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Saturday, September 14, 2002

The Top 5 Rules of Etiquette for Freshmen


5. Travel in groups of four or less (corollary: no Hanover restaurant will take a reservation for "umm, I dunno, maybe 15 or 20?").
4. If there's a line, spend no more three minutes using a public Blitz computer (addition: opening a web browser for any reason gives anyone in line license to kill you).
3. Ask for a beer. If you're at a fraternity or sorority, remember that you are a guest.
2. Check to see if a Blitzmail nickname is in use before taking it. Worth repeating: check to see if a Blitzmail nickname is in use before taking it.
1. If anyone asks, you were at Phi Tau (practice this before you need to use it: "This guy in a cape kept bringing me beers.").

Email in any that I missed. Maybe Larry will publish these in the hopefully-forthcoming Freshman Issue.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 5:23 PM (0 comments)

Friday, September 13, 2002

Let's Import a Tradition.

By the way, Talcott's link on "Wah-Hoo-Wah" includes a reference to what's called the "Not Gay" chant at the University of Virginia. I asked a coworker of mine who graduated from UVa what this was. UVa's alma mater, sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," is "the Good Old Song" (whence comes Wah-Hoo-Wah). Apparently, there's a line in the song that goes, "We come from old Virginia, / Where all is bright and gay." The precocious tykes at UVa have taken to screaming, "NOT GAY!" after these lines, and -- so I'm told -- the stands at football games generally erupt into a frenzy of heterosexuality-affirming and/or homosexuality-denying behavior. Some feel that this brings shame on UVa and is very untoward behavior. Perhaps. But no one can ever accuse those plucky Virginians of even so much as a genuflection to political correctness. That deserves a "Wah-Hoo-Wah," I think.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 3:35 PM (0 comments)

To be clear

The Wired article doesn't connect EKT with the lewd study break exchange.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by alex at 1:32 PM (0 comments)

On Fox News Watch

An anchor to Sen. George Allen of Virginia: "Wah-Hoo-Wah." Makes sense

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by alex at 1:27 PM (0 comments)

What's up at EKT?

Wired Magazine just gushes in this feature article about how wireless networking and BlitzMail have made Dartmouth one of the most tech-savvy (and tech-transparent) places around. Several excerpts:
The sisters of Epsilon Kappa Theta are definitely up to something. The wireless cards in the sorority house's computers each move an average of 222 Mbytes of data per day � only one other spot on campus, an administrative building, moves more than 150 Mbytes a day per card. An MP3 server, perhaps? Maybe they're watching streamed video on a big-screen TV � or using high-bandwidth Internet radio to supply the music for all-night parties. They could be trying to corner the market on Diesel jeans via sorority eshopping excursions, or running a molecular modeling program for a pharmaceutical company. We may never know for sure. Since the college has a strict policy against monitoring student computer use unless investigating complaints, university officials couldn't tell me what's going on. The sisters of EKT did not respond to my prying emails. So for now, their secret remains safe.
And, the one that everyone will be quoting:
What looming exam could hope to compete with the following hormone-fueled, technology-enabled midterm BlitzMail exchange, forwarded by Dartmouth senior Zachary Berke?

Male student: i'm so fucking exhausted from all this studying ... aaaaaah.

Female student: all this studying makes me wanna fuck ... aaaaah ; ) ... want a little study break? ; )

Arresting stuff.
Indeed. (Thanks to Ben patch for the link)

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 10:49 AM (0 comments)

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Shiny, and Whiney



Billy McKinney, the infamous father of Cynthia McKinney, on losing yesterday�s primary race in Georgia:

�I did not expect this because I expected black folks to turn out for me. They did not turn out for me. They wanted a Klansman, a son of the Confederacy.�

First the �J-E-W-S� slighted him, now the blacks. Helluva �civil rights leader� there!

and a warm hello to BWW...but $250k? that's outrageous

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by barrett at 11:42 AM (0 comments)

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Oy Vey, This Again

The author, Ben Wallace-Wells (HM '96, Dartmouth '00), responds:
By February of my freshman year at Dartmouth, I'd wandered by the Review offices on a couple of occasions, mainly out of boredom and flickering literary yearnings brought on by a too-literal reading of This Side of Paradise. I'd contributed exactly one substantial piece to the Review, in which I'd been dispatched to a College sponsored drag ball, in drag, to report on what went on. What I saw became the irrefutable, though admittedly thin thesis of the article: College-Sponsored Drag Balls Are Lame.

On the basis of this experience, the paper's editor, James Panero (Trinity '94), decided that my intellect was perfectly calibrated to tackle the knotty, complex issues of social ambition and cultural gigantism embodied in the New York private school scene. As part of a Worst of Dartmouth issue that never ran (thankfully, since it would have been pretty embarrassingly emblematic of the Review's attitude-towards-world at that point - a shrill, nasty sneer), he asked me to write an article titled Dartmouth's Worst Feeder School. The idea was that we knew a lot of kids, like us, from New York prep schools at Dartmouth; that we were, as a group, regarded mostly as charming assholes; and thought it might be funny and interesting to detail the particular roots of that asshole-hood. I picked Horace Mann because I had to pick something; because I figured I was really making fun of myself and my own experience and so I might as well name it as such; and because, well, frankly, because there was at that time at Dartmouth a particular heir and Horace Mann alum who pranced about campus, eyeballs assiduously scanning own rectum, completely oblivious to the fact that he was enacting, in pretty embarrassing thoroughness, the New York Prep Idiom, and to the fact that he had come to define, for a lot of Dartmouth, the schmucky, pretentious prep school fop. Weekends off, he rented a Porsche to visit his girlfriend at Smith. Very Stradlater, with a no-sweat-ethic and an ultramodern twist.

My effort, "Dartmouth's Worst Feeder School," was pretty amateurish and unduly nasty. It was also a little too serious towards the end, in its sociological pretensions - I should have made it more self-evident that this was to be taken as a joke. My article didn't break much new journalistic ground - at that point in the mid-90s, New York Magazine devoted a full two-thirds of its staff to the making-fun-of NY-Prep-School-Kids beat. This story was different in that it named one school as emblematic of that whole culture, and that it was written by an 18-year old first-timer, me, who wasn't too good at what he was doing.

People at Horace Mann got mad; they wrote letters, they wrote e-mails, they called me anti-Semitic, they complained to the parents of my friends, who by way of reply said things like "He seemed like such a nice guy," which is the thing people say about someone who's just pulled a Gary Gilmore. It bugged me for a little while, but in the end I mostly laughed. Here's why: There are some things which are unmatchably glorious about schools like Horace Mann. In dozens of different ways and for dozens of different reasons these schools deliver to their graduates a sense that what they have to say is essentially important - metaphysically important, nearly - and what they think about issues, the world, may not only echo but may lead broader opinion. That's an intoxicating, exciting and wonderful thing for a 17-year old to be exposed to. I'm grateful for it. But the endless primping and constant buffering that schools like Horace Mann provide is a little much, (black tie parties at the Plaza for 13-year olds? a 35-million dollar capital campaign for a day school?), and can also be aesthetically off-putting and socially problematic, mostly because the kids believe the hype. And so we land at 18 full of the sense that we are really really important, with all the attendant positive and negative repercussions. I wouldn't trade having gone to Horace Mann for anything. But it would be nice if the $250,000 of education could buy us all a dash of self-awareness, too.

So I was a jerk, it was a nasty and not very good article, and, yes, it probably would have been a little more merited if I'd written the story about Dalton. But six years on, its time to stop getting so huffy about this. Horace Mann is an institution far more robust than I, and with a remade, $35 million campus and a current ranking as the seventh best feeder school in the country, its hardly suffered a death blow from the story.

It's also true that if I'd written this about Dalton everyone at Horace Mann would be nodding very gravely about the story - it's the naming that hurts.

Since I'm pretty much out of touch with most people from the Review at this point, I'd like to wish you all well and plug my essay, Creating September 12, which appears in a book called At Ground Zero, edited by Chris Bull and Sam Erman and available at Barnes and Noble's (look for the pupil-burstingly-bright 9/11 display), on Amazon, and at fine and mediocre bookstores everywhere. Buy the book. I could use the royalties to help get my Ford out of hock.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Alexander at 6:58 PM (0 comments)

Dartmouth's Worst, Etc., Etc.

Above is a response to the great Horace Mann debate by Ben Wallace-Wells. Its long but but well worth the read. I feel I should preface it, just to clarify any confusion, by noting that the article in question was actually written in April of 1997.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Alexander at 6:52 PM (0 comments)

More on "Dartmouth's Worst Feeder School"

Three years later and we're still getting hate mail; Ben should be proud. For those who don't know, Ben actually did graduate from Horace Mann. Really. He's even engaged in professional journalism and regularly producing stories like this gem, "Kidnapped tortoise makes slow escape," for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Since I don't have the time or inclination to "sic" this letter, trust that it is published verbatim. It's funnier that way, regardless:
To whom it may concern,

I was shocked when I received an a-mail about the article written in your newspaper, but I was utterly disgusted after reading it's contents. As a so-called Gucci clad snob I find myself with my jaw wide open as I read this article. It is understandable that a superior school such as Horace Mann would receive its fair share of scrutiny every so often, and I myself have read many of these articles, but I am curious as to where you found your facts. We are not dismissed early on Fridays and are not devoid of school events. I have attended my school pep rally before each Homecoming weekend, watched our football team at its best, attended our Winter Formal Dance, and played on Varsity Water Polo and Swimming, of which I was the captain. Most students are on sports teams and practice each day taking their teams very seriously. But first and foremost we are at Horace Mann to learn. Our school does not give out ! athletic scholarships only academic. Students are into their work and excited for college because you do not attend Horace Mann unless you are interested in learning and continued growth in a college setting. At Horace Mann I made incredible friends, went to parties, studied, and was given opportunities others seldom get. I never wore black pants to school, never drove a BMW or a Lexii, and I was never tutored each night of the week. I graduated with immense pride and gratitude for my wonderful experience and felt a great appreciation to my parents and teachers who guided me through my years at Horace Mann. After a well balanced normal four year high school experience I do not find that my parents try to live vicariously through me in the hope that I will become the "new elite" but I do miss Horace Mann. For whoever wrote your article has never truly been part of the Horace Mann community and witnessed its inspiring atmosphere. My seni! or year I watched a best friend in Little Shop of Horrors the winter musical, watched another play the violin in a recital, blasted our stereos in the cafeteria while dancing on the benches with friends, meditated in history class, and played Frisbee on the field. And this only represents a small fraction of what goes on each day. You cannot write an article at Horace Mann unless you have been through it and if you have and still come out with this opinion it is only because you never made the effort to get involved and missed out on what Horace Mann was about and left jealous of your class mates who were able to enjoy themselves.

I hope that you will review your articles from now on before publishing them and make sure your writers portray their information more accurately.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Kahn
A proud Horace Mann Graduate

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 12:11 AM (0 comments)

Monday, September 09, 2002

Elsewhere

Wall Street Journal:
For the second straight year, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business was ranked ahead of Harvard, Yale and Columbia Universities. Recruiters gave the Hanover, NH, program high marks for producing graduates who excel in such areas as communication, teamwork and strategic thinking. Ranking behind Dartmouth is the University of Michigan (no.2), Carnegie Mellon University (no.3), Northwestern University's Kellogg School (no.4) and University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (no.5).

Also: WSJ/Harris PR

Austin Statesman:
Dartmouth College was third [in a survey of universities that have profited from tech research] with $68.4 million, most of that from sales of stock in biotech company Medarex, which had given Dartmouth equity in re- turn for patent licenses.

AP: Tuck's Paul Argenti on Schwab's recent television campaign:
If you look at how people are looking at business, it's probably not a good time to be trying to build your reputation and credibility in the financial services sector.

Mercury News:
During frigid winter mornings as a Dartmouth student, Teevens ['79] delivered newspapers at 5 a.m., had hockey practice at 6 and was in class at 9. At Stanford, his day begins at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m., after he has returned every phone call and responded to every e-mail. He sleeps just enough to justify the cost of a pillow.
...
Teevens climbed the coaching ladder with the speed of a four-minute miler. He spent four seasons (1981-84) as offensive coordinator at Boston University, then led Maine to its first back-to-back winning seasons in 21 years. In '87, Athletic Director Ted Leland lured Teevens back to Dartmouth, and Teevens produced two Ivy League titles in four years.

Also: SF Chronicle, SJ Mercury (again), Boston Globe


Dartobserver:
Finally, in what way is Jeffrey Hart "rancourous and ridiculous"? Smiling through the Cultural Catastrophe, despite its title, contains almost no polemics against multiculturalism. It is a learned and passionate defense of the Great Books, and is more well-written than The Western Canon. As for his articles in the Review, well, I think they're very good. Just because you disagree with them doesn't mean that they're "rancourous and ridiculous," yes?

Nemours Foundation: DMS's Paul B. Batalden, MD, wins the 2002 Alfred I. duPont Award for Excellence in Children's Health Care.

The Sun-Sentinel:
"Once people really begin to think about what invading Iraq is about, they are going to come to the conclusion this is not what America does. To me this is tremendously heartening," [says Dartmouth's Ron Edsforth].

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 3:43 PM (0 comments)

Media Bias.

Dartmouth Professor Jim A. Kuypers has a book about to be released called
Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues. The book examines press bias with regards to two controversial issues -- race and homosexuality -- that never receive fair and equitable analysis from the Fourth Estate. Several fellow '01s may remember this book from a seminar on conservative rhetoric that Professor Kuypers taught our senior spring; we read an excerpt from the draft that covered a June 1998 interview with Trent Lott on the Armstrong Williams Show. (Many of you will remember that interview; it caused a mild sensation when Lott said that homosexuality was a "sin" and compared it to disorders like kleptomania. Activists went apoplectic.)

The book draws some interesting and unexpected conclusions, to wit: "The mainstream press in America operate within a narrow range of liberal beliefs. Those with more conservative views will certainly feel the brunt of the press's bias. However, those who embrace moderate political beliefs will be hurt when they step to the right of the press position. The press will actively help certain politicians and social leaders on the left who espouse the same view of the country that the press has adopted. However, those who step beyond this narrow brand of liberal reporting, moving even further to the left, will be ignored or denigrated. In this manner, then, the American press acts to shut out the full range of political voices in the country."

Watch for reviews.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 12:38 PM (0 comments)

Sunday, September 08, 2002

Dartmouth's Worst Feeder?

Anyone have any idea where BWW can be reached? He's been getting fan mail:
To Benjamin Wallace-Wells and whoever thinks he is capable of writing:

I am currently a senior at the Horace Mann School. I have just read your article, "Dartmouth's Worst Feeder School." To be honest, I do not have the time (five hours of homework tonight!) to sit here and correct all of the lies that you have just written. Rest assure, when I have the time to do so, I will. In the interim, let me just say that it is a disgrace that a school of your caliber would print an article ridiculing others that strive for academic excellence.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jenny Aaron

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 9:04 PM (0 comments)

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