STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 Is “Fall Break” a misnomer? The Student Life editorial board certainly thinks so. Find out why inside Forum. Page 4.
The Katz controversy continues to grace our pages, with about a half dozen new responses. Get your fill in Forum. Page 4.
VOLUME 127, NO. 21
Inside Sports: a look at the lives of two bookies. One guy’s successful; the other guy is just lucky to keep his car. Page 7.
Friday Features: In part two of a continuing series on music at WU, Cadenza takes on the wild protests of the ‘60s. Page 6.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005
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Fallacies may fuel WU students’ drinking By Jessie Rothstein Contributing Reporter Students’ perceptions of their peers’ drinking habits are in fact the strongest predictor of personal alcohol consumption, according to a recent nationwide study of 76,000 college students. The study analyzed information from a nationwide database, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), which collected information from 130 schools from the spring of 2000 through the spring of 2003. Washington University was among the participating institutions. The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, reported that 71 percent of all students involved in the survey overestimated the norm at their school, and even at schools where alcoholic abstinence was the norm, only 20.6 percent of students held accurate perceptions of this behavior. These perceptions, according to the study, are a “more powerful predictor than gender and…a dramatically stronger
predictor of personal drinking compared with the (albeit) significant effects of other factors frequently noted, such as race and fraternity/sorority membership.” A one-drink increase in a student’s perceived norm predicted almost a one-half drink increase in that student’s own drinking. “We had access to the data and were able to run a variety of different statistical analyses to determine information on how norms affected behavior,” said Michael Haines, a co-author of the article and director of the National Social Norms Resource Center located at Northern Illinois University. The study assessed the extent and prevalence of students’ misperceptions about drinking norms and examined whether more accurate perceptions had any influence on reducing alcohol-related risk. The study used several questions from the NCHA survey, including questions regarding personal behavior and its consequences, expectations of peer behavior and the informational programs at institutions of higher education.
Last year Melissa Ruwitch, coordinator of health promotion and wellness, was in charge of the “Just the Facts” alcohol education program at Washington University. “These campaigns are proven to have a protective influence on the rate of increase of student drinking,” she said. As Ruwitch explained, the University’s alcohol education consists of professional and peer health education, as well as some printed and online resources, including the online AlcoholEdu program for entering freshman, alcohol messages in orientation programs, familiarizing student leaders with resources, the Alcohol Awareness handbook, and various resources for students trying to assess if they have an abuse problem. While the correlation between students’ overestimation of other students’ consumption and their own behavior has been demonstrated several times in the past, never before has it been confirmed conclusively with a database this extensive. Haines and his colleagues
hope that more colleges will take advantage of their alcohol study and implement it into educational student programming. “Only ten of these 130 schools have information programs that are correlated with correcting the misperceptions and thus increasing students’ health,” Haines said. Moreover, Haines noted that information programs at 34 schools were actually correlated with an increase in misperceptions. As the study explains, “the overwhelming majority of schools were either not attempting or not managing to reduce the dramatic misperceptions of campus drinking norms among their students with the information provided.” Haines, along with his fellow co-authors, has presented these findings at national meetings and will soon be sending copies of the published article to many college presidents. “One of the best ways for students to be helped and protected would be for the adminis-
DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
A “beeramid” of Miller High Life remains after a recent party See DRINKNG, page 3 in Dauten House. University students participated in a nationwide study about influences on students’ drinking habits.
Student groups vie for $70K in Olin Cup Finals
BREAK-FAST AT THE CO-OP
By Troy Rumans Contributing Reporter
RACHIT PATEL | STUDENT LIFE
Seniors Josh Chupack and Becca Weaver pick organic tomatoes and herbs from the Washington University Cooperative’s garden. They returned to the Co-op early Thursday evening after a long day of fasting and repentance at synagogue. Pickings from the garden were used to prepare a meal for the Yom Kippur break-fast.
Last Thursday marked the announcement of the Olin Cup fi nalists, the premier entrepreneurial competition at Washington University. This year two student groups— graduate student Suzanne Shenkman’s Suzanne Shenkman Designs and undergraduate Teddy Purnomo’s homework—proceeded to the competition’s final round. This is no small achievement, as the Olin Cup welcomes entries not only from students enrolled at all levels of the University, but also members of the community such as business professionals. Purnomo’s venture plans to create a Web-based retailer that caters to the international student population coming to the United States. Additionally, Purnomo currently serves as the president of the Foundation for Undergraduate Studies in Entrepreneurship (FUSE). Members of FUSE see this as a vindication of their work toward increasing entrepreneurial awareness at the student level. “We want to sell dorm-related products to them before they come to campus by providing customization services,” said Purnomo. “We want to set it up so they can see what their room will look like, and do decorations all online. Some-
times you bring something to campus only to realize that it just doesn’t fit in the dorm.” Purnomo believes that the University in particular has a significant demand for his business, as 89 percent of entering students come from out of state. His teammates include Steve Xu, Ellen Lo and Alan Perlman, all of whom are also undergraduate students. “We’ve been trying to get more undergrads, and now they’re being very successful,” said Aarin Yu, who heads up the competition aspect of FUSE. “I hope this is an encouragement for more students to apply to the Olin Cup.” FUSE recently hosted a simulated entrepreneurial-related event in which students received counseling from Professor Barton Hamilton, and were then asked to invest capital into three different ventures based on their likelihood of success. Yu sees this as the other side of the coin in regards to the Olin Cup. “In [the FUSE event], you are playing the part of the investor. In the Olin Cup, you are the entrepreneur. This lets you see both sides,” said Yu. The other student-owned venture, Suzanne Shenkman Designs, offers a distinct set of fashion accessories for women and pets using men’s neckties. Product offerings include belts, chokers, pet collars and “wristlets,” a variant on the
bracelet. Shenkman, who will receive her MBA from the Olin School of Business in March, believes she has an extensive breadth of knowledge concerning the scope of her venture. She has marketing experience at both Nestle Purina and Brown Shoe Company, and also works at BJC Healthcare in marketing and public relations. “I’ve got a sense for the pet market and I understand how a number of consumers out there treat their pets. People do like to give their pets something special and differentiate them,” said Shenkman. The next step for fi nalists in the Olin Cup will be the formation of their business proposals, a fi nalized plan for their businesses around 40 pages long. Possibilities of further success aside, Shenkman trusts that she will gain much from her participation in the Olin Cup. “If nothing comes out of this in terms of a month... [the Olin Cup] is just an extraordinary experience in launching a new enterprise,” said Shenkman. “I’m glad this allows us to really dive in without the complete risk you might experience [otherwise]. This gives you real feedback without crushing your spirit.” Purnomo agrees.
See OLIN CUP, page 3
Carlos Fuentes praises ingenuity of ‘Don Quixote’ at Graham Chapel By Helen Rhee Staff Reporter Distinguished Mexican author and political figure Carlos Fuentes delivered an Assembly Series speech on Wednesday celebrating the legendary Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes and his seminal work “Don Quixote de la Mancha.” The lecture, entitled “Celebrating Cervantes and Don Quixote,” reflected on the far-reaching impact that Cervantes’ work has had in the 400 years since its publication. “Religion is dogmatic. Politic is ideological. Reason must be logical, but literature has a privilege of being equivocal,” said Fuentes. Fuentes argued that
“Don Quixote,” often considered the world’s first novel, explores the depth and the multitude of human nature through elements of love, reason, and imagination. It is a story of an elderly man who is disillusioned with a fantasy world and desires to recreate the chivalrous world he had read about in his books. His chivalrous quest to save the romance of his life differs from the realistic, good-natured peasant Sancho Panza, who joins his foolish adventure. Fuentes said that “Don Quixote” was groundbreaking in its revolutionary approaches to truth, realism and romance in literature. Don Quixote’s passionate quest to save Dulcinea, a peasant, has
become the template for romantic literature for generations. He argued that literature offers another side of reality that sometimes gets disregarded by the dogma of religion and ideology of politics. “Human kind will prevail. And it will prevail because, in spite of the reaction of history, novels tell that art restores right in us that was disregarded by history. History is being what was, then literature offers what history has not always been,” said Fuentes. Paromita De, a sophomore English major who attended the lecture, said that she found Fuentes’ ideas engaging. “One of Fuentes’s points that … will stick
with me the most is that he thought fiction serves as a search for truth. I think that is absolutely true. Through literature we get to open a part of ourselves that usually we don’t touch upon in our lives,” she said. Fuentes is known for his works addressing Latin American themes, including his search for cultural identity within Latin and North America. Some of his acclaimed works are “Where the Air is Clearer” (1958), “The Death of Artemio Cruz” (1962), “A change of Skin” (1967), “Terra Nostra” (1975), “The Hydra Head” (1978), “The Campaign” (1990), and “Inez” (2002). His novel “The Gringo” was made into a movie
DAVID HARTSTEIN | STUDENT LIFE
Author Carlos Fuentes spoke of the far-reaching impact of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don See FUENTES, page 3 Quixote de la Mancha” during his Assembly Series lecture Wednesday.
2 STUDENT LIFE | NEWS
Senior News Editor / Sarah Kliff / news@studlife.com
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
News: (314) 935-5995 Advertising: (314) 935-6713 Fax: (314) 935-5938 E-mail: editor@studlife.com www.studlife.com Copyright 2005 Editor in Chief: Margaret Bauer Associate Editor: Liz Neukirch Managing Editor: David Tabor Senior News Editor: Sarah Kliff Senior Forum Editor: Molly Antos Senior Cadenza Editor: Laura Vilines Senior Scene Editor: Sarah Baicker Senior Sports Editor: Justin Davidson Senior Photo Editor: David Brody Senior Graphics Editor: Brian Sotak News Editors: Laura Geggel, Brad Nelson Contributing Editor: Mandy Silver Forum Editors: Zach Goodwin, Daniel Milstein, Jeff Stepp, Brian Schroeder, Matt Shapiro Cadenza Editors: Adam Summerville, Jordan Deam, Robbie Gross Scene Editors: Kristin McGrath, Sarah Klein Sports Editor: Joe Ciolli Photo Editors: David Hartstein, Pam Buzzetta, Oliver Hulland Online Editor: Dan Daranciang Copy Editors: Allie McKay, Nina Perlman, Kelly Donahue, Erin Fults, Rebecca Emshwiller, hannah draper, Julian Beattie, Mallory Wilder Designers: Ellen Lo, Laura McLean, Anna Dinndorf, Andy Gavinski, Jamie Reed, Elizabeth Kaufman, Jonathan Kim General Manager: Andrew O’Dell Copyright 2005 Washington University Student Media, Inc. (WUSMI). Student Life is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper serving the Washington University community. First copy of each publication is free; all additional copies are 50 cents. Subscriptions may be purchased for $80.00 by calling (314) 935-6713. Student Life is a publication of WUSMI and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of the Washington University administration, faculty or students. All Student Life articles, photos and graphics are the property of WUSMI and may not be reproduced or published without the express written consent of the General Manager. Pictures and graphics printed in Student Life are available for purchase; e-mail editor@ studlife.com for more information. Student Life reserves the right to edit all submissions for style, grammar, length and accuracy. The intent of submissions will not be altered. Student Life reserves the right not to publish all submissions. If you’d like to place an ad, please contact the Advertising Department at (314) 935-6713. If you wish to report an error or request a clarification, e-mail editor@studlife.com.
Compiled by Eric Seelig and Sarah Kliff Scene and News Staff
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THE PULSE
STUDENT LIFE
The Pulse is your guide to some of the most offbeat and entertaining events you can find happening this weekend in St. Louis.
F R I D AY, O C T. 1 4 KDHX FM’s Friday night underground hip-hop radio show “The Science” is broadcast live every week from Blueberry Hill, and for a scant $5 (or free!) you get in on the live spinning of great underground tracks and classic beats. To the members of the Facebook “Hiphop lovers/radio haters” group, it’s time to stop hating your radio. KDHX FM 88.1’s The Science of Hip-Hop Spin 9 p.m. doors, ladies free before 10:30 p.m. $5 cover Blueberry Hill 6504 Delmar Blvd. (314) 727-4444
S U N D AY, O C T. 1 6 John Goddard is a local musician, and he’ll be stepping into the boxing ring with local writer and journalist Thomas Crone and the endlessly busy Steven Fitzpatrick Smith at Bastante. No word on whether Bastante will be serving any food, but they can serve up a wonderful plate of Spanish cuisine, so one can only hope. So yep, Hoosierweight boxing, boxing made hip in St. Louis. 3 p.m. Bastante Restaurant 3315 Watson Rd. (314) 783-4000
T U E S D AY, O C T. 1 8 There are certainly enough people on campus with copies of the “Sex and the City” DVDs, so why not pay tribute to the woman who wrote the original book on which the series was based? Candace Bushnell is signing copies of her new book “Lipstick Jungle” at Left Bank Books in the Central West End this next Tuesday. All “SATC” fans on campus owe it to themselves to go.
S AT U R D AY, O C T. 1 5 Now that you’ve taken the parents to all the standard St. Louis hot spots, get out and do some of your own exploring with the Artica, an urban wilderness festival and parade. The parade starts at various points throughout downtown and “is an excursion into abandoned and occupied territories consisting of open fields, vacant warehouses, industrial sites, active businesses, absentee landlords and homes of the homeless.” 12:30 p.m. Main meeting point: Corner of Lewis and O’Fallon Streets (314) 752-9528 Amy Ray and the Volunteers take the stage at Blueberry Hill alongside Capitol B. Amy Ray was in the Indigo Girls, and Capitol B was probably best known as the more melodic half of the eclectic and often lyrically hilarious Bitch and Animal. Looks to be a good night of feminist-y folk rock. 9 p.m. $12 advance / $14 day of show Blueberry Hill 6504 Delmar Blvd. (314) 727-4444
W E D N E S D AY, O C T. 1 9 T H U R S D AY, O C T. 2 0 Wednesday, Oct. 19 Skarekrau Radio was once rightfully described by the Riverfront Times as GWAR as performed by a kindergarten Christmas pageant. Theirs is one of the most bizarre, mind-bending, and wonderful shows one can see in town, with frequent appearances ofbizarre costumes (spandex, an Aldi’s bag and vines are three outfits that immediately come to mind) and giant cardboard robot/monster suits. Their Web site (skarekrauradio.bizland.com) is even an event in itself. 8 p.m. Radio Cherokee 3227 Cherokee St.
7 p.m. Left Bank Books 399 North Euclid (314) 367-6731
Thursday, Oct. 20 Mark your calendars early for this one—FOUND magazine is swinging through St. Louis with a few of its discoveries. FOUND Magazine comes out periodically—it’s a compilation of different notes, pictures and what have you that people have just found sitting in a public place (e.g., sidewalk). Every once in awhile, the creators tour with musical acts (and honestly, I don’t know what else). This is, of course, in the Mad Art Gallery in Soulard, which is an old jail converted into an art gallery, a cool enough place in and of itself.
Get out and enjoy the night! SLAVEN VLASIC | KRT CAMPUS
Mad Art Gallery 8 p.m. 2727 South 12th St. (314) 771-8230
IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE OCTOBER 14
Senior News Editor / Sarah Kliff / news@studlife.com
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
Wilmetta toliver-diallo ASSISTANT DEAN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
INTERNATIONAL
Somalia faces pirate problems Small bands of armed pirates have hijacked two ships carrying food supplies with the purpose of extracting ransom payments from the Somali government in recent
months. The MV Semlow was released last week after being held hostage for 100 days by pirates. Days ago, the MV Torgelow was captured in a similar incident.
Remains of hobbit-like species found Tiny human-like remains were discovered by Australian researchers on an isolated Indonesian island. Mike Morwood and Peter Brown of the University of New England in New South Wales said that the
discovery was “not an aberrant or pathological individual, but is representative of a long-term population.” According to their new paper on the subject, the diminutive human-like species
hunted miniature elephants, giant rats and Komodo dragons. The scientists claim that the remains are from a unique, non-human species, citing that the remains lack chin bones.
said yesterday that the referendum will coincide with “a spike in violence” from insurgents. The first confirmed female suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. military patrol Wednes-
Tell us about your background—where you were born, where you grew up, your family and your education. I spent most of my childhood in Tupelo, Miss. I have lived in several budding metropolises in Mississippi, like Lorman, Hattiesburg and Port Gibson, but Tupelo is home. I moved to St. Louis as a teenager. Did you attend college and/ or job training? Where?
Iraqi constitution to go to referendum Oct. 15 In Iraq, security preparations are underway for a national referendum on the Iraqi constitution to be held on Sunday. According to the Associated Press, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
day, with no confirmed casualties, and a large pipeline transporting crude oil to refineries in the Kirkuk region caught fire after a bomb planted under it exploded.
I went to Spelman College (a women’s college in Atlanta) for my undergraduate degree and Stanford University for my A.M. and Ph.D. I enjoyed them both immensely. What brought you to Wash U.?
NATIONAL
Stallone may return in ‘Rocky VI’ While “Rocky VI” has been confirmed as being in production with a release date sometime in 2006, it remains uncertain whether Sylvester
Stallone will, in fact, star in the sixth episode of the boxing saga. According to online entertainment sites such as www.thezreview.co.uk, Stal-
lone will again be writing, directing and acting in the film, as he has in the five previous “Rocky” movies.
onstrating that most students make moderate decisions about drinking, that is most valuable in alcohol education programs. Haines has recognized the potential of using social norm studies to gauge other student perception issues, such as tobacco use and sexual intercourse. “Nothing along a social norms research [line] has been conducted on these other issues, but that is something that we would definitely like
I am actually returning to Washington University. I was here a few years back as a post-doctoral fellow and I am happy to have the chance to return as an administrator. What is your favorite memory of working as a dean?
DRINKING v FROM PAGE 1 trators at colleges and universities to use this research to reconsider what they’re doing on college campuses,” he said. In terms of countering misperceptions at Washington University, Just the Facts has distributed posters that inform students that “2 out of 3 Washington University students have 4 or fewer drinks when they party.” According to the authors of the national study, it is the proliferation of information like this, dem-
to pursue,” said Haines. As the NCHA continues to collect this type of information from schools nationwide, the database is still growing. However, Haines pointed out that college students are not the only age group that overestimates the bad behavior of their peers. “Negative behaviors such as littering and delaying taxpaying are also correlated to people’s overestimations of the negative behavior of others,” he said.
I have only been in this position for two months. But so far, working with my peer advisers has been very memorable. We, along with some of our first-year advisees, had a picnic in the pouring rain; we made the best of the situation and actually spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Saint Louis Art Museum. What did you do before you became a dean? I taught at Bard College after the post-doc. I then moved to Paris where I
taught, volunteered and consulted on a United Nations education project. What was your most memorable project while attending college? At Oxford, I chaired a debate between officials from the African National Congress, the Pan African Congress, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the South African Embassy. It was intense and exciting; Nelson Mandela was released a year later. Whatʼs the best thing about your job? Whatʼs the most challenging part? The best is meeting students. The most challenging part is striving to ensure that the advice I offer is right for the individual situation. What are you most proud of in your life? My daughter, Coumba Taïba, who is almost two. Can you name some of your past works and achievements? While an undergraduate at Spelman, I won a Luard Fellowship that allowed me to spend my junior year at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, in England. Also, I love languages, and doing doctoral work in Francophone Africa allowed me to perfect my French and learn Wolof (spoken in Senegal and the Gambia). I use them both daily at home. What is the best thing about being a dean?
OLIN CUP v FROM PAGE 1 “Even if you don’t end up actually winning, it’s still a great experience for your business. That in itself is really very useful,” he said. Shenkman’s undergraduate background comes from her time spent at the University of Missouri, where she majored in journalism and advertising.
This has worked to her advantage, according to Shenkman, as she brings skills to the table that her teammates do not, and vice versa. “I spent my career to this day in marketing and advertising. My background is more in writing. My team members bring other skills to the table: Albert
MULTI MEGABITE
Crooke brings IT and fi nance, and Angela Kuehn is good with sales and negotiation,” said Shenkman. Both Crooke and Kuehn are recent Olin graduates. The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies organizes the Olin Cup, which features $70,000 in total seed investments awarded, as well as a $5,000 reward to the best
student-owned venture. Other fi nalists include champion4fitness, iMobile Access Technologies, iMirage studios and Somark Innovations. Recent University graduate Mark Pydynowski heads Somark Innovations, which is working on a new kind of under-the-skin tracking for cattle.
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What is your favorite book/ movie? Why? This changes often. I think my current favorite book is “The Icarus Girl” by Helen Oyeyemi. She wrote this when she was 18! And I love any film by Sembene Ousmane. He is a genius! Who is your favorite Baseball team? Which team do you want to win the World Series? The Cardinals. I have been a Cardinals fan since the 1982 Championship Team (Ozzie Smith, Lonnie Smith, Willie Randolph, Keith Hernandez). Before that, I loved the Yankees— my favorite player of all time was their second baseman, Willie Randolph (now their second base coach, I believe). Something interesting that many people donʼt know about you is...? When I was 9, I played the little sister of Satchel Paige in an ABC Movie of the Week, “Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy Satchel Paige.” What do you hope to accomplish in the coming year? I hope to get to know each of my advisees and continue to learn about every aspect of Washington University.
While classroom interac-
starring Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck. Fuentes has received several prestigious awards for his novels. He received Mexico’s National Prize in Literature, Mexico’s highest literary award, in 1984. In 1987, he was awarded the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for Spanish-language writing, a particu-
larly prestigious award conferred by the King of Spain. The Association of Latin American Students sponsored Fuentes’s visit, his sixth to the University.
Visit us online at www.studlife.com for breaking news and other features.
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tion allows you to know a few students, working with students in the Dean’s Office allows you to know a greater range of students and to know them at varied levels.
FUENTES v FROM PAGE 1
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Somalia’s transitional prime minister, Ali Mohammed Ghedi, requested warship escorts from neighboring nations to protect United Nations aid shipments.
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4 STUDENT LIFE | FORUM
Senior Forum Editor / Molly Antos / forum@studlife.com
FORUM STAFF EDITORIAL
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
Our daily forum editors: Monday: Jeff Stepp Wednesday: Daniel Milstein Friday: Zach Goodwin jsstepp@wustl.edu daniel.milstein@wustl.edu goodwin@wustl.edu 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 forum@studlife.com 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.
JOHNNY CHANG | EDITORIAL CARTOON
Forget Fall Break Seriously, is it really worth it? It’s just about that time of year. Our entire student body will soon be treated to a glorified three-day weekend, which supposedly qualifies as a major break, worthy of mention in the academic calendar. Every year, without fail, hundreds of students fall for the grand deception and make expansive plans to take trips, visit relatives, and cram a dozen things into one extra day that would normally be reserved for weekday activities. They get to make stunning small talk: “So what’re you doing for Fall Break?” “Oh, not much, just goin’ home to see my family.” This is ridiculous. Friends, fellow students—honestly, why do you do this to yourselves? Why do you buy into this overhyped three-day weekend and spend hundreds of dollars on airfare and eating out? Those of you who choose to go home or travel during this weekend will spend dozens of hours in transit in order to experience a paltry two days of familial warmth and potential good times. Is it really worth it?
Fall Break isn’t special. Consider this: students in the business school and smart seniors who plan well don’t have class on Fridays anyway. One could say that they have Fall Break every weekend. Further, many students just saw their families two weeks ago for Parents Weekend. It’s a little soon for a reunion, don’t you think? Here’s a dual plea to students and administrators. Students: please stop lending credence to the fairy tale that is Fall Break. A three-day weekend does not merit thousands of dollars in travel expenses. Use your new cell phone plan and call home instead. Administrators: Either make Fall Break substantially longer or just take it away and give us more time for Thanksgiving Break. (We’ve heard rumors that such measures are already under consideration—can we see some action?) If nothing else, let Bon Appétit run normal hours over that weekend, so sensible students staying on campus actually have somewhere to eat. Let’s end this charade now.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Katz: ‘I remain willing to debate the issues’ Dear Editor: Running through the “homophobia” debate is an assumption that a professor will engage in reprisals against those with whom he disagrees, or of whose personal lives he disapproves. My students’ personal beliefs and personal lives are none of my business, and I don’t want to know about them. But why do students fear the contrary? Have they observed professors who abuse their positions in this manner, which would be a breach of academic integrity? If this happens, which is a reasonable inference from the concern repeatedly expressed, it would be a serious matter, and one worthy of inquiry and public discussion. In a properly run classroom it should be impossible even to tell the professor’s beliefs from the content of his lectures. This is easier to achieve in physics than in political science, but it is a goal to which each professor should aspire. Of course, outside the classroom professors are free to express their opinions on anything. This is what I have done. So far, this has produced a great deal of heat, but no substantive counter-arguments. Many of my opponents appear not to have read my essay; apparently the word “homophobia” triggered too intense an emotional response. For example, I have been repeatedly accused of using inaccurate statistics, when there are no statistics in the essay at all! Others don’t appear to have noticed that the point of the essay is to make a statement about moral culpability; the epidemiological facts are not at issue. There is no resemblance to the absurd assertion that the Holocaust never happened; that is an indisputable historical fact, proven by abundant physical, documentary and eyewitness evidence. To dispute it is as crazy as to dispute that George Washington was President. I should be insulted by the comparison, but it is too ridiculous to take seriously. I remain willing to debate the issues. -Jonathan Katz Professor of Physics
Henson responds to Katz’s argument Dear Editor: Having read Professor Katz’s exercise in intellectual masturbation, “In Defense of Homophobia,” I am compelled as a proud gay man—and because of my commitment to intellectual integrity—to respond. First let me say that it is difficult to respond seriously without descending to Dr. Katz’s level. To read such spittle—yes, spittle—disguised as academic debate strains credulity. Even if Katz were engaging in a legitimate intellectual exercise, it would be difficult to take his comments seriously. Lamentably, any response runs a risk of self-defeat: for appearing reactionary or for giving his thesis more than its just attention. After careful consideration, I decided that the best course was to respond. Could it be that in dark flights of sexual fantasy and moral weakness, Katz succumbs to the perfectly natural temptation of glancing at another man’s genitals in public restrooms, then rushes home and masturbates as the image of a stranger’s penis lingers in his mind? Then in a fit of modern asceticism, instead of self-mortification, he directs his guilt at homosexuals? If my thesis sounds ridiculous, it is, but only because it is impossible to answer intelligently to an argument fraught with misinformation, gross generalizations, bigotry, and intellectual dishonesty. Suffice it to say that equally talented and misguided minds once argued—as some still do —in defense of anti-Semitism as clinically (and presumably rationally) as Katz has in defense of homophobia. Admittedly, Professor Katz would argue that anti-Semitism, unlike homophobia, “den[ies] the intrinsic moral rights and value of other people,” because homosexuality involves “moral judgment upon acts engaged in by choice.” I could, if I were as intellectually dishonest as Dr. Katz, argue that being Jewish is as much a choice as being gay. Indeed, one
chooses to be a Jew by having a bar (or bat) mitzvah – just as one chooses to be Catholic through confirmation. In fact, Jews can decide to be Catholic just as Catholics can opt to be Jewish. Or either can opt out of religion altogether. Christians, with whom Katz feigns moral camaraderie, have argued artfully and passionately throughout two millennia in defense of anti-Semitism, pogroms and violence against Jews. The truth, however, is any attempt to argue the aforementioned thesis would be as disingenuous as Katz’s attempt to defend an intellectually and morally indefensible position, i.e. homophobia, citing moral authority, i.e. the Bible. Katz underscores his intellectual dishonesty and undermines his scientific argument in his opening sentence by qualifying that “most of the arguments in this essay refer specifically to male homosexual behavior.” In fact, Katz offers this disclaimer because he knows that his arguments regarding HIV/AIDS completely fall apart vis-à-vis lesbians, who have one of lowest HIV-infection rates of any demographic group. Even if the reader allows Katz that (very large) qualification, following his failed logic, one could essay that the disproportionate occurrence of Tay-Sachs disease among Ashkenazic Jews (1 in 3,600), suggests that Eastern European Jews have been selected (by nature or by God?), by way of heterosexual copulation, for eradication. My point, of course, is that anyone could, with even a modicum of knowledge of the history of disease, postulate the moral implications of an epidemic, pandemic or any isolated epidemiological occurrence. Anachronistic views like those of Dr. Katz, while not rare, are less at home in Universities than in medieval Spain, where Torquemada—himself the descendent of converted Jews— projected his own internalized anti-Semitism in his bloody campaign to rid Spain of its Jewry. My fear is that Katz and Torquemada’s motives are more related than one might suspect. Finally, in the face of three criminal indictments, friends and supporters of Tom DeLay have argued that a good district
attorney could indict a ham sandwich. That might be true. If so, the same could be said for a pseudo-intellectual who, armed with a Ph.D., a decent vocabulary, a grudge, and too much time on his hands, can muster an irrational and flimsy thesis to justify bigotry—disingenuously disguised as freedom of speech, intellectual debate and academic freedom.
-George Henson Lecturer, Southern Methodist University
SL editorial board needs to consider its audience
know what other presence this campaign has besides the ads I’ve seen on the Web. But I doubt that their non-Web presence is much different. I may be way off base about this campaign, but how would I know? YOU are the one that’s supposed to inform me. One way you, as an op-ed writer, could avoid letters like mine is to remember your audience is not you. Of course you understand your opinion piece, you wrote it. But is your audience just the students that live on campus? Or people that frequent common areas like Mallinckrodt and Olin? I should hope not. Your audience includes a far wider demographic. Alums, professors and perhaps even parents. -Chris van Benthuysen Class of 2000
Dear Editor: Your recent editorial, “Let’s put an end to social norming” was impressive, to say the least. Great job bashing a group that seems to be one of your biggest advertisers. Are you familiar with the phrase “biting the hand that feeds you?” The banner ad right at the top of the page where I read your editorial online was from the very group you are suggesting cease it’s advertising campaign. I’ll grant you your first issue, that “college students, while they may perceive normal drink counts to be high, often are influenced more by their actual drinking situations than hypothetical ones.” While I disagree, it’s tough for me to support my disagreement. But your other two issues are weak and unsupported. Why, exactly, do many see this as move toward a dry campus? Based on what I’ve seen, I would think that it’s part of a movement towards a campus that is more aware of its drinking habits and doesn’t feel pressured by what is ultimately a misconception about what a “normal” amount of alcohol consumption is. And your statement “not only is it parenting, it is condescending.” WHY?? HOW?? It seems to me that this campaign is, at its core, merely an attempt to inform the misinformed. Now, there’s one problem with my points of debate. I’m not on campus, so I don’t
Just the Facts not trying to brainwash Dear Editor: For no clearly discernible reason, the editorial page of Student Life has consistently taken a hostile approach to the Just the Facts program, or as they prefer to call it, “social norming.” Having served on the Just the Facts committee as one of the student representatives, I can personally reassure Student Life and the greater Wash. U. community that Melissa Ruwitch, Coordinator of Health Promotion Services, along with Dean James McLeod and Chancellor Mark Wrighton, have no interest in turning our school into a “dry campus.” Despite many university officials who have gone on record to state the contrary, Student Life seems to instead prefer to believe that “social norming” is out to brainwash Wash. U. students into cutting out drinking entirely. The truth is that the Just the Facts program is simply designed to minimize binge drinking, especially the kind set off by an imagined peer behavior. Too much time has been spent focusing on nonsensical issues, such as whether the students photographed for the Just the Facts poster (you know the one)
were a fair representation of Wash. U. students or specially picked out for their ethnic background. In Student Life’s recent editorial, it finally does attempt to counter a main point in the Just the Facts campaign by claiming that students are “influenced more by their actual drinking situations than hypothetical ones.” The problem inherent in their claim is that students often drink in excess while “prepartying,” in which they hope to consume enough alcohol to match the average level of inebriation held amongst their peers. If Wash. U. students are (incorrectly) assuming that the majority of their peers are drinking in excess, then they too are more likely to drink in excess. The posters are “laughed at” by some students, as Student Life claims, but it is much harder to tabulate how many students are silently consuming the data and, perhaps subconsciously, changing their drinking behavior accordingly. Just the Facts is committed to keeping Wash. U. students safe from the harms that accompany binge drinking. Every student helped should be considered a success for the program. -Diego Chojkier Class of 2005
Come out to the Succah Dear Editor: On Monday, Oct. 17th the Jewish Community will start our celebration of Succot, Festival of Booths. You might notice a number of booths being constructed around campus. Here in the northern hemisphere it seems very counterintuitive. As everyone else is packing up their lawn chairs for the winter, the Jewish community is headed outdoors. Just at the end of a seemingly endless litany of people missing classes, some of your Jewish classmates will spend a week in booths. So, what is a Succah? In short, a Succah is a booth, which symbolizes what the Israelites
See LETTERS, page 5
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FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
STUDENT LIFE | FORUM
5
Cheetah food and Christmas socks
I
was faced with my enemy and I responded as trained: I extended my hand and offered him my warmest, most irony-proof smile. As our eyes met, I complemented the gesture with a subtle, repetitive head nod— intending to indicate my eagerness—and said something to the effect of, “Yes, yes, how very nice to meet you—just splendid!” His response, however, was something of a surprise. He gave me a fi rm, practiced handshake and a pressed-lip smile that seemed, annoyingly, sincere. With a gentle, almost fatherly chuckle he invited me into his office. I swallowed hard. Already things had gone desperately awry. I detected a naturalness, a contentedness about him—my sworn enemy—that was very disquieting. Disarmed and deflated by his composure, I felt the strategic advantage slip out of my grasp. In order to regain the psychic upper hand, I hawkishly scanned my opponent for weaknesses. After noting
that the gentlemen before me was, more or less, bald, about twelve pounds overweight and wearing Christmas-themed socks, I felt much better. It was, once again, advantage Goodwin. I should pause here to explain that I am, actually, not an asshole. In fact, nearly none of the above is my fault. I place the blame squarely on “Cheetah Negotiations.” You see, in preparation for the many rounds of interviews required to fi nd a job, I took a trip to the library. Olin’s countless racks offered a handful of books on the interview process and a whole shelf’s worth on negotiation tactics. I scanned the rows and noted titles like, “The Winning Attitude: Interviewing for Success,” “The promise of Mediation: Mutual Respect,” and “The Win-Win Solution.” While they all surely offered sage advice, I was looking for something with a little more, well, teeth. So when I stumbled upon a book called—honestly, I couldn’t make this
the table from stuff up—“Cheetah the most genuine, Negotiations,” I knew Christmas-sockI had found somewearing fi fty-year thing special. old the world has Over the followever known. I was ing week, I imtrying will all my mersed myself in cheetah-inspired the tenets of the might to continue Cheetah. As a pupil cataloguing his “on the Cheetah Trail” I was supimperfections, but Zach posed to treat all I found the whole prospective business Goodwin thing a bit silly. As partners as mortal I saw it, there were enemies, or as the book titled two problems: First, this was them—again, I can’t make this clearly a warm, wonderful stuff up—“Cheetah food.” I man and I was clearly being an was expected to be disingenuasshole—even if I was doing it ously happy and confident silently. Second, I was at Wash. at all times. In keeping with U.’s Career Center—not a real the cheetah metaphor, I was job interview—making me, I’m instructed to speak uncomquite sure, the fi rst person in fortably quickly and to speak the long history of capitalism at least twice as much as my to come to a mock interview opponent. with negotiation techniques at Finally—and this is really the ready. the cornerstone of the CheeThen, something more imtah Method—I was taught to portant happened. The mock artificially boost my confiinterview portion of our meetdence by making long lists of ing had ended. My countermy opponent’s physical flaws. part had pronounced my eye Flash forward to this week contact “consistent” and my and picture me sitting across resume “pretty much okay.”
A modest proposal for tolerance By David Bauman Op-ed submission
T
he recent debate about tolerance in Student Life cries out for a bigger solution than bickering. As the editorial staff stated, we need to “End tolerance of homophobia now.” In this week of multi-colored banners, I would like to offer my own plan to carry out a crusade for tolerance that reflects Student Life reader suggestions made over the last couple weeks. Below, I outline three steps to purge the campus of homophobia and three steps to ensure it stays pure. 1. Fire Homophobic Professors – We should follow through on sophomore Matt Adler’s demand to fire Professor Katz for the following reason: Matt feels uncomfortable (Oct. 7, 2005 edition, pg. 6). I’m willing to support Mr. Adler’s demand, not only because he is gay, but because firing people who think homosexuality is immoral will send a powerful message. Much like a public execution, firing a couple homophobic professors will send a clear message that they had better toe the tolerance line, or else. Great suggestion Matt! I hope you are feeling more comfortable already. I recommend that editorial writer Jeff Stepp judge, convict and brand as homophobic anyone who says homosexuality is immoral since he is 1 for 1 in identifying homophobes. He can manage a homophobe watch list for the campus. 2. Delete Homophobic Essays and Documents – We need to delete homophobic essays from
Web sites. But we can’t stop there. You may not realize it, but there are plenty of homophobic writings in our own libraries. Many religious texts such as the Torah, the Bible, and other books must be purged from the libraries because they contain passages against homosexuality. Some secular books must also be deleted. In Plato’s Laws, for example, the character known as the Athenian states, “But homosexual intercourse and lesbianism seem to be unnatural crimes of the first rank and are committed because men and women cannot control their desire for pleasure” (636c). Sorry Plato. Even if this statement is out of character for you, if professors and students can’t say it, then you can’t. I recommend we “delete” the books that don’t support our tolerance agenda, just as we delete online essays. By “delete,” I mean we need to get rid of them forever. If we give them away or throw them out, they may spread homophobia. I recommend a huge fire. After all, what is a fire to a book but a big, hot delete key? It’s all bits and bytes whether in cyberspace or in heat and ash. (I love the smell of Leviticus in the morning.) 3. Expel Homophobic Students – We need to find homophobic students and expel them. All class papers should be submitted to a newly created Tolerance Enforcement Council. The Council will examine paper topics, writing style, and penmanship to find homophobes. Also, all classes must require essays on why homophobia is wrong. If a student refuses to
write the essay, he or she will be expelled. Continuous monitoring of classes by cameras will also help identify intolerant students. Once the purging of intolerant people and documents is complete, we must protect our hard-won tolerance using these three additional steps. 1. Reject Homophobic Faculty Candidates – Search committees can use publications and teaching experience to find top faculty, but the litmus test for hiring is not being a homophobe. Every interview will start with, “So, are you a homophobe?” Candidates who ask questions such as, “Do you support academic freedom?” “Does a guy named Katz still work here?” and “Do you mind that I have conservative views?” reveal signs of intolerance. 2. Reject Homophobic Students – The Wash. U. application will now include a mandatory essay entitled, “Why I am not a homophobe.” Homophobes will self-select themselves out as soon as they read the question. Others, however, will need to be discovered in other ways. I recommend lie-detector tests for prospective students. “It is only a formality,” we will tell them as we strap the electrodes to their arms. Enrollment may decline, but this is the price we pay for maintaining a tolerant environment. 3. Move out of Missouri, or Reeducate Missourians – Missouri is a rather homophobic
RACHEL HARRIS | STUDENT LIFE
state as evidenced by the 75% plus support of the anti-gaymarriage amendment. To have a tolerant campus, we probably need to move the university to Amsterdam or Sweden. However, moving would be difficult, even though the library will be several thousand books lighter. Instead, we will request that the Missouri government set-up reeducation centers for homophobic citizens. Ideally, we could save money and personnel by transporting these people to central locations using trains. At these Toleration Camps, we can re-educate citizens. Armed guards, attack dogs, and razorwire may be needed to secure the camps. I look forward to implementing this six point plan with others who want to eliminate intolerance. Soon we can boldly proclaim to the 12 incoming freshman next year that we are definitely “The Most Tolerant School in the World.” David is a graduate student in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via email at dcbauman@artsci.wustl.edu.
In defense of de Soto and ILD’s reforms By Edward Tivnan Op-ed Submission
T
yler Zander’s article (“De Soto analysis lacking,” Sept. 28) states that the legal reforms to empower the poor of Peru carried by Hernando de Soto and his colleagues at the Instituto Libertad y Democracia (ILD) “have fallen fl at” and “failed miserably.” Since the publication of Hernando’s book, The Mystery of Capital, 500 or so references to his ideas and the ILD’s work have appeared in the press around the world every year. Five percent of them are negative. We’re inclined to ignore the swipes, except for the most thoughtful. This time, however, I have made an exception, because, as the only American currently working full-time with the ILD in Lima, I was embarrassed by my young compatriot’s effort to become a big man on campus by deriding Hernando’s ideas as “platitudes” and his host Dick Gephardt as a “windbag.” From where I sit here in Lima, where many of the poor see Hernando as one of their most effective champions and consider Dick Gephardt as a friend with a 30 year record of outstanding public service, and a commitment to fi ghting poverty, the hot
wind is blowing from the direction of Mr. Zander. While he fails to cite his sources for the failure of ILD reforms, clearly not among them was the November 2002 report of the formalization agency of the Peruvian Government COFOPRI stating that, as a result of the ILD reforms, 6.3 million Peruvians below the poverty line now legally own their real estate assets. He also seemed to miss the news, reported in the New York Times, that the value of those assets had increased by $2.2. billion between 1991 and 2002, according to Erica Field’s 2002 Princeton analysis of the ILD results (“Entitled to Work: Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru”). Also during the same period the income from that real estate had increased by $3.2 billion, while the formalized owners had obtained $300 million in additional loans (from those very banks Mr. Zander claimed “have no interest in loaning money” to poor people). The reforms also generated 380,000 new business enterprises in Peru, belonging mainly to poor people, which, in turn, created 560,000 additional legal jobs – and $300 million in new tax revenues. The Princeton study also noted that, among the for-
malized property owners, child labor was reduced by 28%. It is results like those, along with The Mystery of Capital, translated into more than 20 languages, which have caught the attention of the press and world leaders. To be sure, the ILD has its supporters among what Mr. Zander calls the “wellheeled proponents of AngloAmerican capitalism;” but the leaders of El Salvador, the Philippines, and Egypt where we have carried out our work in recent years hardly fall under that description (not to mention the heads of state of Russia, Georgia, Afghanistan, South Africa, Mongolia, Ethiopia, and the more than 20 other nations who have invited us to carry out our reform program). We now have projects in Tanzania, Mexico, and Guatemala – surely all far enough away from what Mr. Zander describes as the “neoliberal confi nes of the economics classroom and the closed G-8 meeting.” In his effort to turn Hernando de Soto into some kind of conservative, “neoliberal” villain, Mr. Zander echoes two common misunderstandings of our work: “De Soto knows only one solution – spreading the rule of law through property formalization and is hostile
to…development aid.” The ILD has got nothing against aid. But, we do believe that most developing countries need to reform their legal systems to use foreign aid to wipe out poverty. Nor has Hernando ever said that land titles were sufficient. His position is that land titling requires the formalization of business and the supply of other state services, including more access to information, communication, capacity building services and facilitation of transactions (all of which we actually helped the Government to legislate and set up in Peru in the 1990s). We believe that property is a right that gives people access to the courts, to banks, to an address for running water and electricity, to a way of settling disputes without local violence. The poor ought to have access to that right as well as rich people. Mr. Zander chastised your paper for not disseminating the ideas of an invited speaker to its reading public. But critics, too, have obligations – and primary among them is to get their facts straight. Edward Tivnan is part of the Instituto Libertad y Democracia in Lima, Peru. He can be reached at letsstoppoverty@ lima.pu.
We were just talking, without any cheetah-related motives. I mentioned that I was, you know, pretty worried because my proposed field was, you know, competitive. He looked at me with an inspired stare and said, “I once heard a commencement speech that I thought was pretty good. The speaker—it was at Stanford, I think—ended with just five words: ‘stay hungry, and stay foolish.’ It was just about the best speech I ever heard. If you want this enough, you’re going to do fi ne. Just go and do it.” And that was it. It doesn’t really sound profound, and it certainly doesn’t look it in print. But if you could see his eyes and the confidence with which he said it, you’d think differently. And sitting there, I came to the following conclusions: (1) The author of “Cheetah Negotiations” should acquire some awful, terminal disease; (2) Christmas socks are actually cooler than you’d think; (3) the funny-sock-wearing gentlemen’s serene smile
must have something to do with his being very good at his job. So, I’ll close with this: I still have no idea how to give a good job interview, but I’m feeling much better about my prospects. Partly, I’m feeling better because of the kind words of my fi fty-year old friend. But, also, there was something comforting about seeing someone who looks truly happy doing his work— and doing it quite well. I’ve realized that future happiness may not be strictly and directly tied to the one job I have in mind at the moment. So, maybe I’ll end up in Washington, D.C. Maybe I’ll end up at the Career Center, or maybe I’ll end up in any one of the other 3.4 million fields. Regardless, I just hope to be as content as my friend. And to have such excellent taste in socks. Zach is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. He can be reached via email at forum@studlife.com.
LETTERS v FROM PAGE 4 lived in during their journeys in the desert after they escaped from slavery in Egypt. Legally, it should have at the least three walls and roof made of unrefined natural material. While the roof needs to be dense enough so that it yields more shade than sunlight, it still needs to be open enough so that you are able to see the stars. While it is open to the vista of the galaxy, it still gives a baseline of shelter to its inhabitants. While the Succah has discrete walls that define it, they are much more porous than the walls of the homes that we live in during the rest of the year. What is the meaning of a Succah? During Succot, we leave the safety and security of our homes to live as refugees, who only recently came to know freedom. We tap into the excitement of slaves learning to speak of themselves as free people. We are challenged to reflect on our privileges and assumptions as free people. It is one thing to be open to ideas, but in the Succah we are confronted by
actual people. Does everyone in the Succah feel welcome? Does everyone share the feeling of liberation? Can we bring these lessons home with us to affect how we live the rest of the year? I hope that these booths are more then just another abstruse Jewish custom. I ask you to consider the Succah as a particularistic contribution to the universal efforts of creating a community open to the diversity of sexuality, gender, race, religion, and culture. You are all invited to share in our New Year and join in the sacred space of the Succah with the Jewish gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, questioning, and allies community. Please join Keshet, the Jewish Student Union group for Jews of all sexual orientations and gender identities, for “Come Out in the Succah” in the Succah in the Swamp Wednesday, Oct. 19th at 9:15 p.m. -Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow Hillel Campus Rabbi and Assistant Director
The road to get to medical school: two years of hell By Chandra Shenoy Op-ed Submission
W
hy is applying to medical school so difficult, stressful and freaking expensive? Now, to be fair, I couldn’t tell you what it is like to apply to law school, graduate school, or to have to find a job. In reality, I have nothing with which to compare the medical school application process. But still, it just feels so ungodly long. The application process is no less than a two-year ordeal. This seemed absurd to me at first. However, when I looked at everything that was necessary, I saw why our deans have us start so early. The process is arduous for a reason. Only 21 percent of applicants are eventually admitted. Fully qualified people get rejected every day. The average person applies to 15 schools, a futile attempt to increase chances of getting in anywhere he or she can. We have a society that only trains the number of doctors it will need. It’s great if you get into medical school because you’ll come out with a secured future and an enormous salary. However, it makes the pre-med’s senior year stressful. Now here’s my problem: I’m supposed to be drinking a lot. Karaoke on Tuesdays, Penny Pitchers on Wednesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday—I’m supposed to be drinking then, too. It doesn’t matter where I go, or what I’m drinking, but I should be at a bar five nights a week. Instead, I’m writing essays, going to interviews, and spending the rest of my time trying not to have a mental breakdown. Now, I’m not saying that pre-med students are the only stressed-out group. I feel equally bad for the law school applicants, the thesis writers, the people desperately trying to find a company to hire them,
and, worst, the people who don’t really have a clue what to do. Basically, the moral is this: All of us need more time to enjoy being 21. So, what do pre-med students do over the two years of preparation? After we have taken all those obnoxiously difficult weed-out classes and decided that we are still going to be premed, we devote three months to prepping for the MCAT. This includes going to a two-and-a-half hour Princeton Review or Kaplan class every day and taking a practice exam every Saturday at 9 a.m. After the anticlimactic eight-hour MCAT exam, we leave exhausted. However, that night we still drink ourselves sick because we feel like we should. Then we have to wait a couple excruciating months to get our results back, praying every hour of the day we did well enough to avoid the process a second time. We write essays for the premed deans and start writing our personal statements during our junior year, pad our resume with lab research and hospital work, and suck up to our professors to get recommendations. Then, to our delight, after we submit the first common application, and lay down around $600, each of the 15 schools sends an additional application. We have a couple more essays for each school and, of course, a request for another 100 dollars or so. If you are lucky, you might get an interview. That requires spending money on a plane ticket and hotel, missing two or three days of classes, and a hell of a lot more stress. Then, if you are the luckiest person in the entire world, you might get into a medical school, where you will be miserable for the next four years of your life. Chandra is a senior in Arts and Sciences. She can be reached via email at ccshenoy@wustl.edu.
6 STUDENT LIFE | CADENZA
Senior Cadenza Editor / Laura Vilines / cadenza@studlife.com
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
n. a technically brilliant, sometimes improvised solo
CADEN Z A
passage toward the close of a concerto, an exceptionally brilliant part of an artistic work
arts & entertainment
Welcome to our Friday features section! Scene and Cadenza share this space, appearing on alternate Fridays.
: t s e t o r P f o c i s u s M 0 6 9 1 e h t
Wash. U. music matters Part 2 of a series
By Robbie Gross Theatre Editor
If music is truly the soundtrack to our lives, then in college our lives must be musicals. In college one is exposed to new music more than ever before. Music is shared on freshman floors and discussed over lunches and in the Quad. It is digested in on-campus concerts and reported on by campus newspapers. The Performing Arts Department’s production of “Hair,” which began this past weekend, is just one demonstration of the power music has, particularly in young people’s lives. But what, exactly, has been the role of music at Washington University? What is its history? This is the second article in a series on the history of music at Wash. U. Today’s focus is the relationship between music and protests on campus in the 1960s.
M
three songs, but shortly after a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” the serenade was disrupted when, as a Student Life article explained, “LBJ explained to the group that he was leaving immediately for the West Coast to talk to paratroopers who were leaving for Vietnam that day.” The group was startled by the quick departure. “He looked sad, tired, weary and anxious,” one Madrigal said. “I was very concerned and felt sorry for him.” Michael Friedlander, a professor of physics who came to the University in 1956, remembers the 1960s and early 1970s as a time of tumult and youthful energy. The protest movements of the Vietnam War era were pregnant with a sense of immediacy that is lacking today. “There was a strong personal interest,” Friedlander said. “When you graduated there was a good chance you would get drafted and end up in Vietnam.” Faced with this risk, there was a “much greater climate of activism on S campus.” IVE CH AR E STUDENT LIF Much of this activait the begin ism did manifest itself w a is rr a H d usband Davi Graham musically. “In the Quad, I aez and her h raft and non-violence in B n a Jo , d n a d e know there were people th n o Apple in h n re /discussio bringing in guitars,” ning of a lectu he recalled. Regarding Baez, Chapel. Friedlander mentioned that The war loomed over there were numerous profeseverything, even non-war dents occupied sionals during the period related musical demonstrathe police headquarters in who were “willing to use tions. In February of 1968, response to allegations of their popularity to draw atthe Madrigal Singers, a Wash. police brutality. In 1970, tention to their protest.” U. a cappella group, sang for students rioted and burned “If people came to hear President Lyndon Johnson. down the Air Force ROTC the music,” Friedlander said, The group planned to sing building in response to the usic and protest have had a close relationship at Washington University. In the last 50 years, stretching from the antiwar protests of the 1960s to the living wage campaign of this decade, music has gone handin-hand with many studentinitiated protest movements. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, marches, sit-ins and speeches were daily, not monthly or semesterly occurrences. Occasionally, though, there were major protest events. In 1968, 40 AfricanAmerican stu-
Kent State shootings. The escalation of the Vietnam War, and the resulting draft, soon became the focus of protest and music. Folk singer Joan Baez came to campus in April of 1969 with her husband, David Harris, an antiwar protest leader. Baez gave a lecture in Graham Chapel on war and violence and then played in the Field House, concluding her performance with the quintessential pacifist tunes “Kumbaya” and “We Shall Overcome.”
CONCERT PREVIEW
A Ray of Southern angst By Robbie Gross Theatre Editor
KRT CAMPUS
Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls speaks about the expansion of nuclear power and radioactive dumps on Native American land during a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2005.
Amy Ray, best known for composing one half of the Indigo Girls, will be appearing tomorrow night in the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill. Ray’s solo material, to put it simply, is not for the squeamish. Her latest release, “Prom,” is an album set in the intolerant, dogmatic South. The problem, of course, is that Ray and her characters are no Jerry Falwells. They are rebellious, substance-abusing and homosexual. On one of the more confrontational tracks, “Rural Faggot,” Ray sings about southern homosexuals who are too repressed to admit their sexual orientation.
STUDENT LIFE ARCHIVES
Students and faculty march in front of the University’s Placement Service, where a representative from Dow Chemical Company was scheduled to hold interviews.
“By this time next year / you’ll know you’re queer,” she sings. “I know you want to know the truth / And I’m the dyke who will give it to you.” The often-vivid lyrics do little to distract from what is a musically tasteful album. Alternating between punk, pop and indie rock sounds, Ray constructs a musical landscape that, coupled with her subject matter, is at its heights highly provocative, and at its lows still worth seeing live. Amy Ray & the Volunteers will perform in Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room on Saturday, Oct. 15th at 9 p.m.
“obviously the hope was that people would be persuaded.” After retrieving a scrapbook from the period, he found other musical elements as well, including a Post-Dispatch photograph of a graduate student entertaining protestors with a harmonica and guitar in Graham Chapel. The photograph was printed on March 28, 1970, less than two weeks before protests culminated in the incineration of the ROTC building. The decade’s stereotype of protest, drugs and rock and roll did not apply to everyone at Wash. U., however. Lawrence Katzenstein, the music editor for Student Life in 1968 and 1969, remembers his career at the University as one easily removed from any war protest music, especially music that resembled rock and roll or pop. “I had no interest in [rock music],” he said. Rather
than Wash. U. being a scene reminiscent of a 24/7 Woodstock, Katzenstein recalls a less activist musical climate at the University. “It certainly wasn’t everyone,” he said. “I had a big group of friends who loved the same music I did. There were a lot of us who only loved classical music.” There is no question, though, that rock and roll was allied with activist concerns. The stronger the protest climate grew, the more rock and roll music there was to be found. Also, weeks before the ROTC building was burned down, school groups organized a largescale environmental teach-in called Project Survival. On April 25, The Motor City Five (MC5), a foundational protopunk rock band, came to play in the Field House and raise money for the environmentalist cause. Professor Friedland-
er’s assessment of the period coincides with the trajectory of protests in the following decades. As the war came to an end, the immediate threat of being drafted disappeared and with it the intensity of protest. As the protests of the period were not wholly centered on the war, though, other changes were needed as well. The late 1960s and 1970s also saw the University’s establishment of academic programs in Women’s Studies and Black Studies. These changes, amongst others, helped to ease student unrest. With the exception of what Friedlander described as “isolated protests,” the 1980s and 1990s were periods of relative conservatism on campus. With the decline of political activity among students, the music of protest also declined. The next articles in the series will explore whether the current decade has resembled a renaissance.
Madrigal Sin ge appearance rs rehearse in the Oval . Dr. Orland Jo Ro hnson direc om of the White House STUD ted the grou while awaitin p. g President ENT LIFE ARCHIVES Johnson’s
FINE ARTS PREVIEW
Drawing Marathon: going at it all night This Friday night, the Art School Council will host Drawing Marathon from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. at Bixby Hall. Model drawing is set to take place until midnight, with yoga to follow. Technicolor Yawn, an experimental rock band comprised of University students Kevin Hess, Aaron Jacobson, Turner Williams and Steven Garen, will weave gossamer webs of sound and silence through the night and into the dawn.
Universal Sun Children’s Orchestra, a revolving cast of musical characters playing instruments ranging from violin to turntables, will also make an appearance. All are welcome—including those who cannot draw or contort their bodies—to this event that Art School Council President Aaron Duffy describes as “12 hours of art-making, music, food and fun.” Supplies will be provided and admission is absolutely
free. In addition, this year Drawing Marathon will team up with Dance Marathon. Drawings and artwork made at Drawing Marathon will be auctioned off at the Dance Marathon Art Auction on Nov. 5, but artists will have the option of keeping their work if they so desire.
Senior Sports Editor / Justin Davidson / sports@studlife.com
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
STUDENT LIFE | SPORTS
7
The life of a bookie: the glories and pitfalls By Derek Winters Sports Reporter “Fuck you, Brunell!� Jerry, a bookie, yelled at his TV after the Washington Redskins’ veteran quarterback threw another incomplete pass against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 19, 2005. The game was being played at Texas Stadium during this always-notable Monday Night match-up. The six-point “line� was in favor of the Cowboys and Jerry’s clients took advantage of what they thought was a very forgiving sports line. “The line is bullshit. I mean, you have a team like the Cowboys playing at home and all they have to do is win by a touchdown, and they’re up 13-0 in the middle of the
fourth quarter,â€? said Jerry. After having another “greatâ€? week of being a bookie, Jerry was making enough money to “take the family on a nice vacationâ€? and maybe do some renovation on the house. Then, in the ďŹ nal 3:46 of the fourth quarter Brunell found WR Santana Moss twice, for two touchdowns of 39 and 70 yards, respectively. “I was prepared to take this one in the shorts, but, Derek, it’s like one of those things—when things are on a high, they just keep getting better and better,â€? Jerry said. Wondering how this complex system worked, I began asking Jerry some more questions about this business, how they make their money and the life of being a bookie.
“I used to just bet and I was losing my ass; then I became a bookie. I realized that in the long run it is set up for the bookie to win. That’s just how the system works,â€? said Jerry. Jerry’s system is designed so that all bets for NCAA Football must be placed by the start of the game either on his voicemail or by placing it to him over the phone. All his “clientsâ€? are friends or people to whom he has some type of connection. That way, he knows that “they’re good for their money.â€? When speaking on the phone, all bets are played in “dollars,â€? where one “dollarâ€? is equal to that number in “dollarsâ€? multiplied by 100. So one “dollarâ€? is $100 and so on. Jerry’s maximum bet is â€œďŹ ve dollarsâ€? ($500) and
his minimum is a ‘quarter’ ($25). He describes himself as a ‘small-time’ bookie. Many bookies have similar systems for how to take bets, keep their bets organized and get money from their clients. All bets have to be placed before the start of the game. In terms of paying, bookies usually give a person a creditline. In Jerry’s case, he does not take any money up front and his bets are paid off later by the clients because he knows each one of his clients and trusts that they will pay up. In terms of online and Vegas, betting money is always taken up front and they are paid only if they win. So how exactly do bookies make their money? In the case of online and Vegas bookies, you have to put down a per-
centage of what you will win. If you are betting for the favorite, you have to put down more money than you would win, so if the bet is $100 then you have to put down $150 to win $100. In the case of the underdogs, it is the reverse scenario. For most bookies, however, a client places a bet on a particular game and whether or not that team will clear the spread. If the team being bet on doesn’t clear the spread, and especially when a favored team loses (an upset), this is where the bookie makes their big bucks. They rely on “America’s Lineâ€? to ďŹ nd the level of the spread, which lets the reader know by how many points the favored team is expected to win. Bookies like Jerry just take straight bets and rely on the
teams not covering and being upset. Not all bookies are like Jerry, however. Many aren’t as successful and sometimes just don’t cut it. Curtis, a former bookie, got out of the business because “he lost it all.� The gambler in his mid20s took no fear in his profession and had proudly boasted some high roller clients. Unlike Jerry, who knew all of his “clients� and did it for some fun, Curtis met some expert gamblers and pushed his chips all-in with his life savings as he entered into the world of the bookie. Curtis made his money in the basement and poker rooms of area casinos. This is where he met many of his fu-
See BOOKIE, page 8
‘Two for the Money’ just not worth the money By Scott Kaufman-Ross Sports Reporter It’s been a long time since I saw previews for a movie a month in advance and actually muttered the phrase “Ok, I HAVE to see this.â€? That’s how I felt when I saw the previews for “Two for the Moneyâ€? about a month ago. As a huge sports fan and a morethan-occasional sports bettor, I thought this movie had tremendous potential—the thought of a movie all about sports gambling seemed just too good to be true. Turns out, it was. The movie starts out with Brandon Lang, played by Matthew McConaughey, a former DI football player who tore apart his knee and has been working odd jobs ever since. He ďŹ nds his niche picking football games working for a 900-number company, and is inevitably recruited by the big ďŹ sh. Al Pacino plays Walter, the head of the biggest sports advising business in the country, and his character bears an incredible resemblance to Pacino’s character from “The Recruit.â€? Herein lies the problem at
hand and why the movie is a huge disappointment—these guys aren’t even bookies. They are “sports advisers,â€? who do little but simply pick the winners of every football game of the week, and people for some reason trust them, giving them a commission if they win and nothing if they lose. Sports advisers? That’s like a gloriďŹ ed Chris Berman, except without the humor of picking scores like 2-1 when the Jets played the Ravens. Not only that, but Walter transforms Lang into a new persona, as if giving McConaughey’s character a suit and a haircut will suddenly make him “John Anthonyâ€? and let him walk on water. Furthermore, he hypes Anthony’s “big breakâ€? as appearing on his weekly infomercial where a bunch of guys just yell and scream and say how much they know about football. As Anthony continues to go 12-2 and 14-0 each week, accumulating cars and money, it is pretty obvious what is going to happen next. He gets cocky and starts to lose, and business goes down the hole. The entire rest of
the movie turns into a life lesson on why not to let success go to your head, and the innate desire of a gambler to lose everything. The movie gets extremely sappy from that point on, as Walter even suspects an affair between Anthony and his wife, and has it thrown in his face. The movie is an overall disappointment, because moviegoers are expecting to see the “dark worldâ€? of sports gambling, and instead see a bunch of buffoons and computer geeks in suits on an infomercial. Don’t get me wrong, when McConaughey grabs his golf clubs, tells the boss he’s leaving for the day and picks the games on the y ďŹ ve days in advance, that’s the guy we were expecting to see. But the cool, pompous ‘I am a golden god’ version of John Anthony only lasts for about 10 minutes because once he has a 3-11 week, he breaks down and panics. There are also little things in sports movies that are guaranteed to drive sports fans wild. The ďŹ rst, since the NFL clearly wouldn’t give the right to use team names and jerseys to a movie about sports gambling, the ďŹ nal game was Super Bowl
TWOFORTHEMONEY.NET
Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino star in “Two for the Money.� XXXX, which, for anyone who knows anything about roman numerals, is just dead wrong. Another thing is, and this is coming from a guy from New Jersey, they had New York winning the Super Bowl. That is just
far too clichĂŠ. Perhaps the worst part, however, is the ďŹ nal scene. The movie concludes with McConaughey coaching pee wee football, and one of the kids says, “Are we gonna win?â€? McConaughey responds, “I’d bet on
it.â€? Terrible. If you want an inside look on the dark world of sports betting, you are better off taking a jog down to Max’s Sports Bar on a Sunday afternoon, because you just won’t ďŹ nd it in this movie.
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8 STUDENT LIFE | SPORTS
Senior Sports Editor / Justin Davidson / sports@studlife.com
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
A post-season worth watching anyway It’s been an emotional week for baseball fans. I made a significant number of sympathy phone calls Monday night, mostly to answering machines. “I’m so sorry,” I’d say. “I hope you’re doing okay. If anyone understands, it’s me.” My away message that night? “Rough game… poor Bernie…” But Bernie Williams wasn’t the only one crying himself to sleep that night. Yankees fans were right up there with him. And so were Red Sox fans and Yankee-haters everywhere. The reason for this? Monday night’s game changed the rest of the postseason for them, too. The only thing arguably worse than no longer having a team you can root for in the post-season is no longer having a team you can root against in the post-season. For Cubs fans like myself, we are placed into an interesting situation, given the LCS teams. Cubs fans are hoping that the Cardinals (and, for some, the White Sox) will lose in the LCS, which would give the Cubs fans reason to hold on and keep them tuned in. But what could be worse for us than a very possible—unsettlingly possible—Cardinals-White Sox World Series? Because by law, tradition and every baseball religion, a Cubs fan can’t root for the Cardinals—but think about how detrimental a White Sox championship would be to the world
of Chicago sports as we know it. It’s not supposed to be like that—the Cubs are Chicago’s baseball team, at least in numbers. What would that mean for the infamous curse on the Cubs, and conceivably on the city of Chicago in general? So, if we’ve lost Yankees fans, Red Sox fans, Yankeehaters and Cubs fans, what are we left with? What we’re left with are four all-around terrific, talented baseball teams competing for the World Series championship. And maybe last year’s Yankees-Red Sox ALCS was more exciting, more exhilarating, more intense and more fun. But that doesn’t mean it was
ball. In my mind, better baseball. This baseball can only be year, both the Yanrelaxing when neikees and Red Sox ther the team you went down fair and love nor the team you square in the fi rst hate is on the field. round. The better Because otherwise teams won. So let’s you’re wasting too try to get into it and much time cheering let the potentially and booing to wholenon-existent Angels Allie heartedly appreciate fans and unfortu- Wieczorek nately existent White Sox fans and experience the beauty have their chance at glory, that is this sport. I have personally met a lot too. Not that I foresee either of these two teams defeating of people, mostly consisting of diehard Red Sox and Yaneither possible NL opponent. The point is that this isn’t kees fans alike, who I highly the time to boycott the MLB doubt are paying any attenand refuse to watch the post- tion to baseball anymore now season play out. This is the that their teams are out of it. time to sit back, relax and Maybe I’ve just experienced truly enjoy some good base- too many Cubs-less post-sea-
sons to still be too bitter to watch the playoffs anyway. But I think you’re a sorry excuse for a baseball fan if you can’t at least try to enjoy the sport when your team is not playing. And I’m not saying it’s going to be the same experience. Sophomore Jake Greenblatt, a Mets fan, admits he’d prefer to watch his own team in the post-season, but if they’re not in it, it’s not the end of the world for him. “I would rather see my team play in the playoffs,” said Greenblatt. “But if that can’t happen, then I would rather see the best product possible. And this year, the best product doesn’t include
the Yankees or the Red Sox as evident by their regular season struggles.” Greenblatt also seems highly optimistic about the purity of baseball fans in general. “I think there are some fans that don’t care about the best product [and] only care about their team,” he said. “But I think most baseball fans are educated fans and like the sport, not only their team.” While I’d like to believe that he’s right, I don’t have quite as much faith in baseball fans. Prove me wrong and watch these playoffs anyway. It will be well worth your while.
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BOOKIE v FROM PAGE 7 ture (and now past) “clients.” He studied the art of sports betting and would bet hundreds to thousands of dollars on the whole “side” of college football and pro football every weekend. At fi rst, Curtis loved what he was doing, because just by winning a few games a week, he could make a few thousand dollars. At the time, he was working at a fast-food restaurant and at an electronics store, so this seemed like quite the boost in income. Luck caught up to him, though, and one weekend in the fall of 2004, it all came crashing down for Curtis. He took his normal bets, but in this particular week there weren’t any upsets, which is where the bookie’s expertise and skill comes in handy. Since upsets are what bookies really make their money on, Curtis lost a lot of money. Even though Curtis had the money to make up his losses, the estimated amount of money he lost was simply staggering. He was getting ready to buy a house and recently had bought a car when he lost his bank account. He never told me how much he lost, but estimating on how much his clients bet and the price of the house he was looking to buy, I estimate that he lost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 in 48 hours. Curtis and Jerry are real people. Their names have been changed to protect their identities. Curtis still lives at home and got to keep his car. He still works at a fastfood restaurant and still bets on sports and poker. Jerry is married and a father. He works for a very popular company in downtown St. Louis and continues to be a bookie. Sports betting has become one of the largest illegal industries in the world. Nearly $5 billion were bet on the Super Bowl last year alone. In 1999, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that the illegal sports betting industry accounted for $80 billion to $380 billion. With the Internet helping to expand this industry, an estimated one or two out of every six people bet on sports. They call it gambling for a reason. But it doesn’t hold up for everyone, and for people like Curtis, the glorified life of a bookie can come to a crashing end. As the famous saying goes, “Las Vegas wasn’t built on a bunch of winners.”
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FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
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10 STUDENT LIFE | SPORTS
Senior Sports Editor / Justin Davidson / sports@studlife.com
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 14, 2005
SPORTS
NFL Week 6: WU do you pick? vs.
Student Life Sports Staff Each week the Student Life Sports Staff takes on a new member of the WU community to see who is the best Swami out there. Brad Duesing is the Bears’ all-time leader in receptions and has caught for more than 1,000 yards in each of his three seasons at WU. In six games this season, Duesing has caught for 541 yards and leads the team with three TDs.
Brad Duesing
VS. Joe Ciolli
Jordan Katz
Derek Winters
Scott Kaufman-Ross
Alex Schwartz
Justin Davidson
Andrew Nackman
Brad Duesing Atlanta Carolina Cincinnati Baltimore Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Minnesota NY Giants Kansas City Denver Buffalo San Diego Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta @ New Orleans Carolina @ Detroit Cincinnati @ Tennessee Cleveland @ Baltimore Jacksonville @ Pittsburgh Miami @ Tampa Bay Minnesota @ Chicago NY Giants @ Dallas Washington @ Kansas City New England @ Denver NY Jets @ Buffalo San Diego @ Oakland Houston @ Seattle St. Louis @ Indianapolis
Atlanta Detroit Cincinnati Baltimore Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Minnesota Dallas Kansas City New England Buffalo San Diego Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta Carolina Cincinnati Cleveland Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Chicago NY Giants Kansas City New England Buffalo San Diego Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta Carolina Cincinnati Baltimore Jacksonville Tampa Bay Minnesota Dallas Kansas City Denver Buffalo Oakland Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta Carolina Cincinnati Baltimore Jacksonville Miami Minnesota NY Giants Kansas City New England Buffalo Oakland Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta Carolina Cincinnati Baltimore Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Minnesota NY Giants Kansas City New England Buffalo San Diego Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta Detroit Cincinnati Cleveland Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Minnesota NY Giants Kansas City New England Buffalo San Diego Seattle Indianapolis
Atlanta Carolina Cincinnati Baltimore Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Minnesota NY Giants Washington New England Buffalo Oakland Seattle Indianapolis
Game of the Week:
Minnesota @ Chicago
Carolina @ Detroit
St. Louis @ Indianapolis
Jacksonville @ Pittsburgh
NY Giants @ Dallas
Houston @ Seattle
Washington @ Kansas City
Last Week Season Record
5-9 40-34
6-8 35-39
8-6 39-25
5-9 42-32
9-5 43-31
6-8 34-40
10-4 46-28
5-9 (Dean Dale) 38-26 (combined)
Derek:
Alex:
Scott:
This should prove to be a very important game for the Rams, traveling to Indy. If the Rams lose and Seattle wins, then the Rams will fi nd themselves in a tough spot to make a comeback for a playoff berth. This is also a good test for Indy. A Monday night game with national exposure could expose the Colts as the league’s new clear-cut number one team. The Colts have to be a no-brainer to win this game with Peyton Manning starting to come into his own. With two deep threats in Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison, and the ground game of Edgerrin James, this makes for the league’s most balanced offensive attack. The Colts’ defensive unit used to be suspect and were often noted as the team’s downfall. However, this season the team’s defense has been outstanding with a 5.8-point against average in their fi rst five games. This game will be closer than expected and the Colts will not cover the inflated 13.5-point spread.
This week’s premier matchup features the playoffbound New York Giants against their hated NFC East rival, the Dallas Cowboys. Both teams feature devastating aerial assaults of similar breakout styles. Each team is capable of throwing the long-ball and the short route with equal efficiency. What could make the difference in this game is the injury to Dallas RB Julius Jones. With no legitimate Dallas running threat waiting in the wings to replace Jones, the Giants will be able to drop men into coverage, penetrate the Dallas offensive line with their strong front four and confuse QB Drew Bledsoe with a few different looks. Ultimately, this will lead to some sacks of Bledsoe, as well as a few timely turnovers which should give the Giants enough of an edge to let emerging star QB Eli Manning, Pro Bowl RB Tiki Barber and their crew of talented skill-position players secure a Giant victory and a continued stay at the top of the challenging NFC East.
In a game pitting two of the AFC’s best defenses against each other, all eyes will be on Big Ben Roethelisberger and how healthy his knee is. It’s looking like backup Charlie Batch may get the start, which would spell disaster for the Steelers. Batch was once the starting QB for the Lions, but does not have much experience running Bill Cowher’s offense. Without Big Ben to keep the defense honest, the Jaguars front can stack the line and keep the two-headed monster of RBs Jerome Bettis and Willie Parker to minimum production. Don’t expect much production from the Jaguars either, as the struggling offense will again face a tough defensive test with the Steelers at home. Without Big Ben, the Steelers won’t be able to muster much offensively, and perhaps for the fi rst time in a while Steelers fans will miss Tommy Maddox.
Indianapolis 31, Rams 24
Jaguars 17, Steelers 7
NY Giants 31, Dallas 24
Andrew:
Joe:
Justin:
Washington suffered their fi rst loss of the season last week at Denver but proved more in this loss than they had in any of their three victories. Their defense is one of the best in the league, they have a consistent running game led by Clinton Portis and the Mark Brunell-Santana Moss combination has proven to be reliable for a few big plays each game. Any team that can play tough defense and run the ball is for real and is capable of beating any team anywhere. The Chiefs proved two weeks ago in their collapse against the Eagles that they haven’t improved their shortcomings of the past few seasons. Washington will contain the Chiefs’ running game and the Kansas City defense still can’t stop anybody. Look for an upset at Arrowhead.
In the past few days, Vikings cornerback Fred Smoot has recently come under fi re for allegedly renting out charter boats that were later used for so-called “sex parties.” Several Vikings players are thought to have attended this party, which was supposedly consumed with drunkenness and public sex. Minnesota coach Mike Tice has voiced concern over this controversy that is tearing the team apart. Come on, Tice—if your players can have sex in front of each other on a boat, they defi nitely have the chemistry to run a flawless screen pass. Look for the Vikings to “perform” well against the weak Chicago Bears this weekend en route to their second win of the season.
The Houston Texans have proven time and again that they care more about what their cheerleaders look like than about what they can do to protect QB David Carr. The Texans are the biggest joke in the league and the squad can hire as many new offensive coordinators as they want and still not win a game. Look for an old-fashioned shellacking of the Texans this Sunday, with Seattle RB Sean Alexander picking up huge yardage on the lackluster Texan defense and Carr throwing an impressive five interceptions. Just get Houston out of the league already. Seattle 37, Houston 6
Minnesota 31, Chicago 10 Washington 23, Kansas City 17
What would happen without sportsmanship? By Carrie Jarka Sports Reporter Last Friday, Allie Wieczorek (Oct. 7, 2005, “Sportsmanship? Get Outta Here!”) wrote about how sportsmanship doesn’t exist in professional sports and that true competition has no place for the dulled down nature of being a sportsman. I couldn’t disagree more. A question to the educated students at Washington University: why are athletes like Warren Sapp and Barry Bonds some of the most hated men in sports? One’s first response (if you are a true Sapp or Bonds fan) might be that they excel at their
craft and opposing fans are threatened by their abilities. This is just not true. Sports fans dislike these types of athletes because they are brazen, arrogant and bad sportsmen. I believe that fans today want and need to see sportsmanship on the field or court. In the era of elaborate end zone celebrations, personal clothing lines and MTV “Cribs,” professional athletes have been overwhelmed by the desires to get the highestpaying contract and parade their wealth whenever possible. Granted, I enjoy a good hockey fight as much as the next person, but malicious, “cut-throat” competition,
like the Vancouver Canuck’s Todd Bertuzzi’s assault on Steve Moore in March of 2004 and Kermit Washington’s devastating one-punch destruction of Rudy Tomjanovich’s face in 1977, do not belong in sports. However, for my fellow optimists, there is still hope. Actions of some athletes today give fans hope that there are still good sportsmen. Lance Armstrong, arguably one of today’s best allaround athletes, refused to wear the yellow leader’s jersey in the 2005 Tour de France after the leader, David Zabriskie, fell in the ninth stage to give Armstrong the lead. Having not
earned his lead in the most professional and skilled manner, it says something of Armstrong’s character to refuse the yellow jersey. He was not the first cyclist to do this, as Eddy Merck x and Greg Lemond did not wear the jersey in honor of their competitors. In the oftentimes violent sport of soccer, players still purposely kick the ball out of bounds when a player is injured. Even the inherently violent sport of rugby (in which a player’s primary goal is to tackle the other player sans pads) involves lending players to the opponent and bringing water to the other team if they have
no subs. Recently, Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weiss visited a young Irish fan battling cancer and asked the boy what play he should call to start the game. Weiss, keeping his promise, called the pass-left play even though his offense started on the one-yard line. The boy did not get to see his play because he died earlier that week. While the latter example is not on-field sportsmanship, it is this behavior off the field that identifies the true sportsmen and heroes. Without sportsmanship, sports would be nothing more than a sophisticated street fight. While competition is good, it
is the history, spirit and tradition of sports that bring the fans in, not the fights, steroids and clothing lines. It is not in human nature to root for the bad guy; we root for the underdog and the “Cinderella team” that plays its heart out. We cheer for them because they play a solid, honest game and work hard to achieve success. The stories portrayed in movies like “Hoosiers,” “Miracle” and “Rocky” are immortalized alongside the stories they tell. You will never see a movie to honor John Rocker. Nice guys occasionally finish last, but dirty teams don’t win many championships.