Friday, December 15, 2006
At Duke, Professors cum Prosecutors
The Duke Rape Case continues to founder, as District Attorney Mike “Ahab” Nifong does anything and everything to press his case for essentially political reasons—he rode the case to victory in his Democratic primary months ago, and from the start…Tuesday, December 12, 2006
“I thought of quitting, baby, but my heart just ain’t gonna buy it.”
It was on this day in 1915 that Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey to Anthony Sinatra, a fireman, and his wife Natalie. For sixty years, in pubs and in palaces, he entertained the entire world: the…Monday, December 11, 2006
The Rock Revolution Continues
The Right Brothers have just released their fourth album, “No Apologies,” and since the fellas—who were nice enough to send me a copy of the new album—are blogosphere mainstays, I thought I’d jot a few things down about the new…Thursday, December 07, 2006
The Booing of Plácido Domingo
Ah, the question: Did Pláci earn his boos? There is more to say about Tuesday evening’s performance of La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera. The golden duo of Rolando Villazón and Anna Netrebko—which duo will not be together on stage…Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The Situation On the Ground
Reader Jason Stadel, a Dakotan, a Native American, and a member of the United States Army, kindly shares his e-mail of this morning to Dartmouth Athletic Director Josie Harper. Ms. Harper, I was wondering why you took it upon your…Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Self-Reliance Ends Up In the Hanover Dustbin
From an e-mail from a reader and Dartmouth alum:I read with great interest your writings today about Jim Wright’s defense of “free speech.” I interpret his comments to mean that “his” exercise of free speech means that “he” can determine…Sunday, November 19, 2006
Bring Yer Wellies, Lads
Music shops do their customers an enormous wrong by hiding the World Music section all the way in the back of the store. To wit: Gaelic Storm. They’re a five-piece Irish pub band (the one shown in Titanic). The group…Thursday, November 09, 2006
Civil Rights Come to Michigan
It has happened that the state of Michigan is the primary theater in the national war over racial preferences. On the one side, absolutists who believe that racial equality is a term which means, basically, racial equality. On the other…Thursday, November 02, 2006
Constitution Rejected; 51.4% of Alumni Vote ‘No’
With record turnout—the highest ever achieved at Dartmouth—alumni voted to reject the undemocratic constitution. Fifty-one percent voted to reject the constitution, which was the position recommended here at Dartblog over the course of eighty posts composed between September 27, 2005…Sunday, October 29, 2006
William & Mary Removes Cross from Wren Chapel
Even as Dartmouth, in a soft concession to dignity, reinstalls the famous Tiffany and Royal Bavarian stained glass at Rollins Chapel—the biblical windows were removed in 1965 “out of concerns that they were letting too much light into people’s eyes…Tuesday, October 10, 2006
How to Disarm the Rich and Powerful: Vote.
Well, then. I suppose it is safe to say that Dartmouth alumni governance has become intensely politicized in recent months. The small group which has dominated it for years—that is, those who control the debate, make the decisions, and listen…Thursday, August 17, 2006
Claims of Censorship and Intimidation at Dartmouth
This morning’s edition of The Dartmouth carries a worrisome story by reporter Rebekah Rombom. Here is a significant portion of it, but please click here to read the whole thing.As the Association of Alumni prepares to vote on a new…Friday, July 28, 2006
The Verdict: Unconstitutional.
New information shows that the decision made months ago by the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth Association of Alumni to cancel the planned October 2006 annual elections—to stretch out their own terms by as many as six months—is, flatly, unconstitutional….Friday, July 14, 2006
A Letter from Bill Carney, Class of 1975
Bill Carney is a member of the Dartmouth Council of Alumni and was asked, like his fellow Councillors, to vote on the proposed new constitution preliminarily—that is, before it goes out to the whole alumni body. (It will go out…Thursday, June 22, 2006
New York Times Covers Controversial Constitution
In an article viewable on the Internet here, in the International Herald-Tribune here, and in a (rather shoddy-looking) PDF document here, New York Times reporter Diana Schemo covers the battle over the Alumni Governance Task Force’s proposed constitution—one I have…Saturday, May 27, 2006
Ho capito, signor sì!
The officers and Executive Committee of Dartmouth’s Association of Alumni have done to Dartmouth, to her students, and to her former students a massive disservice by canceling the annual election for the very offices they hold. It is cause for…Thursday, May 18, 2006
The Original Micromanager
What does it look like when a person who has never played an instrument, never sung, and never read a note, tries to do a thorough analysis of a piece of classical music? It looks a lot like Mozart &…Saturday, May 06, 2006
Take a Seat, Take a Breath, Take a Look
Reporter C.J. Chivers writes a news article in this morning’s New York Times defending the abilities of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi:…clips of Mr. Zarqawi’s supposed martial incompetence were unconvincing. The weapon in question is complicated to master, and American soldiers…Monday, May 01, 2006
The March of Conquest Through Wild Provinces
Today, Dartmouth College experienced A Day Without Immigrants. It is late afternoon now—time for busy collegians to nap—so the festivities have nigh on ceased. Or rather, what existed of them has ceased. The beginning was not auspicious, as merely a…Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Professor Discretion Is Advised, Cont.
In early March, I wrote in “Professor Discretion Is Advised” about the brave Professor Karen Murdock of Century College. She had the libertine* gall, and in the thick of the Cartoon Jihad no less, to actually make public the cartoons…Monday, April 24, 2006
In Memoriam: Sergeant 1st Class John Thomas Stone
Jared Smith, trainer at the United States Army’s Mountain Warfare School in Vermont and longtime reader, writes to me, and to everyone: I got the breath knocked out of me in central Asia a few weeks ago: Army Medic and…Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The Simple Joy of Spending Someone Else’s Money
Donald Trump developed the lot just across from the United Nations complex into a residential skyscraper called Trump World Tower. It is, or was, the tallest residential building in the world. 871,000 square feet. And each one cost Trump $258.32….Monday, April 17, 2006
The Retired Generals and the South Park Offensive
The episodes of South Park of the last fortnight concerned a partisan censor who wanted the television show Family Guy—in the real world another animated comedy but in this South Park episode a doppelganger for Park itself—taken off the air….Friday, April 14, 2006
The Army We Have
Dartblog has many undergraduate readers—and an undergraduate writer—and we all, collectively, are about to realize our extreme unimportance; our unredeemed deficit of bravery and human utility, in this softly-reported news story of utter heroism in Iraq. That realization is, simply,…Sunday, April 09, 2006
Handey and Hersh on current American Foreign Policy
Saith Handey in a bygone era of the “Saturday Night Live” program, “If you’re in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at some guys, throw one of those little baby-type pumpkins. Maybe it’ll make everyone think of how…Saturday, April 01, 2006
He Sired the Symphony
Today is celebrated the 274th birthday of Joseph Haydn, one of the greatest music-makers ever to have graced this green Earth. Although the world is captivated these days by Mozart—and this entire year, of course, is dedicated to his birth’s…Thursday, March 23, 2006
Tutte le Macchine, Rovescerò
Several days ago I placed a phone call to a member of Dartmouth’s Alumni Governance Task Force—a small group of alumni charged with drafting an overhaul to the constitution on which Dartmouth alumni draw their power and organize themselves, and…Wednesday, March 22, 2006
When is a Bear a Horse?
The number of living panda bears perennially dotes with the three figure mark, and for their scarcity and cuteness they are a matter of special pride in the far east. Their trade is heavily regulated, their births are controlled, their…Saturday, March 04, 2006
al-Qahtani’s Wallpaper (Or Why We Can’t Fight)
It is a little stunning that it took so long. Mohammad al-Qahtani, a captured and worn and non-trivial al Qaeda operative, is the prime suspect for the infamous “20th hijacker” position, as investigated by the United States’ domestic security and…Friday, March 03, 2006
And Lose the Name of Diversity
The United Nations long ago misplaced its formative charge in the wilds of the Secretariat. It had, vaguely now, something to do with preventing another world war. As the years intervened the organization’s job description has changed, and if its…Monday, February 27, 2006
The Situation on the Connecticut
Note: This post discusses Dartmouth politics and is a continuation of “The Situation on the Charles,” which dealt with ousted Harvard president Larry Summers. Regular, non-Dartmouth readers may be mostly interested in the above. At Harvard it was an entrenched…Sunday, February 05, 2006
A Brief History of Backlash
“Here in the UK, even my most liberal and left-wing friends have very suddenly become deeply anti-Muslim and are saying that Muslims clearly cannot live in Europe. These people didn’t say that sort of thing even after the London bombings,…Monday, January 30, 2006
The Difference Between Tolerance and Adoption
I believe that South Park has already furrowed its comedic brow in exploration of this rarely understood bifurcation, but when I read the headline, “Lambda 10 works to erase homophobia” in The Dartmouth this morning, I suddenly felt the urge…Sunday, January 29, 2006
Getting a Haircut is Really Getting to Be a Problem
Most working people don’t watch often enough to realize this trend, but if you turn on the television any weekday afternoon, what you’ll see will, without a doubt, be a very blurry image. Nothing is wrong with your television. This…Friday, January 27, 2006
Mozart: Before Forty-One
The English poet John Dryden once wrote that William Shakespeare was “the man who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul.” The significance of that is hardly appreciable unless we stop, at the…Thursday, January 26, 2006
A Three-Step Newspaper Column Formula
You needn’t be smart or able to think in order to have a newspaper column. All you need is a one-inch square black and white photo of your head and the ability to end sentences with homey, down-to-Earthisms like, “capisce?”….Sunday, January 22, 2006
The Anatomy of an Editorial Cartoon
Gregory Pence is a Dartmouth ‘06 and a rising editorial cartoonist. His work now appears regularly in the Union Leader, New Hampshire’s largest newspaper. It finds its way into 81,000 homes on Sundays, carrying within those gray pages Gregory’s commentary…Thursday, January 19, 2006
The ‘Eh’ Gavel & Occasional Due Process
Purportedly to protect students but more often for the purposes of enforcing code that would never exist or survive in the public arena—and code which is often politically-motived—private colleges tend to construct faux legal edifices that ensconce all students in…Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Co-Education and the Implied Bigotry of Opposition Thereof
It appears that the senior senator from the Bay State has quit his hahlf-century-long membership to the Owl Club, which was a tight-knit coterie of Harvard gentlemen who loved Hooters Restaurant but wouldn’t want to be caught in the society…Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Where We Are, What They Want
It deserves no surprise that the NSA wiretap story is tops on al Jazeera, the world’s only news network al Qaeda terrorists feel comfortable exchanging videotapes with. National Reviewer Cliff May was invited on the network, along with a slurry…Thursday, January 12, 2006
An Open Letter to My Dell Notebook Computer
Dear Dell Latitude D600 Notebook, I don’t know quite how to do this, so I’m going to cull what I can from various episodes of ‘Friends’ and hope that you understand what I’m trying to say. Dell Notebook, we have…Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Me Talk Pretty, Once Edited
A prominent Dartmouth professor once sophomorically quipped that Dartmouth’s Departmental Editing Program, which provides subject-specific adult editors to Dartmouth students whose writing requires refining, was a useless dalliance because the editors are public high school teachers. Ignoring for a moment…Friday, January 06, 2006
“Oscar’s desperate search for relevancy continues.”
Every year I do a cynical and ornery post on the movie business and its award ceremonies. Here it is. The Los Angeles Times, like everyone under the hot L.A. Lovin’ sun except the event’s producers, is bearish on the…Thursday, January 05, 2006
A [Fundamentally Wrong] Question of Race
As Morgan Freeman, who is a man as close as any in memory to being a wise old tree, recently said: “The only way to defeat racism is to stop talking about it. I am going to stop calling you…The Spread and Me
I was going to write this entry yesterday morning. And then, before that, I was going to write it Tuesday morning. In fact, every morning as I step out of the building, across the street, and into the Dunkin’ Donuts…Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Those Earnest Assays at Reform Proceed Apace
It happened today. The United Nations recognized a serious problem, and it—stop me if you’ve ever heard these words used sarcastically in reference to this organization—sprang into action. Real, independent experts were commissioned and studies were studied; reports reported. No…How To Build A Strong Wireless Network
Jeff Jarvis has a wireless router that doesn’t cover his entire home. He’s tried to fix the problem with “range extenders” (those are actually radio repeaters of the type police departments mount on electrical poles) and with “boost antennae” (those…Monday, January 02, 2006
Posts to Note: 2005
When one reads through a few thousand entries, a year starts to look like a very long time. And indeed 2005 was an eventful one. From the ephemera of French ambassadorial confontations, BBQ narcissism, pizza delivery guy tip advice, abandoned…Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Bartleby Rolls Over
One curious thing about the internet is what it has done for famous quotations. Bad, bad things. Classical music lovers who also happen to be savvy on the world wide web (Hey, Dan.) know that, if ever looking for a…Tuesday, December 20, 2005
The TWU Strike Files
The New York Transit Workers Union’s strike continued today. (Mark me down: 20 blocks downtown & 4 blocks crosstown in 29 minutes.) Early this morning, the internet discovered “Transit Worker”, the Blogspot blog run by the TWU. It listed strike…You Never Thought They’d Say It, Did You?
Click to enlarge.Here we are, hurtling through the final fortnight in the Year of Our Lord, whomever that lord may be, Two Thousand and Five, and Agence France-Presse has seen fit to punctuate this annus mirabilis by kindly letting the…Sunday, December 18, 2005
‘The Civilian Toll of War’ Takes A Toll
It became limelight figure numero uno for forty-eight hours last week: 30,000. The number of civilian deaths as a result of the Iraq War, as quoted by President Bush in response to a reporter’s question. As a White House press…Thursday, December 15, 2005
Monkeys, Tribesmen, and Race, Oh My
Matt Drudge refers this morning to Jim Pinkerton’s Newsday column which alleges that Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of King Kong is a racist film. These three articles argue similarly. At Slate, the “implicit racism of King Kong” is discussed and…Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Two Passings On
There were two lives ended. One I was a part of; he was a man I knew. The other I knew nothing of, save for the judgment made against him by the people of California. But the first man has,…Friday, December 02, 2005
Lawyer Up And Sue The Carbonators
Todd Zywicki reveals the news that “the long-anticipated lawsuit against soft drink manufacturers for contributing to children’s obesity is expected to be filed in the near future.” This is ridiculous. Of course soda is to blame for the plumpness of…Monday, November 28, 2005
The Politics of Merrie Melodies
She may have served honorably on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and that to some deserved acclaim, but by the admission of virtually all mankind—including those sympathetic to her sundry causes—Whoopi Goldberg is not a funny person….Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The Most Annoying Person In The World
I am sitting in the library, next to a fellow who I’ve just learned is The Most Annoying Person In The World. Do you know the small but perennial annoyance of people who go ‘ahhh’ while drinking coffee? This guy…Sunday, November 13, 2005
Be The Change You Want To See In The World
Image Courtesy: Scott Meacham and Dartmo.com. Circa 1950.1976: Dartmouth’s very first female students—they matriculated in 1972, taking up the rear among the Ancient Eight—are graduating and, as they receive their diplomas, they not only embolden their contemporaries in the classes…Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Rising Mists and Pierced Fog
Dartmouth, as an institution with vasty roots spread across, as the Alma Mater goes, the girdled earth, is no stranger to political, scientific, or academic controversy. No worthwhile college is, I suspect. But what is new, at least in the…Wednesday, October 05, 2005
“Carlton’s B-list celebrity status”
I really thought Vanessa Carlton was a big deal. She was here at Dartmouth last night, belting ‘em out to the back(ish) rows. I didn’t go to the concert myself and, based upon the aforelinked article, basically no one else…Thursday, September 29, 2005
“As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again.”
Dartmouth College is in the midst of a power shift. The Task Force on Alumni Governance was commissioned to draft an update to the constitutions of the Dartmouth Alumni Council and Alumni Association in the Spring of 2004, just as…Monday, September 12, 2005
A Justice For All Seasons
[Bumped to top.] By fits and starts, the nation is coming to terms with the reality that it will soon have a new High Court. Tragic events and wingy, Rovian conspiracies aside, the debate on John Roberts has commenced, and…Sunday, June 05, 2005
Irresponsible Amnesty International
The Amnesty International leadership is now “unsure” that the United States is running a gulag, as it previously asserted….Friday, April 22, 2005
O, What A Tangled Web We Weave
The famous ‘flower’ portrait of the Bard is a fake. The BBC is reporting that the painting, usually attributed to the year 1609- the date on the painting itself- was actually created almost 200 years after Marlowe Shakespeare’s death. Art…Thursday, April 14, 2005
Same Sex Marriage And 1900
(Bumped up) Many thanks to those who wrote in with positive comments about this piece. I’m sticking it up on top for at least a little bit… This is post number 1900 here on the Dartblog. In just over six…Sunday, February 27, 2005
Singing The Praises of Arrogance
It is difficult, philosophically, to support a foreign policy that almost by its nature bucks diplomacy with America’s traditional allies, provides for pre-emptive warfare, and counts among its goals the overhaul of long-entrenched political interests in the world’s most tenuous…Thursday, February 24, 2005