Fall 2010

north by

northwestern

The Friend Who Wasn’t

In March, a Northwestern freshman vanished.

Why didn’t anyone know?

FALL 2010

photo: sarah adler

2 | FALL 2010

COVER!

FEATURES MISSING SYGHE angles

on high

Yeah, we mounted Tech. And Swift. And Block. And five other buildings with stunning views of Evanston and Northwestern. See through our eagle eyes and admit that campus is actually kind of beautiful.

A one-year tale of death, love and lies all began with a random friend request. Syghe L’Oveture said he was a freshman at Northwestern.

In March, a post on Facebook said Syghe committed suicide. But no one on campus said anything.

// Coco Keevan

marks the spot

Few people know that turtles once roamed Evanston.

They were brought here by a Northwestern professor, a treasure hunter, a geocacher.

Offline, her name is Eszter Hargittai. Online she’s TurtleFan. And she wants you to start looking for all the loot she’s hidden, turtles included.

// Nolan Feeney

FLIP TO SEE OUR EDITORS’ FAVORITE ARTICLES

north by

northwestern Gus Wezerek Managing Editor I didn’t expect a story about the Pick Staiger Stranger to be so sad.

Try reading it out loud.

Taylor Soppe Open Editor I thought my laptop was scary until I heard about the school supercomputer.

Nolan Feeney Print Editor One of our writers rented a wheelchair to try for a story.

That’s dedication.

Daniel Camponovo Quit Editor I know the girl in the plastic surgery photo. She looks just like that in real life.

Katherine Zhu Assistant Editor Part of J-school is learning how to be broke. It’s nice to see Medill excel.

Lindsey Kratochwill Copy Chief I’m a big fan of anything that lets me kick ass and work out at the same time.

Sarah Adler Senior Layout Editor Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for a reason. Check out the pumpkin feast.

Sarah Davidson Senior Layout Editor Drinking an Irish Car Bomb sounds iffy until you see the glorious photo.

Nick Sauerberg Creative Director I never thought I would see a painting in place of a woman’s eyebrows.

Emily Chow Design Editor Course packets are wildly expensive.

Sawing through one was priceless.

HEADS

MAST

John Meguerian Photo Director I still don’t understand why Disney’s website lied about the new Tron movie.

northbynorthwestern.com Nick Castele Editor in Chief

Cover: Emily Chow; Turtle: John Meguerian; Illustration, Bahai: Gus Wezerek

4 | FALL 2010

Lindsey Kratochwill Managing

Matt Connolly Managing

Kevin Shepherd Asst. Managing

Vanessa Dopker Asst. Managing

Alessandra Calderin Asst. Managing

Geoff Hill Webmaster

David Ma Operations

Julia Gang Talent

Michael Anders Business

Max Brawer Marketing

Zoe Fox News

Julia Haskins Opinion

Kevin Short Politics

Sean Kane Entertainment

Angad Chadha Writing

Ariana Bacle Photo

Katherine Zhu Features

Katherine Tang Sports

Krislyn Placide Life & Style

Trevor Seela Interactive

Shaunacy Ferro Writing

Erin Kron Video

Section Editors

Assistant Editors Shirley Li, Edwin Rios, Samantha Rollins, Nathan Lipkin, Josh Sim, Alex Levine, Meital Caplan, Nolan Feeney, Amanda Lerner, Karishma Bhatt, Gus Wezerek, Emily Chow, Ummul Kathawalla, Design and Graphics: Nina Lincoff

North by Northwestern, NFP An Illinois not for profit organization Nick Castele President

Caleb Melby Executive Vice President

Aubrey Blanche Secretary

David Ma Treasurer

Gus Wezerek Vice President Published with support from Campus Progress, a division of the Center for American Progress.

Online at CampusProgress.org.

photos: john meguerian

SEE PAGE 46 // 8 // 22 20 // 10 // 28 9 // 16 // 14 19 // 10

Caleb Melby Executive

Open

DATA

BYTES

NOMS

L337

D.I.Y.

What Was Your First Screen Name?

Stop pretending “pokémaster91” is ironic. // Emily Chow

Skateboardking7 Adam Lella Communication junior

Swimmyfish4 Sarah Hartman Weinberg freshman

Chocolatelvr46 Maitreyi Sistla Weinberg freshman

Cherry-i Naomi Yang Weinberg freshman

Stargirl711 Sophie Friedman Medill sophomore

Chanadian101 Jason Dong Weinberg sophomore

Bballdude3 Scott Harold Weinberg junior

Goldenhero2000 Robert Smith Weinberg junior

Your Life, Our Entertainment We’ve crowdsourced the reporting, printing verbatim the comments you tweeted @nbn_overheard and wrote on northbynorthwestern.com.

photos: emily chow

Skankasaurus rex Near McTrib: “You know how many sluts I’ve talked to? A good number of sluts.”

He’s also my spirit animal “Look! His name is Charlemagne— the black squirrel! He’s the king of the squirrels.”

Morty has yet to be sorted In Norbucks: “Jesus would be a Hufflepuff.”

Feet first, duh Norris Guy 1: “You’re eating that burrito like you would a baby” Guy 2: “How do you eat a baby?”

If only it were 24 hours “I’m pretty sure there are worse places than BK to make out.”

“Worse places? Like Chicken Shack?”

What a prick Guy 1 to referee: “Suck a dick!”

Guy 2: “I bet he won’t.”

Chia’s jealous My children are not allowed to bring pets to their dorm but they CAN BRING a Pet TickleMe Plant.

Our next Nobel Prize winner ecomonic recessions could really mess up great economies” Don’t get me started on chairs Even doors can be complicated... hinged door, sliding door, or revolving door. Pull or push, clockwise or counter-clock?

I’d ask, but it looks busy how long does mens plesure wand take to hv a orgasm?

Well can she write for us?

I Am becoming more and more disappointed in the writtings of American Journalists…This is a pathetic excuse for an artical. My six year old daughter could write more intresting articals than this.

northbynorthwestern.com | 5

BYTES

How To Steal (And Not Get Caught) If you aren’t torrenting, you’re missing out. // Max Brawer

1

2

A

re you a torrenting holdout?

Even though your “techy” friends are saving thousands of dollars on music, movies and software? And getting movies faster than you can download a song?

You’re in college. Stop acting like your dad.

Yes, most people use torrenting to share stolen files, but there’s nothing inherently illegal about the process. And getting started is easier than you think.

When you open a torrent, a BitTorrent protocol downloads the file from peers who already have them. As soon as you have those pieces, you start uploading and

become a peer. Having the whole file makes you a seeder.

If the torrent is for stolen media, then seeding is the dangerous part of the process. Just as police would rather snag the dealer than the junkie, authorities target seeders because they are hosting and distributing copyrighted material to leechers.

Torrenting on the school network will trigger an automatic warning email from the Northwestern IT “Be Aware You’re Uploading” system. The goal of these emails, says NUIT director Wendy Woodward, is to educate and remind students that “just because they can [torrent] doesn’t mean that they should.”

In most cases, NU-BAYU won’t punish you for downloading. If they do, don’t shoot the messenger. An NU-BAYU hold on your NetID is often a slap on the wrist meant to appease a media distributor who’s caught you stealing their content. “We

are not going and telling [on you],” Woodward says.

In one case last year, HBO noticed a student was downloading a TV episode and, within 15 minutes of the act, sent an email to NU Student Affairs with the computer address, username and name of the show. NUIT put a security hold on the student’s NetID, locking her out of the university network. Woodward says NUIT usually pardons the offender when they watch a few informational videos, delete downloaded material and show they’ve learned their lesson.

But here’s the real lesson: If you torrent, do it off campus.

Smart seeders commandeer public WiFi so they can driveby download. If you go bootleg crazy in your dorm or apartment, there’s a small chance the school or your internet provider might shut you down. You’re a seasoned pirate now. Why risk jail when there’s so much left to plunder?

TORRENT TERMINOLOGY e

e e

e v

u

ʊ

ʊ

ʊ

First, ask yourself if you need to download. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu and Pandora, streaming content is often faster. But if you can’t find that Dread Pirate Edition of The Princess Bride, here’s what to do.

1 Install a free BitTorrent client.

2 Search for the file you want on a tracker site.

Just like Google, don’t always click your first search hit. If you want a faster download, look for a torrent with more seeders and less leechers. On some trackers, dedicated communities leave comments that let you know if the torrent is incomplete or contains a virus.

Comments are especially useful for software downloads because they often contain installation instructions and troubleshooting tips.

3 Open the torrent in the client.

Downloading could take a few seconds to a few days depending on the size of the file, your upload-to-download ratio, and the number of seeders.

Plug in your Ethernet cord if you decide to torrent in the dorm. Using WiFi hogs bandwidth the guy cramming next door might need.

And wireless doesn’t offer anonymity — you’re still connecting with a traceable NetID. ­— MB

e e

#NowUKnowNoob 6 | FALL 2010

illustration: gus wezerek

c

e

c

HOW TO TORRENT

Playlist While you were buzzing with Shwayze, we slogged through blogs for the tunes you might have missed. // Aja Edwards and Jon Ayala

FOREIGN IMPORTS “Lucifer,” SHINee Fergie was so 3000-and-late compared to this South Korean boy band. Watch the video on YouTube and squeal like a schoolgirl from Seoul.

“Bad Girl, Good Girl,” miss A The girls in miss A are underage, but that doesn’t mean you won’t scream along with their screw-you anthem.

We like to think these South Korean Pussycat Dolls will end up sexily ever after with the SHINee boys.

photo illustration: sarah adler; artist photos courtesy of their official websites

“Tarab,” Khaira Arby If you like Amadou and Mariam, or have never heard of them for that matter, take a sonic safari to Mali.

“Glass Mountain Trust,” Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. feat. D’Angelo London/New York producer Mark Ronson teams up with R&B singer D’Angelo to deliver this soulful dance track that somehow sounds like a stadium song.

GIRL POWER “Sunshine,” Rye Rye feat. M.IA. This woman was born in 1990.

And M.I.A. just signed her. While you ponder that, let Rye Rye’s beats pump and bump away your jealousy.

“Poor Animal,” Zola Jesus Whooping goth-party melodies make Zola Jesus a band to watch.

Another youngster, lead singer Nika Danilova is a 21-year-old classically trained opera singer.

“Higher,” The Saturdays British girl group The Saturdays could never live up to the Spice Girls, but their songs are ohso-catchy. On the plus side, at least we don’t have to deal with another Scary Spice.

MUSIC MENAGERIE

“Back Home,” Gold Panda This electro song is paired with an experimental video of vintage home movies that progresses to footage of a woman swimming topless, then back to the home movies. Yearning strings smooth out the glitches to make this a relaxing study jam.

“Tuesday in Tuskegee,” Bee vs. Moth WNUR was way ahead of the curve when they invited this Austin-based jazz ensemble to play in their studio in 2009. Off the band’s sophomore album, this track is like a moody walk through your favorite noir movie.

“Lucky 1,” Avey Tare The Animal Collective vocalist/ mastermind is set to release a solo album at the end of October.

This song sounds similar enough to the band’s work which, say what you want, automatically warrants attention.

BEST ON YOUTUBE “Only the Lord Knows,” Mavis Staples feat. Jeff Tweedy Chicago native Mavis Staples teams up with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to sing “Only the Lord Knows.” Staples’ age (she’s 71) only thickens the soul on this track and throughout the entire gospel album.

“Team Radio,” Plains This song from South Florida band Plains screams garage rock and testosterone. It’s upbeatand catchy enough to be your rally cry when you wake up and remember it’s winter.

NBN POLL: SONG OF THE SUMMER

36% 29% 20%

“California Gurls,” Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg

“Dynamite,” Taio Cruz

“Airplanes,” B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams

9% 6% “Alejandro,” Lady Gaga

“OMG,” Usher feat. will.i.am

northbynorthwestern.com | 7

L337

We’ve Created A Monster

NU is on a quest to become a supercomputing titan. // Brian Lange

A

ers made drawings and educated guesses, but their computers just didn’t have the guts to model hundreds of thousands of atoms.

“Ultimately, we’ve always been frustrated because you’d really like to know where every atom is located,” Schatz says. “With Quest, we realized that there was the opportunity to actually simulate that structure in all its glory.”

Before Quest, high speed computing at Northwestern was largely decentralized.

Rather than invest in one big computer for all faculty to use, the university expected researchers to purchase their own individual machines. Now, researchers can contribute their grant funding to the Quest facility. In return, they gain priority access to Quest.

Faculty funding will feed Quest and keep it growing. “The original cluster was 3,008 cores, and we were able to achieve the 4,032 via faculty investment,” says Joe Paris, architect for research computing at Northwestern.

“With the next expansion of Quest, I think we’ll be ranked around 150th [in the world], which is very good for a research institution.”

The university aims to bulk the beast up to 10,000 cores. But even in its infancy, Quest’s potential keeps professors who need that kind of power here at Northwestern, and away from computing rivals such as Purdue and University of Minnesota.

While researchers like Schatz are interested in the supremely small, professor Vicky Kalogera’s mind is on the astronomically big.

As a theoretical astrophysics researcher, she uses Quest with gravitational wave detectors to study distant bodies like neutron stars and black holes.

“We would expect to detect up to a few tens of megaparsecs away,” says Ben Farr, a second-year graduate student researching under Kalogera. For the earthbound, 10 megaparsecs is about 191.7 quintillion miles, or 320 times the diameter of our galaxy.

While science and engineering researchers are currently Quest’s primary users, Joe Paris is excited about the future of Quest for the humanities, too. An anthropologist can put the pieces of a shattered vase through a scanner, Paris explains. “You can run that [scan] through a complex algorithm that actually will reconstruct all those pieces to recreate the original shape.”

Quest doesn’t care if it’s tearing through a black hole or a vase. Chilled and secured in a locked-down room, the computational colossus drones away. Terabyte by terabyte, Quest is helping Northwestern’s most curious minds solve the mysteries of the universe.

#WhereOurMoneyGoes

This line is the storage space of your 2010, 13-inch MacBook Pro. The bottom line is Quest’s.

For the size, weight and price comparisons too big to fit on the page, check out northbynorthwestern.com.

8 | FALL 2010

illustration: emily chow

t this very moment, humming away inside a data center on the Evanston campus is the 236th fastest computer on the planet. Its name: Quest.

This computational beast works around the clock, chewing through molecular models and astronomical simulations.

It computes at a scale and speed that most of us can hardly imagine. For example, your computer probably has two cores, maybe four if you really shelled out when you bought it.

Quest has 4,032.

The inspiration for this number-crunching behemoth came from the Vision 2020 plan, a report drafted by NUIT and university faculty in 2007. Leading up to that report, an NUIT committee surveyed a number of researchers on campus. More than a hundred professors who responded said the lack of computing resources at NU was limiting their research.

Vision 2020, and ultimately, Quest, was conceived as a solution to that problem.

Chemistry professor George Schatz uses Quest to make models of peptide amphiphiles, special molecules that can assemble into fibers that accelerate the healing of bones and nerves. Until Quest, nobody knew what these molecules looked like. Northwestern research-

Tron Star Reboot memories with an almost alumnus. // Sean Kane In 1982, Northwestern dropout Dan Shor starred in the sci-fi classic Tron. Shor played Ram, one of the good guys who was tragically “de-rezzed” in the fight against the villainous Master Control Program.

The official website for the movie’s upcoming sequel, TRON: Legacy, credits Shor as one of the movie’s antagonists. But when we called to ask Shor about his involvement, he had some surprising responses.

Is it true that you’re playing the “elite combatant” Rinzler in TRON: Legacy?

I know nothing about anything about this film. I read that I was in it. I’m not.* Can you imagine how you would fit into a sequel?

A sequel was very doable. [The programs] can always be re-rezzed.

How has the world changed since the original Tron, since you were involved in one of the first mainstream portrayals of computers?

We were the user’s computers. Now everyone has an MCP. It’s basically come true.

// The TRON: Legacy website lists Shor as playing Rinzler,

So why did you leave?

I went and got a job in the business and never went back, much to the consternation of my professors. I now teach and I would never tell a student to turn down a job.

Do you ever regret not finishing?

I just got my bachelor’s in 2010. I’ve taught in academics, but I can’t teach in college because I don’t have the degrees. If I were to advise theater students, [I’d tell them to] study arts administration and financing. The artist within you will do production already. Study the shit [you] don’t like.

// After 20 years in Hollywood, Shor now runs a video company that began producing tourism videos for islands in the South Pacific. He still keeps in touch with Jeff Bridges, star of both Tron movies.

*A publicist for Walt Disney Studios confirms Shor is not involved in TRON: Legacy.

headshout: courtesy of dan shor; tron art: courtesy of disney

the “exceptionally skilled” henchman of Clu, the police program from the orginal Tron.

You left Northwestern in 1975 after a year in the theater department.

Any fond memories?

Yes and no. It’s a little freezing. I remember the theater department was amazing. And I hear it still is.

northbynorthwestern.com | 9

DATA

Price of a Page

Quartet Digital Printing co-owner breaks down the cost of a course packet.* // Lauren Schwartzberg

1 Cent Cost of a sheet of paper

10 Cents to 50 Cents Cost of binding

$5.50 to $139.75 Cost of course packets at Quartet

90 Percent Approximate percent of packets that contain copyrighted material

A Few Cents to Several Dollars Cost of article royalty fees, per article, per packet

90 Hours Amount a Quartet employee worked the week before clases to prepare packets

6–7 Years * Other factors contribute to the high sticker price, according to Linster, including the size of a class, how much a professor prepares the packet in advance and overhead costs such as utilities and machine maintenance.

Goodbye Hinman, Hello Government Cheez Whiz for dinner loses its allure about two weeks into off-campus living. If you can’t afford the upgrade to peanut butter and jelly, consider applying for food stamps. If you qualify, the government could give you up to $200 a month of free groceries.

Renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 2008, the federal Food Stamp Program has been providing assistance to low-income families and individuals for more than 70 years.

Through SNAP, students are issued an Electronic Benefit Transfer card that can

10 | FALL 2010

or participating in a federal work-study program will help eligibility odds, many students aren’t eligible if they live in university housing or use a meal plan.

Once the basic eligibility requirements are met, students are required to complete a detailed application and interview process. They must provide proof of education expenses and income such as loans, scholarships and employment earnings.

Although Sanchez has heard of “horror stories” from friends who had also gone through the application process, she has never had any difficulty with the application.

“I remember bringing all of the pertinent information including stubs, checking info, lease, bills with me,” she says. “I heard about people needing to make appointments, but I never do.

I’ve been pretty fortunate.”

#XMasHamsFromObama

photo: john meguerian

photo: gus wezerek

Food stamps are the best Wildcard discount. // Lauren Manning

be used to purchase food, usually with a maximum allotment of $200 per month for an individual student.

“I appreciate that the EBT card looks like a debit card because it makes it lose some of the stigma,” says Alexis Sanchez, a Florida International University student who is currently using food stamps.

Sanchez lives in Chicago and is participating in City Year, a ten-month urban youth community service project, for her second time. While on City Year, students receive a limited stipend and are encouraged to apply for food stamps to ease the cost of living.

Before applying for food stamps, students can complete a prescreening test through the USDA website. By providing information about income and living expenses, including any lease and utility bills, a student can determine whether he or she is eligible.

While working at least 20 hours per week

The golden era of course packets, before Blackboard undercut half of Quartet’s business

The Small Print

SECRET WAYS TO MAXIMIZE AID

The Gojira geek next door pays hundreds less for school. // Vanessa Dopker

// Camille Beredjick

The first week of every quarter is one of our wallets’ thinnest. Even after we’ve paid tuition, the hidden costs of required software, textbooks, equipment and supplies perennially surprise students.

The university is aware of syllabus shock. The Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid factored a $1,737 estimated cost of books and supplies into the 2010-2011 assessment of holistic school cost. Setting that cost as a constant over four years and distributing it between a full schedule of 48 classes brings the Office of Financial Aid’s hidden cost estimate to $144.75 per course.

North by Northwestern analyzed course descriptions and syllabi of required courses in five programs of study to see how the miscellany stacks up. We found significant variation between degrees. Journalism students pay the most per class, while Radio, Television and Film students are charged the least for their measly three required courses.

1 Save money in your parents’ name rather than your own.

2 Aid calculations don’t consider debt. Pay it off.

3 Grandparents should wait until graduation to help junior pay off his loans.

4 Parents should reduce cash on hand by prepaying their mortgage.

5 Make any big-ticket essential purchases before you file for aid.

Economics McCormick junior Thomas Gao praised his economics professors’ clear slides and Blackboard postings as money savers: “I’ve had professors who scan problem sets so we don’t have to buy the textbook.”

Program of Study

Pre-NU Required Supply Costs Class Costs

Number of Required Courses

TOTAL COST

per course/unit

Economics

$0.00

$1225.10

7

$175.01

Civil Engineering

$88.00

$3294.95

25.66

$131.81

Journalism

$1361.91

$308.86

7

$238.68

$0.00

$205.90

3

$68.63

$0.00

$1338.19

11

$121.65

Journalism RTVF “Would you rather work with something that’s not industry Social Policy standard?” says Medill assistant professor Susan Mango Curtis when students complain about software costs.

This fall, incoming Medill freshmen were asked to purchase the latest edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 5. An educational discount Northwestern negotiated with Adobe slashed the price by 76 percent to $614.40.

Civil Engineering The priciest textbook required among Civil Engineering majors comes not from the student’s own department, but from the $241.45 textbook for their physics requirement.

Social Policy Some students consider their textbooks to be a lifelong investment: “A lot of them, I really enjoyed. I think I would either reference them in the future or even read [them] again,” SESP sophomore Alexa Herzog says.

Civil Engineering With great homework comes great responsibility. Civil Engineering students choose between sequences with different numbers of required classes.

RTVF RTVF students can check out production equipment for classrelated purposes from “the Cage” in Louis Hall.

“We have a deposit but it’s not something that will get taken away as long as we take care of the equipment,” Communication sophomore Rayyan Najeeb says.

THE FINE METHODOLOGICAL LINING Statistics are always in flux. To calculate the cost of the required courses (shared by all students in a program of study), North by Northwestern collected the of list prices of textbooks, course packets, software, equipment and other supplies indicated on syllabi from the Norris bookstore, course descriptions through the NU Registrar, Quartet Digital Printing, individual departments and past professors.

Where campus-wide educational discounts applied to supplies, those prices were calculated in lieu of listed retail prices. Data came from courses offered in winter, spring and fall quarters 2010, or the last time the course was offered.

northbynorthwestern.com | 11

D.I.Y.

Crafter for Life

For a community in Ghana, scraps of felt mean scraps of food. // Krislyn Placide

F

or Katie Smiley, crafting is more than a hobby. The Weinberg senior engraves champagne flutes, strings necklaces and stitches coffee cozies for charity.

She calls it “craftivism.”

“Crafting is not just about making stuff,” Smiley says. “It’s about learning how to reuse the items that you have in your life in a more constructive way.”

Smiley’s sales support GlobeMed, a student organization that works with health centers in resource-poor areas. Her profits go directly to the H.O.P.E. Center, a health clinic in Ghana which serves eight villages and works to reduce malnutrition, which currently affects 45 percent of the local population.

Smiley, who is co-president of GlobeMed, organized a rummage sale last spring. The fundraiser left her with heaps of unwanted scraps. “I dropped off some at Goodwill but other things I just kept and started playing around with,” Smiley says.

With some old sheet music, scrap paper and glue, Smiley turned old clocks and vases into kitschy decoupage creations. She

card lampshade

12 | FALL 2010

Marketplace, the organization’s fall fundraiser, Smiley raised $250 from the sale of earrings, pins, cozies and other handicrafts.

found that strips of felt could be molded into customized coffee cozies. An extralarge green flannel shirt became plaid drawstring skirts.

Recently, Smiley expanded her business via Etsy.com, an Ebay of sorts for the do-ityourself community.

“Etsy is just hands down the most efficient way to market handmade goods,” she says.

“Sometimes if you set up a personal site, people might not necessarily trust where the money is going. Something established like Etsy gives you that professional touch.”

For years, Smiley shopped on Etsy. She doesn’t usually wear her own creations,

but she likes to sport accessories that are or look like they could be hand-made.

She often sports a pair of round wooden earrings painted with white, yellow and green designs. “I never buy anything if I either don’t have extreme respect for the craftsmanship or if I can’t figure out how it’s made,” she says.

Smiley’s own methods are no secret either. Her tried and true techniques include decoupage, glass etching and glass engraving. Smiley’s tools consist of her prized Dremel drill, Modge Podge glue, clear spray paint and scraps of felt, old clothing and leftovers from previous projects. Even a few strips of cloth from an old t-shirt turn into a useful accessory, like a braided belt or a headband to hold back unruly bangs.

So far, Smiley has raised $650 for the H.O.P.E. Center just by selling her wares, and she’s not stopping there. As Smiley expands her craft sales onto Etsy, she knits together the tools of the past with the digital devices of the present.

katie smiley: emily chow; lampshade: julia gang

Have a lamp that doesn’t scream you?

Buy a generic shade ($8-20, Target) and layer it in childhood memorabilia. You’ll need about 100 Pokémon, baseball or playing cards to staple in rows and affix to the shade for some stylish shingles. — julia gang

// At GlobeMed

Beans and Dreams Is the next Harry Potter crumpled among Kafein’s napkin collection? // Gus Wezerek Some are inked like henna tattoos. Others have phone numbers for good head. They’re mostly anonymous and always disposable. Squished into a drawer at the back of the coffeehouse, even the most single-minded students often find Kafein’s napkin collection the most absorbing read in the room.

“A lot of peop le leave phon e numbers and it’ll say, ‘Call for a go od time, you want a blow job?’’” Fedoro vich says.

“And so we’ ve actually ca lled some of the numbers before, at lik e, two in the morning. And these people get super mad — supe r pissed at us for calling.

They’re like, ‘Don’t ever ca ll this numbe again. We’ll r call the polic e.’”

The Ka fein sta ff has d sions fo enied s r the fe ubmisa tured n which is apkins only a y board, ear old Fedoro , says K vich, w ir h ill o ’s Kafein brewed for five coffee y at e a out “stu rs. The staff th pid one r s e , w pointle two or ss ones three y e ” a r s kin’s m ago. Aft oment er a na of glory psays th , Fedoro e staff vich either r drawer eturns or thro it to the ws it aw ay.

Most of the regular artists are “high school kids that have the time” to come in, grab a cup of tea and work on a submission for the board.

“Before it used to be like they’d give it to us or they’d say, ‘Hey we have artwork, what do we do with it?’”

Federovich says. “Now they just do it and two months later we see that the [board’s] three times as full.”

photo: gus photos: guswezerek wezerek, john meguerian

e use th ays rons t a t p h s, s times ng rig bles Some for braggi d ta ins serve e ’v I y sit napk “ ich. d the v n o a r e o l Fed ey’re eop nd th five p a n e e l k i b l ta of s, ope t that d you guy ea n w do Go om like s h my like, ‘O wer there’s ere.’” th ra that d lly cool in a e r thing

Fedorovich says the staff tends to keep the the abstract designs on board longest. “I feel like they’re good for multiple looks for different people.’

Letters on Napkins “Yeah I am a robot.

But that doesn’t mean I approve of placing people into boxes. Like hipster, nerds, emos, nuns, serial killers.”

“No ma you t tter wha t hink ab pickl es, th out ey ar after e, al thing l, the only you c a with cucu n do mbe rs.”

“It’s a sobering thing to realize that you can love someone and not.”

ear sw y a e “Alw bicycl our r ry u yo t (o me l die).” l e h il ew wif

i kir

ll

northbynorthwestern.com | 13

D.I.Y.

Up With the Cups Go chandelier chic with last night’s empties. // Gus Wezerek Form a ring of about 24 cups by stapling them together at the bottom.

2 3 4 5

Nest cups in the valleys created by each row until you have seven layers.

Staple 19 cups together at the base to form a shield. Place it in the chandelier as a bottom.

Cut each dowel rod in half, then insert the four between the second and third rows from the top.

Thread the cord through the middle hole. Glue the intersections of the rods.

COST: $25, one afternoon

MATERIALS: 200 16-ounce plastic cups 600 staples, stapler Two 7/16” x 48” dowel rods 9-foot socket extension cord Soft compact fluorescent light Three 5/8”-1” cup hooks

TOOLS: Screwdriver Scissors Industrial adhesive glue Stapler

6 7

Reach below the socket and screw in the bulb. The bulb shouldn’t touch the cups.

Screw one or two hooks into the ceiling where the chandelier will hang.

8 9

Plug in and secure the cord to the wall and ceiling with industrial adhesive.

Use tinted lights or paint the edges of the cups for a more colorful glow.

// This is a project for the ‘Cats off campus.

The student handbook doesn’t explicitly prohibit chandeliers, but the ban on “holiday or decorative lights” probably means a twofoot wide glowing orb is out of the question.

photos: gus wezerek

14 | FALL 2010

Slurpin’ Shandies photo: john meguerian

Beer is gross. Drop your panties. // Monica Kim

Your first beer: an essential rite of passage for the college drinker.

Though it usually happens long before stepping on campus, few find love at first sip. You can fake it ‘til you make it, but bared teeth and beer breath don’t make an attractive match. Purists will say nay, but until it pleases your palate, try mixing a few of these beer cocktails — a lush’s delight!

Irish Car Bomb

Pink Panty Dropper

Lunchbox

3/4 pint of Guinness stout 1/2 shot of Bailey’s Irish cream 1/2 shot of Jameson Irish whiskey

12 cans of beer 1 bottle of vodka 7 cans pink lemonade concentrate 1 bottle of tequila (optional)

1/2 glass of beer 1/4 glass of orange juice 1 shot amaretto liqueur

For an Irish treat, fill a shot glass with Bailey’s and Jameson and drop it into the Guinness. You can’t nurse this drink, though. Finish it fast before the beer’s acidity causes the Bailey’s to curdle.

A party favorite, best served in obscenely large amounts. Use regular lemonade if you don’t like your beer pink — served plain, it’s called the “Strip-and-Go-Naked.”

Pour beer and orange juice into a glass — about two parts beer to one part juice — leaving room at the top. Drop the shot of amaretto into the glass and drink up.

May not be lunch appropriate.

northbynorthwestern.com | 15

NOMS

Hello, Pumpkin Here’s how to make a three-course meal with the gourd of all gourds. // Kathy Duan We carve pumpkins and put them in pies, but the orange gourds rarely make it onto our dinner menus. It’s time to give pumpkin a place on your plate, as it’s one of the few ingredients that’s great in both savory and sweet dishes.

While the best way to cook pumpkin is to roast it in the oven with olive oil and herbs, canned pumpkin is a cheaper alternative. Here are three easy recipes to help you incorporate a seasonal ingredient into your diet.

Pumpkin Pizza with Mozzarella, Chorizo and Sage While the thought of pizza may conjure memories of drunken munchies and late night study sessions, this version masquerades as gourmet fare. The savory pumpkin sauce gives the dish a sophisticated seasonal spin. Make it for your friends and they’ll be quite impressed with your culinary abilities — just don’t tell them you didn’t make the crust from scratch.

Ingredients 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon salt One 15-ounce can of pumpkin purée 2 tablespoons butter 5 fresh sage leaves 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 pre-baked pizza crust ¼ lb of chorizo sausage (optional) 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese ½ cup pine nuts or chopped pecans (optional)

Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 450 F. 2. Sauté onions in a pan until caramelized.

3. Add garlic and salt, sautéing for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.

4. Add the pumpkin purée and season to taste.

Let the mixture cool.

5. In a separate pan, melt the butter. Add the sage and sauté until the leaves are slightly browned.

6. Cook the chorizo until brown, adding olive oil and garlic.

7. Spread the pumpkin mixture on top of the pizza crust.

8. Sprinkle cheese, nuts, crumbled sage and chorizo. photo: john meguerian

16 | FALL 2010

Cinnamon-Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Few students have the time, tools or ingredients to whip up baked goods from scratch. This simple shortcut makes quick, moist cupcakes. You don’t even need measuring cups! Adjust the intensity of the pumpkin flavor by replacing part of the pumpkin with milk.

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients 1 box yellow cake mix (and the ingredients listed on the box) 15-ounce can pumpkin pie filling 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon cinnamon 16 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature 2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Follow the steps on the cake box, substituting pumpkin pie filling and milk for the water.

3. Add cinnamon and stir until the mixture is smooth.

4. Line two muffin tins with paper liners and divide the batter.

5. Bake for 18–22 minutes.

6. Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until creamy. Frost cupcakes once cool.

Pumpkin Tortilla Soup What better way to warm up in the cold months than with a sizzling soup? While tortilla soup is always tasty, the pumpkin adds a sweet creaminess that balances out the heat of the chilies and cumin. Serve it with some fresh avocado, crispy tortillas and sour cream.

If you have leftovers, divide into meal-sized portions and freeze them in Ziploc bags. Just make sure to add a bit of water to the pot when you defrost them. Serves 6.

Ingredients

Instructions

4 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cloves minced garlic 6 tortillas cut into ½-inch squares 2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper One 16-ounce can of pumpkin One 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes (drained) Two 8-ounce cans of chicken stock 2 teaspoons salt ½ cup chopped cilantro 1 avocado, cubed

1. Heat olive oil and add onion, garlic and tortillas.

Sauté on medium until onions are soft.

2. Add cumin and cayenne pepper. Sauté for a minute.

3. Add pumpkin, tomatoes, stock and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the cilantro after 5 minutes of simmering.

4. Serve soup with chips, fresh avocado and cilantro.

KIMCHI CON CRANBERRY For those whose ancestors weren’t on the Mayflower, Turkey Day doesn’t always mean turkey. Last year, Weinberg sophomore Ji Eun Kwon and her Korean friends enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal of fish cakes and hot sauce. They also broiled ddeokbokki, a street vendor mash of rice cakes, vegetables, ham and kimchi.

Other students opt for a cultural casserole. International student Justin Yeh celebrated his first Thanksgiving with Professor Ming-Yang Kao and his family. The Weinberg sophomore enjoyed turkey, as well as spareribs with sweet potatoes, fried dwarf beans, and glutinous rice balls — Yeh’s favorite dessert. “It might be one of the few days that I felt at home,” he says.

Mayra Plascencia, a McCormick senior whose parents come from Jalisco, Mexico, honors both her parents’ Mexican heritage and the spirit of Thanksgiving. “There are only three occasions when my grandmother’s cookbook sits on our kitchen table, and Thanksgiving is one of them,” she says.

The menu changes every year, ranging from pozole, a pork meat stew with ground white corn, to mole, a ruddy brown sauce of chocolate and peppers. For dessert, the family enjoys capirotada, a Mexican bread pudding traditionally eaten during Lent. According to Plascencia, it’s appropriate for Thanksgiving because it’s a “holiday of giving thanks to God.” — amber gibson

northbynorthwestern.com | 17

@ GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN:

JOURNALISM: WEB PRINT VIDEO GLOBAL PHOTOJOURNALISM DOCUMENTARY INVESTIGATIVE INTERACTIVE BROADCAST

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: BRAND MANAGEMENT CONSUMER INSIGHT DIRECT & INTERACTIVE MARKETING PR CRISIS MARKETING MEDIA STRATEGY

@medillschool Follow us.

18 | FALL 2010

www.medillgradprograms.com

photo: sarah adler

Northwestern University

High Brow

She updates her status daily. // Abby Shure Makeup helps Weinberg junior Cassy Ditieri-Byrne turn her face into a mood ring or a billboard, depending on the day. Since shaving off her eyebrows in 2006, the president of Secular Humanists for Inquiry and Free Thought finds her face a better means of self-expression than her mouth.

Do you get a lot of attention with your makeup?

I’ve become accustomed to the stares, but I got a lot of questions like, “Are those tattoos?” The first time someone asked me, they said, “Did it hurt?” I had no idea what they were talking about. For some people, it’s like they forget that I can see them.

Inspiration?

My favorite musical artist is Amanda Palmer. She shaved off her eyebrows, and at first I just did it because I wanted to know how it felt. She’s a really free person, and I wanted to know what made her that way. I was just fed up. I was like, “I just want to do something different!” So I waited until my parents left town.

Any other makeup inspirations?

Well, my friends ask me to write their names a lot. One time, I did it for a birthday, and then everyone started

requesting it. In high school I was in a production of Brave New World, so I used my face as an advertisement.

What’s with the pictures of you with “censored” written across your face?

Yeah, I sometimes just do it when I feel like I need an outlet like that. I just sit at home, I do it, take pictures, then take it off. It’s not like I go out like that.

Does the censored stuff have anything to do with SHIFT? I did it after the media shitstorm [following SHIFT’s chalking of Muhammed on Sheridan Road], not necessarily because I felt censored, but because I didn’t feel like I could make the statement the same way.

It’s like my personal platform of selfexpression.

How did you get started?

I had no knowledge at all about cosmetics when I started. I learned it all from experience. The key thing was not really caring. A lot of people don’t think it looks good, but I’m not trying to look good, I’m just trying to express myself. Without it, I feel sort of naked — like the natural way I look isn’t enough and there’s more on the inside that I can show.

photos: john meguerian

@

Print

MAKEOVER_REPAIR_TURF_COMEBACK_BOOTY

northbynorthwestern.com | 19

MAKEOVER

Cats Under Knives

L

Is a new nose a new you? // Ariana Bacle

20 | FALL 2010

those people who thought that my nose was the only thing bringing me down socially,” Troy says.

Like Troy, SESP sophomore Claudia* also wanted to have rhinoplasty because of a deviated septum. But only after she and her doctor decided to go for the surgery did she elect to get a nose job as well.

“It’s just something I don’t think about,” Claudia says. “Before, I thought about it all the time.”

Liz says although the surgery improved her confidence, it ultimately had little impact on her life.

“Nothing about me has changed,” she says. “I guess I feel a little different but at this point, I don’t even remember what it looked like before.”

Despite these students’ indifference about the actual surgery, Howard says surgery of any kind is nothing to take lightly.

“Plastic surgery is not just getting your nails done,” he says. “It is a big deal.”

Troy’s surgery was his first major operation, and although he says the recovery period was uncomfortable, that’s not the reason why wouldn’t do again.

“I wouldn’t want to give up that kind of time again,” he says. “It’s very boring.” *Names changed for students who would only speak on the condition of anonymity

Immortal Cells A risky new trial may help the paralyzed walk again. // Rose Pastore Emergency rooms all over Chicago are waiting for a patient who has suffered just the right kind of spinal cord injury.

Doctors hope to offer an experimental treatment — the first created from human embryonic stem cells — that might reverse incurable paralysis.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is the lead site of a trial to test the safety of the new therapy, which grows completely new spinal cord tissue in paralyzed patients.

Richard Fessler, professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, performed the nation’s first transplant of a human embryonic spinal cord — not stem cells — in 1997. He’s the trial’s lead national investigator.

“It’s exciting, and intimidating,” Fessler says. “Curing paralysis has got to be one of the most exciting things one could ever imagine doing, tantamount to curing cancer. It’s intimidating for that same reason, because it is so important.”

Because human embryonic stem cells can replicate infinitely, they’re immortal in the right conditions. But these microscopic blank slates, which can grow into more than 200 types of cells, come from a very human origin. The cells used by Dr. Fessler began as an unused embryo from an in vitro fertilization. It was donated 12 years ago to Geron Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company that has since cultured a massive supply of frozen cells. Geron scientists then grew them into a population of cells known as GRNOPC1.

GRNOPC1 produces myelin, which speeds up communication between nerves.

Fessler will inject GRNOPC1 into the spinal injury site. There, new myelin will hopefully grow to reinsulate the nerves and restore

photo: john meguerian

iz* knew that she wanted a nose job for as long as she can remember. So when faced with two and a half months of free time before she came to college, she wasn’t going to sit around and watch Netflix. Liz went to the hospital and got her rhinoplasty in May of her senior year of high school.

“I don’t want to be a model,” says the Medill sophomore. “But I always felt I would look a little better if I had it.”

Michael Howard, a plastic surgeon who has worked in the NorthShore Medical Group for five years, says about 20 percent of his client base consists of people in their teens to early twenties. High school and college are both favored times for surgery because of the long breaks incorporated into the school schedules, which allow for adequate recovery time.

“You can go away and have something done and come back and people will notice less,” Howard says.

Communication sophomore Troy* underwent rhinoplasty this past July. With hopes of being an actor after graduating college, Troy wanted to change his nose to meet the aesthetic demands of Hollywood. For him, the surgery wasn’t a life changing experience — just a necessary investment in his future.

Troy also had a deviated septum before the surgery, which prevented him from breathing correctly out of the right side of his nose.

“I wasn’t one of

REPAIR // Fessler (left) and Kessler (right) in front of neural stem cells grown as neurospheres. 40x magnification.

BREAKTHROUGHS Stem cell research isn’t the only thing that’s drawn attention to science at Northwestern. Here are some other medical breakthroughs from over the years.

Parkinson’s Disease, Oct. 2004 In 2004, the Picower Foundation gave a three-year, $2.1 million grant to study the mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system.

The research focused on making new treatments readily available after understanding why dopamine neurons die and how the brain adapts to these neurons.

photos: gus wezerek; neurosphere: maya srikanth, kessler lab

Holy Grail of Hearing, Nov. 2004

communication between the brain and the lower body.

Only people who have lost all movement below the chest are eligible for the study, and they have to receive the treatment within 7 to 14 days of being injured. In animal studies, rats regained the use of their hind legs after scientists injected them with GRNOPC1.

“You really want it to be successful,” Fessler says. “At the same time, we want to make sure we don’t hurt anybody in the process.”

Not everyone is confident the trial will be safe. John Kessler, chair of the neurology department at Northwestern, says he would advise patients to consider the risks and benefits before joining the study.

“Dr. Fessler is probably the person in the world most equipped to do this,” says Kessler, who is not involved in the trial but who also studies stem cells and spinal cord injuries. “If anybody could do it safely, he can. But we have to be concerned about tumor formation. We have to worry about creating additional damage in the spinal cord.”

Kessler says another concern is whether there is sufficient basis for thinking the treatment would benefit patients with severe spinal cord injuries.

The first person to enroll in the experiment was treated at another trial site in

Atlanta in early October. Despite the risks, Kessler says many more patients will want to participate.

“These are people who are devastated, and you’re trying to offer them some hope,” Kessler says. “I can tell you there are patients who will just say, ‘I don’t care what the risk is. I want to be able to have this work.’”

The trial is controversial because the treatment required the destruction of an embryo. Fessler says the potential benefits raise an important ethical question.

“I understand that many people say use of an embryo is murder and shouldn’t be done,” Fessler says. “But is it more ethical to throw a piece of tissue away and deny hope and treatment to maybe thousands of patients from the knowledge you would gain?”

Although he has doubts about Geron’s treatment, Kessler says, if successful, the trial could change the future of medicine.

“The very best institutions in this country are the centers that develop new therapies, that don’t just give a medicine that somebody else developed,” Kessler says. “We’d be developing a brand new treatment, something that no one has ever done before. We’d be changing the state of the art of medicine.”

#PotentialNewSilverman?

Northwestern auditory researchers identified the “holy grail” of hearing — the protein TRPA1, thought of as the missing link in hearing research. The protein is critical in transforming sound waves into nerve signals for the brain. The discovery could lead to new pain treatments and balance and hearing therapies.

Nanodiamond, Oct. 2008 A Northwestern research team developed a biomedical device that could change the way chemotherapy is administered. The device is made of flexible microfilm and uses newly developed nanodiamonds to control the release of chemotherapy agents at sites in the body where cancerous tumors have been removed. The development could increase chemotherapy efficiency to minimize dosages and side effects.

HIV/AIDS, Sept. 2008 According to Science, Northwestern University was ranked second in the top 10 institutions with the highest impact in HIV/AIDS research, even though Northwestern receives less National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding than peer institutions. An associate professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Frank J. Palella, M.D., authored the most-cited paper in HIV/AIDS research. — julie ma

northbynorthwestern.com | 21

REPAIR

Pop a Wheelie And you thought you had a hard time getting to class. // Shaunacy Ferro

U

ntil you’re in a wheelchair, Disabilities Act you don’t realize how requirements is rare flat surfaces are. As often not enough.

I struggled to roll the few The law prohibits blocks from Searle Hall to discrimination on the my south campus dorm in basis of disability in my loaned wheelchair, I encountered hills employment, public I had never noticed — everywhere. The accommodations, sidewalk by Scott Hall? Hill. The sidewalk facilities, ramp in front of the Arch? Insurmountable. transportation and The sidewalk itself? Tilted horizontally just communication. It enough to make rolling straight difficult. keeps institutions Twenty minutes later, I had huffed and accountable for having puffed all the way home. Then I realized handicap accessible I couldn’t get to my room because our entrances, visual fire elevator only goes from the ground level to alarms and other the first floor. accommodations for The few hours I spent in a loaned those with disabilities. wheelchair made me hyper-aware of “I know that the entopography I’d never considered. Where tire campus technically are the power-operated doors in a building? meets ADA requireDo they work? How steep is that ramp? ments,” Klotz says.

Is that path wide enough? Why isn’t it “However, I also know better paved? that ADA requireOutwardly, Northwestern doesn’t ments are things that seem like a friendly place to students don’t meet my needs as an individual with with mobility impairments. Stairs are a global muscular condition. Basically, it’s plentiful and not all dorms are accessible. a case of not all disabilities being the same.

Academic buildings have accessible The classrooms themselves don’t tend to be entrances, for the most part, but finding set up in a way that’s friendly to people that them might be a challenge if you haven’t are using bulky devices like a wheelchair.” done your research.

When Satisfactory Isn’t

22 | FALL 2010

Though all academic buildings are technically accessible, some are “inconvenient,” says Margie Roe, director of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities.

Swift Hall, for instance, is only accessible through an elevator in the connecting Cresap Laboratory.

Getting to her class in Frances Searle is always a challenge for Klotz. “The sidewalk outside of Searle has what was meant to be an accessible ramp, but it’s a bump I can’t get up,” she says. “The front wheels of my chair won’t go up that far, and I can’t pop a wheelie or something like that.”

Part of Northwestern’s $20 million “Extreme Makeover” for student housing includes improvements to accessibility,

photo: john meguerian

Elsbeth Klotz looks like any other student sitting in Norbucks, typing away on her Macbook. Today, the first-year chemistry graduate student is using a cane instead of her wheelchair.

Klotz has a muscular condition which has put her in “constant pain” since she was 12 years old. In the last few months, it has escalated to the point where she has been unable to walk unassisted, and she began using a wheelchair in August.

Recently, Klot’s doctors suggested she quit grad school because of time constraints and her stress level.

Unfortunately for Klotz, Northwestern’s compliance with the Americans with

Bump in the Road

like a new ramp for the Rogers House.

Renovations at Harris Hall — once one of those “inconvenient” locations — are increasing accessibility as well.

But despite that, for the time being, construction is making Klotz’s life more difficult. When she gets to Tech, where she is a TA in a General Chemistry lab three times a week, someone has to push her up one of the ramps that’s too steep for her.

“With construction going on in a lot of the buildings, there aren’t necessarily ground floor entrances available, which causes some problems,” she says. “It’s difficult to get from class to class on time.”

For mobility-impaired students with classes in “inconvenient” buildings, SSD can arrange to have the class moved entirely.

“If a student with mobility impairment in a wheelchair is in an area that is not accessible, I have the ability to work with the registrar’s office,” Roe says. “I just have the class moved to a different location. This is done before the class starts, and nobody knows why.”

REPAIR The office serves as a go-between for students with disabilities, helping to arrange for the accommodations they need. It is a resource for approximately 462 students at Northwestern, 95 percent of which have invisible disabilities, like hearing loss or learning disabilities.

For Tania Karas*, a Medill senior who has a cochlear implant, the office helps by getting her note-takers for her classes, arranging captioning and installing visual fire alarms in her room. It also helps inform students with disabilities of their rights.

presentation slides because she couldn’t see the projector from the only spot where she can park her wheelchair.

“My professor was incredibly shocked that they weren’t going to build a modification to the classroom overnight to save him the trouble of posting his slides on Blackboard,” Klotz says.

Even with the help of SSD, Karas says students have to be prompt in requesting the things they need, like a note-taker, which can take a few weeks to coordinate for a class. At Northwestern, a few weeks into the quarter means students are studying for midterms. And despite its best efforts, SSD may not always have the resources to provide assistance beyond what the ADA mandates.

“I really feel like it’s up to the student with the disability to take that extra step and ask for things,” Karas says. “If I didn’t have the confidence I have about my disability, I would not feel like this place was accommodating at all. But because I took this step to ask, I feel like this university is very accommodating.

You have to have the confidence to get the things you need.” *Full disclosure: Karas has written for North by Northwestern in the past.

“All you’re asking them is to include you in the lecture that everybody else is getting, too.”

“Before I would always feel like I was annoying people by asking them to do little things like [putting captions on a movie],” Karas says. “SSD has not only arranged accommodations for me, but they also are kind of moral support. Even if the professor acts annoyed, all you’re asking them is to include you in the lecture that everybody else is getting, too.”

Klotz is still in the process of registering with SSD, which requires detailed documentation from a doctor describing her condition and the accommodations she needs. For now, she manages on her own. In one class, Klotz had to request

#CloseCallsDon’tCount

A Touching Message Usually art is made to be viewed, but sometimes it’s meant to be felt. Northwestern alumna Tracy Chou (Weinberg ‘10) installed Braille messages on campus railings for a 2008 art class. The hidden messages line a railing in Kresge and one outside Norris. Chou knows a few fingers have stumbled across the declarative dots but doubts anyone has taken the time to decode them. “When the right person finds it, it’ll mean something to them,” she says. — taylor soppe

photos: gus wezerek

// The Norris railing (above) describes student rights and the politics of student assembly in the bulding. “It’s about how architecture defines your rights in your life,” she says.

northbynorthwestern.com | 23

TURF

Hide the Report Card

A

24 | FALL 2010

// Northwestern student group Wild Roots maintains this Norris garden, a new sustainability project started last fall to contribute organic food to the Norris food supply.

Northwestern lands a 3 out of 10 because a third of our waste goes to landfills and the administration hasn’t set reduction goals as ambitious as Sierra would like.

Then there’s the College Sustainability Report Card, compiled from self-reported evaluations by certain members of the Northwestern community. With a B-, we’re only mediocre, but the breakdown shows we excel in some of the places that count most. Green building, investment priorities and food and recycling all earned A grades.

With Ds in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement, there’s room to improve, but the overall grade is a definite improvement over last year’s C+.

This past April, Northwestern took another positive step by authorizing the search for a sustainability coordinator, a staff member in charge of communicating ideas and organizing green efforts within

the community. As of yet, the position is empty. The search committee, led by Ron Nayler, associate vice president for Facilities Management, hopes to fill the position before the end of the academic year.

“I think we’re probably in the middle of the pack right now,” Nayler says. “But we’re certainly catching up.”

Nayler says he thinks the ideal coordinator would help bridge the gap between the cultural and nitty-gritty technical aspects of sustainability.

President Morton Schapiro is confident these scores will only get better.

“Wherever we have been and wherever we are now, it doesn’t have to be reflective of where we’re going,” he says. Schapiro says he hopes Northwestern will improve under the leadership of a coordinator, as Williams College did, where Schapiro used to be president.

Among the university’s efforts to improve sustainability standards is a water conservation project that saves thousands of gallons of water per year. The project is entering its third phase of implementation

photo: john meguerian

Academically, there’s no doubt Northwestern comes out on top. But when it comes to green initiatives, we’re mediocre at best.

According to the Sierra magazine’s annual Cool Schools rankings, Northwestern’s sustainability initiatives lag behind those of our peer institutions. We’re nowhere near the top and, at number 115, we don’t even make “Top of the Class: America’s 100 Greenest Schools.”

According to the breakdown, minimal driving, shuttles and the bike-friendly nature of our campus earns us an 8 out of 10 on transportation. Our waste habits are bringing us down, though. In that category,

Our sustainability grades aren’t ones for the fridge. // Alessandra Calderin

photos: lindsey kratochwill

TURF and has requested $20 million — in addition to the $10 million already granted — to fund conservation efforts throughout campus.

Furthermore, Northwestern is a national leader in purchasing renewable energy credits and has instituted a policy requiring all new buildings to be Leadsership in Energy and Environmental Design certified.

“I think there are a lot of different things we could invest in that would pay off in the long run, especially energy improvements,” says Emmaline Pohnl, a SESP senior and the co-chair of Students for Ecological and Environmental Development. “Right now, the university is installing motion sensor lights and they have switched to CFLs [energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights] across campus, but I think we need to get our energy from a cleaner source.”

One of Northwestern’s clean energy initiatives is largely student-run. Engineers for a Sustainable World and the Northwestern Sustainability Fund are spearheading the Centennial Solar Panel System, an array that will contribute another source of energy to the six-story power load. With help and a little funding from Facilities Management, several grants and an anonymous donor, the project raised over $100,000.

Project manager and McCormick junior Joshua Kaplan hopes the project will be a symbol of Northwestern’s commitment to sustainability and become a catalyst for future renewable energy projects and education. The system should be online sometime this spring.

Deadlines are more up in the air, however, for the sustainability coordinator and the sustainability office, which could potentially offer students internships and work study jobs in addition to acting as a community liaison for environmental issues.

Nayler attributes the delay to a commitment to thoroughly reviewing all candidates.

“Like any position, you’re looking for the best candidate with the best experience and personal attributes that will do the best job in making Northwestern a national leader in sustainability,” Nayler says.

President Schapiro wasn’t aware of the lag in selecting a coordinator, but he said he would ensure the search committee meets the year-end deadline.

“This is an area where I want to make real progress,” he says. “It’s an area where I want to be a national leader.”

// This tomato was picked in October at Wild Roots’ final harvest before winter weather set in. The group first started planting this past spring after breaking ground on the project last fall. Chives, swiss chard, peppers and edible flowers are among the produce grown in the garden.

WILD ROOTS, FROZEN GROUND A year after students broke ground at the Wild Roots garden outside Norris, tomato plants droop with fruits swollen from a long, warm summer. As the November chill blows in from the lake, the stalks shiver and the fruits splat on the ground. The garden is in its final days of the growing season.

“A lot of people didn’t even know it existed and are now kind of just seeing it dying,” says Thea Klein-Mayer, president of Wild Roots. “They’re like, ‘What is this? Don’t you know you needed to water it?’”

Weinberg senior Jackie Beard, who coordinates outreach for Wild Roots, says the next big project involves working with Norris again to put up window farms, which are vertical hydroponic systems made out of reclaimed materials like water bottles.

The Wild Roots fruits and vegetables went to Sodexo this fall for use in Norris dining. Next year, the group hopes to diversify their crop and sell to Evanston restaurants. — lindsey kratochwill

#GrassIsAlwaysGreener northbynorthwestern.com | 25

TURF photo: gus wezerek

Hallowed Be Thy Game Every abbey needs its monks. // Stanley Kay

ridiron greats have come and gone, week after week, season after season, pounding their paws on the hallowed ground every Evanston autumn.

But even when the trees have shed their red and orange décor, the spirits of ‘Cats past grace Ryan Field, the collegiate cathedral.

On one of the last warm weekends of the year, foreman of the grounds Randy Stoneberg surveys the 6,400 square yards of grass stretching before him.

Stoneberg, along with three fulltime employees and a part-time field crew, is responsible for the height, color, absorbency and toughness of every last blade of grass.

“You’ve got to find a happy medium between dry and wet

on game day,” Stoneberg says. // Dedication of “If it’s too wet, Ryan Field, 1997 [the grass] will just rip right out, and if it’s too dry, sand just blows everywhere.”

Tending to the turf is a sacrament of the highest importance.

Work begins in the summer, when the grounds crew starts cutting the grass three to four times a week. In later months, when the temperature dips below 50 degrees, Stoneberg’s crew places growth blankets on the field to keep the grass sprouting.

If the stadium is a cathedral, then the spray-painted logo and lettering are the stained glass windows. The grounds crew uses laser-cut custom stencils to paint everything prior to the season opener. After that, crew members freehand the markings at least two to three times before a game.

In his 25 years at Northwestern, Stoneberg has seen the Wildcats transform from perennial losers into bowl game regulars. Work for the crew begins on

Monday and doesn’t ever really end, even though Ryan Field goes under the growth blankets at the end of the season. “For years, my wife considered herself a football

widow,” Stoneberg says.

The grounds crew also manages the other athletic venues on campus. That means memorizing the needs of surfaces and

If you build it...

Northwestern plays at Sheppard Field, where the North Quad fraternity houses now stand

School builds Northwestern Field along Central Street and Ashland Avenue with a capacity of 10,000

University upgrades to 47,000 seat Dyche Stadium

// A blueprint of Northwestern Field, 1905

26 | FALL 2010

1891

1905

1926

TURF

coaches. For example, men’s soccer coach Tim Lenahan likes the turf loose so that the ball rolls well. Women’s lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, on the other hand, prefers a firm surface to encourage speed.

But Stoneberg isn’t shy about picking favorites. “Ryan’s our number one concern,” he says.

The crew’s attention hasn’t gone unrewarded. In 2000, Ryan Field was named the Football Field of the Year by the Sports Turf Managers Association. Wildcats noticed, too.

“Coach Fitz said after the first game that as far as he’s concerned, we’ve got the number one field in the NCAA,” Stoneberg says.

Though the crew does get to enjoy games at Ryan Field, its responsibilities don’t end with the opening kickoff. They handle the extra point nets and ensure everything runs

smoothly. “You never know what’s going to happen,” says Stoneberg. “God forbid they’re out there and a divot rips up, and a player gets hurt.” inches/hour But Ryan Field *** isn’t just for the The rate at players or the which Ryan Field coaches. It’s where can drain water some of the smartest *** students in the world come togehter to pray with one voice for men passing a ball on a patch of grass. At a school so often criticized for a lack of community, Ryan Field is a house of miracles.

photos: courtesy of university archives

“Laking the Posts” Northwestern broke a Division I record with their 29th consecutive loss on Nov. 7, 1981. After a 61-14 pummeling at the hands of Michigan State, fans rushed the field, broke off the field goal posts and carried them to Lake Michigan, where they started the tradition of “laking” the posts.

‘Cats win the Rose Bowl

1949

Students “lake the posts” during the dark era of Wildcat football

1981

‘Cats play in their second Rose Bowl. University spends $20 million renovating and renames the stadium Ryan Field

1996

University hires a design firm to create a “master plan” for potential changes to athletic facilities

2010

1840 Oak Avenue 847-556-2500 www.bikramyogaevanston.com info@bikramyogaevanston.com

ENERGY FOCUS TONE STRENGTH FLEXIBILITY for students, $10 per class (online) and just 5 minutes from campus

Mention this ad and get a FREE mat & towel rental for your 1st class! northbynorthwestern.com | 27

COMEBACK

Fresh Water The men’s swim team regroups after a disappointing last season. // Alexis Sanchez

No Gloves, No Love Students join the Evanston community and learn to chap, chock and drop it. // Kevin Shepherd

28 | FALL 2010

Boxing Club next to the 7-Eleven on Emerson Street. Most of the staff there trained in Thailand.

Head instructor Rick Sollo was personally certified to teach Muay Thai

by Surachai Sirisute, founder of the Thai Boxing Association of the United States.

Sollo, who is also a School of Continuing Studies student, stresses the technical focus of the program.

“You can spar as much as you want, but without the technical work, you’re just learning how to kick ass — which is fine, but you couldn’t call it Thai boxing,” he says.

Sollo’s Muay Thai lessons typically last an hour and can attract up to around 40 people. After a few warm ups, students are assigned drills according to their skill levels. Within seconds, the elbows start flying.

“With everyday life and stress you normally squish all your aggression down, but this is a place where you can let it all out and that’s actually a good thing,” Seshadri says. “[We] totally understand Fight Club now. There’s something kind of cathartic about having the shit beaten out of you and giving some back. Plus, it’s a nice workout.”

photos: emily chow

A few times a week, a handful of Northwestern students trek five minutes off campus to learn how to beat each other up more efficiently.

“It’s good stress relief, getting to at least simulate beating the shit out of someone,” says Cassi Saari, a Weinberg senior who has been taking Muay Thai lessons since June.

Anyone who has ever seen Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior — or really any Tony Jaa movie — already knows how truly badass Muay Thai, or Thai boxing, can be. The popular martial art is identifiable by its fighters’ propensity for dropping elbows and knees on each other. More importantly, Mauy Thai demands an extreme degree of technical proficiency, relying on a movement system unique in the martial arts world.

Even basic drills can get pretty intense.

Communication senior Nandita Seshadri remembers learning how to kick.

“They kept telling me not to be afraid of actually aiming to hit the person,” she says.

“Because if you don’t, they’re not going to learn how to block properly.”

Both Saari and Seshadri train at Ultimate Fitness, housed in the Evanston

Dropping cats into water can be difficult — just look at the Northwestern men’s swimming team last year.

In addition to finishing last in the Big Ten conference, coach Bob Groseth retired from a 20-year career, leaving the team in need of a new game plan.

“Last year was a shock to some of [the swimmers], because the expectations changed a little bit,” head coach Jarod Schroeder says.

To adjust, Schroeder tried to recruit new freshmen that could bring Northwestern to the top. Ten freshmen now account for almost half of the 22-member team.

Two of the newcomers have enough awards between them to stock a trophy room. Ross McAuliffe, an 18-year-old from Shapwick, England, is a two-time national British champion in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Dominik Cubelic, a 19-year-old from Glenview, Ill., is a two-time Illinois state champion in the 50-yard freestyle and set a national record with his 200-yard freestyle relay team.

The freshmen must adapt from a 14week high school season to six months of competition in college, but upperclassmen on the team are eager to help them adjust.

“There’s a lot of racing in practice,” Cubelic says. “The older guys set the tone in practice and call out younger guys when they’re not working hard enough.”

The team is the smallest in the Big Ten and must catch up from Northwestern’s late term start in September, but Schroeder makes no apologies for the pace of practice.

“We’re throwing them to the wolves right now,” he says. “At this point they have to be sharp in everything they do.”

COMEBACK

School of Phish The ultimate super senior is just a kid. // Coco Keevan

I

n what was to be his last year at Northwestern, Ed Krystosek found himself at an existential crossroad. His financial situation “went Kaput in a cataclysmic way,” leaving him unrecognized as a financial independent and locked out of the American educational system. Out of options, Krystosek took a breath, gathered his bags and followed his heart across the country.

Now a 37-year-old, second-time Northwestern undergrad, Krystosek spent nearly 10 of the past 15 years travelling by plane, bus, train and boat to follow his favorite band, Phish. Like the Grateful Dead have Deadheads, Phish’s followers are known as Kids. The name suits Krystosek perfectly.

“When I’m at their shows, I’m 40 feet wide by 60 feet long,” Krystosek says. “[It’s] ecstatic dancing on a grand scale. I’ve never felt anything else that does that for me or that does it to as many beautiful people that I love to be surrounded by as they do.”

Phish saturates Krystosek’s memories.

He remembers each show as a distinct movement in body and soul. Krystosek has attended 285 Phish concerts, starting with a 1993 show at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom when he was 19. Those concerts cost Krystosek, of course, so he found a way to work where he played.

“My primary moneymaker was selling bottled water,” Krystosek says. “I’d stand directly in front of the gate to the venue and remind everybody passing me that water inside was $3 a bottle. You can make 600 bottles of water disappear in the hour before the concert.”

When the band split in 2004, Krystosek focused on theater, working as an actor, producer and, most recently, director in his hometown of Chicago. He maintains a position as an artistic associate at The Artistic Home, an actor-centric company for working professionals. But when

photos: courtesy of ed krystosek

“When they got back on the road, I was right back out on the road.”

Phish reunited five years later and went on tour, Krystosek // Krystosek, pictured resumed his above, spent nearly 10 nearly rabid of the past 15 years folfollowing. lowing the band Phish “When they called on tour. “I can rememit quits, I called it quits ber every one in detail with that kind of lifestyle because they are totally for five years,” he says. different every time,” he “When they got back says. “[Phish] plays from on the road, I was right a canon approaching 300 back out on the road.” songs.” Top right: outside Having returned last a show in 1999. Middle fall, Krystosek is now in right: after the last night his truly final year. He’s of the 1999 summer tour. determined to complete Bottom right: at a New his degree and capture Year’s Eve show just 12 the theater community minutes into 1999. with “Thank You, Everything,” a play he penned for class based on his time on the road.

The show premieres this winter, produced by Northwestern’s Vertigo productions.

“In terms of playwriting, whether you like it or not, with age comes experience,” says Communication senior Aaron Eisenberg, who took a playwriting course with Krystosek.

Wildcats played at Dyche Stadium. But for “He’s, like, 15 years more well-read than the most part, Krystosek still feels like a kid. anyone in the class. He’s older than the “There was a part of me that was teacher. He does bring in this kind of prepared to be that weird old man on experience and this breadth of knowledge campus,” Krystosek admits. “But I’m that a lot of us don’t have.” generally treated as a peer by everyone — Northwestern isn’t identical to the just another student.” campus Krystosek first joined in 1991 — back then Norris was still a bar and the

#BetterLateThanNever

BOOTY

O

Significant Olders

Sex with a 30-year-old? Sweet. // Samantha Rollins

n a spring night two years ago, Taylor* fell deep into meaningful conversation with a stranger at the Keg. He ordered complicated shots at the bar. He paid, like a gentleman. He wasn't one of the 40-year-old creepers ringing the dance floor. After talking all night, he and Taylor parted only after the lights dimmed and everyone spilled out into the street.

talk on the phone because she was busy in Dubai with her “cub,” who is 14 years her junior. The two just moved in together.

30 | FALL 2010

Taylor adds that an older partner’s sexual experience is a “huge perk.”

“Everyone wants to be pleased in an optimal way, and that’s something you can’t really find across the board with guys our age,” she says.

But dating someone older isn’t always easy. Weinberg junior Chung Kim broke up with her 26-year-old boyfriend after realizing they had different priorities.

“He was working and was under pressure to impress his boss,” Kim says. “I’m still in college, and I just want to go out and have fun. But he doesn’t want to put up with that.”

Having an older significant other often means serious compromises. For Taylor, hanging out with Mark’s friends, or getting him to hang out with her friends remains a challenge.

“My boyfriend has his own world of activities, friends and responsibilities that are completely separate,” she says. “It’s a matter of the fact that he’s not in the same stage of life that I’m in.”

It’s a common sentiment. Maria says she also was frustrated by how apart her undergrad and romantic lives seemed.

“It’s hard to mesh my life here with his,” she says. “I can’t see him coming to Evanston and going to a kegger with me. There’s only so much grown-up stuff I can do with him.”

Though the couple parted this fall, Maria says openness about the age gap grounded the couple in reality.

“I told him I have a whole future ahead of me, and there are some things I need to do and accomplish, like to go medical school,” she says. “He understands. I certainly [found] myself making plans with him in mind, but I [didn’t] want to restrict myself.” * Names changed for students who would only speak on the condition of anonymity

legs: john meguerian; opdenkelder: cougarlife.com

// Opdenkelder couldn’t

Mark* was a Kellogg grad student and he was eight years older than Taylor, who was then a sophomore in Weinberg. She thought it might be worth it to see him again. They’re still dating nearly two years later, even though Mark graduated last year and now lives in California.

Northwestern students often complain about the scarcity of the dating scene on campus, some female upperclassmen have entered into rewarding relationships like Taylor’s. What first struck Taylor about Mark was their immediate connection that went beyond the meaningless “name, hometown, major” conversations she was accustomed to as a sophomore.

“I could find someone closer to my age who I really like, but on the other hand, I’m also used to being around a guy who is at a certain maturity level,” she says. “It’s not so much about a minimum number, but about maturity.”

Weinberg senior Maria* dated a 31-year-old lawyer who lived in Wicker Park. Although the two are no longer together, she says their shared interests strengthened their relationship despite an 11-year age difference.

“He’s a lot more cultured and well read than any guy my age,” says Maria. “And more importantly, he doesn’t pull any of the shit that guys our age do, because he has 11 to 12 years of dating experience.”

Claudia Opdenkelder, president and founder of cougarlife.com, says the same applies for older women.

“The benefit in dating older women is that there’s no game playing,” says Opdenkelder in an email interview.

“They know what they want and how to get it.”

BOOTY

The Girl With the Sock On her Door

I gave him my V-Card and all I got was this lousy tell-all. // Aubrey Blanche

There is hardly a more intimate experience than losing one’s virginity. Some teens pledge to save themselves for marriage, dreaming of wedding night nookie with the person they will spend the rest of their lives with.

But people that practice abstinence before marriage are in the minority. According to a USA TODAY study in 2002, only five percent of Americans hadn’t had premarital sex. So what about the rest of us? Maybe teens and young adults aren’t imagining their wedding night, but they’re still thinking about that first night with that first love.

Weinberg sophomore Jennifer* says she always pictured it with someone she “really loved.” Even if most college students aren’t imagining “The One,” they’re probably hoping for “The One For Now.” Or maybe they’re hoping to just get it over with and avoid the social stigma that comes with being branded as a virgin.

First time fantasies may involve a bed covered in rose petals, being swept off your feet or making an emotional connection that feels like forever. Sometimes, that picture just isn’t what really happens. Medill sophomore Nadia*, for example, describes her experience as more awkward than anything.

For some, the first time takes place on one of those lofted dorm beds, rushed by the possibility of a roommate’s untimely return.

So many things can and do go wrong. Roommates come home and make him finish early.

Or maybe he can’t help it. It could be the result of too many drinks at a frat party and whoops, that cherry is popped.

For many college students, sex for the first time is just a few of notches above ordinary.

Without planning it, Jennifer gave it up to a guy she’d been dating for about a month. It didn’t go quite like she expected. “It was really simple, anti-climactic.” she says. ‘You imagine it being so romantic, but it just was.” It may

photo: john meguerian

Whoops, that cherry is popped.

Willie’s Willy

Can your Wildpussy handle these positions? // Sara Weston and Rigo Fernandez

The Corey Wootton That’s right, the “real special one.” Wootton tallied 19 sacks for the Wildcats before moving on to the Chicago Bears. Just pick your partner up, pin ‘em down and tackle away. Be careful not ram your partner too hard (unless that’s how they like it).

The Human Sexuality Lecture If you’ve taken this 600-person class, you know how easy it is to slouch into a lecturehall fantasy. Relive those memories while your eager-beaver partner squirms in your lap. You’ll be raising your hands in no time.

The Tweed Coat Professors are stressed, too. Take pity and teach them something new. Old hornrimmed should lie on their side and put a leg over your shoulder. Physical and intellectual flexibility are musts, to say nothing of critical pounding skills.

The Student Section Game day at Ryan Field: Can you feel the stands trembling beneath you? Recreate that touchdown shiver with a vibrator, preferably purple. Hold it against your partner and roar! If they balk, jingle those keys and drive home. Willie ain’t playing no games.

not have been with her true love, but the event was still an extremely emotional experience.

Jennifer was satisfied with her decision, but contrary to her expectations, she “didn’t walk around dreaming about marrying him or anything.” After it seeming like a “big deal,” the aftermath just wasn’t.

Nadia and her boyfriend of four months didn’t want to rush anything when it came to getting intimate. Both virgins, they wanted to wait until they were comfortable.

“Comfortable” eventually meant doing it in a dorm room after an ordinary dinner out.

They decided “in the moment,” but logistics can be a problem for first-timers. After a few moments of fumbling, everything worked out.

Nadia says she “knew what it would feel like because [her] friends said it would hurt.”

For most students, “the moment” isn’t meticulously planned. It “just happened” to Weinberg junior Ariel*. She said it was with someone she trusted but the entire experience was “obviously awkward.” The moment was a natural progression in their relationship.

Ariel and her boyfriend hadn’t really talked about sex seriously before it happened. After fooling around for a while in bed, “we just didn’t stop,” she says.

Along with a girl’s first kiss, saying “I love you” and marriage, planning for sex can be as nerve-wracking as it is exciting. For these Northwestern women, though, it seems like the first time getting it on was as much about true love as it was just getting off. *Names changed for students who would only speak on the condition of anonymity

northbynorthwestern.com | 31

I didn’t know Syghe L’Oveture.

I didn’t know how to say his name and I hadn’t seen his Bieberswept hair around campus. But Syghe, at least according to Facebook, was a Northwestern freshman. So when I logged into Facebook last October and saw his friend request, I clicked confirm.

N VA E KE O C CO BY

“i am an eighteen year old journalism major at northwestern university,” Syghe wrote in his About Me section on Facebook. “i think a lot and sometimes my best thoughts and ideas come when i’m not able to write them down. but other times they turn into thoughts on paper, maybe you’ll get a chance to read them someday…”

That was about it for me and Syghe L’Oveture (pronounced “Sigh Lay-Oh-VehTur,” I later learned). I never met the guy — never saw his tall, thin frame striding through the leaves or snow. For me, Syghe didn’t really exist until he committed suicide on March 24, 2010.

Syghe’s roommate Scott Frazier announced the death on Syghe’s friend’s Facebook account. As spring break ended and students returned to Evanston, Syghe quietly didn’t. But neither the school nor The Daily Northwestern had anything to say about the tragedy.

Had the L’Oveture family asked to keep the death quiet? The Northwestern directory didn’t list a Syghe L’Oveture.

Syghe’s Twitter and his Tumblr, titled “manmadearteries,” had disappeared. Days after his death, someone deleted Syghe’s Facebook account. It had been our only real connection.

Top left: Photo from Ochoa’s Tumblr captioned “Full possession of my heart.”

Other photos taken from Syghe’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“if everyone would just be thembeen an exhausting charade. Did the man selves, we would all be on top of the behind the mask also create a roommate to back up his lies? world. we would all have so much love, so much hope, so much faith. so much understanding. so, tell me. “be truthful. be open. be honest. be who are you?” loyal. be accepting. be loving. be — Syghe L’Oveture, manmadearteries. everything that really matters, and tumblr.com. nothing that doesn’t…we’re all in these things together” Syghe had found me online, so that’s where I went to discover the truth about his death. — Syghe L’Oveture, manmadearteries.

The obvious place to start was Syghe’s tumblr.com. temporary memorial page on Legacy.com, an obituary site.

I checked out the biography portion of the memorial, apparently written by Syghe’s family. The list of Syghe’s survivors included his parents, Tracey and David L’Oveture; his grandmothers, Paulina Crewsel and Isabel L’Oveture; six nieces and nephews, five aunts and uncles and four cousins. Most of these people didn’t exist, according to Google, and I couldn’t link Syghe to the more common names that did.

Between the godmothers and the cousins, Syghe’s family included Scott Frazier, “his best friend.” Soon after Syghe’s death, someone deleted Frazier’s Facebook account. Like Syghe, Frazier didn’t exist in the Northwestern directory.

I talked with Erica (last name withheld at source’s request), a Northwestern Communication sophomore, about Frazier. Erica was the only one of Syghe’s few friends in the Northwestern network who knew him as more than a name.

Erica had kept a Facebook message thread with Syghe, though they never met in person. “Something would always come up in a way that we could never end up hanging out,” Erica said.

“He would never follow through on giving me his number.”

Syghe told Erica that he lived in Allison, though she couldn’t find him or his roommate.

“There were videos on Facebook of him being like, ‘Hey, this is my friend Scott,’” Erica said.

Maintaining one fake identity would have

The internet, of course, is full of people who want to talk. Syghe had been an online hero — the father of a deeply devoted Tumblr family. Users Kaylee, Krystine, Daphnee and Matthew led a slew of frequent admirers. They all knew each other through Syghe, brought together by his lowercase platitudes and obsession with astronomy, Manchester Orchestra and (500) Days of Summer.

“Rest in peace, Syghe,” posted Kaylee (last name withheld due to age), a fieryhaired 15 year old from California. “I never met you, but you changed my life.”

Even friends of friends felt the reverberations. Twenty-year old Michelle Lynn from Massachusetts started fundraising for suicide prevention on Tumblr because Syghe had “pulled [her friend Krystine] through her own troubles only weeks ago.”

Michelle’s friend, Krystine Lovett, was the first to speak with me. Lovett keeps the post where Syghe first approached her on a separate Tumblr. “although we aren’t very close,” Syghe wrote, “nor have we had a full on conversation, i just wanted to apologize on behalf of everything you are going through and on behalf of whoever caused it…there are plenty of other people who love you. including us, your internet friends. you deserve to be happy.”

A sophomore at a college in Boston (withheld at source’s request), Lovett posted about Syghe and her feelings for him almost daily after the death. “I really think he is the most caring friend I’ve ever had, and it’s really hard to deal with,” Lovett wrote in an email after his death. “Wishful thinking, but maybe he’s still alive!”

In May, it appeared Lovett’s wish had came true.

“It’s not so often you’re handed a second chance. I never thought I’d get this opportunity, ever,” Lovett wrote. “This was

leaving a video on my wall so I could have proof. Then you say you’d be back by Monday and I have nothing to worry about because you’d leave me a video when you got back, but, NOW YOU’RE IN HAITI WITH YOUR MOM AND DAD HELPING OUT? LOL, you must seriously have me pegged for a dumbass or something. So fucking through. This is the third strike.

I’m done.”

I didn’t know the full story behind Ochoa’s rage until October, when she put up a post on the perils of online friendship (Ochoa did not respond to interview requests for this story).

“About two years ago I developed a pretty good connection with somebody I thought was real - over the internet. We talked all the time, and even when I had my doubts I’d get reassurance from him,” Ochoa wrote. “Syghe (‘his’ name) would Fifteen-year-old Kaylee had contacted everyone and anyone Syghe had spoken let me know that I was being paranoid and then he even gave me proof that he was, in with in order to unravel the mystery. fact, real. And then one day somebody sent She is an active Tumblr user. “I post me a link to a page - and it was all photos of pretty much anything that interests me, him… with a different name attached.” or describes how I’m feeling, or what A week after Ochoa’s retrospective, I I’m thinking,” reads her About Me page. spoke with Kaylee, the 15-year-old from unexpected to say the least, but I’m beyond California. Like everyone else, Kaylee happy to have you in my life.” met Syghe online. “I was really intrigued Around that time, Krystine stopped rewith everything he said, wrote, posted... sponding to my emails and started posting everything,” she wrote via email. “he was comments meant to dissuade sources from just so fascinating and thoughtful, and, speaking with me. Just as Krystine wasn’t well, perfect.” the only girl who wouldn’t talk, though, After the death, Kaylee had done her she also wasn’t the only girl who had given own Veronica Mars sleuthing. She filled her heart to a stranger. in some of the background around Ochoa.

“He made a video saying his name…and

“i asked who you are. i don’t want an explanation. i want a conversation.”

— Syghe L’Oveture, manmadearteries. tumblr.com.

“His name is Syghe :) He’s coming to see me for 6 days in February ^_^,” blogged Daphnee Ochoa, a visual and performing arts sophomore at Syracuse University.

The note ran below a photo of Syghe singing onstage. Ochoa posted it on her Tumblr on Jan. 8, adding the caption, “Full possession of my heart.”

Twelve days later, Ochoa was using a different set of emoticons.

“THAT’S SUCH BULLSHIT,” she titled her post. “First you get ‘sick’ and have to leave - right after I talk to you about

Daphnee’s name to prove he was real. But the video was private on YouTube, so I couldn’t see it.”

After our interview, Kaylee shared all of her materials. At the bottom of her email were two links I had never seen before.

The first led to a Tumblr named “The Perfect Shade of Green.” The blog was full of posts and photos, song lyrics and videos.

The next link led to the About Me page and a photo of the blogger, a man named Joseph Farrugia.

The picture was of Syghe.

“look in the mirror. look past the clothes and the makeup. look past the hair and the teeth. look past everything you see on the outside. search yourself for what you feel. what you see when you close your eyes.”

— Syghe L’Oveture, manmadearteries. tumblr.com.

Farrugia is an 18-year-old at the University of Western Ontario in London, Toronto.

He studies earth science and physics. He “I’m desperately longing to embark on an exciting adventure. I have big dreams and an even bigger heart. I’m still trying to figure myself out. Thanks for reading.” — From the description of Krystine Lovett’s Tumblr, titled Mirrors and Obfuscation.

said he’s close with his two siblings. He’s never heard of Manchester Orchestra.

In a Skype interview earlier this month, Farrugia confirmed that the photos of Syghe are from his Facebook. “When I first started my Facebook, I wasn’t really careful with who I was adding,” Farrugia said. “I have over a thousand [friends] and I know half of them.” ”I don’t see what makes me so special,” he said. “Why me? Why would they pick my face?”

Farrugia is special, though. Between 2007 and 2009, Farrugia was in Hasket, an Ontario band that became “really locally famous.” Isn’t the Tumblr dreamboat a shaggy-haired, dark-eyed rock star? And whoever chose Farrugia couldn’t have missed that the University of Western Ontario’s school colors are purple and white – perfect for pretending Farrugia’s Facebook photos were those of a Northwestern student.

As for Scott, the man does exist. But he wasn’t Syghe’s roommate – he was Farrugia’s friend from high school. “I know that video, actually. It was taken from my classroom,” Farrugia said. “I sent it right on Facebook.” Kaylee had discovered that Syghe had adopted at least three more of Farrugia’s friends to fake digital identities for so he could tag them in photos with him.

Hasket disbanded in 2009. The band’s MySpace page, along with photos of Farrugia, remain.

Daphnee Ochoa, 19, posts prolifically on her Tumblr, and has an FAQ section of her page devoted to answering questions such as where she buys her clothes or what kind of camera she uses.

When I asked about Ochoa’s video, Farrugia grew visibly upset.

Farrugia said he received a Facebook message in January from a man named Mitch Cooper, who asked him to record a video for his 15-year-old sister. Cooper said his sister had cancer and didn’t have much time left.

An organization called “Sigh” functioned as the “Make A-Wish” program at her hospital, allegedly, and Cooper’s sister only had one request: “can you make her a video saying ‘hey Daphne it’s sigh and I hope you’re happy now.’”

Joe recorded the video and sent it to Mitch on Jan. 23. Ochoa saw the video and gave Syghe a second chance. Well, at least until she figured everything out again.

“who you are is not what you wear. it’s not the car you drive. it’s not the latest trends. who you are is not the music you listen to or the books you read. maybe that doesn’t leave you much to work with, does it?”

— Syghe L’Oveture, manmadearteries. tumblr.com.

Was Mitch Cooper the man behind Syghe L’Oveture? Perhaps. Mitch goes by the name Richie Payne on Facebook now.

Maybe Richie is another sidekick, like Scott Frazier. Or maybe Mitch, now Richie, is the new Syghe, reaching out and building his cast for the next great fall.

It’s very possible that the person behind Syghe has moved to a different body.

Emails between Syghe devotees Matthew and Kaylee revealed that Matthew first met Syghe through a Myspace group in 2009.

Back then, Syghe was using the face of a man named Dan Zamora.

The group found out that the pictures weren’t real, but Matthew didn’t care.

“The only fake thing were his photos, not his personality or attitude. He was still himself underneath a layer of someone else.” When Syghe killed his accounts in March, Matthew didn’t know that Syghe, too, was a ruse.

Resolution seemed to arrive in an email from Krystine Lovett in October, almost a year after Syghe first friended me. Lovett, who had turned cold toward me after reconnecting with Syghe post-mortem, was ready to talk again.

“His name is actually Landon,” wrote Lovett. “He’s just an insecure, nineteen year old boy from California with a desire to fit in somewhere. In his case, it was the internet. He hid his true identity to provide some anonymity and it spiraled out of control, which is where his ‘death’ comes in.”

She included a portion of an email he sent to her. In it, Landon described himself as a wealthy teenager tired of his family’s extravagance. Landon, according to the letter, is 6-feet tall and got his braces off five months ago. His interests match up with Syghe’s, and he thinks “people are really interesting.”

“My name is not syghe austen l’oveture. never has been, never will be,” the author wrote. “this lying stuff is really juvenile so i’m done and coming clean. i know it doesn’t really matter, however for what it’s worth, i am truly sorry.”

Is Landon real? Or is Lovett another of Syghe’s accomplices? One thing is clear: Whoever is behind the Syghe incarnations knows how to move people. Whether that’s because his teenage innocence is pure and honest, or because he’s a puppetmaster of the highest degree, I still don’t know Syghe L’Oveture.

Visit northbynorthwestern.com to download high resolution versions for your desktop, as well as see the pictures we couldn’t include.

Angles O

On HIGH

S

H

H

N

H

C

E LEGEND N S C T E H

Where the photographer stood to take the photo

Sherman Plaza Danny Schuleman

Norris University Center Taylor Soppe

Carlson Building Emily Chow

Theater and Interpretation Center Gus Wezerek

Evanston Place John Meguerian

Technological Institute Gus Wezerek

T

N

PHOTOS NOLAN FEENEY

GEOCACHING:

MARKS THE SPOT

EVANSTON’S TREASURE HUNTERS AREN’T A SECRET – YOU JUST HAVE TO LOOK FOR THEM.

By NOLAN FEENEY N 42° 03.178 W 087° 40.520

US-93

8th

Maple Oak

6th

Mesquite

Bridge

P

4th

P

P

JESSE SWEDLUND MADE SURE THE COAST WAS CLEAR. A pack of sorority girls had finally made their way down the block, and the man across the street was too busy fumbling coins into the parking meter to pay attention.

The sophomore slipped his hand under a park bench outside a Purple Line stop to pull out a small, black capsule no larger than his pinky finger. He popped open the cap and unfolded the tightly wound piece of paper that listed those who had come before him.

Swedlund had found a geocache. *** Geocachers are modern-day treasure hunters. Their journey begins online, where they download the coordinates of a hidden treasure container — the geocache — and find them using GPS devices.

Geocaches can be anywhere in the world, from a forest preserve to a sunken shipwreck off the coast of Evanston.

Caches also come in a variety of sizes.

Micro caches, like the one Swedlund found, are often hidden in population-dense areas where stealth is paramount. In busy, urban settings, cachers maintain a certain level of secrecy to avoid catching the attention of non-cachers, or “muggles,” who may be tempted to tamper with the cache later.

“The thrill of the hunt is what I like best, getting out there and exploring new areas,” says Swedlund, a Communication sophomore. “It’s a hobby for a lot of people. It’s a good excuse to go to the park. It’s a fun way to do something that isn’t so serious.”

The standard cache is roughly the size of a shoebox and usually holds tradable trinkets such as souvenirs, rare stones or small toys. Cachers can take whatever they want out of the cache as long as they put something of equal or greater value. In addition, all caches contain a log to sign and date upon discovery.

After the find, cachers document their experiences in another log at Geocach-

PHOTOS JOHN MEGUERIAN

ing.com, creating an online network that connects the estimated 4-5 million active geocachers worldwide.

Oregon computer consultant Dave Ulmer placed the first geocache in May of 2000 after the government expanded public access to GPS technology. This March, two months shy of geocaching's 10th anniversary, the millionth cache was hidden.

After a friend mentioned the activity to him last spring, Swedlund visited Geocaching.com to see if there were any caches in Evanston. He found several right on campus, ranging from x-marks-the-spot quests to multipart excursions involving math puzzles to unlock the next clue.

“When you do find it, it’s such a rush,” Swedlund says. “Not finding it makes me obsessed with going back. I don’t think I’ll ever leave a cache that I couldn’t find. I’ll always come back and look for it.”

Swedlund doesn’t own a GPS device, instead opting to punch in coordinates to Google Maps and study aerial views of the site before heading out. It’s an easy way for beginners to try geocaching before investing in a real GPS device, which can start at around $100. Groundspeak, the Seattlebased company behind Geocaching.com, now also offers smart phone geocaching applications for less than $10.

Eszter Hargittai, an associate professor of communication studies, is responsible for many of the caches on campus. Her “Turtle among Wildcats” series features seven caches on the Evanston campus and one on the Chicago campus. The series gets its name from Hargittai’s Geocaching.com user name, TurtleFan, and from the tiny turtles originally included in each cache.

“Look around my office,” she says, gesturing to a tall bookshelf where chains of small fabric turtles descend from the highest shelf. “I’m a little obsessed.”

Hargittai is well-known in the North Shore area. Although she started caching a little less than a year and a half ago, she has has logged more than 700 and hidden almost 40 of her own. There’s hardly a cache near campus Hargittai hasn’t found.

“One time I ran into a cacher [and] he said, ‘What's your name?’” Hargittai recalls. “I said Eszter, but I realized that's really dumb. Nobody knows who Eszter is.

So then I said TurtleFan and he said, ‘It’s an honor.’ That was nice.”

That wasn’t the only time Hargittai’s reputation preceded her. Laurel Childress, a second-year graduate student in North-

western’s earth and planetary sciences department, knew about Hargittai through the turtle caches.

Childress, who goes by the geocaching name tuihat, began seriously caching about six months ago. She was in the process of completing the campus series when she noticed one of the caches had been misplaced and alerted Hargittai. Later, after Hargittai restored the cache, Childress suggested they go find the newly placed Morley Shipwreck, an underwater cache located about 150 yards off the Evanston shore.

“The in-real-life experience is kind of strange,” Childress says. “The first time I was meeting Eszter that morning, I thought, ‘I don’t really know how to recognize her.’ I took out my GPS unit and thought, ‘Maybe this'll be obvious.’”

Considering how geocaching starts online and becomes an outdoor activity, it’s no surprise that social interactions follow the same pattern.

“One of the reasons I do find geocaching fascinating is that it's one of the few activities where both the online and the offline are essential,” says Hargittai, who is in charge of the Web Use Project, which studies the role the Internet plays in peoples’ daily lives. “There are few where both are crucial. You can't do it with just one aspect, you have to have both.”

Geocaching events are where the interactions of online and offline meet head on, and where the activity’s social qualities come to life. Events can be small — in August, about 20 people attended a Northwestern event Hargittai hosted — or

large. Cache-apalooza, a 10th anniversary celebration sponsored by the Geocachers of Northeastern Illinois, took place in Worth, Ill. this past May. In typical geocacher fashion, there are no formal invitations for these events — only event caches with coordinates for addresses.

It’s also not uncommon for event attendees to suddenly realize they’re engaged in conversation with the person who hid their favorite cache. It’s an experience that often happens to Mike “TeacherMike” McGowan, the organizer of Cache-apalooza and the technology director for a school district in Calumet City, Ill. “You get to trade stories [and] all of a sudden people will come up to me and be, ‘Oh, you're TeacherMike!’” McGowan says.

At Hargittai’s lunch event, guests wore nametags with their screen names.

“There are people that just through the site you feel like you have a relationship with even though you haven’t met them,” says Childress, who attended the event.

“You're like, ‘I’ve done a bunch of their caches, I have an insight into their style.’”

As a group, geocachers are hard to stereotype. Respondents to a 2008 survey by the Michigan Geocaching Organization ranged in age from 23 to 70 years old.

Jen Sonstelie, the marketing director for Groundspeak, says because there’s no common geocacher in terms of demographics, cachers form bonds over the hobby alone.

“Events are in some ways like going to a music festival,” says Sonstelie, who flew out from Groundspeak’s Seattle headquarters to attend Cache-apalooza. “Everyone’s there for a common reason. Everyone’s having fun and meeting people who like the same things they like. Geocachers definitely define themselves as geocachers, so it’s very welcoming of other people.” *** Tucked alongside Deering Library, there’s a garden Northwestern students could probably go their entire undergraduate career without knowing — unless they were geocachers. Thanks to Turtles among Wildcats, Swedlund says he has discovered campus nooks and crannies well off the beaten path.

“They’re designed to bring you to pretty places on campus and they really did bring me to a couple of areas I had never been to that were really cool,” he says.

Although Hargittai is introducing

geocachers to Northwestern through her caches, the hobby has also introduced her to the area.

“I certainly do way more nature things than I did before,” she says. “I had no idea how many forest preserves are in the area.”

That holds true across the pond as well.

Because she travels frequently for work, Hargittai has cached in 16 states and four different countries.

Geocaching’s international appeal has drawn academic attention to the activity right here at Northwestern. Dirk Brockmann, an applied mathematics professor, uses geocaching data to understand and apply human mobility and travel patterns.

Brockmann studied Travel Bugs, special caches that geocachers move across states, countries and continents, often toward a goal destination predetermined by the original hider. When geocachers log a Travel Bug on Geocaching.com, the site will generate a map showing its migration across Google Maps. “[Caches] are in more than 200 countries,” Brockmann says. “There are more than [one] million caches. Travel Bugs have traveled more than a billion kilometers.

You can address all sorts of interesting questions.” He previously used data from Where's George, a website where visitors can look up and record the travel trajectory of their paper money, to predict how

the H1N1 virus would spread following its initial outbreak.

Brockmann and his family set up four Travel Bugs throughout Europe before their move to the U.S., each with Chicago defined as the Bugs’ goal destination. One arrived after a year of travel through Canada, Maine, South America and New York.

“The people that were involved didn’t know one another,” Brockmann says.

“Nevertheless, it made it. My daughter was really psyched. She waited a year and then she had her little toy back. It's fascinating that this works.”

That’s part of the mystery of the geocaching. Theresa Edwards, a Kent State University student and the author of the Muggles Don’t Scare Me geocaching blog, described geocaching as “one of the only hobbies where you can run off into the woods with a stranger and know you’ll come back alive.” It’s a fitting description.

Whether geocachers interact in person or online across the globe, they form an altruistic and collaborative community driven by an intense enthusiasm for the hobby and not a whole lot else.

“It’s all about getting more people involved,” Hargittai says. “It’s good for the activity, but people also enjoy it. That's a good feeling, that I constructed this little thing and that actually affected what somebody decided to do on their weekend.”

I Want an Impressive Summer Internship!

Where Do I Start?

UCS oers events and individualized appointments to help Northwestern undergraduate & graduate students with their

internship search.

Please Mark Your Calendars for these Events & More: InterNU (Resume Reviews, UCS Walk-ins): Jan 6, 1-4pm @ Norris MLK Public Internship Internship & Job Fair: Jan 11, Noon-4pm @ Norris Career Expo 2011 Internship & Job Fair: Jan 13, Noon-4pm @ Norris NEXT (NU Externship Program) Info Session: Jan 18 & 19, 4:30-5:30pm @ Norris Mock Case Interviews for Internships: Jan 25, 6-9pm @ 630 Lincoln Mock Interviews for Internships: Feb 1, 6:30-8:30pm @ 630 Lincoln 620 Lincoln 8:30am-5:00pm 847-491-3700

Summer Internship Grant Program ($$$ for unpaid internships) Spring Qtr App Deadline

10% 847.492.1008

Wildcard Discount

1125 Emerson St., Evanston, IL 60201 - Everyday Buffet - SiamSplendour.com 44 | FALL 2010

Quit There and Back Again Study abroad can redefine your worldview — though not always in the way you expect. // Christie Thompson

photo: emily chow

I

watched woven bags fall from their shoulders from my hardbacked seat. “Flight Air India 232 to Self Discovery. Departing from gate D2.”

The legions of Elizabeth Gilbert devotees scanned the departures list in Mumbai Airport, recent divorcees or middle-aged never-marrieds Eat-Pray-Loving their way through India. Compared to the wayward Dutch backpackers — blazed and glazed after their two-week excursions ­­­­— these women looked a bit more desperate.

If 40-odd years stateside hadn’t been satisfying enough, maybe the answer was buried under a bodhi tree on the other side of the Atlantic. At the very least, it could be hidden between the sheets of a foreigner’s bed. A trip to India was an exercise in self-actualization. Going away was a means to make life better after coming back.

But perhaps my rolling carry-on held the same lofty hopes. I am a long-suffering victim of wanderlust. After 19 domestic summers, I was tired of stalking my nomadic friends online. I sat and sighed at pictures of friends smiling beside beer steins and sacred shrines in the way that says life reads more exciting in a foreign language. I wanted to be the stalkee.

I wanted to realize something, to be a part of those conversations. I’m not sure what else I was expecting. But I know it was a lot.

For two months, I traveled, interned, wrote and wandered. I talked for hours over Skype of work and temples, my daily diet and the wealth disparity. You just wouldn’t believe, no, yeah, much different than even New York or Chicago, especially in, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.

I told the story of how my roof had collapsed in the monsoons. I left out my birthday, three days into my trip, when I watched the World Cup and ate Indian ramen noodles alone in my rented room.

And then I went home. At family dinners, I wore tarnished cuffs and told them they’re from a market in Delhi even though they didn’t ask. When they say, “How was India?” I say “amazing,” with a head nod and extra emphasis on that second syllable. Amazing.

And it was. I did feel challenged, I did see things I hadn’t seen before and I did spend a lot of time staring out train windows. But now I find myself falling into an ordinary hum. Days are spilled coffee and missed calls. When I notice it fading, whatever it may be, I try to grab it and pin it to the floor. I try to clutch that feeling — that anxious, tumbling gnaw — I had that hot day in that far alley of that one market.

Times when discomfort was important.

Perhaps I can preserve it, keep it in glass as a constant reminder. I follow the study abroad guidelines, it’s only fair: Pictures are posted immediately and frequently. Anecdotes are catalogued for easy selection upon return. Flag those as important that include danger (preferably alone in a dark city street), a religious moment, befriending locals (especially if the friendship is consummated with a shot or general consumption of alcohol) and any “harrowing” experiences in transit including (but not limited to) sketchy hostels, missed flights, long trains and lost luggage. A story including two or more of these elements should be hung above the mantle.

So do we go to be there, or do we go to say we’ve been once we come back? Do we travel to travel, or for what we get when we return: that elusive New Perspective and a choice retelling?

I wonder, watching women roam through the Mumbai airport, days before their trip to India is pressed in a scrapbook with novelty paper. Before it becomes a pair of earrings. Proof of a time when we were young and adventurous, read books that meant something and carried battered paper journals just in case. But some day they’ll be tucked away with our Marquez and our batik scarves and we’ll try to remember the words to that song in the market.

northbynorthwestern.com | 45

Shake-up at Pick-Staiger What’s a manager to do when a stranger interrupts a children’s concert? // Caleb Melby

46 | FALL 2010

Information about Ronnie trickles in over the next two weeks. His ex-girlfriend attends Northwestern, but has nothing to do with the concert hall or the children’s choir. They dated eight years ago. Hypotheses float around.

Was he high? Mentally ill?

criminal trespass. That’s what it says on my subpoena. Whether the judge knows what Ronnie did, exactly, I’m not sure. It’s impossible to discern whether or not he’d care.

But it’s never mentioned during the time we stand before him – about the same amount

Ronnie stares ahead blankly as he sits with his mother in the courtroom. His lawyer is bald up front and wears a tightly bound ponytail in back. His face is tanned and puffy.

He asks me what I want. I say I don’t know what I want.

“Well, are you going to press charges? I just need to know what I’m looking at here.”

I’m not even sure he’s supposed to be asking me these questions.

“I was just working that night. I don’t know what we want.”

I flag my boss. He doesn’t know what we want either. The police officer shows up. He tells us what we want. A restraining order.

“So you’re not pressing charges?”

“No, no. I figure, since he’s a first time offender…” Shrugs.

“Yeah. He is.”

The attorneys flit around and spit out deals before they ever stand before the judge, and I can’t keep track of how many cases are on the docket. The judge never spends more than three or four minutes on a case.

My courtroom fantasy of testifying fades when I learn I will simply stand beside the prosecutor when we all approach the judge.

The police officer, prosecutor and I are on the right. Ronnie, his mother and the ponytailed man are on the left. And in the most basic sense, I am at odds with a man I know absolutely nothing about.

The prosecutor tells the judge what we want.

Ronnie’s attorney says that’s cool. A six month probationary restraining order for

Found in Translation Google Voice tries to transcribe one student’s answering machine. // Lindsey Kratochwill Hey. Now it’s your dad.

I got your text, so I was wondering, I don’t know, I was just calling to say.

I said if you still need to sign up, but my friend Industry Jerry also conference and stuff.

Only mine and then I think, and Mister, kisses.

If you haven’t left yet for confirming zero, welcome you guys so there’s any interest in that.

Please get back to me and Happy trails, so I need to talk to you soon.

I love you and I mean.

I think I’m sorry.

Bye.

illustration : sam welch

he stage manager enters the concert hall offices backstage and tells me something’s happened. A man walked up to the first level of choral risers and situated himself between some of the singing children, he says. The staff has the man offstage now.

I call the police. Then I go meet Ronnie.

Ronnie is in his mid-twenties, I guess.

He’s thin, gaunt and his hairline recedes. He sits quietly in a chair, eyes deep and unfocused. Not knowing what else to do, I shake his hand.

“You’re Caleb,” he says. I’m alarmed. Then I realize he’s reading the nametag on my lapel: “Caleb Melby” and then “House Manager.”

He says he’s looking for his ex-girlfriend.

“From the stage?”

“She goes to school here.”

“But that’s a children’s choir.”

“She goes to school here.”

Beat.

“Do you want to talk about it? Or would you just like to sit here?”

“Yes.” “Which?”

“Just sit here.”

The cops show up in force. When they determine that Ronnie isn’t violent, most of them leave. One cop says he doesn’t plan to arrest Ronnie, he’ll just tell him to leave the premises – mostly because he doesn’t have a concert ticket. Entranced, one of the choir volunteers watches Ronnie from a backstage corner.

As the cops escort Ronnie out, he attempts to re-enter the building. When I see through the lobby windows that they’re putting him in the back of a car, I step outside.

“He was being a total knucklehead,” a cop says.

The anger of the parents percolates, and when the show ends, a cadre close in on the rehearsal room. They confirm with one another that the concert staff is to blame for this disaster. They spend the evening in angry disbelief. No one ponders Ronnie or his stunt. He’s just a scary bad guy.

A cop delivers my court summons before I leave for the night.

Christkindlmarket: German American Services, Inc.; Wizard of Oz: Emerald City Theatre; Ice Rink: Patrick Pyszka; ZooLights: Lincoln Park Zoo; Knitted Crafts: Renegade Craft Fair

Celebrate the Start of Winter Take a break from reading week and explore. // Allyson Byers

M T W T F S 29

Remember the ice skating scene in Bambi? If you don’t, look it up. You’re guaranteed to want to make the trip to Millennium Park’s ice skating rink.

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink, 55 N. Michigan 12 p.m.-8 p.m.

Skate rental $10 If you weren’t exactly ice dancing out there, get classy at Fontana Grill, where you can bite into a slice with toppings ranging from salmon to truffle oil. On Monday’s, the restaurant offers a buy one, get one free deal for pizzas.

1329 W. Wilson 5 –10 p.m., $15 average entrée

30

Sample Teutonic food and drink at Christkindlmarket Chicago, where more than 70 percent of the vendors speak both German and English. Good luck with the other 30 percent.

Daley Plaza at Washington and Dearborn 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

Leave your stress on the ice and watch the Chicago Blackhawks face the St. Louis Blues at the United Center.

1901 W. Madison 7 p.m., Tickets start at $30

01

For those who like flowers with their firs, the Garfield Park Conservatory hosts its annual Holiday Flower Show through January 9.

300 N. Central Park 9 a.m.-8 p.m, Free Peeved by poinsettias? Go see Second City’s Dysfunctional Holiday Revue, featuring hilarious seasonal songs and improvisation.

1616 N. Wells 7:30 p.m., $22

02

Get into the Christmas spirit by visiting Christmas Around the World at the Museum of Science and Industry.

The museum will showcase more than 50 trees representing different cultures.

5700 S. Lake Shore, 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m., $15

Follow the yellow brick road back to a time when you had never heard of finals.

The Emerald City Theatre presents a “rocked out” remix of The Wizard of Oz. Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln 10:15 a.m., $14

03

04

Discover the sparkling topiaries of Lincoln Park Zoo’s annual ZooLights.

2200 N. Cannon 5–9 p.m., Free Czech out the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Slavonic Mass.

220 S. Michigan Ave., 8 p.m., $10 for students

Anything’s better than a gift card.

Guarantee Bubbie’s toothless grin and pick up some handmade holiday gifts at the Renegade Craft Fair.

Pulaski Park Field House, 1419 W. Blackhawk 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Free You did it! Celebrate the end of the beginning with a Mexicana Hot Chocolate at Medici on 57th. 1327 E. 57th.

9 a.m.–midnight, $9 average entrée

northbynorthwestern.com | 47