2010-10-27

Thunder Showers 67/52

THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 34

Passion Pit performance proves pitch perfect

Alcohol delivery vendor stems sales to minors BY

ALEXANDRA BOGUS

Daily Editorial Board

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos entertains concertgoers in Carzo Cage. The Boston-based band headlined last night’s Cage Rage event, which also featured performances from K.Flay and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. See Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com later today for more photos of the show.

Forum invites discussion tonight on university’s revised sexual assault policy BY

MARTHA SHANAHAN Daily Editorial Board

Students will have a chance to ask questions and voice their opinions on the university’s revised sexual assault policy and judicial process in an open forum with administrators tonight in Metcalf Hall.

A panel featuring Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter, Clinical Nurse Specialist Susan Mahoney and Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Capt. Mark Keith will answer questions from the audience and explain the changes to the university-wide policy on sexual assault and the new judi-

cial adjudication policy.

The forum is part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming taking place over the month of October and culminating in “Take Back the Night,” a march and candlelight vigil against sexual violence that will take place right after the forum.

The administration at the beginning of the semester implemented a more comprehensive and accessible university-wide policy on sexual assault and announced an overhauled judicial process for cases of sexual assault.

Elaine Theodore, coordinator of Tufts’ Violence Prevention Program, expects that the forum will convey the thoroughness

with which administrators have approached the revisions.

“I hope that students will see that there’s been a lot of hard work done and be heartened by the fact that the administrators do care and have been listening,” she said.

Jessica Liu-Wong, a senior and co-president of the student group Students Active For Ending Rape (SAFER), which worked with administrators on the new policies, hopes the meeting will inform students about the revised sexual assault policy and judicial process.

“I was hoping that when students come in and ask questions see SEXUAL ASSAULT, page 2

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

An alcohol delivery service provided by Woody’s Liquors in Somerville has this year bolstered its identification requirements for customers, according to the store’s management, hoping to cut off what had become a relatively common illicit source of alcohol for underage students on campus.

Woody’s delivery service provides near door-to-door delivery of alcohol orders placed over the phone by customers.

Numerous anecdotal accounts show that the delivery system last year provided a relatively popular, albeit under wraps, means of obtaining alcohol for minors.

Several students attested that the delivery driver either did not check IDs or accepted cards that unmistakably were not forms of identification.

One sophomore, who purchased alcohol through Woody’s delivery service several times last year as a freshman, said that she gave the driver her CharlieCard when he asked for identification.

“They kind of just looked for anything shaped like an ID,” the student said.

All students quoted in this article asked to remain anonymous due to the illegal nature of the activity.

Two other now-sophomores, both of whom ordered liquor from Woody’s last year while underage, agreed that ID checks at the time of delivery were spurious at best.

“Half the time they carded me, half the time they didn’t,” said one of the sophomores, who estimated ordering alcohol from the vendor between five and 10 times.

When asked for identification, she offered the driver a fake ID. “He just looked at it really quickly,” she said.

Another student told the driver that she did not have an ID. In response, the driver simply raised the price.

“He said there’s an extra fee for not having an ID,” she said, “But he still sold it to me.”

A Woody’s manager, who declined to give out her full name on the grounds that she did not want to be associated with any illicit activity, denied any sale of alcohol to underage customers through the delivery service.

“We’ve never sold to underage [students],” she told the Daily. “We never had a problem, never had an instance of selling to an underage at Tufts.”

Upon hearing of these individual accounts of sales of alcohol to minors, the manager attributed any negligence to a former delivery driver who had not adequately checked IDs. Woody’s management fired the individual last winter, she said, but for reasons unrelated to the ID issue, including general poor employee conduct.

“There’s a lot more to it that I found out about him,” she said.

“We don’t need employees like that working here.”

The run-up to more stringent enforcement The illicit dealings came to a head last December when members of Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) observed a Woody’s alcohol delivery in progress. Officers saw a student, who turned out to be underage, approach the car of a Woody’s delivery driver, the Daily reported in December. When the officers approached the scene, the driver told them he did not sell the alcohol to the student because the individual did not have proper identification.

Woody’s drivers are permitted to deliver products to Tufts students on university grounds, similar to other types of food delivery vendors, as long as the student provides a full address, according to the manager. She said that drivers typically are not allowed to see WOODY’S, page 2

New copyright regulations restrict WMFO’s programming BY

BRENT YARNELL

Daily Editorial Board

WMFO Tufts Freeform Radio this semester has come under compliance with a new, more stringent set of federal regulations that make its broadcasting procedures more complicated and limited than ever before.

The latest regulations, which only apply to non-commercial and public radio stations streaming over the web, prohibit webcasted radio DJs from announcing song titles in advance of when they will play and broadcasting more than three songs from the same album or four songs from the same artist in a three-hour period. They also prohibit webcasts of music-based radio shows from remaining online for longer than two weeks and from being available for download.

Beyond these new rules, WMFO must now pay an annual fee of $500 to SoundExchange, a non-profit organization that distributes royalties to owners of sound recording copyrights.

This is in addition to its existing fees paid to two companies that distribute royalties.

The new rules are provisions of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), parts of which took effect last year, according to Belinda Rawlins, executive director of the Transmission Project, who helped WMFO with the process of coming into compliance with the rules.

The lag time between the act’s passage and its full implementation, Rawlins said, was due to intensive negotiations between the Corporation for Public

KATJA TORRES/TUFTS DAILY

see WMFO, page 2

WMFO DJ Sawyer Bernath works inside the station’s studio. The radio station has to comply with stricter federal rules for its broadcasting procedure.

Inside this issue

Today’s Sections

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to restrict possible uses of food stamps is met with criticism.

‘Friday Night Lights’ shines in its fifth and final season.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts | Living Captured Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 15 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

2

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

NEWS

Woody’s strengthens ID checks in response to visits from TUPD, Somerville Police

DMCA rules for WMFO attempt to thwart music theft

WOODY’S

WMFO

continued from page 1

continued from page1

deliver products to dorms, whose residents are mostly underage.

Since the officers did not witness an alcohol transaction take place during the December incident, they were unable to take legal action, according to TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy. Even so, TUPD contacted Somerville Police Department (SPD) at the time, warning them that the vendor was selling alcohol to underage students.

The Woody’s manager said that following the incident, a TUPD officer also visited the vendor’s establishment, located on Broadway Avenue in Somerville, to discuss the identification issue. This marked the first time, she said, that Woody’s management staff learned that one of their drivers was not checking identification.

TUPD Sgt. Joseph Tilton said that it was normal after an episode like the one observed in December for an officer to visit the establishment and speak with its owners or management.

Upon meeting with the officer, Woody’s decided to implement an enhanced system for checking IDs, one that the manager said would put an end to the potential for any sales to minors.

“It’s all done and over with,” she said. “It will never happen again.”

Woody’s delivery drivers — three are currently on staff — must check two forms of ID during every sale, according to the manager. This can include a Tufts ID for students but must also include a driver’s license or another form of identification, she said.

For transactions that take place in the actual establishment, employees use a type of scanning machine to check IDs to make sure they are not fake, she added.

Broadcasting, working on behalf of all public and noncommercial radio stations, and SoundExchange. The two bodies agreed last year on the annual rate and the terms under which that rate would be paid to SoundExchange.

The DMCA seeks to clarify and protect digital sound recording rights, Rawlins said. By prohibiting DJs from announcing the titles of songs before they are broadcast, Rawlins said regulators hope to thwart the efforts of those seeking to record songs from live shows.

“The requirement of no more pre-announcing songs is so that you won’t know the next song is going to be a Radiohead song and then record a perfect version of that song,” she said.

WMFO general manager Andy Sayler, a senior, said WMFO responded to the new regulations immediately after their passage.

“We’ve been spending the last six months to a year getting into compliance and just made the last changes that brought us into compliance this semester,” Sayler said.

The process of coming into compliance, Sayler said, has not been easy.

“It’s definitely been a burden,” Sayler said. “It’s been manageable. I would say it’s been a series of annoyances.”

Both Rawlins and Sayler felt that the new regulations miss the mark on the main sources of music theft, arguing that most digital pirates do not steal music from radio broadcasts or online webcasts.

Rawlins said people who steal music are disinclined from recording webcasts because those streams are already compressed enough that the audio quality is relatively low.

Sayler expressed doubts that students listen to college radio stations waiting for a DJ to announce a song so they could record it.

“There are so many easier ways to steal music,” Sayler said.

Restricting radio stations’ ability to stream shows online decreases listener’s access to those streams and so decreases the potential for abuse, Rawlins said.

Jafar Haidar, who co-hosts two back-to-back Tuesday night shows on WMFO as DJ “J Haad,” believes the webcasting restrictions will hurt his listeners’ ability to enjoy the show.

“It’s pretty unfortunate, in my opinion,” Haidar, a junior, said.

Effective deterrence The new rules have proven relatively successful, according to several police and student accounts.

A number of anecdotal accounts show that students are more wary of using the delivery service this year than last.

One sophomore said that she was deterred from ordering alcohol this year based on rumors she heard that TUPD was more vigilantly watching Woody’s delivery transactions.

“I heard that someone got busted using it. TUPD was watching the whole time,” she said. “It just didn’t seem worth it.”

A freshman similarly said that fears of being caught by TUPD led her to decide against using the service. She explained that ordering a delivery to South Hall, which largely houses freshmen, could attract officers to the scene.

“I seriously considered calling, but I decided against it because I was forewarned by other stu-

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

Woody’s Liquors in Somerville claims to have strengthened its ID verification procedures in response to reports that its delivery drivers sold alcohol to underage students. dents,” she said. “It might come off as suspicious.”

Tilton said that TUPD had neither heard of any recent incidents involving Woody’s nor observed any alcohol sales on campus since the incident in December.

Checking for compliance Somerville Police Chief Michael Cabral and Somerville Police Officer Warren Chaille — the license investigator for Somerville’s Licensing Commission — told the Daily that SPD had not had any issues with the vendor or heard any complaints regarding its delivery service. Somerville officers, he said, visited the store this year to discuss the ID issue.

“We spoke to the owners to make sure that they would card people when they make deliveries,” Chaille said.

Woody’s Somerville establishment has also passed several citywide compliance checks.

The city-sponsored group Somerville Cares About Prevention (SCAP), in conjunction with SPD, runs biannual alcohol vendor compliance checks, during which minors, under the guidance of SCAP officials and the police, attempt to purchase alcohol in Somerville’s liquor stores.

Only two of 43 liquor stores in Somerville sold alcohol to minors during compliance checks in the spring, according to SCAP Director Cory Mashburn. In a separate

round of checks this fall, SCAP found zero violations among a slightly bigger pool of Somerville alcohol vendors, Mashburn told the Daily.

He confirmed that Woody’s Broadway Avenue establishment was not one of the two violators in the spring. Still, he called Woody’s delivery service highly unusual and said that SCAP currently has no compliance checks in place for this type of alcohol vending.

“It’s the first store I’ve ever heard of that delivers liquor,” he said.

Mashburn said that he learned of Woody’s delivery system over the summer and notified SPD to try to implement a set of compliance checks for the system. He anticipated such a check would be in place by this spring at the earliest.

The state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission in conjunction with SPD, however, does have the capacity for delivery service compliance checks, according to Chaille. They this summer organized so-called “stings” for the few alcohol delivery services that exist in Somerville. Chaille said that Woody’s likely was part of the compliance checks, but he was unsure about the results.

Both Cabral and Mashburn agreed that Woody’s delivery system could lend itself to more underage sales than regular storefronts.

“I think it’s a very dangerous thing to have and that’s why we’re looking into it,” Mashburn said.

Haidar said that having webcasts available for only two weeks at a time presents an overly-limited sample size of his shows. The two-week limit, he said, restricted his listener’s ability to share the show with their friends.

“They’ll talk about it with their friends and always there will be someone who will come over and they’ll want to show it to them,” Haidar said. “They can only do it for two weeks, which is a little bit weird.”

WMFO had previously made webcasts available for eight weeks following the original broadcasts of shows, according to Sayler.

“It has essentially made our archives harder to access and less functional than they were before,” he said.

Rawlins said WMFO has had less difficulty than other stations in initiating compliance with the portion of the new rules requiring stations to report the number of listeners per each broadcast of every song. This ease stemmed from WMFO’s use of a playlist logging website, Spinitron.com, which the station began using before the regulations came into effect.

After collecting the $500 annual fees from stations, SoundExchange distributes funds to sound recording copyright holders based on the stations’ self-generated reports of how frequently they play artists’ work, according to Rawlins.

SoundExchange, she said, does not pay many lesserknown artists who are not registered with the organization. She encouraged college bands to register on the SoundExchange website.

Still, Rawlins believes that many of the new regulations, such as prohibiting DJs from announcing songs before broadcasting them or playing more than two songs from an album in a three-hour period, cannot effectively be enforced.

“Can they actually provide that kind of oversight to make sure that people are in compliance?” she said. “It just can’t be done.”

Rawlins speculated that stations that have been subjects of complaints might undergo more diligent oversight.

“If a station is found to be out of compliance with a substantial component, they’ll probably be looked at closely to see what other things they are in compliance with,” she said. “Most of this is so new that nobody is sure how things are going to play out.”

Administrators to answer questions about sexual assault policy at forum tonight SEXUAL ASSAULT continued from page 1

they find out the information that they need and that they’re more comfortable about using the sexual assault policy,” LiuWong said.

The event, sponsored this year by SAFER, the student group Prevention, Awareness and Community at Tufts and the Health Education Department, has been held annually for the past three years.

Liu-Wong expects the event to be more interactive this year, given the university’s active role in revising the sexual assault policy and the adjudication process.

“They’ve done a lot of work on it,” she said.

“It’s different [this year] because the administration has been very involved in creating the policy,” she said, referring to the forum.

Michelle Bowdler, senior director of Health and Wellness Service, said that administrators are open to giving student opinions serious consideration.

“From my perspective, I always feel like this is not a one-way forum,” Bowdler said. “Although it’s billed as an opportunity for students to ask ‘administrators’ about the policy and so forth, I also think it’s an opportunity for us to ask students ... ‘what do we need to know in order to work with you as partners on this issue?’”

Liu-Wong said that the purpose of the forum has evolved since its first year, when students raised strong concerns about the sexual assault policy in place at the time.

“The first one was really just a heads-up to the administration that there were huge problems with the policy,” she said.

Bowdler agreed, adding that the revamped policy should change the tone of the forum.

“I think that the Tufts community should feel very good about the fact that when these forums first started, a lot of students were asking for more information. … In the past three … years, there has been a lot of progress,” she said.

Bowdler was confident that the new policy would meet with student satisfaction.

“I feel really good about the policy that is posted. … It makes a strong statement about the seriousness of sexual assault and how it will be addressed,” she said.

“Hopefully that has been conveyed already, and I think that the forum is a time to talk further about that.”

Liu-Wong said the forum should help convey to students the improvements in the university’s process for dealing with sexual assault and for making the situation less traumatizing than it was under the previous policy.

“A huge issue with the policy before [was] that everyone knew it had a bad rap,” she said. “If students understand that people are really [trying] to make this policy actually work and to help them get through what they’re dealing with, they’ll use it.”

Theodore hopes the forum will encourage more students to seek assistance from the university in situations of sexual assault.

“I hope students will be somewhat more familiar with the policy and feel more comfortable about reporting sexual violence,” Theodore said.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

No more soda for federal aid users, NYC mayor says BY

RAMZI BABOUDER-MATTA Contributing Writer

Public aid is becoming an increasingly thorny topic, with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent push to restrict which items can be purchased through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the federal Food Stamp Program.

The mayor’s proposed initiative would bar recipients from using food stamps to purchase soda and sugary drinks. In response, people in the New York area and beyond are questioning whether the government should dictate how people spend their public aid money.

The prevalence of welfare in the United States has undoubtedly grown over the last few years, and the number of SNAP recipients has risen sharply since the economic recession began.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, average monthly participation in SNAP went from under 26 million people in 2005 to over 33 million in 2009, and that number has soared to over 40 million in the current year.

Edith Balbach, senior lecturer of community health and one of many who have expressed concern with Bloomberg’s proposed restriction, explained that for food stamp users on extremely tight budgets, providing their families with enough food is more important than providing them with fully nutritious, healthful meals.

“The money is so small that if you have a family that’s trying to maximize its calories per dollar so the kids aren’t screaming that they’re hungry, the temptation to spend that on high caloric, high fat, low food-value items as opposed to fruits and vegetables and things that we know make people healthy is pretty tempting,” she said.

In addition, Balbach said that although the mayor is trying to combat obesity, he is addressing health problems as though there were one “magic bullet” remedy — namely making soda unavailable — when the issue is actually far more complex.

“The logic of it is flawed and I think it’s looking for a single villain when it’s probably a really complex web of causality that’s causing obesity,” she said.

Junior Erik Antokal agreed, saying that making soda unavailable to food stamp users is a solution to the wrong problem — food stamp recipients, in his opinion, are not buying unhealthful foods because they are ignorant of their poor nutritional value, but because they are cheaper.

“It’s not so much that people don’t know how to eat healthy,” he said. “It’s that they don’t have access to fresh fruit stands, or that McDonalds is cheaper than buying a chicken to cook for the family with vegetables — a wholesome, fully nutritious meal.”

Limiting recipients’ access to soda, he said, will not change the situation.

At the same time, SNAP is a federal program and there is plenty of precedent for the government to apply restrictive measures to its programs, Laurie Goldman, lecturer of urban and environmental policy and planning, said in an e-mail to the Daily.

“The idea of restricting the use of subsidies is common in other policy domains,” she said. “Federal housing vouchers can only be applied to dwellings that meet quality standards for safety and affordability.”

Balbach added that there have been restrictive measures for food and nutrition services in the past, some which have been very effective and allowed the programs to run efficiently.

ALEXANDRA GOLDMAN/TUFTS DAILY

Possible uses for food stamps may be limited by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal.

“The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program limits what people are allowed to buy,” she said. “It restricts it to some healthy things that pregnant women, new mothers and their children need. … That has universally been thought to be a successful program.”

According to both Balbach and Goldman, however, unfortunate conditions among poor urban communi-

ties make the successful application of similar measures to the SNAP program impossible.

“To take the same model [as the WIC program] and put it on food stamps, you could say theoretically would be OK, but the simple fact of the matter is that where a lot of poor people live, see FOOD STAMPS, page 4

Customized online advertising grows but some find it intrusive BY

ANGELINA ROTMAN Contributing Writer

Online marketing has gotten personal.

That’s right — the ads that football fans see for ESPN on Facebook aren’t coincidental, nor are the ubiquitous Wizarding World of Harry Potter plugs that float across the screens of Hogwarts buffs.

The presence of advertisements on websites viewed by specific people is the result of meticulous research and monitoring of an individual’s Internet use by companies looking for potential customers.

“Big media companies have developed systems to track this Internet usage,” senior Caleb Zimmerman, president of Imaginet, the pre-professional marketing communications club for Tufts students, said.

The products and phrases that consumers search for on Google and other websites all contribute to the information advertisers consistently gather about individual Internet users.

“Marketers are trying to match the right people with the right message,” Julie Dobrow, director of the Communications

and Media Studies program at Tufts, said. “Clearly they can target consumers more narrowly than ever, hone their campaigns more finely and collect valuable information about consumers and potential customers.”

Personalized online marketing relies on a long-used marketing technique known as retargeting. Retargeting, also known as remarketing, involves the use of browser cookies to transfer information about consumers from one website to another. That information is then used to

formulate ads specific to the products or categories in which that the consumer has shown an interest.

“The Internet makes it so easy to target customers, and that is both a benefit and a disadvantage,” sophomore Nika Gokhman, vice president of operations for Imaginet, said.

For advertisers, the ability to know exactly which shoes a potential customer was looking at on Zappos.com is something of a godsend.

Consumers, on the other hand, may feel that their privacy is being violated, accord-

“How many of you would accept love from someone singing ‘Please Accept My Love’? If they need it, you don’t give it to them — that’s a basic rule of life. … The trick is to look really satisfied. So work on that.”

—Michael Ullman, lecturer of music and English, during his History of the Blues course

“When I went to shake his hand, he pulled me in close and touched my face.

It was sort of intimate and weird, but also kind of awesome.”

—Senior Danna Solomon, on meeting Vice President Joe Biden

ing to Zimmerman.

“The inverse of [personal marketing technology] is that people find it intrusive or creepy,” he said.

While having companies essentially stalk your online shoe-shopping habits may be somewhat unnerving, consumers are also worried about just how much of their more personal information is being traded by online companies.

News stories such as the recent kerfuffle involving Facebook applications allegedly providsee RETARGETING, page 4

“To the cute boy reading Goethe on the Joey, I get that you’re both hot and intellectual, but you’ve been on the same page for-freaking-ever.”

—From the girl on the Joey right behind you

“You were already comparing apples to oranges, and you just threw in a pear.”

—Junior in a political science class debate

“Just because I’m in a sorority doesn’t mean I’m a sorority girl.”

—Sorority girl at the REZQuad Café

Overheard something funny? Want to profess your love? Need to give a shout-out to that kid you always see unicycling on campus? E-mail features@tuftsdaily.com with the subject “Over-herd on the Hill.”

—compiled by the Daily Features Department

ARTWORK BY LOUIE ZONG

4

THE TUFTS DAILY

FEATURES

Advertisers track individuals’ browsing habits to improve marketing tactics continued from page 3

ing user names and IP addresses to third-party advertisers, according to the Wall Street Journal, have fueled this anxiety.

“If people are concerned, it’s valid [anxiety],” Dobrow said. “I know that sometimes I find it a bit creepy to see the ad bar that appears next to Gmail, even though I know that it’s a computer program that’s reading my e-mails.”

According to Zimmerman, online privacy is a more nebulous concept than most people would like to think.

“Being a modern-day user of the Internet, people need to understand that there are certain privacy privileges they give up by simply by searching,” he said.

Still, more personal information, such as what users post on their Facebook pages, can be protected through means as simple as adjusting privacy settings.

“It just comes down to people being careful with what they’re publishing about themselves and use as much privacy control as they can,” Zimmerman said.

As pervasive as the Internet is in dayto-day life, it is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid personal marketing entirely, according to Zimmerman.

“Advertisers have already embraced this idea because people are using the Internet so much,” Zimmerman said. “[The Internet] is going to be the most important tool [in marketing] because everyone [will do] the majority of their shopping online and [use] the Internet in the majority of their free time.”

Gokhman pointed out that what is and is not okay with regard to accessing people’s personal information online is murky because the practice is largely uncharted territory for the advertising industry.

“The Internet provides tools and capabilities that marketing has never wielded,” she said. “I do know that what we are experiencing now is unprecedented.”

NYC mayor pushes to restrict use of food stamps for purchase of sugary drinks FOOD STAMPS continued from page 3

there’s going to be a lot of trouble getting access to the food that’s going to be on that [approved] list,” Balbach said. “If you say you’re only allowed to buy fresh produce, whole grain bread, whole-fat milk [then you’re] coming up with the list of things that assumes that the markets near where the poorest people are living are going to have any of that stuff.”

Goldman agreed, stating that it is important to grant people aid they can use in their immediate neighborhoods.

“Restricting the use of subsidies to food that meets a quality standard cannot address the problem of local accessibility,” she said.

There are, however, other measures one can take to encourage food stamp users to eat more healthfully, Balbach said, some of which are already underway.

“You’re now allowed to use your food stamps at farmers’ markets, and there are a number of communities where they are putting incentives, like if you spend a dollar’s worth of your food stamp money, you will get two dollars worth of farmers’ market food because farmer’s market food tends to be a little more expensive,” Balbach said. “In the last farm bill, they got more permissive.

I think people are starting to think a lot more about the U.S. food supply, and how do we improve the quality of the choices that people are making.”

THE FARES CENTER FOR EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES Invites you to a Roundtable Discussion

Moderated by Professor Leila Fawaz “The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914”

Ilham Khuri-Makdisi Associate Professor of Middle East and World history at Northeastern University

FARES CENTER ROUNDTABLES

RETARGETING

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Ilham Khuri-Makdisi is Associate Professor of Middle East and World history at Northeastern University. Her book, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism 1860-1914 (University of California Press), sheds light on the various networks of intellectuals, dramatists, and workers circulating in the Eastern Mediterranean and articulating radical leftist ideas in the late 19th century.

Khuri-Makdisi received her Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.

Thursday, October 28, 2010 12:30-2:00 pm Fares Center Conference Room (Mugar 129) Lunch will be provided RSVP by Tuesday, October 26 at Noon

For more information & to RSVP contact: The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies Cabot Intercultural Center 160 Packard Avenue Medford, Massachusetts 02155 http://farescenter.tufts.edu Chris Zymaris christopher.zymaris@tufts.edu

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

TV REVIEW

No false starts for ‘FNL’ as it enters last season Even with new characters and setting, show is strong as ever BY

BEN PHELPS

ASHLEY WOOD | FASHION CONTRACEPTIVE

A Vogue Halloween

Daily Editorial Board

H

The start of the fifth and final season of “Friday Night Lights” is bittersweet.

On one hand, it means that there are

Friday Night Lights

Starring Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Aimee Teegarden Airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The 101 Network on DIRECTV only 13 episodes remaining in one of television’s best dramas before it goes off the air forever. On the other hand, it is a reminder of just how lucky we are that it even reached this point.

After two ratings-challenged seasons on NBC, DIRECTV swooped in to save the critically acclaimed but little-watched series that chronicles the lives of the football players and families of Dillon, Texas. A unique cost-sharing deal gave the satellite network an exclusive first-air run window and treated audiences to three

ALBUM REVIEW

COURTESY NBC/DIRECTV/BILL RECORDS

Coach Taylor motivates his team on ‘Friday Night Lights.’ more seasons than any other network could have justified.

But the additional seasons meant having to deal with a dilemma common

see FNL, page 6

THEATER REVIEW

‘The Aliens’ examines relationships in static space BY

MICHELLE BEEHLER Senior Staff Writer

In “The Aliens,” a burnt-out hippie and a self-proclaimed representation of “trailer trash” both clash with

The Aliens AMAZON.DE

The Old 97’s are back with their eighth studio album.

Old 97’s’ ‘Grand Theatre’ is an ear pleaser BY

to shows set in high schools — namely, how to handle graduating characters.

Written by Annie Baker Directed by Shawn LaCount At the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts through Nov. 20 Tickets $15 to $38 a 17-year-old summer employee in what becomes a pleasantly surprising, meaningful interaction.

Directed by Shawn LaCount, Company One’s production of Annie Baker’s “The Aliens" is a myopic view of three outsiders who find something in common for a beautiful, if brief, period of time.

“The Aliens” is a part of the “Shirley, VT Plays” Festival at the Boston Center for the Arts, along with “Circle Mirror Transformation” and “Body Awareness.”

The festival is a celebration of Annie Baker’s plays which are all based on the same small, fictional town in Windsor County, Vt. In the production, a couple of aimless 30-year-olds make the backside of a small town Vermont coffee shop their unauthorized, exclusive hangout until a new teenage employee stumbles upon them.

Evan (Jacob Brandt) is an anxious soon-to-be high school senior who lacks the nerve to successfully shake off the see ALIENS, page 6

TRAVIS PETERSEN

Contributing Writer

In the Old 97’s newest album, “The Grand Theatre, Volume One,” the band departs boldly from tradition by includ-

The Grand Theatre, Volume One OId 97’s New West Records ing not just one, but two entire songs that are not about love.

Of course, apart from that ballsy deviation, every other song on the album deals with all facets of love, including such well-traversed topics as getting a lover, not having a lover, a lover that is leaving and unrequited love. Even if the song doesn’t revolve around love, it at least mentions it.

Their single-mindedness isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Like so many other bands, the Old 97’s are comfortable with their genre — alternative country — and have produced a few respectable love see 97’s, page 6

Trailers tease Hollywood’s upcoming blockbusters and Oscar-season favorites It’s almost November, which means Oscar season is coming. Every winter, studios release their most aesthetically and artistically valuable projects, aspiring for some coveted nominations at the coming Academy Awards in late February or early March. This year is no different, and film fanatics everywhere are bristling with excitement due to the caliber of some newly released trailers.

For the action junkies, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie make for one big bowl of sexy action in “The Tourist,” due out in December. Based on the French film “Anthony Zimmer” (2005), “The Tourist” stars Jolie as an English seductress who puppeteers Depp in a plot to frame him as a wanted felon. The ensuing wild goose chase promises to fuse shootouts, foreplay and frivolity.

True action ecstasy is found in the trailer for “Wrecked,” due out in 2011. Still donning his newfound badass persona, Adrien Brody does his best “Memento” (2000) impression as an amnesiac who awakens in a grisly car crash in the wilderness. The

trailer features a bloodied Brody scavenging for food, wielding firearms and fending off a cougar. Yeah, it’s going to be sick.

Critics are buzzing about some other recently released trailers, as the Coen brothers saddle up for another Western with “True Grit,” and Nicole Kidman goes for an Oscar nod in “Rabbit Hole.”

“True Grit,” a remake of a film of the same name, features Jeff Bridges as alcoholic U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn as he helps a young girl track down her father’s murderer (Josh Brolin). The role garnered John Wayne an Oscar in 1969.

Kidman’s role in “Rabbit Hole” deals with the death of a family member as well, in this case her son, Danny. Trying to cope with the loss of her child, she develops an eccentric fixation with her son’s involuntary killer, an adolescent artist who was driving the car that killed Danny.

From the action-packed to the emotionally layered, the Daily forecasts some stellar products out of Hollywood this Oscar season.

—by Zach Drucker

alloween is just around the corner, and you have yet to assemble a decent costume. Why the delay?

Well, let’s just pretend it’s because of your self-respect.

Every time you step into a Halloween store or browse for costumes online, you’re confronted by a dilemma — your options are severely limited to prize pieces like “Slutty Nurse” or “Slutty Bumblebee.” And although you enjoy it when other people find you attractive, these costumes lack the air of subtlety and mystery that you would prefer when interacting with the opposite sex. After all, wearing a French maid’s outfit in 40-degree weather doesn’t exactly say, “I’m beautiful, intellectual and interesting,” as much as it just says desperate.

Besides, with every Halloween store selling the same pants-less costumes, how can you guarantee that five other girls won’t be sporting the same outfit? Or, equally awful — you’ll run into the slutty Batgirl to your slutty Supergirl, or the slutty Mad Hatter to your slutty Alice.

Well, fear no more. The fashion world is an incredible source for non-slutty, nonsexy attire to make you stand out like the dignified and unique individual that you are. Here are a few Vogue-certified ways to de-sexify your Halloween.

Harem Pants: This is an option for both males and females, and it’s a great way to channel a few innocent Disney characters like Aladdin and Jasmine. Women should be careful, however, and avoid revealing too much midriff, as that will cancel out the penis-repelling balloon pants and hurtle you back into the realm of sexual fantasy. Try pairing your harem pants with a large headscarf or a fashionable turban in order to ensure the desired effect.

Bleached/Shaved Eyebrows: I explained the missing eyebrows phenomenon in a previous column, when I referenced Adriana Lima’s alien-like forehead in the fall Givenchy ad campaign. This look would be perfect for upping the scare factor of a vampire, witch or fetus costume. Unfortunately, it might be a little more permanent than what you’re going for, and thus requires at least a month-long commitment to involuntary celibacy.

Jumpsuits: Jumpsuits open up a whole slew of contraceptive-inducing Halloween costumes, since they’re typically loose and shapeless, making the female form unrecognizable. In addition, they make it impossible to access the crotch area without removing the entire costume. Think of them as modern day chastity belts. Possible jumpsuitbased costumes include an astronaut, a prison inmate or a gas pump attendant. You could even go the extra mile and make it a denim jumpsuit, aka overalls, and go as a toothless hillbilly.

Denim on Denim: Men could try the Canadian Tuxedo look by going as David Hodo, the construction worker from the Village People. This is best accomplished by wearing jeans that are uncomfortably small and growing out a handlebar mustache. And copious chest hair is a plus.

Defy the norm this Halloween and try any one of these techniques on your costume.

Not only will it preempt a walk of shame, but you could even attract the attention of a more sincere love interest. Standing out among the heaps of cleavage and bare legs, you’re bound to be noticed by a sensitive person looking for a nice, respectable partner to discuss things like poetry and music. And then this person will ask you to the prom and bring you a cake with 16 candles on it! Or at least he would if this were a John Hughes movie.

Unfortunately, it’s college, so you’ll probably just remain single. Happy Halloween!

Ashley Wood is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Ashley.

Wood@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

6

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

ARTS & LIVING

In 'The Aliens,' unlikely friendship reflects isolation of small-town life ALIENS continued from page 5

constantly high KJ (Alex Pollock) and his lowspirited friend Jasper (Nael Nacer). Yet Evan’s efforts to rid the coffee shop of its two most dedicated loiterers quickly peter out, as he all too quickly becomes enamored with the lifestyle and personalities of the two dropouts. It is the beginning of an unlikely and charming friendship between three different but equally lonely characters.

KJ immediately wins the audience over with his nymph-like mannerisms and clear pleasure in something as simple as a sunny day or a cup of (psychedelic) tea. His thoughts, conversations and sudden bursts of songs are whimsical and entertaining despite their nonlinearity or pertinence to the moment.

Pollack masterfully creates an interesting character that is superficially content but internally instable. The audience’s realization of the importance of what lies beneath the surface becomes an integral part of both KJ and the play itself.

In contrast to KJ, who wins over the audience in the opening scene, his friend Jasper at first appears the less likeable of the two.

His bitter and hostile reactions to news of past girlfriends’ current affairs send him into an internal spiral of despair, agony and what is only later revealed as creative genius.

Nacer beautifully portrays Jasper’s transformation as he reads pages of Jasper’s novel during a private celebration of the Fourth of

July. Jasper wrote the excerpt during one of the lowest moments in his life; by displaying immense and overwhelming feelings of grief and loneliness, Nacer produces a reflection of America that is desolate, honest and beautiful.

“The Aliens” is a fascinating look at a place that is so often forgotten because nothing really happens there. It is an environment prone to stasis, exhibited when KJ learns from Evan that the same teachers that taught him a decade ago are still teaching at the local high school. The realization of shared acquaintances is rampant in a small town, and the setting for “The Aliens” is no exception.

The audience members, like the play’s characters, are often reminded of the world outside the small one they share in the back lot of the coffee shop. It is the world from which they are all excluded that deserts them.

The extreme and emphatic pauses throughout the show create a soothing, comical and sometimes frustrating sense of calm.

The frustration emerges when the silence crosses the fine line between calm and uncomfortable for the audience. Nothing in the performance is rushed, and it is only in the moments of extreme stress and torment that the characters lose it and create a sudden and startlingly violent outburst.

The pauses hint at the already obvious poetic allusions. The shared reverence of Charles Bukowski, the desire to travel across America and the problems with drugs, smoking and alcohol all hint at the

COURTESY COMPANY ONE

In 'The Aliens,' from left, Jacob Brandt, Alex Pollock and Nael Nacer play a motley crew that unexpectedly stumbles upon common ground. desire for a beatnik lifestyle. Yet these beat correlations don't seem trite or clich — in this play, they ring true.

What at first seems like an implausible relationship between the two lost older men and the nervous teenage employee reveals itself as an extremely deep and meaningful connection.

The disparities in age, background and direction are only distractions for what the characters all have in common; namely, the role of the outcast. It is as a consequence of their isolation that they reach out to one another, and, as a group, watch the fireworks explode in the clear Vermont sky.

‘Friday Night Lights’ hits the ground running in fifth season FNL continued from page 5

MERCYLOUNGE.COM

On ‘The Grand Theatre, Volume One,’ the Old 97’s give listeners a rollicking alt-country sound.

Old 97’s produce a good album, but forsake their trademark country charm 97’S continued from page 5

songs in the past, so really they can’t be blamed for sticking to their guns.

“The Grand Theatre, Volume One” is the eighth studio album by the band, who have been releasing albums for 16 years. It is a well-crafted and enjoyable album, and although it is not groundbreaking, it is still solid.

Part of the enjoyment comes from the lyrical skill of frontman Rhett Miller. Little phrases such as, “If you die fearin’ God/And painfully employed/ You will not go to heaven/You’ll go to Champaign, Illinois” (from “Champaign, Illinois”) add levity to the album and showcase the band’s sense of humor. Some of Miller’s lyrics form a story, and others are a more traditional style of songwriting, but almost all of the lyrics are enjoyable.

The second track, called “Every Night is Friday Night (Without You),” belies the tone of the more upbeat half of the album. The Old 97’s marry tracks bearing Friday-night energy with quieter and more melancholy country tunes.

While both styles are enjoyable, the high-energy songs stand out a little more overall. “Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)” is rich with hooks that pique listeners’ interest.

Other recommended catchy, lively tracks include the title track, “The Grand Theatre” and “The Dance Class,” a song about a hermit who falls for the beauty of someone he sees in a dance class across the street.

Some of the mellower songs pack a punch, too. “You Were Born to Be in Battle” and “Love Is

What You Are” are both highly listenable, sporting rhythmic beats and catchy pop melodies.

The only complaint with the lower-energy songs is that they don’t match the emotional intensity of their predecessors on previous albums, such as “Salome” from “Too Far To Care” (1997).

The album flows smoothly from start to finish. The band kicks off the CD with three fastpaced songs, and transitions to mid-tempo beats, dwindling towards a more easygoing end. Right before it seems like a certain song style is getting old, the album changes pace for a respite.

Despite the high-quality songs and organization of the album, “The Grand Theatre, Volume One” does not represent the band’s best work.

The Old 97’s have stuck with the pop/alternative/country style that has served them well for years, but something is lacking in the way of country on this album. Though the country bass lines are still there, they are trounced by the romping guitars that feature more heavily in this album. In eschewing their more traditional musical formula, the Old 97’s become considerably less charming.

While there are no fundamentally bad songs on “The Grand Theatre, Volume One,” the songs that stand out aren’t quite as good as the ones that stood out on their previous albums.

Although it may not be the best album they have ever made, The Old 97’s have created a well-crafted album here that is easily worth listening to.

The third season allowed the writers to demonstrate how they would manage send-off arcs for the original cast, but it wasn’t until last year that any new, permanent replacements were brought in.

The show took a risk during the fourth season by expanding its universe and making a lot of big changes. Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) took the headcoaching job at East Dillon High, where the students are predominantly minorities and from working-class families, and he was once again in charge of a team of underdogs after leaving the state-champion Dillon Panthers. The changes gave the show a good chance to deal with race and class issues that had always been on its radar, and also introduced us to several new characters.

Vince (Michael B. Jordan), Luke (Matt Lauria), Jess ( Jurnee Smollett) and Becky (Madison Burge) served as our window into the new side of town and they’re all back this season, joined by newcomer Hastings Ruckle (Grey Damon). While it was originally off-putting to see these new faces dominate the screen in place of our old favorites, they are so well-written and well-acted that they soon seemed right at home.

In fact, the writing and acting make the show. Anyone who dismisses “Friday Night Lights” as a soap or simply “a football show” really needs to just watch an episode — unless it’s one from season two, the less said about that, the better — in order to see the three-dimensionality of every character and situation.

Plus, the show has one of the best marriages on TV in Coach and “Mrs. Coach” (Tami Taylor, played by Connie Britton), to which Chandler and Britton’s long-overdue Emmy nominations this year are a true testament.

At the start of the fifth season, it is once again the beginning of a new school year, and thus, a new football season.

Some time is spent checking in with Tim ( Taylor Kitsch), who

is still in jail for his chop-shop involvement last season, and Landry ( Jesse Plemons), who is heading off to college, but the focus is still on the new core cast.

Vince and Jess are now officially a couple, PDA and all, which is at least a nice change from the angst-filled love triangle with Landry last year. Luke and Becky, after the latter’s pregnancy and abortion, aren’t together, but their obvious chemistry keeps their pairing a possibility.

Thankfully, the writers also brought Tami to East Dillon — even if it was somewhat contrived — reestablishing her as a guidance counselor struggling to motivate teachers and students in an environment where nobody seems to care.

Fighting for what’s right is Tami’s strong suit, and Britton plays it to a T. My biggest concern is the continuing role of Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden). I have never loved the bratty teenage character, but Teegarden certainly plays her realistically and her presence always meant the welcome appearance of boyfriend and former Panther Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford).

Now, though, Julie is away at college, but she remains a series regular, so I hope the writers find ways to integrate her in some of the main stories so we don’t have to suffer a standalone storyline about typical college freshman mishaps.

In its fifth season, “Friday Night Lights” hits the ground running, and based on its first two episodes, it’s going to be a treat to watch. The producers have promised return visits from most of the former main characters, and, combined with the ongoing plots, these last 13 episodes ought to provide the perfect emotional mix of reminiscence and excitement.

In a scene from the season premiere, as he watches his family eat breakfast together for the last time before Julie leaves for college, Coach gives them a thoughtful look and says, “I’m gonna miss this.” At least we have 13 more episodes to enjoy, but Coach — so am I.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

7

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Tufts Friends of Israel Presents:

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The captivating documentary that follows the efforts of an Israeli reporter to save the life of a Palestinian baby suffering from a rare disease in the midst of conflict in Gaza

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Parents Weekend 2010 See Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com for more photos of Parents Weekend.

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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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THE TUFTS DAILY

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THE TUFTS DAILY BENJAMIN D. GITTLESON Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Managing Editors

Ellen Kan Carter Rogers Matt Repka Executive News Editor Alexandra Bogus News Editors Michael Del Moro Nina Ford Amelie Hecht Corinne Segal Martha Shanahan Brent Yarnell Jenny White Daphne Kolios Assistant News Editors Kathryn Olson Romy Oltuski Executive Features Editor Sarah Korones Features Editors Alison Lisnow Emilia Luna Alexa Sasanow Derek Schlom Jon Cheng Assistant Features Editors Maya Kohli Amelia Quinn Emma Bushnell Executive Arts Editor Zach Drucker Arts Editors Mitchell Geller Rebecca Goldberg Benjamin Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch Rachel Oldfield Larissa Gibbs Elaine Sun Seth Teleky Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Rebekah Liebermann Ashish Malhotra Josh Molofsky Alexandra Siegel

Executive Op-Ed Editor Assistant Op-Ed Editors Cartoonists

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

DMCA: Restricting college radio without benefit Following the recent implementation of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA)Performance Complement provisions, WMFO Tufts Freeform Radio this semester must begin paying $500 annually to a nonprofit that distributes royalties to owners of sound recording copyrights.

WMFO’s DJs — and all non-commercial and public radio stations streaming online — are now prohibited from forwardly announcing song titles, broadcasting more than three songs from the same album or four songs from the same artist in a three-hour period, making archived webcasts of their shows available online for longer than two weeks and making those webcasts available for download.

While these legal measures were designed to ensure that artists get royalties, they are a net detriment. Placing these restrictions on college radio stations will hardly prevent music fans from illegally downloading music, yet they make it more difficult for small-budget, understaffed university stations to operate.

University stations offer an eclectic variety of music and play an important role in helping new artists and bands gain publicity, while exposing students and listeners in the surrounding commu-

nity to new types of music. Thus, it is vital that the kinds of restrictions stipulated by the DMCA do not discourage students from getting involved in college radio or cause university stations to shut down.

Webcasts have provided an amazing opportunity to college radio stations, giving them the opportunity to reach Internet users worldwide. However, now that college radio stations are no longer permitted to make webcasts available to download and must take them down after two weeks, the reach and impact of small university radio stations will likely be diminished.

Belinda Rawlins, executive director of the Transmission Project, — which aided WMFO’s compliance with the new rules — stated that WMFO is not facing severe difficulties because it already had access to the playlist logging software that the legislation requires. Despite this, it is still harder for students who work for the radio to share their work with peers and restricts what DJs can choose to broadcast. As a result, some college radio stations, such as WCBN at the University of Michigan, which has a now impossible-to-air Duke Ellington show, have protested the legislation.

Logistically speaking, it is very unlikely that DMCA regulation of

college radio stations will actually make a substantive difference in the amount of royalties that artists receive.

Downloading music from services like Limewire is very common — though perhaps less so for students connected to the Tufts network who risk reprimand from University Information Technology.

Though the Daily does not endorse music theft, it must be said that there are far easier and more commonly used ways to pirate music than utilizing lowquality-audio online radio streams, which is the sort of piracy these regulations affecting WMFO hope to put a stop to. It should also be noted that thanks to websites like YouTube, Pandora.com and Grooveshark.com, students have more options than ever for legally listening to free music online.

Frivolous regulations on the number of songs from an artist that can be played or preventing the preemptive naming of a song do not act as a viable deterrent to pirating music. Instead, they place irksome and detrimental restrictions on college radio stations and have the potential to cut off an important source of access to new and eclectic music not only for college students, but for music lovers worldwide.

DEVON COLMER

Editorialists

Philip Dear Executive Sports Editor Lauren Flament Sports Editors Jeremy Greenhouse Claire Kemp Ben Kochman Alex Lach Alex Prewitt Daniel Rathman Noah Schumer Ethan Sturm Assistant Sports Editor Aalok Kanani Meredith Klein Danai Macridi Andrew Morgenthaler Tien Tien Josh Berlinger Virginia Bledsoe Kristen Collins Alex Dennett Emily Eisenberg Dilys Ong Jodi Bosin Jenna Liang Meagan Maher Ashley Seenauth

Executive Photo Editor Photo Editors

Assistant Photo Editors

Staff Photographers

Mick B. Krever Executive New Media Editor James Choca New Media Editors Kerianne Okie

PRODUCTION Leanne Brotsky Production Director Andrew Petrone Executive Layout Editor Sarah Davis Layout Editors Adam Gardner Jason Huang Jennifer Iassogna Alyssa Kutner Steven Smith Sarah Kester Assistant Layout Editor Zehava Robbins Executive Copy Editor Alexandra Husted Copy Editors Isabel Leon Vivien Lim Linh Dang Assistant Copy Editors Andrew Paseltiner Melissa Roberts Elisha Sum

Darcy Mann Executive Online Editor Audrey Kuan Online Editors Ann Sloan Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager Michael Vastola Technical Manager

BUSINESS Benjamin Hubbell-Engler Executive Business Director Laura Moreno Advertising Director Dwijo Goswami Receivables Manager The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

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OFF THE HILL | HARVARD UNIVERSITY

An honest remark BY

THE HARVARD CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD The Harvard Crimson

National Public Radio [NPR] recently terminated the contract of longtime news analyst Juan Williams for his remarks on [“The O’Reilly Factor”] that, according to NPR, “undermined his credibility as a news analyst.” After asserting that he is a proponent of civil rights, Williams said, “But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Despite his provocative statements, Williams should not have been fired — he was well within his rights to express his personal opinion when he was speaking outside his home news organization. It is impractical to claim that news reporting is independent of bias, and, in this case, it seems that Williams’ remarks were viewed as a problem particularly because they seemed to stand contrary to NPR’s own editorial views. News organizations must realize that every employee harbors personal beliefs.

In making these remarks, Williams seemed to be admitting a personal emotional reaction rather than a conscious intolerance toward Muslims, although we see how viewers and listeners could easily have interpreted his comments as being bigoted. Instead, his statements

EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the editorialists, and individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

further highlight the uncontrollable emotional response that many individuals feel despite their intellectual stance on certain issues. As Williams’ comments suggest, unfortunately, people’s conscious views do not always influence their unconscious attitudes. In this light, we do not believe that Williams’ comments were necessarily bigoted or intended as such; rather, they were an honest admission about his own rote reactions.

NPR’s immediate decision to fire Williams is an inappropriately strong reaction to the situation and to the interpretation that his remarks were directly targeted toward Muslims. The media’s hypersensitivity to issues of race and religion likely influenced NPR’s assessment of the situation and its ultimate conclusion, however poor the decision. In this sense, firing Williams was a form of instantly satisfying those who would exhibit a similarly sensitive reaction.

This, in fact, could easily have been another factor in NPR’s decision — that the organization could have lost listeners who interpreted Williams’ comments to be prejudiced. Ultimately, NPR’s potential loss of patronage may have mattered more to the organization than keeping Williams employed as a testament to its journalistic integrity and discretion. As a business, it is within NPR’s interest to retain as many listeners as possible, but that is not worth sacrificing its contributors’ right to free speech.

This is not to say, however, that there are no bigoted remarks against Muslims being made on air or in the media today. But labeling all statements as such is ineffective when there are many more unambiguously offensive statements to be countered.

A statement that warrants such attention, for example, could likely be written off as one of the many that are undeservedly brought to the national spotlight, and remarks that are truly bigoted could thus go unaddressed.

In addition, the media’s association of Williams’ remarks with those that Bill O’Reilly made on [“The View”] only adds to the false belief that Williams’ statements were as intolerant as O’Reilly’s. In justifying an opinion poll he cited where 70 percent of respondents opposed the construction of Park51, a Muslim community center located two blocks from Ground Zero, O’Reilly caused [two of] the show’s co-hosts to walk off the set by saying, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.” O’Reilly’s comments were inexcusable, unlike Williams’, and a comparison between the two is unfair and inaccurate.

In firing Williams, NPR has silenced someone who was, in fact, implicitly encouraging others to fight their initial fears about Muslims and to refrain from jumping to conclusions about people of any faith. NPR should have carefully considered the true intent of Williams’ words before quickly assuming that any sensitive comment about Muslims must necessarily result in termination.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 4 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com. All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 450-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

11

OP-ED

The new f-word BY

KATIE HEGARTY

In recent weeks, Tufts has seen more than its fair share of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ)-related editorials, articles, discussions and dormitory accoutrements, and some would say we’ve nearly drained every last drop of publicity from the subject. However, in all the rush to hear seemingly every student’s opinion on the matter, it is my opinion that we’ve lost sight of the deeper meaning of the words used to put forth our claims to solidarity and awareness. At the risk of throwing my hat into a ring of fire, I want to address an aspect of this greater conversation that appears to have slipped through the fingers of our common consciousness.

On Oct. 18, I sat in Carmichael Dining Hall, thrilled to the bone over “Fly your (rainbow) flags high,” the (mostly) wonderful editorial in that day’s issue of the Daily about the strides Tufts has made in creating a safer space for LGBTQ students. I, too, have been proud to call myself a Jumbo amid the rise in attendance at LGBTQ events, questions asked by students eager to become allies and even the range of new people popping in at the LGBT Center, where I’m an intern.

However, just before I let out a contented sigh as I neared the end of the flag editorial, one particular sentence caught my eye. I’ll start to quote it, but I refuse to finish. I read, “Continue to refrain from using the words…” and then I stopped, aghast. What followed was the fully articulated version of a prominent gay slur — what I’ve taken to calling “the new f-word.”

For those unaware of which word I’m talking about, it rhymes with “maggot” and has been used casually, derogatorily and far too often on this campus and outside the dear, sweet Tufts bubble. I was shocked to see that, especially at Tufts, which has been purporting itself as a supportive and aware space so much recently, I can still — and an LGBTQidentifying student can still — open the paper and be smacked in the face by a wildly offensive slur in all its lack of glory.

If I were to read an editorial about any other marginalized group, would I see the slurs slapped onto that group’s history printed in their entireties? I highly doubt the Daily would print the n-word in an article discussing African-American culture on campus, or a slur used against Latino, Jewish, Native American or even female students.

Even when they are used as nothing more than casual modifiers, I have seen curse words typed with hyphens respectfully replacing the majority of potentially offensive letters. “F--k” is far more appropriate than a complete spelling of that word, at least in my opinion. The argument can be made that printing a word in its entirety detracts from the polarizing power of the word and forces people to think critically about why that word has the connotation it does.

Perhaps it is true that making every slur into a lexical Voldemort, a that-which-must-not-be-named, gives power to the words that hurt. However, at this point in time, the dominant tendency is to censor potentially hurtful words, and if this is the status quo, all slurs should fall under that same category and be written consistently.

As someone who does tend to the occasional profanity in casual conversation, I understand that a call for the eradication of all, shall we say, “not-safe-forwork words” is naive and unrealistic. However, this is not what I’m asking for. Instead, I ask that we treat the slurs associated with the LGBTQ community with the same deference given to other minority groups. I ask for the simple respect of a hyphen or two. I ask that if we’re going to print editorials telling the student body not to use the new f-word in a derogatory sense, that we not print it casually and openly, but the way we print any other slur — if we must print them at all. I’m asking for editorial consistency and continuity.

Within the LGBTQ community, there are words that have been used derogatorily that are in the process of being reclaimed. Look at the very acronym I used: The “Q,” to remind or inform those who don’t know, stands for “queer.” Once as hateful as the word that inspired this piece, and in some places still an overt

slur, “queer” has been taken up by some members of the larger community, often as an umbrella term for non-heterosexual identities and, for some, as a personal identification within the sexuality spectrum.

There is also a movement to take back a term for lesbian women that some readers may only be aware of in the context of a little Dutch boy’s finger.

Given these two reclamations, it could be suggested that perhaps some students don’t know which words are OK and which are not. The simple answer is that if you don’t know if a word is acceptable, then find a word you know is not offensive. Our social lexicon is enormous; no one can say that the new f-word is the only title available.

At the end of the day, Tufts really is among some of the safer spaces for LGBTQ college students.

We have queer studies classes, we have a thriving LGBT Center, we’re inclusive-minded and growing in awareness every day, and, from an outside perspective, we’re consistently on The Advocate’s list of top gay-friendly campuses.

But we can’t be complacent, and we can never think we’ve done enough. A few hyphens in a newspaper article may seem like a silly thing to ask for in the face of rampant discrimination in our own country and death sentences for being gay in other countries, but every little bit helps.

The new f-word is a threat. It is a slur. It is offensive, and, as we’ve learned from the Raymond Chases, Asher Browns, Seth Walshes, Billy Lucases, Cody Barkers and Tyler Clementis of the world, words hurt, words matter and what we say makes a difference so large we can hardly fathom. I think it is little to ask of an institution like Tufts that we think before we speak, write or publish.

I have been so proud to be a Jumbo, and I know I’m not the only one, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all work together to make everyone a little bit prouder.

Katie Hegarty is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major.

CAMPUS CANVAS | KATIE QUACKENBUSH

The Daily wants to hear from YOU. Have a problem with our coverage? Upset about something happening at Tufts or in the community?

Send op-ed submissions, 600-1,200 October is a month dedicated to many things, including domestic abuse awareness. Tufts Social Justice Arts Initiative is a student-run group that seeks to use as many artistic mediums as possible to address issues of social justice. This comic is the second in a series we’re running throughout October, starring “Alex,” that addresses the issue of domestic abuse outside of its traditional definition of only occurring between two individuals in some sort of “romantic” relationship.

In this strip Alex is suffering from a demanding and controlling partner.

That kind of abuse can have long-lasting effects, affecting future relationships, lowering self-esteem and leading to general unhappiness and frustration.

Think about who you are most like, then ask yourself — do you know Alex?

words, to oped@tuftsdaily.com. Send letters to the editor to editor@tuftsdaily. com. Full submission policy below

Katie Quackenbush is a sophomore majoring in international letters and visual studies. She is the executive director of Tufts Social Justice Arts Initiative.

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than 12 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

THE TUFTS DAILY

12 CROSSWORD

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

COMICS

SUDOKU Level: Pulling off a sexy zombie costume

TUESDAY’S SOLUTION

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Tuesday’s Solution

Phil: “A win would be nice, but at the very least we need to drink everyone else to the ground and physically abuse and annihilate them. The win would be bonus.”

Claire: “That’s my approach to every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in a nutshell.”

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Water polo seeks second straight national championship next weekend WATER POLO continued from page 16

and shows up to play,” senior co-captain Joe Lessard said. “We’re often at an advantage at the beginning of the season because we’re very tough on ourselves with conditioning and drills, but by the end of the season, it tends to be a more even playing field.”

“The championship game was hard this year,” Abeger added. “I wouldn’t say it was harder [than last year’s], but it meant more because it was to remain undefeated. We haven’t lost since my sophomore year.”

More specifically, the team is on a 25-game win streak, and the current senior class is an astounding 50-3, dating back to the fall of ’07, with one loss in the national semifinals in ’07, a loss in the division championship of ’08 and another defeat in the national semifinals of ’08. In 2009, however, the Jumbos went a perfect 14-0 and captured the national championship.

“The season as a whole is just an upswing,” Abeger said. “We have con-

tinued our undefeated record, re-qualified for nationals, and hope to repeat as champions.”

The team’s success this season has come thanks to the influx of a strong freshman class as well as the continued development of the team’s primary scorers. In a sport where conditioning is so vital to success, a deep bench is always essential.

“We were lucky to have a great freshman turnout, specifically a group of freshmen who have prior experience,” Abeger said. “We also have some new water polo players who have worked very hard and become good players in their own right.”

“We measure most of the success in our players in their dedication to the team and how they fare on defense,” Lessard added. “We play defense first and offense second.”

Of course, a stalwart goaltender is paramount to any team’s chance of winning. With senior Brian Canter in the cage for the Jumbos, the team hasn’t had much to worry about.

“I think that Brian Canter has been a stone wall in the cage all season,” Abeger said. “In the Division Championship, when we had to go back and play part of the third quarter all over again, Amherst was awarded a 5-meter penalty shot. Brian took position and stick-saved the shot and saved us from going down 11-8.”

Abeger and Lessard gave nods to other statistical giants such as junior Benji Koltai, the team’s center, who scores goals by the handful and leads the teams in steals, as well as senior Matt Burke, who provides a strong defensive presence in front of the cage.

Not to be forgotten, however, is the versatile freshman Pike Hughes, whom the team hails as one of its hardest workers as well as the resident mood lifter. “[Hughes is] a great new element to our team,” Abeger said. “He works hard in practice and has improved a lot, and has provided the team with laughs with one-liner jokes in between periods to

lighten the mood.”

The Div. III Club National Championship will take place at Macalester College (Minn.) on Nov. 6-7. The team believes it has the talent to take home the title and that it’s just a matter of following through and getting the job done.

“We just have to continue to play Tufts water polo — defense first and our offense will come,” Abeger said.

“We know we can score goals, but we need to prevent the other team from scoring. When it comes to offense, we need to drive and open up the middle of the pool for our centers to get good shots.”

“One of our captains from last year came up with the idea of, ‘What’s the score?’ to which we always reply ‘0-0,’” Lessard added. “It’s the mentality that you play every possession as hard as you can and defend like you’re tied and look to score like you’re tied.

“We could be up by 10 goals or down by five,” he continued. “It’s always 0-0 in our minds.”

Tufts’ martial arts practitioners looking to accomplish ‘big things’ TAEKWONDO continued from page 16

Senior captain Peter Yeh describes Taekwondo as a martial art encompassing far more than simple kicks and punches.

“Yes, you do train and compete, but you follow five common tenants of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit,” Yeh said. “These are goals a person develops [in order to] become a positive influence in the community.”

Yeh stressed the benefits of Taekwondo from a mental and physical standpoint, especially because most of the team’s training focuses on tournaments.

“We have a lot of members and

don’t all compete at every competition,” Yeh said. “The competitions are our main focus and are a great way to meet people and show your skills. It’s amazing to see the progress of some people who haven’t competed.”

The weekend tournament at MIT held a unique format, with two types of Taekwondo present: form and spar.

Form does not involve combat, but rather a traditional series of movements judged on accuracy and power. It is further divided by gender and ability. Ability is subsequently broken up into four categories — A through D — based on the belt color of the competitor. A

is the highest, comprised of red and black belts. D is reserved for first-time fighters.

Sparring — the combat division of Taekwondo — is divided not only by gender and ability, like Form, but also by weight class.

In this particular setup, competitors fight in groups based on weight, and fighters progress according to team results.

It can take time to adjust to the difference between classes, according to the Jumbos. Few know this better than sophomore Nick Bayhi, who fought in B class this weekend despite normally being in the C class.

“I literally got kicked in the head,” Bayhi said, “Head shots are only allowed in Class A and B. It surprised me, and I wasn’t used to it.”

Bayhi, like many other competitors, arrived at Tufts with no prior experience in Taekwondo, and joined the team looking for a new challenge.

“I was a freshman looking for something to get involved in,” Bayhi said. “I was looking for a good workout. Martial arts was always something I wanted to do and it’s where I ended up.”

Looking forward, both Bayhi and Yeh are excited about the squad and the prospect of competing in future tournaments.

Do you care about how sexual violence is handled on our campus?

4th Annual Sexual Violence Community Forum Discuss our new university wide and judicial policy with panel including Dean Reitman, and Veronica Carter

Wednesday 10/27 @7:30 Metcalf Hall Lounge Bring your friends. Your opinions. Your questions.

The panel: Dean Bruce Reitman, Judicial Affairs Officer: Veronica Carter, Director of Health and Wellness: Michelle Bowdler, Sexual Assault Clinician: Susan Mahoney, Captain of TUPD: Mark Keith.

Discussion moderated by the Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator, Elaine.Theodore@tufts.edu

This forum is part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month: JUST ASK.

Sponsored by the Department of Health Education, PACT and SAFER. Event followed by Take Back The Night March

The next two tournaments will be held on Nov. 7 at Cornell and Nov. 20 at Princeton.

“The team is looking great,” Yeh said. “Everyone has a lot of energy and is really dedicated.

We’re looking better and better every year, quietly increasing, and we’re just going to go higher. Ever since I joined, it’s been a great time, but we’re always looking for new members, even people who have no experience.”

“We’re getting better with every practice but we need to recruit,” Bayhi added. “Our number is pretty low. However, our group is dedicated, and we’re going to do big things.”

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All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $15 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature, or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

Closely-matched squads will provide plenty of excitement INSIDE MLB continued from page 16

with the National League’s first home-field advantage since 2001 — are not far behind.

Texas’ primary advantage is on offense, where manager Ron Washington will field a diverse starting lineup that has power and speed, patience and aggressiveness, youth and experience. Bruce Bochy’s lineup is more one-dimensional, relying on long-balls that sometimes do not come.

The Rangers’ heart-of-the-order features likely American League MVP Josh Hamilton, accomplished slugger Vladimir Guerrero and a rising star in Nelson Cruz — a slugging triumvirate that combined for 83 home runs during the regular season. The Giants will counter with NL Rookie of the Year-hopeful Buster Posey in the cleanup spot, sandwiched between two resurgent veterans in Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell.

That trio accounted for 62 homers.

The Giants’ only true stolen-base threat is leadoff man Andres Torres, who succeeded on 26 of his 33 regular season attempts, but is just 1-for-4 so far in the playoffs. The Rangers, on the other hand, have several speedsters, led by middle infielders Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler. The Rangers ranked seventh in the majors with 123 steals during the regular season.

But the Giants can make up for their mediocre offense with an excellent pitching staff that led the league with a 3.36 team ERA and that has been as good as advertised in the playoffs. Staff ace Tim Lincecum appears to have found a groove after struggling with his command during the regular season, and his fellow homegrown rotation-mates — Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner — have, for the most part, been solid.

San Francisco also features one of the best bullpens in baseball, led by the eccentric Wilson and complemented by the effective setup duo of side-armers, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez. Romo held righthanded hitters to a .185 average during the regular season, while Lopez squashed lefties to the tune of a .162 mark, enabling Bochy to neutralize opponents’ platoon advantages in the late innings.

Texas, though, doesn’t trail by much, either in the rotation or the bullpen.

-

ETHAN FRIGON | THE BEARD ABIDES

The lil’ gunslinger

I

MCT

Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton looks to lead the Rangers to their first championship in a World Series that promises more talent than sobriety.

Cliff Lee, a candidate for AL Cy Young honors thanks to his record-setting 185to-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season, is the best pitcher on either team and is undefeated in the postseason. C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis also have the stuff to dominate on any given night. And the Rangers’ closer Feliz, who converted 40 of his 43 save chances this year, is one of the best young relievers in the game.

When it comes to fielding, the teams are about equal. The Giants ranked fourth in the majors in defensive efficiency, the rate at which balls in play are converted into outs, while the Rangers came in sixth. But those high marks mask glaring weaknesses in the outfield, where Bochy starts the lumbering Burrell in leftfield, and Washington — at least in the games played in San Francisco — may have to live with Guerrero’s balky knees in right. The Rangers have the superior middle infield with Kinsler at second and Andrus at short, but the Giants have the edge in centerfield, where the fleet-

Editors’ Challenge: World Series

footed Torres can cover more ground than Hamilton.

Overall, the Rangers will put more talent on the field than the Giants. That gap will be closed slightly by the Giants’ success at AT&T Park, where they went 49-32 this season, and the Rangers’ lowly 39-42 record on the road.

But as is the case with any short series, what matters isn’t which team is better, it’s which team plays better. The Rangers and Giants, both used to shedding the underdog label, know that better than anyone else.

The 2010 World Series won’t feature the familiar faces of Philadelphia, New York or Boston. Instead, it will give the game’s brightest new stars a chance to showcase their skills on the biggest stage and put their franchise on top of the baseball world for the first time.

From the claws and antlers of the Rangers, to the Zeus-like beards of the Giants, this year’s Fall Classic promises plenty of excitement and loads of fun.

Sailors improve results SAILING

WINNER GAMES

MVP

Alex L.

5

Cody Ross

Alex P.

7

Cliff Lee

Ben K.

7

Cody Ross

Claire K.

7

Tim Lincecum

Daniel R.

5

Nelson Cruz

Ethan S.

6

Josh Hamilton

Jeremy G.

6

Nelson Cruz

Lauren F.

6

Cliff Lee

Noah S.

7

Tim Lincecum

Phil D.

6

Buster Posey

Steve S.

6

Cliff Lee

continued from page 16

Soriano said, made for tight races across the board.

“The closeness of the racing was definitely characteristic of how competitive the [New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association] is as a district in [the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association],” Soriano said. “In the last race, for example, 15 of the 18 boats finished within probably 30 seconds of one another. You cannot be thinking about the fact that one small mistake might cost you 5-10 points.”

Freshman Will Haeger and his crewmember, senior Sally Levinson, sailed the B boat to a first-place finish. Haeger said his boat tried to avoid deep finishes and to keep scores consistent.

“It was definitely challenging, being relatively new to sailing intersectionals,” he said. “Sally’s experience definitely was crucial in keeping us focused and sailing well.”

“We had to work really hard hiking to keep the boat as flat as possible, but it was a fun challenge,” Levinson added. “Will and I did really well last week in lots

of breeze, so we knew we could do well again at the Hoyt. On Sunday, we had a wind delay all day long, so we had to be mentally prepared and ready to go if the breeze ever filled in.”

The women’s team, meanwhile, placed 13th of 18 teams at the Stu Nelson Regatta hosted by Conn. College.

Seniors Catherine Swanson and Sarah Carnahan raced the A Division, while sophomore Natalie Salk and junior Kate Booras raced the B boat.

They finished 15th and ninth, respectively.

With the fall season wrapping up in the next few weeks, Soriano and the co-ed team hope to continue to ride this past weekend’s momentum into future regattas.

This weekend, the Jumbos will compete in the Schell Trophy Regatta hosted by MIT; they need to finish in the top eight to qualify for the Atlantic Coast Championships.

“If we sail the way we did this weekend at the Hoyt, we should be able to qualify to go on to the Atlantic Coast Championships at Navy in two weeks,” Soriano said.

have magical powers! First Tiger Woods was rocked by a hilarious/tragic sex scandal after I wrote a semi-glowing column about him last fall. Now the same fate has befallen Every Announcer’s Favorite Ancient, Overrated, Retiring and Unretiring and Ununretiring, Wrangler Jean Wearin’, Just Plain Ole Fun Havin’, AMERICAN quarterback.

That’s right ladies and gentlefriends, we’ve got ourselves a Brett Favre sex scandal. Or more accurately, a Brett Favre sexting scandal. And despite the fact that both parties will readily admit there was no actual sex occurring, it might be even worse than the Tiger Woods saga.

For those of you who don’t spend hours a week on Deadspin, what basically happened is this: Brett Favre — during the season he was playing for the New York Jets in 2008-09 — left a number of voicemails for Jenn Sterger, a former ‘Gameday Host’ for the team, suggesting that she contact him to schedule a rendezvous. Sterger declined this opportunity of a lifetime, telling Favre through another team employee that she wasn’t interested. Both Favre and Sterger admit that this much occurred.

According to Sterger, however, Favre was undeterred, and the Ole Gunslinger proceeded to send her a series of photos of, well, his Lil’ Gunslinger. To date, Favre has denied that these lewd messages were sent by him. Sterger has thus far refused to speak to the NFL in their ongoing investigation, and it seems unlikely that any punishment will be doled out to Favre without her cooperation in the matter. So how was this relatively tame — for our day and age — sex scandal worse than Tiger’s?

First of all, the voicemails themselves are almost hilariously adolescent. He might as well have written a note asking: Do you like me? Yes, no or maybe. His pathetic attempts to organize a rendezvous in a hotel room suggest the demeanor of a man who genuinely has not hit on a girl in 15 years — Favre has been married since 1996.

Sadly enough, there is a right way and a wrong way for a married athlete to go about discreetly seducing a much younger team employee, and Favre did it the wrong way. And for a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants quarterback like Favre, this makes perfect, stupid sense.

Now look back in retrospect at Tiger’s ridiculous string of extramarital affairs. He conducted them like the sociopath we never knew he always was. The most instantly recognizable, famous athlete in the world was having sex with literally dozens of women who weren’t his wife, and no one knew a thing, including his own wife. Except really, we should have had some inkling of Tiger’s sociopathic tendencies all along.

Everything we knew and loved about Tiger revolved around his hyper-competitiveness.

Sure, his family was an important part of his image, but they were there more to assure us of his normalcy rather than to present him as warm and cuddly. The only Tiger Woods commercial I can recall off the top of my head is one of him hitting golf balls in the rain on what was supposed to be his day off.

Tiger Woods was a sociopath, but one who we respected, in the same vein as Michael Jordan, because it drove his almost inhuman competitive streak. Until one day, the wheels came off. It seems the wheels have come off for Favre as well, albeit in a somewhat different way. But given the kind of athlete we have always seen him as, this stupid sequence of events should have been completely predictable.

Ethan Frigon is a senior majoring in economics. He can be reached at Ethan.

Frigon@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Editors’ Challenge 15

tuftsdaily.com

WATER POLO

Tufts wins second straight regional title Two-time regional champions look to claim national crown BY

PHILIP DEAR

Daily Editorial Board

For the second straight year, the co-ed water polo team is undefeated and champions of the North Atlantic Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association headed into the national championship. And for the second straight year, the Jumbos have the expectation of bringing home the gold.

The squad this weekend secured the North Atlantic Division Championship with a nail-biting 16-15 win over Amherst in the Lord Jeffs’ home pool.

The win preserved the Jumbos’ current 11-game winning streak and kept their hopes alive for a repeat of last year’s undefeated, national championshipwinning campaign.

“Winning the division was huge,” senior co-captain Alex Abeger said. “It made all the hard work that we put in as a team worth it.”

“Overcoming Amherst in the final was even better,” he continued. “They were our toughest competition in the regular season, and they showed up to play in their home pool against us with a huge crowd supporting them.”

It was not by chance that the championship game came down to Tufts and Amherst. During the regular season,

TAEKWONDO

Taekwondo competes at MIT tournament BY

HARRY POTTER

Daily Staff Writer

“It’s always hard to win, especially at championships, because by that point every team has shaken off the cobwebs

It may not be an official varsity sport, but Taekwondo, one of the many martial arts originating from Korea, is very much alive and kicking on the Tufts campus.

The team competed at MIT’s Johnson Athletic Center this past Saturday against nearly 20 other teams and 400 competitors. The Jumbos, normally a small force, took only 16 members and competed against some of the largest and most accomplished teams in the region.

MIT, the regional powerhouse, won the Div. I pool. Brown took home top honors for Div. II, while the University of Michigan captured Div. III. Tufts competes in Div. II and, with 48 points, finished sixth overall out of 10 clubs.

The women’s C-class won the bronze sparring medal, which was certainly an achievement given that many Jumbos were sparring for the first time against more experienced fighters.

see WATER POLO, page 14

see TAEKWONDO, page 14

COURTESY KJ KROETCH

The water polo team won the North Atlantic Division Championship this weekend — extending its current win streak to 25 games — and hopes to repeat as national champions when it travels to Macalester College next weekend. the Jumbos’ closest game by far was a 12-11 victory over the Lord Jeffs on Oct. 2. In the nine games Tufts has played against teams other than Amherst, the closest margin of victory was four.

SAILING

Sailors reverse the tide, see positive results at Brown

Weekend regatta shows improved finishes, may foreshadow positive future

BY SARAH

TRALINS

Daily Staff Writer

Over the past few weekends, Tufts sailors have had mixed results and relatively disappointing finishes, but it seems that the team is finally gaining momentum.

The co-ed team finished fifth overall out of 18 teams at this weekend’s Hoyt Trophy, hosted

by Brown University, winning the B Division with 25 points and, with a combined total of 101 points, finishing within 10 points of fourth-place Charleston.

The sailors raced in 420s in conditions that called for a focus on wind shifts rather than tactical movements. The team raced on Saturday due to a forecast of a lack of wind on Sunday.

Junior skipper Massimo Soriano and senior crewmember Margaret Rew competed in the A Division, finishing eighth with 76 points.

Soriano was pleased with his sailing and the way his boat strategically handled the race.

“Margaret and I made a couple mistakes in the first two sets which yielded some less good finishes,” Soriano said.

“We were happy to iron out [our early issues] and begin to control our own destiny with consistent starts and a better understanding of the conditions,” he continued.

“In the last two sets, we got into a groove which felt much better.

During those last few races, we made more decisive choices and were patient with the conditions.”

For Tufts, currently ranked 14th in the nation, the regatta was highly competitive, with the majority of the teams in the top 20 ranked in the latest national rankings. This,

COURTESY ADAM WEISMAN

see SAILING, page 15

The co-ed sailing team placed fifth at the Hoyt Trophy regatta this weekend, with a first-place showing in the B Division.

INSIDE MLB

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Four wins between teams and World Series glory BY

Top runners rest for NESCACs, Mayor’s Cup rounds out season for many Jumbos

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

Seven wins down, four to go. That’s the mindset of the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants, who have defied expectations to reach the 2010 World Series.

Neither team was supposed to come this far. The Rangers weren’t supposed to outslug the New York Yankees. The Giants weren’t supposed to outpitch the Philadelphia Phillies. But they did.

On consecutive nights, the Rangers and Giants, both underdogs, dispatched their respective defending league champions, who had their one-time MVP cleanup hitters at the plate. On Friday, Texas closer Neftali Feliz caught Alex Rodriguez looking at a slider, sealing a 6-1 win and the first pennant in the franchise’s history. On Saturday, San Francisco’s ninth-inning man Brian Wilson slipped a backdoor slider past Ryan Howard, ending a 3-2 nailbiter that brought the Giants back to the World Series for the first time since 2002.

Those two Game 6 victories ensured that this year’s Fall Classic would have a fresh flavor. For the first time since 2006, there will be no East Coast teams involved. For

MCT

Solid starts from San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum will be essential if the Giants want to stop the Rangers’ powerful offense. the first time since 2002, a city will hang its first championship banner.

The Washington Senators relocated to Arlington, Texas in 1971. The New York Giants moved to San Francisco, Calif. in 1958. Every season since, their fans have rooted and rooted, only to watch their teams come up short in the end. Within the next eight days, one of those fan bases will have its patience rewarded; the other will need to wait at least another year.

The Rangers come into the World Series as the favorites, but the Giants — armed see INSIDE MLB, page 15

While the top runners of the women’s cross country team rested in preparation for the NESCAC Championships this weekend, the rest of the team traveled to Franklin Park in Boston to run in the Mayor’s Cup 5k. With a few spots still available on the Jumbos’ NESCAC squad, more was at stake than just the team result for the runners.

The Jumbos as a team finished ninth out of 10 with 357 points. The bulk of the teams were post-graduate running clubs, such as New Balance Boston, which finished first in impressive form with 28 points.

Boston Athletic Club and New York Athletic Club finished second and third, with 55 and 91 points, respectively. Individually for Tufts, freshman Jana Hieber finished first for the Jumbos in 19:56, good enough for 74th overall. Classmate Madeleine Carey was next in 77th in 20:19, while junior Bryn Kass followed by just two seconds. Rounding out the scoring for Tufts were junior Caroline Melhado and senior tri-captain Jen Yih, in 20:35 (85th) and 20:37 (87th), respectively.

With all of the talented post-collegiate runners in the field, there was a very fast pace for the first mile. According to the Jumbos, starting so quickly makes it more difficult to maintain such a speedy rate for the duration of the race.

“I remember passing coach [Kristen] Morwick at the mile mark and seeing the clock at 5:45,” Hieber said. “I don’t think I’ve ever gone out that fast in a race before.”

Even though the race had to slow down after it, the fast first mile actually helped some runners to post personal bests.

“I had a goal to not only beat my time from the last race here, but my best time from high school as well,” Hieber said.

“Twenty minutes was also on my mind. I knocked out all three and I am really excited about it.”

Franklin Park is a familiar course for the Boston-area teams, which played a role in the way the women ran this weekend.

“I was really excited to run at Franklin Park again,” Hieber said. “I enjoyed running at this course last time and I was looking forward to it. It’s such a straightforward course.

You can easily break it up into three parts, and focus on each separately.”

The postseason begins this weekend when Tufts heads to Hamilton for the NESCAC Championships, where the top 12 women will run. While many Jumbos are done for the year, the rest are only just entering the most important part of the season.

—by Connor Rose