vol104issue01

OPINION Another Washed-Up Plutocrat - Page 4

Pick Your Poison: This Week’s NFL Picks

SPORTS Blue Devils Fail to Tame Tigers - Page 8

- Page 12

LIFESTYLES College Feast - Page 18

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 Volume 104 No. 1

Blue Devils Roll Through Hartford Pete Collin

Sports Editor

Freshmen Kaitlin Petrella had a match-high 32 digs against Fairleigh Dickinson in the Hartford Invitational.

Central volleyball finished off a successful run through the New Balance Invitational with a convincing defeat of the University of Hartford on Saturday night to improve to 5-2 on the season.

The Lady Blue Devils were led by freshman Lauren Snyder who tallied 14 kills on the way to an easy 3-0. The victory capped a 2-1 run through the tournament, which included a 3-2 loss to University of Rhode Island on Friday night and a 3-1 defeat of Fairleigh Dickinson early on Saturday.

Central shot out of the gate against the Hartford Hawks easily defeating them 3018 in the first game. Central looked well on their way to dominating the second game as well when they went on a 12-4 run, but the Hawks fought back to within four at 25-21.

The Blue Devils managed to hang on for a 30-22 victory.

Hartford University managed to carry that momentum into the third game of the match, taking an early lead at 12-11. The Blue Devils managed to recover from the slow start and pulled off a 30-22 win to seal up a 3-0 defeat.

Central’s momentary lack of focus may have something to do with their youth. Nine of their 14 players are underclassman.

“We need to get a little fiery out on the court and learn how to put teams away,” explained Coach Linda Sagnelli. “Our youth

does contribute a little bit. The more comfortable they get on the court their competitiveness will definitely show.”

The Blue Devils hitting average stood at a healthy .362, including a .571 mark in the first game. The Hawks, who were led by Hallie Fullgar’s 10 kills, could only muster a .112 average against the Blue Devils.

Along with the victory, two Blue Devils took home some hardware as both Lauren Snyder and fellow freshman Amanda Beyer were named to the all-tournament team. Snyder totaled 57 kills throughout the tournament along with 11 service aces and 32 digs, while Beyer totaled 137 assists, nine service aces, 38 digs and four blocks.

Central, now 5-2, will try to carry this momentum into their next match against Holy Cross at home on September 5 at 7 p.m.

Conrad Akier / The Recorder

President Miller Says Improvement in Veterans Speak On Recycling and Communication Coming Difficulties of Readjustment Melissa Traynor

Melissa Traynor

News Editor CCSU President Jack Miller opened the school year with a keynote speech addressing Central’s lack of recycling, expanding communication using the university’s website, and his controversial promotion and tenure decisions.

In his Opening Meeting speech to CCSU faculty and staff, Miller specified that the CCSU institution should be concerned with civility, accuracy and a new problem solving approach. Regarding the first of these, Miller recalled a few sentences written by Anna Quindlen, an author, journalist and opinion columnist for the New York Times. “‘Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of the several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed,’” Miller quoted.

“Higher education is a place for all kinds of debates to occur, but we also need to be careful of how we talk to each other,” he concluded.

He also touched upon the changes that need to be made on campus in order to make CCSU “green.” Currently, the university is recycling at 31 percent, and the age and lack of efficiency of the buildings are working against the environment.

“It’s not that we’re not doing anything,” Miller said, “it’s just that we have to do a lot better.”

The university is investing $79,000 in recycling programs this year and looking forward to a possible bus route which is proposed to run from downtown Hartford to downtown New Britain with a stop at CCSU.

News Editor

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Aiming to communicate electronically within CCSU as well as with its surrounding communities, Miller introduced two new facets of its website.

CCSU Now (In 100 Words or Less) will be one of the newest features on Central Pipeline, containing blurbs of information about the school that will be updated continually, and the 360° Communications webpage

will cast the spotlight on significant achievements made by students, faculty and staff.

The president’s presentation also explored last year’s complications in diversity. He cited instances where he met disagreement over his promotions, as well as difficulties with tenure decisions when he had disagreed with several recommendations by the promotion and tenure committee.

See President Miller page 3 http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/

The Paradise Restaurant of New Britain hosted a small event that captured stories from veterans and aimed to spread awareness about readjusting to life after the war. Three veterans told their stories as attentive audience members hung onto every word through the scratches and breaks of a faulty microphone.

Staff Sergeant Jay White and Sergeants Michael Hawley and Pablo Ravizzoli shared memories of each of their different roles in Iraq and how their experiences rippled into their current civilian lives.

Sgt. White, who had helped organize the event along with Kiwanis Chair Al Cohen, introduced himself as readjustment counselor for the Vet Center at the Wethersfield location.

While serving in Iraq, White aided in the effort to control stress in soldiers due to combat.

“The first time, in 2003, I was there as part of the Third Infantry Division,” White said. “We would go to troops and talk to them after traumatic and tragic experiences.”

He commented that his second stay in Iraq in 2005 was more organized, and after learning from previous years, the “combat stress control” was more effective.

Sgt. Ravizzoli of the Connecticut National Guard left for Mosul, Iraq in 2004 to become a liaison for American troops. His assignment was to train and instruct the Iraqi National Guard in organization, logistics and missions.

“During the second part of my

deployment, I was an infantry member and a vehicle commander. I was glad I had the opportunity to see different sides of the job,” Ravizzoli said.

After returning home to Connecticut, Ravizzoli said that he lived a relatively healthy lifestyle for his first three weeks back, but then quickly resorted to heavy drinking in order to cope.

“You come back and realize that the Mosul mindset doesn’t go away,”

- Sgt. Ravizzoli

“You come back and realize that the Mosul mindset doesn’t go away,” he said.

Ravizzoli also encountered problems with his family and friends.

“I found that I was very insensitive to other people’s issues that were not of the magnitude of the problems of where I had just come from,” he recalled.

Sgt. Hawley, who has been home in Connecticut for almost a month, enlisted with the Army and was sent to Alaska. From 2005 to 2006, Hawley served in Talifar, Iraq as an active duty member.

Along with 299 other troops, Hawley was sent home after 12 months in Iraq, only to be told on their second day home that they would de deployed and sent to Baghdad within the next three weeks.

Making headlines that year, he and his unit spent four months in Baghdad and safely returned to Alaska.

Reflecting on his second deployment, Hawley said that between

See Veterans Speak page 3

2

News Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Recorder

Student Center 1615 Stanley Street New Britain, CT 06050 T 860.832.3744 F 860.832.3747 ccsurecorder@gmail.com http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/ Editor-in-Chief Mark Rowan Managing Editor Christopher Boulay Art Director/Designer Jamie Paakkonen Associate Layout Editor Conrad Akier Copy Editor Samantha Sullivan Lifestyles Editor Stephanie Bergeron Sports Editor Peter Collin Entertainment Editor Edward Gaug Opinion Editor Justin Kloczko News Editor Melissa Traynor Web Editor John Vignali Staff Gabrielle Byko Jessica Carraro Karyn Danforth Chris DeMorro Jennifer L. Gonzalez Jessica Hart Brian Johnston Matthew Jurkiewicz Matt Kiernan Susan Kondracki Cassandra Montanez Brian Morache

Human Remains Discovered Behind New Britain Plaza Melissa Traynor

News Editor

Human remains were found next to the shopping plaza at 598 Hartford Road in New Britain, at a land expanse next to the Route 9 exit. The man who discovered them had been looking to hunt in the area, which is covered in thick vegetation, on August 20.

New Britain Police explained that the investigation continues and they will be taking direction from the medical examiner’s office.

Sgt. Darren Pearson of the Detective Bureau said that the bones have most likely been there for a long time.

“They’re skeletal remains, so they had to have been back there for a while. It depends on a lot of conditions, as well. They could have been sitting in the sun, the shade or around water,” he said. “We don’t have an exact number of, but we think it may have been four to 12 plus years.”

An employee at the CT Beverage Mart in the plaza said that both New Britain Police and the State Police had been searching for three or four days behind the plaza.

“After they found the bones, I think, they sent for [Department of Transportation] crews to help clear out the thick woods,” he said.

Although it is early in the investigation, New Britain Police say that the area covered so far is several acres across and they are still in the recovery phase of the investigative process.

“Once we’re done with this first phase, we will be able to look through the number of missing people and work with other groups, such as the state police, the medical examiner’s office or state attorneys,” Captain Phil Kennedy said.

Due to the large gap of time the NBPD have to work with in terms of how long the bones have been there, the police will investigate many missing person’s files.

“For example, since the bones may have been there up to 12 or 13 years, we will not rule out a missing person’s file which is 14 or 15 years old,” Kennedy said.

Some of the plaza employees were taken aback by the discovery.

“This is really kind of spooky,” a CT Beverage Mart employee said. “Now my wife doesn’t like me being here alone at night.”

Supreme Court Last Option for Former Kansas State U. Editors Adrianne Deweese

Kansas State Collegian The U.S. Supreme Court is the final option in a three-year court battle between two former Collegian editors and Kansas State University.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 26 the claims of plaintiffs Sarah Rice and Katie Lane, both former Collegian editors, are now moot since “there is no reasonable expectation that Lane and Rice will be subjected, post-graduation, to censorship by defendants in connection with that paper,” according to a July 27 Student Press Law Center report.

On Aug. 20, the appellate court denied Lane and Rice’s petition for a rehearing before the entire circuit court.

Rice said she and Lane, along with their lawyers, will decide within the next week whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rice and Lane filed suit in 2004 after then-Collegian adviser Ron Johnson was removed from his advising position.

By the recommendation of Todd Simon, then-director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications and chair of the board overseeing the Collegian, Johnson was relieved of his duties as Student Publications Inc. director and Collegian adviser, effective May 24, 2004, according to a May 11, 2004, Collegian article.

According to a July 27 Student Press Law Center article, Simon has said Johnson was removed because Johnson’s advising was to blame for the Collegian’s “sub-par scope and quality of news coverage.”

Johnson was later reassigned as an assistant professor in the Miller School.

According to the May 11, 2004, article, during the spring 2004 semester, Black Student Union members called for Johnson’s resignation as a permanent solution to what they said was a lack of diversity coverage.

Cheryl Strecker, K-State senior associate attorney, declined an interview with the Collegian about the case.

Strecker said in a July 31 K-State Media Relations and Marketing press release that there was no live “case or controversy,” which left the Court of Appeals with no jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

“This was a performance-based personnel action, pure and simple,” Strecker said.

“There was never any attempt to censor or

control the content of the Collegian. The decisions of two federal courts, in which no wrongdoing by K-State was found, should be enough to lay this matter to rest.”

Mark Goodman, Student Press Law Center executive director, said rehearing requests in federal appellate courts are rare. Goodman also said if a strong dissent exists with the three original judges, it is more likely the case will be reheard.

“In this case, though, there was no dissent with the three judges,” Goodman said.

Goodman said the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling was a “terrible decision.”

“What the court ultimately decided is when students graduate, they can no longer pursue First Amendment cases,” he said. “As any rational person should understand, the likelihood that a legal proceeding will be concluded in one to two years is very slim.”

Rice said the situation made herself and Lane lose faith in authority.

“I think personally what I learned from the last three years is that just because someone is in a position of authority doesn’t mean that they always have your best interests in heart,” Rice said. “The courts were not understanding, and all along the way, we have had to keep fighting since it’s something we believe in.”

University officials involved in the case have maintained students’ interests as their concern all along and that K-State upholds students’ free speech in all aspects, according to a July 31 K-State Media Relations and Marketing release.

“There has never been an administrator on this campus who has tried to control the content of the Collegian,” said College of Arts and Sciences dean Stephen White, one of the administrators involved in Johnson’s reassignment.

White declined to comment any further on the case.

Goodman said K-State’s reputation is tainted with the court’s ruling. However, he also said college journalists, educators and First Amendment organizations will never see the case as over.

“What is most sad about it is that the name of Kansas State University is going to go down as the name responsible for preventing students’ First Amendment claims,” Goodman said. “The university administration also believes this is over. I can tell you from my perspective -- not a chance.”

Federal Court Upholds Texas Pledge of Allegiance’s ‘Under God’ Clause Ana McKenzie

Daily Texan

The Recorder is a student-produced publication of Central Connecticut State University and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of CCSU’s administrators, faculty, or students. The Recorder articles, photographs, and graphics are property of the Recorder and may not be reproduced or published without the written permission from the Editor-in-Chief.

The purpose of the Recorder is to approach and define issues of importance to the students of Central Connecticut State University.

A federal court Tuesday upheld a new Texas law that added the words “one state, under God” to the Texas pledge of allegiance.

David Wallace Croft and his wife, Shannon, of Dallas, took the case to a federal court on Aug. 7, arguing that the phrase violates the separation between church and state.

“Church and religion is something that should be reserved for the private home and private schools,” Shannon said. “We’re not Christian haters, we just don’t think it’s appropriate for public schools.”

The bill, authored by State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, unanimously passed through both the Senate and House during the 80th State Legislative session this past spring.

Gov. Rick Perry’s signature made the change to the pledge effective immediately on June 15.

Sanford Levinson, a law professor at the University of Texas Law School and expert in constitutional law, said that to vote against the bill would bring negative ramifications for legislators.

“All together, plausibly, they would fear

retribution from their constituents,” Levinson said. “One can understand completely why legislators and judges would want to duck this and run the other way as fast as they can, but that is no excuse for any state adding ‘under God’ to the pledge of allegiance.”

Levinson said the clause is unconstitutional, and the court should have ruled in favor of the Crofts.

English senior Henry McFayden, a former member of the short-lived Atheist Tree Fort organization at the university, said the phrase “shouldn’t have been added in the first place, but it’s not a big issue” for him.

According to the Handbook of Texas Online, the Texas pledge of allegiance was put into law in 1933, originally saying “Honor the Texas flag of 1836; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible.”

The pledge was changed to say “Honor the Texas flag” in 1965 and remained unaltered until the recent change went into effect June 15, according to the handbook.

“There are so many important things to worry about,” said McFadyen, who has been an atheist since he was 13. “It has less of an impact the more it’s repeated, so I don’t see the big deal.”

The court’s decision has also met with apathy from Reid Porter, a geography senior and member of the UT Christian organization Campus Renewal Ministries.

“It’s just a pledge that nobody knows or cares about,” Porter said. “It really doesn’t make a difference to me.”

The couple who brought the case against the change are self-described humanists. Shannon Croft said the couple believes in the goodness of people without supernaturalism.

The attorney general’s release said the Crofts are “both professed atheists.”

American Atheists, an organization that promotes the separation of church and state, defines atheism as the belief that “nothing exists but natural phenomena.”

Humanism, defined by the American Humanist Association, is a “progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism” affirms a believer’s ability to lead a responsible and ethical life.

Regardless of the recent outcome of their case, the Crofts will continue to challenge the phrase, Shannon said.

“We’re doing what we can because it’s what we believe in.”

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

New Orleans Universities Progress After Katrina Garesia Randle

The Daily Reveille It has been almost two years since Mykell Clem stepped into a classroom at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Like many college students, the biology junior was forced to leave her home university in search of an academic haven -- Louisiana State University -- after Hurricane Katrina uprooted her from her home in the Seventh Ward in August 2005.

Chancellor Sean O’Keefe reported in an LSU Board of Supervisors committee meeting this past August that more than 85 percent of the 2,700 students who transferred to LSU returned to their home institutions in spring 2006.

Many of Clem’s friends who also transferred to LSU have made their way back home.

Clem stayed put.

But officials at New Orleans universities said they are recapturing the student populations they once had, even though students like Clem have not returned.

Former students are returning to the area, and freshman students are submitting more and more applications as the schools pick up the pieces and move forward with recov-

ery efforts, officials said.

Winston Brown, dean of admissions for Xavier, said he expects this year’s freshman class to be 46 percent larger than the incoming class of 475 students in fall 2006.

Brown said bouncing back from the freshman enrollment rut will be the key to getting student enrollment back to the university’s expectations.

Brown said he expects enrollment numbers to reach the pre-Katrina incoming freshman level of 950 students within the next two school years.

“The increase is a gradual thing before people gain more confidence in the area,” Brown said. “All the things college students need have been restored and are here in the area.”

Clem said she misses Xavier’s close teacher-student connection.

“At small colleges, the teachers give you more attention,” Clem said.

“But at big schools like LSU, you have to be more independent.”

But Clem said she stayed here for that same reason.

“I’m away from home but not too far,” Clem said. “I felt that being away from home has brought me closer to my family. When I go home, I am excited to see them. But I still have my freedom and indepen-

Dillard University, which is located in the heavily-devastated Gentilly area of New Orleans, seemed far down the list of schools to successfully recover after nearly every building on its campus flooded during the hurricane. The Hilton New Orleans Riverside was the university’s temporary classroom and administrative home during its recovery process.

But Karen Celestan, Dillard’s director of University Communications, said alumni, community and nationwide support have helped the campus restore 60 percent of its facilities and raise student enrollment to 2,100 - 52 percent of what it was prior to Katrina.

Celestan said parents still have reservations about sending their kids back to Dillard but said it has not overshadowed recovery efforts.

“We were not sure that the university was going to come back,” Celestan said. “But people did not want to see Dillard go away.”

Community college students were not exempt from the effects of the hurricane either.

Delgado Community College located in the City Park area -- 90 percent of the area was under eight feet of water -- had 70 percent of its facilities rendered useless after Katrina flooded its campus.

But Molly Jahncke, Delgado’s

associate director for public relations, said enrollment is growing faster than school officials expected.

More than 8,000 students -- 65 percent -- have returned to the campus, Jahncke said.

Many of Delgado’s buildings are still not repaired. Jahncke said the college is having to keep pace with the steady growth by making extra classroom and administrative space for the returning students.

“We are using our space well,” Jahncke said. “But some of our classes are being held in trailers until we restore the rest of our buildings.”

Clem said she remembers few people returning to Xavier when it reopened. She said she is not sure what school she would choose if she had to make a decision again.

“Both of the schools are a giveand-take situation,” Clem said. “But I am doing well here. It is a good feeling when I overcome difficult situations.”

Celestan said she expects Dillard to take on the same recovery pace of the city -- at least three to five years.

“Rebuilding is a slow and steady process,” Celestan said. “You gain small successes, and you build on those successes.”

most difficult to keep track of and, therefore, the most difficult to help.

In White’s situation, the Vet Center hired him and provided assistance in readjusting to life at home.

As part of the reserves, which are controlled by region, troops may be offered some assistance.

“I definitely had a positive experience. I don’t think anything better could have been done for me,” Ravizzoli said. The National Guard, which is managed by state, generally provides the most care for their veterans, White said.

Connecticut recently adopted the M.O.U., or Memorandum of Understanding, which holds that veterans returning to the state are

required to see counselors such as White.

Ravizzoli said that White, his counselor at the time, was upfront and honest with him when he returned home.

“We were part of a pilot program where one of the requirements was to talk to people like Jay. And right from the beginning, he told us that we’d be messed up for a while,” Ravizzoli said.

White offered advice to those in the audience who would like to help a veteran in need.

“Know where [the vet centers] are; know the phone numbers,” White said. “The best thing you can do is educate yourself.”

Veterans Speak

President Miller

Continued from page 1

Continued from page 1

After he had researched the actions of Central’s previous university presidents and their relationships with recommending groups, he concluded that his presidency was not setting a new trend.

“I don’t want to present this in a defensive way… but the bottom line is there is a very little difference between the past four presidents and [the past two years],” Miller said.

During the president’s presentation on finances, he offered the chance for “open, honest discussions about [the university’s] budgets,” and the operation of a new responsibilitybased budgeting system.

Miller identified 50-and-ahalf new positions which were both opened and filled over the last two years but required no extra money from the state. He also encouraged

dence.”

Clem said although her parents respected her decision to stay at LSU, they strongly encouraged her to return home and continue her education at Xavier.

But officials at New Orleans universities said they are just now overcoming reservations many parents and students had about returning to the area.

Lori Zawistowski, interim dean of admissions and enrollment management at Loyola University, said she has seen an increase in the number of out-of-state students and potential student campus visits in the past year.

The number of out-of-state Loyola students has increased from 50 to 54 percent since fall 2006, and more than 700 new undergraduates are entering the university this fall. Zawistowski said these changes speak for people’s increased confidence in the progress of the city and school.

Loyola had approximately $5 million in damages and has since been completely repaired, she said.

“Our main focus is to tell them to ‘come and see for yourself and let us know what your concerns are,’” Zawistowski said. “Students and parents alike are excited about what the city and school has to offer now.”

entrepreneurship within departments to maximize organized spending.

After thanking the members of the Distinguished Service Award Committee, Miller presented two individuals from the faculty and staff with the award. The nominations for both Maria Alvarez and Dr. Timothy Rickard were accepted by Miller.

Alvarez has been a member of the CCSU society since 1983 and has worked her way up several positions of increasing responsibility to her current role of Associate Registrar. She is also recognized as an outstanding mentor for Latin American students.

Dr. Rickard of the Geology Department was also honored for his contributions to CCSU and his “commitment to the growth and development of his students,” Miller said.

visits to Iraq, his unit met with counselors to evaluate the mental condition of the troops and whether they were fit to withstand another trip.

“They had counselors to talk with us and see how we were doing. If you answered their questions honestly the first time, then they wouldn’t send you back,” Hawley said, “but nobody wanted to admit they had issues.”

“There’s quite a stigma about going to get help,” Sgt. White said.

He explained that it’s up to the service men and women, individually, to seek out help, especially the active duty members of the Army.

He said that active duty members of the Army, such as Hawley, are the

Editorial/Opinion

4

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Editorial The New Britain Herald’s Aug. 31 piece, “Miller Plans on Preventing Irresponsible Journalism” failed to recognize even a fraction of progress The Recorder has and will be making for this coming school year. For a decadent and miserable newspaper which has committed numerous fallacies and juvenile spelling mistakes (Rowen is spelled Rowan) while struggling to keep a float, The Herald’s focus on the past rape article is a tiresome and low blow. The writer Fran Morales made it a point to make it seem the address centered on the controversial article even though President Miller only touched on it briefly for no longer than five minutes during the hour and 15-minute address.

CCSU’s public relations flack Peter Kilduff went on a limb to say that they are “working with the newspaper” to make improvements even though they have not communicated with us. There have been no attempts to reach out to us and put forth any aid or improvement. On the other hand, we are still waiting for the Task Force on Journalistic Integrity to initiate improvements in the form of more journalism professors, classes and money. But most importantly, to heed the call for

a journalism major, which is an integral part to coming full circle in this learning experience.

In fact, benchmarks have been made significantly, and have been put forth by the editorial staff and few advisors that The Recorder has available.

The tumultuous experience in light of the article has only fueled the editorial staff to persevere in practicing more journalism, with a vigilant conscience and focused drive despite the assault from practically every media outlet in the country.

For the constant assault of reminders, we thank you for the motivation.

Starting this past Sunday, The Recorder held its first of many workshops intended to instill basic tenets of journalism to incoming writers. The paper’s advisor, Dr. Vivian Martin, also talked about a weekly critique course for The Recorder.

Students have the opportunity to dissect the articles written for an hour every Thursday. In March, students will have a chance to expand their worldview and travel to France. Students will immerse themselves in the rich culture and investigate the different roles and relationships the United States and

France share.

Internally, The Recorder has made many strives to continue the quality of its content. Each week, a blog will be posted from one of the editors. Recognizing the trend of journalism is rapidly transplanting itself into the World Wide Web, we feel that a blog is a key way to bridge the gap in this Internet age. Following the link in The Recorder or logging onto our website, people can start readings our blog. Our goal is not so much to present and analyze the news, but to discuss things that may seem more relevant on a personal, every day college level.

In addition, weekly newsletters will be sent out to staff writers who do not generally practice journalism to help them in their reporting. In the fall, editors will travel to Washington D.C. to take part in a national college media convention As a staff that labors over putting together a newspaper with more energy than it takes to do school work, we know of the changes that are going on. It is important for the campus community to know, as well as exterior forces that are out to keep The Recorder synonymous with a bad name.

Fredrick Dalton Thompson: Another Washed-Up Plutocrat in Post-Reagan America Trying to Make it Justin Kloczko

Opinion Editor

Prophet of brawn and bravery!

Bard of the fighting man!

You have made us kneel to a God of Steel, And to fear his church’s ban; You have taught the song that the bullet sings – The knell and the crowning ode of kings; The ne’er denied appeal!

- H.L. Mencken June 7, 2004. Ronald Reagan is laid all too peacefully to rest on live international television, initiating ceremonies that stretched weeks, sponsored by Reagan-humper Rupert Murdoch via state-run Fox News.

It was a presidential funeral that was unprecedented in American history in its magnitude and couldn’t be gauged in just a few hours of ceremony. For the days and weeks following, our citizenry was constantly reminded of the Reagan revolution, the rise of the economy, and the coincidental fall of communism in Eastern Europe. For being lowered in a casket, Ronald Wilson Reagan was immortalized.

Today, Reagan is barely dead and his ideologue crusade through top-down, slashand-burn Reaganomics is only truly beginning to be felt. Deemed by many as “The Great Communicator,” Reagan loved telling jokes any opportunity he got, and in his early fits of Alzheimer’s the same ones would start coming up too often. Despite all the kudos he received from partisan sides, he was nothing more than a devil cloaked in a dove’s guise. The man was an

actor after all, and he successfully managed to con the Democrats around him to sellout as his “Reagan Democrats.” His wife, Nancy, would initiate the deceiving “War on Drugs” while Ronnie would siphon crack into the American economy simultaneously and negotiate with terrorists behind a curtain. As a country, we deficit-spent like bastards and got so paranoid that we initiated a preposterous project called “Star Wars” to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world because Reagan was a firm believer in a pending Armageddon.

He laid the toxic soil in the 1980s that gave away to a period so decadent and depraved lamer and more detached than man had seen in years, for which people embraced excessive use of hairspray, keytars and tried to compensate their banal lives with cellular phones bigger than their heads. It was from that evil fertility that bred the rise of megacorporations and the tyrannical bosses that stripped the common worker of his or her dignity.

Just look at Reagan trying to put an end to unions; he allowed the growth of corporate bosses like Jack Welch who shit on their employees every chance they got, which in turn spawned rage shootings in post offices and work rooms for the first time in our history. Sociopaths one day couldn’t take it and went completely “postal,” but no one could figure out why. Reagan gave juice to a crop of plutocrats that crushed the middle class and empowered a select few. One product of that environment is George Bush and a litany of others, whom are now able to prosper from the so-called “Reagan Revolution.”

But enough with the Reagan eulogizing.

Enter Fred Thompson, the incognito presidential hopeful who will file papers to run to-

morrow. The conservative base is so desperate that they are in need of anyone with the vaguest similarities to Reagan. The top-tier misfits of the Republican nominees, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, don’t fit the bill. All summer long, the media has set the stage for Thompson to be the savior - a sort of Reagan incarnate.

Watching Thompson give speeches this summer only rivaled the banality of John Kerry. He looks like a cross between a burnt out Scruff “Crime Dog” McGruff and Gerald Ford, and he may be just as dumb, with no charisma and sadly nothing on Reagan. That’s the problem with the Republican Party these days - after they lost the House and Senate, they keep using the same formula to touch the base and try to plow over their own mess. They blatantly ignore and attack fellow outsider candidates like Ron Paul, whose Libertarian approach seems to call for a fresh direction.

But sadly, Thompson probably has the best chance of scoring the nomination. Let’s take a look at his resume: 20 years as a lobbyist + a shit load of money + professional acting accolades ÷ a sexy wife = a mean old man with contempt for society ready to take the Presidency. Right there he jumps ahead of the Republican pack.

Despite trying to cast himself as an everyday Joe and coddling to voters in a leased red pick-up truck and plaid shirts for his ’94 Senate run, Thompson is the exact opposite in reality. He has actually remained close to insiders on Capitol Hill along with his access to billion-dollar corporations. Thompson had deflected criticism from Nixon during Watergate hearings and has recently vehemently defended Scooter Libby, who lied and obstructed the investigations into the leak of former CIA Valerie

Plame. He set up a fund and raised money for Libby’s $200,000 fine.

Thompson is no outsider, even though he tricks himself into thinking he is one. In fact, he likes going where the money is. And there is nothing wrong with that, it’s just that Thompson is a conservative, and all his talk about being pro-life doesn’t add up when having a history lobbying for pro-choice institutions.

According to the Los Angeles Times, in the early 1990s, Thompson was hired to lobby for the abortion rights group National Family Planning and Health Reproductive Situation.

He got a large chuck of his one million dollar lobbying career from Westinghouse Electric Co. when he lobbied for nuclear energy. So, like many of the 2008 candidates, it isn’t about morals, it is about ambition, and Freddy can’t get enough of it.

When that money wasn’t enough, Thompson’s celebrity stint as prosecutor Arthur Branch on Law & Order milked it for what it was worth on the airways. Notice all the abundance of reruns on television nowadays? Freddie won’t be able to use that help for much longer, once he declares for president, regulations restrict airtime on equal-time provision of federal campaign law. Thompson might try to get all the free fictitious P.R. he can get right now, but soon he will be thrown into the Presidential spotlight. The media has just about had it with Guliani, Romney, Hillary and Obama, and primary season is only beginning.

Fredrick Dalton Thompson might be toast before he even files.

5

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Summer School is Out, Back to Class A Few Things We All Learned Over the Break Brian Morache

Staff Writer

Brian Morache

Staff Writer Many people in the United States mistakenly think that the Justice Department is part of the Judicial Branch of government. After all, both deal with the law and we all know that the law is impartial; yet anyone who followed what has become known as “Gonzo-gate” quickly learned that the Justice Department is an arm of the Executive. The ties to the Executive Branch under now former Attorney General Gonzales are what lead to his downfall.

In the Nixon administration there was a group of officials that carried out Nixon’s dirty tricks, which ensured his reelection and that his policies were enforced. Ironically, this Committee to Re-Elect the President was called CREEP for short.

These are the people who brought you the Watergate scandal and who also sought to hide behind the executive privilege of the White House.

Under the Bush administration, Alberto Gonzales turned the Justice Department into such an organization.

Politics became the primary qualifier for positions inside the halls of Justice as prosecutors were punished or even fired for investigating Republicans or not sufficiently smearing Republican opponents.

A White House that was supposed to have very limited contact with the Justice Department now had over 30 contacts with prosecutors and other officials when previously, only three people in the White House could contact the Justice Department regarding cases. People like Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney were now using the Justice Department to forward their own agendas rather than preserving the rule of law. Defense lawyers are now using political motivation as a legal defense thanks to their actions.

Beyond the turning of the Justice Department into a political machine, Attorney General Gonzales ensured that the Bush Administration could greatly expand the power of the Executive Branch, allowing it to act outside the law. Whether it was through torturing prisoners, holding people without trial or representation, or spying on Americans, the wishes of the Bush Administration always trumped the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. You know, that document the President and all officials are sworn to uphold but apparently President Bush and his fellow Texans in the White House have never read and will ignore when it suits them.

While Federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the President, their appointment should not be some reward for loyal service, nor should their firing be punishment for doing

a job that the Administration doesn’t like. The fatal blow for Alberto Gonzales came when nine U.S. prosecutors were dismissed by the Justice Department. What made things worse was that, ever loyal to President Bush, those firings were directed from the White House and their replacements were chosen from Bush loyalists serving in the Administration, one being an aid to Karl Rove. This has caused people to lose faith in the justice system as the guardian of the impartiality of the law.

In answering to this behavior, Alberto Gonzales demonstrated the problem with cronyism as his testimony revealed a man who was totally unqualified for the position he held. How often did we hear, “I don’t know,” or “I don’t remember”? How many documents bore his signature that he just didn’t recall reading or even signing? Gonzales even admitted that he signed off on firing three of the prosecutors without even knowing what he was agreeing to.

And when asked about the Patriot Act and if the FBI had abused its power, Gonzales played dumb, knowing all along that the FBI had abused their authority. It later came out that, as White House counsel, he had pressured then Attorney General John Ashcroft to approve an unwarranted wiretapping program that was unconstitutional. Badgering a man who is sedated and recovering from surgery in a hospital was not beyond Alberto Gonzales; apparently nothing was beyond him when it came to doing his master’s - ah I mean his President’s - bidding.

Now that reality has caught up with Attorney General Gonzales and he has resigned, perhaps the Justice Department can return to the job of justice rather than acting as the strong arm of the Bush Administration. Cronyism was extremely popular in the early 20th century; it was business as usual in most aspects of the government. The Bush Administration has reminded all of us of the dangers of favoritism through appointments to important government positions based upon loyalty and personal friendship rather than ability and competence.

The actions of the Justice Department under Attorney General Gonzales will no doubt raise the debate about whether the department should even be part of the Executive Branch. Does it create a conflict of interest when an administration operates above the law? Would it be better to place the department under the control of the Judiciary? This debate, and many others, will be the legacy of Alberto Gonzales. “Gonzo-gate” will continue as Congress follows the path that leads back to the former Attorney General’s mentor, President Bush.

Will Justice be served? Stay tuned.

So here we are, back in classes after a long summer break. Did we all enjoy summer school? What, you mean you didn’t attend classes this summer? Even if they weren’t for credit, we all got some free lessons over the break.

The Bush Administration taught us all about the concept of “Executive Privilege,” or at least what they think of it. Originally intended to be limited to conversations between a president and his advisors, the Bush people seem to think it extends to anything the Administration says or does, no matter who’s involved.

They also made parenting much more difficult for everyone. How are we supposed to discipline our children when the President commutes the sentence of a man who obstructed justice and outright lied to a grand jury? How can we tell little Johnny not to lie to his teacher when the Attorney General of the United States lies to Congress and the people?

Worst of all, we now have to deal with celebrities who think they can do whatever they want to and not have to pay any penalties. At worst, they accept blame without actually admitting to anything, nor do they take responsibility for their deeds.

If Lindsey Lohan can walk into a jail and be out in less than 90 minutes, why should our kids think they would get anything worse?

Our economics course involved the stock market and a lesson in how volatile it is, and of course we all learned what a sub-prime mortgage

was. What would have happened to social security if the President had been able to get privatization through Congress? Down with the market and bye-bye retirement funds. The only people who would be making out would be the investment bankers.

Political Science courses have included the ’08 Presidential debates and, of course, the race to make the primaries more important.

It seemed like every day some state was moving their primary up just to be more “relevant”. Meanwhile, the debates began early and continued often; unfortunately, they tended to be more of a 30 second ad than a real debate on issues. Fred Thompson was and still is a candidate who is running but is not yet in the race. It makes one wonder if voters will see him and any of the tough characters he has played on TV and be able to tell the difference.

Mitt Romney has begun a new branch of service as he insists his boys are serving their country by helping in his campaign instead of volunteering to serve in the military.

I wish all our kids could opt for such service. Let us also not forget the first woman and African American candidates to run for President, both of whom have a real shot at winning.

This election could have great historical significance.

And speaking of history, President Bush and the Republican administration has once more shown us how little they know of it. When Congress had to resort to subpoenas to acquire information regarding the firing of prosecutors, the administra-

tion called it “unprecedented in the history of the White House.” I guess they forgot that they did the same thing when looking into President Clinton’s private affairs in 1994. The President also brought up Vietnam, a war that he and his administration deferred themselves out of, much to the ire of many veterans. Geography students will point out that the “killing fields” the President mentioned are NOT in Vietnam but in Cambodia and they were only brought to an end when the South Vietnamese army invaded that country, after the US left.

But hey, who’s counting, right?

The Iraq war continues to go on, and we are all still fascinated by celebrities who get in trouble while our friends and neighbors are dying.

Some sort of good news may be that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is recommending that the forces in Iraq be cut in half. At the current rate, according to General Pace as reported by the Associated Press, the US military has limited response options to other threats. Or maybe the Bush administration just needs to free up some ground forces to invade Iran, whose government they continue to antagonize. Such an invasion would be a tidy mess for the next president to have to clean up, but what does President Bush care?

He’s a lame duck who will merely ride off into the sunset come January ’09 to kick back on the couch in his Texas ranch.

Yes, we learned so much this summer, and we didn’t even pay any tuition for it. Too bad we don’t get course credit for this stuff.

6

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Saving a Pen Pal’s Place in Society Bryan McCann

Daily Texan On Aug. 24, I visited my Pen Pal Kenneth Foster for the first time on death row. I first contacted him because of his work in the D.R.I.V.E. (DEATH Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement) Movement, a group of men on Texas’ death row who nonviolently protest against their awful living conditions and against the death penalty in general.

As an anti-death penalty activist, I was immediately drawn to a man brave enough to organize in the worst of conditions and struggle against injustice. Over time, Kenneth quickly became one of my heroes. He is a genuine political mind with a nuanced analysis of the broken world around him -- a fighter in the most authentic sense of the word.

I realized that my first visit might also be my last. With his scheduled execution less than a week away, I knew the odds of beating an execution in Texas were nearly impossible.

Texas, after all, is the “belly of the beast.” Four hundred executions since 1982 and a governor responsible for more state-sanctioned deaths than any other in history are not causes for optimism.

However, this dread was totally absent from my visit with Kenneth. We talked about the future: What would be in store for the next week? What does the future of the anti-death penalty movement look like? If we do win, what’s next? I was not speaking with a man who was poised to die in six days; I was meeting an activist.

I left the Polunsky Unit that day feeling like I would see Kenneth again. Of course, I had no basis for this gut feeling, and every reason to feel the opposite. That day, I left the busiest death row in the nation determined to fight until the end.

The end, of sorts, came Thursday. We won.

Moreover, we made history. After a much-delayed recommendation for clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Gov. Rick Perry commuted Kenneth’s death sentence. I spent the day walking around campus in a haze of ecstasy, laughing incoherently and grinning.

The students in my public speaking class likely think their instructor is a madman. Fortunately, I don’t care.

Perry has never granted clemency before and Texas isn’t exactly known for its generosity toward death row defendants. In spite of all of that, our movement, the Foster family and Kenneth have a victory. There is no understating the historical significance of what we won this week. While the death penalty is on the defensive across the nation, Texas continued to be the trend’s exception. However, we made a dent in the Lone Star State’s armor with the Kenneth Foster case.

How did this happen? Keith Hampton, Kenneth’s brilliant criminal attorney, will be the first to tell you this was not a legal victory. (The judiciary failed Kenneth at nearly every turn, making a litany of constitutional mistakes that it was unable or unwilling to correct.) This was a political victory. On May 30, the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign held an inaugural meeting to start building a broad and visible movement to save his life. Following the lead of Kenneth’s brave family, we set out to make Texas, the nation and the world aware that a man was about to be executed when he killed no one.

After an initial rally in downtown Austin, the state media began to take notice. Working closely with Kenneth’s lawyers and advocacy groups around the country, we began to get a keen sense that we were making waves. One after another, Texas papers published editorials in support of Kenneth. High-profile figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Jimmy Carter lent their voices in support. We

came out with a very clear message: Everyone agrees that Kenneth Foster killed nobody, so why is he receiving the punishment reserved for the worst of the worst?

We are told that the death penalty is reserved for monsters who have no place in society. Yet, here we had a man condemned to die who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Like the vast majority of those on death row, he was forced to depend on a court-appointed attorney. Like the disproportionate number of those sentenced to die, he is a black man. His conviction was in no small part due to prosecutorial maneuvering and plea bargains.

The system is broken, and the Kenneth Foster case is that system laid bare. The death penalty is not about protecting people. It is a cynical political strategy that, in the words of legal scholar Austin Sarat, “makes us fearful and dependent on the illusion of state protection, that divides rather than unites, that promises simple solutions to complex problems.”

This campaign was first and foremost about saving Kenneth Foster. However, he will be the first to tell you this struggle was and is larger than him. During our time together last week, he told me about Rudy Medrana, another man on Texas’ death row because of the Law of Parties. He told me this should be the next case we organize around.

Similarly, when I spoke with Lawrence Foster, Kenneth’s grandfather, after hearing the good news, he told me this is one step toward abolishing the Law of Parties and the death penalty as a whole. For innocent people like Medrana, Rodney Reed and Luis Castro Perez, Kenneth’s victory is also their victory.

Personally, I am elated that I get to visit my friend again. Politically, I see nothing but possibilities on the horizon. We proved we can win. I intend to continue doing so.

PETA Correct on Vick, Wrong on Mike Jack Collens

The Daily Reveille As I start my senior year, the fourth straight in which I hold football season tickets, I cannot wait to “enact some weird ritual that involves chanting about tigers before football games.” At least, that’s how People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals describe our beloved traditions on its Web site.

I can agree with PETA that tigers in captivity lack many of the comforts and accommodations they would otherwise enjoy in the wild-open spaces, mates, hunting-but I refuse to agree that Mike the Tiger lives an incomplete life without these things. Equipped with a $3 million, 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art habitat and round-the-clock care, Mike is quite possibly the best cared-for big cat in the country.

In fact, Mike enjoys a life that tigers held in zoos can only imagine. I do not doubt PETA protests every time a local zoo buys a new meerkat, blue-footed booby or pygmy hippopotamus, but the organization raised such a stink that one would assume we were offering asylum to Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick (alias Ron Mexico).

In Vick’s case, PETA clearly had a reason to protest. Charged with numerous counts surrounding an alleged dogfighting ring, Vick was essentially accused of killing animals for profit, whereas the University only wants to replace our beloved mascot.

As of press time, Vick had entered a plea deal in which he pleads guilty to what CNN described as “the charge of interstate commerce for the purpose of dogfighting.”

Federal sentencing guidelines recommend jail time of between one and five years. However, the federal judge in charge of sentencing Vick can deviate from the guidelines, though the sentence can be no longer than five years in prison.

PETA protested the lack of action by National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell and Falcons owner Arthur Blank, but Vick was swiftly suspended indefinitely fol-

lowing his guilty plea.

Under Virginia state law, the mere fact that he allowed the dogfighting to occur on his property, to which his co-defendants would apparently testify, would make Vick guilty of a felony. Should the Commonwealth of Virginia choose to file charges, Vick could face even more jail time.

Clearly, Vick’s case is not one to be taken lightly, and PETA was right in protesting the delay in official suspension by the NFL and the Falcons organization. If commissioner Roger Goodell indeed hopes to project for the NFL an image of zero tolerance, his actions should have preempted any federal sentencing.

However, PETA was wrong in its futile attempts to stop University tradition.

Few moments define the University as does Mike’s roar prior to kickoff during home games in Death Valley.

Few monuments embody the spirit of our great University as Mike’s habitat does.

Perhaps PETA would prefer an eagle as our mascot, as the Auburn War Eagles/Tigers/Plainsmen have in Spirit, that demented, low-flying winged wonder. Nay, I insist that our mascot be capable of devouring Spirit and, in one munch, force Auburn’s stadium, “The Jungle” (in the middle of Alabama), to implode in on itself. Not that I would promote the senseless killing of animals, right Mr. Vick?

Its attempts noble, PETA apparently forgot the sources from which the University has sought to find Mike VI. In his letter directed in response to PETA’s protests on May 22, Chancellor Sean O’Keefe keenly made several points.

First, O’Keefe noted Mike VI will not be a tiger cub, ripped from the clutches of its mother. Rather, it will be a more mature tiger that has already been weaned. “And,” he continues, “LSU absolutely will not purchase a tiger from a private breeder,” he said.

This condition was set in place so as not to “encourage irresponsible breeding of tigers.”

Furthermore, “solitary animals by nature, tigers do not congregate in the wild,” O’Keefe said, indicating that a lack of freedom to socialize would pose no problem for an average tiger.

One point O’Keefe made was particularly interesting. Even I, the die-hard Tiger fan, was unaware that our University is “developing a state-of-the-art tiger center to educate the public about global conservation issues.”

Little Johnny Tiger Fan and his parents visit the aforementioned facility; Johnny learns about saving the whales and, in fact, grows up to do so.

Mike the Tiger saves the whales. In your face, PETA.

How a Favorite Discovery Channel Adventurer Won Our Hearts and then Broke Them into Little Pieces Sujay Kumar

Daily Illini In the history of civilization, no man has ever been able to wrap a urine-soaked shirt around his face, roll around in freezing snow naked and drink elephant feces fluid without being appointed the village idiot. That is, until a television show began airing Friday nights on the Discovery Channel.

Man vs. Wild host Bear Grylls is a man’s man. If you’re an animal, he’s an animal’s man.

At least until he rips off your head and eats you raw. With a first name like Bear, you know he means business.

Bear is a bona fide adventurer who has served in the British army. Trained as a survival expert, the superhuman he-man has climbed Mount Everest, crossed the icy North Atlantic in an open boat, and has even hosted a dinner party while suspended under a hot air balloon 24,500 feet above ground. This was all after breaking his back in three places in a parachuting accident.

In Man vs. Wild, Bear risks his life by stranding himself in the dangerous wilderness, and trying to find his way back into civilization. In the past two seasons, Bear has been to the deserted islands of the Pacific, Mount Kilauea in Hawaii, the African Savanna, and many other locations.

When faced with starvation, he has dined on everything from BBQ snakes to pig eyeball to half-eaten zebra carcass, served with fresh urine.

At times it seems bleak, but where us mere mortals would fail, Bear rips through the rough terrain and wildlife to triumphantly return home to his wife and two children, one of which is named Marmaduke.

Bear has even appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, an experience that he says ranks “quite high on the scary list!” As Oprah giggled at the video clip showing Bear trying to generate heat by padding snow on his naked body, it was clear: Bear Grylls had tickled our fancy and enchanted our hearts.

Then he ripped our hearts out, tore them into tiny pieces, barbecued them over a fire pit, and then urinated on them with a scandal that rocked basic cable television.

In July, a consultant for the show told the Times of London that Man vs. Wild wasn’t as wild as we thought. The insider revealed that Bear allegedly slept in a lodge equipped with television, hot tubs, and the Internet on at least one occasion, when he was supposed to be roughing it in the mountains.

In other episodes, Bear was aided in building a raft, used a flotation device when riding down a river, a scene with wild horses was choreographed with tamed horses, and molten lava was simulated with special effects. Ironically, a scene where a bear attacks Bear’s camp was allegedly shot with a man in a bear suit.

I, along with millions of other viewers, had put my faith in Bear. We were there for every moment. When Bear drank those elephant feces and ignored any possible fecal-oral transmission of tapeworm, we cheered the triumph of the human spirit. In essence, we were all drinking elephant feces. It was real. Or at least we thought it was.

Was I incensed when I found out that it might as well have been Winnie the Pooh on Man vs. Wild?

Of course not, that would be silly. Man vs. Wild was a triumph in ratings because of the sheer “luck” in which Bear ran into seemingly threatening wildlife and terrain, only to conquer both with his quick thinking and charm.

I suggest that when the show returns to the Discovery Channel this September, the season premiere drop Bear into a confined space with all of his faithful viewers. There would be no commercials, and something tells me that this time, Wild would win.

As the season two commercial says, “Does Bear Grylls really need to do these things? Probably not.”

But you might.

Sports

8

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Blue Devils Fail to Tame Tigers Mark Rowan

Editor-in-Chief A great start for the Central Connecticut State University football team was spoiled in the fourth quarter as the Towson Tigers put up 10 points and put away the Blue Devils 20-10 last Thursday, August 30.

“You have to give all the credit in the world to Towson,” said head coach Jeff McInerney. “We use this game as a baseline. We’re building something at Central.”

After accumulating 3,360 rushing yards in the 2006 season, the Blue Devils picked up exactly where they left off, rushing for 246 yards. Junior Jo Jo Freeman, who led the team in rushing in 2005, ran for a total of 88 yards on 20 carries, which included a six-yard run for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Freeman will look to fill a void after Central lost star running back Justise Hairston to the New England Patriots. Hairston, who punched in 20 touchdowns and rushed for 1,847 yards last season, was recently put on injured reserve and may have a shot to make an impact next season for the Patriots.

Freeman’s score put Central up 7-3 until Towson quarterback Sean Schaefer connected with Marcus Lee. The 19-yard touchdown came with less than a minute left in the half and capped off a one minute and eight second drive for 94 yards.

The Blue Devils tied the game on a 35yard field goal by freshmen Dennis Bien with just over four minutes left in the third quarter.

It was Bien’s first career attempt and make as a Blue Devil. Bien, however, missed a 31-yard attempt to take the lead in the fourth. The field

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Towson’s wide receiver Hakeem Moore had four catches for 25 yards in a game where the Tigers accumulated 300 passing yards. goal try came after senior quarterback Ryan Holmes overthrew Jermaine Roberts in the end zone on third and 10.

“I was running pretty well,” said Holmes, “but we just couldn’t punch it in.” Holmes finished with 65 rushing yards on nine attempts, but was just 7-for-15 on pass attempts with a

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The Recorder is looking for staff writers, illustrators and comic artists for the fall semester.

Working with The Recorder is a great way to build your resume, hone your skills and network.

total of 37 passing yards.

Central used a revolving door of quarterbacks over the course of the game. Aubrey Norris started the game and played the first half, leaving with an injury that Coach Jeff McInerney later said was not serious and the switch to Ryan Holmes was just part of Central’s game

plan. Zach Cavanaugh entered the game towards the end of the fourth quarter. All three quarterbacks were relatively ineffective, going 11-for-26 with a total of 78 yards.

On the other hand, Tiger’s Schaefer threw for 300 yards, completing 30 of his 40 attempts.

“Sean Schaefer is a great quarterback,” said Coach McInerney, “and you have to give him a lot of credit.”

Schaefer was far from perfect however, throwing two interceptions and fumbling once.

The fumble, which was forced by defensive tackle Devroy Murphy and recovered by Frank Leon, led to Central’s only drive ending in a touchdown. Safety Victor D’Arrigo and defensive back Anthony Wilson grabbed the picks.

“I knew when I threw the ball, I threw it too high,” said Schaefer, reflecting on his first interception to D’Arrigo. Wilson’s interception was the seventh of his career and resulted in a missed field goal.

Towson didn’t look back after a 39-yard field goal by Towson’s Mark Bencivengo took the lead in the fourth quarter, 13-10. The game was put out of reach with just under three minutes remaining after a touchdown run by Rasheed McClaude. McCalude was no slouch in the running game, accumulating 111 yards on 16 attempts.

The Blue Devils are now 6-2 against the Towson Tigers and have lost their last six meetings. The 20-10 loss last Thursday was the closest game between the two teams. Central is now 0-1 on the season and will play their first home game against Merrimack on Saturday, September 8 at 12 p.m.

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Blue Devil quarterback Ryan Holmes gets tackled by Tiger defenders. Holmes had 65 rushing yards on nine attempts.

Upcoming Events Here are all of the scheduled Blue Devil home and local games until our next issue on September 12.

Wednesday, September 5

Volleyball vs Holy Cross, 7 p.m.

Saturday, September 8

Football vs Merrimack, 12 p.m.

If you are interested please e-mail us at ccsurecorder@gmail.com.

No prior experience is necessary.

Sunday, September 9

Women’s Soccer at UConn, 1 p.m.

9

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Men’s Soccer Can’t Score Against Hartford Peter Collin

Sports Editor The Blue Devils kicked off their 2007 soccer campaign on a sour note on Saturday, unable to get a goal and falling 2-0 to the University of Hartford Hawks.

The Blue Devils came onto the field with a high level of adrenaline, receiving cheers and support from a larger than normal crowd consisting of members of the CCSU women’s soccer team, the CCSU football team, and the CCSU band. Unfortunately that adrenaline was also accompanied by some sloppy play to start the game.

In the 29 minute of the game the Hawks pressed up the field and played a ball into the box that was deflected by Central keeper Paul Armstrong. As Blue Devil defender Scott Melville attempted to clear the ball up field the ball struck fellow defender David Tyrie and rolled into the net for an own goal putting the Hawks on top 1-0.

Throughout the first half of the game the Hawks managed to keep Central on its toes, easily out shooting them 9-3 in the first half. Hart-

ford provided constant pressure by quickly countering each Blue Devil advance.

“We are what we are right now.

We’re not fast players,” said Blue Devil Coach Shaun Green. “We’re trying to work on our defensive balance. One will pressure the other will drop. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.”

Central had chances early on to put Hartford in a hole but couldn’t capitalize. Shortly after kickoff midfielder Persis Oware crossed the ball into the box where midfielder Nick Allegro connected with a solid shot only to see his shot bounce off of the goal post.

The Blue Devils came out for the second half much more under control, forcing five corners to Hartford’s two. During the half Central played a pace much better suited for them.

This led to numerous opportunities, the best of which was led by Blue Devil junior Yan Klukowski.

Klukowski managed to slip through the Hawks defense creating a oneon-one challenge for Hawks goalie Matt Glaeser. Klukowski fired a shot on net only to see Matt Glaeser make

a diving save.

“The start of the second half we were trying to push for that equalizer,” Klukowski explained, “then we gave up a little more space.”

That extra space was utilized by the Hawks, who out shot the Blue Devils 16-6, to put the game away in the 81 minute of the game.

Hawks forward Andreas Blamo led a quick counter attack against an out-numbered Central defense.

Blamo worked the ball in from the corner beating one Central defender before passing the ball to senior Gary Muir in the center of the box. Muir then turned and fired, beating Armstrong for Hartford’s second goal of the game, sealing the Blue Devils fate.

“It’s going take us a little bit of time to get together as a team,” Coach Green explained. “The second half we came and handled them pretty well but on the game we had to commit forward.”

The Blue Devils will be traveling this week, taking on the Bonnies of St. Bonaventure on Friday, September 7 at the University of Buffalo.

Lloyd Scores First Collegiate Goal in 2-1 Overtime Home Loss Versus Hofstra CCSUBlueDevils.com

Freshman Beth Lloyd registered her first collegiate goal off a feed from sophomore Leah Blayney, accounting for the Blue Devil tally in a 2-1 overtime loss against Hofstra (2-0) in Central Connecticut’s home opener. Caity Casey made five saves for CCSU (0-2).

Blayney, who narrowly missed a goal less than five minutes into the contest, played a cross from beyond the midfield line to Lloyd. Lloyd collected the ball 25 yards from goal on the right wing and beat Pride junior Krystal Robens to the lower left of the net to give Central Connecticut a 1-0 lead with 39:02 left in the half.

A little less than 12 minutes later, Blayney blasted a shot from 20 yards out and hit the crossbar. The rebound was gathered by sophomore Rachel Caneen, but her attempt was

set aside by a diving Robens.

The team’s went to the break with the scoreboard reading 1-0 and CCSU holding a 9-2 advantage on shots.

The Blue Devils had less chances over the second 45 minutes, while Hofstra worked for seven corner kicks. Sophomore Ciara Crinion had the best opportunity for Central, but her free kick from 25 yards sailed high and right. The Pride, meanwhile, notched the equalizer following a Jess Crankshaw corner in the 81st minute.

Crankshaw, a sophomore, sent the corner into the 18 and junior Kariena Richards scored on a half volley off an attempted header clear by the Blue Devil defense.

Neither team could break the tie before the second half clock expired, sending the game into overtime.

Thirty seconds into the first

10-minute session, sophomore Brittany Emin ripped a shot from the left side of the 18, but Robens knocked it down and covered. Two minutes later, Central earned a corner but Robens saved a Caneen header.

On the ensuing kick, senior Brooke DeRosa played a ball through to sophomore Jill Lipari. Lipari got through the Central Connecticut defense and beat Casey to the right side for the game winner with 7:15 showing on the clock.

Central Connecticut finished the game with a 15-10 edge in shots, but Hofstra had an 11-2 advantage on corners. Casey made five saves for the Blue Devils, while Robens stopped seven shots in the win.

The Blue Devils will travel to Holy Cross for its next contest, a 7 p.m. match-up on Friday, Sept. 7.

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Defender Andrew Cooper tries his best to avoid receiving a boot to the head.

Blue Devil Shorts

Women’s Cross Country Opens Season

The Central Connecticut women’s cross country team opened its 2007 season with a third place finish at the 19th Annual Blue Devil Invitational on Saturday morning at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain. The meet was the first of four home meets for the Blue Devils this season including the Northeast Conference Championships which will be hosted by CCSU later this fall. Shauna Lynch paced the Blue Devils with a team-high 12th place finish on the day. Alyssa Cole and Katherine Bossarde also finished in the top-20 for the Blue Devils. CCSU returns to action next Saturday at Dartmouth. (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

Blue Devil in the Women’s World Cup New Zealand named its full squad for the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, announcing a team that included Central Connecticut junior defender Hannah Bromley. Bromley will join the team immediately for final preparations before the games begin on Monday, Sept. 10 in China.

“We are delighted that Hannah has been selected to play at the World Cup,” CCSU head coach Mick D’Arcy said. “The Women’s World Cup is the pinnacle for soccer players. We will miss her while she is away, but I have no doubt that the World Cup experience will help make Hannah a better player.” (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

Men’s Cross Country Sophomore Ry Sanderson captured medalist honors at the 19th Annual Blue Devil Invitational on Saturday morning at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain. As a team the Blue Devils finished second to Holy Cross in the invite, the first of four home meets for Central Connecticut this season.

The Blue Devils posted the first, fourth, sixth and ninth place finishers.

Holy Cross had the second, third, fifth, seventh and eighth place finishers to post the 25 to 31 victory over the Blue Devils.

Sanderson led all finishers with a time of 26:50 on the 5.1 mile course to earn medalist honors. He was followed by teammates David Hunt (4th, 27:13), Luke Albertson (6th, 28:05), Nate Lovitt (9th, 28:38) and Robert Meston (11th, 29:17), all who finished in the top 11 for CCSU. (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

Blue Devil in World University Games

Forward Rachel Caneen (left) fights for positioning in a losing effort against Hofstra.

Conrad Akier / The Recorder

Central Connecticut standout Yan Klukowski scored two times during Great Britain’s opening three contests at the 2007 World University Games in Bangkok, helping lead the squad into quarterfinal round action versus Canada.

Klukowski registered his first goal of the games in Great Britain’s opener, a 1-1 tie versus Mexico on Tuesday, August 7. Trailing 1-0 in the second half, Klukowski’s equalizer forced a shootout to determine who would advance to quarterfinal action if the teams were level on points.

Great Britain won, 5-4, on penalty kicks with Klukowski scoring on the team’s first chance.

“I am happy scoring the two equalizers,” Klukowski said via e-mail.

“The result versus Morocco was great because they brought a core of their 2005 bronze medal team to this year’s games.” (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

A Look at the Upcoming NFL Season Peter Collin

Sports Editor

NFC East

Philadelphia Eagles (11-5)

Fox Sports Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles looks to make an impact this season despite coming off a season-ending injury last year.

Additions: LB Takeo Spikes, Losses: LB Jeremiah Trotter, WR Dante Stallworth, QB Jeff Garcia Outlook: If you want to know how far the Eagles will go this year, you need only to look at how many games Donovan McNabb plays in the season. Over the past two seasons, McNabb has only played in 19 games. Coach Andy Reid will need to let Brian Westbrook shoulder more of the load this year, and the defense will need second-year linebacker Omar Gaither to fill the shoes of the recently released Jeremiah Trotter.

Dallas Cowboys (10-6) Additions: QB Brad Johnson, Coach Wade Phillips Losses: LB Al Singleton, Coach Bill Parcells Outlook: The lasting image of the Cowboys’ season last year will forever be Tony Romo’s head in his hands after a crushing loss to the Seahawks.

The Cowboy’s fate will rest in those same hands again this season. Wade Phillips will be able to prevent a TO meltdown for another year as his hands-off attitude is one that can prevent clubhouse dissension, at least in the short term.

Washington Redskins (6-10)

Getty Images Rex Grossman of last season’s NFC champion Chicago Bears hopes to redeem himself after an embarrassing Super Bowl performance.

Additions: CB Fred Smoot, WR Todd Pinkston, LB London Fletcher Losses: S Adam Archuleta, RB T.J. Duckett Outlook: Last year may have been a positive glimpse into the future for the Skins. Jason Campbell emerged as a capable starting quarterback replacing the oft-injured Mark Brunell, and Ladell Betts surprised with a superb performance for the injured Clinton Portis. The Redskins might actually be building a franchise now rather than buying one, but they may not finish construction until next season.

New York Giants (5-11) Additions: RB Reuben Droughns, WR Steve Smith(R) Losses: RB Tiki Barber, K Jay Feely, T Luke Petitgout Outlook: The off-season has done little to cure what ails the Giants.

With or without the discord created by an irritated Tiki Barber, the Giants seem to be an ugly amalgamation of players who cannot march in step. It doesn’t help that without Tiki, the Giants have to rely on Brandon Jacobs, who seems content to run into defenses rather than lowering his shoulders and running through them.

NFC North

Chicago Bears (12-4)

Giantszone.com The New York Giants will depend on Brandon Jacobs to fill the void left behind after Tiki Barber’s departure last season.

Additions: DT Darwin Walker, S Adam Archuleta Losses: DT Alfonso Boone, DT Tank Johnson (eight-game suspension) Outlook: How could you ask Rex Grossman to be anybody but Rex Grossman during the Super Bowl?

The Bears will still dominate an inferior NFC, especially in a weak division, but if they want to return to the Super Bowl with a shot at winning they need to find somebody who throws the ball to the players wearing the same jersey as he is.

Green Bay Packers (8-8) Additions: WR Jason Jones(R), RB Brandon Jackson(R) Losses: RB Ahman Green, WR Robert Ferguson Outlook: Brett Favre is still there which means two things: 1) they might be able to compete this year, and 2) add one more year to the rebuilding process. It doesn’t help that none of their top choices at running back are healthy going into the season.

Minnesota Vikings (7-9) Additions: RB Adrian Peterson(R), QB Kelly Holcomb Losses: CB Fred Smoot Outlook: The Vikings are starting to get more offensive weapons to go along with their stout defense. Tavaris Jackson has yet to prove himself, but Adrian Peterson should help to shoulder some of the responsibility of that offense.

Detroit Lions (6-10) Additions: RB Tatum Bell, RB T.J. Duckett, WR Calvin Johnson(R) Losses: TE Marcus Pollard Outlook: The Lions went for the big play wide receiver again. Calvin Johnson may have been the best talent on the board, but with Jon Kitna throwing the ball he doesn’t have much hope of using it to win games.

NFC South

New Orleans Saints (11-5) Additions: K Olindo Mare Losses: WR Joe Horn Outlook: No team boasted a better offense last year than the Saints.

They can attack you on the ground, in the air and everywhere in between.

Their defense isn’t a show stopper, but they’re good enough. (The Colts showed last year that defense doesn’t always have to win your title.)

Carolina Panthers (9-7) Additions: QB David Carr Losses: WR Keyshawn Johnson Outlook: As hard as it may be to stop Steve Smith, if you can do it you have a pretty good shot at taking down the Panthers. The defense is still tough, but the Panthers haven’t played up to people’s Super Bowl expectations over the past three seasons. Jake Delhomme may have a little more incentive to step up his game now that Carolina has a capable back-up in David Carr.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-10) Additions: QB Jeff Garcia, T Luke Petitgout Losses: DT Simeon Rice, QB Tim Rattay Outlook: With the Chris Simms experiment seemingly being declared a failure, the Buccaneers seem to be just treading water. That’s a big problem when your head is already submerged.

Atlanta Falcons (3-13) Additions: Coach Bobby Petrino, QB Joey Harrington Losses: QB Michael Vick, QB Matt Schaub Outlook: Could any team have a more snake bitten-off season than the Falcons? First they bring in Bobby Petrino to replace the underachieving Jim Mora. Then they trade Matt Schaub as a vote of confidence to Michael Vick, and, well, we all know what happened after that. Vick’s departure has left a void in Atlanta that

someone like Joey Harrington will not come close to filling.

NFC West

St. Louis Rams (10-6) Additions: NT Adam Carriker(R), DE James Hall Losses: RB Stephen Davis Outlook: The Rams can put the ball in the end zone - that is undeniable.

Marc Bulger always puts up big numbers and Steven Jackson is a threat on the ground and in the air. The question is whether or not they can outscore their defense after ranking in the bottom half in almost every major defensive category.

Seattle Seahawks (8-8) Additions: TE Marcus Pollard, S Deon Grant, S Brian Russell Losses: WR Darrel Jackson, TE Jerramy Stevens Outlook: The Seahawks had a hard time staying healthy last year with both Shawn Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck, but if they can keep them both on the field, the Seahawks will still be able to contend in a rapidly improving NFC West.

RapidCityJournal.com Reggie Bush hopes to guide the New Orleans Saints to their first Super Bowl since their formation in 1967.

San Francisco 49ers (8-8) Additions: WR Darrel Jackson, WR Ashley Lelie, S Michael Lewis Losses: TE Eric Johnson Outlook: The Niner’s are coming along quite nicely. They have the quarterback they need in Alex Smith and the power back in Frank Gore, but for each of those pluses there is a minus. No team allowed more points per game last season than the 49ers, and Alex Smith only has one reliable target in Vernon Davis.

Arizona Cardinals (5-11) Additions: Coach Ken Whisenhunt, CB Roderick Hood Losses: Coach Dennis Green, WR Troy Walters Outlook: The Cardinals are almost there. Matt Leinart has a ton of weapons, but with a suspect offensive line he may still have trouble getting enough time to use all those toys.

If their defense can improve marginally then they might tack on a few extra wins.

Morris.com Matt Leinart has high hopes for the future of the Arizona Cardinals, a team with a dismal recent history.

NFC Predictions East

Philadelphia Eagles Dallas Cowboys* Washington Redskins New York Giants

North Chicago Bears Green Bay Packers Minnesota Vikings Detroit Lions

South New Orleans Saints Carolina Panthers Tampa Bay Buccaneers Atlanta Falcons

West St. Louis Rams Seattle Seahawks* San Francisco 49ers Arizona Cardinals (* denotes Wild Card) NFC Championship: Saints over Eagles

Getty Images Steven Jackson hopes to propel the St. Louis Rams into the playoffs.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

AFC East

question marks that kept them from contending last year.

Additions: WR Randy Moss, WR Donte’ Stallworth, LB Adalius Thomas Losses: LB Tully Banta-Cain, DE Richard Seymour (six weeks), S Rodney Harrison (four weeks) Outlook: The Patriots finally shrugged off the fiscal inhibitions this summer. The windfall has been big play makers like Randy Moss and Dante Stallworth. Now Tom Brady will be throwing to brand names, which makes the Patriots even deadlier. The big question will be if Moss can keep himself in check long enough to make the Patriots a juggernaut.

Pittsburgh Steelers (8-8)

New England Patriots (12-4)

ESPN.com Adalius Thomas of the New England Patriots has dreams of eating ice cream in Disney World in February.

New York Jets (9-7) Additions: RB Thomas Jones, CB Darrelle Revis Losses: RB Kevan Barlow, RB Curtis Martin Outlook: The Jets took a big step forward last year. Chad Pennington managed to stay healthy all year, and first year head coach Eric Mangini worked minor miracles throughout the season. Now, with newly acquired Thomas Jones strengthening the backfield, the Jets should be able to make another playoff run.

Buffalo Bills (7-9) Additions: RB Marshawn Lynch(R) Losses: RB Willis McGahee, LB Takeo Spikes Outlook: J.P. Losman and the Bills are slowly creeping toward contention. The addition of rookie Marshawn Lynch combined with the receiver Lee Evans will give Losman two deadly weapons to work with.

If his defense can improve on taking the ball away a little more Losman might use those extra opportunities to change some loses into wins.

Miami Dolphins (4-12)

ESPN.com Steve McNair aspires to help his Baltimore Ravens on the offensive side of the ball, as the team relies heavily on its defense to win games.

Additions: QB Trent Green, WR Ted Ginn Jr. (R), LB Joey Porter Losses: QB Dante Culpepper, QB Joey Harrington, K Olindo Mare Outlook: Passing over Brady Quinn for a glorified punt returner may end up hurting the Dolphins not only this year but for years to come. Trent Green is far from the answer for quarterback as he had a steep decline after last year’s brutal concussion.

At least new head coach Malcolm “Cam” Cameron will have a reliable defense to lean on while he tries to conjure up some offense.

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens (12-4) Additions: RB Willis McGahee Losses: RB Jamal Lewis, LB Adalius Thomas Outlook: Steve McNair will need to do some work to prove that last season’s playoff performance was more of an aberration than a downward trend. The addition of Willis McGahee will add a new dimension to the offense that they haven’t had since Jamal Lewis was healthy and racking up 2,000 yards a season.

Cincinnati Bengals (9-7)

msnbc.com

Peyton Manning aims to be playing in Arizona come February.

Additions: CB Leon Hall(R) Losses: WR Chris Henry Outlook: The Bengals are another source of regression. From a surprise force at 11-5 in 2005 to a mediocre 8-8 in 2006, the Bengals still have all the tools to become the force in the North, although they still have all the

Additions: Coach Mike Tomlin Losses: LB Joey Porter, Coach Bill Cowher Outlook: The Steelers title defense was short lived. Very short lived.

This year will be different from last year but they will probably end up with the same record during a time when the team will have to adjust to new head coach Mike Tomlin’s way of thinking.

Cleveland Browns (5-11) Additions: QB Brady Quinn(R), RB Jamal Lewis, T Joe Thomas Losses: RB Reuben Droughns Outlook: The future is looking bright for Browns fans. They made the biggest splash in the draft this off-season when they snagged Brady Quinn and Joe Thomas in the first round. They still have a long way to go, but the rebuilding process is underway and so far they have a good foundation to work with.

AFC South

Indianapolis Colts (12-4) Additions: WR Anthony Gonzalez(R) Losses: LB Cato June, CB Nick Harper, RB Dominic Rhodes Outlook: The Colts still have their extremely talented offensive core with the usual suspects: Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Joseph Addai in his second year back, but their already weak defense has been stripped of whatever big pieces they had. Save for Bob Sanders, they lack big playmakers like Nick Harper and Cato June. Those holes will hurt them when they make their title run this year.

Jacksonville Jaguars (9-7) Additions: CB Bruce Thornton Losses: S Donovin Darius, TE Kyle Brady, S Deon Grant Outlook: They’ve got a potent back field in Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew. They have had shut down defense. They even have a couple of up-and-coming receivers in Reggie Williams and Matt Jones.

What they lack is a stable quarterback. With Leftwich released on Saturday, the jury is still out on David Garrard and whether or not he can run the offense successfully.

Tennessee Titans (6-10) Additions: CB Nick Harper, DT Corey Simon Losses: CB Pacman Jones Outlook: Vince Young was a miracle worker last season, and he will have to try to perform the same feats this year to come close to last season’s success. The loss of Travis Henry will make his job harder which will keep him from living up to his Madden cover expectations.

Houston Texans (5-11) Additions: QB Matt Schaub Losses: QB David Carr Outlook: The Texans seem like they are taking baby steps toward contention. Matt Schaub can be an improvement over David Carr, but only if they give Schaub a better pocket to throw from than Carr had.

AFC West

San Diego Chargers (13-3) Additions: Coach Norv Turner

Losses: Coach Marty Schottenheimer Outlook: The Chargers almost had a perfect season and that “almost” has probably haunted them all summer. They will again put one of the best teams on the field, but with Norv Turner calling the shots behind them they may go into next summer disappointed.

Denver Broncos (11-5) Additions: RB Travis Henry, CB Dre’ Bly Losses: QB Jake Plummer, RB Tatum Bell Outlook: Jay Cutler had to learn on the job during a playoff race last year.

The Broncos couldn’t pull it off, but Cutler will be that much better with the experience under his belt. It helps that the Broncos went out and picked up a solid running back in Travis Henry. If they can get their defense together in time for the start of the season, they’ll be a tough match-up.

Yahoo! Images Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans hopes to make his new team matter in the AFC South this year.

Kansas City Chiefs (6-10) Additions: DT Alfonso Boone, Losses: QB Trent Green, WR Dante Hall Outlook: Almost everyone will be looking for a decline in Larry Johnson after a season that saw him carry the ball over 400 times. If Johnson does take a dip, the Chiefs are bound to fall further in the standings.

Oakland Raiders (3-13) Additions: QB Daunte Culpepper, RB Dominic Rhodes Losses: WR Randy Moss Outlook: There was one benefit to a season that saw the Raiders go 2-14: They went into the NFL Draft with the number one overall pick and used it on the perceived franchise player who would bring back the glory days in Raider history. That player was JaMarcus Russell. The problem is that they can’t pay him what he wants.

Hey, at least they have Daunte Culpepper to fill in, right?

AFC Predictions East

New England Patriots New York Jets Buffalo Bills Miami Dolphins

Getty Images Norv Turner will try to translate the talent of the San Diego Chargers into a Super Bowl victory, something his predecessor Marty Schottenheimer failed to do.

North Baltimore Ravens Cincinnati Bengals Pittsburgh Steelers Cleveland Browns

South Indianapolis Colts Jacksonville Jaguars* Tennessee Titans Houston Texans

West San Diego Chargers Denver Broncos* Kansas City Chiefs Oakland Raiders (* denotes Wild Card) AFC Championship: Chargers over Patriots

Super Bowl XLII Chargers over Saints VandyMania.com The Oakland Raiders have high expectations for their future with JaMarcus Russell on their side.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Pick Your Poison

NFL Predictions for Week 1 Each week the following four editors will put their pick prowess on display against fellow CCSU students. Think you can do better? Send us YOUR picks before the start of the games each week and we’ll print the results. A top-10 leader board will be published and the leader at the end of the semester goes off to Christmas break with all the bragging rights and a sports DVD package that includes Kingpin, Bull Durham and Hoosiers.

Send comments or questions regarding this weekly feature to ccsurecorder@gmail.com

New Orleans at Indianapolis Denver at Buffalo

Mark Rowan

Peter Collin

Edward Gaug

Christopher Boulay

Editor-in-Chief

Sports Editor

Entertainment Editor

Managing Editor

Indianapolis

New Orleans

New Orleans

New Orleans

Denver

Denver

Denver

Denver

Washington

Washington

Washington

Miami

Pittsburgh at Cleveland

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Tennessee at Jacksonville

Tennessee

Tennessee

Jacksonville

Jacksonville

Miami at Washington

Kansas City at Houston

Kansas City

Kansas City

Kansas City

Kansas City

Philadelphia at Green Bay

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Green Bay

St. Louis

Carolina

St. Louis

St. Louis

Carolina at St. Louis Atlanta at Minnesota New England at New York Jets

Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota

Atlanta

New York Jets

New England

New England

New York Jets

Tampa Bay at Seattle

Seattle

Seattle

Seattle

Seattle

Detroit at Oakland

Detroit

Detroit

Detroit

Detroit

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

Dallas

Dallas

Dallas

Dallas

Cincinnati

Baltimore

Cincinnati

Baltimore

Chicago at San Diego New York Giants at Dallas Baltimore at Cincinnati Arizona at San Francisco Pick of the Week Why

San Francisco

San Francisco

Arizona

San Francisco

New York Jets def. New England

New Orleans def. Indianapolis

New England def. New York Jets

Jacksonville def. Tennessee

Granted, the Pats dominated the Jets in January when it mattered, but the Jets did take one-of-out-two during the regular season. I’m not basing this W on a 1-3 record, however.

Pennington threw for 300 or more yards in both losses, but in the one win Kevin Barlow (somehow) had a 75-yard performance. Two words: Thomas Jones. P.S.: Picking a 6.5point favorite is only a pick of the week if you’re Chris Berman (or Ed).

The Saints will be raining all over the Colts parade come opening day. Many people will be distracted by the Colts shiny new Vince Lombardi Trophy, but don’t be fooled.

The real show will be what that topranked Saints offense does to a decimated Colts defense, a defense that can’t stop the run. Indy, say hello to Deuce and Reggie.

With the absences of big-play defensive starters Rodney Harrison and Richard Seymour, the Pats can over take the Jets by attacking New York’s secondary with down-field strikes to the newly acquired Randy Moss and Wes Welker. I mean, who can go against Tom Brady, he can impregnate a supermodel and complete a 15-yard cross route at the same time.

I don’t know if Garrard will lead them to the promised land, but he will be much more stable and healthy than Leftwich ever was. Neither team will be spectacular this year, but Vince Young is only one man (a man who is also Madden cursed). Jags in a close one with not many upsets this week.

Racing Rescued in Tennessee Matthew Jurkiewicz

Staff Writer The stock car fans of this nation have been subjected to bad racing at Bristol Motor Speedway for decades now. Before August 25, fans had watched a continuous game of “Follow the Leader” on the lowest groove for 500 laps. No driver was willing to take any risks on the track, lest they be trapped in the high line and taken for a dozen positions.

You cannot even describe oldBristol runs as racing—that would tarnish racing’s good name and skew the aspects which make it great. No, old-Bristol can only be compared to a bar brawl: 43 guys slug it out at random, and the guy who can sneak up and crack you to the back wins. It was not racing.

This fall, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., each starting in the rear, passed their way into to the top 10 in less than 200 laps, all of which were green flag passes. That would have been impossible at old-Bristol. With the new gradual banking, though, racers can actually have a shot from the rear. That’s racing. The cream was able to adjust its line and car and rise to the top.

Then there is the most telling stat of all: green flag passes. In the spring race at Bristol in the COT, there was a total of 991 green flag passes. And in the recent fall race?

2,147 passes, more than DOUBLE the amount. Drivers were flying high and low, racing side-by-side, lap after lap. Other than Watkins Glen, this was arguably the best racing seen this year and easy proof that the COT and the new-Bristol can both put on great shows.

But the new-Bristol naysayers are great in number. They have been subjected to the bad racing there for so long that they have come to love it. It’s a shame that Stockholm syndrome could rear its ugly head in the NASCAR community; the track owners in Bristol come along and finally rescue the nation from the grips of bad racing, and the nation is the one holding on.

Fans all want more crashes, period. It’s sad that this race has proven that most fans’ enjoyment of NASCAR stems from their love of destruction rather than their love of actual racing, but there is no help for it now. The complaint on the lips of every one of these poor victims is that Bristol was boring. How sad is that? They spent so much time and effort looking for crashes that they forgot to watch the race; the passing and charging to the front went completely unnoticed.

But the new-Bristol is such a gem on the NASCAR schedule that it will even provide for those crashloving “race” fans out there. Have no worries, you destruction enthusiasts.

The track is going to be able to provide the close quarter passing that makes racing great and the crashes that draw the masses.

Firstly, the new concrete surface will have aged. The roughness will be worn down and the track will lose some grip. Secondly, it will be run under the spring sun in Tennessee. With the sun heating the track to a blistering temperature, the drivers will have even less traction (i.e. more slipping and sliding).

Thirdly, Goodyear will be bringing a set of tires this spring that will not challenge diamonds for toughness. They were playing it safe this fall when they brought such a hard tire compound, but next year fans and drivers will see a softer tire that shows its wear and loses grip.

Finally, the spring season will not include three races before the playoffs. Without the Chase for the Cup looming over every driver’s head, fans will get to see riskier moves and more determined passing, both of which always spawn more caution.

The days of nothing but bumpand-run are over, and good riddance.

Bristol is now truly “racing the way it ought to be”: two- or three-wide, and fast as all hell. If you want oldBristol back, go to the bumper cars; quality racing has finally made its way to Bristol and we can only pray it’s here for the long haul.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Summer Lovin’ Peter Collin

Sports Editor Well summer is over and it’s time to hit the books again. But you know, it doesn’t mean we can’t look back on our summer of sports without wistful eyes and remember our favorite moments.

When I think of the summer of ’07, many images pop into mind. The foremost might have to be the image of Jose Offerman, a former journey man in the Major Leagues trying to make it back to the big leagues in independent league baseball, raring back and swinging as hard as he could. Not at a fastball thrown by a pitcher, just at the pitcher. Those were good times.

Offerman, playing for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, managed to get a two for one deal out of one swing. His swing managed to break a finger on the pitcher’s non-throwing hand and his back swing took care of the catcher, leaving him with a concussion which could sideline him for the rest of the season. Hey it was a good deal for Offerman, so far it hasn’t cost any prison time, and I think opposing pitchers will think twice about throwing at him again.

Try as he might, Offerman couldn’t top the list of biggest lowlife of the summer. He was out done by two particularly loathsome characters.

Number two on that list was NBA referee Tim Donaghy. Apparently Donaghy felt that too many people still had faith in the NBA despite its mind-numbing playoffs and rumored fixed draft lottery system. Donaghy’s solution? Why not fix games in a fairly blatant manner until the FBI notices and I have to plead guilty to charges that could result in me going to jail for 25 years. Well Tim, your plan worked to perfection.

Unfortunately former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick out shamed the entire field. There are few things that would upset the average guy more than messing with his money, but one of those would have to be killing his dog. Now, Vick didn’t sneak around your house and poison your dog while you slept, but when people heard of the atrocities that occurred under the supervision of his cunningly named company, Bad Newz Kennels, they had a hard time holding down their lunch. A star in his prime goes down for running a dog fighting ring, media pundits couldn’t have written a better story to sell papers.

Though, of all the stories the American media fell in love with this summer, the true love of this summer’s sports world was David Beckham coming to America. Oddly enough I think ESPN spent more money advertising Beckham’s arrival than Paramount spent telling the Prince of Zamunda’s story. Beckham teased us with a quick 17-minute second half debut and tantalized us with a goal and an assist a few games later. But the dream died when Becks sprained his knee in late August, leaving both the Galaxy and the MLS to fend for themselves for the rest of the year.

The story of stories this summer was that of Barry Bonds, the poster boy of a generation of athletes juiced on steroids. Bond’s pursuit to pass the legendary Hank Aaron’s homerun record captured the imagination of the sports world for four months. His triumph came on the night of August 7 in front of his hometown fans in San Francisco. As quickly as the ball left Bonds’s bat, so too did our obsession leave us. Bonds became merely a footnote in the daily box score and much to his chagrin, no longer a headline-stealing machine.

The summer of ’07 will be remembered for many things. In our minds we will pick a defining moment that we feel touched us the most. Almost everyone in the country had some reaction to something in the sports world this summer.

2007 Rugby World Cup Group Stage Forecast Christopher Boulay

Managing Editor It only comes around every four years, but it is one of the most watched sporting events in the world and by far the most watched in 2007. The Rugby World Cup is hosted in France this year with a couple of dates in the United Kingdom. Rugby, an acquired taste in North America, will be coming to you starting September 7 and continuing through October 20. Here is my forecast for the group stage.

Group A

Spring to Victory One issue with rugby is the large drop-off of talent from the top 10 nations to the rest of the world. South Africa is perennially one of the top nations in the world and they will more than prove their worth in this stage. England has not been stellar as of late and it will show when they play the Springboks. They lost badly to France twice, and their World Cup-winning form of 2003 seems to be a distant memory.

They should get their knocks in though, with Samoa and Tonga competing, although they may not be able to make it over the hump.

Sadly, the United States will be cannon fodder in this group, but it will be interesting to see how the Eagles play and if they will be able to pull out a victory.

Picks: South Africa finishes first and England advances with only a loss to the former.

Group B

Oz Advantage The Australians really look like the superior team in the

group, as well they should. The Wallabies will have one tough test, playing Wales in Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. If they can keep their composure in the hostile atmosphere, this group should be a walk in the park for them. Wales was annihilated by England 62-5 a few weeks back and was also beaten handily by the French in late August, but the Dragons should be strong enough to come out of the group.

Fiji will have to take one of the matches against Wales or Australia if they want to finish in the top two, which at this point seems rather unlikely. Japan will have trouble doing anything and Canada should see their only win against the Cherry Blossoms (which is probably the best team nickname ever - good job Japan).

Picks: Australia wins the group and the Welsh eek out second place.

Group C

All Blackout It is unlucky for just about everyone else that the International Rugby Board put New Zealand in quite possibly the easiest group ever. Barring the biggest collapse in the history of sport, the All Blacks will win this group with ease. What will be very interesting is the battle for the second spot. Can Italy advance to the knockout round for the first time ever, or will Scotland show why they are considered one of the premier rugby nations in the world?

Romania will be able to get a win, but the Oaks will not be able to do much more than that, as they are outclassed by every opponent other than lowly Portugal.

Portugal is the “We’re just happy to be here” team. Their first taste of World Cup play will end in five bad losses.

problems, but it may not be enough to advance. Georgia will only beat Namibia, as they are the whipping boys of the group.

Picks: New Zealand in a landslide and the Italians beat Scotland to take second place.

Picks: France will hold off everyone to get first and Ireland will comfortably seal up second.

Group D

The knockout stages will be a treat with France, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and England all having a chance to make a run if things fall into place. Watching this year’s World Cup may be tough for the casual Rugby fan, but if you have DirecTV or Dish Network, you can watch it by purchasing Setanta Sport. For students like me that live on campus, you can buy the Setanta Broadband package on your computer.

The Group of Death One would think that the host would get the cakewalk that New Zealand has for a group, but the French have their hands full. Les Bleus never play well against Argentina, and Ireland will also be a great threat to their chances. But with their recent play (defeating England handily twice 21-15 and 22-9 and destroying Wales 34-7), the French will be confident.

The Irish will be without key player Brian O’Driscoll for the first match against Namibia because of a fractured sinus, but it should pose no problem. Argentina could cause some

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CROTCH SHOTS, NIPPLE SLIPS, CELLULITE LEGS! The Recorder is not looking for the above, but is looking for dedicated photographers to cover local and campus events. Contact us at ccsurecorder@gmail.com and make us forget that Britney picture.

Entertainment

14

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Against Me! New Wave

Personal politics and music have been strange bedfellows for some time now, but it has usually been saved for the mellow types like Bob Dylan, raging activist like the 80’s Dead Kennedys and Rise Against for today’s crowd. Tom Gabel and the guys in Against Me! have gone about it differently, with strong instrumentals and heavy, almost spokenword vocals to create an album that is high in beliefs and unexpectedly catchy.

Gabel’s vocals are far more welcoming at the beginning of New Wave than previous Against Me! albums which show off his signature growl. The standout song of New Wave is, by far, the band’s most unique song and the one furthest away from their standard angst-ridden punk rock sound. This is definitely due to the fact that Gabel has a female counterpart at the mic and her name is Tegan Quin, known mostly for being half of the namesake for the indie-pop band Tegan and Sara. Quin adds a soft feel to the song “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart” that can’t be considered anything less than an unlikely duet that turned out absolutely beautiful.

To say this is the best album reviewed this issue would be a complete understatement - this might be one of the best albums of 2007. If you feel the same passion about the current state of music, then it’s your duty to support one of the few bands doing things right.

- Edward Gaug / Entertainment Editor

Atreyu Lead Sails Paper Anchor

From metalcorethrashers to main stream sell-outs? Unfortunately this is the controversy surrounding the new release from the band out of Orange County, California. Leaving their prominent up-in-arms style of music behind to pursue a genre that has been successful for many years, 80’s hard rock, Atreyu is finding out that it’s quite a challenge to keep the fans that have been with the band since the start back in 2001.

Having just seen Atreyu while attending the Family Values Tour in Hartford this past July, I was very impressed with how far they’ve come in these six short years as a group. The thing that hooked the audience was the persistence they had in mentioning this new material, only playing some songs from it, and filling in the rest of their set with old songs to keep the true fans excited. Just like the show, the CD keeps your jaw-dropped from the first entrance to the last chord. A mixture of old and new styles combined to form the masterpiece that is predicted to be one of the best of the year.

Drum beats that are predictable yet loved; guitar solos that keep you at the edge of your seat and wanting more; and the ever present screamolike voice that would give any other person the chills but make a true fan want to jump around the room. From journeys of acoustic beginnings to verses that were meant specifically for fan interaction, Atreyu certainly has come a long way from their heavy bass fills and chords galore.

- Brian johnston / Staff Writer

As I Lay Dying An Ocean Between Us

Debuting at number eight on the Billboard Top 200 chart in its first week of sales, As I Lay Dying’s An Ocean Between Us has certainly surpassed all expectations fans had leading up to its release on August 21.

As with the rest of their albums, AILD has been the premiere metalcore band to listen to in times of fist pumping and head banging. But with this album, a new direction has been approached by the members to get a more in depth connection with the true followers of the band. The verses are much more intense to keep you enthralled in

the lyrics, and as soon as the chorus hits you can really let loose and sing your heart out.

Although not their most aggressive music, An Ocean Between Us has gotten great reviews for its new mixed energy. This is mainly due to their new bassist, Josh Gilbert, who adds many of the melodic lyrics that accompany the already harsh sounds of Tim Lambesis. Also, As I Lay Dying has brought in Killswitch Engage’s guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz to help produce and continue to push the band into the place that they want to be at.

- Brian johnston / Staff Writer

Talib Kweli Eardrum

Talib Kweli is one of the biggest underground rappers. He doesn’t make club bangers, instead he tries to make socially conscious rap songs.

Although, Kanye West took him under his wing, Talib remains cynically outside the mainstream looking in.

It should be no surprise to the listener that he decides to focus most of Ear Drum making snarky comments about the current state of rap. I guess your state of mind will depend if you enjoy the lyrical content.

Any rap fan should enjoy the production. With production from Madlib, Just Blaze, will.i.am, Pete Rock, Kanye West, HiTek and Justin Timberlake, it’s an all-star effort. Guest wise he has UGK, will.i.am, Jean Grae, Kanye West, Norah Jones, Lyfe Jennings, Krs-One, Musiq, Strong Arm Steady and Justin Timberlake. All of these guests are very mainstream, almost as if Talib wants to be mainstream but feels he has to carry the torch for “underground hip hop” since Mos Def is no where to be found now.

Either way, Talib still has a great flow and a great voice. His lyrics use great similes. If only he could figure out exactly what he wants to be, he might be able to make the masterpiece he is capable of.

- Adam Morgan / Staff Writer

Through their continued exploration into “Nintendocore,” HORSE the Band delivers a thoroughly enjoyable, if also slightly mediocre experience in their latest full-length album, A Natural Death.

This “concept album” is a great musical experience for any fans of the previous HTB releases. Living up to their immensely creative reputation, HTB goes through a mixture of almost a dozen genres throughout the entirety of the album. From heavy metal guitar sequences, to the 8-bit keyboard solos, to the experimental western and the exceptional disco track (aptly titled “Sex Raptor”); HTB keeps up with the quality expectations set by their previous album, The Mechanical Hand.

The instrumental work on A Natural Death has taken a major step forward compared to the band’s previous work. Technically, the shredding and drum work on this album are almost unprecedented. Flawless transitions between time signatures and a tremendous variety of said times, make the album much unexpected while still extremely gratifying.

The talent of the drummer was tremendously upgraded with the addition of Chris Prophet.

In the arena of attracting new fans, or expanding their niche in the American public, HORSE the Band came up short on this one. But

HORSE The Band A Natural Death

there’s a sense of dependability and integrity within that achievement, or lack thereof. HTB is not pretentious or egotistical enough to change their sound to suit the public at large.

They make a point of not taking themselves too seriously and staying true to their own musical consciences.

- Matthew jurkiewicz / Staff Writer Being thrown back into the swing of school, you’re probably multitasking right now and contemplating whether you have enough money in your checking account to cover your textbooks. Stop for a second, and take a trip down ol’ memory lane.

Remember elementary school music class?

Think of all the useless instruments you were introduced to... the recorder and it’s “tah tah tee tee tah’s” or the cow bell, because there is always a need for more cow bell.

Visualize a band that has gathered all of the childhood instruments of the past and converted such into the greatest musical experience indie rock has seen in years, what with all the typical cliche bands swarming the hive for the same drop of honey.

Their latest release, Places Like This takes on a completely different tone than their two previous outings, partly due to the fact that two of it’s original band members are absent.

With a quick run through, it seems to lean more towards eighties whacky pop; take a hint of Devo’s “Whip It,” a dash of the B-52’s “Love Shack” and “Rock Lobster,” and combine with Fear Factory’s “Cars.” While many critics are derailing Architecture for this similarity, I don’t see anything wrong with it, seeing as many of those old songs are cult favorites.

One of the standout tracks is one of their most successful singles from the album thus far, “Heart It Races.” It has an alluring Caribbean beat that begins with eclectic drum beats, and it’s ever so catchy “boom danananana boom dah nanana’s” and Sutherland yelling “Heart it race some more!”

Yes, a certain amount of delicacy from previous Architecture is a little lost in Places Like This, but in its place there is a battery of rhythm like no other, driven by simple disco drums, syncopated guitar fills, and hey, some cow bell-esque percussion instruments! Their complexity is a force to be reckoned with.

Architecture in Helsinki Places Like This

designated scene. Be forewarned, the names of the songs do contain plot spoilers.

As our characters grow older, the plots become thicker and more complex. As the plots are becoming thicker and more complex, the music does as well. The music on this specific album not only reflects the mood of the story, but rather creates it. Though it does not reveal any real amount of complexity, the straightforwardness further allows the listener to not only understand, but identify with what the characters are feeling. It brings together sounds that are mystical and magical, as well as dark and evil, and creates an atmosphere that is not only pleasing to the ear but to the mind.

- Jessica Hart / Staff Writer For the past few years, I have wondered what a screen play would be like if it was written by a song-writer/musician. I now know exactly what it sounds like, and its Tim Kasher’s soothing mid-west folksy twang backed by his side project The Good Life. Step one is the album, step two is the screenplay which is coming soon.

While Kasher is more popular for his main band Cursive, the elder soul of Omaha’s indie scene will release his forth album with The Good Life on September 11, and it follows the same arithmetic most of his recent albums have. Tell an amazingly interesting story and infuse it into electrified folk-country band with a distinctive, stand apart vocal.

Help Wanted Nights comes after The Good Life’s extremely successful 2004 release Album of the Year, which has made it’s way into my personal Top 5 Albums ever.

With high expectations, Kasher and crew haven’t failed to impress and surprise me.

With tracks like “One the Picket Fence” and “Heartbroke,” Kasher and Ryan Fox finger pick and strum their way through the infectious songs that will find their way to a lot of people’s memory just like Album of the Year did.

Usually this is the spot where I call attention to a certain group of people who should listen this album, but this album is good and it doesn’t fit easily into a genre so I invite everyone reading this to go listen.

The Good Life Help Wanted Nights

- Edward Gaug / Entertainment Editor

- Karyn danforth / Staff Writer

When little known composer Nicholas Hooper was asked to collaborate with even lesser-known director David Yates, expectations for the newest collection of musical scores for the latest Harry Potter flick were not high. Following such composers as John Williams (known for writing the soundtracks to Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Arc) and Patrick Doyle (for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the more recent Eragon) was not an easy feat, and yet Hooper has risen to the challenge and prevailed.

Harry Potter has returned, and with him, of course, a new collection of orchestrations.

Having had two of the other four Potter albums nominated for Oscars, this soundtrack remains consistently as great, if not better, than its counterparts. Hooper has created a group of magical pieces that only get better as the soundtrack plays on. Playing in chronological order, each piece sets the mood for its

Nicholas Hooper Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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If you have any questions or comments concerning The Recorder, please feel free to send a letter to the Editor at ccsurecorder@gmail.com Letters must include a name and should not be much longer than 200 words. The Recorder reserves the right to edit letters.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Bronx is Burning a Home Run

Christopher Boulay

Managing Editor ESPN Original Entertainment has given the sporting audience some duds as of late that have taken away from real sports and real information, but their first attempt at a mini-series has been a huge success. The eightepisode series ended with the finale on August 29 and it drew in the casual baseball fan, as well as the die-hard Yankees fan, ensuring something for everyone.

The storyline was extremely accurate, only adding in a few extra events from other MLB seasons for comedic or dramatic effect. The show centered on the rollercoaster relationship between the three biggest egos in baseball: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, manager Billy Martin and right fielder Reggie Jackson.

The show accurately portrayed the drama in the clubhouse that was put forth by the book of the same name, which the mini-series is based off of.

Award-winning actor John Turturro played Manager Billy Martin, while Daniel Sunjata played Jackson and Steinbrenner is played by Oliver Platt of West Wing fame.

The casting in the show was dead accurate. From the aforementioned three to Thurman Munson, Lou Pinella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Riv-

ers and many others; the look-alike actors were dead-on. It really gives the viewer a very vivid idea of what the clubhouse was like.

The show also had side plots that painted a very real picture of what was occurring in New York City in the summer of 1977, including the Son of Sam murders, the mayoral race and the Blackout. Much of the show had footage of all the events previously listed and even superimposed the actors in some scenes to keep with the grainy late-70s quality picture.

The show also had interesting interviews during a segment after a couple of the episodes called “Backstory.” This, along with other interviews on www.bronxisburning.com

should be on the DVD and are appealing complement to the show. Hall of famer George Brett, Billy Martin’s son, and many Yankee players and New York reporters are interviewed.

The only problem I had with the show was the amount of commercials and the frequency of the same commercials. The show was so good that commercials weren’t long enough for bathroom breaks or to grab a snack; they were times to sit there and be impatient for the show to continue following the same MasterCard commercial that you knew by heart after about two episodes. Though it is not the show’s fault, ESPN could have done a much better job of at least mixing it up and making it easier for viewers to get through the commercials.

As a Red Sox fan, I may not like the Yankees, but I could not stop from being drawn in to the great story that was the 1977 Yankees. This is a must for any baseball fan, regardless of allegiance. You can watch the episodes online on ABC On Demand or wait until it comes out on DVD on September 25. Episodes will also be shown at various times on ESPN, but in order to feel the full effect of the show, it should be watched in order from the first to last episodes.

The High School Musical Craze Gabrielle Byko

Staff Writer You may love it, hate it or have no clue what it is, but there’s no doubt about it, the craze over High School Musical is back and stronger than ever. The enormously popular Disney Channel made-for-TV movie has returned with its second installment, appropriately titled High School Musical 2.

High School Musical, which first premiered in January of 2006 on the Disney Channel, was an instant surprise hit. The first movie follows budding love birds, basketball jock Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), and new student Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) on their quest to overcome their insecurities and their rivals, Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel), to land the lead roles in their high school’s musical. The second movie follows the original cast as they begin their summer vacation.

The popularity of the first movie, however, was no fluke, and now the second installment seems to be following in its footsteps - maybe even outshining it. High School Musical 2 drew in a record 17.2 million viewers in its premiere night, making it the “most watched basic cable show

program” ever, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The popularity of the High School Musical films goes far beyond the movies. High School Musical has transformed itself into a brand, where everything it touches turns to gold.

The High School Musical book series has sold over five million copies, with plans to release more, as well as a video game. The soundtrack to the original film sold 3.7 million copies in 2006, making it the top selling album of the year. High School Musical 2’s soundtrack is currently #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart and if sales continue to hold steady, it has the potential to top this year in album sales as well.

Last summer included the High School Musical concert tour, which had most of the original actors from the first movie. In addition, many

schools and Disney Theatrical Productions across the country have made a stage version of the movie.

The stage version makes a stop at the Bushnell in Hartford in October. The future plans for High School Musical include a touring ice show, a third movie installment and even a feature film to be released at movie theatres nationwide.

The HSM movies get their popularity not from confronting controversial teen issues, or from its superior acting, but for being lighthearted, fun and interactive, getting the audience involved with its catchy sing-a-longs and dance numbers. High School Musical and its sequels will most likely never make the “American Film Institutes 100 Greatest Films” list, but they are still enjoyable and should be appreciated for their ability to captivate and entertain their audiences.

Rental Essentials: The Gumball Rally Brian Morache

Staff Writer There have been many movies based upon this illegal coast-tocoast car race which is now held in Europe, but the first of these, The Gumball Rally, is considered by most to be both the best and the least well-known. While the Cannonball Run films had Burt Reynolds to carry them (and indeed, he had quite a bit of carrying to do in those movies), what carries The Gumball Rally are the exotic cars and the fantasy that so many of us have of racing the best-of-the-best across the country.

With one word, “Gumball,” the race is on, from New York City to the Queen Mary in Los Angeles, California. The first rule of the race is simple: There are no rules. The first car to reach the Queen Mary in Los Angeles is the unofficial winner, since this is an unofficial race.

The actors in this film take second place to the cars, and if you like classic cars, you will love this movie. The raw, macho power of the V8 Shelby Cobra; the smooth, sexy symphony of the V12 Ferrari Daytona; the rumble of the Chevrolet Camaro; and the singing of the Porsche 911 all set the tone for a great cross-country racing flick.

Raul Julia plays Franco, an Italian formula one driver imported to drive the Ferrari to victory. The only thing he loves more than racing is the litany of beautifully bux-

om women he romances along the way. At the start of the race, Franco gives his friend a lesson in driving.

Pulling off the rearview mirror and throwing it over his shoulder, he says, “The first rule of Italian driving; what’s-a behind me is of no concern!” As the cars race through the quiet streets of NYC at six in the morning, two cops walking their beat see the Cobra and Ferrari speed by and one says to the other, “It’s going to be a hell of a day.”

While filmed in 1976, the movie captures the real sounds of a cross country race; the director understood that the actors were not going to steal the show in this film, but rather complement the action and the exotic cars. This is the most glaring difference between this film and similar films, like Cannonball Run, that followed it.

The actors, such as Gary Busey as a Southern car nut who races in a yellow Camaro with a daredevil stunt driver named “Mr. Guts,” or a pair of Los Angeles cops who disguise their cars to look like police cruisers across the country, only add to the films entertainment. Perhaps the most humorous character is a masochistic Frenchman who is running the race on a motorcycle.

If you enjoy films with fast cars, beautiful women and illegal racing, then this movie is a definite must see. It’s the first and the best of this kind of film; all the others that followed are still eating the dust of The Gumball Rally.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007 = recommended

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 5

Live-in Maid Real Art Ways

FILM

9/5 - 9/8

Sicko

Cinestudio / 7:30 p.m.

This may not tilt next year’s elections one way or the other, but Michael Moore’s devastating and hilarious documentary will make it harder to ignore the disasters of our health care system. Returning to the gentler populist humor of Roger & Me, Moore interviews patients and doctors in France and Canada (happy), doctors in the United States (less happy) and American patients (very much less happy).

9/5 and 9/9

Memoirs of a Geisha Vance Lawn / 8 p.m.

Arthur Golden’s blockbuster bestseller, Memoirs of a Geisha, has been brilliantly brought to the big screen by Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall. The film opens in a remote Japanese fishing village in 1929, where two sisters, Chiyo and Satsu, are sold by their troubled father to people who place Chiyo in a classy geisha house known as an okiya in Gion and Satsu in a much more vulgar and dangerous district.

9/6

The Darwin Awards

Real Art Ways / 7:30 p.m.

The annual Darwin Awards was established to honor those people who were so clueless that they actually killed themselves through stupidity on a grand scale, thus proving Darwin’s thesis of survival of the fittest, eliminating the inappropriate genes in the pool. In a series of comic vignettes, the Darwin Awardees fall, careen, crash, slip, speed and run to oblivion.

Flandres: Real Art Ways / 5:30 p.m.

9/7

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Torpe Theatre / 8 p.m.

This new satirical film starring the wonderful Norma Aleandro (Autumn Sun, The Official Story) has a hermetic plot that centers around a wealthy apartment-bound woman Beba (Aleandro) and her live-in maid Dora (the non-professional Norma Argentina). The once socially active Beba is now an alcoholic divorcée reduced by the perilous economy to selling off her jewelry and selling cosmetics door-to-door.

Now until 10/21

“For the Love of the Game, Race and Sport in America”

Wadsworth Atheneum / 10 a.m. - 5 p.m “For the Love of the Game” juxtaposes The Amistad Center’s collection with the work of more than twenty artists who have addressed sport as medium and metaphor. The joy of athletic endeavors and their mass appeal as spectacles is acknowledged along with the turbulent and emotional elements of race, class and identity. Stop for some brief gallery talk with exhibition curator Franklin Sirmans on September 21 at 12 p.m.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 12 MUSIC 9/13

9/9

The Grapes of Wrath

Cinestudio / 2:30 p.m.

The greatest director of the American Western, John Ford, turned John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book into an elegy for the descendants of the original settlers, forced off their small farms by drought, banks and the birth of agri-business. Henry Ford stars as Tom Joad, a restless saloon brawler who becomes a union organizer on the run, after witnessing his family’s forced migration to California.

9/9 - 9/11

Paris JE T’AiME

Cinestudio / 7:30 p.m.

Eighteen international filmmakers take on the task of paying tribute to the romance and cinema of Paris. Here’s just a sample of the eight-minute films, each set in a different neighborhood: an immigrant woman (Catalina Sandino Moreno) leaves her own child in a housing project to work as a nanny in the snooty 16th arrondissement; two Americans (Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara) dissect the end of their marriage in a little café in the Latin Quarter. And don’t miss Joel and Ethan Coen’s contribution, with Steve Buscemi as a clueless American tourist, who - without uttering a word - gets himself into trouble on the Métro.

The Starting Line

Toad’s Place / 6 p.m / $18 / all ages After this summer’s release of the band’s second major label album Direction, the Starting Line hits the road with various artists in the pop-punk genre. While surprisingly there isn’t a single band on either the Drive-Thru or Fueled By Ramen record label, any one who has made themselves familiar with the Starting Line over the last five years gets the idea.

Opening: Four Year Strong 9/15

Greg Wood

Webster Underground / 6 p.m. / $10 Over a dozen years of musical endeavors (West Beverly and Punchline to name a couple) have featured Greg Wood on bass, guitar, drums and vocals. Through it all, one thing never changed. Every incarnation of creative energy thrived on the idea that anything is possible, and the power to create oneself and one’s life into whatever he or she desires is not only possible, but quite possibly the most honorable pursuit. Greg is now returning his creative focus to the solo project which bears his name. His album Vibrating Glass was released in June this year for digital download.

Opening: Light’s Resolve

FILM

9/16 - 9/18

ART

Paprika

9/8

Cinestudio / 7:30 p.m.

Open House

After the action of the second Pirates film Dead Man’s Chest, anti-hero Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is trapped in the netherworld of Davy Jones’s locker. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) has returned from the dead to aid Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) in their quest to rescue the beloved captain.

9/7 - 9/13

No End in Sight

Real Art Ways As an expert on information technology, a visiting scholar at M.I.T. and UC-Berkeley and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution, Charles Ferguson isn’t your ordinary filmmaker. With the sure assistance of editors Chad Beck and Cindy Lee, Ferguson molds a daunting roster of talking heads into this cogent film. No End in Sight calmly lays out the errors and misjudgments that have plagued the Bush Administration’s approach to Iraq.

Wadsworth Antheneum / 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Free admission, tours and programming all day long! Come help celebrate Open House Hartford with a free fun-filled day at the Wadsworth Atheneum with: Walking tours of the art outside our doors, sidewalk chalk art, a drop-in sketching class, two musical performances including a group of students from the Hartt School Community Division and street performer Leon Wilson.

9/11

“An Evening of Literary and Patriotic Dissent”

Real Art Ways / 7:30 p.m. / $5 Journalist, commentator, fiction writer and Real Art Ways’ favorite Steve Almond, novelist Ellen Litman and Hartford Advocate editor Alistair Highet will offer their reflections on life six years after 9/11, looking at patriotism, partisan politics and how our national identity has evolved. There will be time after the readings for conversation and connecting; audience members are encouraged to share their thoughts or brief prepared statements.

Let’s face it - Japan is still light years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to making imaginative and cutting edge comic books, video games and animated movies that appeal to grownups. Take Satoshi Kon’s new R-rated anime, with a plot that Alfred Hitchcock could love: a mousy-psychiatrist-by-day treats her patients by entering their dreams as a sexy and powerful avatar named Paprika. When the dream-entering machine is stolen, Paprika looks for clues by entering the absurd, funny and sometimes terrifying nightmares of the people in her clinic.

COMEDY 9/12

‘Balloon Freak’ John Cassidy

Alumni Hall / 8 p.m.

John Cassidy is an eccentric comedian whose

bizarre antics have earned him widespread acclaim as one of the most original and unique performers today. He has made numerous television appearances appearing on such shows as Live with Regis and Kelly, NBC’s Today Show and Martha Stewart Living.

9/15

Lisa Lampanelli

Stamford Center For The Arts 7 p.m. / $32.75 Lisa Lampanelli is Comedy’s Lovable Queen of Mean. Able to get away with saying anything, according to NY Friars Club Dean Freddie Roman, Lampanelli conquered the club scenes in both New York City and Los Angeles in a few short years. A cross between Don Rickles, Archie Bunker and a vial of estrogen, she even won accolades from The King of All Media, Howard Stern.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 19 MUSIC 9/19

Mandy Moore and Paula Cole

Webster Theater / 7 p.m. / $25 / all ages Mandy Moore’s 2007 release Wild Hope has been giving critics, well, wild hope, garnering comparisons to Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple and Sarah McLachlan. The reception of Wild Hope, as well as her acting career, may give fans exactly what they needed to purge out of the thoughts of her earlier work.

9/20

Rob Paine

Real Art Ways / 6 p.m.

Effortlessly mixing reggae, dub, house and downtempo electronica, Philadelphia native Rob Paine’s sound is deeply spiritual and undeniably progressive. Rob’s reggae and dub work carries on a Jamaican sonic tradition whose influence carries over into his soulful house productions, definitely not the typical electronic thumping of techno or trance. As a producer and remixer, Rob Paine has worked alongside such artists such as King Britt, Josh Wink, Jazzy Jeff, ?uestlove and The Roots, Jill Scott, Lady Alma and many others.

9/22

Atmosphere

Toad’s Place / 5 p.m. / $20 / all ages

After a year off the road, Atmosphere will perform 27 shows in support of Sad Clown Bad Fall Number 10 (limited tour series EP) with fellow Rhymesayers label mates Grayskul and Mac Lethal, and special guest Luckyiam of Living Legends. Bringing over four hours of music with four independent hip-hop artists, “Everybody Loves A Clown” tour is sure to be fun for the whole family! Look for the new Atmosphere album next spring.

Opening: Mac Lethal and Grayskul Did we miss something? Know of an event we should list here? Contact us at ccsurecorder@ gmail.com.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

17

Lifestyles

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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

C’est Magnifique The College Feast Jennifer L. Gonzalez

Staff Writer Most people don’t remember where their prom took place. Then again, most people didn’t drive by the Eiffel Tower on their way to it.

Thanks to attending high school in Paris, France, I won’t soon forget my prom night and, for that matter, much else in those four years of international education and exploration. From England to Egypt, I quickly learned Japanese culture while wearing satin slippers, I played competitive sports against other international schools and I challenged myself with an intense curriculum. While facing these fears and challenges were originally a scary thought, living abroad prepared me for the outside world and expanded my mind to new cultures.

Located just outside the attractive, breath-taking “City of Lights,” the school surprisingly carried many similarities found in typical American schools, although it also held some unique characteristics found only in a school that caters to a melting pot of international students.

The idea of a new school can be stressful, but this was a new school and a new country for me. I couldn’t imagine what to expect. Little did I know the American School of Paris (ASP) carried opportunities and friendships that I now cherish forever.

Everything about the school was different from others I’ve attended. There were approximately 840 students attending classes from kindergarten to 12th grade. My graduating class had only 87 students. As in many international schools there was also a grade 13th for students needing credits for their International Baccalaureate degrees.

The first few weeks I found the curriculum to be intense and detail oriented, but as the year progressed I began to welcome the challenges and enjoyed every minute of it.

Sports there were more than just a game. We played other international schools and traveled to fascinating places. When the visiting team came to Paris they stayed at our homes, and our teams did the same when we traveled to their schools.

Places like Belgium, Austria, England and Egypt were only some destinations we traveled to. It was more than just traveling to a different location to play a competitive sport; we were seeing new parts of the world, meeting different people from all walks of life and observing other cultures outside our own bubble.

My first traveling experience with the sports teams was a trip to Germany. Our team was paired up and I was the odd man out, which meant I would be staying at someone’s house alone. At first I was nervous about the whole situation, but when I met the girl whose house I would be staying at, I knew it was going to work out. The family was Japanese and I had my first real encounter with their culture. Immediately after stepping into the house, I was greeted by the family and suddenly slipping on satin slippers to walk around the house in. I took part in many Japanese customs and mannerisms in just one night.

Prom was a completely different event from what it is in America. The location for prom was on the Champs d’Elysees, and our limousine passed by the Eiffel Tower for photo opportunities. Last, but not least, there is not a true drinking age in Europe, therefore, we had wine and champagne served to us at each table. The students handled the drinking very wisely and didn’t get out of control since it wasn’t taboo.

I felt more like an adult overseas than I do in America. My friends and I learned a new language to get around the city, rode trains on our own, visited museums all the time, went to cafés and brasseries and planned events at school with only minor input from teachers.

We were treated with respect by our teachers and not talked down to, giving us the ability to discuss matters as if we were adults ourselves.

A big tradition ASP had among the students was to go to Champs de Mars (Field of March) after the first week of school. It is located right by the Eiffel Tower on the fields of grass. Students new and old were able to attend and had the opportunity to meet each other and hang out. Besides being open to meet new people, the international students didn’t create ‘cliques’ as we do in the States. While there were groups of friends, the groups were not categorized by any stereotype. The students were open-minded and welcomed new things and new people. The first day of school you already had comfortable friends.

I could write on and on about my adventures living overseas, but I will save the rest for another day.

Going to an international school really set my standards. It prepared me for the outside world and expanded my mind to new cultures. If you are ever faced with the chance to live in a different country, I suggest taking the opportunity and exploring a new world.

BON VOYAGE!

Stephanie Bergeron

Lifestyles Editor Back to school and living on a college budget? Whether you are living on campus or off, it doesn’t leave much room to eat real food. Although our accidental, annual meetings at BJ’s and Costco, each of us buying as many Ramen Noodles as we can for $20, make us laugh, we are all thinking the same thing: not again.

Ramen Noodles will be our food for the upcoming months; breakfast, lunch and dinner. But, why should this years noodles taste the same as last years?

Spice up this year’s Ramen Noodles with some hip new recipes you can find on www.budget101.com/ramen_noodle_recipes.htm. Not only are these recipes tasty, but they are cheap and easy to make without mom’s help.

Here is one to get you started.

It’s called “Chinese Style Ramen with Veggies;” only four easy steps and you have yourself a meal.

Ingredients:

1 Package of oriental Ramen Noodles

2 Cups of water

1 Tablespoon of soy sauce (La Choy with low sodium is the best)

1 Cup of mixed veggies (fresh, frozen or canned) What to Do:

Step 1: Cook noodles according to package directions and then drain.

Step 2: Add seasoning package.

Step 3: Cook veggies just about any way you like or can, and then add to noodles.

Step 4: Add soy sauce.

How well do you know your Ramen?

Below are a few questions to test your knowledge of how well you know your noodles. If take the quiz while you’re cooking, it’ll make the time go by faster when you are working with a hungry stomach. Answers are on the back page.

Question 1: How many noodles are in each package?

Question 2: How much instant Ramen is exported from Japan every year?

Question 3: How many countries are they exported to?

Question 4: How much instant Ramen is eaten around the world?

For more facts please visit www.instantramen.or.jp.

Banish Your Belly Jessica Carraro

Staff Writer Looking for ways to send fat to the furnace? If you currently exercise, eat healthy and are still having trouble losing extra flab, look no further.

You have probably heard of the “no eating before bed” rule. It may be a very hard habit to break, but it can actually help you burn fat. BeachBody explains how this happens in their nutrition guide. When your body gets hungry, it searches for carbohydrates to burn. If you have not eaten in the past threefour hours, the body will instead burn stored fat. Another reason this rule is important is because having food in your system can interfere with the growth hormone spike that usually occurs during sleep. This spike helps to metabolize fat.

It is also important to mind what you eat before you work out. If you consume things such as carbohydrate-rich energy bars, this can cause your insulin levels to rise and your body to burn those carbohydrates instead of

stored fat.

When exercising, a great way to burn fat is to do interval training: varying between higher and lower intensity in the same workout. This kind of training results in the release of hormones to better metabolize fat. According to Ediets.com, bouts of exercise, such as sprints, are nine times more effective than aerobic activity for reduction of fat.

If you choose to do weights and cardio in the same session, begin with weights in order to trigger hormones that help burn fat; reversing the order will not have the same effect.

Another benefit of this order is that you will not be too tired from your cardio workout to focus on proper technique during your weight training.

Putting in a little extra time at the gym can also pay off. Research shows that it takes at least 30 minutes of continuous aerobic activity for your body to start burning fat.

The best way to lose weight is the old fashioned way - a healthy diet and exercise. If you are going to commit yourself to a diet and exercise routine, you might as well make the

19

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Green Jeans

Advice to my baby sister (and the rest of you freshmen.)

Stephanie Bergeron

Chris DeMorro

Lifestyles Editor The world has had many trends, but none quite as important as “going green.�

Everyday we hear of products being recalled due to harmful ingredients contained within the walls of a can that may look completely normal from the outside. With a trendier look at keeping the environment and everyday consumer goods chemical-free, manufacturing companies are taking different initiatives.

UJeans is a multi-billion dollar jean company specializing in made-to-measure jeans that are designed by the customer. Not only are they unique in this sense, but they are committed to being an environmentally-friendly company. “We already know the negative impact we can have on the environment. A prime example is the long-term usage of burning fossil fuels.

It’s only logical to assume that we can just as easily pollute our bodies with the clothes we wear,� said Daniel Feuer, UJeans President.

Many of steps UJeans is taking to help the environment include using cotton from the Pakistan Sustainable Cotton Initiative.

According to UJeans.com, “Cotton is third in its consumption of available freshwater resources.�

By using cotton from the PSCI, they are doing their part to help the degradation of freshwater sources.

UJeans uses only natural enzymes and minerals in their dying processes. This leaves the coloring process free of chemicals like chlorine bleach, azo and formaldehyde, which can be harmful to our skin if we are exposed to them for a prolonged period of time.

They even take into account the other companies that they do business with. UJeans is committed to “being socially responsible and will only deal with companies that treat people ethically and with respect.�

To take it one step further, UJeans developed an eco-friendly way to ship jeans to their customers. “The UJeans denim bag is what we use to mail out our jeans to our customers. Made from reclaimed denim, this bag is more than sturdy enough to withstand punishment of the postal and courier industry,� states UJeans.com.

They believe that the bag “will not be thrown out.� Having received notices from their customers, the bags have been used as things from purses and make-up bags, to even a sleeping bag for stuffed animals.

UJeans is one of the few “green� jeans

Staff Writer New England is once again welcoming another fall season, ushering in leafy sidewalks, country fairs and of course a new incoming class of the college-bound. Amongst these is my baby sister, who has followed my footsteps to CCSU and will continue to be a pain in my ass until I graduate, whenever the hell that is. With that in mind, I would like to offer her and all freshmen some advice when adapting to college life, especially living on campus.

You cannot survive solely on beer.

It’s not about what you know, but who you know.

Don’t smoke weed in your dorm room.

If you can’t pronounce your professors last name, and they can’t pronounce your first name, look for a new class.

Ratemyprofessor.com. Bookmark it.

Make friends with someone who has a car on campus. Alternatively, if you have a car on campus, be wary of anyone trying to befriend you.

Join a club. Go to sporting events. Party your ass off. Participate, participate and participate.

Buy condoms. And here is the important part: USE THEM. This goes for the ladies as well.

Be nice to your roommate. Alternatively, set them up and get them kicked out the first week.

After all, who doesn’t want a single? being represented in this years POOL Trade Show. POOL has a reputation for launching upand-coming brands that eventually become a popular standard and trend for retailers around the world.

Mindy Wiener, Director of Operations for POOL and creator of s(eco)nd, introduced the thought that “it only takes a s(eco)nd to change the world.�

She believes that “s(eco)nd will allow us to take a second look at how we do business and will encourage our audience to rethink their most basic day-to-day habits.�

It is obvious that UJeans has already taken a second look at how they run their business and has brought the community of manufacturing companies one step closer to “going green.�

If this way of manufacturing becomes a standard trend for retailers around the world, it can only do our environment good. After all, what better trend to follow then one that benefits our surroundings and standards of living. “Being conscientious about our impact when creating the perfect pair of jeans,� said UJeans’ website, “we do our part making the environment a better place.�

Pranks make the best memories. Come up with something original, but pay homage to the classics as well.

You cannot survive solely on the dining hall. I’d take my chances with beer first.

Pace yourself. Better to have a semester with four Bs than four Bs and a F. Have an open mind. You’ll meet some really interesting people.

Professors are people too. Some of them even have personalities.

Make a friend that is good with computers.

Twenty-one isn’t so far away anymore. Keep that in mind.

Never accept a drink from anyone. Keep an eye on your beer. Travel in groups.

Just because your professor said it, doesn’t mean it’s true. There are some loonies out there.

Think for yourself.

Never pass out with your shoes on.

Find a major you like. This is a job you’re going to be stuck with your whole life; make sure you don’t hate it by the time you finally get that degree.

Peer pressure is the absolute worst reason to do anything. Again, think for yourself. You may not have fit in at high school, but college is a whole different story.

In closing, I offer all the incoming freshmen one last thought. Make the most of this opportunity. College is what you make it. Make it more than a memory. Make college an experience.

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20

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Stephanie Bergeron

Lifestyles Editor I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air. -Nathaniel Hawthorne September is upon us, and a new semester has begun. Many of us are returning to familiar faces and landscapes, while others are experiencing something completely new. No matter where you fall, the stress of school makes it easy to forget how beautiful autumn is and how comforting it can be.

With that in mind, the cool, fresh air of fall is exactly what you need to get rid of the dust leftover from the summer months, when classrooms and dorms were left untouched. You’ll need your own sanctuary - someplace you can go to study, take your mind off things or get away from a roommate you are not very fond of.

Sure there are the benches on campus and the park across the street, but why not take a short drive and go walk somewhere you may not think to turn to?

There are trees of every kind here and beautiful architecture, some of which are hundreds of years old.

There are trees If you lay on its of every kind soft grass, looking up through here and beautiful the branches at architecture, the sun, you can hear the trees some of which speaking to each are hundreds of other through the of the fall years old. whisper winds. The colors are enchanting as they paint the 270 acres with deep reds and vibrant oranges.

If it seems all too quiet, it’s within reason.

After all, it is a cemetery.

Cedar Hill Cemetery, located on Fairfield Avenue in Hartford, is not just any old cemetery. Jacob Weidenmann, landscape designer and first superintendent, planned around the concept of “open lawn.” This concept emphasizes the importance of making sure there is a balance between the natural and man-made features of the cemetery’s landscape. The monuments and the forestry were specifically chosen to create a harmonious mood “between man and the elements,” according to Cedar Hill’s visitors guide.

The brilliance of this design and concept stand out most in the fall months, where nature is at its most vulnerable state.

Entering its Victorian gates, you find the cemetery to be set back away from the busy street it rests upon by what the cemetery calls an “ornamental foreground of more than 65 acres.”

Driving through, the reflection of the trees on the pond to your left leads your eyes through the maze of lily pads floating upon its spine.

A small sign reads “No Fishing” as you make your way through a flock of geese who greet your arrival.

If you stay towards your left and continue straight, you find yourself in front of one of the most impressionable monuments in the entire cemetery. A life-sized angel, whose nose has weathered away, is sheltered within a corridor carved into the front of a four-sided stone pyramid. It stands at least 20 feet tall before a tree, where branches shoot up sky high behind its back, making it a powerful vision to behold during any season.

Continuing throughout the cemetery’s winding, paved trails, there are many sights to see. Among all the beautiful granite monuments, you may find that even some famous people are buried here, like actress Katharine Hepburn, who was born in Hartford.

No matter which way you choose to explore Cedar Hill’s landscape, either by foot or by car, there is no denying its beauty. Although it’s easy to get around without a guide, you are more than welcome to grab a few maps and brochures on your way in.

Cedar Hill also provides a guide to help you identify the kinds of trees there are in each section of the cemetery. They are a commendable member of the Connecticut Tree Protective Agency and have been awarded “eight certificates of commendation” by the Connecticut Botanical Society for “conserving notable trees.”

It is not the orthodox place to go if you want to clear your head, but, as strange as is it, it works.

If you are there at sunset, be sure to drive towards what seems to be the center, around Section 12. There you will see many small mausoleums on top of a steep hill. If you look closely, you can see a turn off from the paved road onto a small gravel path. If there is a log lying at the end of the path, congratulations you have found my favorite spot.

Sit for awhile and breathe in the autumn air. And when the sun starts to set, right before it goes below the tree line in the distance, it shines through a stained-glass window, illuminating it perfectly before your very eyes.

Stephanie Bergeron / The Recorder Answers from page 14: 1. 79 noodles 2. 87 million meals 3. 46 countries/regions 4. 85.7 billion meals