112211 Chicago Maroon

TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 22, 2011

ISSUE 16 • VOLUME 123

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

Graduate students start national petition in push for union Harunobu Coryne News Editor

Tackling Intramurals Intramural teams NWA and Violence Solves Everything compete during the men’s undergraduate independent flag football final game on Sunday. Violence Solves Everything won the championship (27–12). Check out the MAROON’S full coverage on page 11.

AUMER SHUGHOURY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Two years after a record-high number of first-year admissions to the ER prompted administrators to institute an alcohol education program, the incident rate for the Class of 2015 has so far matched the low levels of last year’s incoming class.

First-years were involved in five of seven total alcohol-related trips to the ER this quarter, compared with three of eight visits by this time last

GSU continued on page 2

University remembers Herman Sinaiko

First-year alcohol-related ER visits remain low Madhu Srikantha News Contributor

U of C graduate students launched a nationwide petition yesterday to pressure the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on a case that may have broad implications for teacher’s assistants and other student employees here, ostensibly bypassing the administration in their push for union recognition.

The petition urges the NLRB, a panel of five presidential appointees that hears complaints of unfair working conditions, to decide on the case of NYU graduate students whose bid for unionization has been at the heart of a contentious debate for several years over the status of partially employed students at private universities.

Graduate Students United

(GSU), the organization circulating the petition, considers the NYU bid to be a barometer of students’ labor rights at the U of C. In 2002 NYU became the first private university in America to allow its TAs and research aides to unionize, but that decision was overturned in 2004 in a similar case involving students at Brown University. The status of graduate student unions has been uncertain since then.

“The biggest factor going into this decision has been the NLRB’s inaction so far,” said Madeline Elfenbein, a GSU member and third-year Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations graduate student.

While the NYU students are not seeking their own union—they want to be represented by United Auto Workers—the GSU anticipates that

Bond Chapel ceremony honors the life and career of former Dean of Students

year, according to Associate Dean of Students Marianne West.

The increased number of firstyear visits is not high enough to draw concern, West said. She added that the U of C’s peer institutions generally have a significantly higher number of alcohol-related ER visits.

Assistant Vice President for Student Health and Counseling Alex Lickerman (M.D. ’92), who oversees the AlcoholEdu program, said that it is difficult to determine ALCOHOL continued on page 2

Marina Fang News Contributor Family, friends, former students, and colleagues gathered at Bond Chapel on Friday to celebrate the life of Humanities professor Herman Sinaiko (A.B. ’45, Ph.D. ’61).

Sinaiko, who taught in the College for 57 years and also served as Dean of Students from 1982 to 1986, died of lung cancer on October 5 at the age of 82.

Throughout the service, the speakers noted Sinaiko’s diverse

contributions to the U of C community.

A self-proclaimed “Hutchins Baby,” Sinaiko strived to make argument an integral part of the U of C education, his son Jesse said.

“If he disagreed, he was more than willing to argue about itpassionately,” Jesse Sinaiko said.

Herman Sinaiko’s former student and colleague Arthur Devenport (A.B. ’68, A.M. ’76) praised Sinaiko’s signature teaching style, which earned him the 1964 Quantrell Award

for Undergraduate Teaching.

Devenport read from letters submitted by other former students, which highlighted Sinaiko’s devotion to intellectual inquiry.

“Herman didn’t push. He pulled. He would question you, pull you forward from initial judgments,” one student wrote.

Sinaiko, who taught the Core classes Greek Thought and Literature and Human Being and Citizen, won the Amoco Award in 1994 and the Norman Maclean Faculty award in 2003. He was SINAIKO continued on page 2

Graduate student found hanged in Hinds laboratory building Rebecca Guterman Associate News Editor A graduate student was found dead late Sunday night in the Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences.

A witness discovered third-year graduate student John Adams at 7:42 p.m. on Sunday night, having hanged himself in a second-floor room of the building. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the incident was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner’s office last night, CBS Chicago reported. He was 26.

Adams was studying paleontology in the geophysical sciences department and was about to advance to Ph.D. candidacy, according to his colleagues.

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Friend, fellow TA, and geophysical sciences graduate student Samuel Miller said that Adams was studying the effects of climate change on ancient marine animals and applying them to today’s ecological issues. Adams worked at Clean Water Action improving water quality in Michigan after graduating from Albion College in 2008.

“He both cared about the way nature operates and how we could use lessons we’ve learned from paleontology in conservation today and in predicting how people will respond to climate change,” Miller said.

David Jablonski, a professor in the geophysical sciences department, worked with Adams on his

Temperatures in Fahrenheit - Courtesy of The Weather Channel

ADAMS continued on page 2

Herman Sinaiko’s son, Jesse Sinaiko, reminisces about childhood memories with his father during a memorial service on Friday afternoon in Bond Chapel.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

IN ARTS

IN VIEWPOINTS

A single Iliad launches a thousand stories

Reasons for living

Student composer sets Sandburg to music

» Page 3

» Page 5 » Page 5

A short, incomplete list of things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving .

2

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 22, 2011

Nussbaum discusses Tagore’s vision of India Jon Catlin News Contributor Joined by Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the Law School, students reckoned with the legacy of nationalism and religious violence in South Asia at a film screening of Satyajit Ray’s 1984 film, The Home and the World, Thursday evening.

Set against the partition of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu states, The Home and the World dissects the nationalist movements that sought independence from Britain, as well as the religious and economic rifts between Hindus and Muslims that persist violently in India to this day.

The film is based on the 1916 novel of the same title by Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian composer and educator who became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. “[Tagore’s] ideas have enormous pertinence to today’s India. In particular, I think he has enormously fruitful ideas about how we can build a public culture of sympathy and imagination without lapsing into mindless obedience to authority or tradition,” Nussbaum said after the screening.

Sponsored by the South Asian Law Students

Students remember Adams’ s sense of humor, passion for teaching ADAMS continued from front

research and regarded him as both a talented student and an asset to the atmosphere of the department. Jablonski had requested Adams as head TA for his Biological Evolution class two years in a row.

“He was terrific. He really cared about the course,” Jablonski said. “Science is actually a very social endeavor, at least the way we do it in paleontology and biology here at Chicago, and John was really valuable as part of the social glue of our program. He was wonderful in that way.”

Adams’s colorful personality came through to his friends and his students, who remember his knack for decorating his cell phone and bicycle helmet with rhinestones and his effectiveness as an instructor.

Jablonski and Miller both spoke highly of Adams’s sense of humor and organization, which came to bear during dinners and class outings to evening speakers, which he was responsible for organizing.

“The first week of the school year, he wrote a really funny, charming e-mail about communal dining etiquette,” Jablonski said. “It was very John. It was funny, but at the same time it was very considerate.”

Second-year Aya Smith said she always appreciated Adams’s feedback and information. “It wasn’t boring to be in his lab section,” she said.

“He seemed pretty proud of what he’s done and really enthusiastic about the subject.”

Association, the event aimed “both to raise awareness of the many political and social questions that Tagore highlighted through his own work, but also to illuminate how these questions still linger in modern day India,” the association’s president, Jalpit Amin, said.

In particular, the film reflects Tagore’s life as an educator and his calls for educational equality and liberation for women at a time when most Indian women were not educated and were severely restricted in public life.

“Tagore proposed a compromise between patriotism and humanity, centered on righteousness and education,” Nussbaum said in her introduction to the film.

A liberal arts education also is vital in addressing modern India’s continuing issues, Nussbaum said.

“We need an education focused on the humanities and the arts, and India, like all other countries, needs to be mindful of this, since technical education is threatening to crowd out these essential studies.”

The event was part of a global celebration of the 150th anniversary of Tagore’s birth. Accordingly, the University recently hosted a conference on Tagore’s contributions to many fields, at which Nussbaum was a keynote speaker.

Food for thought Members of Students Organizing United with Labour (SOUL) hang a banner in Bartlett Dining Commons on Monday demanding that President Zimmer end the University’s contract with Adidas for failure to give Indonesian workers severance pay after a factory closed.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Chazin: Chances of University recognizing graduate students union “unlikely” GSU continued from front

a favorable NLRB ruling will strengthen its own case for full union recognition from the University and strengthened powers of collective bargaining.

In deferring to the authority of a federal agency, the GSU is taking matters into its own hands, according to GSU member and third-year anthropology student Hannah Chazin (A.B. ’08).

“The way it stands right now, either the University recognizes us—which it hasn’t done—or we get a favorable decision from the NLRB which would force the University to recognize us,” Chazin said. “If tomorrow the University decided to recognize us, that would be great, and that could happen with or without the NLRB recommendation, but I think that’s exceedingly unlikely.”

Timing was important in GSU’s decision to circulate the petition. NLRB member Craig Becker’s term is set to expire in January 2012, and the board will not be able to rule on the NYU case until a replacement is appointed and confirmed in the Senate—a process GSU fears will become mired down in politics.

This is not the first time GSU has spoken out against the way in which the University decides graduate student affairs, particularly regarding financial matters like tuition, stipends, and employee compensation.

Most recently, GSU lobbied the Provost’s office to abolish or lower Advanced Residence (AR) tuition fees, which kick in after four years if a graduate student hasn’t completed a degree. Quarterly AR tuition ranges from $4,224 in the Biological Sciences Division to $5,884 in the Humanities Division, though the fees are often mitigated to roughly $800.

A committee of faculty and students convened by Provost Thomas Rosenbaum published a 17-page report in May 2009 recommending several ways to improve graduate students’ quality of life, including the elimination of AR tuition and the expansion of the Graduate Aid Initiative, which provides additional financial support to graduate students past their fourth year.

Rosenbaum posted an eight-page memo on the findings in February 2010, and the University initiated a two-year freeze in AR tuition hikes last year through the 2011– 2012 school year. In a written response to Rosenbaum’s memo, GSU called the freeze “meager.”

“As we have seen, it’s very easy for [the University] to throw us a measly bone instead of addressing our major concerns,” Chazin said, singling out the AR tuition issue as an example of the University trying to appease graduate students without making larger concessions.

GSU representatives met with Deputy Provost for Graduate Education Deborah Nelson and members of the Graduate Council on Monday before posting the petition.

GSU will use its affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors to spread the petition to public and private campuses around the country and in Canada, according to Elfenbein. More than 167 students from both private and public schools around the country have signed the petition at print time.

“We’re not going to pretend that it’s just out of solidarity with NYU,” Elfenbein said.

“The NLRB will be aware that it will be in our best interest as well.”

Administrators hope to change social culture around drinking ALCOHOL continued from front

if the increase is statistically significant.

The entire class of 2015 completed the mandatory first part of the program this year, and 85 percent have completed the voluntary second part of the program, according to Director of Health Promotion and Wellness Kelly Hogan Stewart, who co-manages the program with Lickerman. These figures are nearly identical to last year’s.

In January, the University will receive data analysis compiled by AlcoholEdu’s developer, Outside the Classroom, which will be used to gauge the effectiveness of the online course.

Stewart, Lickerman, and West said that they were looking for more educational tools to widen the range of alcohol information available to students.

Stewart said that one way she hopes to shift social drinking norms in the University community is to work with higher risk groups, such as the Greek life community and sports teams.

The AlcoholEdu program costs approximately $20,000 to operate, but Lickerman said he felt that it was a worthwhile investment.

However, first-year Kayla Hammond questioned the value of the program.

“One of the things [the program] kept trying to say was that alcohol wasn’t a big problem, and if that was the case, I wondered why [AlcoholEdu] even existed,” Hammond said.

The AlcoholEdu program was instituted in response to an all-time high number of 23 alcohol-related ER visits by first-years during the 2009–2010 school year.

Fire Escape Films founded on the fire escape of Sinaiko’s office SINAIKO continued from front

Graduate student John Adams was found dead inside the Henry Hinds Laboratory Sunday evening.

COURTESY OF ADAMS’S FACEBOOK PAGE

also slated to teach The Organization of Knowledge this spring.

Associate Dean of Students Jean Treese (A.B. ’66), one of Sinaiko’s former students, described Sinaiko’s work as Dean of Students to create more support programs for students, particularly for those with mental issues and special needs.

Sinaiko’s goal, said longtime friend Donald Levine, the Peter B. Ritzma

Professor Emeritus of Sociolog y and the College, was to “make students happy because happier students make more engaged students in a demanding curriculum.”

As the first faculty advisor for University Theater (UT), Sinaiko worked with several campus arts organizations, including Fire Escape Films. The RSO earned its name when its first meeting was held on the fire escape outside of Sinaiko’s

office, according to Bill Michel (A.B. ’92, M.B.A. ’08), the former director of UT and current executive director of the Logan Center for the Arts.

Sinaiko’s son David mused that even in his father’s last days, he gave impromptu lectures from his hospital bed to anyone who would listen.

Sinaiko is survived by his wife Susan Fisher, five children, and four grandchildren.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed NOVEMBER 22, 2011

Reasons for living A short, incomplete list of things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 ADAM JANOFSKY Editor-in-Chief CAMILLE VAN HORNE Managing Editor AMY MYERS Senior Editor JONATHAN LAI News Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE News Editor SAM LEVINE News Editor PETER IANAKIEV Viewpoints Editor SHARAN SHETTY Viewpoints Editor JORDAN LARSON Arts Editor HANNAH GOLD Arts Editor MAHMOUD BAHRANI Sports Editor JESSICA SHEFT-ASON Sports Editor DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Head Designer KEVIN WANG Web Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor GABE VALLEY Head Copy Editor LILY YE Head Copy Editor DARREN LEOW Photo Editor JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor REBECCA GUTERMAN Assoc. News Editor LINDA QIU Assoc. News Editor CRYSTAL TSOI Assoc. News Editor GIOVANNI WROBEL Assoc. News Editor AJAY BATRA Assoc. Viewpoints Editor COLIN BRADLEY Assoc. Viewpoints Editor EMILY WANG Assoc. Viewpoints Editor DANIEL LEWIS Assoc. Sports Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager VIVIAN HUA Undergraduate Business Executive

It’s ninth week. Finals are coming, the weather’s getting worse, and you have to start looking for a summer internship or a job. Life kind of sucks, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner. So in the spirit of the holiday, here are a few things to be thankful for: Rockefeller Chapel Carillon: The definition of holiday spirit.

Kimbark Liquors: The definition of holiday spirits.

The East Shuttle: The one time a week when it decides to show up on time really makes it all worthwhile.

Grounds of Being: By far the best and cheapest coffee on campus, now open late on Wednesdays.

MAC Apartments: Because we love when our front door, laundry room, and fire escape are all broken—it makes us appreciate the little things.

Hyde Park Records: We all need a place to feel like John Cusack from time to time.

The Seminary Co-op: For when you can’t turn to any other friend.

UCPD: Well, at least it’s not the UC Davis PD. The Reg’s music collection: You haven’t listened to Giant Steps? Or Tchaikovsky’s 5th? Run to the 3rd floor of the Reg and get educated.

Tuesdays at Doc: Le Samourai.

Breathless. The Red Circle. Enough said.

The Pub: Great service and an excellent selection of beers. Way ahead of that other popular Hyde Park bar.

Student supporters of socially responsible investment: All we can say is, keep fighting the good fight.

We’re behind you.

Eckhart Library: It has every math book in existence, which, depending on your perspective, either makes it the coolest library on campus or the one most in need of burning.

The Shady Dealer: Though we’re not sure the admiration is mutual, we have to take our hats off to an excellent, hilarious campus publication.

Fourth Meal: Skipping breakfast doesn’t seem as bad when you can just have it at midnight.

CTA Bus Tracker: For its noble goal of assisting each and every student too lazy to walk the three short blocks to class.

The Occupy movement: It’s been five decades since any major movement united this nation’s youth. Give it time to grow, to organize: With support, these things work 99% of the time.

Harold’s Chicken Shack: Half a chicken, soggy bread, enough fries to feed every squirrel on campus, and a shot of coleslaw. For four dol-

lars. Your wallet’s still full, and your stomach will be for days.

Study abroad: For getting us the hell out of here.

Flannel and plaid: Dear fabric of choice on campus: We love your cozy warmth, your hipster and mainstream appeal, and the way you make everyone look vaguely alike.

The swing bench in Snitchcock courtyard: The third best place to sit in Hyde Park, period.

Gates-Blake Quad: When a breeze blows through, the leaves descend in swirls and your heart just goes all American Beauty on you.

CCI: Because we’d be lost little lambs (read: Unemployed) otherwise.

Omeletes in the dining hall: The only thing to get excited about in the dining hall.

The lightsabers on the Midway: Don’t mug us, bro.

Using Maroon Dollars in the student cafes: Great for supporting our growing coffee dependency.

The Point: Pulled an all-nighter?

Might as well bike to the Point to watch the sunrise.

Five Guys: Because we all need to feel like we’re in American Graffiti sometimes. And the crazy futuristic drink machines.

The plumbing in Pierce: Who

needs Yellowstone when Old Faithful is one stall over?

Free samples at Treasure Island: Good for weekday snacking, Saturday night dinner, dates...

Being done with the Core (Bio): See “Useless to the core.”

Harper 24-hour study space: We may be the only college without 24hour restaurants, but we sure can do our all-nighters in style.

Law School reflecting pool: Best skinny dipping opportunity this side of the Mississippi.

The fifth floor of the Reg: The only thing that can make a bag of Sun Chips taste better is the risk of being silently beaten to death by a rabid mob of Ph.D. candidates.

Midnight Soccer: Because not only do we prefer playing sports to watching them, we also prefer playing sports while being unable to watch them.

The weather so far this year: On an unrelated note, we are terrified for the weather later this year.

Everyone and everything we forgot: We’re sorry. Happy Thanksgiving.

The Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Viewpoints Editors, and an additional Editorial Board member.

VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator HAYLEY LAMBERSON Ed. Board Member HYEONG-SUN CHO Designer SONIA DHAWAN Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER Designer SARAH LI Designer

Carving out more turkey time Holding classes on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week is a major inconvenience

AUTUMN NI Designer AMITA PRABHU Designer BELLA WU Designer CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN Copy Editor MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor ELIZABETH BYNUM Copy Editor DON HO Copy Editor JANE HUANG Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor KATIE MOCK Copy Editor

By Ajay Batra Associate Viewpoints Editor

LANE SMITH Copy Editor JEN XIA Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Copy Editor

“Change of plans. Coming back to Vegas tonight!” “Back in Vegas for the week. Time to

relax….” “VEGAS BOUND!!!”

“Vegas wat up.”

The preceding is a random selection of Facebook statuses posted by four of my college-going friends from back home this past Sunday or Monday, presented in order of decreasing coherence. While the last of these arguably does not consist of words, the sentiment it expresses is clear: Its author, to use that term almost irresponsibly, returned to our hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada for Thanksgiving vacation on Sunday evening. That

leaves him with at least three full days during which he can relax and unwind—time he is likely to spend enjoying the company of his family and old friends whom he has not seen since moving away from home for the first time—before Thanksgiving Day even arrives.

Meanwhile, back at the U of C, as my friends are home taking full advantage of their time off and doing all the nice, fuzzy things one can do when visiting home, I’ll just be sitting here twiddling my thumbs until Wednesday eve-

ning, when the academic calendar finally allows me to go home.

And many others here will be doing exactly that.

It is clear to me already—on the first Thanksgiving-week Monday I have spent here—that this abbreviated week will be a relative throwaway. There seems to be a kind of understanding between instructors and students that, since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, there’s no need to go mad with the work. Classes, though admittedly VACATION continued on page 4

To do, or not to do?

Students shouldn’t feel guilty about leaving items on their to-do lists unfinished The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500.

The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2011 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Douglas@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

By David Kaner Viewpoints Columnist This column was originally supposed to be about how important it is to set goals for yourself outside of academics. Three weeks ago, I had a workbook sitting on my desk that promised to help me fix my terrible handwriting in just

a month or two. Next to that was the novel I hadn’t touched since September but swore to myself I’d finish by Christmas. There was also the workout routine I had abandoned, the Spanish news website I had bookmarked but failed to use to keep up my reading comprehension, about 50 recipes I hadn’t gotten around to cooking, and probably a dozen other things.

I was going to tackle these lurkers at the bottom of my checklist.

All of them. I was then going to sit here at my computer and smugly inform you that, despite our hectic lives, we can all find the motivation to pursue personal fulfillment in areas other than problem sets. It just takes a little burst of energy.

And maybe an upcoming column deadline.

I’m not writing that column today because I didn’t end up doing a single thing on my list. My Ls and Rs are still indistinguishable. The most novel thing I’ve done in a kitchen recently was make cookies.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who goes through these cycles.

First, there’s the excitement, the absolute confidence that this time you will actually do whatever it is you’ve been dreaming of doing.

Maybe you even start it. Perhaps for a few days you make some progress.

Then, more often than not, your new routine or hobby falls by the

wayside. There are papers to write and your friend’s party to go to, and pretty soon finals, and then break. A new quarter arrives, and the sequence begins afresh.

We’re all human. We’ve all spent hours mindlessly surfing the Internet after finishing our homework, even if we know we will need more than four hours of sleep to get through the next day. We zone out, forget, break appointments, and leave for tomorrow what could be done today.

We didn’t evolve to focus for eight hours on anything, except maybe hunting wild game. We crave warmth, comfort, and simple human companionship. It’s so LAZINESS continued on page 4

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 22, 2011

Canon fodder Common Core courses should incorporate significantly more texts authored by women Hannah Gold Maroon Staff I am one winter quarter in Paris away from completing Civ, and, in so doing, the entirety of my Core requirements (aside from a bit of Core workout that will earn me my final and much put-off P.E. credit). About two weeks ago I picked up, and with shameless excitement looked over, the list of next quarter’s required reading for European Civ. You can probably guess how it went: Machiavelli, More, Voltaire, Kant, Nietzsche, Balzac, Mill, Foucault, Rousseau. It had a nice ring to it and was filled with writers whose work is certainly worth studying, yet I knew immediately that I had heard it all before—not just because I already read at least half of these writers in other Core classes. The list contained a total of 17 books, and not one of them was written by a woman. I was disappointed but certainly not shocked. When it comes to the Great Books club, female writers rarely make the ultra-exclusive “list.”

I have a sneaking suspicion that you are already well-acquainted with the gender trouble I’m talking about, especially since all of you have taken at least one quarter of Hum, but let me briefly clarify. During a recent visit to the Seminary Co-op I was again less than surprised to discover that, out of all the books assigned for Hum and Sosc this quarter, only two were written by women. In other words: sorry, ladies, but you’re not on the list.

But not all of the books for these courses are sold at the Sem Co-op, right? Some are posted on Chalk, decided upon later, and so

on. That may be, but I must say, my personal experience with Hum and Sosc, both of which I took as a first year, pretty much mirrored what I saw on the Sem Co-op shelves.

After taking two quarters of Hum I had read a grand total of one female-authored book.

In Sosc—Power, Identity, and Resistance—I was given a few more lessons about women than in Hum. I learned, for example, that Rousseau had many mistresses, and that Kant

The Core’s lack of female writers runs counter to its spirit and undermines its mission.

did not. We were also taught a single class on Hannah Arendt, during which the professor repeatedly told us how much he could not stand her work. I do not think that this noticeable lack of enthusiasm had anything to do with her being a woman; still, it did little to strengthen my faith in the Core.

The fact is that the ivory tower has been a boy’s club far longer than it has been coed. My expectations are obviously tempered by the material that is actually out there. I did not, for example, expect my first quarter of Readings in World Lit, which focused on ancient epics, to be filled with female writers, nor would I anticipate their presence in the first quarter of Classics, in which one reads ancient Greek philosophers. There is no way, nor any need to, rewrite a history

of inequality. But, thankfully, the rules are rapidly evolving (members-only policy, still non-negotiable; dress code a bit more relaxed). For this reason, you are bound to read many female authors in your non-Core classes, many of whom have a more contemporary focus. Yet the canon of classic texts has remained remarkably resilient to change and, most importantly, expansion.

However, some history remains very much forgotten by the Core. While many of the sequences spend a lot of time on 20th-century literature, they still only rarely include works by women. As for the 18th and 19th centuries, a bit of digging and rethinking could add a great deal to our Great Books education, but it never seems to get done.

Robert Hutchins, under whose presidency the Core was established in the 1930s, said that the goal of education is not to reform students, but “to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.” The Core’s lack of female writers runs counter to its spirit and undermines its mission of building a lifelong dialogue that promotes wide-ranging understanding, curiosity, and consciousness. As for the various merits and mechanics of their work, these should be discussed in class alongside everyone else’s.

How should the department heads achieve such a feat? Simply by placing one foot in front of the other, and selecting more than one or two female-authored readings per year. I don’t believe in quotas—distribution requirements on top of distribution requirements help nothing. A conscious

effort should be made, but it need not be contrived. In fact, the very idea that we can establish a set number of women deserving of “the list”—of a coveted slot in the U of C Great Books education—is embarrassing, and I have trouble believing that this is the reason they are kept off.

I hope and half-heartedly believe that the department heads have not been traditionmongers or book-bouncers—that the issue just needs to be brought up again in earnest, and suggestions made anew. Here is a very tiny hodgepodge of female novelists, philosophers, essayists, and so on, just to get the conversation going, for your and their consideration: Simone Weil, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, and Patricia Highsmith.

Anne Carson, Audre Lord, Judith Butler, Betty Friedan, Ann Radcliff, George Sand, Kate Chopin, Margaret Cavendish, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ayn Rand, Mary Shelley, George Eliot.

I have not read all of these writers; none of their works has ever been taught to me in a U of C classroom. Some I enjoy, for myriad reasons; others I do not, usually for one good reason. The same goes for the scores of male-authored books that I have been taught. Sometimes the metaphor of a glass ceiling is apt—there is a barrier, but you can’t see that; you can only touch it and know it’s there. But in academia there are syllabi, we get them every quarter, and they are just as visible as any velvet rope.

Hannah Gold is a third-year in the College majoring in Law, Letters, and Society.

Current short length of Thanksgiving break prevents many students from going home VACATION continued from page 3 still valuable and arguably necessary given the fast pace of the quarter system, are a little easier-going. Broadly speaking, a relative lull seems to have appeared in the onslaught of midterms (my sincerest apologies and best wishes if you happen to have one) in light of finals being so soon. Really, although this place is always serious business, these three days are a kind of no-man’s-land of indifference and are likely the closest any of us will ever get to coasting through a week here.

Given that this week is objectively not as demanding as others, yet still requires us to be here and, again speaking generally, do a minimal amount of work, our short Thanksgiving becomes a kind of awkward stop-start point rather than a bona fide vacation. Our momentum is slowed unusually and at a crucial time. Just as someone driving up a steep hill should avoid stalling, we should not be made to sit through this short almost-week and then be handed a shorter almost-vacation with the hectic climax of fall quarter imminent. A longer break would be a more

natural plateau before the climb picks up again tenth week; at the very least, we would all know what we were getting.

What is most upsetting given these issues associated with the current Thanksgiving break regime is that the length of the break alone prevents a great many students from even bothering to go home. For many, the expense or distance associated with traveling home for such a short break is prohibitive. In essence, therefore, what the University does by holding class on the day before Thanksgiving is directly prevent a significant amount of its students from going home for a holiday whose value and purpose is largely to get people to return home and be thankful for what they have. To actually deny students this opportunity in order to hold a diluted and abbreviated week of classes seems entirely unjustifiable.

Of course, the fact that a lot of students choose not to go home for Thanksgiving is certainly not news. Indeed, the student body and the University itself proudly make the best out of this non-ideal situation ev-

ery year, with dining halls offering up all the foods you would expect to see at Thanksgiving and the people who stay here becoming each others’ surrogate families for a day or two. I must admit, all of these things are very admirable and speak to our resilience as a community. However, the circumstances that bring them about are unfortunate.

Surely it is better in this instance to err on the side of turkey than on that of term papers.

Were the powers that be in the University to agree in the future to give us the entire week of Thanksgiving off, the issue of students having to sit through a watered-down three-day week would disappear completely, and that of people being effectively prohibited from traveling home would be mitigat-

Having too many self-improvement goals leads to feelings of guilt, anxiety LAZINESS continued from page 3 much easier to grab lunch with a friend instead of practice that instrument you’ve been meaning to pick up. Or spend time lying in bed for hours doing nothing on a Saturday morning, time you could have spent jogging or model airplane-building or anything else you’ve told yourself you’d get around to.

In short, we’re not meant to be motivated and productive every moment of every day, and very few of us are. Why, then, have we constructed a society in which this basic human truth is stigmatized? Worst of all, of course, is failing to do the things we must; you can’t just NOT finish that reading. The horror! Yet here in the land of self-help, we put it upon ourselves to be not just good

students and employees, but fully actualized human beings, whatever that means. So we vainly make ourselves all sorts of promises about how we’re going to improve ourselves as people. In the end, we’re often left with nothing but an unused gym membership or library card and a vague feeling that we’ve somehow failed.

We set ourselves an impossibly high bar to reach. After hours of work, sitting through classes, attending RSO meetings, and fulfilling all of our other obligations, if we decide to come home, unwind, and watch TV rather than do something new and fulfilling, we just end up feeling guilty about it.

We need to be realistic about what we will actually accomplish and adjust our expecta-

tions accordingly. That doesn’t mean it’s bad to have ambition and initiative: We would never get anything done without them. But the drive in our culture to relentlessly seek self-improvement and turn every plan into reality seems somewhat incompatible with various aspects of human nature.

So, by all means, continue to strive to sleep better or learn to tango or pick up Aramaic.

My to-do list is, and always will be, right in front of me. But the next time you spend the day on the couch, don’t let yourself be overcome by a feeling of guilt. No one’s perfect.

And besides, there’s always tomorrow.

David Kaner is a second-year in the College majoring in Law, Letters, and Society.

ed significantly. Of course, even then, people wouldn’t necessarily have to be forced to leave; the fact that winter break is a mere two weeks after the end of Thanksgiving break would certainly still be a consideration for many. That reality alone should not be enough, however, for administrators to justify maintaining the status quo, as there are simply too many downsides currently associated with it. And in the end, surely it is better in this instance to err on the side of turkey than on that of term papers.

At the very least, giving us Wednesday off, while it might make the issue of the short week even worse, would help to an extent in convincing people that a trip home is long enough to be worthwhile. For now, though, I’ll just have to settle for quality time with family and friends, Thanksgiving dinner, and multiple trips to In-N-Out Burger being squeezed into three days, and a less exciting Facebook status. I’m thinking of going with, “Vegas wat up… finally.”

Ajay Batra is a first-year in the College.

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words.

Op-ed submissions, 800 words.

ARTS

Trivial Pursuits NOVEMBER 22, 2011

A single Iliad launches a thousand stories Angela Qian Arts Contributor The audience members were still chattering among themselves when Homer nonchalantly stomped on stage. He broke into a stream of Greek, and when we all sat dumbfounded, casually began a speech in comprehensible, everyday English, gently poking fun at the long tradition of reciting the 24-book epic.

Finally, the lights came on for Court Theatre’s production of An Iliad.

AN ILIAD

Court Theatre Through December 11

Timothy Edward Kane, an actor with numerous shows in Court Theatre behind him and with a history of collaboration with Artistic Director Charles Newell, magnificently builds the character of the tired bard in this one-man show. Dressed in tattered, neutral-colored clothing and carrying a canteen, Kane looks like a dusty

and well-tread traveler. He opens the play with a seemingly flippant, nonchalant attitude, easily talking to the crowd about his past recitations of the epic.

However, as he lapses into a new, abridged retelling of the story of Achilles’s rage, cracks appear in his affectedly nonchalant speech— and it is soon apparent that Homer is truly distressed, and that the Trojan War probably has something to do with it.

Kane gives each and every character a distinct voice and personality, utilizing different body motions and gestures, to humanize Achilles, Patroclus, Hector; and the rest of the cast. Although sometimes, in the transition between characters’ speeches, it can be unclear who exactly is doing the talking , Kane nevertheless executes excellent portrayals of the characters in the Iliad.

The utilization of light in this production is imperative and fascinating to that end. When Hector speaks to Andromache on the ramparts of Troy, all the lights are off except a single, lonely white

light at the corner of the stage where Kane perches, alternately playing as Hector, as Andromache, and as Hector’s infant son. Reverting to the role of Homer, he presses on with the story—describing Achilles, describing Patroclus, and Patroclus’s charge against the Trojans to turn the tide of the war, with gut-wrenching vividness.

Perhaps the gut-wrenching vividness is the point.

As Kane humanizes the heroes in the ancient epic, bringing home their families, their desires, their fears, their motivations, it becomes more and more difficult to watch the characters die. The entire production plays down the role of the gods that is so central to the original epic. In its careful selection of which parts of the epic to include and which to cut out, there is a very obvious anti-war flavor that might be off-putting to some. There was nothing subtle in Kane’s miming of producing a photograph and pointing at imaginary figures, saying ILIAD continued on page 8

Timothy Edward Kane, the sole actor in Court Theatre’s An Iliad.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL BROSILOW

Breaking Dawn draws fresh blood gah, he said whaa?” sort actually do exist. It’s called being a preteen girl. This category of girls dominates the Twilight world, and I’ve come to expect to see these perfectly mock-able girls at every event.

Actually, they’re what keep me coming back.

BREAKING DAWN Bill Condon AMC River East

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart take absuridity to the next level in Breaking Dawn: Part 1.

COURTESY OF ANDREW COOPER

Madhu Srikartha Arts Contributor The only time I’ll ever claim to have thought, “Where the hell are the preteens so I can stop feeling so lame?” was this past Thursday night.

I would call myself a veteran of the Twilight genre—I’ve read every book and seen every movie (most of which were midnight

releases or premieres) in my hometown of Iowa City, Iowa. I say this hesitantly because I know that I’ve probably just lost 50 percent of the friends I’ve made at the University of Chicago.

Goodbye, guys, I’ll miss you too.

Sigh. Anyway.

From my attendance at all of these supercharged Twilight events, I’ve come to realize that stereotypical girls of the “oh-my-

Midnight premieres are fun.

Twilight midnight premieres are hilarious and fun. In convincing people to go with me to the Breaking Dawn: Part 1midnight premiere, my main argument was, “You don’t understand how funny those preteen girls are!

Come with me? It’ll be fun!”

For those of you who have managed to escape the Twilight craze, let me give you the low-down. Stephenie Meyer’s four-part book series follows Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward’s (Robert Pattinson) epic love story. The catch? Edward is a vampire who doesn’t want to turn Bella, a human, into a vampire. But their love is so extraordinary that nothing can keep them apart. Complicating the love story is Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a werewolf who cap-

tured part of Bella’s heart in the second book, New Moon. This film marks the beginning of the two-part finale, Meyer’s fourth book, Breaking Dawn.

After finding a committed group of attendees, my friend bought our tickets and we began the mental preparation... by which I mean we did our homework like good kids. Then Thursday night arrived.

We entered the theater around 11:30, thinking that we had missed the rush of wildly enthusiastic teen girls who were probably waiting around the corner. But then we went upstairs and…silence. Calm. Confusion. No preteens. My interest was slowly waning, as my itch for mockery began to subside, an itch that was just not being scratched. I couldn’t help but think, “Damn those responsible parents who just want to see their children succeed….”

As my bitterness grew, we beganinching toward ourtheater— number seven, slated to begin at 12:01 a.m. My hopes for a hilariously excited audience ballooned as we approached the doors, and were promptly popped after taking in the view.

Normal people. Freaking normal people. All ready (I could tell) with ripe witticisms on their tongue. Dammit.

Theater seven’s audience consisted of an unimaginably diverse DAWN continued on page 9

Student composer sets Sandburg to music Sarah Miller Arts Contributor Singing Fire, an original student composition, premiered last Saturday night at Rockefeller Chapel. Second-year Philip McGrath composed this four-movement piece this past summer after receiving a grant from the University of Chicago Arts Council. The work delves into the meaning and artistic thought behind Carl Sandburg’s poems.

McGrath said he was inspired to do the project after reading Sandburg’s “Bath,” a poem about a man who goes to a concert and becomes engulfed by a “singing fire” immediately following the concert. The poem, despite its disillusioned, depressing tone, demonstrates how such dark feelings can change with an encounter with art.

“Through this project, I wanted the viewers to go through an emotional journey and then at the end bring all of the artwork together thematically. Also, I wanted the viewers to experience different types of art and media and how they work together to create a certain effect.

There is a wide spectrum of music and art in this show,” McGrath said.

In order to prepare for the performance, McGrath spent most of his summer writing music, a process he described as “solitary.” However, he was joined by many others in realizing the concert. The performers included thirdyear Ph.D. student Samantha Fan (violinist), fourthyear Amanda Jacobson (alto singer), second-year Katelyn Muenck (visual artist and reader), second-year Julianna Peebles (harpist), secondyear Nora Sandler (pianist), Bonnie Sheu (cellist), second-year Brian Hoey (guitarist), and first-year Rachel Maley (pianist). The group formally met Monday of first week and practiced for two hours each week leading up to the performance.

The prelude and four interludes were readings of Sandburg’s poems, performed by Sandler, Muenck, and Jacobson. The poems ranged from Sandburg’s well-known work “Chicago” to the more folksy and obscure “Onion Days,” and even Tony Hoagland’s “Beauty.” However, all of the poems aligned with the concert’s overarching theme of disillusionment.

McGrath participated in his own composition, singing FIRE continued on page 8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 22, 2011

6

A family portrait painted black

A sustainable slice at Great Lake Noah Weiland, Danny Rua & Richard Deulofeut Arts Contributors

Matt King (George Clooney) and his daughter (Shailene Woodley) unflinchingly face tragedy.

COURTESY OF MERIE WALLACE

Cam Bauchner Arts Contributor It’s been seven long years since Alexander Payne has made a movie, and his dark humor has been sorely missed. Payne’s last film was the Oscar- nominated Sideways (2004), a sardonic tale of two best friends who go on a tour of California’s wine country. Payne continues to find humor in depressing situations with his new film The Descendants.

The Descendants follows Hawaiian realtor Matt King (George Clooney) as he tries to simultaneously broker his family’s 25,000-acre land and deal with his unfaithful wife. The ironic twist (one few directors today can pull off ) is that Matt’s wife has recently suffered severe head trauma in a boating

accident and now Matt, the substitute father, must raise his two daughters, an energetic tween and an angsty teenager. Did I mention his wife is going to

THE DESCENDANTS Alexander Payne AMC River East

die? It’s this frankness in what seems like a grim scenario that makes Payne the director he is. His characters never cater to stereotypes and often surprise viewers with the most colorful of lines.

Payne replaces a typical weeping hospital scene with one that involves nearly an entire family yelling at a woman in a coma. But what seems cruel strikes the

audience as candid above all else. What husband wouldn’t yell at his wife after finding out she cheated on him, even if she were in a coma?

Payne approaches The Descendants with the same serendipity one finds in everyday life, and Payne’s characters exhibit idiosyncrasies that, ironically, seem universal to all. Buoyed by performances from Secret Life of the American Teenager star Shailene Woodley, who plays Matt’s daughter, and her sidekick Amara Miller (Matt’s other daughter), Matt King must expertly navigate the tricky and often arbitrary nature of family life. Through the hunt for his wife’s lover (a delightful Matthew Lillard) Matt grows closer to his daughters and eventually come to terms with the state of his life. The Descendants finds salvaDESCEND continued on page 8

When asked about his recordings, the late trumpeter Miles Davis used to say: “I always listen to what I can leave out.” There is perhaps no better culinary representation of this mantra than Great Lake, an Andersonville pizza shop run by Lydia Esparza and Nick Lessins. Opened in 2008, the shop has garnered praise from chefs Grant Achatz (Alinea, Next), Charlie Trotter (Charlie Trotter’s), Paul Kahan (Blackbird, Avec, The Publican) and some of the most wellknown food critics; Alan Richman of GQ named it the best pizza in America, and The New York Times has featured it several times in its Dining section. But more than just the good reviews, the shop represents a complete dedication to small shop ideals: sustainability, locally sourced products, and a commitment to doing just a few things well.

Walking into the shop is a completely visceral experience—the decor and smell of the pies are overwhelming even to those put off by the smallness of the space. The shop only has 14 seats, eight of which belong to a single communal table, and the open kitchen is even smaller than the dining area. While Esparza waits on customers and prepares salads, Lessins makes every pizza by hand. Most ingredients used in the pizzas are homemade—Italian sausage, chorizo, and cheese are made on-site during off-hours (the shop is only open 18 hours a week). But the star of every pizza is its crust, a recipe developed

by Lessins over several years. The end product fuses the crackling crunch of a French baguette with the textural density of a wood-fired flatbread, all done in a traditional gas oven, no less. The wait for each pizza can be lengthy, but the quality of the pie demands a deliberate production. For this reason, Lessins only has three to four options per night, chosen based on whatever happens to be in season or what ingredients work well together. When finished, each pizza is a work of art, combining ingredients as diverse as Gunthorp Farms smoked bacon, homemade crème fraîche, and tropea onion, or at other times fresh arugula, farmer’s cheese, and roasted tomatillo salsa.

But more than just fine dining, Great Lake is an educational experience. Esparza and Lessins have always

GREAT LAKE 1477 West Balmoral Avenue 773-334-9270

believed in a business philosophy rooted in natural ingredients and local economy. Their menu boasts the use of no CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), and supports farms and dairies from nearby states. They regularly peruse the stands of neighborhood farmers’ markets searching for fresh produce, and Esparza stocks shelves in the store with products from other small businesses that uphold the same dedication to quality. The two want their LAKE continued on page 8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENT | November 22, 2011

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 22, 2011

8

Court gives peace a chance in Homer’s epic ILIAD continued from page 5 boys’ names, saying that one boy was going to go to Oxford and was dead now. There is nothing subtle about the Lord of the Flies-esque speech Homer delivers in which he says that even the noblest of men become savage in victory while we hear cries of battle in the background. There is nothing subtle about Kane reciting a lengthy list of historical wars. The recitation is reserved at first, then turns into a fevered and agonized chant.

As the play goes on, Kane’s characters, and Homer himself, become more emotional and deranged; at Patroclus’s death, all the lights in the theater go out. In the pitch-black setting, Achilles lights a match and holds it trembling to his face. He is shocked,

pained, trembling, and whimpering ; the light from the flare gives his dim eyes haunting shadows.

The hidden depths of the deceptively simple stage are revealed: a pool of water, where Homer splashes his face; a jet of sand which Homer uses to illustrate his monologue; a menacing gas mask which makes Homer’s voice echo eerily.

As his speech and the story progress, Kane removes more and more layers of clothing to show his vulnerability. Off comes the tattered overcoat; off comes the inner jacket; off comes the scarf.

As each layer is discarded, Kane portrays Homer as becoming increasingly agitated and invested in the tragedy of his sorrow.

Throughout the entire play, Kane intermittently stops his recital to

Leave the hype, take the pepperoni ask, “Do you see?� And Kane’s performance is spot-on. The life he infuses into each beat, each character’s voice, each imaginary spear thrust paints the Trojan War far more darkly in this post-9/11 world. The message is clear, and the horrors of war are apparent.

As the play closes, with Hector dead, Patroclus gone, and Achilles having performed at last an act of compassion, Homer once again looks at the audience and says, quite simply, “You see?� Do we see what? The violence of war, the distinct histories, experiences, and words that flavor every individual. The significance of every single death, the bestial brutality that even the best man has within. When the play is done and the lights finally come on, I suppose we all do see.

Singing Fire unites student efforts FIRE continued from page 5 “Tune thy Music to thy Heart,� “As by the Streams of Babylon,� and “La mi Sola, Laureola� after the first prelude.

The performance also included works

by Philip Glass, performed by Maley, John Cage’s infamous 4’33,� “Losing My Mind� from Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, sung by Jacobson, and two poems written by Muenck herself.

The visual art was shown on a screen and featured an animation and 138 slides of artwork, among others. The main piece of art was a visual representation of the concept

of “singing fire.� The art was brightly colored and more abstract, but it conveyed the message of the performance well. “Making the artwork was a bit of a challenge because I had not heard the music beforehand, so it is interesting to see whether the intensity of my artwork will jibe as much as it should,� said Muenck.

The concert culminated with the Singing Fire ensemble, McGrath’s composition. The music accompanied the poetry well, and the talent of the musicians was overwhelming.

The audience sat awestruck as the ensemble worked to create what would be a memorable performance. “Overall, the experience was pretty incredible. The most amazing part was that a group of six to seven students could meet and rehearse a couple hours a week and create 15 minutes of a really beautiful chamber piece without a conductor,� said Jacobson. She continued, “Poetry and music are hard to put together, but I think there is a really lovely interplay between the music and the poem in the different parts of Singing Fire.�

LAKE continued from page 6 restaurant to be as much a reminder of small business sustainability as it is a celebration of pizza. Yet just as important as what’s there is what isn’t; they never overstock (even running out of dough some nights), and keep their waste to a bare minimum.

They fill one medium-sized trash can and three large recycling bins per week. Their operation is an ode to what small business should be in a world of diminishing resources and

low-quality mass-production.

Great Lake rejects the kind of sensationalism associated with food blog elitism and user-review sites like Yelp. What is important to Lessins and Esparza is not pleasing every customer, but rather presenting a carefully constructed picture of what food means to them. Like Davis’s jazz, Great Lake is about preserving the essential, about mastering the art of control. When asked what’s next for the shop, Lessins didn’t hesitate: “We’re opening on Wednesday.�

Payne’s tragedy doesn’t shed a tear DESCEND continued from page 6 tion in humor and isn’t weighed down by its dialogue or stunted by its character development. Matt and his daughters bond in the midst of a morose situation, using their wit and gumption, a lesson that we should perhaps incorporate into our own lives.

However, the movie is called The Descendants for a reason. While Matt and his family are tracking down his wife’s seducer, he must also broker the sale of his family’s 25,000-acre land in Kauai. He is the sole trustee, and therefore must make the final call on whether or not the sale will be made and to whom.

As the movie progresses we see Payne tackle the capricious nature of life. Matt and his cousins are descendants not by virtue of talent or intelligence, but by sheer good fortune. In life, though, we must play the cards we are dealt regardless of what we think is fair. It is in this vein that Matt ends up making his final

decision regarding the land.

But regardless of how much dark humor you can inject into a tragedy, the story is still tragic, and at points it seems like Payne has forgotten that. Matt does not cry when faced with the news that his wife is dying, and there is no sense of melancholy when the Kings are scattering their mother’s ashes. The viewer never actually gets to meet Mrs. King, but often sees her decrepit body lying in the hospital. In the end we sympathize with her and wonder why her family isn’t doing the same.

However, Payne is a conscious filmmaker, one of the few left in Hollywood, and it is his direction and writing that lift the movie to a higher stratosphere of cinema. Too often we see movies sacrifice entertainment for art, but fortunately for us, Payne knows that the best movies are indicative of life itself and therefore must have a stroke of comic paint, even if that paint is black.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 22, 2011

CROSSWORD

with Jamie Mermelstein

BIR D IS THE WOR D Across 1 Like The Iliad, or The Odyssey 5 9 14 16 17 19 20 21 24 28 29 31 32 34 36 37 41 42 43 45 47 50 51 53 55 56 57 64 65 66 67 68

Sage Bidder’s proposal Expanded The Nutcracker heroine ‘90s “Save Tonight” singers?

Actress Lanchester and others Vince’s agent on “Entourage” Squirts Laundry room loss The rain in Spain Group race Light-footed Earth Those, in Toledo Falstaff ’s friend Harper Lee novel—or the theme of this Thursday’s festivites?

Dada’s dad Bartlett or bosc Farm staples Fashion icon Hipster music platform Cannes film Condé Nast’s “Bon _____” “Hey Ya” group Suffix with violin or bass Rapping M.D.?

Ridley Scott Movie?

Church offering Most minute Control Hearing aids We to Henri

Down 1 Corp.’s revenue, minus expenses 2 Beantown skyscraper, with “The” 3 Super suffix 4 Easy task 5 Old Faithful, for one 6 Anxiety 7 Spanish kings 8 Ending with quiet 9 Fall color 10 Hollywood Madame Heidi 11 Quite a ways 12 Misstep 13 Title role for Jamie Foxx 15 Editor’s verb

18 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 30 33 35 38 39 40 41 44 46 48 49 52 54 56 57

“____ Get to That?”

Fido’s foot Vacation for the vain?

ABBA or Spice Girls genre Brewer’s need Hamlet’s lost love Coloring boxful Senate minority whip Jon Come to understand Dance move H.S. grads-to-be Freaky U of C economics professor Steven Café Au ______ Contributed Dentist’s org.

Tennis unit 51-across columnist The New ______ Halls competitor Scoffed at 90-degree angle tester Actress de Matteo Incidentally, in textspeak

58 59 60 61 62 63

Number of cards in Nero’s deck Consumed Southwest Indian Great society org.

Sch. with a Spokane campus p.m. times

Tuesday 11/15/11

9

Preteen pop culture meets absurdism DAWN continued from page 5 group of people, a group that so defied stereotypes (racially, gender-wise, personality-wise) that I felt like every person had been handpicked to sit with me through the experience. We were all clearly there to mock, so that when the lights went down I didn’t know what to do with myself.

But then my hopes soared when two distinguishable screams of unrestrained joy filled the theater as a Lautner shirtless scene came literally within the first 15 seconds of the film. My disappointment with the make-up of the audience immediately decreased and was more than filled by the content of the film and the snide remarks coming from either side of me. This was fast becoming one of my favorite movie-going experiences of the year. As absurdly emotional scenes followed only more absurdly emotional scenes, my group and I fell into endless bouts of laughter punctuated by commentary on the choices of the lovesick Bella and Edward. It was perfect. Nothing but alcohol could have made it a better experience.

Now, I’ve read the books, so I knew what horrible

things were to come before going in. Not everyone in my group did. There were some horrible, horrible things to come, and I couldn’t wait to see how Bill Condon, the director of this particular Stephenie Meyer-driven flick, was going to deal with them in a PG-13 context.

Want a taste of the comedic gold that is sure to disgust/amaze you? Robert Pattinson using his teeth in helping with a live birthing. Still not convinced? Hilariously stale acting courtesy of, well, every single actor and actress besides Billy Burke, who plays Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) dad.

He has maybe 10 lines.

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is an epic journey into the absurd, a film that tested my conception of reality (mostly because of the intensity of the story line in conjunction with how poorly everyone was acting), and worth every cent considering how much fun I had.

Will I be paying $10 more for the sheer entertainment value that is sure to be Breaking Dawn: Part 2? Yes, I will. And I hope you’ll join me.

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The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine Accelerated Medical Scholars Program: Informational Meeting

Thanksgiving Hours Wed., Nov. 23

D’Angelo Closes early at 3 p.m.

Tuesday November 29, 2011

Mansueto Closes early at 9:45 p.m.

Regenstein Closes early at 10 p.m.

5:30 PM Biological Sciences Learning Center

Crerar Closes at 1:00 a.m.

Thur., Nov. 24

All Libraries Closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Fri., Nov. 25

Crerar, Regenstein & Mansueto Open normal building hours.

924 E. 57th St., Room 001 The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is pleased to offer the Accelerated Medical Scholars Program for the entering medical school class of 2012. This initiative will provide the opportunity for exceptional students in the College to complete their undergraduate degree with a “BA in Professional-Option: Medicine,” by replacing the fourth year undergraduate curriculum with the first year of medical school. The BA degree is granted after successful completion of the first year of medical school and the MD degree after successful completion of the four year medical curriculum. The advising and application process will be explained and there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

D’Angelo Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Eckhart & SSA Closed

Regenstein All-Night Study

Closes 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov 23.

Reopens 1 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28.

hours.lib.uchicago.edu

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 22, 2011

10

Maroons roll over Fontebonne, Macalester, to win Tip-Off Tournament

Third-year Maggie Ely looks for a pass during a game against Macalester on Saturday.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Women’s Basketball Mahmoud Bahrani Sports Editor Being one of the best teams in the country can have its downsides.

Just ask the Maroons. After decimating a lackluster Fontebonne

squad in a 36-point win, Chicago faced a stiff challenge in a MaCalester squad looking to prove that they could compete against the best. For a short while, it seemed that they could. “Being one the top teams in the nation, we definitely have a target on our back,� said fourth-year for-

Second half gets physical as tempers flare M. BASKETBALL continued from back

play began to get physical. With 12:40 left in the game and the Chicago lead at four, first-year point guard Royce Muskeyvalley put up a layup which was blocked

by Grizzlies’ forth-year forward Zach Merschbrock. The Chicago first-year fell to the ground, and Merschbrock had some words for him, resulting in a technical foul for the Franklin senior.

The Maroons did not want the situation to affect them, given the tightness of the match. “They look to get in your head with physicality,� Sotos said. “We just rely on our basketball skills.�

Chicago didn’t let up the rest of the way. An unbalanced jumper by Sotos ended the game on a high note, as the Maroons would go on to win by a score of 83–68.

According to Sotos, the correct word to characterize that shot

and many other crowd-pleasing shots throughout the course of the game is swag.

Still, in spite of an early 2–0 record this season, McGrath said he does not want the team to be overly confident. “We haven’t proven anything,� he said. “This senior class has won [fewer] games in their time period than any other class we’ve had since I’ve been here. They’re behind the curve, and they’ve got a lot to prove.�

The Maroons square off against Lake Forest tonight. There will be an added family element, as the Foresters’ assistant coach is firstyear guard Ryan Davis’s father, Ken Davis. While Sotos said no formal scouting report has been conducted, McGrath said that the fatherson situation will not be a factor.

Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. at the Ratner Center.

ward Morgan Herrick. “For some people, it might be the game of their season, that they’re going to play one of the top ranked teams in the nation. We just have to stay focused and bring our game every single time.�

MaCalaster jumped out to a 20–9 lead early. Fourth-year

post player Holly Schiedermayer scored nine of the 20 points for the Scots, taking advantage of fourth-year Morgan Herrick, who just recently came off of her second ACL surgery. She would go on to score 18 points in the first half alone. “I think one of our weak points is our post defense,� said fourth year forward Meghan Herrick. “With Morgan being hurt, she’s our best post defender, I think that our weakness was exposed.�

The Maroons were eventually able to slow down Schiedermayer, limiting her to only six points off one of three shooting from the field. “She just had one of those nights,� said Meghan Herrick. “We couldn’t figure out how to stop her. It was until we started double-teaming her and taking her shot away that we were able to prevent her from scoring.�

Chicago fought back after surviving the initial onslaught, and nine quick points from third-year NYU transfer Maggie Ely helped Chicago take a six-point lead into the locker room. “We actually have a very deep bench. They are all offensive

threats,� said Meghan Herrick.

Chicago made quick work of the Scots in the second half, pushing their lead to double digits during a 12–point run early in the second half. The Maroons would go on to blow out Maclester in an 81–59 rout. “Our philosophy is not just to win, but to dominate,� said Meghan Herrick.

Fourth-year center Taylor Simpson, named the Preseason Player of the Year by Women’s Division III News , had an efficient night, leading Chicago in scoring with 23 points off eight of 11 shooting from the field. She also chipped in eight rebounds.

Three other Maroons, Meghan Herrick, Ely, and fourth-year Joanna Torres, also had double– digit scoring nights, scoring 14, 15, and 11, respectively. “Any given day anyone can score 20 points. That’s the good thing about our offense,� said Morgan Herrick, who transferred to Chicago from Drake last year. “It doesn’t matter who scores. We don’t care who scores. Our offense allows the opportunity for anyone to score.�

Individual performances highlight Phoenix Invite Swim and Dive Matt Tyndale Sports Staff It’s never too early to set some records. The Maroons enjoyed a dominating performance over the weekend at the Phoenix Fall Classic, with the men taking second out of nine schools and the women destroying the 10-team field.

Even with these marks, though, the strong team performances were overshadowed by the incredible individual achievements of the Maroons, with the men and women recording 14 NCAA provisional performances and setting six new school records. “I was happy with the team’s performance this past weekend. It was by far our best mid-season meet ever,� said Head Coach Jason Weber. “We expected to win a lot of events and our goal was to post some fast times and high scores in an effort to break some records and achieve some

NCAA qualifying times. I just don’t think any of us expected to do this well.�

The Maroons performed better than well.

The men were led by first-year UAA Athlete of the Week Andrew Angeles, who set NCAA “B� provisional marks in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.54 and another “B� mark in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:04.96. The women were led

by UAA Athlete of the Week thirdyear Becky Schmidt, who recorded “B� scores in the 1m dive with a score of 449.55 and the 3m dive with a score of 449.10. Both of Schmidt’s marks are also school records.

In addition to Schmidt, the men’s and women’s 200-yard freestyle relay set new records of 1:25.09 and 1:36.91 respectively, first-year Andrew Salomon set a record 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:32.45, and fellow first-year, George Gvakharia, marked a new 200-yard backstroke record of 1:51.98.

Records were not the only thing being set, as many Maroons recorded NCAA “B� cut times, as well. Fourthyear Tara Levens, third-years Kathleen Taylor and Bobby Morales, secondyear Eric Hallmann, and first-years Salomon and Matt Staab reached the “B� standards in addition to Angeles and Schmidt.

Although the men did not get the win in the face of stiff competition, the Maroons were still more than satisfied with their performance. “Our main goal was to record some good performances, but winning was something we still wanted to do,� said Weber. “We’re not disappointed about the meet because of it though.�

Following this meet the Maroons look forward to a long winter break where they can finally get some intensive training without worrying about schoolwork. “We will be putting in a lot of tough training; much more than they can do here with school and everything else going on,� said Weber.

Whitmore decimates school record by over 10 seconds in All-American performace The Path to All-American

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fourth-year from Wash U. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My goal this summer was to qualify for the National meet. Although I had to make some sacrifices to achieve this goal, the end result was that much more enjoyable,â&#x20AC;? Whitmore said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Being an All-American justifies the hundreds of miles put in over the summer months. I am proud to have represented my team and the University at NCAAs.â&#x20AC;?

As the teams look ahead to the indoor track seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the first meet is the UW-Oshkosh Dual at home on January 14â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the future looks bright. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Both our menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teams had very good seasons. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see a lot of fatigue in our teams and believe they will quickly refocus on track season after a couple of down weeks,â&#x20AC;? Hall said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have a high level of confidence right now and higher goals then ever.â&#x20AC;?

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seven were third-year Kayla McDonald and second-year Elise Wummer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There were definitely some successes at the meet, as Rachel and Bill both were All-Americans,â&#x20AC;? Sizek said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and a couple of the girls also ran personal bests.â&#x20AC;?

North Central (Ill.) took home the menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national championship, finishing ahead of Haverford and, from the UAA, Wash U. Other menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s UAA results included NYU in 19th and Rochester in 22nd.

Individually, Whitmore finished behind national champion Ben Sathre of St. Thomas (Minn.), Lee Berube of SUNY Geneseo, John Johnston of St. Lawrence, Tim Nelson of UW-Stout, Matthew Perez of North Central (Ill.), and Kevin McCarthy of Wabash. He was the top UAA representative in the field, finishing three spots ahead of Michael Burnstein, a

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Both William Whitmore and Rachel Ohman finished in the top 35 in the nation, earning the prestigious AllAmerican label. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the breakdown of how both performed during the race.

DOUGLAS EVERSON | THE CHICAGO MAROON

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 22, 2011

11

Fourth-year Liza Wagner of May House tackles a Wick House team member in Monday night’s flag football championship game.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

INTRAMURAL CHAMPIONSHIPS Men’s Resident Football

Coed Resident Football

Men’s Coed Independent Football Resident Volleyball

Stephanie Xiao Sports Contributor

Daniel Lewis Associate Sports Editor

Jessica Sheft-Ason Sports Editor

Mahmoud Bahrani Sports Editor

Alper House Red Army’s five-year winning streak was shattered yesterday afternoon in a 32–13 upset by the Tufts House Men in the undergraduate resident men’s intramural flag football championship at Stagg Field.

The Red Army (7–0) entered the postseason with a 126-point spread but was unable to convert in the championship round despite defeating Tufts (5–1) in the regular season. According to IM Coordinator Brian Bock, “The Red Army has won this for five years straight, but Tufts finally pulled through. This is a dynasty dethroned.”

Both teams started aggressively, with Alper scoring early on but missing the extra point, allowing Tufts to set the score 7–6. Due to good coverage, Tufts maintained a 13–6 lead against Alper throughout the first half. The second half began with a solid kick return by Tufts but proved difficult for the Red Army, who gained little yardage from running the ball, their primary offensive tactic. After letting up three touchdowns to second-year “Goggles” John Zackrison, the Red Army seemed demoralized, and despite a final touchdown by Alper first-year Andrew VanWazer, the slight recovery was not enough to turn the game around. “Tufts House is really good. They deserved to win. They had many good plays and some really fast athletes,” VanWazer said.

Fourth-year Mike Kenstowicz commended his team members on their long-awaited victory. “This is the most inspiring win in my four years in Tufts House. We’ve lost to these guys for four straight years. There’s nothing better than going out on top,” Kenstowicz said.

Stakes were high, tempers were hot, and the weather was chilly on Stagg Field for the Coed Residents Flag Football Championship last night. May House narrowly defeated Wick House 34–33, weathering a last -minute charge from the underdogs before securing the championship.

May and Wick exchanged touchdowns throughout the first half, with each team scoring on every drive. The two teams went into halftime tied at 21 and searching for answers on defense against each other’s highflying offense.

After trading defensive stops for the first four drives of what was shaping up to be a defensive second half, Wick struck with the first points on a long touchdown pass, but failed to convert the extra point. May retaliated with its fourth touchdown pass of the evening and, with two minutes left in the game, recovered a kickoff, giving it a chance to add to its slim one-point lead. With possession of the ball, May ran a fake quarterback sneak and found the wide receiver left alone in the end zone. May easily connected on the play to push its lead to seven.

With one last chance to tie or win the game, Wick drove downfield and scored with a clutch touchdown through the air. The team again failed to convert on the extra point, though, which ultimately proved to be their undoing. May’s quarterback took a knee to retire the remaining time on the clock and seal the championship.

“It was a tough game,” said May fourthyear Liza Wagner, “but the right team won tonight.”

Violence Solves Everything (VSE) won the Men’s Undergraduate Independent Flag Football Championship on Sunday against Nasty White Athletes (NWA) by a score of 27–12. VSE was comprised mostly of former and current baseball players, while NWA was representing Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) , an on-campus fraternity. Fourth-year Rodney Nelson was the captain of VSE, while second-year Mike Ember served as the captain of NWA. NWA scored first, but was unable to keep its lead throughout the game. Third-year Steve Schwabe had two touchdown catches and Nelson caught one for VSE. “[Schwabe] was our best player,” said Nelson. “He provided a lot of moral support.”

VSE attributed their win to a strong will to bring home the championship. “Practice was non-existent,” said Nelson. “We came in with the attitude, ‘Hey we’re here to win, and we did.”

Despite losing in the title game, NWA had a successful IM season, defeating Sig Ep and CMAC in regular season play. The team’s strong showing was novel, due to its lack of preparation noted by some team members. “The Fiji flag football team did not have a single offensive play all season, we were basically winging it,” said fourth-year Justin Williams.

The MVP for NWA was fourth-year Joe Patton, who scored the team’s two touchdowns and had a pick on defense. “[Patton] was really the only one that played a good game,” Williams said.

Williams and other team members also credited their loss to a poor mental state. “A lot of varsity football players came to support us, and I think they just psyched us out,” said Williams.

On the other hand, VSE saw NWA’s strong support as gloating. “They came in a little over-confident,” said Nelson, “It was really unwarranted.”

NWA still wants the last word: “Just wait till IM basketball season,” said Williams.

Cinderella will have one last chance to dance. Maclean house, ranked 8th going into the playoffs, will have a shot at glory tonight as they take on the Pug Thugs (Stony Island) at Henry Crown. Maclean has had a treacherous road to this final game, first taking down Goliath-killer Thompson house in the quarterfinals, only two days after Thompson defeated the first-ranked team in the bracket, the Jannotta Mythdragons. The team then dominated the traditionally powerful Red Army (Alper House) in the semifinals, winning both games in quick fashion, 21–10, 21–12.

On the other side of the court will be the heavy favorites, the Pug Thugs. Led by captain Adil Tobaa, the Pug Thugs had not dropped a single game all year until yesterday’s semi-final, losing their first game to Halperin House. The Thugs rallied to win the match, winning the next two games 21–12 and 15–10. According to Tobaa, the goal of each game is the same. “We’re going to have fun tomorrow, that’s why we’re here, and that’s not going to change,” he said.

Underclassmen have only recently been allowed to live in Stony Island, and according to fourth-year Vivian Gallegos, the change in policy has changed the culture of the dorm. “I’m just happy to have a team this year,” Gallegos said. “In the past we have never had this much participation in our intramural league. We weren’t really cohesive as a group, we just did our own thing.”

Win or lose, the end goal is still the same.

“We’re going to have fun tomorrow. That’s why we’re here. That’s not going to change.”

Still, the Thugs would be more than happy to live up to their name and end the dream for Cinderella.

When asked what message she wanted to send to the Maclean side, first-year Rebecca Fishman replied, “Watch out. We’re coming.”

Holly Zacharchuk of Maclean House spikes the ball towards Alper House in Monday night’s semi-final volleyball game. Maclean House will play in the championship.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Intramural teams NWA and Violence Solves Everything compete during the men’s undergraduate independent flag football final game on Sunday.

AUMER SHUGHOURY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “Gronk score! Gronk spike! Gronk happy!”

—A tweet from ESPN writer Trey Wingo about a potential caveman-themed cartoon show starring Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Lucky Number Seven

Whitmore takes seventh, Chicago women take 27th at National Meet Cross Country Matt Schaefer Sports Contributer It all ended at Oshkosh.

The 2011 cross country season came to a close for the women’s team and men’s runner Bill Whitmore this Saturday at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, WI, the site of the 2011 NCAA D-III National Championship, hosted by UW-Oshkosh.

The scene at the event: remarkable.

“The atmosphere was spectacular. The NCAAs has a special type of electricity in the air as the most elite in the country get to perform against each other,” Head Coach Chris Hall said. “Really a wonderful experience for all involved.”

And the results: intriguing.

Whitmore, a third-year and the lone men’s participant for the U of C in the event, ran the 8,000 in a time of 24:19.20, crushing the previous school record of 24:32 set by Ryan McCarl at the very same course. And his finish: seventh in the nation. He is a 2011 All-American.

“I feel like I performed above my expectations. At the start I was nervous, but once we got started I stayed calm and stuck to my normal racing strategy,” Whitmore said. “The atmosphere was intense, people were literally shouting in your face the whole time.”

“I could not have been more pleased with how Billy ran throughout the 2011 season and feel he exceeded even his expectations at the NCAAs. I was con-

fident he would compete at a high level last weekend, as Billy thrives on competition,” Hall said. “He enjoys the opportunity to test himself against the best and typically rises to the occasion.”

The women’s team, as a whole, had a not unexpected, but still somewhat disappointing, finish: 27th. The team was ranked 24th in the USTFCCCA National Coaches’ Poll heading into the race.

For some, Saturday’s race was a learning experience; for others, it was a time to thrive.

“While I feel our women raced better last week at the Regional Championships, I did feel they competed as hard as they could this race. We would have liked to place higher, but the opportunity to get back to the NCAAs for a second consecutive year was already a special accomplishment,” Hall said. “Those that were in the race in 2010 ran very well this past weekend while the others had a great learning experience that I expect will allow them to compete at a much higher level in the future.”

Julia Sizek, a third-year on the women’s team, agrees.

“Looking back at the National Meet, it was really exciting and fun to go although we did not achieve all of the goals that we had set,” Sizek said. “Overall, it was a really fun experience and we hope to go again in future years with both our men and women’s teams.”

Fourth-year Rachel Ohman joined Whitmore as an All-American. She finished 25th overall in the women’s 6,000

in a time of 21:32.36.

“Rachel Ohman clearly had a great day to finish her collegiate cross country career as an All-American,” Hall said. “Her having her best ever race was a real highlight for the women’s team this past weekend.”

Athletic director Thomas Weingartner praised both the women’s team and the top finishers for their performances at the National Championship.

“We’re immensely proud of both our two All-Americans and our women’s team,” Weingartner said.

“There are about 445 D-III teams across the country so these are wonderful accomplishments.”

UAA conference rival Wash U claimed the women’s title with a score of 70 points, soundly defeating second-place Middlebury by 41 points and third-place Williams College by 83 points. The Chicago women also finished behind UAA rival Emory, which finished 24th with 516 points. The Maroons finished with 603 points, ahead of another UAA competitor, NYU, which finished 30th with 734 points.

“As a team we didn’t do quite as well as we might have hoped,” fourth-year Jane Simpson said, “but our focus this season was more on qualifying for Nationals than our performance there.”

The other women who scored for the women’s team were second-year Michaela Whitelaw, fourth-year Sonia Khan, third-year Sarah Peluse, and fourth-year Jane Simpson. Rounding out the top XC continued on page 10

William Whitmore crouches before the starting gun at the Elmhurst Invitational. Whitmore competed at NCAA’s this past weekend.

COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT

Chicago starts off season with consecutive wins

Second-year Charlie Hughes blocks an offensive push during a game against Franklin on Saturday.

JOHNNY HUNG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Men’s Basketball Alex Sotiropolous Senior Sports Staff The Maroons’ fourth-year guard Matt Johnson is no stranger when it comes to scoring points.

Last season, he was Chicago’s leading scorer, averaging 17.7 points per game, and he has con-

tinued the trend this season.

In Saturday’s 83–68 win over the Franklin College Grizzlies at home, Johnson led the game in scoring with 26 points, followed by fourth-year forward Tom Williams (16), fourth-year guard Tommy Sotos (11), and fourthyear forward Steve Stefanou (9).

The game did not start on the right foot for Chicago. The Griz-

zlies burst out of the gates with a 9–0 run in the opening three minutes. Sotos said that deficit was created on both sides of the floor.

“I thought it was a combination of being rushed on offense and being lackadaisical on defense,” he said.

With 16:08 left in the half, Sotos sunk a shot from behind

the arc to cut the deficit to six points.

Soon after, Chicago’s head coach Mike McGrath substituted all of his starters. He said that the large deficit was not the mentality behind the switches.

“Actually, that was when I would’ve subbed all those guys anyway,” McGrath said. “I try to not to overreact to things. I try to be pretty calm.”

Whatever the rational behind the substitutions, they proved to be effective. A three-pointer by fourth-year forward Chase Davis gave the Maroons a 12–11 lead with 14:27 remaining in the half.

Still, the agility and physicality of the Grizzlies put them back on top for the next six minutes.

“They’re a scrappy group, and they’re an unorthodox group in terms of how you play against them,” McGrath said. “It’s tough to get a rhythm against them the way they played.”

With 5:50 remaining in the half, Johnson knocked down another three-pointer to give the Maroons the 23–22 lead. Chicago wouldn’t trail the rest of the game.

Johnson would score seven points in the last six minutes of the half to give the Maroons a 37–31 lead at halftime.

Chicago maintained its lead in the second half even after M. BASKETBALL continued on page 10

Inside Intramurals For full coverage on the Intramural Championships, turn to page 11.

Intramurals are an important part of the fabric of the University of Chicago community. Numerous student athletes go unrecognized each year just because they have chosen to play intramurals instead of going for the glory of varsity sports. No longer will these hardworking competitors go unnoticed in the annals of Chicago sports lore.

Intramurals are a way for us to showcase our talents against other players of a similar skill level.

Whether it is a familiar sport such as football, softball, or basketball, or a more obscure sport like broomball, inner tube water polo, or even euchre, there will be Chicago students who want to compete.

But just because the talent on the field might not match that of a varsity game doesn’t mean that the competitiveness isn’t up to par.

Oftentimes, intramural matches will feature noticeable tension between players of opposing teams as pride, ego, and talent do battle on the field. Needless to say, when house or frat glory is on the line, players will be motivated to win.

At long last, let us be the first to introduce you to the quarterly intramural Blowout Issue.