Keri Blakinger ’11 had been arrested with $50,000 worth of heroin, sentenced to more than two years in jail and learned how female inmates make a dildo with little more than a toothbrush holder and Maxie pad So nothing, at that point, seemed too out of the ordinary even getting married in the visiting room of a county prison
“I was in an orange jumpsuit, and a guard was there as a witness A very questionable clergy member, who was apparently on probation himself, [officiated],” said Blakinger, who has since divorced the man
“It was regrettable all around probably not what my parents had in mind when they dreamed of their little girl getting married ”
Much of Blakinger’s life has diverged from the course she and her parents once envisioned But now, about two years removed from her last hit and seven months since her release from prison, Blakinger a former Cornell Daily Sun editor feels her life has finally stabilized
Int ’ l Applications To C.U. Grad S chool Decrease Slig htly
By ELIZABETH KUSSMAN Sun Staff Writer
Applications to Cornell’s Graduate School from international students –– who made up about 40 percent of the graduate and professional student body in Fall 2012 –– decreased about two percent in 2013 from 2012, according to Barbara Knuth, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School
The trend at Cornell bucks national figures Nationally, the number of international applications to American graduate schools increased by one percent, Knuth said
Overall applications to Cornell’s graduate school are also down slightly from last year, falling one percent from 2012 to 2013, according to Knuth
This is the first year since 2009 that the graduate school has not seen an increase in the number of applicants, Knuth said Until 2013, the number of applications for the graduate school had been rising steadily over the past five years, from about 14,880 in 2009 to
See GRADUATE page 4
Adidas Agrees to Pay Severance to Workers
A greement follows Cornell , other universities, severing ties to bu siness
By CHRISTOPHER YATES Sun Staff Writer
After facing mounting pressure from numerous universities including Cornell German sportswear manufacturer Adidas has agreed to pay severance to 2,700 Indonesian factory workers, the Cornell Organization for Labor Action announced Wednesday
This marks a significant policy change for Adidas, which previously had refused to pay $1 8 million in severance allegedly owed to the workers of the PT Kizone supplier factor y under Indonesian Labor Laws, according to Karen Li ’15, a member of COLA
“Adidas had been adamant about not talking to the union
Visiting P rof Encourages
Vertical Farming in Bldgs
By ALEXA DAVIS Sun Staff Writer
Despommier said that the world’s cultures, ecosystems and economic systems currently face challenges obtaining a safe water supply, secur-
ecosystems Food producers have farmed 80 percent of
available freshwater and 20 percent of the country ’ s fossil fuels, he said
Vertical farming, or the cultivation of plant life in skyscraper greenhouses, Despommier said, is the solution to these problems By growing plants in “living buildings,” the agricultural industry can decrease its production of agricultural r unoff and stop using fossil fuels and p
Despommier
In addition to creating a positive carbon footprint, vertical farming would stabilize
representing the workers, and we ’ re so happy that they’ve finally come to the table,” Li said
Though the specifics of the settlement are still confidential, Li described it as “substantial” and said the union representing the workers “ are very satisfied with the settlement ”
“This is a monumental victory,” Li said
Workers at the factor y,
which created collegiate apparel, were laid off two years ago and denied severance, according to Li In response, President David Skorton announced last October that Cornell would sever its business contracts with Adidas at the recommendation of the Cornell Licensing Oversight
ADIDAS page 4
RYAN LANDVATER / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Jesella Zamrano ’13, a Sun photographer and co-president of Habitat for Humanity, takes part in Truss Days on Ho Plaza Wednesday
See
Going green | Prof Dickson Despommier, Columbia University, looks at a hydroponic bottle wall in Stella’s following his lecture in Milstein Hall Wednesday
Cornell-Dartmouth Blood Drive Competition
11:30 a m - 4:30 p m , Hagan Room, Schurman Hall
Scottish Indepenence:
Implications for the U K , the U S , and NATO 12:15 - 1:30 p m , G08 Uris Hall
Graduate Student Speaking Competition
12:20 -1:10 p m , 153 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Anthropology in the Real World: A Public Forum 4 - 6:00 p m , G22 Goldwin Smith Hall
Explaining Genocide : The Fate of the Armenians 4:30 - 6 p m , Guerlac Room, A D White House
C.U. Prof s Tr y O ut ‘Flipped Cl assro oms ’
By JONATHAN SWARTZ Sun Senior Writer
As higher education increasingly uses of technology to aid teaching and learning, Cornell has recently embraced a technology-facilitated educational model that allows more class time to be spent on engaging learning activities, such as interactive polls, in place of a typical lecture
Known as “flipped classroom” or “inverted teaching,” the method entails providing course content, usually given to students during lecture, before they enter the physical classroom, according to Robert Vanderlan ’88, instructional specialist for Cornell’s Center for Teaching Excellence
“Then, when students are in class, [professors] have created a lot of time that can be used for more active learning,” Vanderlan said Vanderlan said that although technology is not essential when inverting a classroom, faculty can invert a classroom more easily by utilizing technology
“You used to have to go to a college classroom or library to get exposed to the content of college classrooms With technology, you don’t necessarily have to do that anymore, ” he said “There is a ton of content on the Internet Technology makes the delivery of content to students before they get to class a lot easier ”
According to Clare van den Blink, director of academic technologies for IT@Cornell , the University is currently introducing and integrating new technologies into the classroom by piloting new tools to facilitate flipped classroom learning
“The idea is to take the idea of iClicker [remote-controlled] polling and expand it a lot more by having students bring in laptops or portable devices and using that as a basis for group work by looking things up on the internet as a resource, ” van den Blink said “Then, technology can take a larger role where you are having group collaboration sessions, sharing documents [or] answering deep questions and problems ”
Prof George Hudler, plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, said when he flips his own courses, he tries to engage students instead of just lecturing at them
“The technology [of flipping the classroom] is what I can do at my desk with my computer I have to kind of outline the material that I want the students to prepare when coming to class For me, that is the extent of the technology
right now, ” Hudler said “I have to admit that my own efforts to flip the classroom are in their infancy, and in a year or two from now, I can have a much different [approach] ”
According to Vanderlan, some professors have argued that faculty should provide content to students beforehand in order to teach face-to-face in the classroom –– relying on technology solely outside of the classroom However, other professors have taken an entirely different approach by bringing technology to the forefront of the classroom
“[Professors] can use Skype to bring people outside of the physical course into the classroom,” Vanderlan said
For example, the four professors of COMM 1840: “Six Pretty Good Books” have leveraged Skype to allow students to meet with the authors of the books
Vanderlan also said University faculty have pointed out inconsistencies in classroom technology throughout campus
“Different classrooms in different buildings have different technologies, so it can be difficult for professors to plan ahead when they do not know what technology they are going to be dealing with,” he said
However, if professors are interested in experimenting with flipping their courses, the current state of Cornell’s classroom technology accommodations should not deter or play a role when professors consider adopting a flipped classroom model, according to Vanderlan
Hudler echoed Vanderlan, saying that, overall, University faculty are not particularly satisfied with the state of technology that is available in classrooms Faculty feel they need improvements in technology to enable a more rapid exchange of information from teacher to student
Still, Hudler said, “I don’t think the situation [of not having up-to-date, uniform technology in classrooms] is as dire as people seem to suggest ”
“I know I have been to other college campuses, where I have seen faculty walking across the campus carrying a projection screen for crying out loud So I think, for me, what we have available now [at Cornell] is pretty good, but there is certainly room for improvement,” he added
Moving forward, the limitations of the physical classroom may pose challenges to professors wanting to flip larger lectures, according to the Vanderlan
“Traditional classrooms, with bolted down, stadium-style seats make group problem solving or group activities difficult to orchestrate,” he said “Some universities are building
new classroom spaces –– with multiple oval tables, lots of whiteboards and electronic displays –– to address this problem Adapting your flipped class to the space available is an important part of making it work ”
According to Hudler, ultimately, integration of technology is just one element that contributes to an effective classroom learning experience
“Academic success still falls into the lap of the instructor and the student,” he said “I don’t care how fancy the technology gets; at the end of the day, there still has to be that personal conveyance about the excitement of discovery, which I am not so sure that technology is going to solve in a complete way ”
Prof. Kramnick Re ects on Ubiquity of Religion in Politics
By RACHEL WEBER Sun Staff Wr ter
Religion is ubiquitous in U S politics and American public life, Prof Isaac Kramnick, government, said at his talk, “America Under God?” Wednesday
In his speech, Kramnick focused on the large role religion plays in most Americans’ daily lives from the moment they enter school as a child
“Every morning in most public schools in America, the school day starts with most students standing
and pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,” Kramnick said
The pledge and in particular the phrase, “ one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” has faced great scrutiny and has had many changes since its composition after the Civil War in 1892, according to Kramnick
The “under God” clause added in 1954 following fear of atheist communism has been met with both great opposition and support, he said
According to Kramnick, the most recent controversy to meet the pledge was Michael Newdow’s 2000 lawsuit, which opposed the statement of the “under God” clause in public schools This case, a “simple action by one parent and one eight-year-old child,” began a decade long legal battle, Kramnick said Immediately after a court decision was made in 2006 to remove the phrase from the Pledge of Allegience, politicians from both sides of the aisle raced to denounce it, Kramnick said
In 2010, the case made it to the Supreme Court, which decided that the two words were “ not state sponsorship of religion” and ultimately overturned the 2006 ruling, Kramnick said
The lack of outcry to the 2:1 vote upholding the constitutionality of the “under God” phrase was a direct result of the “ordinary and normal” American ties to belief in religion, Kramnick said
Kramnick cited the ubiquity of religion in American life as an important key to people’s acceptance of the phrase “under God ”
“Public commitment to church-state separation has declined,” Kramnick said
According to Kramnick, USA Today recently reported that only half of Americans believe maintaining separation between church and state is necessary, and 55 percent of Americans believe that America has a Christian government
“This is, of course, factually wrong, ” Kramnick said “ The American constitution is a Godless document God may be in the pledge of allegiance, God may be in our pocketbooks, but nowhere is God in the Constitution ”
Unlike all of the founding documents written before the Constitution, there is no reference to God or God’s strength anywhere in the Constitution According to Kramnick, this ushered in “ a new historical era where a person ’ s religious standing had no bearing on their ability to hold public office ”
“Opponents of the Constitution were appalled at its
secularism,” Kramnick said
Regardless, Kramnick said he believes American discourse about religion has changed dramatically in the last two generations, with the Christian right playing a key role in politicizing religion
According to Kramnick, certain anti-abortion activists who recite the pledge augment the established line “with liberty and justice for all” with the phrase “born and unborn ”
Additionally, Tea Party members cite the Constitution as being a religious Christian document Catholics such as John F Kennedy who ran for office had to separate religion from state never associating prayer or belief with their power in order to appease fearful Protestants, Kramnick said
Even today, seven American state constitutions still state that one must believe in God to become a state official, according to Kramnick
People have officially tried to add “God” and “Christ” to the Constitution and preamble six times, Kramnick said, but all of these efforts, including similar efforts in the 19th and 20th century, have failed
From the viewpoint of many Americans today, “Believing in god is central to being an American a litmus test for citizenship,” Kramnick said “America under God for many Americans today means under a Christian god ”
ALEX HERNANDEZ / SUN CONTR BUTOR
The Appel Septet, a jazz group, plays during dinner at Hans Bethe House Wednesday
For God, for country | Prof Isaac Kramnick speaks about the role of religion in U S politics in Goldwin Smith Hall Wednesday
JORDAN VARTANIAN / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rachel Weber can be reached at rweber@cornellsun com
Students Work Together to Pressure Adidas
Committee, according to Li Cornell volunteers also successfully helped put pressure on administrators at other universities, according to Anna Barcy, member of United Students Against Sweatshops at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N J Cornell volunteers joined similarly minded students from across the Northeast for a weekend long “boot-camp” at Rutgers last November, according to Barcy
“USAS works by coordinating nationally, and our strength comes in lending support to one another Cornell volunteers, who had already successfully campaigned to have their university sever ties with Adidas, helped us with our campaign at Rutgers,”
Barcy said Since then, 15 other universities, including the University of Washington, Georgetown University, Northeastern University, and Washington State University have joined Cornell in its decision to cut ties with Adidas, according to Li
“As the first university to cut our contract with Adidas, we set an important precedent for other schools The fact that Cornell University had severed its licensing agreement with Adidas over workers’ rights abuses put pressure on other schools to follow suit,” COL A member Molly Beckhardt ’14 said “That said, other student labor action groups did a tremendous amount of work to get their universities to take a stand for workers’ rights None of us could have done it without the support of other stu-
dents at their respective universities ”
According to Barcy, the USAS has been instrumental in coordinating worker’s rights groups from different universities to combine their efforts to hold businesses accountable
“We’re all across the country, working together as a nationwide resource We can lean on each other, and support each other’s efforts, and in that sense, we have an unseen power to make change,” Barcy said
Adidas’ decision to compensate its workers may have longlasting consequences beyond this specific instance, according to Li
“It’s a major step to hold businesses accountable for breaking the law,” Li said
Christopher Yates can be reached at cyates@cornellsun com
GRADUATE
Continued from page 1
19,000 in 2012
According to the International Students and Scholars Office’s website, the largest number of international graduate students come from China, followed by South Korea and India
“Cornell continues to attract large numbers of students from China because we have an outstanding reputation throughout Asia in many different fields,” said Brendan O’Brien, director of the International Students and Scholars Office “ We have large
China who have had great experiences at Cornell and have gone to be ver y successful in their chosen fields ”
Similarly, applications from Taiwanese international students
are down 13 percent nationally, but up by 6 percent for Cornell, Knuth said
The increase in applications f ro m
decrease in applications for uni-
reflect the strength of Cornell’s programs in the areas of studies sought by Chinese and Taiwanese applicants, according to Knuth
“ C
n g graduate programs in subjects that have attracted interest from Chinese and Taiwanese applicants, particularly in physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, economics and management, ” she said
Story continued on cornellsun com
Elizabeth Kussman can be reached
Blakinger ’11 Writes Memoir About Heroin Addiction, Time in P rison
She is now in talks with book agents to publish her story More importantly: She is clean
“When I look out across the desolate wreck of those years of active addiction, most spots are entirely devoid of life, all memories long since erased; the overgrown clumps that remain are bizarre snapshots that come together to form a surreal collage,” she writes in an excerpt of the book given to
The Sun
In a wide-ranging interview this week, Blakinger talked at length about her hopes for the book, how she managed to get on the Dean’s List for several of the semesters she was at Cornell, and the difference between attending an Ivy League school and living in a prison
But pinpointing exactly how or why she began using heroin still eludes her
“I think I’ve always had a bit of a self-destructive streak, but if I could say what makes someone a
drug addict I’d put every [rehab center] out of business,” Blakinger said
The daughter of a Harvard-educated lawyer, Blakinger was a straight-A student in a private high school who competed at U S Figure Skating Nationals, she writes in her book
But “obviously (given the way I turned out, that is) my childhood wasn ’ t all sunshine and rainbows,” she writes Blakinger writes that she was molested when she was nine and struggled with depression and
eating disorders as a young teenager
“When my need for rebellion joined forces with my existing tendency toward self-destruction, ultimately I turned to a tragically common solution heroin,” she writes
By the time she was at Cornell, Blakinger was using significant amounts of heroin every day, she said
“It was difficult: It required a lot of excuses, a lot of creative scheduling It's very difficult to balance a drug addiction with a full time career as a student,” Blakinger said Heroin was just one manifestation of her drug use Her book describes her kitchen at one point during her addiction: “The freezer is stocked with LSD, DMT and other hallucinogens; the microwave is used only for cooking ketamine; all the drinks in the refrigerator are laced; the plates are only used for chopping up and
snorting cocaine; the vegetable drawer is filled with marijuana the only thing that gets cooked in the stove is crack the forks have simply begun to migrate after they melted the last time you ate acid,” she writes Blakinger declined to say whether she was dealing drugs, noting that she was only charged by police with possession But Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson told The Ithaca Journal that Blakinger was the “Queenpin” of heroin dealing in Collegetown, and Blakinger does not deny the charge “I can ’ t say anything about whether I was or wasn ’ t dealing [but] you could draw your own conclusions based on the amount I was arrested with,” Blakinger said Story continued on cornellsun com
Jeff Stein can be reached at jstein@cornellsun com
Prof: Vertical Farming Teaches Cities to Be Ecosystems
t h e s u c c e s s o f a g r i c u l t u r a l i n d u s t r y, D e s p o m m i e r
s a i d T h e “ l i v i n g b u i l d i n g s ” w o u l d p r ov i d e s h e l t e r s o t h e re w o u l d b e y e a r - r o u n d c r o p p r o d u c t i o n a n d n o
c r o p l o s s f r o m s e v e re w e a t h e r e v e n t s Fu r t h e r m o re , “ l i v i n g b u i l d i n g s ” a re m o re p r o d u ct i v e t h a n t r a d i t i o n a l f a r m l a n d , D e s p o m m i e r s a i d In
f a c t , e a c h i n d o o r a c re o f f a r m l a n d i s m o re p r o d u c t i v e
t h a n 1 0 o u t d o o r a c r e s o f l a n d , a c c o r d i n g t o
D e s p o m m i e r Ac c o rd i n g t o D e s p o m m
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WORKING ON TODAY ’ S SUN
Yoon ’16
’14
ZAHOS ’15
The Cornell Bubble
Being an opinion columnist comes with a lot of criticism Any decent opinion, by definition, will have dissenting viewpoints Over the past two years, it seems as if my best columns had, along with many supporters, hordes of people who disagreed with me For example, “Cornell’s Sexiest Majors” caused a lot of controversy And while I stand by ILR as the sexiest major, if I had to redo the list today, hotelies would be ranked higher I know, I was wrong
Yet the best part about being an opinion columnist is arguably the criticism Where else will my opinions be tested by such a large number of people? I mostly surround myself with people who enjoy my presence, and who usually don’t contest my basic beliefs on a daily basis But when strangers read what I have to say, they react based solely on my words Even if I don’t agree with the hateful, anonymous comments, I have had an opportunity to understand different perspectives on subjects I thought I had figured out
That, along with the celebrity (ha), will be what I miss most about being a Sun columnist On a more broad scale, it also represents an aspect of Cornell I will miss the constant critiques
Let me share a story with you I was talking to a sexual assault prevention activist at another school who threw these great parties called “Party With Consent,” where guests came with a heightened awareness of sexual consent Counter to these parties, however, were rebels who would throw “Parties Without Consent ” He warned me that if I tried anything like this at Cornell, this counter group could rise up against me I disagreed The Cornell community clearly has its problems with general bias and sexual assault But call me naive I couldn’t imagine these types of anti-consent parties being thrown on our campus Not only does our community have a heightened awareness of these issues, but frankly, the party hosts would be tarred and feathered The people here won ’ t let you get away with such blatant disrespect We as a community
keep each other in check, and although sometimes we feel like people are just “whining activists,” this is something we take for granted
When we enter the real world, there will be no one to constantly question our stupid ideas You can tweet whatever racist, sexist, etc -ist think you want and, unless you are famous, no one will really care But at Cornell, the community forces you to constantly check what you do or say, until eventually you grow into a more accepting person At least, that is what my experience has been here
So if you haven’t figured it out yet from the slew of other final columns this week this is my last column I grew from being the not-so-secret sex columnist to coming out from behind the clock to show you a little more of who I am Sorry, I’m not sorry if your story was told in one of my columns More often than not, however, it probably wasn ’ t you I was talking about And to all the boys who asked to be written about: If you have to ask, you aren ’ t interesting enough
So for everyone who isn’t graduating this year: revel in the bizarre social consequences that come from being a Cornellian As someone who has spent a decent chunk of her Cornell experience thinking about sex and relationships, let me me leave you with some parting words of wisdom There are no missed connections you’ll see them again somewhere There is a scientific fact that if you dance floor make out with someone at a party freshman year, you will see them once a week on campus, never saying hello until senior year when you decide you might as well be friends You’re living in a social bubble; now is the time to find out who you are
So farewell, Cornell Thanks for the stories
Morgan Bookheimer is a senior in the College of Human Ecolog y She may be reached at mbookheimer@cor nellsun com Behind the Time appears alter nate Thursdays this semester AKANE OTANI 14
Comm en t of
the day Web
“Ithaca's divestment entails, among other things, no future investments in fossil fuel companies Such a commitment bears no direct relationship to one's current fossil fuel holdings If in fact such a commitment is ‘easy enough,’ why shouldn't Cornell undertake it as well?”
Dear Natalie Por tman: This is my last chance to discuss sex with the wider world and I want to use this chance to talk to you Ms Por tman, you ’ re an intelligent, ar ticulate, beautiful woman
A single glance from you strikes me with the full force of Thor’s Mjolnir! Ever yone says I love you, but I know love is just a phantom menace, coming down from a cold mountain to where the hear t is I don’t love you, love is for the other women I just really, really, really want to have sex with you And frankly, at this time in my life, I just don’t want any other borin’ girl I would even fly through Ne wark, a weed in the Garden State, to be with you If that’s not dedication to getting closer, I don’t know what is If we hit it off, I’ll take y o u f i r s t c l a s s t h r o u g h I n d i a o n t h e
Darjeeling Limited, through the lands of my bir th I’ll show you the magical emporiums of Uttar Pradesh, where you can find the only zoo in this land with a black swan! If you s a y n o a n d s h a m e m e , don’t worr y, I’m mature I
won ’ t take out revenge or star t up a vendetta I know there are other beautiful girls waiting to hear je t’aime
Natalie, take a chance on me, no strings attached I won ’ t let anyone else know that you assented to it I’d hate for you to have all of the clones, copying my letter, attacking you with requests Your highness, I am but a lowly knight, waiting for your s m i l e L e t m
k n o w and I am but yours
Sincerely,
J i m o t h y Singh
B u t s e r io u s l y g u y s , e n o u g h about that I’m here for you, Cornell Well, I mean, I’m serious about Natalie Por tman But because this is my last column, I have to thank people and dish out the final dregs of advice I have tucked away First, I want to thank E L for thinking I would be a wor thy candidate to fill in
for a sick columnist last spring To C D , for groaning at my puns and to T G for laughing at them To A I , C H , K F and R B
y Thursday at work To D A for telling me how much the columns sucked and that he didn’t understand anything that was going on in them, even though he didn’t read any of them Oh, and I guess thanks to my editor Liz, who alone had to deal with the full force of
It’s not about the things you can check off a list or who you end up at the end, but about the stories you collect along the way Never stop your own quest for the perfect tale.
night To m y p a
letting me abandon my filial duties, travel to exotic locales and tr y to woo the natives To my grandparents, who upon hearing that I was writing this column, thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard and star ted to give me ideas To alcohol and to gumption, to consent and to pro-
Atection And last, but not least, to the myriad of people and experiences that I have dissected, reassembled and smushed into my columns
It’s not about the things you can check off a list or who you end up at the end, but about the stories you collect on the way
Never stop your own quest for the per fect tale Seniors, enjoy these last fe w weeks You’ve earned them, so don’t forget to make ’ em sexy Ever yone else, you should probably be incredibly stressed and not see the forest for the trees Also, that problem set you ’ re working on will totally determine your future and whether anyone will ever love you
Now, my friends, I must bid you all adieu I’m off to go find someone to have sex with me during the last lecture of PSYCH 1001
s a graduating senior, my reign as sex columnist is too quickly coming to an end I’ve spent four years expanding my sexual horizons with adventures such as Arts Quad building rendezvous deemed “study breaks,” woodland lovemaking (on film), girl-on-girl-on-guy action and a recent love sesh on Schoellkopf field where touchdowns were, for once, plentiful Though my adventures have been vast, I am not fully satisfied There is one untapped part of me, like an oil well whose resources are intact but are just begging to be extracted So, before I start backing away from my college years, I feel the need to first back myself up onto something concrete Where else is there to go but the butt?
Straight couples rarely shoot for the in-the-butt action, but what makes the act so taboo? First, let’s be frank: Poop leaves that place and girls who do poop (for those dudes with girlfriends who swear to be non-defecators) may feel strange about a penis penetrating their no-go zone Though I do sincerely understand such reser vations, ever y hole in the human body expels some nasty substance at some point Do I really have to name them? Yes? Well, after a lasagna dinner and a long night of drinking, something nasty may leave the same place guys love to shove their dicks And, we must not forget, the vagina dispels the lining of the uterus each month With that in mind, anal sex seems standard gross rather than extra nasty, like many may ass-ume
In considering the realities of butt sex, however, one
must realize that anal is not something to jump right into An accidental anal thrust is one thing (and still, a traumatic experience), but a purposeful full-throttle entrance without proper stimulation is cause for disaster, explosive fighting and maybe even a breakup (how do you explain that one to the parents?) So, beginning this rear entrance route, one must start slow and work their way in The first thing a guy should do is finger his girl and then slowly maneuver his fingers until they are both pleasuring her vaginally and anally Read the sitch here If she cringes, not a good sign If she gives you a nasty look (like nasty in the “oh, you a
nasty girl” way, not the poop-dick kind of way), it’s a green light and she wants to get weird with you Go for gold
After speaking to some more ass-perienced friends, I came to discover all the possibilities of in-the-butt loving We who are not well-versed in the topic may believe there is one way to do the dirty: doggy style However, in order to correctly align angles, it is best to pull the girl’s legs over
your shoulders and work your way to victor y It may look like the position you hold a baby to wipe his or her bottom, but forget the image of your little brother as a baby on the changing room table and focus! You may get only one chance at that ass
Now, a conversation we all must have eventually we cannot hide from it forever how can we get up the courage to actually buy a tube? Of what? You guessed right, you poet: LUBE How can one believe they can slip that dick into the butt without a small tube of spermicidal lube? We like to pretend lube does not exist because we are young, supple, wet, college women who need only a mobile finger to be ready for action Well, a butthole produces no lubrication and so no one should feel bad about bringing a little slip and slide ass-istance into the bedroom
What I always say is: It can ’ t hurt to tr y something once And, well, I guess it probably can hurt Like a lot But, hopefully some of my ass-tastic tips will help you get past just the tip
Thanks for reading Erotic Epiphanies I hope your sex lives have been that much weirder for it Peace and love (making) to all you good-looking people!
Mona G. | Erotic Epiphanies
Jimothy Singh | Quest for the Perfect Tale
Jimothy Singh is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences He may be reached at jsingh@cornellsun com Quest for the Perfect Tale appears alternate Thursdays this semester
Mona G is a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences She may be reached at monag@cornellsun com Erotic Epiphanies appears alternate Thursdays
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
They don’t write them like this anymore: 10 years and four albums in, French synth rockers Phoenix finally hit their stride with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, a sleek and mammoth-sounding pop record with phasers set to kill and melodies destined to get stuck in your head After countless commercial spots, critical plaudits (including a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album) and a recent Coachella headlining gig that saw them singing alongside R Kelly (!), it seems that Phoenix had made the unlikely latecareer jump from moderately successful indie band to full blown rock stars Now, four years later, we ’ re treated to Bankrupt!, the ironically titled fifth record from the band whose music could sell anything
The fortunate thing for Phoenix is that following their smash hit doesn’t come with the same sort of pressure it would if this was their second album They are a relatively known quantity; records like United and It’s Never Been Like That prove that they’ve been developing their Air-meets-The Strokes sound for a lot longer than just a minute Still, a lot of people feel that Bankrupt! is Phoenix’s opportunity to putup or shut-up, at least as far as their rock star ambitions are concerned overall, they’ve succeeded quite wonderfully
At this point Phoenix has developed a unique and characteristic sound that makes you immediately sit back and say,
Sno op Li on
Re inc a r na te d
Ma d De ce n t, Vi ce , RCA
“Ah! This must be a Phoenix song ” From the opening of lead single “Entertainment,” you get a sense of what you ’ re going to be hearing here: enveloping neon synthesizers that recall the MarioKart 64 track Rainbow Road, tom-heavy drumbeats and, of course, Thomas Mars’ wailing lyrics that defy any real logic when viewed up close, but are an opportunity for fans to make mistakes that are, as Mars puts it, “better than the real lyrics are ” Like fellow inscrutable lyricist Ezra Koenig (of Vampire Weekend), Mars’ real strength lies in his use of locations and references alongside romantic songwriting tropes in order to give an odd sense of context to commonplace emotions (“You’re Lancelot / 20-year-old and bored / Run for a better future” he instructs on “The Real Thing”) With Phoenix, the words mean nothing and everything at once
Of course, it helps that all their songs sound genuinely huge Even the lounge-groove of “Trying To Be Cool” is stadium-sized; it’s almost preposterous to think that Thomas Mars would ever feel insecure while prancing about in front of Madison Square Garden-sized audiences (though he might be getting a little help from that “mint julep testosterone”) The title track serves as this album’s version of “Love Like a Sunset”: A simmering tremolo pulse provides the foundation for an ambling synth melody that eventually fizzles into
Gone is the Snoop Dogg of old, as former hip-hop ar tist Calvin Broadus continues his already illustrious career with a ne w identity: Snoop Lion
Reincar nated is a representation of Snoop’s current career position No longer capable of innovating through hip-hop, he takes to reggae as a means of extending his musical livelihood
The result sounds more like a mid-life revelation then a musical reinvention Clearly, Snoop assimilates well with the weed smoking and blissful nature of reggae culture In concordance with the album, Snoop released a documentar y about his time in Jamaica, where he was fully embraced by the locals
Yet, the music itself feels diluted Rather than utilizing the smooth flow and lyrical genius that has defined his hip-hop career, he relies on his singing voice far too much Though Snoop integrates well with the Jamaican lifestyle, he does little to convince us that his musical talents fit the reggae mold
cionados, cinephiles, Shining fans, film history buffs and Kubrick disciples, and at the risk of being immodest, I claim to be all of the above
Room 237 had me riveted from its opening moments, which are loving recreations of several films in the Stanley Kubrick oeuvre The Warner Brothers logo first glimpsed at the beginning of Barry Lyndon is remolded, and the documentary begins with a shot of Tom Cruise wandering the streets of New York on a December night close to Christmas Or, more properly, he is wandering the streets of a soundstage in London built to look like New York, and so the shot is appropriately captioned “Europe ” Fans of Kubrick’s work will already know from this description that the scene is a lifted moment from the grandmaster director’s last work, Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
The documentary instantly jumps on the plethora of theories arising from hundreds of different interpretations of Kubrick’s 1980 seminal horror film The Shining In doing so, it leaps straight into film history, the craft of arguably the greatest filmmaker of all time and an infinitely rich debate over some of the most provocative movies ever made Footage from Kubrick’s other films are spliced with staged material of Kubrick himself, while intricate details are called up about the moviemaker and his work This is the ultimate movie for film afi-
Documentarian Rodney Ascher chooses not to let us glimpse the people behind the wild theories about The Shining in his nonfiction film we only hear them in voiceover Instead, he opts for clips of the subject film itself, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Paths of Glory and others, to evoke what the theorists were feeling when they viewed these movies Jay Weidner, one of the interviewees in the film, admits owing his entire interest in movies and his career as a filmmaker to experiences such as these, and privately, so do I (I’m still working on the career part, though ) Ascher is just as interested in paying tribute to the legendary artist and his work as he is in deciphering it, if not more so One of his many strokes of genius is in telling the points of view of the interviewees through clips of other movies When one of the theorists claims to have been bothered upon first seeing The Shining, Ascher cuts to a shot from Eyes Wide Shut, of Tom Cruise slapping his gloves together, similarly bothered and frustrated Hypotheses about what the horror classic means are quite varied Predictions range from containing hidden themes regarding the genocide of Native Americans, to the Holocaust, to Kubrick having faked the moon landing for
swirling, kaleidoscopic arpeggios before embarking onto the album’s most plaintive singing: “Forever is for everyone else / We’re off a couple secrets / Another lonely Tuesday home / Stolen kisses, is anyone near?” Phoenix do these suites well, and there are sure to be opportunities during their live sets for their light guy to really blow the audience away (when Phoenix played in Barton Hall back in 2010, the light-show was sublime)
Rock star ubiquity isn’t what it used to be Instead of being plastered on teenage girls’ walls and being hounded by paparazzi, Phoenix will have to settle for soundtracking commercials and movie trailers Regardless of its new definition, Bankrupt! shows Phoenix embracing rock stardom with style and aplomb Though it loses steam towards its conclusion the chorus of Don’t,” for instance, outright murders the propulsive kick-snare rhythm of its verses Bankrupt! is an almost aggressively self-aware pop record, with lyrical themes that trivialize the entire notion of fame and the fleetingness of success Rife with insecurity, nigh unintelligible lyrics and intriguing song structures, Bankrupt! is not perfect; it’s a lot more interesting than that
James Rainis is a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences He can be reached at jrainis@cornellsun com
However, this genuinely does not seem to matter to Snoop His lyrics advocate for peace, strength, unity and hope, a far cr y from the gangster rap of his earlier days Thus, it appears that he has reached a carefree point in his life Knowing that his best days are behind him, he fully embodies the positive vibes of Rastafari rather than lament over the decline of his musical prowess
Snoop saves the album by employing stellar production from the likes of Major Lazer and with guest appearances from Angele Hunte, Akon and Drake However, he seems to take a backseat to these musicians, and when he does sing, his voice is hardly recognizable Though the album offers little novelty to the reggae genre, it succeeds with catchy hooks and positive vibes More than anything, Reincar nated epitomizes Snoop’s embodiment of the reggae culture, a move that extends his career and makes for a feel-good album
Scott Goldberg is a freshman in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations He can be reached at smg292@cornell edu
NASA Needless to say, some are more believable than others All theoreticians are aware, however, that Kubrick was a master of semiotics He specialized in the art of visually encoding layers upon layers of subliminal messages that could contain any number of concealed meanings Their arguments, though sometimes farfetched, are surprisingly well-grounded in the multitude of clues, symbols and suggestions The Shining leaves us with It’s a kick to watch an obsessed movie fanatic swear that Kubrick never intended to make the Stephen King novel into a movie, and that the film was simply an excuse to admit he had faked the moon landings Another one makes a strongly convincing argument that Kubrick’s film is exactly like a dream It boils down all the guilt, angst and dark secrets of the United States, then conveys them with subtle visuals for Americans to unwittingly imbibe A third interviewee claims the film is about bridging the gap between the collective hallucination of history that no longer exists, and the emotional reality of history which did happen The “pictures in a book” line from the film is given a complete psychological breakdown, as are other trivialities, such as the minor character of Bill Watson and the appearance of the number 42 The makers of the doc go so far as to superimpose the film played backwards over the film being played for-
wards, to decode and reveal certain hidden ideas
Taken as a whole, Room 237 is an endlessly watchable, altogether fascinating diversion into the mind of one of cinema’s titans, and into one of the most psychologically puzzling films of all time Along the way, it explores some of the craziest and most obsessive film analyses I’ve ever been privy to In short, it is no less than a perfect salute to the most devout of cinephiles and the movies that inspire them For film enthusiasts the world over, it’s a must-see
Mark DiStefano is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at msd97@cornell edu
Scott Goldberg
James Rainis
MARK DISTEFANO Sun Contributor
COLIN CHAN Sun Staff Writer
Oblivion is a pretty difficult movie to review without spoiling It continues the string of recent Hollywood science-fiction productions whose narrative structures resemble an onion From the start, Oblivion is presented as a mystery It’s 2077 and Earth is in ruin Sixty years ago an alien race known only as Scavs destroyed the moon, and the resulting instability sparked apocalyptic natural disasters all over the planet Humanity, using its nuclear stockpile, won the war, but the ensuing devastation ruined the planet beyond repair Humanity evacuated in droves and went to the planet Titan, leaving behind only a skeleton crew to extract the seawater necessary to supply humankind’s new home The movie focuses on two of these crew members The ever intrepid Tom Cruise plays Jack Harper, a character that he seems to inhabit so comfortably it’s as if the role was written exclusively with Cruise in mind Along with his communications officer and sometime carnal partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), he performs routine maintenance on the drones that protect the resource extractors of Earth from frequent incursions of remaining Scav resistance The two live in a luxurious suite suspended on three precarious stilts high in the clouds; they even have a swimming pool With amenities like these, it makes you wonder why they would leave in the first place
Of course, that’s kind of the point of the movie to make the viewer wonder at the unsettling nature of it all From the beginning there are unsubtly telegraphed visual and narrative cues to suggest to the viewer that the sit-
Tom Cruise’s Oblivion
uation is more complicated than it seems As the movie progresses, more and more layers of the mystery are peeled back in a satisfying fashion The savvy connoisseur of science fiction might be able to parse the mystery faster than the uninitiated, because many of the tropes employed by Oblivion are common to earlier science fiction classics Indeed, Oblivion borrows themes and visual direction from such estimable productions as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, The Matrix and P r o m e t h e u s Director Joseph Kosinski has even said, in no uncertain terms, that Oblivion was meant as a homage to scifi films of the ’70s
The visual palette is perhaps one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, visions of post-apocalyptia ever conceived on screen
Viewers are treated to sweeping vistas of Earth (specifically New York City) in grandiose ruination From his trusty white hovercopter thing, Tom Cruise surveys jagged mountains, crevices, glaciers and deserts, all within a day’s flying distance of what used to be New York City New York, itself, is also displayed in splendid decay
We see the Empire State Building buried in a mountain of silt, the remains of old football stadiums, a creaking Brooklyn Bridge half sunken in mud and the cave-like remains of what used to be the New York Public Library The vehicles employed by Jack Harper are gorgeously futuristic, in stark contrast to the dusty remnants of civilization and the drones whose spherical deliverers of laser fire are angry eyes-in-the-sky that seethe with a palpable sense of threat, abetted by the sonorous metallic beeps that they emit In short, this film is gorgeous Visual fidelity, however, doesn’t save this film from losing much of its steam once the big reveals of the plot are encountered After the secrets of this multi-layered onion are laid bare for all to see, the film descends into predictable medleys of CGI action, with aerial dogfights, gun battles and the lot The abrupt tonal shift from the hitherto deliberate pacing feels hackneyed, and the film seems to overstay its welcome But this is really Tom Cruise’s turn to shine, and he displays his action and piloting chops with customary aplomb Therein lies the problem It’s always a trade-off when famously typecast actors such as Tom Cruise appear in movies, because their characterization is already established by their body of work In the case of Oblivion, Cruise delivers a competent, even inspired, performance, but he cannot save the film from descending into another Tom Cruise
Only God Forgives Ryan Gosling
With the sweet stirrings of summer on the horizon, the anticipation for the 2013 season of summer blockbusters steadily mounts In the depths of my impassioned research (26 tabs, two windows and counting) for what would have been a quickie summer cinema preview article, I found among the requisite slag of noncommittal franchise fare, scores (scores!) of cinematic promise For every nefarious studiobulking sequel (300 Part 2, The Smurfs 2, Red 2), there are twice as many auspicious options (Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, Despicable Me 2, Before Tonight, even The Hangover Part III) Even for a season of mostly comic book movies and large-scale sci-fi, the pickings are more than decent I say in precipitous suspense for Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of John Harrison, and the newest Superman reboot Man of Steel For once, prequel’s don’t suck Elysium looks satisfying as a brainy thriller of social commentary (Neill Blomkamp’s prequel to District 9), and Monsters University is, well, invincible coming from Pixar
And yet, despite all this cinematic bounty, despite Joss Whedon doing an adorable modern-day adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing set in his own home, despite Baz Luhrmann’s glittery clusterfuck dream team of a cast and crew in The Great Gatsby, the most anticipated movie for me this summer is Only God Forgives This is the film I choose above all a film reuniting Ryan Gosling with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn for a reliably gruesome revenge narrative
But if I wanted action from an auteur, I would’ve chosen Wong Kar-Wai’s first piece in six years, Grandmasters, which gets its state-side premiere this summer His masterful modern works of heavy stylization and emotional resonance more safely guarantee critical acclaim in this genre, though all I know of Only God Forgives is what I gathered from the enigmatic bits and pieces of its two NSFW trailers, pretty much all the media thus far propagated on the film These trailers are, of course, nearly wordless, save for an ominous voiceover from Kristin Scott Thomas’ character, Gosling’s gangster mom and Gosling’s final chilling utterance of, “Wanna fight?” at trailer’s end Little is known about Only God Forgives, but the red band promo seems to suggest that Thomas is the HBIC of a drug empire who, after learning of her son ’ s murder, orders her other son (Gosling) to hunt down the corrupt cop (played by Vithaya Pansringarm)
who did it Instead of the sleepless, sunlit streets of Los Angeles, Gosling executes all his slaughter along the even seedier, even more sleepless, neon-lit streets of Bangkok
As it is Refn’s signature, pregnant silence seems to play the supporting actor in the film followed closely by calmly executed, grisly violence Pansringarm’s character drives two stakes into the forearms of his poor target Meanwhile, Gosling’s character drags a bleeding victim across the corridor by the roof of his mouth, sharing the same look of steely reserve that populated the eyes of Gosling’s The Driver character And, just as in Refn’s Drive, Gosling is defined by monotone murmurs and American Psycho-level metro man-grooming, all amidst artful backdrops of excellent cinematography It must be asked then: Is this film just another Drive?
Maybe Only God Forgives will release a hypnotizing ’80s synth-pop soundtrack to confirm our beliefs, but, thus far, all signs point to yes Why then would this of all movies be my most anticipated? The more I ponder this, the more I just don’t know It’s true that this is the type of film I adore stylish thrillers but maybe the appeal lies in Gosling’s magnetism I love Ryan Gosling as much as the next girl which is to say, a lot but never quite for this reason I mean, I love him for his feminist “Hey Girl” meme and I love him for how much he loves his dog, George I love him for breaking up fights on the streets of New York, and I love him for that one time my NYU friend spotted him in the East Village, propping up the bicycles that had fallen from the rack, like the selfless samaritan we imagine him to be I love him for the third grade chorus singing in his surprisingly good jazz-grunge band, Dead Man’s Bones, and I love him for telling Rachel McAdams that he wrote her a letter every day for a year in The Notebook (even though there’s no post on Sundays) I love Ryan Gosling for all these reasons, but honestly, I never quite found him to be quite the “ actor ’ s actor ” his peers recognize him to be I mean, don’t get me wrong he’s a definitely a good actor, and it’s commendable that he pursues personal roles as creative endeavors instead of profitable franchises
But maybe Gosling isn’t choosing these roles; maybe the roles
action flick in its latter half, and this detracts from the deeper themes that the film was trying to explicate The denouement, and the means by which the conflict is resolved, also strain credulity, and the film ends somewhat clumsily with the use of a deus ex machina (literally) to wrap up the plot
Ultimately, the film doesn’t quite know how to resolve the grand mystery that it presented in such a satisfying fashion, and out of consideration for its two-hour timeslot, rushes the ending in a way that is anticlimactic, plotholeridden and almost farcical And at the end of the movie, the viewer is left with one, unresolvable question: What has the title of the movie got to do with the plot? Maybe I missed something, but there appears to be no rhyme or reason to why the movie is called Oblivion Not that this cheapens the film, but it does make you wonder Oblivion tries to be the next big thoughtprovoking science fiction epic on the scale of The Matrix or Inception On account of its lackluster second half and Tom Cruise typecasting, it doesn’t quite get there, but its smart beginning, art direction and ambition make it a somewhat worthwhile watch
Colin Chan is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at cchan@cornellsun com
are choosing him He s never quite fit in with the big budget and the mainstream (Hello, Gangster Squad), but he has always chosen the brooding type Honestly, I don’t know if he’s that damn good at angsty acting, or if he’s just playing himself in different manifestations After all, he’s admitted to a somewhat disturbed psyche due to a childhood of lonerism And how many times can he play the man of mute machismo, a bad boy capable of reform, as he does in The Place Beyond the Pines, in Ides of March, in Drive, before he is inextricably that person? Is it that hard to believe that he’s really Noah, that blue-collar drifter, the guy who built his long-lost love their dream house, when Gosling built the car in Drive, built the table in Blue Valentine out of a church door and calls his real-life relationship with Rachel McAdams a greater romance than their on screen performance? Is it that hard to believe that Gosling is the motorcycle-riding, bank-robbing father of The Place Beyond the Pines, when he only got the role because he coincidentally told the director, Derek Cianfrance, at the time he completed the script that he fantasizes about robbing banks on a motorcycle? And so, despite every blockbuster set to hit this summer surpassing even my nerd-love for comic book movies Only God Forgives reigns above all It’s hard to explain why exactly Maybe it’s me Maybe I just want to believe Ryan Gosling plays himself in all roles, that he really does pick up fallen bikes on the side of the road, that he’s just that hot and good Maybe I just want to go on believing that he’s really that ideal human being, and maybe, you know, he actually is
Alice Wang is a sophomore in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences She can be reached at awang@cornellsun com Profanity Prayers appears alternate Thursdays
Dining Guide
Big, Fat And Juicy: The Best Burgers In Ithaca
By KAY XIAO Sun Staff Writer
It was a typical Ithaca day cold and rainy and after hours of getting hopelessly lost, my
stomach was grumbling, so we headed over to Ithaca Ale House The waitress recommended the Big Sexy Burger and I went for it Best decision ever The Big Sexy Burger at Ithaca Ale House is just
what the name implies: big, sexy and so delicious Two warm and fluffy toasted buns sandwiching a thick garlic and onion seasoned, medium-well, Black Angus beef patty slathered in BBQ sauce and
topped with melted American and cheddar cheese It tastes every bit as savory as it sounds I added bacon to my Big Sexy to seal the deal, and the result was an amazing burger of flavorful ingre-
dients that balanced one another out The sweetness of the BBQ sauce in every bite, the crunch of the red onions, pickles and tomatoes, the saltiness and crisp texture of the bacon and most of all, the j u i c y a n d h e a r t y a n g u s b e e f packed every bite with sweet barbeque and smoky bacon goodness However, take caution The Big Sexy is extremely messy It is a struggle to get a full bite of the burger, bun to bun, without letting some pickles slip out the side
Moreover, the sauce gets everywhere, but in my opinion, this just enhances the experience
Among the variety of interesti n g a n d
g options on the Ithaca Ale House menu, which includes the Fat Kid Burger two grilled cheeses, sandwiching Black Angus Beef, lettuce and tomatoes and the Je rk Bu
g e r Je rk s
black angus beef, topped with
o n Focaccia bread the Big Sexy is my favorite by far This is simply because the Big Sexy doesn’t stray too far from the comfort of the classic cheeseburger
come with a side of fries, onion rings, salad or soup The fries, the classic side to a burger, are always golden and perfectly crisp, but the Caesar or House salad, a healthier option, better offsets the heaviness of the burger for the more health conscious diner
Dining Guide
W here to Find That Perfect Burger
A gava ’ s burger i s ju st a s delectable a s Ithaca Ale Hou se ’ s
By ZACHARY SIEGEL
Sun Staff Wr ter
A quick car ride or a long walk to East Hill Plaza will reward you with an outstanding version of the highest form of sandwich: the hamburger Because of its balance
great burger is complete without a dependable cheese The cheddar is the Robin to the beef ’ s Batman, the Andy Richter to its C o n
Wallace The cheese allows the burger to perform at it’s best the patty needs a sidekick to be
Crafting a good burger is not too difficult, but a great one is a rarity. Agava has developed a loyal following because of its simple, delicious, ingredientdriven food, and its burger reflects that approach to dining.
of flavors and quality components, Agava’s burger reigns over all others in Ithaca
The Agava Burger would be nothing without superior meat The buzzwords “local,” “organic” and “grass-fed” indicate that the burger includes the tastiest, beefiest beef around Sharp cheddar blankets the patty because no
onions lend their signature sweetness to this steadfast duo
A
burger sauce brings
the burger Ketchup,
on top of the patty to
savory beef, the tangy
Every solid burger in Ithaca has some sort of meat and cheese combination, but only with this carefully crafted sauce has Agava been able to distance itself from its culinary competition
A bun can make or break a burger Too dry and tough? The burger falls apart and all you taste is unappealing bread Too soft? The juicy beef seeps right through
and creates an unthinkably absurd “fork-and-knife” burger Agava toasts its classic sesame seed bun to make sure the bread can stand up to the beef ’ s juiciness while still yielding to the burger’s other components
Like any distinguished burger, Agava’s is served with a pile of equally impressive fries Thin-cut, always crispy and salty, these fries
have earned their spot next to Ithaca’s best burger
The burger is one of the few items that is always available at Agava At $12, it’s a filling lunch, a satisfying dinner or a weekend brunch hangover cure Crafting a good burger is not too difficult, but a great one is a rarity Agava has developed a loyal following because of its simple, delicious,
ingredient-driven food, and its burger reflects that approach to dining For those of you who have yet to try the Agava Burger, do so quickly before you leave for the semester I promise, you ’ re in for a treat
Zachary Siegel can be reached at zsiegel@cornellsun com
Sun Sudoku
Careers on Top With A
deciding factor in a lot of places If you can get a clean change and a smooth ride across the board, that will put you over someone who maybe is a little trickier but has really messy ends and changes All of these horses had really nice changes, so that was one less thing you had to worry about ”
Since the teams in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association do not take their own horses to each competition, the IHSA is all about adapting to the horse that you are given The riders must be able to succeed on horses that they have never seen before
“It was nice to walk into a program where we had no idea what any of the horses were like [and] we had no idea what any of the riders were like It was nice to walk into that and do really well,” Cheng said
“It’s what IHSA is all about,” Hannon added
Since the Red lost its regional competition and was unable to advance to zones or nationals as a team, the squad was able to put all of its focus into Ivies
“We were all just really focused, everyone was working really hard,” Cheng said “Since we didn’t have anything else on the line our bid for nationals was over so that’s all we were focusing on ” For Kowalchik and the rest of the seniors, the show marked a perfect ending to their careers with the Red Kowalchik really saw all of her hard work pay off
All year, Todd has been working with me more on the flat than anything else because I just had some habits that formed over time, she said Because Todd came in and had a completely different perspective, it s kind of nice that something he s been working directly with me on paid off in the last show
The rest of the team also saw everything finally come together
“Change is always going to affect you and it really took us some time to hit our stride,” Cheng said “I think we finally hit our right balance ”
Continued from page 20
finding it more difficult to find work A one-page resume is no longer enough to set a candidate apart from the rest, which is where the fundamental idea for Endorse me emerged The startup has students create private profiles and ask for personal recommendations to complement their resume
“You get a private endorsement from a past professor or coworker,” Hagy explained “You request it [and] then they write a letter of recommendation that is put on your profile When you make your profile you select a list of firms, then those firms are notified that you’re interested in them ” Students begin the process by creating a list of employers that they would like to see their profiles Since the profiles are private, they tend to contain more personal information including what job offers a person is currently considering that have the potential to carry more weight than a general resume and make a candidate more competitive in the job hunt Once the professors submit the recommendations and they are added to the profile, the students can choose the companies with which they want to share information
“For underclassmen, this is a way to make themselves stand out,” Hagy said
As an underclassman himself, Hagy is already
Competition
making a name for himself as the Cornell liaison to Endorse me
“I contacted a lot of my friends to see how they reacted [and] then I emailed 25 or 30 clubs and at first no one responded, but in a week or two, a lot began to respond ” he explained “I created an email that basically said what Endorse me was what the benefits were and why people should sign up ”
Mainly targeting the financial and technology sectors, Endorse me is beginning to broaden its scope, as companies like Citi, Mozilla, Pinterest, Spotify, Twitter and Zaarly are currently using the website to look for candidates While it is available exclusively to students as a free, cloud-based service at this time, Endorse me plans to begin creating mobile applications over the summer, which will expand the audience it can reach
“I think this is going to be a very successful [start up company] and if [the students at Cornell] don’t start doing it, all of these other elite schools are going to be ahead of us,” Hagy said, describing reasons why Cornellians should join the site “You always want to be at the top Even if a lot of people don’t sign up, I think that for the people who do it is a great idea Anything that helps you set yourself apart from other students is a good thing ”
Rowers Look to Br ing Home Carnegie Cup for S econd Time
By TUCKER MAGGIO-HUCEK Sun Staff Writer
T h e C o r n e
s h
y -
weight rowing team is coming off of a narrow defeat in which it finished second in the Stagg Points Plate race behind Navy but finished ahead of Syracuse
T h i s w
travel to Ne w Haven, Conn to take on Yale and Princeton, and will attempt to bring home the
Carnegie Cup for the second year in a row
The Red is going into this
Navy last weekend The Varsity
Eight race saw the Red finish just over a second behind Navy, a strong opponent who is ver y similar to one of this week’s opponents, Princeton “ We saw that our base speed
was fast enough to hang with Navy which gave us confidence to build off Navy only lost to Princeton by just under three s
close of a race with Navy puts us already right in the mix to win,” senior Chris Massey said
The Red will head to Ne w Haven as the current holders of the Carnegie Cup, awarded to the winner of the varsity eight race between the three teams
eight by almost four seconds
The series, which was inaugurated in 1911, has Princeton in
However, the Red’s cup win last season brought the team within two of the leader Princeton Yale has only 20 Carnegie Cup wins since 1911 Last season, the Red had a ver y strong showing at the Carnegie Cup and also won all four races that day with wins in the second varsity eight, third varsity eight and freshmen eight races
into this weeks race having won
Dar tmouth two weeks ago, and Penn and Columbia last week
Princeton was defeated by No 2 Har vard last week by a boat
margin
The Carnegie Cup has been won by the home team the past six years This year the race is
being hosted by Yale, therefore the Red are going to have to adjust their race plan according to the Bulldog’s course Massey spoke to the impor tance of the their boats strategy and mental f o c u s w h i l e r a c i n g o n Ya l e ’ s home course, “ We will be racing on Yale’s course which has a huge turn in the middle Because of the turn, there is a stagger at the star t which can play a huge mental advantage or disadvantage, depending which lane we draw it will be really important to stay internal and drive o u r b o a
h t h e t u r n Then we can see where we are and attack from there to the finish line,” he said
this season, the Red has str uggled to per form as a unit
“ We need to make a greater commitment to attacking the competition as a unit rather than as individuals when called u p o n ,
Ke va n Zadeh said This week, the Red will focus on beginning the race strong and having a singular mindset in each boat
“In order to per form well this weekend we are going to have be ver y aggressive from the star t and then make the collective decision to win in the middle of the race, ” Zadeh said
Tucker Maggio-Hucek can be reached at tmaggiohucek@cornellsun com
Double, double, toil and trouble | After coming off a small defeat in the Staggs Point Place race, the Red hopes to enter this week and bring the Car negie Cup home to the Hill for the second consecutive time
C.U. Enjoys Horses at Dartmouth
EQUESTRIAN Continued from page 20
captain Emily Kowalchik
“Their barn is up in the mountains, so over the winter they [are] hardly ever able to get to the barn because of the weather,” she said “We probably had a leg up on them in that we’ve been practicing pretty consistently, whereas they just got back in the swing of things ” In addition to the team’s success, the Red also had four indi-
v i d u a l I
L
n s Sophomores Caitlin Parucci and Mary Beth Hannon were named champions in intermediate fences
a n d n o v i c e f l a t , r e s p e c t i v e l y, while Kowalchik and junior Alyx Cheng took the winning ribbons in open flat and open fences
Cornell has not competed at D a r
the current seniors had experience there The veterans remembered struggling with Dartmouth’s horses, so the squad prepared for a challenging competition
“We went in with very low expectations because the last time we were at Dartmouth, the horses were really a struggle for us,” Kowalchik said “Because we had prepared for the worst, we performed better when the horses ended up being better than we thought ”
The younger riders had been t o l d t h a t a l o t o f D a r t m o u t h ’s horses were very short, which can be challenging for the taller riders
“It was definitely a lot better
t h a n I h a d e x p e c t e d , ” H a n n o n said [T]he seniors had been there their freshman year and said that [Dartmouth] didn’t have a horse over 15 hands [high], so a lot of the taller girls were worried that they were going to draw a pony and get stuck with it but there were some really nice horses ”
As it turned out, Dartmouth had replaced most of its horses since the last time the Red had
c o m p e t e d t h e r e , a c c o r d i n g t o Kowalchik The Cornell riders got along well with the new horses and experienced pleasant rides
“He was just really simple,”
P a r u c c i s a i d o f h e r m o u n t “Everything about him was just easy It was fun The ring was so tiny so the turns were super fast and you had to get your [lead] changes really quickly ”
Lead changes are very important when it comes to the fences divisions When a horse canters, one of his front legs moves slightly ahead of his other three; this is t h e l e a d i n g l e g T h e l e g t h a t should be leading switches when the rider decides to change direction When jumping a course of jumps, the horse and rider much
s w i t c h d i r e c t i o n c o n s t a n t l y, s o being able to get a smooth lead change is important
“One of the things that we really struggle with in our region is a lot of the horses that we draw d o n ’t h a v e [ l e a d ] c h a n g e s , ” Cheng said “I feel like that’s a
K A T E I V O R Y
Ten Questions Columnist Katie Schubaeur caught up with senior Kate Ivor y to discuss ever ything from lacrosse to majors to resembling animals
1 Kate, you are a senior captain of the women ’ s lacrosse team What has lacrosse meant to you over the course of your college career?
It’s meant ever ything to me, and it has been so worth it The people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had, being able to go out ever y day and work really hard and have a competitive release are all awesome I can ’ t imagine my college experience without having played on the varsity lacrosse team
Who is your favorite teammate?
I’m going to have to go with my freshman little little litte [freshman], Greer McBeth, on this one
2 What does it mean to be a communications major with fellow athlete Maggie Remsen?
Maggie and I have had a great four-year fun as comm majors We call ourselves “ The Comm Heads ” We met in Communication Cases 101 and never looked back
Can you tell us about your study habits?
Since I go to bed at 10 p m on weeknights, my study habits are blasting EDM music because it’s the only thing that keeps me awake And I chug about five coffees a day So those are my study habits
Is it true that you always spill your coffee in Comm Law?
That is correct That’s ver y accurate And I sit front row center so there’s no hiding it Just ask Dale Grossman
3 You are known to have many nicknames Can you tell us some of them?
Yeah, so I guess my biggest one would be Leeny, and that originated from [senior teammate] Veronica Lizzio calling me Kathleen one day My real name is Katharine, for the record, and I was like, “Ew, that’s a gross name Don’t call me that,” so obviously she made it stick Now it’s turned into Leeny, Laney, Schleeny, Leenifer, any variation of Leen
What are some of the nicknames you have for Veronica?
One day she demanded in practice that we call her Vermouth, and then a few days later we realized that that’s a type of alcohol so it probably wouldn’t be appropriate, but it had already stuck So we kind of just went all different directions from there, and now it’s actually turned into Ronald and Ron We have a good time with that
4 Why did you choose to have men ’ s lacrosse player Rob Pannell in your photoshoot?
Because he’s a babe Who is Alanna Joel?
(Laughing) Clearly, we like to do nicknames in my friend group and Alanna Joel is our name for Men’s Lacrosse goalie A J Fiore We just come up with different variations that fit the abbreviation A J We call him Alanna to his face and he doesn’t really react to the weirdness of it, but he responds to it so that’s good
5 What would you consider your best asset?
I consider my best asset my personality, however I feel like most people think my backside is what I got rocking
Do you consider yourself a good dancer?
I have a feeling other people don’t, but I think I’m pretty good and confidence is key on the dance floor
Can you elaborate on the “material girl” incident at Alpha Tau Omega?
It was an incident involving an oversized dress and I’m going to leave it at that Just ask Roy Lang [’12] about that one
gle life, however one of my teammates has been tr ying to set me up ver y persistently with a boyfriend before the end of senior year So boys, if you ’ re reading this, I am now accepting applications, and I like tall, dark and handsome
Fat or Matt?
(Laughing) Matt is an old friend but Fat is always a good time
I heard you found your soulmate on a boat trip in Ibiza Can you elaborate on that?
Yeah, so there was this guy we met in Ibiza and we called him Monkey Man because he literally looked and acted exactly like a monkey There was a bit of a language barrier He didn’t speak any English, but we just really connected on that boat We just both were dancing and having fun and being monkeys together
8 What animal do you resemble most?
That’s a tough one In high school ever yone said I was like a bird because I perch a lot apparently I don’t know what that means exactly Here, ever yone says I’m like a worm or a clam Veronica actually says I look like the inside of a clam which, if you Google image search, is like the worst looking thing you could find so I don’t know You’d have to ask my friends
9. Can you tell us about your experience holding the prestigious title of Little Sister of a certain campus organization?
(Laughing) So shout out to my lineage love you guys This year we had a really funny Little Sister night and I gave a few speeches and then it was over in a flash
10 Which other Cornell team do you like to hang out with the most?
re n
6 What significance does Wayne’s World have to you? Hu g e s
Halpern and I dressed up as Wayne and Garth sophomore year for Halloween and I think it gained us a lot of street cred We literally looked more like Wayne and Garth than the guys in the movie
7 Tell us about your search for a boyfriend I’m not on the search for a boyfriend I love my sin-
I’m going to give some love to the football guys on this one They always come to all our games, and we love hanging out with them
Katie Schubaeur can be reached at kschubaeur@cornellsun com
CONNOR ARCHARD / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
From booties to babes | Senior lacrosse captain Kate Ivory discusses her bootylicious assets, as well as a certain “babe,” also known as senior men’s lacrosse captain Rob Pannell (below)
Spor ts
Hag y Connects Cornell Students With Wall Street
By LAUREN RITTER Sun Senior Writer
As Ivy League students, Cornellians like to be at the front of the pack No one understands this more than freshman Luke Hagy A standout rookie running back for the Red and 2012 Ivy League Rookie of the Year nominee, Hagy’s motivation to succeed extends from the football field to the corporate world
This year, Hagy became a campus liaison for a start-up company called Endorse me An online platform to connect college jobseekers with prospective employers, the
Endorse me aims to connect qualified students with firms on Wall Street and in the
startup company focuses on sharing information privately as to give companies a better way to identify top talent
“I was contacted by a kid from back home that went to a rival high school who played football against me, and he asked me if I wanted to be a liaison for Cornell,” Hagy said “[Endorse me was] tr ying to find other people who would be good for the job, and for me, it sounded like a cool opportunity, so I had a few inter views and eventually got it
Cu r re n t l y o n 1 7 c a m p u s e s a c r o s s t h e c o u n t r y,
Endorse me aims to connect qualified stuents with firms on Wall Street and in the tech industr y, according to Hagy
While it is similar to other online sites that pair poten-
t i a l e m p l oy e e s a n d e m p l oy e r s , s u c h a s L i n k e d In ,
Endorse me sets itself apart by focusing on sharing confi-
dential information between students and companies “ Their main thing is that they use private information instead of public information so it’s more credible to the companies,” Hagy said
Riders Win Iv y League
ton
By ARIEL COOPER Sun Assistant Sports Editor
The equestrian team went out with a bang after its victory at the Ivy League Championships in Hanover, N H on April 13 Cornell took first place with 37 points, just three points ahead of Princeton The squad also triumphed over Ivy rivals Brown and Dartmouth, who placed third and fourth with 33 and 29 points respectively
The Ivy League Championship is an annual competition between the eight
members of the Ivy League that does not factor into the teams ’ regular season scores Most of the Ivy League equestrian teams do not compete against each other during the season This year, the competition was hosted by Dartmouth The home team usually has an advantage because the riders are able to compete on the horses they practice with, but Dartmouth had not been able to practice consistently before the competition due to the harsh winter, according to senior tri-
With the job market becoming more selective due to an influx of applications, students and recent graduates are
Red P repares to Take Tiger s
By JOHN McGRORTY Sun Staff Wr ter
This coming weekend, the Cornell softball team looks to improve upon division standings in a four game series against Ivy League rival Princeton University The Red will play Princeton at home at the Niemand Robison Softball Field at 12:30 pm on Saturday The women ’ s softball team looks to continue to improve upon its current record (17-23, 7-9 Ivy) against Princeton this weekend and close the season out with a 25-23 record
The team will honor its seniors Erin Belles ( 302 hitter, 17 homeruns, 49 RBI in 115 games) and Kristen Towne’s ( 316 in 169 games) extremely successful fouryear careers with the Red this coming weekend Both look to close out their fourth incredible season with the Red and look to have four late season Ivy League wins The Red looks to continue to build upon its success and close out the regular season on a high note
Currently, the Red has a team batting average of 298, with six hitters hitting 310 or better Furthermore, Cornell has extremely strong pitching from junior Alyson Onyon (12-14, 3 98 ERA in 24 Starts) and freshman Meg Parker (2-6, 6 05 ERA in eight Starts), and looks to utilize them in these final season games
“We feel confident Princeton always puts up a good fight but as the season goes on, we keep improving,” junior infielder/outfielder Lauren Bucolo said “We have had our ups and downs but we have worked so hard Every Ivy League team has a lot of talent, and so there is never an " easy " game This entire season, we have been aggressive and never given up, and I think this will make us even stronger next year ”
The Red looks to continue to fight throughout the rest of their season The Red looks to continue to have success in the field in the next couple of series
Although the Red has had “ ups and downs,” the team looks to continue with the current upward trend
against Princeton this weekend Although Princeton (24-18, 9-7) is only four games behind the University of Pennsylvania and looks to make a push for first this coming weekend, the Red looks to end Princeton’s hopes for late season success
“It is upsetting that we will not be making it to the championship this season, but we have 10 games left in the next seven days and are excited to finish out the season strong, ” Onyon said
John McGrorty can be reached at jmcgrorty@cornellsun com
The bull and the bear | Freshman Luke Hagy shows off Endorse me, a website that looks to connect qualified students to fir ms on Wall Street with the hopes of finding them job opportunities, to a Cor nell classmate
