies. Offi cers located the suspect and took custody. Dis-position: Referred to JA.
9:09 a.m. LARCENY-SNOW-WAY GARAGE (P224)-Stop sign and traffi c barricade stolen between 9/26 3 p.m. and 9/27 6:30 a.m. Value $85. Disposi-tion: Pending.
4:03 p.m. LARCENY-LOPA-TA HALL-An employee of Bon Appétit reported that she was counting the money from her register at the food cart in Lopata Gallery when an un-known black female walked past and took money off the counter. Value $95. Disposi-tion: Pending.
Saturday, September 29
8:24 a.m. PROPERTY DAM-AGE-SMALL GROUP HOUSING-unknown person(s) climbed scaffolding and painted “insert tuition here” on 46’ tower of building under construction. Disposition: Pending.
3:21 p.m. LARCENY-SOCIAL SCIENCE BLDG-Two suspects taken into custody for stealing copper from the construction site. One subject attempted to fl ee on a stolen bicycle. Disposi-tion: Cleared by arrest.
Sunday, September 30
11:19 a.m. DOMESTIC VIO-LENCE-OLIN LIBRARY (Y141)-Husband and wife involved in a verbal altercation inside Olin Library. Altercation be-came physical when husband grabbed his wife by her arms and pushed her out of the li-brary. Disposition: Cleared by arrest.
7:52 p.m. FRAUD-SHANEDLING DORM (R167)-Student reported that someone unknown was using his SSN and address to open credit accounts. Unknown, but prob-able point of origin was in California. Disposition: Under investigation.
Monday, October 1
5:25 p.m. LOST OR STOLEN-BROOKINGS QUADRANGLE (Y103)-A student stated he left his cell phone on a bench in the Quad during W.I.L.D. and upon his return found it missing. Several subjects reported the phone was picked up by a B&D guard. Disposition: Pending.
5:59 p.m. CHECK THE WELL BEING-DANFORTH CAMPUS -A student had not been seen since 11 a.m. today’s date. In-vestigation eventually revealed that he had been hospitalized. Disposition: Cleared.
7:30 p.m. INVESTIGATION-
PARKING LOT #55 (R320)-Student reported that an un-known individual had written the n-word in approximately 4-inch letters in dust on the complainants rear window. The student had wiped the wording away prior to making this report. Disposition: Under investigation.
10:21 p.m. THREAT REPORT-MILLBROOK APARTMENTS-Complainant reported that an-other student threatened her while at her apartment. Dispo-sition: Under investigation.
Graffi ti reading “insert tuition here” was sprayed on a concrete cinderblock tower at the Village East construction site over the weekend. According to Don Strom, chief of University Police, the graffi ti appeared between 5:30 p.m. on Friday and 5:30 a.m. on Saturday when contractors found it upon returning to work in the morning. Strom stressed that this was an isolated incident, saying, “As far as we know that’s the only time that it’s happened.” By Tuesday it had already been painted over.
DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
VILLAGE EAST CONSTRUCTION SITE GRAFFITIED
Forest Park 314.721.0072 www.slam.org
Thursday, Oct. 4 A Conversation with Lorna Simpson7:00 pm Lorna Simpson, Artist, with Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Associate
Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
One of the leading artists working in the United States today, Simpson challenges perceptions of identity through provocative combinations of photography and text and also film and lan-guage. Simpson will discuss issues of race, gender, and identity with Shaw, author of Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century.
Friday, Oct. 12 20th Anniversary Dorismae Friedman Lecture:7:00 pm Early European Sculpture and Painting in
St. Louis and Washington, D.C.Nicholas Penny, Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Join Penny to explore important early European artworks from the Saint Louis Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The annual Dorismae Friedman lecture is supported by the Dorismae Friedman Docent Enrichment Fund, which was created by Harvey Friedman to honor his wife, a long-time docent, and is dedicated to docent education at the Museum
Thursday, Nov. 1 10th Anniversary Nelson I. Wu Lecture: 6:00 pm Cultural Memory and Regional Pride in
China’s Western GardensJerome Silbergeld, P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor of Chinese Art History, Princeton University, and Director, Tang Center, Princeton University
Most of what is known about China’s great garden-building history comes from private scholar gardens in the south and imperial gardens in the north. Silbergeld sheds new light on Chinese garden design when he explores the little-known tradition of landscape architecture from Sichuan in the southwest. The 10th annual Nelson I. Wu lecture on Asian art and culture, which honors the memory of the late Dr. Wu, is jointly sponsored by theSaint Louis Art Museum and Washington University in St. Louis.
Lectures are FREE and held in the Museum Auditorium
Fall Lectures atthe Saint LouisArt Museum
One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park St. Louis, Missouri 63110 314.721.0072 www.slam.org
Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am–5 pm; Friday, 10 am–9 pm; Closed Monday
CLAYTON
The Big ReadSaturday, October 6, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Central and Carondelet Avenues in downtown ClaytonBookmark your calendar for an extraordinary event that will celebrate authors and promote literacy. Packed with events and performances for adults and children, the Big Read will feature authors, costumed characters, interactive projects, panel discussions, workshops and book signings.
For more information, call: 314.863.0278
Wydown Fall FestivalSaturday, October 6, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.Hanley Road and Wydown BoulevardThe public is invited to this charming neighborhood festival. At the fourth annual Wydown Fall Festival, business owners look forward to greeting guests with gifts and giveaways. Festivities include art exhibits and fun for everyone in Wydown Park. For more information, call: 314. 290.8508
Clayton Canine ClassicSunday, October 14, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Shaw Park in ClaytonThe third annual Clayton Canine Classic features a “Dressed to the K-nines” fashion show, pup art, a puppy kissing booth, unique face painting and games for dogs and/or their humans. Various vendors and service providers will PAWticipate. Proceeds from games and other activities benefit Stray Rescue of St. Louis. All dogs MUST be on leashes and accompanied by an adult human guardian.
For more information, call: 314.726.3033
Rock the BlockWednesday, October 10, 5 to 8 p.m.
North Central AvenueThe public is invited to this “not your usual block party” with Y98 on-site and a live performance by the Ralph Butler Band
from 5:30 – 8 p.m. For more information, call 314.290.8508
join us for all of our OCTOBER events
Clayton Triangle EventSaturday, October 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Brentwood Boulevard between Maryland & ForsythThe Clayton Triangle presents the Jaguar Clubs of North America’s Concorde d’elegance, a nationally sanctioned show. Eighty Jaguars will be on display for the official judging for trophies and Jaguar Club points.
For more information, call: 314.727.2020
CLAYTON . . .
Sign up for Clayton’s e-mail updates. Just click the e-communication icon on the HOME page of the City’s website: www.ci.clayton.mo.us
Senior Sports Editor / Trisha Wolf / [email protected] WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 3, 20074 STUDENT LIFE | SPORTS
SPORTSSPORTS
Washington University’s vol-leyball team blew away Case Western Reserve University and University of Chicago with sweeps over the weekend while soundly defeating Carnegie Mel-lon University in the fi fth set to win 3-2. With these wins, the Bears went 3-0 in the fi rst round of the University Athletic Associ-ation (UAA) Round Robin at New York University.
Showing superior serving ability, Wash. U. had many aces over the weekend. With hitters fl ying above the net and serv-ers accurately dropping the ball on the opposing side, the Red and Green offensive machine was unleashed. Six players had at least fi ve kills in a game with three having double digit kills, while 10 players had at least one service ace.
UAA action in New York also saw the Bears set a season high of 14 service aces in a game twice against the Spartans and the Tartans. Senior defensive specialist Lindsay Schuessler served two aces in the fi fth set to seal the win against Carnegie Mellon University.
“I was just doing my job and playing tough,” said Schuessler. “There were other points that in-cluded excellent serves from my teammates as well.”
In one match against Case Western Reserve University that ended 30-10, over half of Wash. U.’s attacks became kills lead-ing to the biggest margin of the season. The team attack average of .372 was the Bears’ best of the season.
The weekend also marked
the debut of a new 5-1 strategy as the team decided to try some-thing new. This tactic meant that one setter took sole responsibil-ity for positioning the ball. Prior to these games, the Bears had used the 4-2 system where two setters controlled the location of the ball.
“We’re experimenting with a 5-1 offense in hopes of becoming a more effective attacking team,” said Coach Rich Luenemann. “Although we’re blessed to have two very strong setters in Au-dra [Janak] and Vicki [Blood], we found that the variances in their setting—speed, height, loca-tion—didn’t allow our attackers to be as consistent as we want them to be.”
As attackers adjusted to the lone setter’s style, they were bet-ter able to time their jump and spike in relation to where the ball would be, enabling more ef-fi cient kills. “The 5-1 allowed us to get in a better rhythm,” said senior captain Haleigh Spencer. “The only thing I don’t like about it is that unfortunately only one setter sets in a 5-1 and we have two incredible setters.”
The two setters were able to set personal bests as junior Janak attained a career high of 58 assists against Carnegie Mel-lon University while sophomore Blood tallied a season high of 37 assists against Case Western Re-serve University.
“My stats don’t mean much to me except as a tool to fi gure out how I can be more effective,” said Janak. “I play for my team.”
According to Luenemann, defensive play also improved as the middles, freshman Ni-cole Penwill and senior Ellen Bruegge, kicked it up a notch. The team’s number of blocks per set had been 2.2 throughout the season though this weekend the Bears saw an improvement of 50 percent, as this improved to 3.5 blocks per set.
“Our middles were huge this weekend,” said Spencer. “They defi nitely proved themselves and showed lots of potential.”
The Bears were able to come back from an 18-12 defi cit in the third set against the Tartans to tie the game at 20 after a massive block by Spencer and Penwill.
Spencer received University Association Athlete of the Week honors as she set a new career high of 20 kills against Carnegie Mellon. “She looked the best I’ve seen her all year,” said Vincent Novicki, assistant sports infor-mation director.
The Bears will travel to Rock Island, Ill. to compete in the Augustana Invitational Tour-nament with games scheduled against Grinnell College and Knox College on Friday evening. Washington University will also play against Elmhurst College on Saturday.
It may still be early in the sea-son, but enthusiasm is running high among Bear swimmers.
The swim teams kicked off their long season Saturday with their annual dual meet against Division I Saint Louis University. Despite slightly depleted ros-ters for both the men and the women, both teams turned in strong performances. The men upset SLU 151-137 and though the women fell 197-101, they had several impressive swims that set a positive tone for the rest of the season.
Coming off a year where the women fi nished seventh at na-tionals and the men placed 18th, the Bears are looking at thinner rosters to start off this season. Losing a number of swimmers to graduation, study abroad pro-grams and other commitments has left both teams smaller than in previous years. However, they remain optimistic about their prospects.
“It’s been a little tough, but we’re making do,” said senior co-captain Meredith Nordbrock. “It’s still a strong squad.”
The impact of losing veteran swimmers has been softened somewhat by the addition of eight new freshmen—four men and four women.
Though these incoming numbers are also smaller than normal, their presence was felt immediately at the fi rst meet. Freshman Michael Flanagan led the newcomers, turning in sev-eral strong swims including a fi rst place fi nish in the 200-yard butterfl y, which earned him a provisional bid to the NCAA Championship meet in March, with a time of 1:54.80.
Freshman David Chao also gave an impressive initial show-ing with top-four performances in his three individual events, including a second place fi nish in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:46.44.
“We were a little worried at fi rst because we only had four incoming freshmen,” said se-nior co-captain Ross Vimr. “But the fact that two of them swam lights out at this meet I think is good.”
Defeating a Division I oppo-nent was also an encouraging start to the season for the men.
“We got beat by a lot last year, so we wanted to win again this year,” said Vimr. “I think that everybody is excited for the rest of the season and excited to see what we can do later on.”
On the women’s side, sparse numbers held the Bears back from competing at full strength. With a smaller team this year, they did not even have a full lineup to set against SLU, which may have been a deciding fac-
tor in their loss. Despite this, they still managed to hold their own, highlighted by junior Kelly Kono’s fi rst place fi nish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.38, and a 1-2 fi nish by Nord-brock and freshman Karin Un-derwood in the 200-yard back-stroke, with times of 2:11.46 and 2:12.04 respectively.
“We still had some extremely strong swims and people put up some great times for the fi rst meet of the season,” said Nord-brock. “I think regardless of our loss we set a great tone for the season.”
With the fi rst meet out of the way, both the men and the women’s teams are now looking ahead to what will hopefully be a successful season.
“This is a good starting point for us,” said Nordbrock. “Hope-fully after this meet people will have a better idea of what they want to achieve for themselves.”
The Bears are back in action Saturday, Oct. 13 at the Show Me Showdown in Columbia, Mo.
Aces away as Bears bombard UAA foes
VOLLEYBALL SWIMMING & DIVING
BY ANNA DINNDORFSPORTS REPORTER
Bear swimmers start off a backstroke race Saturday afternoon in the Field House. The men’s team won their fi rst meet of the season, defeating Saint Louis University.
DANIEL SUN | STUDENT LIFE
GAME 3 WU 3 w U CHICAGO 0
GAME 1 WU 3 w CARNEGIE MELLON 2
GAME 2 WU 3 w CASE WESTERN 0
UAA ROUND ROBINBY JOHANN QUA HIANSEN SPORTS REPORTER
v Women fall in season opener
Men’s swimming upsets SLU
LUMI_212_RcruitSeatd_StL_AD_c1.i1 1 9/24/07 11:56:42 AM
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 3, 2007 STUDENT LIFE | ADVERTISEMENT 5
Senior Forum Editor / Nathan Everly / [email protected] WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 3, 20076 STUDENT LIFE | FORUM
FORUMFORUMOur daily Forum editors:Monday: Christian Sherden Wednesday: Jill Strominger Friday: Tess [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
To ensure that we have time to fully evaluate your submissions, guest columns should be e-mailed to the next issue’s editor or forwarded to [email protected] by no later than 5 p.m. two days before publication. Late pieces will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
We welcome your submissions and thank you for your consideration.
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Letters to the EditorOne Brookings Drive #1039St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
News: (314) 935-5995Fax: (314) 935-5938e-mail: [email protected]
All submissions must include the writer’s name, class, address and phone number for verifi cation. Student Life reserves the right to edit all letters for style, length, libel considerations and grammar. Letters should be no longer than 350 words in length. Readers may also submit longer articles of up to 750 words as guest columns. Student Life reserves the right to print any submission as a letter or guest column.
OUR VOICE: EDITORIAL BOARD
Editorials are written by the Forum editors and refl ect the consen-sus of the editorial board. The editorial board operates indepen-dently of the newsroom.
Editor in Chief: Erin FultsExecutive Editor: David BrodyManaging Editors: Shweta Murthi, Mallory WilderSenior News Editor: Sam GuzikSenior Photo Editor: David Hartstein
Senior Sports Editor: Trisha WolfSenior Scene Editor: Felicia BaskinSenior Cadenza Editor: Brian StittSenior Forum Editor: Nathan EverlyForum Editors: Tess Croner, Jill Strominger, Dennis Sweeney, Chris-tian Sherden
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Once an article has been published on www.studlife.com, our Web site, it will remain there permanently. We do not remove articles from the site, nor do we remove authors’ names from articles already published on the Web, unless an agreement was reached prior to July 1, 2005.
Why do we do this? Because Google and other search engines cache our Web site on a regular basis. Our thought is this: once an article has been published online, it’s too late to take back. It is irrevocably part of the public sphere. As such, removing an article from our site would serve no purpose.
STAFF EDITORIAL
University should enact “Democracy Day”
Add us to the more than 250 students who have already joined the initiative
to make 2008’s Election Day a recognized academic holiday for Washington University.
The initiative, led by the College Democrats, proposes that this be a day off to sup-port political engagement on campus. It is also partially a response to the diffi culty many students faced dur-ing the 2006 election when they tried to cast their votes at Wydown Middle School and an attempt to alleviate the heavy schedules burden-ing students and potentially preventing them from casting their votes on Election Day. The potential holiday has been dubbed “Democracy Day,” mirroring the proposed national holiday that has been stalled in Congress for quite some time.
Every election cycle, voter turnout becomes a point of contention. People ask, “Why do we have such low turnout nationwide?” The reason is that many individuals decide that the costs of voting outweigh the benefi ts they receive. As a result, many average Americans do not turn out on Election Day. Those who do vote usually feel strongly about civic duty
or key issues. Consequently, the actual voting population tends to disproportionately represent special interests groups, whether they are the elderly, evangelical Christians or labor unions. Middle-of-the-road Americans are underrepresented because they do not feel passionately about any specifi c issue, and lower-income Americans are underrepresented because they cannot afford to take time off from work to go vote.
The result of dispropor-tionate turnout is the Con-gress we elect every cycle. Politicians catering to the extremes of the political spec-trum or giving lots of pork to special interest groups do not appear out of the ether. They are elected to serve constitu-encies that want them to act in this manner. Furthermore, while few will admit it, many politicians actually like low voter turnout. It is much easi-er to serve (and get re-elected by) a small constituency composed of special interest groups than a large constitu-ency of diverse opinions. This is one reason why the Democ-racy Day national holiday is stalled in Congress.
But for all the talk of cul-ture wars, America is not as politically divided as it may appear on cable news. The
problem is just that many moderate Americans do not vote. Therefore, one of the best ways to bring back mod-erate politics is to lessen the costs and obstacles of voting. If more average Americans vote, then politicians’ constit-uencies will shift away from the extremes. More moderate politicians will lead to greater cooperation in legislatures, more productive government and less vitriolic rhetoric.
So how do you increase voter turnout? Well, mak-ing Election Day a national holiday (and a day off from work) would certainly help. But since we do not control national policy, in the spirit of “think globally, act locally,” we encourage the University to adopt Democracy Day as a school holiday. Beyond just the student body, such a holi-day would make it easier for many faculty and staff of the University to vote as well.
By presenting itself as willing to put up the vast amounts of money, time and effort that the Presidential debates require, the school has already shown an interest in bolstering political in-volvement. Giving the Uni-versity community a better opportunity to vote in 2008’s Presidential elections would greatly reinforce this commit-
ment to political engagement. The University’s consideration of its students, faculty and staff on Election Day is a test of its political commitment.
As a repeated host of the presidential debates, the Uni-versity is in a strong position to take the lead in expanding political engagement and dia-logue amongst other institu-tions of higher education by supporting Democracy Day. The day would not only reduce the costs of voting, it would also spread general po-litical awareness and activism on campus. The day off would harness and sublimate the en-ergy of an election day into a positive buzz around campus and could become an event the school looks forward to every two years.
We support Democracy Day as a positive step towards increasing voter turnout and political awareness on cam-pus. We encourage Student Union and the Faculty Senate to endorse this academic holiday and we hope that University administrators will make it a reality. For too long American politics have been dominated by extremes. This may only be one small step on a long road to moderate government, but we have to start somewhere.
Why not here?
MIKE HIRSHON | EDITORIAL CARTOON
What is the big joke?
I regret that it is because of a recent column in Student Life that I’ve started
thinking about the impact of jokes. Sometimes, jokes are just funny and that’s great, but sometimes they strike a deeper chord. Sexist jokes, racist jokes and jokes that question someone’s sexual identity all fall into the second category. These jokes cross a line by putting some-one’s identity up to be laughed at by everyone who finds the joke funny.
Oftentimes the people who tell these jokes will say it’s something differ-ent—that they’re laugh-ing at the way society has dealt with a situation. Or that it’s just funny and not serious. They won’t admit that there is some truth that corresponds to people’s beliefs in the tone of racism, sexism, etc. in their joke. The idea that this underlying stereotyp-ing could actually hurt anyone seems more laugh-able than the joke itself. I mean, come on, it’s just a joke.
But, what is just a joke? What makes something a joke? It’s funny, duh. But, when is something funny? In order for a joke to be funny, there has to be some element that corre-sponds to people’s beliefs about the world. You laugh because you can recognize and grasp some under-lying belief as one that people legitimately think is true. Because of this, you see the joke as reflect-ing some larger, humorous aspect of society.
Or if a joke is targeted at an individual, it’s funny because it points out something that is true and humorous about the individual. A random joke about a bunny that did tricks because it ate pink grass wouldn’t be funny because it doesn’t correspond to any of our beliefs. A joke about fe-male drivers, on the other hand, would seem funny to many people because it corresponds to an actual belief about how women drive. It’s funny because people believe there’s an element of truth to the claim that women are terrible drivers or at least recognize it as a wide-spread belief.
Like jokes about female drivers, jokes about wom-en’s studies majors reflect a similar set of beliefs. Let’s be honest, on this campus if someone says she’s majoring in chem-istry and another says she’s majoring in women’s studies, you can make some accurate and inac-curate judgments about these people based on the stereotypes you might have. If we didn’t, as a campus, understand what those stereotypes were, then jokes about women’s studies majors wouldn’t make any sense.
On another level, when
we flat-out think that the belief behind some joke is wrong, we don’t find it funny. For example, if someone told a joke about slavery, most people would not find that joke funny because they would
immediately want to condemn the beliefs that were behind it. Simi-larly, people don’t very often tell jokes about slavery because they real-ize what a horrible institution slavery was.
Even though jokes about
women’s studies majors, overweight women or ugly women do not have the same gravity as a joke about slavery would, tell-ing those jokes truly does affirm the sexist beliefs behind them. And poten-tially more importantly, this type of joke under-cuts serious efforts to
expose the prejudice that does continue to exist in our society. It labels, for example, discrimination against overweight women as something that’s funny and not worth serious thought.
Telling jokes is a dif-ficult business. The point of a joke is to make fun of some aspect of society or to expose some irony. And jokes play an important role in critiquing our so-ciety. But jokes that make fun of individuals due to inaccurate stereotypes only perpetuate those stereotypes and prevent efforts to expose them as such. These types of jokes do not expose ironies in broader society; they ridicule people because of their identities. Worse, they affirm untrue beliefs about people and these beliefs are usually ones that are accepted by parts of society.
When we tell jokes and read columns that are sup-posed to be jokes, we need to consider what underly-ing facts and assumptions we have to take as truth in order to find those jokes funny and question whether or not we actually believe the underlying as-sumptions are true. If we are willing to endorse the view in the joke, then let’s go right ahead and keep on telling it.
If we don’t really be-lieve the view the joke endorses, let’s reconsider all the things we have to be saying when we per-petuate it.
Jill is a junior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum edi-tor. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
“In order for a joke to be funny, there has to be some element that corresponds to
people’s beliefs about the world.”
Jill Strominger
Pinch hitting for fall breakBY DANIEL MILSTEINSTAFF COLUMNIST
Fall break is coming up and you know what that means. It’s time for every-body to complain about
how fall break is worthless. Like the swallows fl ying to Capist-rano and tuition rising, it’s a yearly tradition with no end in
the foreseeable future. And it’s true, fall break
is worthless. The usual solu-tions offered are certainly an improvement, such as eliminat-ing fall break and extending Thanksgiving to a week. But how about this for a change: The University should keep fall break the way it is and put a moratorium on having major assignments due the week after
Thanksgiving.If I had classes on Friday and
I didn’t live about one thousand miles away, fall break would probably be pretty awesome. Waking up on Friday morning…in my own bed…that sounds as good as New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine being able to get
“With fall break as it is, all we can do with one day is study for a test; it’s not a chance
to actually relax.”See MILSTEIN, page 7
Senior Forum Editor / Nathan Everly / [email protected] | OCTOBER 3, 2007 STUDENT LIFE | FORUM 7
Branching out community service style
BY KATIE AMMANNSTAFF COLUMNIST
I’ve heard it said that United States citizens spend the most time on community ser-
vice. Whether or not this is empirically true, I know that people on this campus are very socially aware and eager to lend their services to whoever needs them. And there are many oppor-tunities to help out in the St. Louis community and beyond.
There are plenty of reasons you might want to get involved—you want to because it’s fun, you feel morally obligated to, all your friends are participating, etc. No matter why or how you want to get involved, there’s always something to do.
In the immediate area, there are lots of different ways for us to recognize and satisfy people’s needs. For instance, most of the religious associations on campus and throughout the community plan organized service days in partnership with Habitat for Human-ity, various nursing homes
and retirement centers or organizations like Oasis that provide shelter for victims of abuse. In December, there’s a holiday party at the St. Patrick’s Center down-town, during which home-less people of all ages can grab a hot breakfast, sing along to some familiar tunes and pick up a few gifts for themselves and family mem-bers. Volunteers are always needed to help with food, organization and cheerful conversation.
A lot of people have chosen to get involved in long-term service projects as well. The Campus Y offers opportunities to tutor kids at local schools every week, and tutoring fellow students on campus is another good option—especially if you have qualms about working with 10-year-olds. Other fun commitments include giving music lessons, teaching kids how to play sports, working with mentally handicapped people or scheduling a visit to a hospital à la Patch Ad-ams (not forgetting the bed-pan slippers, of course). If anonymous aid is more your style, try a new avenue—if you usually donate money,
try donating canned food to the Crisis Food Center or used clothing to Goodwill.
In the realm of service, the whole world is a worthy recipient. If you’re concerned about the continuing project
of rebuilding New Orleans, try a spring break trip there; there are still plenty of groups that are constructing buildings, doing legal work and helping people piece their lives back together. If you’re interested in an endeavor abroad, there’s an organization called Opera-tion Crossroads Africa that, in addition to other things, helps individuals in many African countries find out their AIDS status and, when necessary, receive counsel-ing and treatment. Engineers Without Borders does excel-
lent specialized work, like cleaning up waterways in parts of Brazil or the Domin-ican Republic.
One of the most impor-tant things to keep in mind is that wherever and how-ever you decide to direct your time and energy, it may be appreciated in a way other than what you expect. No matter how menial or profound the task, or how many or few people notice what has been done, remem-ber why you thought it was necessary. Did you do it to be recognized, or did you work hard to lend a hand to someone who seemed to need it?
I know everyone’s already done many great things for a lot of great people, but maybe branch out and try something new. Take advan-tage of new opportunities to make someone happy; form closer relationships with the people working alongside you; try to do something that’s good for someone else and for you.
Katie is a junior in Arts & Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
“I know everyone’s already done many
great things for a lot of great people, but maybe
branch out and try something new.”
(Goodness gracious) grease balls of the fryerBY BRIAN PRICESTAFF COLUMNIST
On July 20, 1969, man first landed on the moon. There he uncovered a vast
array of mysterious objects, physical and theoretical enigmas which inspired awe and terror in those who but gazed upon them. It was thought at the time to be one of the defining moments in human history, one that would likely never be bested.
That is, until now. Direct your attention to
the item in question—a sup-posed greaseball. It seems relatively normal, does it not? Well, to freshman Ari Kahn the answer was an un-equivocal yes: “This appears to be a tri-helical, tungsten-based life form, with a slight nitrous scent and traces of raspberry and pepper.” Others who looked upon the object questioned its origin and function, but never were words such as “extraordi-nary” or “unreal” thrown around. To most nonscien-tists, this was nothing more than a plain-old boring rock.
Here’s another story, one which occurred on an average September evening not long ago. Two boys were trapped in a labyrinth known as the line at Bear’s Den. Their intention had been to order from the Grill, but they soon realized that they were actually waiting for the Fryer. Knowing that the service at Bear’s Den is oh, let’s say a bit on the slow side, the two decided to get food from the Fryer. Once there, they ordered moz-zarella sticks and french fries and were (eventually) rewarded with two aromatic, artery-clogging appetizers.
The first boy found noth-ing wrong with the moz-zarella sticks, other than that psychological burning sensation and the coronary cries for help that should regularly be expected from gorging on such a dish. The second boy’s french fries, however, contained some-thing else…something evil, perhaps.
Actually it wasn’t evil, just mysterious. The second boy picked it up and calmly exclaimed, “What the [exple-tive deleted] is this?” The first boy’s initial thought was that it must be a moon rock that had been brought back from a NASA flight and somehow ended up in a frying pan in Bear’s Den (how exactly this happened is something far too compli-cated for this writer to even contemplate).
Yes, to the two boys who were entranced like the man-apes gazing at the monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” this object most certainly possessed some awesome yet heretofore un-
discovered power.Others saw it differently.
Another customer in line was under the impression that it could be quite a while before he was able to order his food, let alone receive it, and so upon seeing the item he nonchalantly offered to “dispose” of it. The woman at the check-out looked the object over carefully in or-der to determine whether or not it required an additional charge. (It did not.)
Upon finishing the rests of their meals, the two boys pondered whether or not it would be sanitary to con-sume the object in question. They eventually decided against it, mainly because the first boy thought it would make an interesting subject for his newspaper article.
And so we’re back to where we started, with a mysterious object resem-bling a moon rock. This is, of course, no moon rock; rather, it is (as far as I can tell) a fragment of solidified
grease that accumulated from the cooking of french fries. Though it’s no anom-aly (I’ve been to enough fast food restaurants to know this), that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth noting. Recently I stumbled upon (and by “stumbled upon,” I mean someone showed me) the nu-trition facts for the food on campus. Here’s a telling sta-tistic: three chicken tenders represent 94 percent of your recommended fat intake for an entire day. I think even the least health-conscious people would say that isn’t very good.
Now you should know that I don’t want to be your mother and (in a voice that falls somewhere in between Marge Simpson and the school teacher from “Pea-nuts,” because we all know that’s what adults sound like) tell you to “eat your vegetables” and “lay off the junk food” (for the record, I haven’t had a vegetable in 10 years and my room is full of less than nutritious snacks).
I just want to let everyone know that it is in fact possi-ble to consume a meal whose volume of leftover grease doesn’t exceed the volume of the meal itself. Yes, I am a health nut who regularly wishes great pain and injury upon those who can eat whatever they want when-ever they want yet manage to gain no weight, but this is about something more. It’s about avoiding not only the “Freshman 15” but also the risks that come with eating fatty foods.
Trust me, as someone who used to have very high cho-lesterol, I can tell you that it’s not something you want. I could churn out terrifying statistics, but I think it’s much easier to get the point across if you just look at the picture of the “item” found among some french fries one night at Bear’s Den (if you’re that desperate to see it up close, contact me and we might be able to arrange a viewing, although I’ve discovered that the half-life
of grease isn’t that long). Please don’t become anorex-ic and/or bulimic and blame it on me, because I’m not telling you that you can’t eat anything. Just keep track of what you eat, and when your body tells you it’s time to stop, know that “no means no.” So by all means, take
advantage of the great selec-tion of delicious food avail-able on and off campus, but just remember that when you eat, eat responsibly.
Brian is a freshman in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
MILSTEIN v FROM PAGE 6two outs.
Then there’s the sugges-tion of adding fall break onto Thanksgiving. Sure, getting an extra day of that would be even better, but is that going to happen? And as much as I’d like to see it happen, los-ing two days of classes right before fi nals might actually be a bad thing. Since we’re paying approximately 17 mil-lion dollars a semester for our education, missing the classes the week before Thanksgiv-ing isn’t a great thing. So let’s keep them and instead have Thanksgiving actually be more of a break.
Having a paper due right after Thanksgiving break sucks. It ruins the Thanksgiv-ing weekend, and it has hap-pened to me a lot. And let me tell you, the quality of my work really suffers (whether or not that is really possible is its own debate).
Moreover, by the end of the semester, I’m so burnt out that most of what I had learned has already left my brain. This is because there really isn’t a break. Putting a moratorium on these papers and all work due the week after Thanks-giving would change this. It would allow students to sit back at home on that Saturday night, relax and recharge our batteries. This would be invalu-able to our education. Right now, we’re like those wind-up
cars. We get all of our energy at the beginning of the year, but without breaks, we never have a chance to get wound up again, and we just fall fl at in December. Let us use Thanks-giving break as a chance to get some more juice so we can be ready for the home stretch.
The current fall break structure runs contrary to Wash. U.’s mission. Wash. U. wants to educate us, but the lack of breaks makes it impos-sible to truly focus and absorb material all the way through the semester. With fall break as it is, all we can do with one day is study for a test; it’s not a chance to actually relax. Sadly, replacing fall break by extend-ing Thanksgiving break to a week would either make class-es after Thanksgiving more intense or force a professor to go over less than he or she normally would. Putting an end to having work the week after Thanksgiving would get the best of both worlds: more of a break without sacrifi cing class time.
Arguments for the best way to improve fall break aside, one thing is certain: fall break needs to change well before the swallows stop fl ying to Capistrano.
Daniel is a senior in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
The grease ball in question.BRIAN PRICE | STUDENT LIFE
RACHEL HARRIS | STUDENT LIFE
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Senior Cadenza Editor / Brian Stitt / [email protected] WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 3, 20078 STUDENT LIFE | CADENZA
Dwayne “The Rock” John-son has a talent for screen acting unlike anything one expects to see in a major studio fi lm. With his dark eyes, chiseled jaw, wide smile and carefully coifed receding hair-line, his is a face capable of launching at least a few ships. And “The Game Plan,” Andy Fickman’s 90-minute Disney-mobile, is akin to Homer’s “Iliad” in so many other ways. It capers and dodges hard reality like an epic hero on the battlefi eld. It shimmies and shakes through vaguely ho-moerotic sports competitions. And it will most likely spawn years and years of sequels.
On the top of his game but at the bottom of his heart, pro quarterback Joe Kingman (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson)
lives the wild and crazy life of your average bachelor with infi nite income. He’s Elvis-obsessed (King-man, get it?); he’s got a fast, shiny car; he even has carbonated soda at his New Year’s Eve party. Sadly, all things must pass, and the debauchery comes crashing down in a masterfully un-foreshadowed and unexpected turn of events. Kingman discovers that he has an eight year old daughter of whom he has been heretofore unaware. She of the saucer eyes and indiscriminate race appears on his doorstep looking prim and as if, one day, she could launch some ships of her own. And let us be clear that young actress Madison Pettis was not cast for her looks alone. She also dances.
The success of this fi lm relies on the performances of the two leads and the deliver-
ability of the dialogue, which is comprised of some great pauses between words, so that an orchestra can supplement those moments with musical emotion. Screenwriters Nichole
Millard and Kathryn Price, in composing their script, exhibit their mastery of the literary arts: there are clever underlying thematic juxtaposi-tions (football and ballet, for
instance, are actually very different, you see, but can also sometimes be the same); Kingman’s weltanschauung survives an epiphany (Foot-ball and Elvis are the tops, no wait, fatherhood is the tops); the Disney paradigm (Families are good; kids are our future) is confi rmed as the zeitgeist it deserves to be; but above all, the target community of discourse (people who respond to product placement; people whose parents will enable their responses to product placement) is thoroughly bar-raged with product placement. And even with such auspi-cious literary goals, Millard and Price are able to forego the usually inevitable tragic ending. It would be cruel to ruin the climax, but let’s just say that in this version, the Trojans survive to live happily ever after, and Helen skips
home with the Greeks—right after they win the Champion-ship Game.
One of the most notable aspects of a screenplay this rooted in the literary arts is that it manages to avoid all of the pitfalls of formula: there is a semblance of formula that in some ways could be construed as “events” that are “occur-ring.” And do they occur? Do
The Game Plan
Rating: ✬✩✩✩✩Directed by: Andy FickmanStarring: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Madison Pettis, Kyra SedgwickNow showing: Esquire 7
‘The Game Plan’: The Rock gets himself into a hard place
BY CECILIA RAZAKMOVIE EDITOR
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Madison Pettis star in Walt Disney Pic-tures’ comedy, “The Game Plan.”
MOVIE REVIEW
See GAME PLAN, page 10
MCT
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Senior Cadenza Editor / Brian Stitt / [email protected] | OCTOBER 3, 2007 STUDENT LIFE | CADENZA 9
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band’s new album “Mag-ic” is a powerful return by one of rock’s greatest ensembles. Many of its songs are focused and stirring tunes that show a new, noteworthy side to the Boss. The musicianship on the album is spectacular, especially the work from guitarists Nils
Lofgren and Steve Van Zandt. But unfortunately some of the material is at best mediocre, and the album lacks the raw vitality and energy that made albums such as “Born to Run” and “The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffl e” undis-puted classics of rock & roll.
The album opens with the new single, “Radio Nowhere.” Throughout the song Bruce passionately repeats, “This
is radio nowhere/ Is there anybody alive out there/ I just want to hear some rhythm.” commenting on the current state of commercial radio. On “Radio Nowhere,” the E-Street Band sounds more polished and professional then they have in at least 15 years. This is both a blessing and a curse. Throughout the album Clar-I was 10 when I first
acknowledged the existence of the Foo Fighters: flip-ping through the channels I stumbled upon Dave Grohl dressed in drag in their “Learn to Fly” video.
I was a little slow on the uptake: the song was on their third CD, after the Foo Fighters had already made a name for themselves outside the shadow of Nirvana. And now, eight years later, they can still deliver an awesome rock album.
The worst thing that can be said about “Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace” is that the album sounds like the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl did not try too hard to experiment with his music: But why should he? With “Echoes,” the Foo Fight-ers incorporated the best aspects of their previous albums—the coalescence of smooth and jagged guitar riffs, headbang-worthy drum lines and lyrics you would want to scream at your ex—to create a sound that is quintessential Foo Fighters.
“Echoes” opens with “The Pretender.” Grohl wistfully sings over a dreamy gui-tar melody when suddenly Hawkins, on drums, punctu-ates the progression and is quickly accompanied by Shi-flett raging on guitar. By the time Grohl shouts “You’re the pretender / What if I say I will never surrender,” you’re swept into the world of the Foo Fighters.
In XFM, Dave Grohl said, “[Echoes is] definitely moving in a few different
directions.” A case in point would be “The Ballad of Beaconsfield.” This purely instrumental track with just Dave Grohl and guest, Kaki King, playing slap guitar, sounds like something you would hear on the commu-nity radio station. The song itself is interesting, and even tolerable, but its shear existence on the album makes no sense.
Yet, there are other songs that branch out in direc-tions that will actually take you somewhere you want to go.
Of the four minutes and thirty-eight seconds that make up “But Honestly,” the first two and half minutes consist of Grohl strumming away on an acoustic guitar. But even these first min-utes contain signature Foo Fighter lyrics “No way you’ll silence me/ Give me back my peace of mind.” As “But Honestly” reaches that 2:30 mark, Grohl and his guitar crescendo until the drums and electric guitar blend to create a seamless transition to the classic Foo Fighter sound.
“Echoes” also has two piano heavy songs, includ-ing “Statues.” Grohl sings “You and I were two old and tortured souls / Repaired
by a love of broken things / In a life, just some bodies growing old / No fear of the end, of anything.”
With the harmony cre-ated by the piano, smooth electric guitar and accor-dion coupled with atypical lyrics, the Foo Fighters form an elegiac love song as only they can.
If you can’t afford to buy the CD, at least download “Long Road to Ruin,” argu-ably its best track. The song is a fusion of all things right with the Foo Fight-ers. It starts with a simple chord, then takes off and flies until the very last note. It highlights not only Chris Shiflett’s guitar skills but also the ability of the band to write a pop-rock anthem you can’t help but enjoy.
“Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace” is one of few albums that you would take almost every song from in your iTunes library and put into that playlist of songs that you actually enjoy (i.e. my “I’m Kind of a Big Deal” playlist).
In the final song of the album, “Home,” Grohl la-ments, “All I want is to be home.” But after listening to their sixth album, it’s pretty evident that’s exactly where the Foo Fighters are.
BY STEPHANIE SPERA CADENZA REPORTER
Foo Fighters: ‘Echoes, Silence,
Patience and Grace’
Bruce Springsteen: ‘Magic’
BY ANDREW SENTERCADENZA REPORTER
ALBUM REVIEWS
See MAGIC, page 10Rating: ★★★★✬For fans of: Music in generalTracks to download: “Long Road to Ruin,” “Statues”
Foo FightersEchoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
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Senior Cadenza Editor / Brian Stitt / [email protected] WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 3, 200710 STUDENT LIFE | CADENZA
In 1996, the then-unknown Matchbox Twenty released “Yourself or Someone Like You.” My dad picked up the CD, and my eight year-old self promptly stole it. Our family took a trip to Mount Rainier that summer and, after leav-ing the CD folder in the car at the airport, I was stranded for a week three time zones from home with my Walkman and that sole CD left from a previ-ous listen.
More than a decade later, the songs sound fresh and I still listen to that album from time to time and remember all the words. These songs, with those of REM and oth-ers, defi ned post-grunge 90s alt rock. On their new album “Exile on Mainstream,” a mix of old and new material, fi ve of the 11 re-issued songs are from “Yourself.” I like to think of that fact as a testament to their fi rst album’s awesome-ness, but perhaps it’s because subsequent releases lacked the punch of Matchbox Twenty’s hungry freshman effort.
When the band is on, they are a solid rock group for an
adult audience. Backing vocals are tight, instruments comple-ment the lyrics without being gratuitous, lyrics are clear, meaningful and sung careful-ly. However, the new tracks of “Exile” sound like a B-side to their last album, “More Than You Think You Are.” While the opener, “How Far We’ve Come” is a fun sing-along, the band runs out of steam in subse-quent songs. Harmonizing and echoing backing vocals are reduced to annoying “na-na” style nonsense, especially on “All Your Reasons,” and they are used as fi ller between sparse guitar and repetitive bass, giving the songs a gener-ally predictable, formulaic and similar feel.
Rob Thomas is still hard
at work singing about depres-sion, loneliness and aban-donment, but the originals on “Exile” fall short of the gravity attained by such early songs as “Kody” and “Busted” (shamefully omitted from this collection). Instead of sound-ing heartfelt, the band fakes its way through a lounge-sing-er sound in “Can’t Let You Go.” Thomas was better at writing heartache when he actually was alone, poor and fat.
As a compilation, “Exiled on Mainstream,” is disap-pointing in that it does not offer any live tracks, alter-nate takes or old, unreleased work. The second disc func-tions as a chronological hit parade of Matchbox Twenty’s singles from their three studio
albums. While I would have liked a live recording or two, the re-released songs are all fantastic. “Push” and “3 am” are alt rock songs for the ages. Want to learn how to write a song about depression? Listen to these tracks. And on “Back 2 Good” Thomas shows that he can write slow burn that knows when to give in and belt it out. If you don’t believe my endorsement, take Mick Jagger’s; the fan helped the band pen the barnburning “Disease.”
The bottom line is, if you only know Matchbox Twenty as the guys who wrote that saccharine monsterpiece “Unwell,” give them a chance to prove themselves on “Ex-iled.” Skip right to track seven and listen to the young band fi ght to prove themselves…to themselves, really. Fans of the band, sorry, nothing new here is particularly interesting. As they put it themselves “Every-one here is wondering what it’s like to be with somebody else… / And we don’t know how / to get it back to good.” Please, Matchbox Twenty, just be yourselves. Don’t tease us with your former grandeur, just get it back.
Matchbox Twenty: ‘Exile on Mainstream’
BY STEVE HARDYCONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Rating: ★★★✬✩For fans of: Everclear, Third-Eye Blind, Our Lady PeaceTracks to download: “3 am,” “Bent”
Matchbox TwentyExile on Mainstream
ALBUM REVIEW
they ever. They occur enough to eschew even the most tight-fi sted of attempts to impose structure upon them. Most fi lms would fi ll the screen with predictable hijinks and broad humor, but the fi lmmakers avoid these tired clichés in fa-vor of not using them, and not replacing them with anything else, either. And herein lies the genius of “The Game Plan:” the title slyly implies to the
unsuspecting movie-goer that some sort of foresight, or at least “Plan”-ing, went into the fi lm’s production, when in real-ity a Homeric disdain for any form of written or recorded document must have existed. This allowed the screenwrit-ers, director and actors to lean back and enjoy their paychecks without that pesky task of cre-ating watchable cinema getting in the way.
MAGIC v FROM PAGE 9
GAME PLAN v FROM PAGE 8
Rating: ★★★★✬For fans of: Bruce Springs-teenTracks to download: “Livin in the Future,” “Terry’s Song”
Bruce SpringsteenMagic
ence Clemmons’ saxophone is sacrifi ced in favor of riffs and fl ourishes from Van Zandt and Lofgren. The emphasis on the guitars can make some of the songs sound a bit generic and scripted. This is ultimately disappointing, especially when Mr. Springsteen’s previous effort (recorded without the E-Street Band) “The Seeger Sessions” was a study in loose, freewheeling popular music.
The production of the album is most heavily felt in mediocre efforts such as “Gypsy Biker” and “Magic,” both of which are listless. These fl aws are re-pented for by a batch of songs that soar to magnifi cent heights. “Your Own Worst Enemy” is a haunting song that ponders the psychological impact of an ex-love returning to a small town after a long hiatus. “Livin in the Future” is one of the strongest compositions on the album. With horns blaring in the back-ground, Springsteen enthusiasti-cally sings, “Don’t worry darlin’/ Now baby don’t you fret/ Livin’ in the Future/ None of this has happened yet.” And “I’ll Work for Your Love” is a wonderful piece about what sacrifi ces and trials people will endure to win someone’s love.
Springsteen also delves into the political realm. “Last to Die” is a thinly veiled attack on
the war in Iraq. Lyrics such as “Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake/ Blood will spill/Hearts will break,” and, “We don’t mea-sure the blood we’ve drawn any-more/ We just stack bodies out-side the door,” are quite blunt. In “Devil’s Arcade” Springsteen contemplates how, “Heroes are needed/So heroes are made.” These are at times interesting and diffi cult questions, but they lack any freshness and therefore the poignancy that would make them unforgettable.
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band’s new album is an energetic and exciting work that suffers from spots of mediocre production and songwriting. But even with these faults, its best moments are absolutely wonder-ful and make it a worthwhile listen. Bruce’s best qualities are showcased in the closing song of the album, “Terry’s Song,” a loving tribute to a recently lost friend.
As Springsteen affectionately laments, “Taj Mahal, Pryamids of Egypt/ are unique I suppose/ But when they built you brother/ they broke the mold,” the sim-plicity of the lyric accents the complexity of the emotion in his throaty howl.
While not among his best recordings, “Magic” reminds us why the Boss got promoted in the fi rst place.
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$5000 PAID EGG donors. +Expenses. Non-smokers,ages 19-29, SAT > 1100, ACT > 24, GPA > 3.0. Reply to:[email protected].
HELP FOR INTER-NATIONAL students: tutor-ing, language practice, edit-ing papers, running errands,help with studying for driv-ing exam. Call 314.962.2188. Reasonable rates.
VISIT US ONLINE at w w w . s t u d l i f e . c o m .
CLASSIFIEDSCLASSIFIEDS
ANNOUNCING
ROOMMATEWANTED
Sudoku By The Mepham Group
Solution to Monday’s puzzle
Complete the grid so each row, column and3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visitwww.sudoku.org.uk.
© 2007 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved. 10/3/07
Level: 1 2 3 4
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