Making Harvard proud

Larry Summers, head of Obama's National Economic Council and once-beloved Harvard president, attended yesterday's "fiscal sustainability summit" in the White House. For the event, Obama convened over a hundred policy makers and intellectuals to discuss bipartisan approaches to deficit reduction.

If anyone was wondering why Larry was a bit quiet during the whole thing, well, the Financial Times reports that "Lawrence Summers . . . fell asleep on the podium." Falling asleep in the audience is understandable, sure, but the podium? It's enough to make Rick Santelli mad!

The good news for students is that apparently Harvard's unofficial motto now extends to the White House: "The hard part is getting in."

WAS

(image source: ustreas.gov)

New Butler displaces old Scully

Glamorized depictions of the new Butler dorms often leave out these more seedy images:


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Especially noteworthy is the fact that a blockade of a primary Scully entrance has led many residents to resort to maneuvering through this narrow passage in order to save a few steps on the way home:


SJP

IN PRINT: Actress Glenn Close Reveals her True Character

Alex Forrest, the bunny-boiling other woman in the 1987 film “Fatal Attraction” was not an easy character to love. But actress Glenn Close found it necessary to do just that.

”I just wanted to do the role justice,” Ms. Close told an audience at Princeton University on Thursday night, in a lecture titled “Are you who we think you are?”

”I’ve always felt that in order to truly commit to a character, I must love her,” she said. “Without love there’s judgment and if you’re judging you can’t understand.”

Ms. Close said she sought to discover whether it was plausible for a woman to act in the ways Alex did. From psychologists, she learned that Alex’s psychotic behaviors — which included boiling a child’s pet rabbit — were typical of someone who has experienced incest at an early age...

Read complete article at centraljersey.com
[photo credit: www.tiff08.ca/blogs]

SJP

George, for the win

Right-leaning Princeton professor Robert P. George recently launched a new blog, moralaccountability.com, or "the most elaborate pursuit of 'I told you so' since 'An Inconvenient Truth.'" 

According to an interview with the Catholic News Agency (expecting anything less?), George's blog responds to pro-life constituencies that voted for Obama under the assumption that Barry's economic policies would alleviate poverty and, by extension, abortion. In other words, he wants to prove just how wrong they are.

As for the blog itself, a flurry of intellectual masturbation has ensued among scholars that apparently think they'll solve the issue. And George, well, he just knows that in the end, "somebody is going to be right, and somebody is going to be wrong." Here's to you, Bobby.

WAS

(image source: moralaccountability.com)

Slate.com: "Harvard, Yale, or Princeton?"

On the occasion of tonight's Oscars, here's a December piece from Slate.com that looks at "how F. Scott Fitzgerald decided where to send his characters to college."

The impetus for the article stems from the omission of Harvard references in the Best Picture nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is based off of Fitzgerald's short story. In the story, Benjamin Button is a Harvard man, though in the film, he is Brad Pitt, so, like, whatever dude.

(image source: slate.com)

Whitman to Spend $150M on Gubernatorial Run

vs.

Meg Whitman '77, who has announced her intention to run for governor of California, has predicted that her campaign could cost $150 million, much of it self-financed.

The $150 million figure is about the same amount of money it took Princeton to build Whitman College ($136 million). But Whitman didn't finance the entire cost of the fieldstone/limestone clusterfuck that was built to last 200(!) years: she "just" donated the initial $30 million to kick start the project.

This, of course, means that Whitman loves California about five times more than she loves Princeton. Alternatively, it could also mean that her campaign will be five times better than Whitman College, which can only be a good thing because the 250,000 sq. ft. complex is an ugly monstrosity.

(Also: Did you know that Community Hall, Whitman's dining hall [a.k.a. barn], isn't named for the Princeton University community, but for the eBay community? WTF?)

(image source: princeton.edu, britannica.com)

Remembering Lorin Maurer

Lorin Maurer, one of the victims of the Continental flight that crashed en route to Buffalo, played an integral role in the University's athletic department, albeit one that was largely behind-the-scenes.

An article in tomorrow's New York Times shows Maurer's impact on the Princeton community (Ceremony to Rename Princeton's Court Is Also a Sad Reminder). She was organizing the renaming ceremony of Princeton's basketball court to Carril Court.

An article from The Trentonian reveals some of her Princeton coworkers' thoughts.

“We are stunned, grief-stricken and angry that someone so young and full of promise and vitality was taken from us so suddenly and unexpectedly,” Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters said. “We can only think that we never appreciate what we have until it is taken from us.

Maurer's friends have turned her Facebook.com profile into a messageboard of sorts, a forum for their messages of support for the Maurer family and a place to share memories or say their goodbyes. One post reads, "Lorin you were the most positive person I have ever met in my life..."

Her photos and status updates remain posted, and her profile commemorates the warm and cheerful personality that her friends revealed in their wall posts. She had recently added a new friend. She "wish[ed] people would clean the snow and ice off their sidewalks..." She planned to attend Princeton Men's Basketball vs. Cornell & Columbia.

According to Maurer's brother, Chris Maurer, a scholarship has been established in her honor. In a Facebook wall post he wrote:

"Checks can be made payable to "The Wilson Education Foundation" and please put Lorin's name in the memo field of the check. Mail all checks to:

Lorin Maurer Scholarship
Care of Kati Farrer - Executive Director
Wilson Education Foundation
2601 Grandview Blvd
West Lawn, PA 19609"

(image source: facebook.com)
AW

Underwear Displayed in the Lucas Gallery

The Lucas Gallery, housed in 185 Nassau St., is currently running an exhibition of artwork from students in fall semester ceramics, drawing, painting, photography and sculpture classes.

Here’s a glance of what you’ll see as you walk through the gallery:

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One of the most prominently-featured pieces is this work by Cristina Flores Monckeberg '12:

Monckeberg said that the idea for this piece came from an assignment where her class was told to make a drawing from a collage of photos. Monckeberg said that she "tried to create an impossible space that the viewer felt they could step into."

While Joaquín Sorolla and Édouard Manet are Monckeberg's artistic inspirations, she said that this particular piece sought to emulate M.C. Esher's work.


(image source: brentfordgallery.com)

SJP

Meg Whitman: The Historical Precedent?

About a week ago Meg Whitman '77 threw her hat into the ring for the California Gubernatorial race (info here.) And while the rest of the world may know her as the former Ebay CEO, we of course think of her first and foremost as a Princeton alum. But did you know that, if elected, Whitman wouldn't be the first California Governor somehow linked to Princeton?

That honor belongs to Princeton-born Robert Stockton, a Navy Commodore who in January 1847, during the Mexican-American War, appointed himself the first Military Governor of California. His tenure, however, was short lived, as in February of that same year he was ousted by the actual appointed (by the US government) Governor, General Stephen Kearny.

And while Stockton never actually attended Princeton University (he joined the Navy when he was 16), he was born in Princeton, he died in Princeton, and he's buried in the Princeton cemetery (there's also apparently a rest stop named after him on the New Jersey Turnpike.) So remember Robert Stockton, just in case Meg ends up winning and calling herself "the first Princeton Governor of California."

SKG

Breaking news: Men objectify women, editors love bikini stories.

From a survey of 21 undergraduate Princeton sons, Princeton psych professor Susan Fiske has concluded that ...men view half-naked women as objects.

That might just be the best Prince headline we've ever seen.

This has been all over the news, from One India ("Sensual Women Viewed as 'Objects'") to National Geographic ("Bikinis Make Men See Women as Objects, Scans Confirm").

But the best article so far? Probably from The Independent ("University of the bleedin' obvious").

But the real question is, why is this obvious, obvious story so popular?

Probably for the accompanying photos and page views:

From National Geographic:

(image source: nationalgeographic.com)

From the Daily Telegraph:

(image source: telegraph.co.uk)

AW