2009-10-29

THE TUFTS DAILY

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009

VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 34

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Residents discuss hopes for Green Line extension BY

MATT REPKA

Daily Editorial Board

COURTESY OF HEATHER BLONSKY

As the Green Line extension project picks up steam, some Somerville residents are worried about its possible effects on environmental and affordable-housing efforts in the city.

Over 100 people attended a highly interactive meeting last night to discuss the future of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) project to expand the T line into Somerville and Medford.

The Community Corridor Planning (CCP) coalition held the open meeting at the Albert F. Argenziano School in Somerville.

Coordinators from the coalition, a partnership of four nonprofits, divided attendees into groups according to each person’s closest proposed T station. Each group talked independently about goals for the Green Line extension, then chose themes to discuss with the entire gathering.

Scheduled to be nearly completed by 2014, the MBTA project will extend the existing Green Line past its current terminus at Lechmere Station into Somerville and Medford.

In the works for over 15 years, extension plans now call for seven new T stops, including see GREEN LINE, page 2

The Race4Rwanda will be held at Tufts this Sunday as part of fundraising efforts by Tufts students who visited a Rwandan orphan youth village this summer.

A race to benefit Rwandan youth BY

MONICA MOWERY

Contributing Writer

The Race4Rwanda 5K run will draw Tufts students and community members to Ellis Oval on Sunday in an effort to raise funds for nonprofits and raise genocide awareness.

Funds for the race will benefit the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Eastern Rwanda; the Medford Family Network, an educational and family support program; and the Welcome Project, a Somerville immigrant advocacy organization.

The idea for the race came about after a group of 18 Tufts

students traveled to Rwanda this May to help at the youth village on a service program sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

After returning to the Hill, the Tufts undergraduates wanted to continue helping the village. They organized the 5K race at Tufts to raise money and awareness, bringing the impact of their summer travels a bit closer to home.

The youth village provides a community for children orphaned in the 1994 Rwandan genocide to learn and thrive in a family environment. Intended to eventually be a home for 500 orphans, the village has an arts center, residential

housing, a comprehensive high school, athletic fields and a medical clinic.

Tufts students on the trip interacted with the 125 children currently living at the village, in addition to visiting national monuments and genocide remembrance sites.

“It was actually incredible,” senior Rachel Lieber said. “We lived in the village with them and did some community service around the village. We played games with them and hung out during the day.”

A special project of the JDC, see RWANDA, page 2

On ‘interdisciplinary sabbatical,’ professors remain at Tufts

BY JENNY

WHITE

Contributing Writer

Opting to forego the traditional route of traveling across the country or the world on a sabbatical, Professor of Computer Science Carla Brodley took a significantly shorter trip during her time off from regular teaching duties — she headed just across the Charles River, to Tufts’ Boston campus.

After meeting with professionals at the School of Medicine a couple years ago, Brodley envisioned her skills in computer science playing a valuable role in furthering the doctors’ research. An upcoming sabbatical, typically taken every seven years by many Tufts faculty members, presented her with a chance to put those ideas into practice.

Brodley’s self-titled “interdisciplinary sabbatical” kept her within the university, and this practice of staying close to home is gaining supporters.

Already a petri dish for interdisciplinary collaboration, the university is extending its multidisciplinary

EUGENIA LEE/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Professor of Computer Science Carla Brodley chose to spend her sabbatical working at Tufts’ School of Medicine. opportunities to sabbaticals so that professors can team up with Tufts colleagues from completely different fields of study and establish extensive research cooperation.

Faculty members on sabbatical typically spend a semester or two at another university or in a research center unaffiliated with Tufts. Under this new approach, a

faculty member would collaborate with Tufts experts from other disciplines only a few miles — or across the Academic Quad — from the comfort of his or her office.

Brodley said her idea to partner with the medical school received enthusiastic approval from the

Inside this issue

see SABBATICALS, page 2

MATT REPKA/TUFTS DAILY

At a community meeting in Somerville last night, residents laid out what they saw as necessary goals of the Green Line extension project.

Increasingly visible Latino Center sponsors events for heritage month BY

MARISSA GALLERANI Contributing Writer

Tufts’ Latino Center is finishing up a very busy Latino Heritage Month, which found the student group drawing on its constantly growing membership and an artist-in-residence from Pomona College to lead an assortment of programming.

Every October, the Latino Center at Tufts sponsors Latino Heritage Month to educate the Tufts community about Latino heritage and culture. Month-long programming varies year to year, with a few mainstay events. A growing Latino community at the university has made the month increasingly significant, according to Director of the Latino Center Rubén Salinas-Stern.

“Our population has grown; now, nearly three hundred students identify themselves as Latino,” Salinas-Stern said, adding that less than 200 students self-identified as Latino in prior years.

As the number of Latino students at Tufts increases, so does the center’s visibility on campus.

Added participation and attention allows organizers to bolster October’s programming.

“Since I’ve been a student at Tufts, there is more of an

awareness that there is a month to celebrate Latino culture, and more people are excited about it,” said Association of Latin American Students (ALAS) President Rafael Artiles, a senior. “As our visibility has grown, we have been able to do more mainstay events that people have come to expect.”

But Salinas-Stern said that Latinos are still looking to make their presence more strongly felt on campus. “We really want to have more visibility for the community to see the richness of our culture,” he said.

Administrators take heart in the increased interest they have noticed over the past several years, stressing that Latino see LATINO, page 2

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts’ Latino Center saw increased participation this October, thanks to a growing Latino community.

Today’s Sections

The Daily takes a stab — or a bite — at figuring out what is so appealing about all these vampires.

The field hockey team will seek revenge against the team that beat it in last year’s NCAA championship.

see WEEKENDER, page 5

see SPORTS, back page

News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 13 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Artist in residence leads workshop for heritage month LATINO continued from page 1

Heritage Month is as much for non-Latinos as it is for members of the community.

“Latino culture is a lively part of our American heritage, and this month provides the chance for Latino and non-Latino students alike to come together and learn about the culture in the United States,” Director of the Latino Studies Minor Adriana Zavala said.

Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated on the national level starting in mid-September, but Tufts’ programming starts in October to avoid the beginning of the academic year.

The month seeks to clear up a number of false conceptions that are often associated with the Latino community, said Zavala, who is also an associate professor of art history.

“We often don’t see positive representations of Latinos in the U.S., and this is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate our culture and, importantly, do so from our perspective,” she said.

“Most importantly … Latino Heritage Month provides the opportunity for the whole community to come together to learn about Latino heritage.”

One of the highlights of the Latino Center’s programming this year was artist-in-residence Alma Martinez, a MexicanAmerican actress and an associate professor of theater arts at Pomona College in California.

Martinez spoke to three classes last week, conducted a workshop on the history of stereotypes in Hollywood and worked with students to develop a short play, which was performed this past Saturday in a tangible culmination of the artist’s weeklong stay.

“She’s a strong Latina role model,” Salinas-Stern said.

“She has a long history of working the Chicano movement, and students can really relate to her story.”

The Latino Center and the American Studies department co-sponsored Martinez’s program on campus. Each year, the American Studies Program receives a special grant from the Nat R. and Martha M. Knaster Charitable Trust to bring speakers to campus.

Salinas-Stern said that Martinez’s visit capped off a long list of programs the center has sponsored in its history.

“The Latino Center started in 1993, and it really wasn’t until 1994 that we had our first Latino Heritage week,” SalinasStern said. “For the past fifteen years that we’ve been doing this program, we’ve had incredible speakers and programs.”

Other programs this month have included a weekly film series, food fairs, game nights and lectures on the history of Latino culture.

Still, Salinas-Stern’s broader goals — promoting leadership and social justice — reach beyond the scope of Latino Heritage Month. “Leadership development is very important to us,” he said. “The Division of Student Affairs has been working on developing social justice workshops to educate students on what it means to be a leader in a socially just society.”

Documentary filmmaker Roberto Arevalo spent a week in September filming Tufts students for a project about being Latino at Tufts. The documentary will premiere at Tufts next semester.

As part of the month’s events, a Latino Poetry Café will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room.

Sunday race to bring 50 Rwandans to campus RWANDA continued from page 1

the village’s roots lie within Tufts.

Anne Heyman, a Tufts Hillel board member, founded Agahozo Shalom in 2006 after hearing a talk on the genocide.

Lieber, one of the main organizers of the race, praised Heyman’s efforts. “It’s a way that one woman who was at Tufts really made an incredible difference and [helped] orphans’ lives,” Lieber said.

Junior Miki Vizner, another organizer who went on the summer trip, said he hoped the 5K would spread consciousness and concern about genocide.

“I hope that we raise money and awareness and that it reminds people that it’s easy to get wrapped up in your life, but there are problems in the world,” Vizner said.

The students were impressed by the village’s ability to provide education and a supportive environment to orphans, a vital part of Rwanda’s future.

“The only wealth Rwanda

continued from page 1

head of her department and from Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha.

Bharucha called the sabbatical a successful stepping-stone to increasing productive interactions among faculty.

“I place a lot of value on the collaboration across the schools at Tufts,” Bharucha said, adding that it has great potential to spark new research. Brodley’s interdisciplinary sabbatical “was a pilot that worked extremely well,” he said.

“I would consider supporting another faculty member if another came along,” he added.

Not all research concentrations equally benefit from the interdisciplinary sabbatical that the provost envisions. Brodley spent the 2008-2009 academic year exploring how machine-learning could be applied to automate a process that screens thousands of scholarly article abstracts for medical research purposes, she said.

Taking this kind of sabbatical “requires wanting to collaborate, but also having interests that make sense to collaborate,” Bharucha said.

Though Brodley remains the only faculty member to have taken an interdisciplinary sabbatical at Tufts thus far, many professors around the university are interested in following her lead.

Eric Miller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is four years away from eligibility for a sabbatical and said that an in-house break could be “a viable, enriching experience.”

A year off from teaching offers an opportunity to immerse oneself in a completely unfamiliar field of study, and faculty generally travel far from their usual environment, said Miller, who is already collaborating with the medical school.

At Tufts, he said, one need not walk far to travel light-years away in a scholarly sense.

“It’s important to be as close to the data

has is people,” said Patrick Karuretwa, a graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy who was a soldier in the Rwandan Patriotic Front during the genocide.

“Rwanda is such a small country, five hundred or a thousand [of today’s] children could be running Rwanda in fifteen years.”

Vizner said that Rwanda has many natural resources, but that underlying tensions from the genocide remain. “The country has this weird feeling of being extremely beautiful but has this dark and ugly past,” he said.

Lieber hopes that Race4Rwanda will draw students’ attention to the village’s goals.

“It will raise awareness about the village and about the incredible future it’s providing for the orphans of the genocide,” Lieber said. “It has the potential to get Tufts students interested in and informed about genocides and other humanitarian crises.”

The race will start at 11 a.m. on

Sunday, and will be followed at noon by other activities, including a speech by Karuretwa and booths set up by organizations like the JDC, Tufts Hillel and the Rwandan community in Boston.

There will be Rwandan music playing, and a young genocide survivor will read poetry.

Rwandans will share information about their culture and homeland at a booth at the race.

Karuretwa said that approximately 50 Rwandans from the Boston area, mostly students and some professionals, plan to attend.

The race begins and ends at the Ellis Oval; the route, designed for both runners and walkers, will run through Medford and Somerville.

Prizes will be awarded to the top male and female finishers, as well as participants with the best Halloween costumes.

Participants can still register the day of the race. “It’s not too late to sign up. You will get an extra hour of sleep for daylight savings,” Lieber noted.

COURTESY OF HANNAH GOGEL

Employees farm at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Eastern Rwanda.

Faculty consider staying for sabbaticals SABBATICALS

Thursday, October 29, 2009

NEWS

as possible, to be where the problems are,” he said.

Brodley credited the ongoing success of her sabbatical project to working on site directly with her collaborators at the medical school and physically close to where research is conducted; she still travels to the medical school for the project once a week.

Professor of Biomedical Engineering Sergio Fantini called interdisciplinary sabbaticals “a fantastic idea” because they allow a professor to dedicate more time to research or gaining expertise in an area related to his or her existing multidisciplinary research.

Fantini said that faculty can profit more from interdisciplinary projects by taking an active role in understanding the work of their research partners.

“It is much more effective if you have a better understanding of what others are doing, and [that] would make collaboration more efficient to investigate new avenues of research on your own,” Fantini said.

Outside of sabbaticals, interdisciplinary collaboration already occurs at Tufts on a daily basis.

“I am always doing interdisciplinary work — that is my everyday life,” Professor of Child Development Marina Bers said.

While many faculty members already work across disciplines, a sabbatical would allow researchers the chance to get to know collaborators from other academic fields, Bers said.

“There is a lot of talk about multidisciplinary research as part of the Tufts experience,” Miller said. “It’s a small, collegial university where it’s easy to talk to people, a place where crossing borders to do research is easy to do.”

Just sitting and talking with a faculty member from a different discipline could result in “serendipity,” or the sparking of a new collaborative idea previously unimaginable, Miller added.

“You are stretched to think about things you wouldn’t normally think about,” Brodley said.

Somerville residents vote on priorities for Green Line extension GREEN LINE continued from page 1

one at the intersection of Boston Avenue and College Avenue, adjacent to the Tufts campus.

The primary purpose of the meeting was to vote on a set of principles — priorities that attendees agreed must result from the Green Line extension.

Each member in the small groups voted for five priorities from a predetermined list and wrote in any other concerns they may have had.

Some residents voiced concerns about the lack of adequate bus connections in their areas. Another aired her frustration with the ban on carrying bicycles on Green Line train cars.

CCP members tallied the votes just after 8 p.m. In addition to keeping Somerville affordable and improving environmental conditions, “winning” priorities also included working to create more local jobs and increasing commercial and economic development.

The audience inside the nearly full multipurpose room of the Argenziano School was diverse, in terms of both age and race. Translators were on hand to provide Spanish and Portuguese interpretations.

Mary Regan is a member of the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC), which is a CCP partner organization focusing on affordable housing development. She explained that the translators represented part of a concerted effort to “lower the obstacles to participation” that many lower-income and immigrant residents face.

“We’re always striving to get more [diverse representation],” Regan told the Daily. “We try to make our meet-

ings as accessible as possible.”

Addressing the audience from the podium, Regan emphasized the importance of civic participation.

“When community members get involved, the outcomes are more likely to reflect what they need and want,” she said. Regan cited examples of community input and involvement on recent transit projects in Berlin, Germany and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Fred Berman, a Somerville resident and SCC board member, cautioned that while the Green Line could have a major positive impact, it brings potential risks.

“The Green Line could be a blessing, but it could also wipe out traditional Somerville,” particularly if new stations cause population displacement, Berman said. “We want to do everything we can to make it … positive.”

Berman stressed the importance of community meetings and discussions like last night’s. “Public participation is important,” he said. “If people don’t get involved, their opinions don’t get counted.”

Regan said that with the principles established, the CCP is now looking to form advising groups to “flesh out” the voted-upon priorities and explore how they can be implemented.

Debi Levine, a Cambridge resident, said she came to the meeting because she was “very interested” in the project.

“I believe in public transportation,” Levine told the Daily. “I believe that improving the environment for some means improving it for all of us.”

Levine added that she is looking forward to the Green Line extension for more personal reasons, too. “It’s just going to make it easier to get around,” she said.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

From boxing to fasting to fighting, some elephants knew how to go down in history BY

cross the Rhone and attack Rome in 218 BC. In his book “Origines,” Roman historian Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder mentioned that Surus was the bravest elephant in Hannibal’s army. In the 1950s, British engineer John Hoyte studied this unbelievable feat in detail by retracing Hannibal’s march across the Alps with a female elephant also named Jumbo.

ROSANNA XIA

Contributing Writer

All of us know and love Jumbo, but there are quite a few other elephants that have made their mark on history.

For example, Pope Leo X had a white pet elephant, Hanno, a gift from King Manuel I of Portugal. Hanno became the Pope’s favorite pet. He inspired art, poetry and political satire in the early 1500s. Unfortunately, he died after he became sick and was treated with goldenriched laxatives.

But from Disney’s Dumbo to an elephant-shaped skyscraper in Bangkok, it is clear that even today, elephants are influential and adored outside of Tufts.

The Circus Let’s begin with Jumbo and his homeboys: the circus elephants. Each day, Tufts tour guides narrate P.T. Barnum’s account of how Jumbo heroically sacrificed his own life to save the circus’s dwarf elephant from an incoming train.

Alumna Susan Wilson (J ’79, G ’75) wrote in a 2002 Tufts Magazine article about how Jumbo enchanted “children on both sides of the Atlantic and ... ‘Jumbomania’ became the watchword of the day. In both England and America, savvy merchants began manufacturing and hawking ‘Jumbo’ products to the ravenous public.”

“It’s important to note that “jumbo”

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

was not an English word in 1861. It was this African elephant who brought that term to our language, not vice versa,” Wilson wrote.

Lalla Rookh of Dan Rice’s circus was the first elephant in the U.S. to consistently perform a head stand and was known for her tightrope walking ability. In 1860, she impressed the public by swimming across the Ohio River.

Old Bet, America’s first circus elephant, was shot and killed by an angry farmer who thought it was sinful that poor people were paying money to watch an elephant perform. The Elephant Hotel, now municipal offices for Somers, New York, was built as a memorial for Old Bet. Half a century later, Old John, a circus

Colossal Gifts As exotic and valuable animals, elephants were also exchanged throughout history as presents between rulers. Elephant AbulAbbas was Charlemagne’s luxury-petturned-war-weapon and was a gift from Caliph Harun al-Rashid in 797.

In the 1500s, Suleyman the African elephant was a gift from the King of Portugal to the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Similar to Pope Leo X’s elephant, Suleyman inspired songs and folklore during his time.

elephant famous for his boxing performances, made a 53-mile pilgrimage from Madison Square Garden to lay a wreath at Old Bet’s grave.

Religious Elephants Elephants also played a role in religion and, to this day, continue to be prevalent in Asian cultures and religions. The Guimet Museum in Paris has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia. From

Elephants at War Though their tightrope trips may interest audiences, elephants have historically played important roles as human sidekicks, especially during times of war. Their size and weight, trampling force, and ability to cross difficult terrain made them very valuable in early war tactics. In fact, elephants were used in war until the end of the 19th century, when cannon warfare made them easy to target and knock down.

“One of the most famous occasions goes back to ancient history ... India’s war elephants played a major role in stopping Alexander the Great in his expansions and conquests,” Professor of History Peter Winn said.

After he halted his advance into India, Alexander the Great quickly took in war elephants of his own and introduced the practice in Europe. The Carthaginian military commander Hannibal was known for using war elephants and led 37 of them to

the South Chinese elephant-shaped Zun ritual vessel to a Burmese depiction of an elephant offering, many pieces on display reflect the cultural and religious connections to elephants.

In 1987, Francis Clines in The New York Times wrote about Raja, “the most celebrated elephant in Asia.” Raja annually led a holy procession in Sri Lanka, carrying the country’s national treasure: the Tooth Relic of Buddha.

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

Unique Tails Moving past the royalty and the religious, there are some quirky elephants that are also definitely worth mentioning. Batyr lived in a zoo in Kazakhstan and was reportedly able to imitate animal sounds and speak about 20 short phrases in Russian and Kazakh. It is said that in 1980, a recording of Batyr saying “Batyr is good,” “Batyr is JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

see ELEPHANTS, page 4

IN OUR MIDST

Jumbo riding high on two wheels, one cause Junior bikes across Massachusetts to canvass for clean energy BY

CATHERINE SCOTT

Daily Editorial Board

Many people hear about so many worthy causes that it can become difficult to choose one to contribute to at all. Tufts junior Sally Sharrow isn’t one of these people, though, as she decided to commit her time and her legpower to help curb the effects of global warming.

This past summer, Sharrow biked around the state of Massachusetts campaigning for clean electricity to prevent climate change.

Having already worked with Massachusetts Power Shift on campus, Sharrow wanted to continue spreading the word about the importance of sustainable energy. She also desired a non-traditional summer experience that wouldn’t require her to sit passively at a desk.

The opportunity presented itself through Power Shift, a student-focused organization that is dedicated to fighting climate change with the emerging Massachusetts Climate

Summer program. Even though Sharrow was not an experienced bicyclist, she knew that she wanted to make the leap when she heard about the program.

“I had never really biked before, so that was a little intimidating,” Sharrow said. “I went into it not knowing what it was going to be like, but I knew it was going to be an adventure.”

For two months, Sharrow played the role of team leader to 20 students who biked from western Massachusetts to Cambridge and then around the North Shore, through Winthrop, Arlington and Malden. The group moved every four to five days, biking around 10 to 15 miles on those days. Members were accommodated in churches most nights, facilitated by a partnership between Power Shift and the Massachusetts Council of Churches. All in all, Sharrow’s group biked about 600 miles over those two months.

Every day, members would go door to door canvassing for clean electricity. They tried to engage people in the conversation about cli-

mate change and asked them to sign a petition to achieve 100 percent clean electricity within the next 10 years in Massachusetts.

Members also recruited participants for the International Day of Climate Action, which took place last Saturday on campuses with great success.

“We were really just trying to gauge interest. If they seemed interested, we tried to get them to take another step,” Sharrow said.

She admitted that she faced her share of difficulties over the summer, especially when talking to people with rather “unique” theories, like one person who wanted global warming to occur so Greenland could be colonized. But Sharrow said there were positive experiences as well.

“For all of the bad days though, you would have one really good day where everyone would be happy to talk to you and excited about what you were doing,” Sharrow said. see SHARROW, page 4

GRIFFIN PEPPER | EIGHT GIRLS AND A GUY

Feeding stereotypes

W

hen I was younger, my mom would insist that I help her cook dinner. She still does. During my most rebellious phase, I asked her, “Why do I have to learn how to cook chicken for the thousandth time?” “Because, Griff,” she replied coolly, “girls like a man who can cook.” Consequently, food is very important to me.

It seems as though every time I enter my house, I’m punched in the face by a wall of hypnotic smells. It could be from the downstairs girls, who cook different ethnic foods nightly, or it could be from my apartment upstairs, where some housemates experiment with fresh produce and spices to create something resembling eggplant parmesan.

I hate to feed stereotypes, but sometimes they just happen to be true. It’s humbling, exciting and even a little frustrating that my female housemates are excellent homemakers. And I admire the maturity that comes along with making a great meal.

I’m not saying that I think, even for a second, that all girls are master chefs. But I happen to live with a few talented, generous people. And I hope I can steal a few of their secrets.

Last week, my kitchen, although not terribly clean, was heavenly. My housemate volunteered to bake hundreds of different types of cookies for her student group. There were doughy bowls on every countertop and sticky wooden spoons and spatulas lining the stove. But I couldn’t be mad about the mess. My housemate had worked her butt off to make every type of cookie known to man. She tried an oatmeal, cranberry and white chocolate recipe which sent me into a tizzy. The pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were particularly popular. And when I asked her where she got these recipes, she replied rather nonchalantly, “Oh, these are just a few of my own.”

Other girls in the house will buy special ingredients and find ways to incorporate them into dishes. And maybe I’m not a very picky eater, but they all turn out splendidly.

How do these girls know how to cook so well? The most complicated thing I’ve made this year has been a quesadilla — basically just bread and cheese. And these girls are acting like contestants on a competitive cooking show, trying to improve on old favorites and impress the judges. The best part is I’m the only judge.

No offense, Mom, but it seems as though girls like a man who can eat their delicious food.

My mom knows how to cook. My eight housemates know how to cook. Most of my other girl friends outside of the house regularly bake seasonal pies and succulent frittatas.

And my guy friends are mostly clueless.

I remember one late night where my guy friends had a competition to figure out who made the best bananas foster. There were flames and melted butter and half-reduced pots of gritty caramel and smoking pans.

And the result was a gooey mess. I still ate it, of course.

I have one guy friend who insists on following all of Betty Crocker’s instructions.

Baking is a science, after all. But look at my adventurous housemate, who took every sweet ingredient she could think of and created hundreds of tasty treats without instructions.

Even though my mom trained me well — I can fry a mean over-easy egg — I’m still overly cautious when I cook. And when I do cook, it’s something simple and childish.

Most of my housemates agree: Cooking makes them feel grown-up. They like the feeling of providing themselves with something delicious and homemade. Us guys just need to grow up and start taking care of ourselves.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Griffin Pepper is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Griffin.

Pepper@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

4

Jumbo isn’t the only wise elephant still living in memories ELEPHANTS continued from page 3

hungry,” and other phrases was played on Kazakhstan’s state radio.

Gajarajan Guruvayoor Kesavan was a beloved elephant in Kerala, India. Kesavan was known for his devout behavior. The story goes that he fasted on the day of his death and dropped down facing the direction of the temple with his trunk raised in a position of submissiveness to the divine. The 1977 Malayalam feature film “Guruvayoor Kesavan” documents the elephant’s life.

Switching gears, here is a more morbid elephant history lesson to ponder: Mary the elephant was the first and only elephant to ever be executed. She was hanged by the neck from a railcar-mounted industrial crane. The execution was a sensation and sparked many animal abuse discussions. As recently as February 2009, The Captive Animals’ Protection Society published an article probing the details behind Mary’s execution.

“It happened in my home state of Tennessee, USA, and it remains one of the more enigmatic folktales of the Southeastern United States,” Mike Jaynes, the author of the article, wrote.

And finally, some elephant food for thought: The zoo in Paris’s Jardin des Plantes was created after the French Revolution to house the ex-king’s exotic animals. According to popular belief, the twin elephants, Castor and Pollux, were the zoo’s most popular animals and the pride of Paris back in the mid-1800s. However, during the Prussian Siege of Paris in 1870, people were so starved that they ended up eating Castor and Pollux and auctioning off the body parts.

“Trunks sold for 45 fr. a lb.; the other parts of the interesting twins fetched about 10 fr. a lb,” Henry Labouchère wrote in his “Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris.”

As a brief history lesson shows, there are plenty of other elephants to appreciate aside from Jumbo. Bon appetit.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

FEATURES

Sharrow draws on past experience in sleepout campaign SHARROW continued from page 3

“We did get to meet a lot of cool people.”

Jay O’Hara, Sharrow’s coordinator for this summer, said that the plan was somewhat imprecise because this was the first time they had organized a canvassing program for college students over the entire state. He lauded Sharrow’s abilities as a team leader, despite the difficulties such a role inevitably brought on.

“The most important thing was that the team leader’s role was to facilitate the group and not to have all the answers or to boss people around,” O’Hara said.

“She had to deal with some characters, but she handled that with aplomb and brought a team together who did some good work.”

Both Sharrow and O’Hara agreed that the summer was a success, with about 5,000 people signing the petition and dozens of workshops being held in 43 towns across the state.

“We emerged from this summer with an energized, educated and passionate group of community organizers who are [now] able to go out onto campuses and create a good example,” O’Hara said.

Sharrow has since become the Boston community outreach coordinator for Power Shift’s Leadership Campaign, the college campus constituency in which Sharrow and others hope to bring students in on the movement for clean electricity. She spoke about a current campaign for students to sleep outside until December, when the International Climate Treaty negotiations will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Students are also invited to lobby with Sharrow and others every Monday until then at the State House.

Power Shift is a cause that Sharrow has devoted herself to not simply because she is an environmental studies major but also because she thinks the dangers are much closer and much more severe than most people realize.

“Predictions are getting so much worse than they have been in the past. This is a huge problem that will hurt so many people and could cause many people to be displaced from their homes,” Sharrow said.

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

Junior Sally Sharrow didn’t need to stop for gas when she travelled through Massachusetts this summer.

She also seemed to believe that the majority of the responsibility lies on people to pressure the politicians into taking legal action and passing the bill.

“It’s this huge problem that nobody seems to be doing anything about,” Sharrow added. “Politicians need to think we can change the way we live.”

Sharrow is doing everything possible in order to get Tufts students interested and active. She described the sleeping outside campaign as something that anyone can do,

even for just one night, if interested.

Her experiences this summer helped her to develop an even stronger commitment to the organization for the school year, Sharrow said.

“Not only did it increase my sense of urgency about the issue, but this summer also increased my sense of community of people who are working to solve the problem,” Sharrow said. “It was really empowering to be with people who felt as strongly as [I did].”

Tufts Department of Drama and Dance presents

AUDITIONS FOR

Explore the origins and mechanisms of volcanic activity around the world and around the solar system!

HEDDA GABLER

Geology 192-04 Ring of Fire: Volcanoes

By Henrik Ibsen Directed by Sheriden Thomas

E+ Block: (10:30 - 11:45 AM Monday and Wednesday) taught by Prof. Molly McCanta

A new introductory course!

Auditions: Sunday & Monday, November 1 & 2

Callbacks: Tuesday, November 3 All audition info and sign up times is posted on the callboard in the Balch Arena Theater lobby, Aidekman Arts Center.

Questions? contact Balch Arena Theater Box Office at X7-3493.

and CVO

This new course will introduce you to volcanic processes: causes and types of volcanic activity, volcanic features on landscapes, and effects of volcanism on human institutions

. . .

There are no prerequisites for this course. see http://ase.tufts.edu/geology/GEO_Spring2010.pdf

Professor McCanta’s research includes work on volcanoes on Earth and on other planets, as well as on meteorites.

Weekender ARTS & LIVING

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tuftsdaily.com

WEEKENDER FEATURE

Bloodsuckers rule in the land of pop culture Vampires take a bite out of the entertainment industry may or may not have been able to foresee, vampires are all the rage. From books to movies to video games to TV shows and everything in between, what was once simply the domain of horror buffs and fans of Victorian literature has become mainstream.

BY

MITCHELL GELLER

Daily Editorial Board

Pale skin, red eyes, sharp teeth, nefarious schemes: While this could easily lead-in to any number of jokes about several college stereotypes (Daily editors, engineers, Tisch Library residents during finals, etc.), it’s actually a description of a vampire, the biggest thing to hit pop culture since Miley Cyrus, Beanie Babies, Pokemon, the Spice Girls, Pogs or Hula Hoops.

When Bram Stoker sat down to write “Dracula” (1897) at the end of the 19th century, he could not have imagined gangs of tween girls shopping at Hot Topic for “Twilight” T-shirts or teenage boys fantasizing about Kate Beckinsale’s character in “Underworld” (2003).

Regardless of what Mr. Stoker

The OVs (Original Vampires) The bloodsucker that started it all, Count Dracula, was nothing like the vampires that are so popular today. The count was a big, hairy fellow (hair sprouted, according to Stoker, from his palms, and he had an interesting moustache). He was old (but not in a “silver fox” sort of way), and SCIFISCOOP.COM his breath was consistently terrible. In short, he was just a real sketchy creeper.

“Dracula” wasn’t a huge when it was first published, but eventually its mythos caught on in a big way. Two decades later, F.W. Murnau adapted the story in his film “Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens” (1922), better known to English-speaking audiences as “Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror.” While Max Schreck’s portrayal of the bat-like protagonists isn’t likely to strike too much terror in the hearts of modern audiences, his gruesome demeanor provides a fascinating contrast to the sexy vampires of today.

The Birth of the Sexy Vampire Edward Cullen, for the uninitiated few, is the heartthrob vampire from Stephenie Meyer’s smash-hit novel “Twilight” (2005). Cullen is everything

that Dracula isn’t: young, handsome to a ridiculous extent (he’s described as “an Adonis”), alluring and not even remotely scary.

Edward Cullen is a pinup.

A quick search on Amazon. com brings up hundreds of “Twilight”-branded products: a collector’s edition DVD that retails for $89.99, hats and T-shirts, backpacks, action figures, jewelry and even a duvet cover.

Theoretically, a “Twilight” fan could get home, take off his or her “Twilight” T-shirt, put on another one to sleep in, take off an abundance of “Twilight” jewelry, take a copy of the “Twilight” book out of a “Twilight” backpack and get into a “Twilight”-themed bed underneath a “Twilight” poster to read it. Some people live “Twilight” from sunup to sundown.

And it isn’t just “Twilight” that makes bank on the myth of the sexy vampire. HBO’s massively popular “True Blood” centers on a group of hot, young vampires in New Orleans, while the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries” is about teenage vampires and their love triangles.

Most, if not all, of the recent quick-cash in books, movies and television shows has been made through young, sexy vampires instead of the old-world killers.

“It’s about sex.”

How, over the course of the 20th century, did vampires go from the stuff of nightmares to the stuff of fantasy? Professor of English Joseph Litvak, who is currently teaching an English class entitled “Horror Stories,” has a few ideas of his own about how this happened.

“The vampire fixation that we’re seeing is a fantasy of sex without genitalia ... [It is] a form of safe sex,” Litvak said.

Dracula himself, Professor Litvak proposes, is much more sexually threatening than the vampires of today’s fad. This seems to be at odds with most of our current beliefs about the Victorians, namely that they had conservative views towards sex. But it makes sense: Dracula and his modern incarnations enact a passionate penetration removed from sexual intercourse. So readers or viewers can fantasize all they want about being bitten without worrying about the dangers of real-world sex. Litvak suggested that now, with the fear of AIDS looming over all sexual activity, the vampire’s version of sexuality is relatively clean.

Litvak doesn’t see tweens lusting after Edward Cullen as an issue.

“The current vampires are much less sexual,” he suggests, “[It’s] a teen friendly, sanitized version ... You wouldn’t want Max Schreck [from “Nosferatu”] as your boyfriend, but you would [want] Robert Pattinson.”

Dracula was a predator.

Edward Cullen is a lover.

According to one “Twilight” fan who wished to remain anonymous because he/she worries about being judged by other students, the appeal of “Twilight” is that it only teases: “There is something addictive in there that makes me never want to put it down ... I think it’s because I am waiting for something actually juicy and mature to happen, but it never does.”

The closeted “Twilight” fan

said: “The level of sexuality in Edward and [female protagonist] Bella’s romance is very tempting — they can only kiss, and only for a few seconds, because Edward is scared that if he lets himself carry on, he will bite her.

It leaves the reader, embarrassingly, wanting more.”

After a thoughtful pause, the source added, “Do you want me to talk about ‘True Blood’? I’m less embarrassed about that.”

More Like “Why?-light” The anonymous source’s embarrassment raises a question: Why would a fan be a fan, but not admit it? Why should this obvious expert refuse to allow his or her name to be printed here?

“I hate admitting to actually liking ‘Twilight,’ because the quality of the writing is so, so poor, and the intentions of the books are clearly aimed at pre-teen girls,” said the “Twilight” fan. “I insist on buying the books on my dad’s Kindle [e-book reader] so that no one in public will be able to tell what I am reading.”

A return to the so-bad-it’sgood excuse always wins, but according to Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregator, the “Twilight” movie (2008) didn’t hit that sweet spot. With a 49 percent “fresh” rating — only 94 positive reviews out of 192 total registered — it was deemed just mediocre.

It wasn’t scary, either. “I wasn’t particularly horrified by the first [“Twilight”] film,” Litvak said.

While many do love the movie and the book, the general consee VAMPIRE, page 6

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THE TUFTS DAILY

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

WEEKENDER

THEATER PREVIEW TOP TEN | ZOMBIE CELEBRITIES The Tufts Daily Arts Department loves it when celebrities are still celebrities even after their careers have kicked the bucket. These peeps are still making appearances in the news — or tabloids — but are dead to us. Watch out: They’re always lurking around the corner waiting to suck talent from the lively and youthful.

10. Flava Flav: Just how high were you when you signed the papers to do “Flavor of Love?” Because we’re pretty sure there’s no way any sane person would subject himself to that. Also, what’s with the clock necklace? Couldn’t afford real bling?

9. Winona Ryder: Remember kids, shoplifting is a crime. And sometimes it leads to the end of your acting career.

8. Tara Reid: You disgust us.

How you ever had somewhat of a film career is beyond us.

Why don’t you go flash some more people and snort some cocaine off of Lindsay Lohan’s dashboard?

7. Jessica Simpson: This would be the ideal space to bring up food confusion after all these years, but that wouldn’t be fair.

You faded away. At least you still have that TV show. Oh ...

Wait ...

6. Rosie O’Donnell: You used to be so fun-loving. Those Koosh balls, those spin pops, your TV show. It was all just so fun. But now you’re angry.

Please chill out.

COURTESY JOANNE BARNETT

The drama department’s first production of the semester takes on the love lives of a 1940s actor and actress.

‘Kiss Me Kate’ is two plays in one Tufts production deals with tumultuous love BY

CATHERINE SCOTT

Daily Editorial Board

Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate,” the first of the Tufts drama department’s productions for fall semester, starts tonight.

Though a 60-year-old play might seem outdated for a college audience, Associate Professor and Director Barbara Wallace Grossman hopes to captivate students with the play’s theme of eternal love.

Written in 1948, “Kiss Me Kate” was Porter’s return to the spotlight. Many consider the play to be a love letter to his wife, Linda Porter. The story focuses on two actors, Fred and Lilli, who are given the lead roles in Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” (1590).

Juniors Andrew Kluger and Carolyn Berliner play the bickering, divorced couple, as well as their theatrical counterparts, Petruchio and Kate.

Complicating Lilli and Fred’s already tumultuous relationship is Fred’s new girlfriend, the actress playing Bianca in “Shrew,” and Lilli’s infatuation with another actor, who gambles using Fred’s name. As the production of “Taming of the Shrew” continues, Lilli and Fred are forced to come to terms with their love for each other despite their differences.

The fall production always takes place in the Balch Arena Theatre, but working in the round space can be difficult.

The play calls for three different sets — a backstage area, Lilli and Fred’s adjoining

dressing rooms and the city of Padua where “The Taming of the Shrew” takes place. Since the play within the play also requires a curtain, Grossman and company have decided to rig a ceiling-to-floor red velvet curtain. Actors must change back and forth between sumptuous Shakespearean-era costumes, with tights and corsets, and sexy ’40s lingerie actors of the period might have worn backstage.

Compounded with the fact that “Kiss Me Kate” is a massively complicated production is the semester’s late start this year, meaning the cast had one week less than usual to rehearse. The musical numbers also posed an interesting challenge.

Porter uses Shakespeare’s verses for a couple of songs in the play, but the rest are all his own creation. Songs like “Too Darn Hot” and “So In Love” were both popular songs during the ’40s after “Kiss Me Kate” first premiered, and the tunes are just as fresh and fun as any heard on the radio today.

Grossman isn’t concerned about scaring off students with decades-old music, and she believes that ultimately, everyone can relate to the tumultuous nature of love.

“There’s definitely a timelessness to it because of the music,” Grossman said. “But, really, each of us knows what it’s like to love someone, what we have to sacrifice because no one is perfect.”

When watching “Kiss Me Kate,” modern audiences must

take into account gender differences from Porter’s time — and Shakespeare’s as well. “The Taming of the Shrew” features a headstrong woman who eventually must succumb to her husband’s will.

“Shakespeare’s play has problems in it because of the misogyny that was endemic to the period,” said Grossman. “Shakespeare was a fairly enlightened writer, so it’s unusual how Petruchio is trying to win Katharine over with kindness.”

“Kiss Me Kate” calls for a spanking scene that many see as sexist in which Fred loses his temper with Lilli. Grossman dealt with this and other arguably sexist occurrences by moving them offstage.

“We didn’t want to subject a Tufts woman to being spanked on stage in full view,” said Grossman. “For me, this show isn’t about men ruling over women, but rather the complicated nature of love. I took a different approach to the ending that I hope people see as Fred and Lilli accepting each other on equal terms.”

Despite challenges, the cast and crew has pulled everything together for tonight’s opening production. The play runs this weekend and next, Oct. 29-31 and Nov. 5-7. All shows start at 8 p.m. with an extra Sunday matinee on Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the Balch Arena Box Office for $7 with a student ID and $12 without one. Tickets are $1 on Nov. 5.

5. Meg Ryan: You thought getting naked would revive your career. It didn’t. Yeah, you were sweet and adorable in your younger days, but now no one cares about you and your silly, curly blonde hair.

4. Joaquin Phoenix: You had a promising film career, but decided you wanted to be a rapper. Not the smartest idea but, okay, follow your dreams. Just don’t look like an actual zombie when you go on Letterman to promote the crazy flip-flop.

3. Steve Urkel: See, we don’t even know your real name. Or if you still exist. You could be dead, and none of us would care, as long as “Family Matters” is still showing in re-runs.

2. M. Night Shyamalan: “The Sixth Sense” (1999) was ground-breaking and mindblowing. You were the next big thing. But then you made “Lady in the Water” (2006) and “The Happening” (2008). You’d better step it up, or Haley Joel Osment will be the only one able to see you.

1. Carrot Top: Your recent appearance in Burger King commercials revealed to the world just how haggard and creepy you look these days. You might have been awarded Funniest Male Stand-Up Comic at the American Comedy Awards in 1994, but that was 15 years ago. News flash: Nobody cares about prop comedy anymore.

— Compiled by the Daily Arts Department

No end in sight for the safely sexual vampire comeback VAMPIRE continued from page 5

sensus seems to be that they are just fun and entertaining — nothing deeper.

It’s quite possible that vampires have always been popular and the current trend is merely intensification due to increased demand after the lightning in a bottle that was “Twilight,” as Professor Litvak suggests, but it could be something more.

Horror has always been cyclical. When the Bush administration was deep in prison abuse scandals, so-called “torture porn” movies like “Saw” (2004) and “Hostel” (2005) were popular. When the economy was in a major decline, zombies, which were famously framed as mindless consumers by zombie guru George A. Romero, were the big thing. Maybe there’s something in the air that vampires are capitalizing on, something not quite clear yet.

The Future of Vampires and Beyond If parents were to stop for a moment and really think about just what their kids enjoy, they might have serious objections.

The blatant violence and the underlying sex in the vampire genre make it clear that kids these days don’t just play violent video games and watch brainrotting cartoons.

Despite parents’ worries over vampire-centric entertainment, it doesn’t look like the fad will die anytime soon. In the coming months, a whole slew of vampire-related media will vie to suck dry superfans’ bank accounts.

Released earlier this month,

“Dracula the Un-Dead” picks up the story of the granddaddy of all vampires 25 years after the end of the original novel in a Stoker family-authorized sequel. “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant,” a film based on the novel of the same name, was released last week.

“Thirst,” an artful Korean vampire drama by auteur extraordinaire Chan-wook Park, is currently playing in limited release across the United States.

Future releases include “Daybreakers,” a vampire action movie staring Ethan Hawke that hits theaters in January. “Blood: The Last Vampire” is an animeinspired vampire movie out of Japan that should hit the States shortly. “Transylmania,” a teencomedy spoof of vampires, will be out in December.

If the fad does die down, horror fans can expect something else to pop right up and fill the gaping void. Most signs point to werewolves as the next big thing, especially since a werewolf factors heavily in the upcoming “Twilight” movie, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” and Benicio Del Toro’s “The Wolfman,” coming out next year, is drumming up so much buzz.

Regardless of what actually happens, whether an influx of werewolves or golems or aliens, few will soon forget the time that vampires took over everything. There doesn’t seem to be one clear answer to the questions of “Why vampires?

Why now?” but for many fans, life would suck and existence would be a pain in the neck without them. Readers and viewers across America would like to say a big “fang you” to these creatures of the night.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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WEEKENDER

MOVIE REVIEW

ZACH DRUCKER AND CHRIS POLDOIAN | BAD SAMARITANS

The Horror!

The Horror!

H

ROTTENTOMATOES.COM

Willem Dafoe gets attacked by acorns. Willem Dafoe hates acorns.

‘Antichrist’ takes on philosophical horror Graphic, spooky film is not for the faint of heart BY

ALLEN IRWIN

Daily Staff Writer

While many horror movies contain hidden, philosophical subtexts — often about gender or identity issues — their plots still

Antichrist Starring Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg Directed by Lars von Trier tend toward the direction of tried-and-true tricks, like featuring knife-wielding killers and creepy ghost children as villains. Any deeper message is placed firmly on the back burner. Atypically, “Antichrist” brings the

profound to the forefront; its horror derives directly from an examination of women, nature, sexuality and evil itself.

The film is the latest piece of provocation from Danish writer/director Lars von Trier (“Dancer in the Dark,” 2000). It stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple grieving after the death of their infant son. The husband (Dafoe) believes that cognitive psychology methods and scientific detachment can cure his wife of her severe depression and guilt. Although she is resistant at first, his wife (Gainsbourg) finally agrees to quit her medication and take a therapeutic journey to their cabin in the woods (ironically named “Eden”) where she previously spent time with their son. When they finally arrive, the husband begins to

notice that something is not quite right, and his wife undergoes a series of increasingly traumatic and violent changes in her behavior.

Von Trier decides to frame this story in blunt allegorical terms. The characters do not have names, the wife has conveniently been doing research on witchcraft and the inherent evilness of women, and the animals they see in the woods are straight out of a child’s puzzle from the film’s prologue.

Despite these clunky narrative devices, von Trier knows how to create memorable images and a mood of darkness and unease. The film’s sound design is also quite effective, creating a world where every gust of wind see ANTICHRIST, page 9

WEEKENDER INTERVIEW | OREN PELI

‘Paranormal’ director discusses smash hit BY

DAVE MERGENS

Contributing Writer

What goes on while you’re asleep?

“Paranormal Activity” gives us the terrifying answer. The film centers on a young couple who hear strange noises in their house at night and decide to set up a handheld camera in their bedroom to see what goes on while they sleep. What begins as a series of seemingly forgettable coincidences soon becomes a nightmare.

The movie was written, produced and directed four years ago by firsttime filmmaker Oren Peli using only a handheld camera and $15,000 from his pocket.

After years of trying to get the film distributed, Paramount finally agreed to support the film. Hundreds of soldout screenings in select cities later, the film is being released nationwide this weekend. The Daily got a chance to speak with Peli about his remarkable success story and ridiculously scary film.

Question: The film was a spawn of your own personal experiences. Did you ever have any aspirations to be a filmmaker beforehand?

Oren Peli: To some degree yes. I mean everyone loves movies, but I loved movies in a way of like, when I watch a movie, I dissect it and try to figure out why a shot was done this way and wondering, ‘Could I have done it differently?’ So I always felt, in the back of my mind, it would be fun to make movies. I didn’t really think it would ever become something practical until after I saw movies like “[The] Blair Witch [Project]” (1999) and “Open Water” (2003) which showed that even with virtually no budget and just a video camera, if you have a

good idea, you can just shoot a movie on your own, and hopefully it turns out good.

Q: The film draws a lot of comparisons to “The Blair Witch Project” stylistically. Was that your biggest influence?

OP: It was definitely an influence.

“Blair Witch” is the most successful movie that employed this kind of style, the [cinema-vérité] mockumentary style, but I’ve been a fan of that even before, since “Spinal Tap” (1984).

“Blair Witch” definitely showed that if it’s done right, with good acting and good writing and good editing, that type of movie can actually be very commercially successful. So that was definitely an influence.

Q: Everyone I speak to says that [the movie is] scaring them to the point that they can’t even sleep. While you were making it, did you know that it was going to be that scary, and was that a concern of yours?

OP: It wasn’t a concern. It was something I was hoping would happen.

But I had no idea that it would get the kind of reaction that it did, so it definitely exceeded my expectations. I knew that by placing the setting in their bedroom, that’s the one thing that you can’t really escape.

After people watched “The Blair Witch Project,” people said, “I’m never going to go camping again.” After “Jaws” (1975), people said, “I’m never going to go swim in the ocean.” But if you set up the setting for all the horrific things in someone’s bedroom, then that’s what you’re going to be thinking about when you’re lying in bed trying to fall asleep.

Q: Did you expect the film to grow as

FILMMAKERMAGAZINE.COM

First-time director Oren Peli struck gold with spooky ‘Paranormal Activity.’ exponentially popular as it has in the recent months?

OP: I thought that it would probably do well because we’d seen in previous screenings that it gets really good word of mouth. But I don’t think anyone predicted it was going to do this well. We didn’t know that the fans were going to embrace it to the level that they did, which now has put it in a whole new category as far as the studio is concerned. And we’re seeing see INTERVIEW, page 9

alloween is an awesome holiday, regardless of one’s age. When we were children, Halloween meant Power Ranger costumes and sugar highs. It was the one time we could take candy from strangers without fear. Since then, we have moved from actual candy to eye candy. We came to the conclusion that girls don’t actually have cooties and we look forward to Halloween because they inevitably explore numerous ways to dress as scantily as possible.

But Halloween is special for another reason. There is no other day in which we will courageously sit through horror movies.

Unfortunately, scary movies nowadays just suck, and not in the vampire way (although vampire films tend to be kind of lame, too).

Our biggest issue with horror films is how unoriginal they are. People always rag on action movies for uninspired and unnecessary follow-ups — the horror genre is definitely the biggest sequel offender. Look at the “Saw” series. We’ve had one every year for the past six years, with at least two more in the pipeline.

We’ve reached a point where plot doesn’t even matter or exist. Even the ads for “Saw VI” highlight the staleness of the series. “If it’s Halloween, it must be ‘Saw,’” rasps the voiceover. Is that reason enough? To us, the series died with the perversely charismatic Jigsaw in “Saw III” (2006).

To tally other horror franchises, there were seven “Nightmare on Elm Street” films, 11 “Friday the 13th” installments and one Girl Talk-worthy mash-up, “Freddy vs. Jason” (2003). And that’s not counting 2010’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” starring Rorshach (Jackie Earle Haley) as Krueger. Small budgets allow horror films to bleed out forever. The “Saw” films average a paltry $8 million budget, so they always turn a profit, which is reason enough for the studios to continue the franchise.

We also have an issue with horror remakes. Virtually every horror film out there has been remade at this point, from big names like Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of “Halloween” (1978) to obscure flicks, like the upcoming “The Crazies” based on George A. Romero’s 1973 original. What will horror movies look like in 2020? Will we see a repackaged version of “Jennifer’s Body” (2009) starring Shiloh Jolie-Pitt? We support going green, but all this cinematic recycling is ridiculous.

Besides the lack of innovation in the horror genre, recent horror films just aren’t scary. This is due to the birth of the “torture-porn” sub-category. These are films that emphasize mutilation and gore to tap into America’s sadistic psyche. One could argue that “Saw” started this trend, but the first “Saw” (2004) wasn’t gratuitously gory. One of the creepiest parts of the film was the relatively bloodless kidnapping of a mother and daughter. The sequels, on the other hand, veered toward mindless brutality. The traps are less inventive and more gruesome. Director Eli “Bear Jew” Roth followed suit, showing nauseating amounts of mutilation in “Hostel” (2005).

Horror movies should frighten us. If we want to be grossed out, we’ll watch “Two Girls, One Cup.” Shock value can only go so far, and for a movie to have a truly lasting impact, filmmakers need to refocus their scare tactics.

Yet, there’s a glimmer of hope for horror. We were quite happy with the box office results last weekend. “Paranormal Activity” cut down “Saw VI,” proving that originality can triumph over invariability. “Paranormal” trickled out in limited release back in September and has snowballed into a phenomenon. Its documentary-style filming and minimalist production earned it the title of this generation’s “The Blair Witch Project” (1999).

So if you’re looking for a fright Saturday night, we recommend hitting up “Paranormal Activity.” If not, there’s always “Hocus Pocus” (1993).

Zach Drucker and Chris Poldoian are sophomores who have not yet declared majors. They can be reached at Zachary.

Drucker@tufts.edu and Christopher.

Poldoian@tufts.edu, respectively.

THE TUFTS DAILY

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WEEKENDER

Thursday, October 29, 2009

What’s Up This Weekend Want to make your weekend artsy?

Check out these events!

to participate! (Friday and Saturday at midnight at the Brattle Theatre.)

Haunted Boston Ghost Tours: Enjoy the spookiest weekend of the year by exploring historic Boston through ghost stories and folklore for $13. (Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. at Central Burying Ground)

Boston Ghost Cruise: Climb aboard for a frightening sail with the Mystery Cafe and Boston Harbor Cruises. True tales of betrayal, shipwrecks and executions will be told. (Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Long Wharf. Check Bostonghostcruise.com for more times and tickets.)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Don some fishnets and head on over to Cambridge for an interactive “Rocky Horror” experience. First-timers, be ready

Guster at the Orpheum:The members of Guster — Tufts alumns — will be playing a two-set show in Boston, one

of which will be the entirety of their third album, “Lost and Gone Forever” (1999), in honor of the 10-year anniversary of its release. (Saturday at 7 p.m.)

The Dogg is in the House, and this’ll be one show not to miss. Snoop takes the stage with Method Man and Redman.

(Sunday at 7 p.m.)

Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter: Looking for a laugh?

Comedians Michael and Michael will be performing stand-up promotion for their Comedy Central Show “Michael and Michael Have Issues.” (Friday at 9 p.m. at the Wilbur Theatre.)

Harry Potter: The Exhibition: This exhibit shows off the artifacts, set and costumes from the Potter films, including Hagrid’s hut and Hermione’s Yule Ball gown. (At the Museum of Science through February 21. Go to Mos.org for more details.)

Snoop Dogg at the House of Blues:

— by Jessica Bal

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE TUFTS DAILY Dear Nick Jonas, This is it, huh?

You’re going to Beyoncé your brothers, is that it? Way to totally ditch out on the love. We don’t want an album by your so-called new band, Nick Jonas and the Administration. We want more Jonas Brothers.

OK, so, honestly, we don’t want any more Jonas Brothers either, but if the three of you can’t agree to quietly leave the limelight and sink into the anonymity you deserve, we at least ask that you don’t try to soar above the rest. You have no need for artistic expression outside the world of Disney.

It must be tough to be one of the JoBros. We fully understand that a group of young people cannot, regardless of what Power Rangers may have taught us, function as one cohesive unit, whether it be to fight crime or fight the pop charts and the premarital sex epidemic.

But don’t go chasing your hopes and your dreams, because when push comes to shove, the Jonas Brothers is still more important than anything, including your own happiness. It’s all for the greater good, Nick. For the greater good.

Also for us. Please, please, don’t do it.

Don’t Beyoncé us, Nick.

Love, The Daily Arts Department

ALLTHETESTS.COM

Next you’ll nickname yourself Sam Fierce.

Architectural Studies Informational Meeting Monday, November 2, 2009 5:00—5:45pm Department of Art and Art History 11 Talbot Ave. Lounge Open to all Students MANDATORY FOR SENIOR MAJORS Highly Recommended for Others (Encouraged for Architectural studies majors and minors) Learn About: Ź Minors

Architectural Studies Majors and

for Liberal Arts and Engineering students. Ź Architectural Studies Courses Ź Study Abroad Ź

Internships

Ź

Graduate School

Ź

Professional Careers

Ź

Boston Area Opportunities

For information: ase.tufts.edu/art/architecture/

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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WEEKENDER

Oren Peli surprised at hugely positive response from fans INTERVIEW continued from page 7

the movie expanding from one weekend to the other, and that’s all thanks to the word of mouth being spread by the fans.

Q: I understand that there’s a little bit of controversy surrounding different endings that were shot for the film. I know you shot an original ending but then a new ending was shot for the new theatrical release. Do you have any comments on whose decision that was and whether or not you’d rather have the original ending?

OP: I liked the original ending personally. A lot of people liked it, but we also had a lot of people that didn’t dig it at all. So we knew it’s a sticking point and we decided to experiment with a couple of different endings. One of the endings that we experimented with was the one suggested by Spielberg, and interestingly enough, he knows a thing or two about movies, and that’s the ending that went so well in test screenings. People loved it, and every time when I see the movie with an audience, it gets a huge reaction. After that there was no question about which ending we were going to use.

Q: I just want to know, aside from fan response and the praises that your film is receiving right now, what is your ultimate goal for this movie?

OP: For now I’m just happy that the fans are getting a chance to watch the movie and that they’re enjoying it. And as the movie continues to get good word of mouth and keeps expanding in more theaters, I just hope that everyone that wants to see the movie gets a chance, and hopefully they’ll enjoy it and tell a friend.

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Gainsbourg’s character goes slowly insane in the woods. Probably because she’s stuck in a 3G dead zone. Should’ve gone with Verizon.

Gainsbourg’s performance nuanced, disturbing ANTICHRIST continued from page 7

might be a demonic whisper. The cinematography, at times disorienting, drains the world of color and gives the impression of decay and suffocation.

With this atmosphere of dread, von Trier transforms a story of two people trying to hold their lives together into an exercise in philosophical horror. While the wife at first seems to respond to cognitive therapy positively, she soon starts rebelling against her husband’s attempts to help her. Before long, he realizes that she believes that all women are evil by nature, and that the woods surrounding their cabin are where that evil breeds. She then begins to direct her grief and anger toward him and finally onto herself. Before the film is over, both of them have endured horrific acts of sexual violence.

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The film doesn’t provide any easy answers as to how the story concludes, nor does it seem to feel the need to make its finale clear.

This results in a somewhat muddled final section. “Antichrist” works most successfully through the sheer visceral impact of its imagery and mood rather than through any profound philosophical point.

Much of the film’s power comes from the actors themselves. Dafoe mostly just reacts to Gainsbourg’s ever-changing wife, but he does it convincingly. Gainsbourg won best actress at the Cannes International Film Festival earlier this year for her performance, and it’s one of the main reasons to see the film. Not only does she portray an astounding range of emotions, but her performance also requires a visceral physical element. She exhibits the trauma of a severely depressed woman and an angry,

violent one, and does both with complete conviction. She also has the uncanny ability to make herself look either old and beaten or young and hopeful by simply changing her facial expression, which adds another dimension to the inner turmoil her character undergoes.

The film is a fascinating visual experience with thought-provoking themes, but its ideas are somewhat underdeveloped as it favors the more sensational aspects of the story.

“Antichrist” unintentionally joins the conventional horror movie camp, especially during some of its stranger moments, using graphic violence for the sake of provocation. But strong performances and the almost physical experience the film evokes make it worth watching. Just bring a strong stomach.

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THE TUFTS DAILY GIOVANNI J.B. RUSSONELLO Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Naomi Bryant Managing Editors David Heck Alexandra Bogus Executive News Editor Nina Ford News Editors Tessa Gellerson Ben Gittleson Christy McCuaig Matt Repka Ellen Kan Assistant News Editors Harrison Jacobs Katherine Sawyer Saumya Vaishampayan

Robin Carol Executive Features Editor Marissa Carberry Features Editors Meredith Hassett Alison Lisnow Emily Maretsky Kerianne Okie Romy Oltuski Christina Pappas Charlotte Steinway Julia Zinberg Sarah Korones Assistant Features Editors Carter Rogers

Jessica Bal Executive Arts Editor Emma Bushnell Arts Editors Mitchell Geller Adam Kulewicz Catherine Scott Josh Zeidel Charissa Ng Assistant Arts Editors Benjamin Phelps

Michelle Hochberg Executive Op-Ed Editor

Thursday, October 29, 2009

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

October is ... National Spinach Lovers Month?

October is a busy month. The calendar bursts with events devoted to raising awareness, showing appreciation and emphasizing issues on a national scale. October is dedicated to many serious issues: It is Latino Heritage Month, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Gay and Lesbian History Month, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and National Crime Prevention Month, to name a few.

The month is also pledged to a number of much less solemn topics.

October is Eat Better, Eat Together Month; National Roller Skating Month; Spinach Lovers Month; and National Sarcastic Awareness Month.

Just one day in October boasts a whole host of scheduled observances. For instance, Oct. 30 is deemed Checklist Day, Create a Great Funeral Day, Devil’s Night, Haunted Refrigerator Night, International Bandanna Day, National Candy Corn Day and National Forgiveness Day. Even though the month has only 31 days, the Daily found 84 different official and unofficial full-month observances, 54 weekly observances

and 121 single-day observances. The sheer quantity of these events is overwhelming, and leads us to wonder whether many of the activities, topics and objects deserve as much recognition as some of the others in the first place. Moreover, who actually celebrates all of the observances? One can only hope that not too many actually participate in Create a Great Funeral Day. While “national” days are literally acts of Congress, others are created by companies, special interest groups, sports teams or other bodies that simply devote one day to something.

Official or not, these accumulate.

Bombarded with so many options for observances, most of us do not have time to acknowledge or devote attention to many of the issues raised, whether they are serious or humorous.

We become jaded by all the advertisements and announcements.

One day should not be dedicated to seven unrelated, variously esoteric events with unpredictable degrees of seriousness; this barrage detracts from the issues that really deserve our consideration. We are distracted from sub-

jects that merit great attention by a certain product, pop-culture phenomenon or random object that someone once fancifully thought to commemorate. We should put our energy toward concentrating on prominent national issues, not haunted refrigerators or bandannas. While celebrating such items can undoubtedly be entertaining, they hardly merit public endorsements.

Congress recognizes October as both National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and National Roller Skating Month. Surely, these two do not deserve the same amount of attention. Our government has failed to distinguish between gravity and triviality.

With Halloween and daylight-saving time fast approaching, October is winding down. The Daily urges all to take note of the more important issues highlighted during the last 29 days. We ought to give the legitimate issues raised during the course of this month their due, and let the true message of these “days” and “months” seep in: to be aware of them not only for 24 hours or 31 days, but throughout the course of our daily lives.

ERIN MARSHALL

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OFF THE HILL | HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Practical training

BY EDITORIAL BOARD The Harvard Crimson

On Thursday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged universities to change the way they prepare teachers, exclaiming that a “revolutionary change” was necessary to change the “mediocre” state of many teacher-training programs at education schools. Duncan is correct in his judgment of teacher preparation; there are many ways the training process for teachers can be improved to prepare them better for the realities of the classroom.

A recent report found that 60 percent of teachers did not feel prepared to teach after graduating from education school. An important step toward remedying this problem would be to introduce more practical training into the teacher education process. To deal with classroom management — which many teachers have cited as a challenge — especially at struggling schools, teach-

EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the Editorial Page editors, 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.

ers should be exposed to a substantial amount of hands-on classroom training to improve their ability to nurture and develop the skills of their students.

Just as doctors are educated by going through an intensive residency process, teachers will benefit most from more exposure to the classroom. And while receiving practical training, teachers should be evaluated using objective statistical methods, so that they have a reliable means by which to measure their progress and improve their abilities.

Alternative programs such as Teach For America [TFA] have shown the value of giving teachers immediate classroom experience and should be noted as an example of the value of learning through doing. As education schools attempt to reform and improve their methods, they should consider incorporating the ideas of TFA and the New York City Teaching Fellows program, which places novice teachers in

struggling districts.

Improving our education system and teacher training methods is a complicated process, and increasing practical training is only one of many steps needed to address these issues. To be able to prepare children for the 21st century, teachers should also be trained to incorporate technology and Internet applications in the classroom, for example.

In the end, any amount of teacher knowledge of a subject area will be irrelevant if teachers are not able to effectively impart this knowledge to students. Thus, there is little to be lost by giving developing teachers more experience in the classroom.

Education for the young is the bedrock of our society and economy, and if education schools can change their methods so that teachers can more effectively reach struggling children, they will be doing students and the country a great service.

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 350-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

THE TUFTS DAILY

Black Solidarity Day: What does it mean?

BY

BEN SERRANO

In terms of the world of prejudice and racism, much has happened in the last forty years. The development of minorities in the education system and political process has improved greatly, and we have gone from a time when it was hard for blacks to put a vote in the ballot box to a time when a black man can be in the White House. Some might think that the effect the black population has on the community is only spontaneous, with great leaders and thinkers appearing from decade to decade. However, the impact blacks have can be seen every day.

This is what Black Solidarity Day was created to express.

Black Solidarity Day was created in 1969 as a day nationally observed by African-American men, women and students. It always occurs the Monday before elections take place; this year it falls on Nov. 2. Originally, the event brought black people together to discuss their political status and the direction in which their future was going. The day also focused on the value and goals of education within the black community. It was, and still is, a day of discussion and a time for everyone, no matter of what race or education, to discuss how we all affect each other’s lives.

Discussion is important to Black Solidarity Day, as well as the concept of it as a day of absence, during which black people do not attend school or work and try to avoid making purchases and spending money throughout the day.

These actions only further demonstrate the impact the black community has on the workplace and its stimulation of the nation’s economy.

So what does the black community add to the classroom and the work-

place? Mainly, perspective. No matter what social class, city or personality someone comes from in the black community, their perspective always can add to a classroom discussion, university policies and faculty meetings.

Other people don’t have to feel obligated to understand the pressures and experiences that are shared, but at least they will know. Knowledge is the first step to understanding.

I am a half-black, half-Puerto Rican male who, on the outside, mostly comes off as black. I went to a predominantly Caucasian private high school in downtown Chicago and had a very eye-opening experience. I volunteered with a group of fellow students at a homeless shelter during my junior year. We were cleaning out a large closet of toys and supplies and organizing its items in the basement.

While doing so, many of the children who lived at the homeless shelter, predominantly black, started to take toys and we told them they couldn’t take them away.

The Caucasian supervisor of the shelter helped us make sure the kids stopped taking toys away.

Moments later, while I was taking a box of toys down to the basement, the supervisor stopped me and asked, “Where do you think you’re going with those?”

“To the basement,” I said.

“And why is that?” he asked me angrily.

“Um, because, uh, that’s what you wanted us to do right?” I asked worriedly.

I had no idea what I was doing wrong.

“Oh, you’re with the school group,” he said.

It took me a couple of seconds to answer, but I mouthed, “Yes.” The supervisor walked away and I stood in place, frozen. All my fellow classmates were frozen as well, digesting the event.

One broke the silence and said,

“That was the most racist thing that I’ve ever seen.”

If you haven’t realized it, the supervisor believed that I lived in the homeless shelter. The only reason for why I think he could have possibly thought that was because of the color of my skin.

What does this experience have to do with anything? Well, it was more for my classmates than for me. My classmates became aware of the blatant racism that even kids their own age experience and they became more vocal when it came to conversations about diversity and prejudice.

This is the hope that Black Solidarity Day wishes to instill. While celebrating our own culture and history, the black community wants to express how our experiences impact the experiences that we have in the classroom and workplace. The black community has a voice in this nation, and the nation has not yet fully realized how large that voice is. So to help support making this voice known, join the Pan-African Alliance in celebrating Black Solidarity Day. It will be held on Nov. 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the lower patio of the Mayer Campus Center. There will be performances by Tufts student groups, a student speech and a faculty speech by new black history professor Peniel Joseph, as well as the opportunity for students to express themselves through spoken word. To show even more support, wear all black or the colors of the Pan-African flag (red, black and green). Please come and support, and just remember the effects our actions have on others.

Ben Serrano is a freshman majoring in English. He is the freshman representative for the Pan-African Alliance.

TCU Senators should set example for Tufts students BY

ANDREW VINCENT

Several recent events have caused a large number of students to think about the role of student government in making significant policy decisions.

The Daily has been abuzz with articles, editorials and op-eds about the ongoing alcohol policy debate. The Oct. 24 op-ed by Tufts Community Union ( TCU) President Brandon Rattiner, “Campus alcohol debate: Outlining the TCU Senate strategy,” highlights some of the doubts I have about the efficacy of policy decisions through the Senate.

I agree with most of what Rattiner expresses in his piece, but I am puzzled by its apparent contradictions with his actions in the past month. For example, he says, “A good alcohol policy must not punish the entire collective for the actions of a select, fringe group,” and I completely agree with this statement.

It is important to note, however, that no one from the “select, fringe group” who caused problems at the first Senior Pub Night was punished in any way by the administration.

It is also important to note that by several accounts, one of the people involved in that night’s disturbances is the very same TCU President who is calling for punishment for his select group, when he says the policy should target “the extreme minority of students that believe drinking in excess is appropriate behavior.” As a member

AALOK KANANI/TUFTS DAILY

of that extreme minority, it seems that Rattiner should be held accountable for his actions.

Another point Rattiner makes in his op-ed is that “no policy can ever do it all, and students need to remember that we must behave ourselves.” Again, I completely agree that all students should behave themselves, especially those that represent our entire student body with privileged positions as TCU Senators. I strongly believe that by

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OP-ED

accepting positions among our elected representatives, the TCU Senators tacitly agree to a code of conduct. This includes not only trying to behave oneself, but also admitting when one has misbehaved. It is shameful that at September’s Senior Pub Night, a TCU officer was “forcibly removed from line for what appeared to be sheer hostility,” as Jessie Borkan put it in her Oct. 26 column, “You’re the man.” But what is equally as shameful is that this particular TCU officer did not feel the impetus to publicly apologize for his behavior.

This brings me to my final point.

How can we have a fair voice on the Alcohol Task Force and the Alcohol Steering Committee when one of our representatives on these bodies does not best exemplify the standards of the majority? Beyond that, how can we tolerate our highest elected official acting unethically, hypocritically and inappropriately? Admittedly, as Rattiner says, “Freshman, seniors, senators ... everyone has made mistakes,” but there should be consequences for actions. A month ago, a public apology from the TCU President would have sufficed, but now that seems too little, too late. As a student body, we need to find a way to make our voices heard when our elected officials fail us.

Andrew Vincent is a senior majoring in economics and Spanish.

SHARE YOUR OPINIONS WITH THE CAMPUS The Op-Ed section of the Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. Submissions are welcome from all members of the Tufts community. We accept opinion articles on any aspect of campus life, as well as articles on national or international news. Opinion pieces should be between 600 and 1,200 words. Please send submissions, with a contact number, to oped@tuftsdaily.com. Feel free to e-mail us with any questions.

JACOB KREIMER | THE SALVADOR

Drink the water

I

f you have ever prepared to travel abroad, there’s no doubt that a doctor’s appointment was on your predeparture check-list. If you were traveling to a country in the third world, or as our uber-politically correct friends in international development like to say, the global south, this appointment will result in about a hundred prescriptions and procedures. This should cover vaccines for diseases you thought had been eradicated during the Reagan administration, a weekly or daily malaria pill and enough ciprofloxacin to kill just about anything that might find its way into your gastrointestinal tract. You meet these medical standards because they are required for a visa or maybe because your mother is determined that you will not be plagued with the stomach pain her friend Sylvia’s nephew had in India.

In any case, you’re looking out for your health, as you should. Your trip is probably short enough without spending most of it in bed.

The biggest health-related advice our group leaders gave us upon arrival to San Salvador was simple: Whatever you do, don’t drink the water. As if the loud crowd of gringo Americans with overstuffed suitcases wasn’t enough to identify us as outsiders in our rural host community, we also brought with us huge blue jugs of expensive purified water for cooking and drinking.

Although some of the village locals seemed to understand that Americans were liable to get ridiculously sick if we drank from their wells, the majority laughed at our stupidity. “You’re wasting your money,” a Salvadoran friend mocked. “It’s all in your head. We drink this water and we’re fine.

We’re all people!” I had neither the heart nor the Spanish vocabulary to explain the biological reasons why I might actually get sick from drinking from the wells.

The problem with refusing to drink local water, though, is that keeps you from fully immersing yourself in the very culture you came to explore. Part of my motivation for going to Central America was to see firsthand the customs and lifestyle of people different from me.

As we became more integrated into the community, mothers would invite us over for food, and I was put in the position of trying to delicately decline for fear of becoming ill, while still very much wanting to experience authentic Salvadoran food and conversation. In addition, older folks don’t quite get the inability-to-drink-the-water thing, and refusing an invitation to food might as well be a slap in the face. It’s quite an awkward position. In trying to keep my health up, I was keeping the rest of my experience down.

It was not until the final two-anda-half weeks of my trip that I grew the proverbial balls to accept an offer of horchata from a friend onsite at the AIDS awareness center we were building. The Salvadorans laughed and joked that it was like watching a kid have his first beer. I didn’t get sick. The next day I still wasn’t sick and went back and joined the Salvadoreños for another drink. With my newfound stomach of iron, I took up a formerly insulted woman’s offer of pasteles, small potato empanadas, and enjoyed a cup of Tang at a friend’s house.

I felt incredibly free, taking advantage of a connection with the people I had denied myself for too long. I felt less like an outsider and more like a guest. I had a lot of catching up to do.

So, if you’re not afraid to take a little risk, go ahead and drink the water.

Bridge the gap between your American typecast and the global investigator you want to be. And if things go wrong? I’m sure your doctor prescribed you enough antibiotics to kill a small animal. Get your money’s worth.

Jacob Kreimer is a junior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at Jacob.Kreimer@tufts.edu.

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of the Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. Op-Ed welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. All material is subject to editorial discretion, and is not guaranteed to appear in The Tufts Daily. All material should be submitted by no later than 1 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication. Material must be submitted via e-mail (oped@tuftsdaily.com) attached in .doc or .docx format. Questions and concerns should be directed to the Op-Ed editors. The opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Tufts Daily itself.

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Tufts women’s soccer team hopes to face Trinity Sunday WOMEN’S SOCCER continued from page 16

round of the NESCAC tournament last year, when, despite dominating the game and having three times as many shots as the Polar Bears, Tufts bowed out on penalty kicks.

“There is always a feeling of revenge, so it’s definitely going to be on our minds,” Hardy said.

After starting their NESCAC season slowly, with close losses to NESCAC heavyweights Middlebury and Amherst, the Jumbos have responded well, winning four of their last six conference games. Tufts is also coming off of a hardfought effort versus Williams, the No. 1

team in Div. III, a game which the Jumbos lost on a goal in the last five minutes.

“We were really proud of how we played against Williams, and that only upped our confidence that we can play with the best,” said junior midfielder Geneva DeGregorio. “Going into Bowdoin, we are not taking them lightly but we are defiantly confidant.”

Experienced senior co-captains Hardy and Cara Cadigan, who have seven and three goals respectively, have led the Jumbos in the attacking third while fellow senior Fanna Gamal has picked up her play as of late in the midfield.

But it is the defense, anchored by the steady play of senior goalkeeper Kate

Jumbos await first round opponent in NESCAC tourney FIELD HOCKEY continued from page 16

win over Bowdoin earlier this year. We’re going to have to study our opponents, no matter what their reputation, because anyone can win any given day.”

With the regular season coming to a close this Friday, the Jumbos look ahead to the start of the NESCAC tournament beginning Sunday.

Having clinched the second seed with its win over Bates, Tufts will enjoy home-field advantage for at least the quarterfinal round of play.

With the seventh seed still

undecided, the Tufts squad could face off against either Wesleyan or Connecticut College, depending on which one of the NESCAC teams emerges victorious in their deciding matchup Friday.

With the postseason on the horizon, the Jumbos are looking forward to a fresh start.

“Obviously we are excited about playing at Bello Field,” Brown said. “There’s a psychological advantage to playing on your own turf ... We’ve been there before and we know what to expect so hopefully we’ll have a better outcome this season.”

Minnehan and junior defenders Sarah Nolet and Audrey Almy, that has shone brightest in the Jumbos’ victories.

Minnehan has delivered a shutout in all seven of the Jumbos wins, and Tufts is tied for second in the NESCAC with only eight goals allowed on the season.

If Tufts earns a victory against Bowdoin, it will get the chance to host the Trinity Bantams in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament on Sunday.

The Jumbos could only muster a tie against Trinity earlier this year in a game that finished 1-1 in double overtime. But Tufts had a number of chances in extra time that it could not capi-

talize on, and the Jumbos dominated much of the game despite their losing score.

The victor of that game is likely to face Williams, which has won the NESCAC the past two seasons and is undefeated this year with a 13-0 record, including a perfect 8-0 record in NESCAC play. The Jumbos would relish a chance to get another crack at the Ephs after their near upset, but they are careful not to get ahead of themselves.

“We are trying to take it one game at a time,” said Hardy, “but down the road we are looking forward to playing Williams and beating them.”

Duchene, O’Reilly provide spark for Avalanche NHL continued from page 15

has been getting much more than it ever imagined from its young core early in the season. Wojtek Wolski, Colorado’s first round pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, looks like he could be heading for a breakout season, already having picked up seven goals and five assists in 12 games. Tied with Wolski for the team lead in points is Paul Stastny, son of former Nordiques legend Peter Stastny, who has four goals and eight assists this season.

At only 23 years of age, Stastny is quickly helping to fill the void at center left

by Sakic’s retirement, along with prospect Matt Duchene.

Selected third overall in last year’s entry draft, Duchene wasn’t expected to make the team’s roster this year. But given the opportunity, he has played effectively, with six points so far this season.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise for the Avalanche thus far has been the exceptional play of Ryan O’Reilly, whom the Avalanche picked up in the second round of last year’s draft in July. O’Reilly is a force to be reckoned with in the faceoff dot and has notched 10 points on two goals and eight assists, along with a team best +10 rating on the year. Colorado coach Joe Sacco has taken notice of the rookie’s responsible defensive

Asian American Month 2009

Tuesday, November 3 7:00pm, Sophia Gordon Featuring FACULTY contestants: (who will play on teams with students)

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play, entrusting O’Reilly with a spot on the Avs’ penalty kill.

As often is the case with success, this year’s Avalanche squad isn’t one of those teams that really dazzles you with offensive skill or spectacular goaltending, but it’s a team that works hard every night and gets the job done.

No Alexander Ovechkins or Martin Brodeurs here — just an entire team of guys that wins those battles in the corner, gets the puck deep in the zone, pays the price in front of the net and scores greasy goals. Hard work and good defense wins games, and so far the Avalanche has shown that they are more than ready to put in that effort.

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

SPORTS

Jumbos look to reestablish running game versus Lord Jeffs FOOTBALL continued from page 16

ball out early and often. But despite the yardage they have surrendered, Amherst boasts a ball-hawking secondary that has recorded a league-leading 14 interceptions.

“Amherst’s secondary is loaded with returning starters, all of whom have a ton of speed and a nose for the football,” said McManama, who has thrown just two interceptions, the fewest among conference signalcallers. “I need to make sure that if my first options aren’t open, I move on in my progression and either find an open guy or tuck it and run.”

But McManama can only take advantage of Amherst’s secondary if the Jumbos’ top two running backs — junior Pat Bailey and senior Darren Ferguson — get things going on the ground to open up throwing lanes.

Last week against Williams, the Jumbos netted 57 yards on 33 carries for just 1.72 yards per attempt, and if that number does not improve, the 2-3 Jumbos could find themselves two games below .500.

“Establishing a running game will be huge,” McManama said.

“If we can get some third-andthrees instead of third-and -10s,

it will make everything a lot more manageable.”

In preparation for their tilt against the Lord Jeffs, the team has been trying to regain its focus and put past struggles behind them.

“We have really been trying to focus on the task at hand,” Stebbins said. “We are trying to emphasize that whenever we are down at the gym or at practice, it’s time to work and get down to business.”

Although it looks bleak for the Jumbos, they are still mathematically alive in the chase for the NESCAC crown. Tufts would need to win out over the course of the last three weeks and get a lot of help from a number of other teams in unseating Amherst and Trinity, both of whom are undefeated. However, if the Jumbos lose this weekend against the Lord Jeffs, they are officially out of the running, rendering the season’s final two contests worth little more than pride.

But despite the importance of Saturday’s game at the Ellis Oval, Tufts insists it is treating the contest just like any other.

“No matter who we are playing, or what the situation is within the NESCAC standings, the goal every week is to do everything we possibly can to win,” McManama said. “No game is more impor-

LAURA SCHULTZ/TUFTS DAILY

Senior quarterback Tom McManama and the Tufts passing attack will be key if Tufts hopes to upset Amherst.

STATISTICS | STANDINGS Field Hockey

Women's Soccer

Men's Soccer

Volleyball

Football

NCAA Div. III Field Hockey

(12-1, 7-1 NESCAC)

(7-5-1, 4-3-1 NESCAC)

(2-9-2, 0-7-1 NESCAC)

(25-2, 7-1 NESCAC)

(2-3, 2-3 NESCAC)

(Oct. 20, 2009)

NESCAC

T 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

T. Brown A. Russo M. Kelly M. Burke M. Scholtes L. Griffith J. Perkins T. Guttadauro K. Eaton

G 16 11 8 6 4 3 2 3 2

A 9 4 5 3 1 3 4 1 0

Pts 41 26 21 15 9 9 8 7 4

Goalkeeping M. Zak K. Hyder

GA 5 2

S S% 25 .833 10 .833

L 0 1 3 3 3 4 5 6 7 8

OVERALL

NESCAC

OVERALL

W L 13 0 12 1 10 3 10 3 5 8 9 4 4 8 7 6 5 8 1 10

W Trinity 8 Tufts 7 Amherst 5 Middlebury 5 Williams 5 Bowdoin 4 Conn. Coll. 3 Wesleyan 2 Colby 1 Bates 0

W 8 Williams 7 Amherst Middlebury 7 4 Tufts 3 Trinity 3 Bowdoin Wesleyan 3 2 Colby 1 Bates Conn. Coll. 0

L 0 1 1 3 3 5 5 5 7 8

G W. Hardy 7 C. Cadigan 3 A. Michael 3 S. Nolet 2 A. Maxwell 2 B. Morgan 1 F. Gamal 0 L. O’Connor 0 J. Love-Nichols 0

NESCAC

T W L T 0 13 0 0 0 11 2 0 0 9 1 2 1 7 5 1 2 5 4 3 0 7 6 0 0 7 5 1 1 6 6 1 0 4 8 1 0 4 9 0 A 0 4 0 1 1 0 2 2 1

Pts 14 10 6 5 5 2 2 2 1

Goalkeeping GA S S% K. Minnehan 8 54 .871

Wesleyan Williams Amherst Trinity Conn. Coll.

Bowdoin Middlebury Colby Bates Tufts

W 5 6 5 5 5 4 3 1 0 0

Blumenthal B. Duker D. Schoening S. Saropoulos R. Coleman F. Silva A. Lach K. Maxham N. Muakkassa

L 0 1 2 2 3 3 3 6 7 7 G 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

T 3 1 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 1

OVERALL

W 9 11 9 10 8 9 7 4 3 2 A 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1

L 0 1 2 2 3 3 4 7 8 9

T 4 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2

Pts 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 1

Goalkeeping GA S S% 23 57 .712 P. Tonelli 0 8 1.00 A. Bernstein

NESCAC OVERALL

Tufts Conn. Coll.

Amherst Middlebury Williams Bowdoin Trinity Wesleyan Bates Colby Hamilton

W 7 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 1 0 0

Offensive C. Updike D.Joyce-Mendive B. Helgeson L. Nicholas E. Lokken B. Neff K. Ellefsen Defensive A. Kuan C. Updike B. Helgeson D. Feiger N. Shrodes K. Engelking

L 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 5 6 7 8

W L 25 2 19 5 19 5 18 4 15 8 18 9 11 8 12 12 15 7 7 16 5 26

Kills SA 284 21 257 0 204 15 94 1 77 10 51 13 34 0 B Digs 0 362 13 182 31 181 25 179 3 106 1 97

W 5 5 4 2 2 2 2 2 1 0

Amherst Trinity Williams Bowdoin Colby Middlebury Tufts Wesleyan Hamilton Bates

Rushing P. Bailey D. Ferguson McManama

L 0 0 1 3 3 3 3 3 4 5

PF 100 154 142 136 64 145 53 62 53 66

PA 47 77 86 125 104 125 76 88 110 137

Att. Yds. Avg. 75 254 3.4 39 88 2.3 39 36 0.9

TD 1 0 0

Passing Pct. Yds TD INT McManama 46.3 608 4 2 Receiving P. Bailey B. Mahler

No. Yds Avg. TD 16 249 15.6 2 9 94 10.4 0

Defense T. Tassinari M. Murray A. Perry

Tack INT Sack 0 53 0 1 42 0 1 35 0

Points (First-place votes) 1. Messiah, 972 (44) 2. Salisbury, 901 (1) 3. Ursinus, 856 (1) 4. Trinity College, 821 (2) 5. Tufts, 761 6. SUNY Cortland, 720 (1) 7. Lebanon Valley, 675 8. Rowan, 562 9. Lynchburg, 548 10. Middlebury, 485

N.E. Div. III Volleyball (Oct. 18, 2009) 1. Tufts 2. Williams 3. UMASS Boston 4. Springfield 5. MIT 6. Conn. College 7. Brandeis 8. Coast Guard 9. Middlebury 10. Amherst

Editors' Challenge | Week 8 Let’s be honest, it might as well be called Pick or Treat, especially with the way the sports editors have been tearing through the weekly selections at a blistering clip, similar to the eerily sounding wind blowing as we dig through our bags of Snickers, Reese’s, and Smirnoff.

Evan “Grandpa Munster” Cooper remains atop the editor’s mountain, howling alone at the championship moon. Cooper went 10-3 last week and continues to sit in first place, coming virtually out of nowhere with his tattered jeans and spiky hair.

Yet not far behind Cooper is Phil “Frankenstein” Dear, determined to rise from the dead and defend his Ed’s Challenge title. Tied with Dear at 73-30 overall are Alex “Scooby-Doo” Prewitt and Steve “Slimer” Smith, who carved his way out of first place thanks to a 9-4 Week 7.

Dave “The Great Pumpkin” Heck rang in with the best seventh week of picking, going 11-2 to move up to two games back in first place. Tied with Heck is Sapna “Casper” Bansil, whose

last week was anything but sweet, going 8-5 to fall out of first.

Ethan “Teen Wolf” Landy sits alone in seventh place at 71-32 after going a mediocre 8-5 last week, as he was the only editor to foolishly pick San Francisco over Houston. Jeremy “Halloweenhouse” Greenhouse had a frighteningly good week, tying with Heck for the best at 11-2. Still, what Greenhouse has in Halloween-related nicknames, he fails to make up for in picking, sitting four games out.

Tailing the pack, and receiving about as much respect as the girl who dresses up as a slutty nurse every Halloween, is Mike “Jack Skeleton” Spera, the only editor yet to crack the 70-win plateau. Spera is seeing his chances at first quickly being buried in the proverbial grave shaft.

Taking time out of his schedule of building pyramids and digging up Sphinxes in Egypt to make the guest picks this week is Noah “Brendan Fraser” Schumer.

OVERALL RECORD LAST WEEK

Evan 74-29 10-3

Alex 73-30 10-3

Phil 73-30 10-3

Steve 73-30 9-4

Dave 72-31 11-2

Sapna 72-31 8-5

Ethan 71-32 8-5

Jeremy 70-33 11-2

Mike 63-40 8-5

GUEST Noah Schumer

Houston at Buffalo Cleveland at Chicago Seattle at Dallas St. Louis at Detroit Denver at Baltimore San Francisco at Indianapolis Miami at NY Jets NY Giants at Philadelphia Jacksonville at Tennessee Oakland at San Diego Carolina at Arizona Minnesota at Green Bay Atlanta at New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Minnesota New Orleans

Buffalo Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Tennessee San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis Miami NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Houston Chicago Seattle Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis Miami NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Minnesota New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Houston Chicago Dallas Detroit Baltimore Indianapolis NY Jets NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

Buffalo Chicago Dallas St. Louis Denver Indianapolis Miami NY Giants Jacksonville San Diego Arizona Green Bay New Orleans

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, October 29, 2009

15

SPORTS

INSIDE NHL

RORY PARKS | THE LONG-SUFFERING SPORTS FAN

Upon further review

I

MCT

The resurgent Craig Anderson, formerly of the Florida Panthers, has been crucial to the Avalanche’s turn-around season.

Glory days: Avs look to return to dynasty form BY

ADAM PARDES

Contributing Writer

Rewind to the 1995-96 NHL season.

The Colorado Avalanche, formerly the Quebec Nordiques, was beginning its first season since making the move to Denver, and Walt Disney himself could not have written a happier start for the young franchise. Led by captain Joe Sakic, forward Peter Forsberg and goalie Patrick Roy, the Avs brought the Stanley Cup back to Colorado in their first year of existence.

The next year, the Avs seized the Presidents’ Trophy for finishing with the best regular season record in the entire league. Quickly endearing themselves to their new hometown fans, the Avs in the late ’90s were simply one of those legendary hockey dynasties that people will continue to talk about for a very long time.

It seemed for a time that Colorado would continue to dominate the hockey scene, winning its division every year until 2003-04, including a second Stanley Cup victory in the 2000-2001 season. The Avalanche’s

nine consecutive division titles broke the former NHL record of eight, set by the Montreal Canadiens between 1974 and 1982.

But despite their early franchise success, the Avalanche has failed to advance past the Western Conference Semifinals since 2001-02. Why? Roy retired in 2003; Forsberg was injured the entire 2001-2002 season, and only played in 39 of 82 games in 20032004 before finally being traded out of frustration to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2005; and by 2006-07 Sakic and Milan Hejduk were the only remnants of the 2001-02 Stanley Cup squad. This past summer, Sakic, the Avs’ captain and 13-time all-star, retired, marking the end of an era for the Colorado Avalanche.

But instead of fading into the background of the NHL, the Avalanche currently sits atop the Northwest division.

Not only that, the Avalanche is above Canadian powerhouses Calgary and Vancouver, and has the league lead in points with 20, ahead of the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins by two points.

Surprisingly, little has changed in the Colorado franchise over the last year. While teams like the Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks were busy making blockbuster trades, the Avs quietly signed Florida Panthers’ backup goalie Craig Anderson to a twoyear deal.

Last year with Florida, Anderson posted a lackluster 15 wins in 31 games. The Avs were ready to roll with goaltender Peter Budaj in the No. 1 spot come October, but Anderson stole the job in training camp with stellar play and game readiness.

In addition, rough-and-tumble forward Darcy Tucker, who posted only 16 points in last year’s campaign with the Avs, has started the 2009-10 season with impressive offensive vigor, putting up four goals, two assists and four power-play points in 10 games.

Unfortunately for Colorado, Tucker is out indefinitely after Ottawa Senators pest Jarkko Ruutu crushed him facefirst into the boards last Friday.

On the bright side, the Avalanche see NHL, page 13

SCHEDULE | Oct. 29 - Nov. 4 THURS

FRI

SUN

Amherst 1:00 p.m.

Football

Field Hockey

SAT

at Bowdoin 5:00 p.m.

NESCAC Tournament tba

Men’s Soccer

at Bowdoin 3:00 p.m.

NESCAC Tournament tba

Women’s Soccer

at Bowdoin 3:00 p.m.

NESCAC Tournament tba

Volleyball

vs. Trinity (at Amherst) 8:00 p.m.

at Amherst 11:00 a.m.

NESCAC Championship 1:00 p.m.

Cross Country

JumboCast

Football

MON

TUES

WED

t seems that I am slowly trying to change Major League Baseball into the NFL. Several weeks ago, I made the case that baseball should become the fourth and final major sport to adopt a salary cap and, this week, I’m suggesting that it needs to implement instant replay in order to regain some of the credibility that it has frittered away over the course of this year’s playoffs.

We all know the scenarios by now.

In the top of the 11th inning of Game 2 of the ALDS, the Minnesota Twins’ Joe Mauer hit what most of the world clearly saw as a ground-rule double.

The only problem was that Phil Cuzzi, the left-field umpire who was closer to the play than anyone else, inexplicably ruled it foul. The Twins lost the game, lost their spirit and lost the series to the New York Yankees.

In Game 4 of the ALCS, third-base umpire Tim McClelland watched a bizarre play unfold directly in front of him in which both the Yankees’ Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano avoided third base like the plague while Angels catcher Mike Napoli tagged both of them out in quick succession. For reasons unbeknownst to everyone but himself, McClelland ruled Posada out but decided that Cano should have the base.

Of course, there were other calls that made even a neutral observer want to throw his shoe at the television. And the Yankees were not the sole beneficiary. The Angels themselves received some generous umpiring in the ALDS that raised the ire of the Red Sox bandwagon, and there were a number of head-scratchers in the NLDS between the Phillies and Rockies.

This, however, is not an aberration.

Although the calls made by Cuzzi and McClelland were egregiously lousy, the MLB regular season is always littered with similar rulings that either go unexplained by the league’s front office or are brushed away with the standard line, “It’s part of the human element of the game.”

In a rare departure from his otherwise fiercely stubborn approach to his job, Commissioner Bud Selig agreed last year to implement instant replay for disputed home run calls. As an Orioles fan, my first reaction was, “Twelve years too late, Bud;” but as a general baseball fan, I wondered why he singled out the resolution of those types of controversies as the most crucial to the outcome of the game. Over a year later, I’m still wondering the same thing.

Disputed plays on the base-paths strike me as far more common and far more important to get right, and there are a whole host of other things — like whether or not an outfielder trapped a ball or got his glove underneath it — that merit a second look.

The argument most often heard against instant replay for baseball, aside from the “human element” nonsense, is “it impedes the flow of the game.” Now, I’m not sure about the rest of the world’s baseball fans, but I would gladly exchange five minutes of my time for the knowledge that it was only my team’s ineptitude, not anyone else’s, that lost a game. If baseball really wanted to speed things up, it would extend the strike zone back to what it’s supposed to be instead of insisting on the heart-shaped box that it’s become.

No, the calls made by Cuzzi and McClelland did not singlehandedly lose the game for the Twins and Angels. But they could have, and that’s what matters.

I’m not suggesting that everything be open to replay — balls and strikes, for example, should still be unreviewable — and I’m not suggesting that teams should be able to call for limitless reviews. A reasonable and fair replay system, like the one in the NFL, would go a long way toward ensuring that everyone goes home confident that skill and execution carried the day.

In the end, isn’t that what baseball’s integrity is all about?

Rory Parks is a senior majoring in international relations and Spanish. He can be reached at Rory.Parks@tufts.edu

Sports

16

INSIDE Standings 14 Editors’ Challenge 14 Inside the NHL 15

tuftsdaily.com

FIELD HOCKEY

The times they are a-changin’ Tufts faces depleted Bowdoin team this Friday BY

MICHAEL SPERA

Daily Editorial Board

It has been said that elephants never forget. And the Jumbos are no exception.

Last year, the Bowdoin Polar Bears iced the Tufts field hockey team in both the NESCAC and NCAA championship games. The last time the two NESCAC foes met, the Jumbos fell in a 3-2 double-overtime loss in the 2008 NCAA championship game. Understandably, the Jumbos have had a lot on their minds as they prepare to face Bowdoin again — including payback. In this Friday’s bookend game to the regular season against the Polar Bears, the nationally ranked No. 5 Jumbos will have their chance at revenge.

After solidifying their place in NESCAC field hockey history by winning two consecutive national championships, the Polar Bears have lost ground this season. Bowdoin was 39-2 in the last two seasons of play, sporting the highest winning percentage in the country, but has slipped to 4-4 in NESCAC play this season. Currently, Bowdoin sits sixth in the NESCAC standings, while ranked 12th nationally. This marks the first time since 2004 that the NESCAC powerhouse has dropped from the top ten list.

“It’s definitely a new Bowdoin team this year,” junior midfielder Tamara Brown explained. “That said, they have great fundamentals, strong formations and excellent coaching, so we’re not writing them off. It’ll be interesting to see their new team, and it’s an exciting feeling to play them again.”

The defending national champions graduated some of their most prominent players at the end of their championship season, including two-time NESCAC Player of the Year forward Lindsay

McNamara. With McNamara, a major offensive force who holds the records for the most goals in a game, season and career in the history of the Bowdoin program, and other playmakers gone, the question in Tufts’ locker room continues to be how the Bowdoin squad will have changed on the field since last season.

“We’re all very excited to play Bowdoin, but we understand that it’s not going to exactly be a rematch,” senior co-captain Margi Scholtes said. “We’re both different teams, and although it’s an emotional matchup, we want to make sure to keep things in perspective in light of this year ... McNamara and the other seniors who graduated were key to the Bowdoin team last season, but so were our captains that graduated last May ... It’s hard to tell what we’re getting, but it’ll be different than last year’s matchups.”

Though Bowdoin may not be up to par compared to its performances in past seasons, the Polar Bears still pose a serious threat to the Jumbos. While Bowdoin holds a 9-4 overall record, it is 6-1 at home, suffering its last Ryan Field loss in September to Middlebury. Additionally, the return of players like senior forward Shavonne Lord, who scored in the national championship game, should keep Tufts on guard.

Moreover, in the event that the Jumbos are eliminated from the upcoming NESCAC tournament, they are going to need to sport a strong regular season record for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in late November, meaning every game counts.

“The NESCAC has been different this year,” Brown said. “It seems to be more competitive, just based on some of the close games and upsets like Wesleyan’s see FIELD HOCKEY, page 13

VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY

Amanda Roberts and her Tufts teammates will close out their regular season on Friday with a rematch of last year’s national championship game against Bowdoin.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

FOOTBALL

Jumbos try to keep title hopes alive

Tufts faces undefeated Amherst BY

ZACH GROEN

Senior Staff Writer

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Alix Michael and the women’s soccer team will try secure a home-field NESCAC game by beating Bowdoin Friday.

Tufts hopes for home NESCAC match

BY JESSE WEINBERG Contributing Writer

When the Tufts women’s soccer team travels to Bowdoin to take on the Polar Bears on Friday in their final NESCAC game of the regular season, there will be plenty at stake.

And while revenge may be on the Jumbos minds, earning home field in their NESCAC championship opener is at the top of the list of the team’s priorities.

With a win over Bowdoin, the Jumbos would be guaranteed the number four seed in the NESCAC tournament, which clinches them a home game at Kraft Field. But Tufts cannot get caught looking ahead, as the Polar Bears are a formidable foe.

Led by sophomore forward Ellery Gould, who is tops in the NESCAC with 12 goals, the Polar Bears are currently sixth in the league and will be look-

ing to go into their matchup Sunday, most likely with Middlebury, on the heels of a victory.

“We are preparing for Bowdoin like we prepare for every game; it doesn’t matter what team we are playing,” senior co-captain forward Whitney Hardy said.

The last time the Jumbos met Bowdoin was in the first see WOMEN’S SOCCER, page 13

After being dealt a 30-7 shellacking at the hands of 4-1 Williams last week, the Jumbos return to the familiar territory of Zimman Field on Saturday, hoping to get back on the winning track against undefeated Amherst after having dropped two straight.

Unlike their previous losses — a 7-3 defeat at Wesleyan and a 10-3 loss versus Trinity — the Jumbos were outplayed in every phase of the game against the Ephs. The defense, which had been the team’s strength through the first four games of the season, surrendered a season-high 30 points to the Ephs’ offense and will have to improve if Tufts wants to have a shot at unseating the 5-0 Lord Jeffs.

“We weren’t really playing the defense that we know we can play,” senior quad-captain and defensive end Dan Stebbins said. “We missed some opportunities, and we didn’t capitalize at times when we could’ve stepped up and made plays. We didn’t have any turnovers, and we need to generate turnovers to help our offense win games.”

While Tufts considers its defensive performance a mere aberration, there are some

huge concerns surrounding the squad’s offense. The Jumbos converted just one of their 13 third-down attempts and did not record a first down until late in the third quarter against the Ephs. Likewise, two weeks ago at home versus Trinity, the Jumbos’ offense did not record a first down until the final drive of the first half. If Tufts has any hope this weekend against Amherst, the team needs to figure out how to sustain more drives.

Unfortunately for the Jumbos, the offense is presented with the difficult task of getting back on track against an Amherst defense that is giving up just 9.4 points per game. Additionally, the Lord Jeffs have ceded only five touchdowns, half the number of the next-closest NESCAC squad in that category — Tufts.

Meanwhile, the Jumbos’ offense is averaging a mere 10.6 points per contest and has reached the end zone only six times, the fewest in the league.

While the Lord Jeffs boast the No. 1 defense in the NESCAC, they have been extremely vulnerable through the air.

Amherst is giving up 273 passing yards per game, last in the league, so the Jumbos figure to turn to senior quarterback Tom McManama to air the see FOOTBALL, page 14