UPDATED: Uh... Impending PR Disaster?

Updated: At exactly 7 PM, the University issued a press release that confirms Princeton was the only Ivy League school, aside from Penn (their acceptance rate increased by 0.1%), that saw a higher acceptance rate this year. Janet Rapelye admitted 9.79% of applicants, compared to 9.25% last year. An incredible 1,331 students were wait listed, though only half of them are expected to remain on it. It will be interesting to see how Princeton's administration will spin today's news.

It is 7 PM EST, and Princeton is the only Ivy League school that has not yet released its admissions data for the Class of 2013. Although Princeton is notoriously opaque and slow about these sort of things, it could be telling that no one has heard anything.

BKN

The economy: screwing high school seniors since '08

The Times reported yesterday that in the face of shrinking endowments, universities are increasingly choosing wealthier applicants that can foot the full ticket of an education over students that would need financial aid if admitted.

Coupled with the fact that Ivies' (and other selective college's) acceptance rates are dropping, high school juniors across the nation have collectively just sighed a massive "fuck my life."

(image © Hasbro)

WAS

IN PRINT: Chabad Gets a New Torah, Hilarity Ensues

If the celebration that traipsed its way through Mathey-Rocky this past Sunday afternoon is any indication, new Torahs are a big deal. Chabad, the Jewish center run by the Hassidic Lubavitz movement, got its first Torah on Sunday, and members of Chabad made their jubilation known.

Highlights of the ceremony and subsequent parade:

• The strange techno-cultural disconnect of seeing old men in strict Hassidic dress busting out new digital cameras
• Someone lighting their cigarette from the ceremonial candles being passed out
• Pretty much everything involving Chabad leader Rabbi Eitan Webb, whose highlights of the day included riding on a freshman's shoulders for a good five minutes and stealing/playing senior Dan Berry's bongo drum somewhere around the University Place side of the U-Store
  

Full story here

SKG

Just Plain Weird (and Stupid)

T-minus 18 hours until admissions decisions for the class of 2013 are released. To prospective students: everyone at Princeton is mute!



BKN

Krugman: LOOK AT ME I'M SO MODEST!!!!11

Oh hai.

Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman appears on this week's cover of Newsweek, complete with an adorable (or "whimsical," as one Press Clubber puts it) picture and a profile penned by visiting journalism professor Evan Thomas.

Though the profile is an interesting look at Krugman's role as a liberal critic of the Obama Administration, the part that stood out to us was this little passage:

"Krugman pointed out that unlike some earlier Nobel Prize winners, he has not asked for a better parking place on campus. (He was not kidding.)"

Oooo! What a diss! Krugman is so liberal and such a crazy commie that he's okay not getting a better parking space because that's, like, totally for the bourgeois. But whom could he be talking about? There's been a bunch of faculty who've won the physics Nobel Prize since the 1980s, but there's only been a few who've won the economics prize. Aside from Krugman, the most recent faculty member was Eric Maskin (2007) who is a visiting professor. And then there's Daniel Kahneman (2002) and John Nash (1994). For some reason, I just can't imagine John Nash demanding a better parking space, but who knows?

BKN

(image source: newsweek.com)

Bill Bradley '65 Is So Princeton

If you can't get enough of the good old days of the Princeton Men's Basketball team, here are some pictures (thanks to Ivy Style) of the team's most famous member, Bill Bradley '65, before he became a Rhodes Scholar, US Senator, all around badass, etc.

More pictures after the jump.
More...


(image source: ivy-style.com, dailyprincetonian.com)

BKN

What's March Madness?

Once upon a time, as recently as this decade, the Princeton Men's Basketball team ruled the Ivy League. But then we started to suck hardcore, perhaps most notably when, in 2005, Princeton scored just 21 points in the entire game against something called Monmouth University. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, it turned out that scoring the legal drinking age was an NCAA record, but a record in a totally bad news bears sort of way--as in, no other team has ever sucked so much.

Reminiscing about all this makes us pine for the 1980s and 1990s, when the basketball team was totally baller. Exhibit A: In 1996 they defeated UCLA, the defending national champions, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Watch these couple video clips and you'll understand why the stands in Jadwin Gym were built for so many:





BKN

21 Questions with... Anthony D'Amato '10

STUDENT SINGER-SONGWRITER SPITS OUT SOME SNARK

Name: Anthony D'Amato
Age: 21
Major: English
Hometown: Blairstown, NJ
Eating club/residential college/affiliation: Terrace Club, Rockefeller College

Who's your favorite Princetonian, living or dead, real or fictional?
Jonathan Ames (writer)

What's the best meal you've eaten in Princeton?
Old World Pizza

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day?
I look for ways to put things off until tomorrow.

What is your greatest guilty pleasure?
I steal from my roommates. Constantly.
More...
What's the last student performance you saw?
Triangle Show

Do you know all the words to Old Nassau?
I did not know it was a song until you told me this summer. [Ed.: A Press Clubber unfortunately roomed with Anthony over the summer]

What do you hate most about Princeton?
I keep a running list on the wall in my room.

What's your drink?
Blood--it's the purest form of recycling.

How often do you cook?
Rarely.

What's your favorite medication?
I don't know…my allergy pills? This is a retarded question.

What's hanging above your desk and/or bed?
A picture of Joe Strummer and a picture of Bob Dylan.

Where do you do your best thinking?
Late night.

When's bedtime?
Later at night.

New Butler or Old Butler?
Don't care.

What do you think of Dean Malkiel?
I know nothing about this person.

Where is the worst place on campus?
The bathroom down the hall after the swim team vomits all over it twice a week.

Who is your mortal enemy?
Anyone who vomits where I want to walk barefoot.

When's the last time you used cash?
Today.

In 25 years, I will be…
46 years old.

Where do you go to study alone?
My room.

What makes someone a Princetonian?
Attending Princeton University.

Anthony will be performing this Friday at the Sidewalk Café in the East Village (Ave A & E. 6th St.) from 10-11 PM. You can download his EP free from his Myspace page.

(image source: myspace.com/anthonydamatomusic)

IN PRINT: Gen. Petraeus to address senior class at baccalaureate

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, will deliver the baccalaureate address to Princeton University seniors, at 2 p.m. May 31 in the University Chapel.

The general’s selection follows that of CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, who was announced earlier this year as the 2009 speaker for Class Day, a June 1 commencement event.

”I felt very honored to be invited to speak at the baccalaureate, and I look forward to the occasion very much,” Gen. Petraeus said.

Gen. Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq. After serving as U.S. commander in Iraq for 19 months, he became leader of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American troops in the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia.

”I’m grateful for the opportunity to offer reflections of a Princeton grad who has been privileged to serve with many wonderful Americans in recent years,” he said.

Read entire article at the Princeton Packet here.

SJP

Newspaper and democracy matters

A study by economics professor Sam Schulhofer-Wohl and Miguel Garrido looked at the impact of closing a newspaper on elections and voting. The case they observed was the Cincinnati Post, which closed after New Years Eve in 2007. Their results found that there was decreased political involvement in the northern Kentucky counties after the Post closed.

"Although our findings are statistically imprecise, they demonstrate that newspapers--even underdogs such as the Post, which had a circulation of just 27,000, when it closed--can have a substantial and measurable impact on public life," Schulhofer-Wohl and Garrido said in the abstract.

The study found that politics becomes less competitive in terms of the incumbent advantage, decreased voter turnout and the number of candidates running for office after a newspaper shuts down. They believe a similar phenomena will result for larger newspapers that have or will soon go under in Denver, Seattle and San Francisco.

For democracy's sake, keep buying those papers and getting that ink on your fingers. It could be the most significant vote you cast.

SJP

IN PRINT: Albert Einstein's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

John Nash gets a lot of the "Eccentric Princeton Genius" attention nowadays, but he was by no means the first world-famous superbrain to grace our campus. Albert Einstein, the Walter Matthau to Nash's Russell Crowe, ably held down that position until his death in 1955.

More than fifty years on, it's hard to find authentic traces of Einstein on campus -- an unrenovated Frist classroom here, a small off-campus house there, some old letters stored in Firestone. But Einstein's legacy lives on in the form of Gillett Griffin, his last living friend.

Read Griffin's story - including the strange tale of his first encounter with Einstein (it involves a yellow plastic duck!) - in today's Star-Ledger.

DCW

Obama’s policies should create security rather than money, researcher says

A new study devised by Talya Miron-Shatz, a Ph.D associate researcher in the Wilson School, found that financial security affects happiness more than actual money for the modern American woman.

"Even if you are making a hundred grand a year, if you are constantly worried that you are going to get fired, that you are going to lose your health insurance or that you are simply not sure you are going to 'make it,' you are not going to be happy," Miron-Shatz said in a press release.

This just in. People who worry are less happy than people who don’t. The study seems to be in line with other self-evident conclusions researchers at Princeton are uncovering, at the heels of the groundbreaking discovery that men objectify naked women.

Miron-Shatz hopes to influence President Obama’s financial decisions, ushering him to focus on “strategies that create social and financial ‘safety nets’ over measures that would directly increase income.”

SJP

Muldoon goes green with Obama

Professor Paul Muldoon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, will rediscover his Northern Ireland roots as he spends St. Patrick’s Day with President Obama and 400 other Irish guests for celebrations at the White House. Lets hope the green-dyed fountains and Irish whiskey provide Muldoon with all the poetic inspiration he needs for some more "Moy Sand and Gravel."

SJP

Shirley Tilghman uses Big Words

Princeton University president Shirley Tilghman appeared on the Charlie Rose show last night.

Shirley discussed the Bush administration's political repression of science, bragged about Alex Barnard and his "mohawk up to here" and used the word "periodicity" when discussing how often the University rejects the idea of a Princeton Medical School (every 20 years or so). Charlie was much impressed.

See the video after the jump.
More...
On climate control and stem cell research: "In both of those cases, one could make the argument that the science was being manipulated to support a policy that the science actually did not necessarily lead to."

On creationism and intelligent design: "It was really a warping of science that led to the President, President Bush saying well, there's a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether Darwin's view of evolution is correct. That is just simply not the case ... It's been 150 years and his fundamental ideas that were based on very little evidence but incredible insight have held up extraordinarily well."

On our career choices: "Their experience at Princeton spending four years thinking deeply about what it means to be human...inform who they are when they are lawyers and doctors and...dare I say, bankers."

On the recession and Princeton's endowment: "We have made a commitment that we will not lose a single student for financial reasons, and so far we've been able to live up to that."

On a law school or medical school: "It's [a decision] that we revisit roughly with a periodicity of twenty years, so it's not like we never think about it."

On periodicity: "Periodicity --it's like a sine wave."

On green-haired students and Alex Barnard: "...the very very best student in the university...who had a mohawk hair-do up to here. You know? I just said, 'He's my guy!'"




(image source: njmonthly.com)

AW

Wanted: New King (or Queen!) of the Tools

After Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, bolted Princeton for the State Department back in February, we've been waiting to see who the school will pick to replace her as caretaker of the tool shed. Think you have what it takes? Check out Princeton's Help Wanted listing in the Economist's classified section here.

SKG

Professors Crack Down on Laptops in Class

Midway though my ENG205 lecture yesterday, Professor Arnold gave one student (among the dozens or so using laptops) a stern look and said, “can you please close your computer for me?” Perplexed, the student complied as the other laptop users tried to figure out if Arnold had x-ray vision that could detect an open facebook window, if the student’s vacant facial expression toward Edmund Spenser was a giveaway, or if that day's Prince article was starting, rather than reporting, this trend in laptop policing.

SJP

IN PRINT: Update - Fake rifle prompts campus alert at PU

A Princeton University student touched off a campus-wide security alert over the weekend by running across the campus carrying an “imitation” AK-4 assault rifle, police said.

Princeton Borough police confiscated the weapon and charged Steven Shonts, 18, of Eden Prairie, MN, with “possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose” and “possession of an imitation firearm on university grounds.” He was released on his own recognizance.

Another student, Erica Greil, said in an e-mail that she had contacted the university’s public safety department at 11:30 p.m. Friday after seeing a male running with a gun near University Place.

Read the full article at the Princeton Packet.

AW and SJP

IN PRINT: Gun Sighting Prompts Safety Alerts

Reports of a male student carrying a firearm prompted a campus security alert at Princeton University overnight, which ended after an investigation determined that the gun was "non-functional" and the student posed no threat to public safety.

University spokesperson Cass Cliatt said in an email Saturday that campus public safety officers and Princeton Borough police "were immediately on the scene interviewing witnesses and searching the area –within minutes.”

The first alert to the campus community went out at 12:42 a.m. via e-mail, text messages and voice mail.

"This is an actual emergency and not a test,” the alert said. Public Safety has recommended that all students remain inside until further notice. Do not go outside to travel to another building. Close and lock the doors and windows. Check e-mail and/or the University's home page at www.princeton.edu for further information and updates.”

Read complete article at the Princeton Packet here.

AW and SJP

Liveblogging the "Emergency"

Well, that was exciting... Now, we're going to sleep. Thanks for reading our beta blog!

2:55 am --Cliatt told the Prince that it took that period of time for an alert to be sent because investigators were interviewing witnesses to establish whether there was a “credible threat.”

2:42 am --Oh, and the University is offering counseling for "individuals stressed by the incident," the Prince says. We're curious as to how many postponed midterms this is going to lead to.

2:35 am-- The real story tonight: Why did it take 80 minutes for Public Safety to send out an alert? If this had been a real criminal with a real gun, it would have been bad news bears.

More...

2:15 am-- The Prince is reporting that some dude is under custody of Borough Police. He was carrying a "permanently disabled and nonfunctional firearm" that he was planning to show to a friend.

1:52 am-- "I was watching Milk in the Frist theater, where there was a bit of an uproar when everyone received the first message on their iPhones, and the 'all is clear' text actually happened as the end credits were rolling." - SJP

1:46 am-- Quote of the night: "So that's what it's like, going to Yale."

1:35 am-- Being bombarded with automated text messages, phone calls, emails to signal the "all clear." Apparently, "an individual is being detained."

From the Princeton home page:

Public Safety at 1:20 a.m. has confirmed that there is no threat. Public Safety has issued an all clear, and members of the campus community can resume their normal activities. An individual has been identified in relation to the previous unconfirmed report of a student-age male with a weapon. That individual is being detained.

1:32 am-- FALSE ALARM. Thanks for scaring the shit out of us, Princeton!

1:17 am -- "I see people walking around Spelman. I think it's all cleared up by now." -AG

1:15 am --Word is spreading that ROTC is having some kind of event tonight. Can anyone confirm this?

1:09 am --"I was walking back from the gym at 12:40... I didn't see anyone. And I've heard from a few of my friends that ROTC has been walking around with their fake AKs all day..." -WAS

1:05 am --From this reporter's room in Henry Hall tower, there is no visible activity around Spelman Hall. All is pretty quiet. Washington Road University Place, which borders Spelman, is pretty empty, too. No police or Public Safety cars are visible.

One Press Clubber who resides in Spelman is hunkered down in his room with roommates and friends with blinds drawn and lights dimmed.

12:58 am --The official Princeton website posted a news bulletin at 12:47. Someone in Holder Hall has come out of their room and is walking around the courtyard. Not a good time for a smoke break, we think.

12:57 am Triangle member sends out this email to the triangle listserve:
Subject: IMPORTANT FACTS in re security message

[We] were walking to the Wa around 11:30. We spotted an individual carrying a gun (looked like an AK-47) and couldn't tell if it was fake or not. So I called Public Safety and reported it and gave them a report, and Borough Police also talked to us. That was at 11:30 and we haven't heard anything else from them.

12:55 am --Students in Holder Hall are locking their doors and...pulling down their blinds? Lights go off around the courtyard.

12:53 am --Public Safety sends an email:

====Emergency Communication Message from PRINCETON UNIVERSITY====

Dear Member of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Community,

You have been sent a new message through the Connect-ED system.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Message sent - 3/6/2009
PRINCETON ALERT - Remain inside

===================================
Message
===================================

This is an actual emergency and not a test. At 12:40 AM today, there is an unconfirmed report of a student-age mail carrying a weapon in the area of Spelman Hall. Stay inside . Public Safety has recommended that all students remain inside until further notice. Do not go outside to travel to another building. Close and lock the doors and windows. Check e-mail and/or the University's home page at www.princeton.edu for further information and updates.

12:50 am--We receive a recorded call from Public Safety saying that there is a "student-age mail [sic] carrying a weapon around Spelman Hall". Our roommate receives a text.

Who's Reading The Daily Prince? Um, Apparently Hardcore Professional Gamblers

It's a cold Friday night in the dead of winter, and none of the major basketball conferences have games. What's an addictive professional gambler to do? Well, according to this New York Times article, the answer can be found in a small cult of gamblers who bet on Ivy League basketball games religiously every Friday night (kind of like Shabbot, but with less Challah). And because of the lack of information available on Ivy League teams on traditional sports websites like ESPN.com, the gamblers often turn to the student newspapers. Finally, a niche for the Prince beyond lonely breakfasters!

On the subject of Princeton basketball, after a 2-8 start and an improbable late season run, the Tigers have a shot to at least tie Cornell as Ivy League Champions if they can win at Columbia, at Cornell, and at Penn. (Likely? No, not really. But hey, crazier things have happened...)

(image source: princetonbasketball.com)

SKG

Nothing ever happens in Princeton, or, the time the Prince covered suckling pigs

A short and sweet summary of one of today's Prince news articles, "Whitman celebrates College Night with suckling pigs":

Whitman's Tuesday night College Night dinners serve suckling pigs, sometimes with accessories.

Some people are offended.
Some people are not offended.

We appreciate the quotes though.

Offended!

Vegetarian Whitmanite Katie Rodriguez ’11 said she was “appalled” that the Whitman College Night dinners were “centered around an animal product.”

Not offended

Vegetarian Niklas Peters ’11, however, said the pig did not upset him. “The first time I saw it, I wasn’t shocked like I thought it was offensive. I was shocked like I thought, ‘That dead pig has glasses on,’ ” he explained. “It was a very surprising thing.”

Offended!

PAWS member Maya Goodwin ’12, however, said she was not amused by the dining staff’s decision to accessorize the pigs.

“I just don’t think that’s funny. I don’t know who thinks it’s funny. Do you think it’s funny?” she said of the pig sporting sunglasses.

Not offended

Roast suckling pig was already a familiar dish for Mark Lock ’11. “I’m Chinese, so that’s not something that’s foreign to me,” he said of the pig at Whitman. “I think it was cool.”

(image source: dailyprincetonian.com)

AW

IN PRINT: Princeton makes budget cuts while increasing workers' salaries

Princeton University has an $82 million budget-cutting plan set for the new fiscal year, Princeton administrators told members of the community during a town hall meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Princeton currently has an operating budget of $1.3 billion, 48 percent of which comes from investment income while 29 percent came from student fees, 16 percent from sponsored research and 9 percent from gifts, Vice President for Finance Caroline Ainslie said.

“Princeton is especially dependent on investment returns compared to other public institutions,” Ms. Ainslie said. Princeton averages a 15 percent return on the endowment. Last year, however, returns were only 5.6 percent and they are expected to fall 20 percent for the 2009 fiscal year, Ms. Ainslie added.

“This gives you a sense of why we’re not in the same good old days and why the times are not normal,” Ms. Ainslie said. The new budget will cut the amount that comes from endowment returns by 8 percent or $74 million, Provost Chris Eisgruber said. Princeton also borrowed $1 billion for operations in order to prevent increased endowment spending, Ms. Ainslie said.

Mr. Eisgruber said that these measures are only the beginning.

Read entire article in the Princeton Packet here.

SJP

OM NOM NOM: The Little Chef

Last week, a friend sent us this review of one of Princeton's many bakeries, The Little Chef, with the note, "??? How have you not been here?"

How, indeed.

This week, we've visited Pouchon and his macarons et croissants four times.

More...
Though Serious Eats' review leans toward the long side, and is chock full of personal anecdotes that we happily skipped, one look at the ham-and-Gruyère croissant is all you need.

The Little Chef is on 8 South Tulane Street, between Sotto and the Princeton Record Exchange. You've seen it --it's the hole in the wall bakery that always seems empty.

It's definitely not empty if you stop by early in the morning --the little chef himself says that croissants are typically gone by 9 or 10 am.

If you can't get up that early for croissants (or for that matter, class), we suggest stopping by for a macaron later in the day. We like the chocolate and pistachio ones. These meringue-like cookies filled with ganache are well worth the price. They're $2, but then...so is a Bent Spoon cupcake. Isn't it time to try something new?



(image sources: http://seriouseats.com, http://kitchenmusings.typepad.com)

AW

IN PRINT: At black symposium Princeton mayor says she may not run for reelection

Update 3/28: Here is the PAW article on the symposium.

[Full disclosure: This reporter was covering a symposium on the black experience at Princeton a couple weeks ago for the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It only occurred recently to this reporter that Princeton Borough mayor Mildred Trotman's comments may be news.]

Princeton Borough mayor Mildred Trotman, in office since 2005, said she will probably not run for reelection.

Speaking at a panel discussion with former New York City mayor David Dinkins and Trenton mayor Doug Palmer on February 21, Mildred talked about her emphasis on consensus and fairness when governing. She then admitted, "I don’t think I'm going to run again."

Trotman did not discuss further her comments, though Dinkins responded that one should "never say never."

"Mayor Trotman, you're going to run again, I bet you," Dinkins said.

Dinkins also addressed the upcoming New York City mayoral race and lamented mayor Mike Bloomberg's decision to run for reelection after overturning term limit laws.

"I like Mike, and I get along fine with him, but I would hope that he would not seek reelection," Dinkins said.

He offered praise for NYC comptroller Bill Thompson, who has said he will run for mayor.

"Billy Thompson is a good friend of mine, and I think he is eminently qualified to be mayor," Dinkins said.

However, he said it would be challenging for Thompson to run against Bloomberg because of his immense personal wealth.

"It’ll be very difficult for Billy or anybody to defeat [Bloomberg], and I think [Thompson] would have had a battle with [Rep. Anthony] Weiner, but I think he would have beat him," Dinkins said.

BKN

(image source: princetonboro.org)

Those Incestuous Ivies!

Today's New York Times ran an article heralding the new Dartmouth College president, Dr. Jim Yong Kim (full story here). What caught our attention, though, was the headline: “Dartmouth Selects Its New President from Harvard.” An Ivy League president with ties to (gasp!) a different Ivy?

There’s something unique about that Crimson, though, that makes the Times’ college-cum-university presidential supercenter inference especially apt. Kim’s hiring will make three out of the seven Ivy League presidents educated at some point at Harvard. For those of you at home keeping score, Penn’s Amy Gutmann got her B.A. from Radcliffe and her Ph.D. from Harvard and Brown’s Ruth Simmons received a Ph.D. from Harvard.

Granted, Dr. Kim is inextricably linked to Harvard: in addition to working as an official at Harvard Med School, he got his Ph.D. in Anthropology and his M.D. at Harvard. But the article buries that fact that Kim also went to Brown undergrad, in the same paragraph that mentions his football prowess at his Iowa high school (he was a quarterback).

What consolation is there for us at Princeton? Well, three out of the seven Ivy presidents have at some point taught here: Gutmann, Simmons, and of course Shirley. So we’ve got that going for us.

SKG

IN PRINT: Princetonians go to class, everyone else in New Jersey stays inside

Late Sunday evening, Rutgers canceled all classes on its New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses.

Then The College of New Jersey closed its campus at 5 am this morning.

Then all local school districts declared it a snow day.

After we'd hoped all night for the expected "8-14 inches of snow" to bury Princeton's Gothic buildings and cancel --or at least delay!-- classes, imagine our disappointment when we woke up to a measly 6-7 inches and...a full day of classes. Beginning at 8 am.

More...
Though some professors decided not to attempt the drive to Princeton (or decided to just stay home that day --Come on, the roads were pretty much clear) and canceled classes due to the weather, the day progressed as normal for most students.

”Closing the campus is very rare and is done only under extreme, unsafe conditions,” Ms. Cliatt said. “This would take place usually only in a blizzard or other extreme weather situation, and we believe such closing has happened only three times in the past 15 years — in 1996 for a blizzard, in February of 2003 also because of heavy snow and in April of 2007 because of heavy flooding in the region.”

Check out the article in the Princeton Packet here.

AW

Guy fakes Princeton degree - doesn't get away with it

A University of Minnesota student is dropping out of a race for a City Council position after the university's daily found that he lied about attending Princeton.

Charles Carlson, who also faked a British accent and, actually, a British life, apparently falsified a transcript from Princeton and Phillips Exeter, but was found out when the bullshit mounted too high (ref.: "[Hillary] Clinton shared a crème brûlée torte with him [in England]").

More...

Sure it seems ridiculous, but Carlson joins a number of other fakes that love the Princeton name. Remember Nava? And maybe you've heard of Princeton's biggest gaffe - admitting con-man James Hogue, a.k.a. Alexi Santana.

Additionally, the article reports that Carlson said he has "schizophrenia affective disorder, which impacts an individual's ability to accurately judge reality." Guess he should've just said he worked for the Prince.

WAS

What the...?

We already know that Professor Robert George--social conservative extraordinaire and archbishop of POL 316: Civil Liberties--loves fetuses at all stages of cellular development and isn't very fond of the homosexuals. But a recent Youtube excursion uncovered another Robbie George factoid: he likes the banjo! No, seriously, watch:



BKN

IN PRINT: Closing the food gap

Jarrett Kerbel, executive director of The Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton, speaks at a forum on food policy in Mercer County.

How hard is it to buy fresh, local produce in Trenton? Harder than it should be, say organizations like the Crisis Ministry and Isles.

A group of Mercer County residents--professors, farmers, college students and parents--gathered at Labyrinth Books last week to open up the discussion on food policy in Mercer County.

”We use the term food democracy,” said Mark Winne, who writes, speaks and consults on food policy councils and subjects ranging from hunger to agriculture. “It’s a concept that we as consumers should have some say in what we’re eating.”

More...

Everyone knows about Princeton University's one freegan, but the locavore movement has begun to spread into Trenton, an urban center of Mercer County which residents say receives too little of its suburban and rural neighbors' fresh produce.

Check out the article in the Princeton Packet here.

AW