Volume 29 - Issue 2

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ewourna Volwne 29, Number 2

The magazine about Yale and New Haven

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October 11, 1996

Yale redefines its role in post-colonial Hong kong

9 Feet of Sno"\V

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FEATURES

8

Republicans Get Back in the Ring Rolling with the punches, the Yale College Republicans are using this year's presidential election to build an organization in staunchly Democratic turf

BY ALEX FUNK

I2 p. 8

Stripping Away Tradition The Yale Precision Marching Band has removed "The Stripper" from their repertoire. Will Saybrook College remove The Strip from theirs?

BY ALEC BEMIS

I6

Hong Kong's Second Coming As Chinese rule quickly approaches, Yale seeks out its niche in post-1997 Hong Kong.

BY DANA GOODYEAR

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Mapping the Mind Researchers at the Yale Child Study Center use MRI technology to unscramble the mysteries ofthe human brain.

BY KAREN jACOBSON

s

p. 30

TAN DAR D S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ 4

From Our Perspective

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Points of Departure

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Between the Vines: A Semester Far from Yale BY HILLARY MARGOLIS.

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Endnote: It's Like Butter BY DAN M URPHY.

Cover design by Seth Zucker.

THE NEW JOURNAL is published five rimes during the academic year by The New Journal at Yale, Inc., P.O. Box 34}1 Yale Station, New Haven, Cf o6~1o. Office address: >s> Park Street. Phone: '•OJ' 4}1·19S7· All a>ntenrs copyright 1996 by The New Journal at Yale, Inc. All Righu Reserved. Reproducrion either in whole or in pan without written permission of the publisher and editor in chief is prohibited. While this magatine is published by Yale College students, Yale Universiry is not responsible for iu contenrs. Ten thousand copi<:s of each issue are dinributed free to members of the Yale and New Ha>-en communiry.

Subscriptions are available to those outside the area. Rates: One year, st8. Two years. S}O. THE NEW JOURNAL is printed by Turley Publications, Palmer, MA; bookkeeping and billing ~rvices are provided by Colman Bookkeeping of New Haven. THE NEw jOURNAl. encourages letters to the editor and comments on Yale and New Haven issues. Write to Editorials, 34}1 Yale Station, New Haven, cr o6sw. All letters for publication must include ~ddress and signarure. We reserve the right to edit alll<"trers for publicarion.

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Tk Univmity has onu again reackd that stage in hi.swry whm peopk are talking about tk New Yak, presumably to be distinguished from the Old Yale, which in its own day was presumably considned New. Wishing to share in this modnnity, wt havt chosen The New Journal as the name for our publication. &sides, things seemed slow around here.

-The New journa~ Volume 1, Issue 1 October 15, 1967 "'TWenty-nine years later, things still feel slow 1 around here. The foundations of Yale never sh ake, but there something to be said for stability. As the world approaches the th ird millennium, Yale approaches its tri-centenniaJ. Like death and taxes, the institution of Yale is irritating, but its consistency is reassuring.

Yet taking comfort in inevitable also leads to lack of action on campus. Things are done halfway, to a point of mediocrity rather than excellence. Yalies organize a graduate student union, but let it disappear under administrative pressure. We establish singing groups and secret societies, but spend our time railing against them. We pay millions to erect immense buildings, but refuse to pay the pocket change required to maintain them. When the road comes to a fork and Yalies have to choose one of rwo paths, they sit down in the middle.

Nearly three weeks ago we witnessed an example of Yalies' half-heartedness. Yale Law School alumnus Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Legislation with a major impact on Civil Rights! Issues of Constitutionality! Yale had to emerge from hibernation to wreak vengeance upon the nation and a president that dared cross it.

What did Yale muscer? Pastel chalkings, a candlelight vigil at the Women's Table, and a less-than-rousing debate in the daily paper.

These minor protests lasted rwo days, then, back to business as usual.

These have become comfortable ways to express opinion, without rocking any boats.

We hear of a policica1Jy incorrect evenr, we shrug, and we assume someone else wilJ do something. We sign petitions outside Commons, and assume--or hope-that this will fix the problem, that our voices as Yalies and future leaders will not go unheeded.

A recent poll shows that many Yalies have resigned themselves to casting ballots in favor of Clinton for lack of a better option. After all, why bother creating a ruckus when someone already has the race virtually tied up? Even in the face of blatantly discriminatory legislation. DOMA definds the rights of certain individuals by offending those of others. In the socially conscious 1990s, we would not elect a President who stands for racial segregation. Yet by voting for Clinton, we accomplish the equivalent.

If our campus cannot be moved to larger protests against the status quo, then what will move us? We at The New journal believe that avenues for change lie in opportunities to speak out and be heard.

Discussion leads to shaking the normdisturbing the peace, if you will. In this vein, we introduce an editors' page to allow for candid opinion. We will share our viewpoints, without apology, in hopes of spurring debate, conversation, and individual thought-a basis for discussion that promotes change.

At the same time, we question our ability to fulfill our goal. Who are we to end Yale "as we know it"? Lately, politicians are obsessed with promises to end things "as we know it."

Bill is going to "end welfure as we know it."

Bob wants to "end the IRS as we know it."

Here at The New journal, we are nor convinced. We feel, however, that our skepticism should not stop us from jumping on the bandwagon of rransformations. Which brings us back to the new editors' page. And in keeping with the tradition of doing things halfway, we've left (most of) the rest of the magazine unchanged.

-The Editors THE NEW jOURNAL

Buckley and Man at Yale Just imagine: on a weekly basis, you and 11 other students "take part in a lively conversation about the art of prose" with one of the foremost writers in America, Wtlliam E Buckley, Jr. (DC '50). His college seminar, English Composition, is the sort of once-in-alifetime opportunity that only a Yale education can provide.

Or so the recruiters in the admissions office will tell prospective students next

full.

"Should we roll?" Buckley asks at the start of a recent class meeting. It is the fourth week of classes but this is only Buckley's second appearance.

David comes to the front of the room.

"I'd like to set up meetings, if I could do that today.'' David Southward (GRAD '97) is one of two assistants Buckley has recruited to help manage his class of 12, and he does a lot for the seminar. He selected the 12 students from the 107 applications; he reads their compositions; he meets with them to discuss the progress of their writing; he assigns their grades. The other assistant, Gloria Hardman, helps with the computer Buckley uses to project compositions onto. the screen.

Buckley, sitting behind a laptop computer, leans back in his chair with his pen in his mouth-the classic Buckley pose. "Are we all here, David? Who wrote the essay? Sari?"

Projected above the class is a computer screen divided into two columns: one for the student's composition, the other for Buckley to type his revisions. Buckley looks up; Sari waves. "Oh, hi. What essay was assigned for today?" he responds.

The seminar is not likely to overload anyone's schedule. The weekly requirement is to write two 250-word fictional compositions-on topics like "What I saw when the bus ran over the child" or "Brian's mother discovers a pornographic magazine in her 13-year-old's bedroom" (Buckley makes these up himself)-and revise a classmate's essay. Buckley assigns no readings, but he recommends the purchase of a style manual.

Buckley dives into Sari's essay. It begins: "A

crown of laurels rests on Charlie's head, the leaves bending over his forehead ... " Buckley comments, "Leaves don't really bend. How about, 'leaves lapping over'?" and he types the revision onto his side of the computer screen.

Five minutes later the computer crashes.

"What could be wrong? Do you know, Gloria?" Buckley asks. David and Gloria come over to Buckley and peer over his shoulder at the laptop. "We better reconstitute," Buckley annotinces. As soon as the computer system is back up again, Buckley gets back to business.

The conversation quickly turns to the topic of punctuation. "The semicolon is very arbitrarily used," Buckley remarks. Later, he notes, "Parentheses are underused

today."

Buckley spends almost an hour on the first composition, changing a word here, a comma there.

The next essay tells the story of a fourth-grade bully, Justin, who torments Jeffy on the school bus by

calling

him "gay boy."

One of Buckley's first comments is, "If I was writing that, I would hyphenate 'gay boy.' It enhances the rhythm."

He spends almost another hour on the second composition; the class time is nearly up. Buckley hurriedly runs through a third essay composition in the remaining 15 minutes. He asks David, "What do you want to do about my slow speed?"

The only student compositions that Buckley looks at are the ones he gets to during class. One student in the seminar puts it this way: "You know Buckley only reads what he sees in class? What a joke. At first, I thought this would be this great thing, but now I just

think it will be an easy credit."

Some students are impressed with Buckley's seminar. After aJI, the class does expose students to the long-forgotten rules of punctuation and diction. One student claims, "I've learned how to write fiction from the TA; I've learned how to edit from the professor."

However, one wonders if any other professor at Yale College. would get away with a teaching ethic like Buckley's. The appeal of the seminar certainly has something to do with the prominence of William E Buckley, Jr. "It's the only class I've taken at Yale that is just a cult of personality," a student says.

After class, students gather around David, posing questions about meetings and handing in essays. Buckley is shown the way to Hillhouse Avenue where his chauffeured limousine waits to whisk him back to New York.

-Gabriel Snyder

Nobody Does it Like ...

Last semester, when trudging up Science

Hill twice a week for my intro geology course, I always looked forward to eating lunch at the School of Management's (SOM) Donaldson Commons. The people were new, the lines were short, and most importantly, the food was so good that I even indulged in the occasional meat product. In the SOM dining hall you will never be driven to the salad bar by choices of soylada or cod nuggets on the hot line. No, at SOM, you are treated to brand names like Fruitopia, Dunkin' Donuts, and now, Sara Lee. Long associated with pastries, Sara Lee is expanding into the sandwich business. And my beloved SOM dining hall has wisely jumped on the Sara Lee deli meat bandwagon. Donaldson Commons now includes a brand-new Sara Lee Sandwich Shoppe, replete with a Sara Lee sign and matching uniforms for the Yale dining hall workers. As SOM dining hall manager Tom Sullivan says, "People want to see that they are eating a brand name food, they're willing to pay a higher price for premium

5

quality food." Which begs the question: what's the quality of the food in che other dining halls?

Before I could give my wholehearted approval to the Sara Lee Shoppe, I had co taste the sandwiches for myself Since most of the cold cuts had already run out, I settled for a sandwich with Honey Roasted Turkey Breast and cheese (which I later found out is not a Sara Lee product). Despite the imposter cheese, the sandwich was good by restaurant standards and exceptional by Yale standards.

And, unlike a sandwich at a restaurant, mine was covered by the meal plan.

It cook a lot of hard work for Yale co become part of the Sara Lee family. Chuck Bennett, assistant director of dining halls, explained to me that the only way Yale dining halls could be a part of this lucrative scheme was to enroll in Sara Lee's deli meat training program. A trainer came to Yale to teach both managers and staff the tried-and-true Sara Lee recipes and methods. Without this instruction Yale employees would not earn the right co wear the Sara Lee uniform. As an extra precaution, trainers installed photocopied diagrams of sandwiches beneath the counter. .

I approached one woman behind the counter, who was sporting the requisite black and red hat and apron set. According to her, not everyone is thrilled about this new addition. Some of the workers at SOM, who asked to remain anonymous, complained that the new set up is more complex and the sandwich recipes are coo restrictive.

But it seems chat Sara Lee is the wave of the future. Yale has finally come co the conclusion that the best way to improve Yale food is to stop serving it.

-Sara Harkavy

The Great Bike Heist I arrived at M&M Pawn Shop, located at the corner of Howe and George, co see what they had to offer-<lr more precisely, co find my stolen bike. Heaps of speakers, TVs, VCRs, drums, and furniture lined the walls.

My eyes fell on the eight or so mountain bikes parked in a disorderly fashion in the side alcove of the room. One in particular-the red bike with the yellow "Giant" logo-grabbed my attention. A closer look revealed chat it was not "The One." Posing as an interested customer, I approached a clerk about purchasing

6

procedure: "Do you ever have the problem of selling bikes chat have been stolen?"

He lowered his chin, frowned, and shook his head vigorously. "No, never, because we register the names on a computer," he said.

"You a Yale student?"

"Yes." "Yeah, I've sold over 100 bikes since the beginning of the school year to Yale students."

"What if someone wants to buy their stolen bike back?" I tried a new tack, doubting the truth in his response from the fuse time around.

"Well, usually, they bring in a police report, and the police buy it back."

Usually?

Like many people, my bike was locked when it was stolen. For the first week of school, I was extremely scrupulous about locking it whenever I was five feet away. I had it¡chained to a lamppost in a well-lit area in from of the Law School, a high-traffic zone at any hour. It muse have taken a consummate thief co steal on Wall Street on a Thursday night between 8 and 11:30 p.m. After circling the campus several times that night in search of my stolen bike, I gave up. The bike was a lost cause; it was simply gone.

The following morning I made my way (on foot) to the police station on Park Street, hoping they would have a surefire method of bike recovery.

Having told the officer on duty the details of my story, and the make and model of the bike, he told me he would file the

"Well, the report is filed. We have it on fil e."

My crisis, from what I gather, is transformed into a square piece of paper (case No. 61731 co be exact) and added to similar papers in a file. The officer turned away to ruck No. 61731 into the file, but I broke in with an audacious, "So officer, what do you think the chances are of finding my bike?" He rolled his eyes, implying my naivete.

Bikes stolen from the Yale campus are often sold to scores outside New Haven, making it hard for owners to track them down. But as I discovered, there is a huge market for stolen bikes at pawn shops even within New Haven. Selling over 100 bikes at prices ranging from $110-$115, it's not surprising chat places like M&M stay afloat.

Maybe I can find consolation in the fact that I am not alone. One friend told me about someone who found his stolen bike at a pawn shop, had it stolen again, and found it at the same pawn shop a couple of days later.

Another friend told me how she saw a van pull up to a pawn shop on Whalley and unload six bikes from the back. "You might want to sic outside and wait for yours to show up," she said. This may be the soundest advice I've gotten yet.

'-Yuki Noguchi

case.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"We file a report," he responded.

"And?" pressed further.

I THE NEw JouRNAL

Belle Epoque

professionals. According to Matthew Gubens (JE '97), former co-chair of the Guild of Carillonneurs, the Guild is a "selfperpetuating organization"-not only do students play the bells, they also run the The entire campus is your audience, yet organization and teach new members how to play. it is an invisible one. As you sit in the little green room near the top of Harkness Tower There is an open call for freshmen and where the carillon, the instrument that sophomores to join the Guild in the fall of rings the bells, is located, you are not aware each year. Interested students go through that the entire Yale community hears your "heel," a two-month training period in performance. Playing the carillon is which they are given half-hour weekly personal, as if you are practicing in the lessons with a Guild member. At auditions, privacy of your room. It is also exhilarating; trainees must perform two pieces of varying as you play, huge bells-weighing up to difficulty. They must also prove that they seven tons each-ring majestically only two can sight-read and that they have hand-foot coordination. They are judged not only on stories above you. You can feel them vibrate as you play.

Darryl Eaton (SY . technical abilities, but also on the , r - - -Small dllmeter 98), a member of the Yale 1 Head ',\ a :: expresstveness of their University Guild of ~. performance. While previous music experience is not Carillonneurs, used to get ~ nervous when he rang the mandatory, the ability to bells, but now he only gets w.;st ~ read music is essential. nervous when he brings .-....,. u~...

Humtone As with any his friends up to ~7::; ' \ instrument, becoming Harkness Tower, H;p >-srntKEIIId a good carillonneur reminding him that .>.or..,.P\..,. requires hours of people all over campus I up 1 practice.

Some are listening. members of the Guild The carillon resembles a piano, except devote a large portion of their time to rehearsing, while others only dart into the instead of a keyboard, there are two rows of batons-wooden pegs, about a foot long, practice room to review music half an hour that stick out of the console. They are before their time slot. arranged like a piano keyboard but span The Guild is an eclectic mix of people. only two-and-a-halfoctaves. To make the There are only two music majors, but most have had prior music experience. Each bells ring, the carillonneur strikes the batons with his or her fist. Each baton is member has a weekly time slot for the connected to a wire which extends up two semester. There are no constraints on music stories, where it is attached to a lever. Each selection; this explains the variety of music lever, in turn, is connected to a clapper that played each day. Songs range from hits the side of the bell and makes it ring.

"Preludium Coucou" to "Cecilia" and "It's a The bells themselves remain stationary.

Small World After All." The Guild has a Like an organ, the carillon also has foot music library containing pieces specifically pedals that are used to play a bass line. written for the carillon, as well as There are only 190 carillons in North transcribed selections.

The bells ring twice a day-around America. Although they were created in England, carillons are most popular in lunch and dinner times-but they used to Belgium and Holland; Yale Guild members ring five times a day, the first one at 7 a.m. travel there during spring break once every and the last one at 10 p.m., like curfew bells. While not everyone appreciates the three years to play bells that are over 100 years old. music that emanates from Harkness Tower Yale is not the only college that has a (previous Branford masters have even tried to have the bells silenced), most people carillon, but it is the only place where students are completely in charge. Most cannot imagine a Yale without them. carillons are played by a group of -Audrey Leibovich

I shot an arrow into the air; itpierced the heart ofa millionaire.

He mused "Not here can I tary umg. '' And he wrote out a check for the carillon.

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Rolling with the punches, the Yale College Republicans are using this year's presidential election to build an organization on staunchly Democratic turf.

Republicans Get Back in the Ring Alex Funk lection '88: We turn our backs on the former captain of the Yale baseball team in favor of a short, squawky-voiced Harvard boy who happens to share some of our political views. Though the rest of the country overwhelmingly prefers George Bush (DC '48), the undergrads at his alma mater cannot overlook his conservative leanings. In an election with the lowest national voter turnout in recent history, four out of five Yalies vote against him.

Election '92: We spurn our home-grown son again, though this time, more reasonably, we vote for a Democrat who has shown the good grace to attend Yale Law. He is also a Democrat that can campaign. In Bill Clinton (LAW '73) we trust: we Rock the Vote, rally in Battell Chapel, mobilize for National Student Mobilization Day, listen to Hillary (LAW '73) on the New Haven Green. We Vote For a Change and a change we get: the first Democratic President in 12 years.

The fact that he is a Yalie is less important than the fact that he is a Democrat; most of us here are ecstatic about both. ¡ Election '96: Yale helps re-elect Bill Clinton to the white House.

The script is already finished. Thanks to the modern obsession with polling, we know that only a serious blunder by Clinton, or a major switch in public opinion, could put Bob Dole in the White House on November 5. The ex-majority leader of the Senate trails Clinton by a substantial ten-point margin nationally, and a Yale Daily News poll indicates that the gap is roughly 50 points here at Yale. It is different, however, than it was four years ago, when Democratic activism was prominent and constant right up to Election Day. Yalies are content

E

this year to sit back and watch, confident that their candidate needs no more than the votes he already has to return for a second term. No Vote need be Rocked, no Change solicited, thank you very much. Seventy percent of the campus is more or less happy to extend the Yale clinch on the White House to 12 years.

Is Yale a Democratic campus? Is the macarena just a fad? , ~

Bengal 'Iigers As election years go, it has been a quiet one at Yale. No memorable rallies, no campus visits by candidates, no special "ongoing series" of election articles in the YDN. Relative to 1992, we are asleep.

David Cook QE '99), a Yale College Republican,¡ tried to stir things up with a September 25 guest column in the YDN, calling Yale a "campus of knee-jerk Clintonians" and daring his classmates to join "the best party on campus," the Yale College Republicans. Nobody publicly took issue with the first statement, and as to the invitation, I may have been the only one to respond, albeit indirectly: Suffering from voter apathy, I decided that the "best party on campus" was just what I needed for a political shot in the arm. In all honesty, I figured that the Democratic Party might be more up my alley, but to be fair, I looked into both. Besides, you have to root a little bit for the underdog, even in politics. I'm not talking about Dole here, but about the Yale College Republicans. To me, their name sounds like an oxymoron. My friend Blake likens them to Bengal tigers: fierce and deadly, but so rare that you want to check in from time to time and make sure they haven't all vanished. Not having heard much from any Yale College Republicans recently, I thought it'd only be fair to check them out and see if they were for real, leaving open the possibility of having my opinion reshaped.

About politics. Not partying.

ARight John Mihaljevic (DC '99) is tall, dark-haired, and president of the Yale College Republicans. Like so many people in high-profile political positions, Mihaljevic is careful to repeat certain buzzwords in conversation, especially when that conversation is with somebody who may be writing a magazine article. His current word is "activism," and if you talk to. him enough, you begin to develop the mental image of a handful of nearly ragged individuals, exhausted to their conservative-but-mainstream marrow by an endless flurry of campus and community activiry.

These are the Yale College Republicans, and to be honest,

THE NEW jOURNAL

while not extremely active, they do believe in activism to an extent that would surprise most Yalies. Most of us, I think, would have guessed that "cigars" were a bigger priority to campus Republicans than "

actiVISm. 0

â&#x20AC;˘

"

Not so. They work at soup kitchens and volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. They do care about the homeless. But that's not all.

"The past year has seen a majbr reshaping of the Yale College Republicans," says Mihaljevic. "We are a mainstream organization.

Our main goals this fall, besides getting Dole and Kemp elected, are to get everybody who is at all interested politically to go out and do some grassroots work, and to educate students about the issues that are politically relevant to them today. We want to get students involved in the political process."

Grassroots? Are Republicans even allowed to use that word? What's going on here?

"We don't have many people from the Party of the Right anymore.

They seem to have disassociated themselves from the Republican Party." Ah... "We did not used to be an activist organization, and I think it was easy then for people to say we were elitist. We also had fewer members, which led to less diversity of opinion and background.

If you came to one of our meetings now, you would feel you might be at a meeting of any other organization on campus. Pro-choice, pro-life, both kinds of people come back to our meetings. We have members of all the [Yale Political Union] patties represented in our organization."

Not bad.

Mihaljevic smiles. "Well, actually I don't think we have any from the Liberal Party."

spits out his "key" words for him. That role is filled

by Richard Kim (DC '97), and his buzzword of the month is "registration," not nearly as exciting as "activism."

At Yale, registration equals votes for Clinton. The more Yalies vote, the more votes for Clinton. Nobody understands this better than the Yale College Democrats; they are a registration machine. They've been working at it since last spring.

They have a registrar, Caela Miller (SY ' 98), who commands 12 registration captains, one for each residential college.

The captains are in charge of recruiting people from their.college to do dining hall duty from now until the election. These recruits, in turn, are the ones asking you if you've registered to vote every night. If you haven't registered, and you haven't been asked, Miller is probably disciplining a captain for you right now.

In a couple of weeks, Kim will change his buzzword to "vote," a word that is strong enough but disappointingly predictable after its forerunner.

"We're going to be bugging people to vote," says Miller, and you can tell that she means it. "We'll probably be fighting a little bit of apathy; there are a lot of lazy people who'll just say, 'Oh, Clinton's gonna win anyway.' It's very important, though, that everyone votes, especially people who are registered here in New Haven. The more people vote, the more state resources New Haven gets, and right now it's really sad; Greenwich has had a larger voter turnout than New Haven."

Will the Democrats be calling me?

"Oh, yes. We'll call everyone we can on Election Day. It's just so easy to vote, and Yale can make a big difference in New Haven. Even the people in Morse and Stiles, Pierson and Davenport. We'll be running vans to their voting places [the Dixwell School and the Hall of Records, respectively] and having volunteers walk with people who want to be safe. Voting is the most important thing to us this year."

A Left Charles Borden (ES ' 9 7) is president of the Yale College Democrats, but unlike John Mihaljevic, he has a press secretary that

And aRight Mihaljevic's talk of "activism" is more than empty rhetoric.

1 \

OcroaER u, 1996

9

Though their numbers are perennially smaller than those of the Yale College Democrats, the Yale College Republicans are innovatively using the manpower they have, which has swollen into the hundreds this election year.

"Because of the Yale College Republican's smaller numbers and simpler organizational structure, th.ere is more of a chance for bottom-up activism from regular members. If someone has an idea they'd like to see happen, they can just mention it at a meeting and we'll try to do it."

Debbie Schmuhl (TD '00) is a prime example. A first-year student in directed studies, she came to Yale expecting to get involved in women's issues, particularly with regard to the election campaign, in which she supports Dole. "At Freshperson Bazaar," she says, "I stopped by the table of the Yale Women's Center. As soon as I mentioned that I was prolife, I began to feel somewhat unwelcome. They were nice to me, and the Women's Center is a good thing to have on campus, but I could tell that there weren't any people who really shared my ideas."

With the encouragement and backing of the Yale College Republicans, Schmuhl started her own organization a month after arriving at Yale, called the Women's Voter Education Program (WVEP).

The group held its first meeting last week.

"The aim of the group is to get past the idea of treating women like a special-interest group. We represent half of the voting population; there's got to be more than one issue affecting our view of the race.

It seems like so many women out there think c;; or are told that abortion is the only issue ~ concerning them, but no matter which side o youre ' on, Idont 'thinkth' ..., ats true. " ~ The formation of the group was ~ accompanied by the first issue of the WVEP ~newsletter, "Opening Minds." The only ~ article in it is a piece by Schmuhl outlining ~ the group's focus in terms borrowed from ~ Dole's nomination acceptance speech. Also ]';accompanying the group's formation was a ~ press release from Mihaljevic announcing the if. fledgling organization and tying it to the Yale

10

College Republicans. It's a marriage of convenience, but Schmuhl, grateful though she is to Mihaljevic and the Republicans, hopes the program will eventually become bipartisan.

"Our goals are more long-range than those of the Yale College Republicans," she says. "This is not just something for 1996.

while Women's Perspective [a group of conservative women] was not offered space, time, or money. It's crazy." For now, WVEP fills the void.

This is the new bread and butter of the Yale College Republicans. They help a group like Schmuhl's or Women's Perspective when the Women's Center doesn't, and the Yalies brought into the program become more educated about conservative issues and willing to stand up for them.

"I think the female vote is a big area where Dole can win over Yale students," says Mihaljevic. "Right now female voters may not realize that Clinton takes their vote for granted because he's pro-cho ice. Crime, education, the economy-these are other issues that all women, even if they're pro-choice, should consider when deciding who to vote for.

Clinton has ignored these, and that's more than enough reason to vote for Dole."

Jones will vote for Dole on November 5, but she kind of wishes it was Elizabeth.

And a Left

Our newsletters from now on will deal with one specific issue each week that is important to women voters."

The first meeting featured "a core group" of five women, but Schmuhl wants to start small and grow from there. One of the five was Frankie Jones (ES '99), who is pro-choice and thinks the new program is badly needed at Yale. To Jones, WVEP is a vital addition to the Yale community, at least until the Women's Center starts focusing more on the broader needs of women at Yale. "Honestly," she says, "they [the Women's Center] actually offer more opportunities for some men than they do for me. Programs like BiWays are put through there to appeal to bisexual men,

In addition to their ruthless pursuit of the voting-aged, the Yale College Democrats are also a huge source of campaign labor for city and state Democratic candidates, a function that the Yale College Republicans do not fill in the respective Republican hierarchy.

Working hand-in-hand with the Democratic Coordinated Campaign offices on Chapel Street, the Yale College Democrats send student volunteers to staff the offices and do legwork on campaigns that the Democratic brass has designated as critical.

"We've been working on the Gejdenson campaign, the Maloney-Franks race, we might even send people up to help in the Weld-Kerry campaign up in Massachusetts," says Kim. "We do much more than the College Republicans, so it only follows that we have to be a bit more organized. But we are open ro a lot of suggestions."

The Yale College Democrats were recently placed "in charge" of the Tri-state Area College Democrats. This means that

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Yale is a "warehouse of information" for the national campaign, as well as the host site of a College Democrat conference that will take place in the spring. The group is very busy, and doesn't tend to spend time talking about issues, though many come up in the members' minds.

"I personally have ~ lot of troubles with C linton, " admits Kim in a moment of candor unusual among press secretaries.

"Welfare, DOMA [The Defense of Marriage Act], the environment, these things have been discussed a lot, and are troubling to our executive board. But we're really engaged in campaigning right now, and we've got to get the best man elected."

And for you that's Clinton?

"VÂť xes.

7ime Out It seems that everybody has their minds made up about where to cast their vote.

Republicans campaign for Dole, Democrats for Clinton. Aren't there supposed to be some kind of debates, other than those conducted through tabletenrs or on TV from Hanford, for people to learn about the issues and make an educated

OCTOBER II ,

1996

choice? I know I'm not the only Clinton supporter who won d ers how far the President can slide to the right before the voters say "stop," and I know more than one Republican w h o wishes that Dole/Kemp were Kemp/Dole or something entirely polysyllabic. Where to go for inspiration?

An outsider might look to an organization bearing the title "Yale Political Union," but President Veronica Tucci (SY '98) quickly puts that lark to rest. "We're a parliamentary debate society. The election has nothing to do with us."

Forgive us for hoping.

Rope -a-Dope: TKO I look Mibaljevic in the eye. Dole doesn't have a chance here, does he?

He looks away, smiles, shakes his head.

"I won't say that," he protests.

An uphill battle?

'1\n uphill battle."

Down for the Count?

As we go to press, very little election excitement has been felt on this campus.

Kemp is the candidate that's made it closest

to Yale so far, and he settled for the University of New Haven. No rallies, no protests, no scandal or intrigue. For 70 percent of Yalies, that's probably all right.

Election excitement often accompanies changes in political currents, and right now the Vote can only be Rocked out of Clinton's hands. Things seem pretty stable; Clinton's going to win Ward 1, consisting almost exclusively of Yalies. Yale is safely in Democratic hands.

An interesting statistic: back in 1988, roughly 80 percent of Ward 1 voted for Michael Dukakis over George Bush. Was Dukakis a stronger Democratic candidate than Clinton? Clearly not. Yet Clinton only has 70 percent support. It seems, then, that campus conservatives exist in greater numbers today, or are doing a better job of drawing people to their cause. Though it's entirely possible that Republicans wilJ always be an endangered species at Yale, people like Mihaljevic and Schmuhl are keeping alive not only the Republican flame, but the possibility that campus conservatism will rise

II1J

again.

Akx Funk is a smior in Calhoun

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II

Stripping Away Tradition Alec Bemis Reason No. 1: "'t represents all that is alive and young about this school and to abandon it because of an inconvenience or a fear is to give in to entropy, old age, despair, and death. " The man with the rubber chicken on his shoulder has drafted a Nudist Manifesto.

Reason No. 2: "'t is a Saybrook tradition that contributes to the college's community spirit. " This document is a bold statement of intent announcing to the world that the fight against tradition will not succeed.

Reason No. 3: "Part of the college experience is maintaining the traditions and joys of the past. What would happen if we stopped having graduation on Old Campus? What would happen if we took the freshmen off Old Campus? What if]E didn't suck?"

Dan Fingerman (SY '00) is the man with the chicken on his shoulder. Although h!! is responsible for rallying the signatories of this document, he is not the only one engaged in the battle to prevent the avatars of progress from trampling over the glorious traditions of the past.

Reason No. 4: "Because I Like when people throw cold cuts .at my naked body. " Fingerman is trying to save the Saybrook Strip. To help propel the effort, he has tirelessly collected over 50 reasons why the Strip must be salvaged. Between discussions about buying seat cushions for the Saybrook TV room and funding a square dance, Fingerman presents his document to the 25-odd students assembled at the Saybrook College Council meeting.

No one quite understands why Fingerman has a rubber chicken over his shoulder, but it seems a good metaphor for the absurdity of the attempt to kill the most prominent piece of Yale's nudity tradition. He refers to the chicken as an "old friend" named Wt.lbur.

"He just happens to fit really well with the Strip," Fingerman says.

Wilbur, hanging lifelessly over Fingerman's shoulder, has been plucked down to his synthetic skin.

Supporting Fingerman's (and Wilbur's) effort are Saybrook Master Antonio Lasaga (Hon. MA '84) and every feisty Saybrugian you can find that still gives a damn about residential college spirit.

A long-time practice at Yale's home football games, the Saybrook Strip-a third quarter strip down to boxers and bras accompanied by the Yale Precision Marching Band's (YPMB) rendition of "The Stripper"-is in danger because of a recent addendum to the tradition.

Along with dropped drawers and unlaced shoes, a hail of rotten fruit and half-eaten sandwiches thrown by the other residential

12

colleges has become a part of the Strip in recent years. (This, of course, is rooted in the jealousy other students harbor over their exclusion from the fun of Saybrook's half-naked co-eds.) The YPMB, ordinarily seated directly in front of Saybrook, got to share in the experience of being knocked senseless by soda cans and bits of turkey. Not known for being one of the more rigid organizations at Yale, YPMB's list of instruments has included such untraditional musical objects as boomerangs, kazoos, and stuffed animals among the standard tubas and trumpets. Most incarnations of the band have not made a fuss about the mess.

T

he "enemy" in the struggle against the Strip is Thomas Duffy (Hon. MA '81), director of Yale's bands and adjunct professor in music analysis at the Yale School of Music. "Last year, in conjunction with a number of the students in the band, after having been pelted with food and drink and after having-what shall I say-dealt with this issue for many years, l decided enough was enough and that the band was going to relinquish the honor of accompanying the Strip in favor of some more musically spirited tunes," Duffy says. Not used to seeing controversy arise over his direction-the Yale Winter Wonder Band and the Yale Chamber Winds don't often make the headlines of the campus press-Duffy talks about the situation in well-measured sentences most likely recapitulated from conversations with confused undergrads looking for answers. "It was quite obvious mid-season that this was ridiculous. Our drum major was covered with food, and it's just not a musical event. If these Saybrook folks want to take half their clothes off and pretend they're naked, fine, they can do that, but as far as committing a prime playing opportunity of the band to that... the time has passed!"

Duffy also reflects on his moral qualms regarding the Strip. "You know, what a wonderful tradition in this day and age--with how many people in the world without food?-Yale students, the nation's future leaders, throwing food at people who pretend to take off their clothes. It's a little puzzling and kind of hard to justify."

Sick of instruments clogged with mayo, not to mention the larger matters of international conscience, Duffy wrote a short note last January to outgoing Saybrook Master James Thomas (LAW '64) stating that the band would no longer accompany the Strip. This was to be the death knell for the Strip as we know it. However, with the 1995-96 football season long gone and best forgotten, and Saybrook scheduled to welcome Antonio Lasaga as its new master for the Fall 1996 semester, the matter never made it into public view.

THE NEw JouRNAL

I

T

he first indication that something would be different this year came during Freshperson Conference 1996 at idyllic Camp Laurelwood. Hundreds of freshmen were assembled in small groups according to residential college affiliation. These sessions were to be the new frosh's first exposure to the legend and lore that run through each college's history.

"On the second night the band always comes," explains Eileen Yam (SY '97), a pod leader at this year's Conference. "So, that night all the Saybrook frosh were gathered, and we explained to them that tonight the YPMB is going to come and we're all going to strip when the band plays 'The Stripper.' We told them exactly how it was going to happen, how two minutes before we'll all yell 'shoes'the way we always do at the football games-then how we'd get up on stage and strip the way we always do, and the way it was when I was a freshman and I was on Conference. So, we went backstage, got ready to go on stage and got ready to strip, and the band just seemed confused. They played some songs and just never played 'The Stripper.' Then they ran off. I figured that they were just pathetic and hadn't learned their music yet." Of course, these resilient Yalies didn't let this hardship stop them. "So, we just ran up on stage and stripped anyway without any music," Yam says.

What Yam and all the attendees didn't know then was that the Strip would never be the same again.

OCTOBER 11, 1996

'' B

and sucks! Band sucks!" screams Duane Campbell (SY ~ '98) sitting just over Gate l4B of the Yale Bowl during S the first home game of the 1996 Football season. ~ Nearing the end of the third quarter, Yale is down 35 to 6 against ~ their intrastate rival from the University of Connecticut, so any g' drama left on the field easily gives way to the drama unfolding in ~­ the bleachers. "Don't cheer for the band!" Campbell cries, trying to ;! rally his fellow Saybrugians to harangue the YPMB. The band has ~ moved from its regular position directly below Saybrook to seats ~ eight rows back and safely out of harm's way. As they g enthusiastically charge through another traditional number in an ~ attempt to drown out Campbell's shouts, he finally gets his fill of Sousa-inspired brass. Turning towards the band, face puffed up in anger, he yells, "Oh, just shut up!"

As the third quarter nears, two defectors-YPMB members who also call Saybrook College their home-leave their places in the band and join their classmates in preparation for the Strip, music or not.

As one of the students sheds her button-encrusted blue marching band blazer, a fellow turncoat exclaims with shock, "You're taking off the jacket!"

"I'm taking it off," her stoic bandmate confirms. "I'm officially not part of the band for now. I'm with Saybrook."

13

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Speaking moments later on the condition that her identity be kept a secret ("I don't want to make waves," she says), this tortured victim of a policy she did not create says, "Duffy's official position is that we're putting them on equal footing with all the other college traditions. We're not going to play anything. We don't want to come out against the band director. It's very political."

Band announcer Brian Levinson (DC '99) says, "People have been asking me, 'Dude, what's the story with "The Stripper?" Are you going to play it?' People throw food at the band. There will be no relenting."

Two minutes before the end of the third quarter, Saybrook's nefarious plans for the Strip come to light. Saybrook has beeQ sending runners across the stadium on and off since half-time to negotiate with the UConn band to play "The Stripper." Their labors finally bear sweet fruit. "The opposing band is going to play the music for us!" exclaims Campbell. A quick martial chant of "UConn Band! UConn Band!" resounds from the assembled Saybrook students.

But there is a slight_snag. "OK They're going to try to play 'The Stripper,' but they don't have the music. So they're going to play something that matches the rhythmic structure of it," Campbell says.

As the third quarter ends, the shoe is dropped, literally. Sneakers in hand, the Saybrook contingent drops its drawers just as the UConn band erupts into a rousing rendition of "Give Me Some Lovin'"indeed, a passable rhythmic match to the risque classic that usually accompanies the unveiling of Saybrook's pride and joy.

The Strip continues ... for now.

Flushed with their success with the UConn band, devoted Saybrugians are planning a loosely organized letter-writing campaign aimed at bands of opposing colleges, hoping they too, will play "The Stripper," or some other rhythmic equivalent, when they visit the Yale Bowl.

responsibility for mediating the struggle for the life of the Strip.

But to the members of Saybrook College who are trying to maintain school spirit in an era of student apathy towards the residential college system, this is an issue on which the future of the institution depends. "They keep trying to keep people on campus, yet they're ending all the college traditions-which seems kind of crazy to me," says Eileen Burke (SY '97). vicepresident of the Saybrook College Council.

It's hard to believe, but customs like the Strip at football games and nude runs across Old Campus during Future Freshmen Days are the only thing that prevent residential colleges from looking like more decrepit versions of the off-campus apartments that dot New Haven and that, increasingly, are the place to live if you want to avoid tiny rooms, communal bathrooms, and broken thermostats.

If this university makes a habit of letting its traditions drop off one by one, who knows what will go next? Mter all, those dusty old Gothic buildings sure are a pain to keep clean.

Ia]

( ( T hese are certainly hot-potato issues which the future of the institution does not depend on," President Richard Levin was quoted as saying in the Yale Daily Nws, begging off

Alec Bemis, a junior in Berkeley College, is eksigner ojTNJ.

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A s Chin.ese rule quickly approaches, Yale seeks out its niche in post-1997 Hong Kong.

ong Kong's Second Coming Dana Goodyear ' ' Hong Kong is an entrep6c," I was cold before I set off for this spot of soil in the South China Sea. When I asked my French-speaking friends for a cranslacion of the word, I got no definitive answer. I have now become more familiar with the word than I ever intended. A few days of reading back issues of a Hong Kong newspaper alerts me that "entrep6t" is quite a buzzword here. It means, I gather, a liaison-ground. I imagine a bustling train stop, where cargo is unloaded, reconfigured, reloaded.

Another person describes. the Hong Kong-China relationship for me with a similar metaphor: "We ace the shop window; they are the shop floor."

Thoughts of straight-up, unadulterated consumerism are hard to escape in Hong Kong. No inch of space goes unused, and every aspect of life is for sale. At the stroke of midnight on June 30, 1997, Hong Kong will reven co Chinese sovereignty afrer 99 years of British colonial rule. Not even chis all-imponant date goes unexploiced as a marketing stratagem: T-shirts bragging fallen Union Jacks abound; one can smoke a "1997" brand cigarette; the posh Club 1997 and its diminutive neighbor, Post-'97, draw elbowing crowds.

I weave through the streets, where unintelligible sounds perplex my ears, neon characters blur before my eyes, and flyovers-tra.ffic-jacnmed highways of dubious stability-streak above my head. Ailey markets thicken the air with the smell of fruit left too long in the sun.

I am on my way to meet Bob Bonds (BK '71), the mastermind of the Yale Club of Hong Kong. I need a job, and as one eager to tap into my Yale connection, he is the man to see. His office is a cool relief to the hoc, diesely streets. There are stacks of papers everywhere: invitations to the upcoming Glee Club concen, glossy posters of Harkness Tower as viewed through a spray of magnolias, Yale Club of Hong Kong newsletters. A schedule of Whim 'ri Rhythm events tops one stack; they are coming to Hong Kong at the month's end, following on the heels of the Whiffenpoofs. The fax machine beeps, the telephone rings, the computer whirs through its database ofYalies.

This jumble is the only tangible evidence of the existence of the Yale Club of Hong Kong. "No fancy building?" I ask. This is it, the conference-cum-storage room of Bonds' publishing firm. What began in 1979 when 15 Yale alumni got together for lunch has grown into a network chat is hundreds strong. "I'd have co verify chis," Bonds tells me early on, "but the AYA [Association of Yale Alumni] says that we're the most active Yale Club outside the U.S." He types my name and address imo the computer, and I become member No. 207.

"What's happening between Yale and Hong Kong is chat the two are getting tighter," says Bonds. More, and younger, Yalies are coming to 16

Hong Kong. In return, more local Hong Kong high school students are going co New Haven to attend Yale. In 1995, the Yale-China Association expanded co include a summer program in American studies for young East Asian scholars and professionals. ale's burgeoning interest in China seems counterintuitive at first.

At a time whe,!l the world is wary of Hong Kong's future, when the stock market here has suffered fro m several crises of confidence, when many large businesses have relocated, when such basic guarantees as freedom of the press lose credibility every day, it strikes me as odd that Yale should choose to dig in its heels.

In America, calk of the handover is heavy with fatalistic doomsdayspeak. There is the perception that from the colony's cracked cocoon a new Chinese metropolis will emerge. Many imagine the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) populated with People's Liberation Army cadets and Communist Party cadres. The excitement this event is generating-hotels all over the territory claim no vacancyis not surprising. It is one of those rare moments of predictable history.

And the circumstances are peculiar: a piece of land born of British imperialism, synonymous with capitalism, is to be engulfed in the great bosom of communism.

But if one believes the Basic Law, drafted to bring HKSAR into existence, the region will maintain its own ideology and economic struCture. Despite promises of "a high degree of autonomy," HKSAR will be an indivisible part of the People's Republic of China. Ar least until the year 2047, when the Basic Law expires.

Bonds assures me that he is nothing but optimistic about Yale's status in Hong Kong, and in Asia at large. Five years ago, two Hong Kong tycoons, who had come across Yalies in their business and intellectual circles, donated $6 million to be shared by Yale and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (which hosts Yale-China's Hong ~ Kong program). The gift puts the South China region on the academic map by giving Yale an incentive to increase its interest in the area. In !l addition, Bonds notes, "East Asian activities are growing like wild ~ grass. Yale would be foolish not to tap into chat." ~Âť

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Several days afrer my encounter with Bonds-which did not result in a job, but generated frequent invitations to Yale cocktai.l parties and ; boating trips. as well as solicitations to host Whiffenpoofs and Glee dub members-! meet David Youtz, field staff director for the YaleChina Association. We sit in the tea room of the Mandarin Hotel, tucked among the buildings of Central Hong Kong's posrcard skyline. ~ This district is the territory's hub of finance and fashion fanaticism. 3 Like Bonds, Youtz radiates an enthusiasm for the future. "Yale-China is ~

THE NEw JouRNAL

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n 1901, when prior Western contact with China had been largely mercantile, the Yale-China Association set up shop in Changsha, Hunan Province. The small outcropping of buildings evolved into a vast educational complex composed of a medical college, nursing school, middle school, and modern teaching hospital. Yale graduates traveled to Changsha to teach English and Western medical techniques. In return they learned Chinese.

The Communist takeover in 1949 put a stop to all that; in 1950 Yale-China was summarily expelled from the mainland. By 1954 Yale-China had regrouped and relocated in Hong Kong. President Richard Nixon's normalization campaign of the early 1970s resumed diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing in 1979. The following year, YaleChina returned to its old campuses on the

18

mainland. Throughout years of changing international politics, Yale-China maintained its Hong Kong branch. Accustomed to redefining its niche, Yale-China is pragmatic and resilient. Its directors view the upcoming change in Hong Kong as an opportunity rather than a setback.

Youtz predicts that post-1997 Hong Kong will be a hotbed of East-West interaction, even more than it is today. Despite China's¡efforts to control Hong Kong's population by enforcing tight borders between it and the mainland, an influx of Chinese is inevitable.

And despite the hypochondriac worries that Westerners have for the market's health, Americans and Europeans eager to make a buck will still flock to the territory. Protocol for Yale-China in the coming years is to prepare Chinese students for a future full of Americans. Youtz laughs and comments, "Chinese students have some very weird ideas about what America is. They think that if they smoke Marlboro cigarettes and know about anything-goes capitalism they understand

America." Surely such a warped perception cannot serve the business relations that are cropping up with increasing frequency between Americans and Chinese.

Youtz speaks confidently about the ongoing, and intensified, need for Yale-China in Hong Kong. He reminds me of what I was told weeks ago back in New Haven. I visited the Yale-China headquarters-a small red and white colonial house at the corner of Temple and Trumbull Streets-to get some background information. Inside, I was surprised to hear the woman at the front desk chatting on the telephone in Cantonese: my first encounter with the syllables that would soon bewilder me. Nancy Chapman (BK '77), Yale-China's president and a graduate of the Yale-China program, popped her head around the corner. She conversed briefly with the woman, sliding easily into English out of consideration for me.

In slighcly more impassioned terms, with a determination that makes Youtz seem almost casual, the otherwise soft-spoken Chapman

THÂŁ

New JouRNAL

assured me, "There is no fear that the YaleChina Association will leave. We've functioned quite successfully in [the People's Republic of] China for 16 years." Barring some unforeseen catastrophe-"and we're not anticipating anything of this sort," she added quicklyYale-China plans to adapt and persist.

She admitted that change to the academic environment is inevitable; the same cosmopolitan environment and hands-off colonial government that account for Hong Kong's business success also foster its often overlooked intellectual community. The YaleChina classrooms on the mainland function rather free of interference, notwithstanding the ever-watchful eyes of the 11-year-old Party monjtors installed in every classroom. But of late, China has intimated its discomfort with what goes on in the Hong Kong classrooms.

Last summer, Chinese students planning to attend the Yale-China American studies program in Hong Kong were refused permission to leave the mainland. While never told explicitly why this decision was made, Yale-China officials do not believe that the issue was their curriculum. Students from Taiwan and Hong Kong were also to attend. It seems China saw the students from Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rebel state, and t hose from Hong Kong as potentially corruptive to the mainland students.

More than most, Chapman is aware of the cultural gulf between people who have lived their entire lives on the mainland and the cosmopolitan residents of Hong Kong. She was among the first group of Yale graduates to return to the old Yale-China facilities in China after normalization. Mter over 30 years of American-Chinese estrangement, the two cultures held one another in mutual fascination. That fascination still exists, but is more focused now. "The Chinese see the U.S. as the key to their own modernization efforts.

America has captured the Chinese imagination as a land of opportunity, of vitality, and of creativity," Chapman says. YaleChina's aim in the upcoming years is to facilitate communication between Americans and Chinese. Where formerly this was a literal proposition centering around basic English instruction, Yale-China's role is now more expansive. Hong Kong's metamorphosis into HKSAR provides a vast arena for cultural exchange which Yale-China hopes to referee.

OCTOBER II, I996

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I9

elations between the people of Hong Kong and the Chinese government have at times needed refereeing.

Chapman cited the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989 as a low point. In Hong Kong, the spectre of the massacre has not left the public consciousness, nor has time dulled the implications such an incident might have for democracy and freedom in HKSAR. Peter Stein (CC '86), a graduate of the Yale-China program, is the Hong Kong editor of the Asian WalL Street journal (AW)). He was in Tiananmen Square as an observer-turnedreporter on May 20, 1989, the night that martial law was declared. The days he spent in Beijing afforded him a different view of the Chinese. Neither during his two years as a Yale-China teacher in Changsha nor in his eight years as a journalist in Hong Kong had Stein been privy to such openness, such unguarded hope. People talked about the government, about the future of China. At one point a man in the crowd turned to him and said, "This is the beginning of a new era in Chinese history. You are here to witness it."

This hopefulness, this "naivete," as Stein calls it now, was mirrored in Hong Kong. "It was one of the few times that Hong Kong people really felt close to people in Ch~a.

Usually there is a sense of us and them. People in Hong Kong thought: my God, these people have aspirations we can identify with." Hong Kong's sympathy for the mainlanders in their petition for democracy was likewise informed by their sense of the imminence of Beijing government in their daily lives. The

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disappointment of the aftermath was colored by their growing fear. "After the June 4 massacre, Hong Kong felt that there was no point in thinking about all this democracy stuff anymore. Those who couldn't emigrate had to try to make it work as well as possible."

I meet Stein in the dim, afrer-hours light of the AW] office. He is working late. His job is to interpret and forecast the political environment in Hong Kong. The column he writes often focuses on the doings and sayings of Martin Lee, the Democratic Party leader who is arguably the most outspoken voice for democracy in Hong Kong and who has already been labeled "subversive" by the Chinese government. Lee earned his title partially because of his participation in the massive support rallies prior to Tiananmen and the mourning ceremonies afrerward.

I expect Stein to be pessimistic about the future, but he is not. "Hong Kong will not have outlived its usefulness just because it becomes a Chinese territory. There will be a reaction as people come to understand that Hong Kong has a huge advantage over the rest of China in terms of its infrastructure, livability, and cost of living. It will become even more readily recognizable as a place from which to do business with China."

Stein, like most of the people (Yaleaffiliated or otherwise) that I encounter in Hong Kong, does not subscribe to the prestochango, apocalyptic vision of Handover Day. He reminds me that, for years, Hong Kong has been the biggest foreign investor in China.

Stein has no intention of leaving Hong

Kong. His post-graduate experience in China whet his appetite for this part of the world, where he has now lived for eight years. He is fluent in both Mandarin (learned during his Yale-China experience) and Cantonese (learned since his employment in Hong Kong and marriage to a Cantonese-speaker). nother committed expatriate is Mark Sheldon, who, although he did not attend Yale, is an honorary Yale Club member by dint of his former job as YaleChina Field Staff Director. He works at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I trek to the university via bus, subway, and light rail.

The campus lies in the New Territories, the last-acquired portion of the British territory of Hong Kong and the only land under the 99year lease. The light rail train flies by an immense turquoise reservoir which is technically responsible for all this handover mess-for it so happens that this water supplies the entire territory. If the New Territories go, so must Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, which Britain technically has rights to in perpetuity.

On the campus, I am a stone's throw from the border with the mainland. From the window of the office where I wait to speak with Sheldon, I can see mountains to which Britain has no claim at all. Under the shadow of skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island, it is sometimes hard to imagine the territory as soon-to-be-Chinese. The geography here, on the other hand, argues the opposite: it is all the same land.

When Sheldon arrives, his first words place a skeptical spin on the optimism that Youtz and Chapman espouse. "There are certain notions of autonomy and personal liberties here that are not in sync with China's federalism." He does not see how it will be possible for two such different systems to integrate without compromising the precepts of one or the other. The system that prevails will depend on who wields the actual power in Hong Kong. In the past several months China has declared that the current Legislative Council, elected in 1995 and intended to serve until 1999, will be dissolved at the handover. A provisional legislature, chosen by a group hand-picked in Beijing, will serve in the interim.

This has Hong Kong up in arms: local politicians (who have in recent years become

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public figures in the notoriously apolitical territory), journalists, and foreigners alike worry that the seemingly bottomless welJ of Hong Kong's success will be poisoned by China's bumbling bureaucracy. Only the conspiracy theorists believe that China will kill the golden goose out of spite for capitalism and the imperialist history that created Hong Kong. Many, however, believe that Hong Kong's demise will come about unintentionally. As a best case scenario, Sheldon envisions that "Beijing will let Chinas Hong Kong people run Hong Kong."

Sheldon expects the upcoming years to be busier than ever. Return to Chinese sovereignty, whatever else it means for the territory, will inevitably mean that the university will enroll more mainland students.

Exchange of academic theories and techniques will proliferate. But Sheldon is not sure if this exchange will remain unimpeded. "There is no evidence of academic encroachment." He manages a wry smile. "Yet."

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ettainly what draws most foreigners-and plenty of Yalies among them-to this remote locale is the prospect of making money. Hong Kong has become known as a first-rate international finance center, a city with an infrastructure capable of processing the raw goods and manufactured products it imports from all over Asia and reexporting them. It is, for the time being at least, the Asian entrepot for foreign corporations. This is where the deals are done.

The Basic Law includes measures to ensure that a post-1997 Hong Kong will maintain the practice of clean business and the suppott of civil liberties. But people here and abroad worry that the Basic Law will be abused, and that the people of Hong Kong will have no recourse by which to address its violation. This helplessness and lack of faith in legislation would harbinger the end of successful business in Hong Kong.

Sheldon says, "If the rule of law is ended here, Hong Kong will not be what it would have been." But he is quick to prevent me from jumping to any doomsday conclusions.

"That's not to say that Hong Kong will be unimpottant."

Hong Kong will, however, be hampered by its position as an island of capitalist ideology in a communist-socialist sea. Hong Kong people expect that business practice is

OCTOBER II,

1996

squeaky clean and corruption-free. Hong Kong people trust their legal system and the ethical standards of the judiciary. They are accustomed to freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience.

Hong Kong's assertion of its democratic rights is a phenomenon of recent years. Under benign colonial rule there was a distinct political complacency. It is only since the SinoBritish Joint Liaison Group discussion about the nuts and bolts of sovereignty transfer in 1990 that Hong Kong pushed for wide geographically-based democratic elections for legislators . China's reaction to these democratic rumblings is increasingly defensive .and angry. Sheldon says, "When the center is weak, the center does funny things. It is unfortunate that the transition is taking place when the center is weak." He looks to China for an indication of the future of Hong Kong, and is not much cheered by what he diagnoses there. "The prevailing ideologies in China are nationalism and money-making-an unfortunate kind of mix for Hong Kong in this moment of transition."

Prevailing opinion says that change in Hong Kong will not be dramatic. Many respond to the question, "What will happen in 1997?" with the answer, "1997 already happened." The machinery is in place; the law has been drafred. But of all the opinions I solicit, the newspaper articles I read, and the bits of folk wisdom I accumulate, the o nly consistent element in the discussion of the transition is that of uncertainty. Al1 anyone knows is that nothing is guaranteed, except for the fact that on June 30, 1997, royallyappointed Governor Chris Patten will sail off, gin and tonic in hand, hastened by a final cannonball salute, and illuminated by the glow of fireworks.

Whether or not Hong Kong's social and political climate will remain conducive to business, and thus attractive to foreigners, is anybody's guess. But for the time being, it is certain that the invitations to the next cocktail party will continue to accumulate on Bob Bonds' conference table, and the database of Yalies will continue to expand as each new

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21

This Is Your Brain.

Mapping the Mind Karen Jacobson

T

he whiteness of the smooth inner skull appears, followed by the first of 124 slices of a child's brain, each 1.2 millimeters thick. The slices pile on quickly, creating the sensation of a movie, building onto themselves as the little boy's brain is constructed. The sagittal cuts reach the midline, which is the profile of the human face and the brain it encompasses, and then quickly pass to the outer edge just inside the ear and temple, the folds of brain briefly visible before being surrounded by the protective skull. The picture resembles a science fiction plan for constructing artificial intelligence. On the computer screen, the image's motion gives the brain a tangible quality, as if this object moving towards the viewer could be lifted into reality and disassembled mechanically as easily as it has been assembled electronically. The screen to the right of the one displaying the brain receives new instructions and the little boy is told through the intercom: "Max, all set for the next set of pictures. Same type of noise, same length of time, same instructions. Don't move at all; talk to you in a bit." The churning begins again as a current runs through the wires of the imager, bumping against the wires' sides, and the next pictures are collected.

"Yes! What a good little boy!" Dr. Bradley Peterson says as the previous image finishes appearing on the screen. "I'm always in such a good mood when the sagittal comes out." Peterson, a researcher in his mid-thirties, hops around behind the screens, grinning in glee and relief. To construct a complete image of the brain, the patient must hold his or her head absolutely still for twenty minutes. Although such a task is relatively easy for the average adult, who often falls asleep during that time, scanning a child is always a gamble. A child finds it difficult to hold still for that long, and any movement returns an image containing lines.

Holding completely still is even harder for a person with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome. Peterson's study attempts to capitalize on this magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to study Tourette's in both adults and children. A little boy Max's age would have difficulty lying still because of his tics-involuntary, sudden, recurrent movements or vocalizations. Although most people associate Tourette's with an individual who swears or makes obscene gestures uncontrollably, this occurs in only 10 percent of cases. A simple motor tic can appear as eye blinking, neck jerking, shoulder shrugging. Simple vocal tics include coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, grunting, and even barking. More complex vocal tics can be the repetition of words or phrases out of context.

Studying Tourette's syndrome represents an avenue by which to explore the vague boundaries between voluntary and involuntary behaviors. Everyone has compulsions to speak out at certain times or touch things that they know should not be touched. What keeps us from following through on those impulses? The MRI technology that Peterson uses may allow us to pinpoint where control of these actions resides in the brain. For an individual with Tourette's syndrome, the urge to tic persists until the action is performed. Individuals with Tourette's compare this feeling to an attempt to keep from blinking; eventually, the effort breaks down, and a person blinks.

A nine-year-old boy describes his struggle with the disease during an interview with a child psychiatrist at the Yale Child Study Center, which is a world leader in the study of the disease and also Peterson's workplace. As the little boy plays with model soldiers, he says that his Tourette's is like the bad soldiers. The good soldiers at first beat and kill all the bad soldiers, just as the little boy can fight off his tics for a while. However, when all the bad soldiers are finally dead and the battle seems won, they rise up again and begin to beat the good soldiers. As he finishes this description, the little boy spins around to his left, touching the table behind him twice before spinning forward, looking up at the ceiling twice, and returning to play with his soldiers. or much of the twentieth century, experimental psychology focused on human behaviors. The brain was treated as a black box, inaccessible to scientists for explaining human actions. Tourette's syndrome was not appreciated as an organic imbalance or oddity in brain structure; it was treated as a mental disorder. The swearing and obscene gestures were viewed as residual developmental difficulty. Psychotherapy, however, has little impact on controlling tics in Tourette's.

In the 1960s, scientists began to construct information processing models to explain how the brain is used when one thinks and how thinking is organized. This research was done mostly in animals, where specific lesions in the brain could be made. The animals' subsequent behavior was recorded and afterward their cerebral anatomy was studied further. In humans, much of the science focused on autopsy studies of people with specific behavior disorders. However, the trauma to the brain caused by death made the visible damage a poor indication of functional problems. Damage could have occurred from the way the person died or the aging process. The new MRI. technology

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23

allows a healthy child to be interviewed, tested, and then, within a few hours, to have his brain measured and studied.

Phrenology, the nineteenth-century belief that bumps on the skull correlate to personality types, has long been abandon~d. Yet scientists peering at the reconstructed brain image on the computer screen feel a certain kinship to that research of a century ago. They no longer crudely measure bumps, but they measure brain structures that govern human actions.

When Peterson arrived at Yale in 1990, the MRI technology was available, but no one was using it to identify the specific changes in brain sfructure associated with neurological diseases. "I was amazed that MRI allowed us to study the brain structure of living children safely," Peterson says. "But no one at Yale was doing that kind of work. It was very hard at first; I had to feel my way blindly." Peterson now directs the Tourette's ¡syndrome MRI project. He has recruited 160 children for the study, about 80 with Tourette's and 80 who are normal controls. Before MRI technology was invented, there was little hope that brain sttucture changes associated with Tourette's would be¡ pinpointed. Because Tourette's is a childhood disease, decades often passed between the recording of tic symptoms and the death of indi-viduals, when the brain could be exam-ined. "There were only two good au-topsy cases for Tour-ette's," Peterson says. Now, using MRI, Peterson's study alone has produced the equivalent of 160 child autopsies.

When a child first arrives for scanning, he is interviewed, along with his parents, to determine the severity of his Tourette's. He is then taken to the MRI center at Yale-New

Haven Hospital, which sits in the basement of the medical school in a building adjacent to the Child Study Center. The machine used by Peterson is run by Hedy Sarofin. Sarofin sits on a high stool in front of the three screens which control the MRI scanner and display the images it captures.

From her perch she gazes through the large panels of glass onto the MRI machine in the adjacent room. The door leading to that room bears warning signs in orange lettering, telling those who enter to remove all metal or magnetically coded objects from their bodies. Credit cards, for instance, are erased in the MRI room because the room is magnetized. Metal objects are tugged gently by the magnetic field; clip-ons might fly off women's ears, becoming dangerous projectiles.

The room is off-white and the MRJ "' ~ machine dominates the space. Coils of magnet are contained in a large, beige plastic arch about two meters long with a table extending from it. The child walks into the room with his parents and sits on the table. He is given ear plugs to mute the loud churning of the machine. He lies down, resting his head in a helmet. His head is braced on either side by padding inside the helmet, which.concains the head

coil. Attached to the helmet is a visor with a mirror, angled so that without moving his head the child can see his father who stands holding his feet for reassurance. His legs rest over two pillows to make him comfortable and his body is wrapped in blankets for warmth. A small piece of tape runs across his forehead and chin, anchored on either side to the head cradle.

These can easily rip when tugged, but they help assure the patient that his head is not moving involuntarily. The motorized table moves the child into the bore of the magnet, which is typically 70 centimeters in diameter; the inside of the arch contains an intercom through which Sarofin can give updates on the scanning agenda.

What is happening to the little boy as he lies as still as he can inside the magnet?

In MRI scans of the brain, it is mainly the hydrogen in tissue water that is being imaged. When the child enters the magnetic field, the hydrogen atoms in his body align with the field in the same manner as a compass aligns with the earth's poles.

The frequency at which the hydrogen nucleus oscillates in a magnetic field is its "resonant frequency." It is similar to the frequency of a compass needle rocking back and forth in the earth's magnetic field.

The compass can be stimulated to rock by tapping its glass cover case; the nucleus of a hydrogen atom is stimulated by sending pulses of radio waves at the tissue. When the waves are at the appropriate frequency, the hydrogen atom is excited. It then falls back into the original magnetic field, emitting waves that can be detected by a short wave-radio antenna and receiver in the head coil. As with the compass needle, the resonant frequency of the stimulated hydrogen is proportional to

THE NEW jOURNAL

the external field strength. For the compass, the frequency of the swinging motion increases as it is carried up the magnetic gradient from the equator toward the North Pole, where the magnetic field is stronger. A person can locate where he or she is in the world by the amount of rocking and where the needle points. In MRI, the scanner creates artificial gradients. The gradient field strength changes in a well-defined manner from place to place in the brain as it is being scanned. The location of the hydrogen in the body can be determined from the resonant frequency, since that correlates to the gradient field strength.

The MRI scan is the equivalent of freezing a head, cutting it into transverse slices, then physically cutting it into tiny square cylinders. Each 1 millimeter cylinder occupies a known position in the original slice. The computer measures the amount of hydrogen in the brain tissue water in each cylinder and shows them as a particular brightness on the computer screen in proportion to that amount. To produce a usable picture, the computer carries out a classical mathematical maneuver known as a fourier transform.

W

th the scanning completed, the child's brain is stored on an optical disk, which is similar to a compact disc, . and moved to the diagnostic radiology imaging center on the fifth floor in a different wing of the medical school. Far from a morgue, this aseptic room filled with high-tech computers holds on its optical disks the equivalent of hundreds of human brains in jars.

Joel Klein (ES ' 96) was working on the Peterson project as a computer operationalise last spring. He measured the structures and created, with Peterson and Larry Staib, a computer programmer, the algorithms to put these images to their best use. People involved with MRI tend to be young. Older researchers have more difficulty wrapping their minds around the new technology, combining an understanding of medicine with computer programming. The change in technology has transformed the technicians from biologists and anthropologists to

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radiologists, physicists, electrical engineers, and diagnostic radiologists. Slicing the brain no longer requires a steady hand and knowledge of tissue differences, but an understanding of computer language.

"Th is work h as applications to robot vision," says Joel. "If you want a robot to walk down a hall and turn left at the next door, it needs to find the door. Just as it must extract the door from the surrounding features, we want to extract the corpus from the brain."

Joel sits with the large computer screen in front of him, rolling back and forth on his chair and whistling quietly to the 1970s tunes coming from the radio on his right.

He is the classic image of the cocky, young computer jock. The computer in front of him is named "Fovea," after the portion of the eye with the keenest perception. A long vertical rectangle on the screen has lists of commands that Joel enters in his attempts to run the measurements he desires.

"What I am interested in right now is trying to figure out how big the ventricles in this kid's brain are," Joel says. He moves his cursor to the long, vertical window and types "analyze" at the prompt. This· starts Analyze, t h e compu.ter program that reconstructs the brain in 3-D on t h e screen. In a flash, the Analyze logo appears followed by a dark blue screen with files holding commands. With a few more spins of the mouse, Joel opens a file holding the sagittal cuts of one patient. The skull and the fluid that bathes the brain have been removed, leaving a clean profile slice.

Major structures are easily visible by their color differences, such as the corpus callosum, which is very light gray in comparison to the structures surrounding it. Other structures are visible to Joel's eye from his knowledge of brain markers, equivalents to the north star when one is locating constellations in the night sky .

"There is a lot of fluid called cerebrospinal fluid that basically bathes the brain and surrounds the skull," Joel says.

"There are also channels or rivers of fluid that run in very distinct, discrete regions of the brain called ventricles." In so me diseases, in particular Tourette's syndrome, these ventricles are enlarged, as they are in people with Alzheimer's disease. Peterson's group believes that a degenerative process

occurs with Tourette's syndrome, diminishing some parts of the brain , leaving behind the larger ventricles.

Measuring the spaces between areas of the brain, however, is not as simple as pulling out a ruler or telling the computer to "go."

To take measurements, Joel wants to use a 3-D morphology program to first plug the little holes that appear as little yellow spots in the ventricles, making the pixels of a structure into a uniform intensity. He then plans to subtract everything from this plugging operation, leaving the ventricles behind.

"It won't let me do 3-D morphology on this," Joel mutters. "Why is that?" Much of the time the technician or programmer is struggling to get the available sofrware to do what he or she wants it to do. 'We can say, for instance, we want to measure the ventricles and then the whole trick of this is persuading the software to actually do that, Joel says.

Taking a tour of the brain, Joel runs the cursor around the image pointing to the major landmarks. "The corpus callosum is historically an important structure," Joel says. The corpus is an enormous band of tissue t h at bridges the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The Peterson study believes that the shape and size of the corpus callosum may be one distinguishing factor in subjects with Tourette's syndrome.

"We believe that especially the frontal portions here, this part that is sort of bulbous, may be important in attentionrelated tasks and tasks of motor movement," Joel explains. If Peterson's study can successfully pinpoint where the d ifficulty in controlling actions resides, interventions to control diseases in which people lose control, such as Tourette's, might be more successful with fewer side effects. Peterson believes, though, that Tourette's more likely affects many brain · regions; especially with more complicated behaviors, such as volition, control will probably reside in numerous locations around the brain.

T he advances that this research has allowed are more fully appreciated when compared to the techniques of only a decade ago. "The big landmark study of the corpus callosum was of nine men and five women ," says Joel. Obtaining that

TH£ NEw JouRNAL

number of usable autopsies is difficult. T he 1982 study, by Columbia Un iversity anthropologists Christine de LacosteUtamsing and Ralph L. Holloway, published in Science, concluded that the back of the corpus is more bulbous and larger in women than men. The Peterson group has p roven t h em wrong. The techniques of little over a decade ago seem archaic compared to the precision of th e computer measurements. In the old days, when the brain was first removed from the head, its soft tissue was suspended for three weeks in a solution containing saline and other chemicals to ensure that the brain retained its original shape. "They literally would slice the brain in half, slap down the corpus on paper, hope the paper didn't get too wet, trace it, blow it up on a slide projector on a big wall covered with paper, and use that to compare volumes," Joel marvels with the confidence of one who has found a better route. O nce the brain is sliced, it could not be resliced or used again. "We are doing an in vivo study here, meaning the people are still alive," Joel says. "So, we can give them other tests and gather pharmacological information from blood samples. T h e computer is just so much more accurate, and, of course, far less invasive."

T he MRI techn ol ogy th at Joel so comfortably plays with may give us a new window onto the effects of our actions and a new understanding of why we do what we do. Localizations of behavior to brain regions in diseases such as Tourette's will lead us to a better understanding of normal behavior and development. T he folds of the brain reveal a person's experience, just as rings on a tree reflect the plant's history.

An alcoholic often has enlarged ventricles, appearing as larger gaps between folds, while a pianist has a larger region that sends messages to the hands. As Max leaves the MRI center, a visual copy of his brain remains on optical disk. H is body contains no visual trace or scar, yet h is brain can now be disassembled and dissected. His brain may provide insight into his actions and predict his future, if we can learn to unscramble the code.

Ill]

Kaun jacobson, a unior in jonathan Edwards Co/kg~. is managing ~ditor of TN].

OCTOBER II,

199-6

THE NEw JouRNAL is proud to

announce that Gabriel Snyder, a managing editor of TN], is the 1996 winner of Rolling Stone's College Journalism Competition in the feature writing category. His story, "Crossing the Line," looked at heroin use on Yale's campus. The article appeared in Volume 28, Issue 3, on October 13, 1995.

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very so often I look up from my desk and see two photo albums sitting on my shelf, waiting patiently for an eager audience. The albums are filled with pictures of aquamarine oceans flooding onto Besh-colored sand, wet-eyed sea lion pups sniffing my fingers, and Maori carvings of men with tongues thrust between their teeth. The pictures serve as.memories of my semester in New Zealand, and also as proof that the days I recall from the Land of the Long White Cloud acrually happened.

Before leaving, I daydreamed of the exotic life I would find in a foreign country-a Life so removed from Yale, I would hanlly recognize rhe land, the culture, or even myself. As it does for many students endeavoring to study abroad, the Yale bureaucracy tried to dissuade me from pursuing academics beyond Yale. Bur I remembered the words of a Princeton friend who spent a semester in Africa: "Lots of people who don't srudy abroad say they wish they had, but I don't know anyone who studied abroad who wished they hadn't."

For years, I told myself I would miss nothing earth-shattering by leaving Yale for a semester. Bur when ir came down to packing up a dorm room of belongings and saying goodbye to everyone and everything on campus for nine months, I wondered whether I was doing the right thing. Was it stupid to leave now, when I had finally found my niche at Yale, had a group of good ftiends, felt like the things I do here matter? My friends will grow together while I drift away from them, I thought. They will change. I will change. Maybe we won't fit together anymore. I will be alone in a foreign country, starting from scratch.

When I rerum to Yale, I might fed alone and have to start over again. I panicked. But I scuffed my backpack, heaved it onto my back, and took off on Qanras Flight 109.

E

five weeks of solitary rravd and research ahead of me?

After two weeks of research, however, I felt brashly confident, secure in the knowledge that I was a Yale student conducting significant research in a foreign country, independent of my home institution, my family, or any familiar surroundings.

I was on my way to Nelson for phase two of my research, but the bus I hopped on this time was not trustwonhy. I should have been skeptical when I saw fifteen other sears, all conspicuously empty. Barry's Bus was dilapidated and near-collapse. Ten minutes into the ride, the engine surrendered to old age with a few mighty chugs and a clanking grand finale. The overweight bus driver turned to me and said in a thick Kiwi accent, "I hope you don't mind my company, because it looks like we'll be here for a while." I managed a cross between a smile and a grimace, wishing desperately that I had not been Barry's sole passenger.

Now it was just me and the grinning bus driver who stood smoking on the roadside, with f.illing cigarette ashes catching on the shelf of his belly.

I hopped out and began to consider hitchhiking, when along carne my knight in shining black Ford Explorer. To my chagrin, he had stopped because he knew the bus driver. My heart dropped in my chest as I heard them chatter, but when the man offered me a ride to the next bus station, I was quick to accept. We introduced ourselves and I told him I was headed to Nelson. He said, "Really? Me, too." My eyebrows lifted and my smile perked up. The next four-and-a-half hours were a blissful free ride up the rocky coast. Upon arriving in Nelson, we spent 45 minutes looking for my youth hostd. We drove in circles around the city, trying desperately ro read the one-inch square map in the Nw aaland Backpackm' Handbook. When the man finally left me at the proper street comer, he would not even let me reimburse him for gas.

o months later I was taking off again, this time for the final segment of my program, the independent srudy project. Even with ten weeks in New Zealand under my belt. I felt nervous. I heaved my pack over my shoulders for the hundredth painful time and headed towards the bus stop. Alone. What bad I gotten myself into, with

n Nelson, I wandered the streets feeling more lonely than I bad in months. I had been in small New Zealand towns by myself, but this was a big city, at least by Kiwi standards. Small towns feel homey even when you don't know anyone. Big cities do not. As I passed clumps of people on the street, all I could think was that no one here knew my

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THE NEW JouRNAL

name. More importantly, no one cared.

I ducked into a coffee shop to calm my growing sense of despair.

Pulling out my notebook, I noticed a man across from me staring at my work. "Are you a srudent?" he asked in a voice too loud and slurred for a coffee shop. I smiled, nodded, and huddled over my paper. "There's no point in doing all that work. It won't get you anywhere unless you have a Ph.D." With my Ph.D. nowhere in sight, I ignored his comment. But he needed no encouragement. "Do you got some Jewish in you?" he asked. "You got a big nose."

I looked up at him and cringed in disbelief "You're beautiful, though," he said, nearly f.illing off of his stool. "I could love you."

I shoved my notebook into my backpack, made a run for the door, and let my tears dissolve into the evening air. That night I walked back to the youth hostel with my pocket knife in hand, blade out and ready in case of emergency. I was not taking any chances. y the next night, I had moved to a youth hostel in a better part of town, completed successful research in the Nelson Public Library, booked a bus reservation to my next destination, and planned an excursion to glorious Abel Tasman National Park. The events of the evening before seemed long ago and far away.

What had changed? I took comfort in the fact that I was learning to be alone without being lonely.

In another two weeks I was in Gisbome, working with the Maori community liaison at the Department of Conservation. In my spare time I walked on the beach and scroUed about town. One Sunday night, l went to a live jazz show at a local restaurant. I was the only person there without a date, or at least a friend. I did not feel conspicuous walking in alone, bur I guess I looked odd to the twenrysomethings whose table I joined. They struck up a conversation and poured me some wine. Three bottles later we were having dinner next door and they were offering to take me out on the town. As we made plans for the foUowing evening, one said she was impressed that I had dared to go to the concert alone

B

that night. "Why?" I asked. "I wanted to hear the jazz." ~ Back at the youth hostel, the room was spinning as I called a friend ~ from my program whose independent study project had taken her to a !l different destination. "What's wrong with you?" she asked. "Are you ~ laughing or crying?" ~ I slumped over the phone in a fit of drunken giggles. "Laughing," I ~

t

~

in ~

our months later, I made an entirely different kind of trip. I was on ~ my way back to New Haven. I thought that returning to school ~ after the summer break would prove insignificant. After all, ~ everyone had been away from campus and had a relatively clean slate.

3 But things feel different now. People look at me quizzically when ~ they pass me on the cobblestones between classes. "I haven't seen you in a while," they say with raised eyebrows, as though I had been hiding in my room last semester.

Those who know of my absence ask politely, "How was it?" But they seem discouraged when there is no pat answer. So, I have narrowed down my description to "it was great," which suits their expectations just

F fine.

The friends and activities I left behind are still here, but some of my fears have come true: they have changed, and I have changed. In many ways, I am as alone here as I was when there were 13,000 miles, a continent, and an ocean between New Haven and me.

And so what? My friends are still my friends, my activities are still my activities, Yale is sciU my university. I realized quickly that I did not miss anything life-altering by leaving campus. I also understand that it might take me a while to get my bearings again. But my friend from Princeton was right: bureaucracy aside, I hold no regrets about my decision. My photo albums may sit on my shelf without a rapt audience, but I know they are there. Looking at them by myself, I can be ~JWI content.

Hillary Margolis, a smior in Mont: Coikgt, is tdimr-in-chiifofTNJ.

., OCTOBER n, 1996

29

It's Like Butter In a city whe're the mascot is king, does Conan strike out?

by Dan Murphy

~

"There's a fucking stick of butter walking around," said 1

spun around th e bats until dizzy, and fell all over themselves as they attempted to run to the finish line.

The fans loved it.

For Ravens games, Rally Raven is usually able to work z It might as well have been television at the celebrity ~~ the sideli n es on h is own, but since the celebrities ~ softball game at Yale Field on September 21. Familiar faces : ~ promised to be a tougher bunch than minor leaguers, an .§:from the boob tube abounded, and the bright overhead elite corps of mascot reserves had been called up for :; lights and sedate audience gave the small stadium the 1 M cameo appearances. Enter Supercow, a large bovine with ~ atmosphere of a TV studio. The cast starred O'Brien, ~ a giant S above her udders, there on behalf of Guida ~Patrick Ewing, Tom· Brokaw and a slew of other ~~l~t'r­ Dairies, a local milk supplier and big supporter of the ~ individuals of varying degrees of fame, each of whom ~~~ _g acted the role of hero-as-fund-raiser for Connecticut's it ATR£ Special Olympics. Supercow entertained fans by dancing Q. Special Olympic athletes. ~ M ro tAT the macarena on top of the first-base dugout.

But witho u t a d oubt, the star of the mascot Like most everything on TV, this night didn't l. feature a great deal by .way of plot, but the game itself triumvirate, and the most ludicrous, was a giant stick of was not without excitement. In the · second inning O ' Brien butter plodd ing slowly aro und the field. To promote its product, the Keller Butter Company dressed someone in a ripped a line drive up the middle, which UConn Husky point- . guard }en Rizotti turned into a diving double play (O'Brien large off-white box with two eyes and a big smile, decorated acknowledged his defeat with an elaborate on-field bow with a blue ribbon. The mascot stole the show.

The appeal· of th e evening's star-studded cast is obvious. towards Rizotti). John Starks, the New York Knicks guard, made a great grab in center field to steal an otherwise certain · The fans, wh o paid $7 to support the Special Olympics, double. And M ike Lupica, New York's p rom ine n t sports were hoping to get a closer look at celebrities that they usually see only on TV. T his was a chan ce fo r New Havenites to touch the columnist, treated the crowd to some aggressive base-running untouchables. Yet in the midst of aU these celebrities, why did when he tried to stretch a double into a triple, even though he got naHed at third. fans still cheer for a dizzy-izzy race and a dancing cow?

On the sit-com that is the American ciry, New Haven is the Even without any gut-wre n ching drama, the night's programming was noteworthy because of the cast, and what the family pet, the likable and well-known underdog that lacks the full-fledged glitz of the show's star. A stick of butter, a dancing celebrities assembled indicated about the setting. For most of the celebrity participants, New Have n is just New York's cow, and a silly bird wouldn't stand much of a chance at Yankee northernmost suburb. Jump in your limo or your Pathfinder at Stadium, but in New Haven, this kind of small-time hokeyness is Rockefeller Center, and in an hour-and-a-half you're on Whalley acceptable. New Haven may be big and cosmopolitan enough to Avenue. But while the celebriry faces temporarily lent Big Apple draw major celebrities like O'Brien and Brokaw, but it is also. small and intimate enough that inane mascots can upstage primeglitz to Yale Field, the evening also featured reminders that New Haven isn't New York, and that the Elm Ciry has an ill-defined time personalities.

New Haven is a ciry in limbo, caught somewhere between but undeniable identiry of its own.

Like all minor league cities, New Haven has a prominent New York and Mayberry. O n t he night of the celebriry game it was easy to pretend that every night in New Haven resembles a mascot, responsible for distracting the spectators from the poor TV show. But for the rest of the year, it's nice to walk down the qualiry of play that characterizes minor league ball. On this night, Rally Raven, New Haven's 6-foot tall black bird, entertained the street and know that you're less likely to see a celebriry than you are to see your TA, your friend, or for that matter, a walking stick crowd between innings by challenging fans to dizzy-izzy footraces: competitors placed their foreheads on top of baseball bats, of butter.

Ill]

~ Conan O'Brien, laughing and shaking his head. "It's like 1~ ~ ~ somethlng we'd make up on the show."

1

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Don Murphy, a ;unior in Timothy Ov.tight College, is business manager ofTNI.

30

THE NEw JouRNAL

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~

I am going straight to: ·CD

CD

Law School

IT)

Graduate School

Medical School (]) All of the above

What's your hurry? ."My only regret is having gone straight to law school '' -Bill C., B.A., J.D.

"JI,.,.

. .1v1e

+ , ,oo.

-Hillary C, B~. , J.D.

"I squandered my youth collecting degrees. " -Albert E,

B.S., M.S., PH.D., PH.D., PH.D.

Talk it over with recent Yale graduates who are working as Business Analysts for two years at McKinsey & Company.

Tuesday, November 20, 1996 7 PM Bar's Brii Room, 254 Crown St. with lots ofstudy break brain-food and drink I

McKinsey&Company,Inc.

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