2010-14-10

Mostly Cloudy 59/54

THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 25

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Annual Coming Out Day rally draws large crowd BY

MATT REPKA AND CORINNE SEGAL Daily Editorial Board

MONICA MOWERY/TUFTS DAILY

Organizers praised the large turnout at yesterday’s Coming Out Day rally.

Students, faculty, staff and area residents gathered yesterday at the Mayer Campus Center for a rally marking Tufts’ observance of National Coming Out Day, sharing stories before what speakers called a historic turnout.

The celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) identity on campus this year came in the wake of a recent string of LGBT teen suicides nationwide. The event, hosted by the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) in conjunction with the LGBT Center, featured speakers and a musical performance.

National Coming Out Day took place on Monday, but organizers scheduled the Tufts rally for Wednesday to avoid a conflict with the Columbus Day university holiday, according to QSA Co-president Simon Katz.

“We pushed it forward to make sure that everyone on campus, including faculty and staff, would be involved,” Katz, a senior, said.

Rally organizers praised the high turnout for the event.

“I am so excited. It was the best show of support I’ve ever seen here at Tufts toward the LGBT community,” LGBT Center Director Tom Bourdon said after the rally, which took place at noon on the campus center’s lower patio. “I hope this is a sign of the direction the school is taking toward showing compassion and support toward all marginalized communities.”

“There has never been a turnout like this” for National Coming Out Day, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman told attendees.

Addressing the crowd, Adele Fleet Bacow said she and her husband, University President Lawrence Bacow, had received feedback about the rainbow banner now on display at Gifford House.

“Not all of those … reactions were positive, and that’s very sad,” Fleet Bacow said. “But I think being here today, on this bright sunny day, surrounded by all of you … says so much about what we are and what the future holds.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but see RALLY, page 2

Prominent atheist Sam Harris to round out Freethought Week BY

AMELIE HECHT

Daily Editorial Board

Freethought Week, a fourday-long celebration of moral and philosophical inquiry, concludes this evening with a lecture featuring noted atheist author Sam Harris.

Harris, one of the nation’s most outspoken atheist scholars, is the author of “Letter to a Christian Nation” (2006) and “The End of Faith” (2005). He will discuss his most recent book, “The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values.”

The talk will take place tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium. A reception at the Fung House, located at 48 Professors Row, will follow.

“Sam Harris is what some people call one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” sophomore Bruce Wang, the Tufts Freethought Society ( TFS) public relations representative, said. “He has written some of the best books arguing against certain tenets

of religion and is viewed as an icon by many atheists.”

The Center for the Humanities at Tufts (CHAT) and the Office of Undergraduate Education are sponsoring the lecture, which Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser helped bring to campus.

Glaser said that the university took advantage of Harris’s current book tour as an opportunity to bring him to speak at Tufts.

“We got involved because he is one of the most well-known advocates for freethought in the media today,” TFS President David Johnson said. “The idea that we could help bring him to campus was very exciting for us.”

Glaser said the university does not take any particular stance on atheism, but rather aims to sponsor speakers from a variety of backgrounds.

“Those who agree with him will enjoy the talk,” Glaser told the Daily in an e-mail. “Those who disagree should find what he says challenging and thought-provoking.”

In his new book, Harris argues that people can use science instead of religion to address questions of human morality, according to Johnson, a senior.

“I hope that people take the claim that science has some bearing on human morality and ethics more seriously,” Johnson said. “Sam Harris is very convincing, so I suspect some people might take the view more seriously after they hear him speak.”

Glaser echoed this sentiment.

“He’s a brilliant speaker who represents an important point of view that educated people should know about,” he said.

Freethought Week began on Monday with a lecture by Daniel Dennett, professor of philosophy and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, entitled “What Should Replace Religion?”

“Professor Dennett’s lecture was definitely a success,” Johnson said. “We had people sitting in extra chairs in the back in Cohen Auditorium.”

INTERVIEW | STEPHEN WERMIEL

Author Wermiel discusses new book on Brennan’s Supreme Court Legacy BY

DAPHNE KOLIOS

Daily Editorial Board

StephenWermiel (A ’72), author of the new biography “Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion,” will tonight join a panel of speakers at Tufts to discuss the Supreme Court’s evolution over the past two decades.

Wermiel, a law professor at American University Washington College of Law, is joined on the panel

by intellectual property attorney Emily Woodward (LA ’96), who also teaches an Experimental College (ExCollege) class, and formerWilliam J. Brennan law clerks John Savarese and Dean Hashimoto. University President Lawrence Bacow will moderate the discussion on what Brennan might have thought about the current Supreme Court.

The event, sponsored by the ExCollege, will take place at 7:30

p.m. tonight in Barnum 104. The Daily earlier this week spoke with Wermiel by phone to discuss his newest work.

Daphne Kolios: Could you give a summary of your book, what it touches on and its key points?

Stephen Wermiel: Justice William

Inside this issue

COURTESY JENNIFER ROPER

Sam Harris, an outspoken atheist scholar, will close out Freethought Week with a lecture tonight in Cohen Auditorium.

Johnson outlined TFS’s three goals for Freethought Week: organize events that serve the interest of club members, gain

support for the creation of a humanist chaplain position, and see HARRIS, page 2

Zelinger wins sophomore Senate seat After class-wide voting in a special election yesterday, sophomore Jeremy Zelinger was elected to a vacant Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate seat, the Elections Commission (ECOM) announced early this morning.

Zelinger beat out sophomore Stefan Schwarz for the spot, which had remained vacant since sophomore Faith Blake resigned from the body on Sept. 23.

With Zelinger’s election, the Senate stands at a full 28 members, not counting trustee and community representatives.

Turnout for the vote was 36 per-

cent of the Class of 2013, according to ECOM Public Relations Director Will Yu, a sophomore.

Senior Winwit Li will also join the Senate, filling former senator Lauren Levine’s seat, according to ECOM. Levine, a senior, resigned last month; Li walked onto the body, as no one else contested the senior Senate seat.

Meanwhile, sophomore Ard Ardalan and freshman Patrick Bressette walked onto seats on the Committee on Student Life. They ran unopposed.

—by Matt Repka

see WERMIEL, page 2

Today’s Sections

Overcommitted Jumbos cope with packed schedules.

Journalism’s stampede online has greatly changed the face of TV criticism.

see FEATURES, page 3

see WEEKENDER, page 5

News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 15 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

2

Thursday, October 14, 2010

NEWS

Alumnus Stephen Wermiel’s Brennan biography examines justice’s influence WERMIEL continued from page 1

Brennan was on the Supreme Court for 34 years, from 1956 to 1990, and in that period, the book suggests he was maybe the most influential justice of the 20th century in shaping everything from our notion of the constitutional right to privacy to our notion of free speech, affirmative action, debate about the death penalty. … He really played a central role in shaping how we think about all of those things.

The book suggests his influence and continued legacy — he’s been gone from the court for 20 years, but in a lot of ways, he’s still shaping how we think about those things.

DK: How did you know Justice Brennan?

SW: I was introduced to him by a mutual friend … and I think Justice Brennan had talked to him about having a biography. This began in 1986, when Brennan was turning 80 and had been on the court for 30 years, and so he was very interested, I think, in beginning to think about what his legacy would be — how he would be remembered. So he was looking for a biographer, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

DK: You started it while he was still alive — I would think that’s rather unconventional for a biography?

SW: The most amazing part of it is that he gave me access during his last four years on the court — he gave me virtually unlimited access to his office, to his files, to everything going on in his office, and he sat with me for 60 hours of tape-recorded interviews during that four-year period. That’s rather unprecedented for someone to do that, for any kind of biography, and it’s totally unprecedented for a Supreme Court justice to give anyone that kind of access.

DK: What was the best part about having such open access, and what did you learn that you would not have otherwise been able to?

SW: There’s a personal aspect to that and a broader aspect. …

At that point when I started in 1986, I had been writing about the Supreme Court for the Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal for maybe about eight years. … It was a remarkable moment to ask the questions [I’d] always wanted to ask and then have someone sitting there able to answer them. …

Some writing about the court gives the image of the justices roaming about the halls, trading jokes, slapping each other on the back. … I learned that the court operated in a more thoughtful and serious process. It’s what you’d want the Supreme Court to be doing, but not necessarily what you thought they were doing.

DK: How long did it take you to write the book?

SW: Forever. Actually, forever and longer than that. I started the book in 1986, and so it has been 24 years. ... I put it down for a long time, for various reasons. … In 2006, I decided that I really needed to get it done, and I decided to take on a co-author.

DK: Would you say that when you first started, it was more the compilation of information with Brennan, and after that, it was more writing?

SW: In 1986, Brennan said he didn’t want the book published while he was still sitting on the court … and so I didn’t even think about writing the book till he retired in July 1990. I had asked him to give me advance warning … and he called me at 7:30 in the morning [of the day] he decided to retire. …

And the other part, which is sort

of selfish, but I admit it, is that this was the most remarkable learning experience I’ve ever had in my life, and I didn’t want it to stop. If I started writing the book, it would mean that the exploration was over, and I didn’t want it to be over.

DK: Is there anything that readers would find surprising in your book?

SW: You began to have people talking about Brennan the liberal activist, who just handled his personal views as a judge. With that background in mind, one of the discoveries we made was that Brennan was actually more of a conservative person privately than the public judge that we saw, and there are several examples of that.

There has probably never been in the history of the Supreme Court a greater defender of freedom of the press. … But what we discovered was, privately, he really distrusted the press — he didn’t like reporters, he had a couple of run-ins with reporters — actually shoved one of them. He recognized the importance of free press to a democratic society, but he didn’t necessarily want them in his life.

DK: Why do you think that this study, and what Justice Brennan did, is important to society and the Supreme Court today?

SW: I don’t think I could have done a better job of [timing] — it’s a fluke, but probably the two most interesting cases the Supreme Court is deciding this term are two free speech cases, both of which very heavily involve examining free speech from the standpoint of what Justice Brennan left us. One of the cases is the dispute over whether this church from Kansas can protest at the funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq. … Justice Brennan really led the courts in the view that if we’re really going to have free speech in society, the

COURTESY ANNE WERMIEL

Stephen Wermiel (A ’72) will speak tonight on a panel discussing Justice William J. Brennan and the Supreme Court. way to respond is to speak back, but not to prohibit.

[In the second case], the state of California decided to ban the sale or rental to minors of violent video games. So the Supreme Court is deciding whether that is violating the First Amendment right of video game producers and minors, and the issue in that case focuses substantially on the commitment Justice Brennan wrote on in 1968, in which he said

Coming Out Day rally attendees share stories, voice support RALLY continued from page 1

there’s a lot to be appreciative of as well,” Bacow added.

State Rep. Carl Sciortino (LA ’00), one of the few openly gay members of the state legislature, told the story of his positive undergraduate experience at Tufts.

“What I saw here on campus, and the courage that I see here today is heartwarming,” Sciortino (D-Medford/Somerville) said.

Speaking at the rally, Bourdon asked attendees to observe a moment of silence for the victims of anti-LGBT bullying that committed suicide in the past month.

“I have never felt an energy like this on a National Coming Out Day before,” Bourdon said. “I feel so lucky to work at a school like Tufts, where we have so many vibrant LGBT community members and allies.”

Bourdon called on rally attendees to erase the use of homophobic language on campus, to foster openness with peers and family members, and to participate in events through the LGBT Center.

Faculty members, including Philosophy Department Chair Nancy Bauer and Assistant Professor of Music Stephan Pennington, also shared stories.

Other speakers at the rally affirmed their support for the campus LGBT community.

University Chaplain David O’Leary and Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Tufts Hillel’s executive director, both spoke at the rally.

“If it doesn’t bring more love into the world, it probably isn’t religion,” Summit told the crowd. “More people have to understand that this is not about tolerance. This is about embracing people’s differences.”

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Christopher McGee spoke on behalf of TUPD. McGee encouraged students to report incidents and crimes without fear of discrimination or bias.

“We depend on the LGBT community here. You are one of the best communities at this place,” Reitman said to attendees.

“Somebody said, ‘What would it be like if everybody were straight on this campus?’

that sexually explicit material that could be sold to adults perhaps could be prohibited from being sold to minors. California now wants the Supreme Court to extend that opinion and make it apply to violent material. So their whole argument is that Brennan’s opinion from 1968 should be expanded to apply to ban the sale of violent video games. I think it suggests how relevant Brennan still is.

Atheist scholar Sam Harris to speak tonight HARRIS continued from page 1

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

Assistant Professor of Music Stephan Pennington speaks at yesterday’s rally.

Well, the answer is, it would be boring,” Reitman said, drawing cheers.

Reitman added that the university plans to examine the growing issue of cyberbullying highlighted by the recent spate of highly publicized LGBT teen suicides.

Rally organizers opened up the microphone midway through the event, encouraging attendees to share their stories with the crowd. Students shared their own experiences with coming out, either as LGBT or as an ally. Students also addressed themes like confronting parents and experiencing homophobia.

Between speakers, musician Julia

Weldon performed for the crowd. Weldon performed again later that evening at Brown and Brew as part of the continued Coming Out Day celebration.

Bourdon said current events played a role in increasing students’ awareness of the issues. “I think people are starting to realize that this isn’t just something that’s out there — it impacts the lives of people on our campus every day,” Bourdon said, referring to LGBT issues in light of the recent suicides. “If we’re not all there to help create a safe environment, we’re all at risk of experiencing the direct negative consequences on our own campus.”

educate students about freethought and what it means to be a non-religious college student in America today.

“Our biggest focus this semester is on establishing a humanist chaplain so we can expand the on-campus services we can offer and provide legitimacy to our position,” Johnson said. “We want someone who non-religious people feel that they can go to on campus.”

TFS also hosted a discussion entitled “Confessions of a College Atheist” in the Mayer Campus Center on Tuesday. At the event, students gathered signatures for a petition advocating for a humanist chaplaincy.

At another Freethought Week event, Michael De Dora, executive director of the Center for Inquiry in New York City, and Brian Glenney, professor of philosophy at Gordon College, yesterday hosted a discussion entitled “The Present and Future Role of Religion.”

“The week has been going very well so far, and I am really looking forward to what should be an incredibly interesting lecture by Sam Harris,” Johnson said.

CHAT Director Jonathan Wilson said that he hopes Harris’s lecture will foster intellectual debate on campus.

“I am very happy to co-sponsor the event because we are very happy to sponsor all intellectual endeavors on this campus,” Wilson said. “He is a well-known figure and a kind of poster boy for the new atheism, so I am sure it is going to be a very exciting and interesting event.”

Wang was optimistic about tonight’s event, citing Harris’s reputation and unique lecture topic as significant draws for students. “We definitely expect a large crowd for what should be a great event,” he said.

THE TUFTS DAILY

2

Thursday, October 14, 2010

NEWS

Alumnus Stephen Wermiel’s Brennan biography examines justice’s influence WERMIEL continued from page 1

Brennan was on the Supreme Court for 34 years, from 1956 to 1990, and in that period, the book suggests he was maybe the most influential justice of the 20th century in shaping everything from our notion of the constitutional right to privacy to our notion of free speech, affirmative action, debate about the death penalty. … He really played a central role in shaping how we think about all of those things.

The book suggests his influence and continued legacy — he’s been gone from the court for 20 years, but in a lot of ways, he’s still shaping how we think about those things.

DK: How did you know Justice Brennan?

SW: I was introduced to him by a mutual friend … and I think Justice Brennan had talked to him about having a biography. This began in 1986, when Brennan was turning 80 and had been on the court for 30 years, and so he was very interested, I think, in beginning to think about what his legacy would be — how he would be remembered. So he was looking for a biographer, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

DK: You started it while he was still alive — I would think that’s rather unconventional for a biography?

SW: The most amazing part of it is that he gave me access during his last four years on the court — he gave me virtually unlimited access to his office, to his files, to everything going on in his office, and he sat with me for 60 hours of tape-recorded interviews during that four-year period. That’s rather unprecedented for someone to do that, for any kind of biography, and it’s totally unprecedented for a Supreme Court justice to give anyone that kind of access.

DK: What was the best part about having such open access, and what did you learn that you would not have otherwise been able to?

SW: There’s a personal aspect to that and a broader aspect. …

At that point when I started in 1986, I had been writing about the Supreme Court for the Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal for maybe about eight years. … It was a remarkable moment to ask the questions [I’d] always wanted to ask and then have someone sitting there able to answer them. …

Some writing about the court gives the image of the justices roaming about the halls, trading jokes, slapping each other on the back. … I learned that the court operated in a more thoughtful and serious process. It’s what you’d want the Supreme Court to be doing, but not necessarily what you thought they were doing.

DK: How long did it take you to write the book?

SW: Forever. Actually, forever and longer than that. I started the book in 1986, and so it has been 24 years. ... I put it down for a long time, for various reasons. … In 2006, I decided that I really needed to get it done, and I decided to take on a co-author.

DK: Would you say that when you first started, it was more the compilation of information with Brennan, and after that, it was more writing?

SW: In 1986, Brennan said he didn’t want the book published while he was still sitting on the court … and so I didn’t even think about writing the book till he retired in July 1990. I had asked him to give me advance warning … and he called me at 7:30 in the morning [of the day] he decided to retire. …

And the other part, which is sort

of selfish, but I admit it, is that this was the most remarkable learning experience I’ve ever had in my life, and I didn’t want it to stop. If I started writing the book, it would mean that the exploration was over, and I didn’t want it to be over.

DK: Is there anything that readers would find surprising in your book?

SW: You began to have people talking about Brennan the liberal activist, who just handled his personal views as a judge. With that background in mind, one of the discoveries we made was that Brennan was actually more of a conservative person privately than the public judge that we saw, and there are several examples of that.

There has probably never been in the history of the Supreme Court a greater defender of freedom of the press. … But what we discovered was, privately, he really distrusted the press — he didn’t like reporters, he had a couple of run-ins with reporters — actually shoved one of them. He recognized the importance of free press to a democratic society, but he didn’t necessarily want them in his life.

DK: Why do you think that this study, and what Justice Brennan did, is important to society and the Supreme Court today?

SW: I don’t think I could have done a better job of [timing] — it’s a fluke, but probably the two most interesting cases the Supreme Court is deciding this term are two free speech cases, both of which very heavily involve examining free speech from the standpoint of what Justice Brennan left us. One of the cases is the dispute over whether this church from Kansas can protest at the funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq. … Justice Brennan really led the courts in the view that if we’re really going to have free speech in society, the

COURTESY ANNE WERMIEL

Stephen Wermiel (A ’72) will speak tonight on a panel discussing Justice William J. Brennan and the Supreme Court. way to respond is to speak back, but not to prohibit.

[In the second case], the state of California decided to ban the sale or rental to minors of violent video games. So the Supreme Court is deciding whether that is violating the First Amendment right of video game producers and minors, and the issue in that case focuses substantially on the commitment Justice Brennan wrote on in 1968, in which he said

Coming Out Day rally attendees share stories, voice support RALLY continued from page 1

there’s a lot to be appreciative of as well,” Bacow added.

State Rep. Carl Sciortino (LA ’00), one of the few openly gay members of the state legislature, told the story of his positive undergraduate experience at Tufts.

“What I saw here on campus, and the courage that I see here today is heartwarming,” Sciortino (D-Medford/Somerville) said.

Speaking at the rally, Bourdon asked attendees to observe a moment of silence for the victims of anti-LGBT bullying that committed suicide in the past month.

“I have never felt an energy like this on a National Coming Out Day before,” Bourdon said. “I feel so lucky to work at a school like Tufts, where we have so many vibrant LGBT community members and allies.”

Bourdon called on rally attendees to erase the use of homophobic language on campus, to foster openness with peers and family members, and to participate in events through the LGBT Center.

Faculty members, including Philosophy Department Chair Nancy Bauer and Assistant Professor of Music Stephan Pennington, also shared stories.

Other speakers at the rally affirmed their support for the campus LGBT community.

University Chaplain David O’Leary and Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Tufts Hillel’s executive director, both spoke at the rally.

“If it doesn’t bring more love into the world, it probably isn’t religion,” Summit told the crowd. “More people have to understand that this is not about tolerance. This is about embracing people’s differences.”

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Christopher McGee spoke on behalf of TUPD. McGee encouraged students to report incidents and crimes without fear of discrimination or bias.

“We depend on the LGBT community here. You are one of the best communities at this place,” Reitman said to attendees.

“Somebody said, ‘What would it be like if everybody were straight on this campus?’

that sexually explicit material that could be sold to adults perhaps could be prohibited from being sold to minors. California now wants the Supreme Court to extend that opinion and make it apply to violent material. So their whole argument is that Brennan’s opinion from 1968 should be expanded to apply to ban the sale of violent video games. I think it suggests how relevant Brennan still is.

Atheist scholar Sam Harris to speak tonight HARRIS continued from page 1

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

Assistant Professor of Music Stephan Pennington speaks at yesterday’s rally.

Well, the answer is, it would be boring,” Reitman said, drawing cheers.

Reitman added that the university plans to examine the growing issue of cyberbullying highlighted by the recent spate of highly publicized LGBT teen suicides.

Rally organizers opened up the microphone midway through the event, encouraging attendees to share their stories with the crowd. Students shared their own experiences with coming out, either as LGBT or as an ally. Students also addressed themes like confronting parents and experiencing homophobia.

Between speakers, musician Julia

Weldon performed for the crowd. Weldon performed again later that evening at Brown and Brew as part of the continued Coming Out Day celebration.

Bourdon said current events played a role in increasing students’ awareness of the issues. “I think people are starting to realize that this isn’t just something that’s out there — it impacts the lives of people on our campus every day,” Bourdon said, referring to LGBT issues in light of the recent suicides. “If we’re not all there to help create a safe environment, we’re all at risk of experiencing the direct negative consequences on our own campus.”

educate students about freethought and what it means to be a non-religious college student in America today.

“Our biggest focus this semester is on establishing a humanist chaplain so we can expand the on-campus services we can offer and provide legitimacy to our position,” Johnson said. “We want someone who non-religious people feel that they can go to on campus.”

TFS also hosted a discussion entitled “Confessions of a College Atheist” in the Mayer Campus Center on Tuesday. At the event, students gathered signatures for a petition advocating for a humanist chaplaincy.

At another Freethought Week event, Michael De Dora, executive director of the Center for Inquiry in New York City, and Brian Glenney, professor of philosophy at Gordon College, yesterday hosted a discussion entitled “The Present and Future Role of Religion.”

“The week has been going very well so far, and I am really looking forward to what should be an incredibly interesting lecture by Sam Harris,” Johnson said.

CHAT Director Jonathan Wilson said that he hopes Harris’s lecture will foster intellectual debate on campus.

“I am very happy to co-sponsor the event because we are very happy to sponsor all intellectual endeavors on this campus,” Wilson said. “He is a well-known figure and a kind of poster boy for the new atheism, so I am sure it is going to be a very exciting and interesting event.”

Wang was optimistic about tonight’s event, citing Harris’s reputation and unique lecture topic as significant draws for students. “We definitely expect a large crowd for what should be a great event,” he said.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Penciling in free time: How Jumbos with packed schedules balance myriad obligations BY

MAYA KOHLI

Daily Editorial Board

The athlete who is also a member of Leonard Carmichael Society, the a cappella singer who works at Tisch Library, the zealous activist who is constantly running from one protest to another. Everyone knows a student like this at Tufts — someone who not only takes classes but also has a job, volunteers and is active in several student organizations.

At Tufts, the passion and varied interests of the student body have produced an abundance of organizations and, consequently, the opportunity for countless commitments.

But overextending oneself can be a quick recipe for disaster — taking rigorous courses, being the president of seven clubs and tutoring three times a week leaves scant time for relaxation. So where is the line between passionate engagement and an overbooked planner?

Julie Jampel, the supervising clinician and training director at Counseling and Mental Health Service, said there is an upper limit to positive engagement. While being busy is rewarding, she explained, it also has its drawbacks.

“Very tight schedules do contribute to stress, as there is no time built into the day to relax or even to reflect,” Jampel said. “Although there are people who do not like idle time and thus feel better when they are constantly moving from one activity to the next, this lifestyle prevents them from learning how to relax and enjoy free time.”

At the same time, a highly structured schedule helps some students function optimally, according to Associate Professor of Psychology Keith Maddox, who specializes in social psychology.

“When some people have too much time on their hands, they have a harder time focusing,” Maddox said. “For other people who have a highly structured schedule, it becomes easier for them to focus on the tasks at hand.”

Maddox emphasized the importance of

NINA DAVARI/TUFTS DAILY

Datebooks filled with appointments and to-do lists packed with tasks are typical for some. choosing activities for the “right” reasons.

“People have to consider their motivations,” he said. “It is more beneficial to choose activities that are important to people’s identities, versus the things that people are doing to fill out their resumes.

Those things probably won’t provide a lasting sense of motivation.”

Some students whose datebooks are filled with multiple obligations each day echoed Maddox in noting the positive aspects of imposed structure and efficiency.

Junior Lizzie Langer said her activities help her occupy days that would otherwise be squandered.

“I like to keep myself busy, or else I get bored,” Langer said. “Even when I truly have nothing left to do, I will find something to do so that my schedule will be easier later on in the week.”

Langer is the president of the Tufts chapters of both the Chi Omega sorority and the global women’s network 85 Broads. She also holds a part-time job working for McKinsey & Company’s exter-

nal communications department and estimated that her combined extracurricular commitments take up about 35 hours a week.

“I try to keep a positive attitude so I don’t feel like time is running out,” Langer said with regard to her hectic calendar. “I also balance my schedule with difficult and less rigorous classes so I’m not overwhelmed with work.”

Junior Kevin Gilchrist, a pitcher on Tufts’ men’s baseball team, said that, in addition to keeping him busy, extracurricular activities force him to remain organized, improving his performance in other areas.

“During the season, baseball probably takes up 24 hours a week between practice and games,” he said. “Even though it is a huge time commitment, having a sport also helps me structure my time, and I typically have better grades in season.”

Rewards aside, junior Kelsey Picciuto, a member of the women’s cross country and track and field teams and the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), said that at times she feels as though her college life is somewhat atypical and includes a lot of sacrifice.

“I don’t watch a lot of TV or go to the dining halls. I also don’t go out that much because I just don’t have time during the week,” Picciuto said.

Maintaining friendships takes extra work, she added.

“There are a lot of times where I can’t spend time sitting on the couch talking to my housemates or friends because I’m either at practice or doing homework,” she said.

Senior Sarah Habib, co-chair of Programming Board and the student representative to the Presidential Search Committee, said that finding time to catch up with friends she has neglected due to obligations is challenging, but she generally manages to do so by making social events out of things she has to do anyway — like eat. see SCHEDULES, page 4

ON THE T

Third Stop: Davis Square

BY ALEX KAUFMAN AND ROMY OLTUSKI

Contributing Writer and Daily Editorial Board

On the T is a continuing feature about Greater Boston neighborhoods along the five lines of the T. The dedicated members of the Daily Features Department will fill up their Charlie Cards and be your guides to the vast expanses of Boston (or the ones easily accessible to you by subway).

Most Walnut Hill residents have been frequenters of Davis Square for about as long as they’ve been students at Tufts. While Jumbos will always be drawn to traditions like the Somerville Theater, Mr. Crepe and J.P. Licks, Davis has recently seen some changes.

One addition that has not gone overlooked is the up-and-coming restaurant Foundry on Elm (255 Elm St.), a very new kid on the block, having opened just five weeks ago.

Co-owner and general manager David Flanagan explained that Foundry on Elm is what he calls a “browsery” restaurant, or, in laymen’s terms, one with a cheap menu (there are only three or four dishes above $20). It’s also locally supplied “from farm to table,” he said.

“The goal of Foundry on Elm was to create a menu that would accommodate all budgets, and it’s been packed every night with all kinds of customers, from families to college students, because of it,” Flanagan said.

Quite obviously, the affordabil-

ity has made the Foundry a popular venue for Tufts students of age.

Another change around Davis, related to the opening of the Foundry, according to Flanagan, is increased visitation from Cambridge, Belmont and other areas.

Junior Judah Gruen agreed, noting that what’s changed most about Davis is the “scene,” in his words.

“Davis Square’s changed a lot lately. It’s become a bit more ‘yuppie’ and also somewhat nicer, but it’s still not as commercialized as Harvard Square,” he said.

The newcomers have also begun to eat and shop within the area, which is good for local businesses, Flanagan said.

Junior Matt Davis explained that this new clientele has a lot to do with the new feel of the area.

“It looks like it’s been getting a little younger, maybe a little more hipster.

I’ve felt safer there recently, [more so] than I did my freshman year. If it’s changed at all to the more yuppie side, it’s been because there are more independent, nicer restaurants, like the Foundry and Pizzeria Posto, which attract a different crowd. It seems like the addition of those types of place has evolved the space,” he said.

Of course the busy, but not completely urban, environment of Davis Square, as well as its proximity, is what keeps Tufts students going back to Davis. And

EMILY EISENBERG/TUFTS DAILY

even with the addition of a new set of eateries, Jumbos still stay true to favorites like Starbucks or its chic alternative, Diesel Café, both of which are still open and popular as ever.

In fact, some students find that even with the opening of new restaurants and stores, Davis Square has not changed much on the whole.

“There have been a couple new additions since I’ve been here, but overall it seems like Davis has presented the same general atmosphere since I’ve been at Tufts,” senior Will Merrow said.

More importantly, Davis said, the community still preserves the customs and events that make it unique.

“You still have the Honk! festival going on; the same things are happening, just the people in Davis represent a different see DAVIS, page 4

ANNA CHRISTIAN | THE COLLEGE SURVIVAL GUIDE

Back, back, back it up!

C

omputers: It seems impossible to imagine life without them.

People can essentially live their lives in chat rooms, playing games or stalking people on Facebook (everyone does it) and never really have to have human interaction. Unfortunately, computers can malfunction. I suppose people can let you down too, but it’s doubtful that they’re storing your notes for the upcoming test in Psych Stats in their heads (this would reach a new level of stalkage).

I think I have had more trouble with computers than most, and my friends can attest to this. The summer before my freshman year, I got a new Dell laptop. I was ecstatic: Finally, my very own computer! But after a mostly stress-free first year, everything went downhill. In the span of a semester, my hard drive crashed, my screen lights died, I stopped being able to join wireless Internet networks, and shut-downs were a spontaneous and habitual event. Yes, I’m still bitter, and yes, I’m still waiting for the ultimate crash when I can (finally) get a new computer. But amid all my mishaps, I’ve learned the following: 1. Don’t freak out. Undoubtedly, it’s difficult to stay calm when you haven’t started your research paper that’s due at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, but screaming at the customer service representative — most likely based in another country — won’t change that.

Instead, borrow another computer for a night. After all, your situation is more urgent than the laptop owner’s need to peruse his or her most recently tagged pictures for the fifth time. Calmly state your case, and you’ll have use of a virus-free computer for the rest of the night. After that, put your computer troubles out of your head and focus on the paper you need to write so you can deal with failed technology later.

2. Use an external hard drive. If you don’t have an Apple computer, you don’t necessarily have an automatic backup service (psh, stupid efficiency of Time Machine).

Unless I physically plug in my external hard drive and tell it to back up my files, nothing is safe. Don’t wait for the first time your computer f---s up to save! Trust me — I waited. By some miracle, I was able to back up my music files, which I’d been accumulating since middle school, but not everyone is lucky enough to have a crash-drill.

3. Use the UIT Support Center. I have had to take my computer to these guys five times.

They can almost always figure out your problem, big or small. This service is infinitely better than having to send your device via snail mail or trying to understand the breakdown yourself. Plus, you can trust your technician, since he or she is a fellow Jumbo. University Information Technology (UIT) is even better than getting a technician to come to you. Over winter break my sophomore year, I had some sketchy Dell guy come over to replace my screen. He asked me to sit and watch while he worked so I could see what he did, and then he asked if he could “have a drink” — in order to get my computer fixed, I apparently had to endure a blind date. UIT knows what they’re doing. They’re speedy, they’re unobtrusive, and they know their boundaries.

Although your computer is as big a part of your college life as some of your close friends, it can be the root of catastrophe. If you stay calm, vigilantly back up files and take advantage of the tech-savvy peeps on campus, all will be right in no time. Your parents will be so impressed (and relieved) when you solve your computer problems without spending their money, and you can enjoy stalking your high school friends and wall-posting TFLN to your heart’s content!

Anna Christian is a junior majoring in psychology. She can be reached at Anna.

Christian@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

4

Thursday, October 14, 2010

FEATURES

Jumbos cope with overextended schedules SCHEDULES continued from page 3

“I use meals as the most opportune time to see people,” Habib said. “Every single meal I have during the week is booked.”

For many busy students, the trick is simple: Love what you do, and it won’t seem like work.

Between athletics and ROTC, Picciuto estimates that she is busy for around 22 hours a week.

Both activities, however, provide her with a sense of gratification and have enriched her life in multiple ways.

“I’ve been able to access so many social networks within Tufts that I wouldn’t have otherwise,” she said. “And although both my parents were in the military, I have been able to gain a new appreciation for the service. As long as you like what you’re doing and doing everything for the right reasons — for yourself and because you enjoy them — I think it’s easy to balance your time.”

Sophomore Bronwen Raff, a vol-

unteer for the social service organization LIFT, the vice president of the Tufts Democrats and the membership director of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, said that the reward of working for worthy causes outweighs any stress they cause.

Between planning events for the Tufts Democrats, canvassing for candidates and clocking volunteer hours, Raff said that her passion keeps her going.

“I am so excited about these things, it doesn’t seem like a huge commitment,” she said. “When I’m at LIFT or doing Democrats stuff, I’m not thinking about homework or myself. I think that realizing at the end of the day that I have accomplished something more than schoolwork makes me a lot happier than finishing a book or writing an essay.”

But an extreme schedule is not sustainable without organization and time management, Habib said.

“It’s really nerdy, but every

night I plan out a schedule of the next day,” Habib said. “If it’s on my to-do list, it gets done. It’s also important to keep a detailed schedule and calendar — try and make it so you’re not doing a million things at once.”

Raff, who is taking five classes this semester, uses time that could easily go to waste to complete tasks.

“I do a lot of stuff between classes because I’m so busy at night,” she said. “I get up early to do homework.”

Both Habib and Raff emphasized that a serious commitment to a few activities is much more rewarding than a marginal involvement with many.

“It’s better to be really involved in two things rather than be involved in a million things,” Habib said.

“If you want to have a real impact, be discerning,” Raff said. “If you don’t like it, don’t do it, but strongly commit to a couple of things and have a large impact.”

ARE

YOU

?

Y R R E CH

New additions jazz up Davis Square DAVIS continued from page 3

slice of the community. It’s still indie and hippie, it’s just maybe become a little bit more expensive. I don’t think Davis Square can change that much when you have something like Tufts University right near it,” he said.

But even for those who do consider Davis a changing place, tradition and addition don’t always clash, and one particular Tufts party ritual has improved thanks to Davis’ newcomer shops: costumes.

With Halloween around the corner, a costume shop temporarily occupies the storefront that was once home to Poor Little Rich Girl. But the myriad second-hand stores that keep getting better and better each year suffice if you’re looking for something a little more off the beaten path than a full Power Ranger suit.

Between Buffalo Exchange, Goodwill, Artifaktori and La Chic Boutique, you’re bound to find something for even the wildest Tufts theme parties.

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STARTS TOMORROW

ZOE MOORE/TUFTS DAILY

New establishments like the Foundry are bringing new clientele to Davis.

Better banking means better offers for students!

SOMERVILLE THEATRE 55 Davis Square, Somerville 617-625-5700 www.somervilletheatreonline.com 2:15, 4:40, 7:00, 9:40

Director JEFF FINE will appear after select DIRECTOR Q&A FRIDAY & SATURDAY! Fri. & Sat. shows! CHECK THEATRE FOR INFO!

Check Tomorrow’s Paper for EXCITING ‘CHERRY’ WEEKEND AFTER-PARTY NEWS!

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GET UP TO $75* Get up to $75 and great student features! Now through November 12, 2010, students who open a Student Banking package—including Free Student Checking, Free Student Savings, Free Online Banking, and a Sovereign Debit Card—plus use the Debit Card to make 5 purchases within 60 days—get a $50 cash bonus!* Plus, set up and receive direct deposit into the account within 60 days of the account opening and get an additional $25 cash bonus! That’s a total of $75!* Get banking features created for students today! Stop by the nearest Sovereign Branch, call 1-877-SOV-BANK, or visit sovereignbank.com/75 today!

Santander Strong—Sovereign is part of Santander, the “Global Bank of the Year”† 1.877.SOV.BANK | sovereignbank.com/75

Sovereign Bank is a Member FDIC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, S.A. © 2010 Sovereign Bank | Sovereign and Santander and its logo are registered trademarks of Sovereign Bank and Santander, respectively, or their affiliates or subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Student Banking package is available for full-time and part-time students between the ages of 17 and 25 attending a college, university or other undergraduatelevel school. *In order to qualify for a cash bonus, you need to: (1) open a new Sovereign Free Student Checking account and a Sovereign Free Student Savings account, or have a pre-existing savings account, by 11/12/10, each with a minimum opening deposit of $10; (2) enroll in Online Banking at account opening; and (3) request a Sovereign Debit Card (“Debit Card”) and make 5 Debit Card purchases within 60 days after you open your account. When you qualify, you will receive a credit of $50 to your new checking account within 75 days of account opening. In addition, if you set up and receive a direct deposit within 60 days of account opening and fulfill the above requirements, you will receive an additional bonus of $25, which will be credited to your new checking account within 75 days after account opening. Maximum $75 bonus per customer. Checking account must be open to receive bonus. Annual percentage yield (APY) for Free Student Savings is 0.05% as of 9/1/10 and is subject to change at any time and after account opening. Fees may reduce earnings. The total amount of the bonus credited to your account will be reported to the IRS as interest on your Form 1099-INT for the year in which the bonus is paid. Current personal checking customers or anyone who has had a personal checking account with Sovereign Bank or any of its divisions in the last 6 months are not eligible for this offer. Cannot be combined with other personal checking offers. Offer available only to residents in the following states: ME, VT, NH, CT, RI, MA, NY, NJ, PA, WV, MD, DE, District of Columbia. Sovereign Team Members are not eligible for this offer. †According to The Banker, December 2009.

http://weekender.com ARTS & LIVING

5

tuftsdaily.com

TV criticism’s new frontier

DESIGN BY LEANNE BROTSKY

Email to a friend Print

By Ben Phelps | Daily Editorial Board It is no secret that the print journalism industry is struggling. An April 27 New York Times report showed that average newspaper circulation among the nation’s largest papers was down nearly 9 percent from the previous year, with some papers even seeing declines in the 20 percent range. Magazine newsstand sales were down about the same amount, with some well-known publications like Time losing almost 35 percent of their newsstand sales compared to the year before.

The Internet is not the only reason for declining circulation rates — other factors include publications raising prices in hopes of driving up revenue — but it’s certainly a big one. As more and more consumers have the option of heading online to get their news, journalists have to change the way they do business or risk being made irrelevant altogether.

One group in particular is embracing the change, though, moving more content online and thriving because of it: television critics.

THEN AND NOW Traditionally, television criticism has taken the form of reviews of new and returning series — similar to those seen in the Daily — along with longer critical essays examining broader television trends. Print TV critics write columns and reviews telling viewers what to watch, what to avoid and what is happening in the television industry. These kinds of articles are still commonplace, appearing everywhere from the Arts section of the Times to the pages of college newspapers.

Over the past several years, though, post-episode reviews started showing up online, and they have only grown in popularity since. Early last decade, websites like Television Without Pity popularized the trend of covering specific shows with their exhaustive and snarky episode recaps. As TV critics and viewers alike discovered and adopted blog technology, that approach began to evolve into its current state, featuring more analytical reviews of individual episodes.

While plot-summary recaps can still be found, more important today is the method of post-episode analysis, in which critics examine individual episodes of shows on a weekly basis, providing opinions on current character and story arcs, what worked and what didn’t, and how the season as a whole is progressing. These critics assume their readers have watched the episode in question and thus eschew basic summary in favor of thoughtful critical analysis.

The online medium is key for this kind of writing because, “a.) it’s basically instant and b.) it has infinite space,” Todd VanDerWerff, a critic for The A.V. Club and the LA Times Show Tracker blog, said in an e-mail to the Daily.

The traditional print reviews are still useful, according to VanDerWerff, but the online post-episode responses are now the main critical focus.

“Print reviews of TV shows (usually screened in advance) are helpful in the same way that early movie reviews are helpful,” VanDerWerff said. “But the audience for TV shows usually builds a relationship with a particular show or a particular set of characters.”

This is why the Internet has become so integral to television criticism. Online, critics are able to have designated pages for certain shows — space that print doesn’t allow for — where viewers and fans can turn each week to read the writer’s take on newest developments.

“Frankly, I don’t know that there’d be a place for what I’m doing — which is more of an essay-style writing than straight-up reviews — in the TV criticism game of 10 years ago,” VanDerWerff said.

Now, critics can write lengthy reviews of popular and high-quality shows every week without the constraints of page space, and they can post their thoughts immediately after a show airs to spark conversation right away. And as the medium of television itself has evolved, with TV now able to legitimately stake its claim as an art form — see series like “The Wire” (2002-08), “The Sopranos” (1999-2007), “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” — in-depth criticism has become even more important and valuable.

So while critics agree that TV criticism hasn’t outgrown the print medium, “the future of television criticism is unquestionably online,” Myles McNutt, an amateur critic and graduate student in media and cultural studies, said in an e-mail to the Daily. VanDerWerff echoed those sentiments, saying, “If I’m running a newspaper

or magazine and I employ a TV critic, he’d better have a blog as well. TV criticism is unique in that it’s perfectly tuned to the Internet.”

WELCOMING CHANGE Several prominent television critics who built their careers in print have so embraced the digital future of TV criticism that they have left their newspaper jobs to move full-time to online-only publications.

Alan Sepinwall, formerly of the Newark Star-Ledger, is now the lead TV critic at online entertainment site HitFix and is largely considered to be one of the founders of the current method of criticism. Sepinwall was not available to comment for this article, but McNutt summarized his influence, saying, “Post-air analysis has not really changed that much since Sepinwall’s current approach was developed.”

On his old personal blog, Sepinwall said, “This blog rekindled my interest in a job I’d been doing for a very long time, and it taught me how to do it in a new way” — that way being post-air analysis, in a medium where he was able to discuss “not only why I liked things, but what I thought they meant.”

Maureen Ryan is another print stalwart now working exclusively online; she recently left the Chicago Tribune to become AOL’s lead TV critic. In an e-mail to the Daily, she said that while a blog at the Tribune gave her a chance to explore new online possibilities, “when the job at AOL came up, it seemed like the perfect move, given that it has a national scope and an even bigger audience.” Writing online allows critics to still appeal to a broad audience, “but you can also appeal to the superfans who’ll read a 3,000-word interview with their favorite TV writer,” she said.

“You can cater to both the broad and the narrow audiences online.”

And while some critics (no pun intended) of Internet media may point to Sepinwall’s and Ryan’s moves to fully online platforms as exacerbating the growing decline of print journalism and criticism, McNutt has another take. “More than the abandonment of a sinking ship — which is certainly part of the problem — there is the sense that their real interest (and TV criticism’s real interest, generally speaking) is in the potential for online criticism as opposed to those more traditional forms,” he said.

While their moves certainly don’t help the state of print journalism, they undoubtedly advance the state of television criticism, since these critics can now devote their full attention to writing where TV criticism now has the furthest reach and greatest impact.

BLURRING THE LINE: CRITIC VS. BLOGGER In addition to professional critics starting blogs and moving content — both traditional pre-air reviews and post-episode analysis — online, the widespread availability and freedom of blog platforms has led to an explosion of amateur television criticism. McNutt, who runs the blog Cultural Learnings, occupies a particularly unique space in the television criticism sphere. “I am unquestionably in a very liminal space within criticism: I relate more with the work of television ‘critics,’ while my format (as an independent volunteer) is more reminiscent of ‘bloggers,’” McNutt said.

This distinction between blogger and critic “raises questions of legitimacy,” McNutt said. Although he and other amateur critics write in the model that Sepinwall, Ryan and writers like VanDerWerff at The A.V. Club developed, they lack official credentials to distinguish themselves as “TV critics” in the same sense as professionals.

Ultimately, though, one’s official label may not matter as much as the quality of writing one contributes to the body of TV criticism. Some professional critics may resent the rise of bloggers, who they feel are threatening their line of work, but in today’s environment, online criticism is a given, and it is the quality of that criticism that will distinguish a writer, regardless of his or her label.

TO THE COMMENTS! As noted, the shift to online TV criticism has brought major changes in the way critics write. A discussion of the evolution of television criticism would be incomplete, Follow this story: though, without consideration of the readers of see TELEVISION, such criticism and their ability to now interact page 8 with the writing.

Related Links Todd VanDerWerff: The A.V. Club: http://www.avclub.com/channels/tv/ LA Times Show Tracker: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ showtracker/ Twitter: @tvoti

Post a new comment Myles McNutt: Cultural Learnings: http://cultural-learnings.com/ Twitter: @memles

Maureen Ryan: Stay Tuned: http://www.tvsquad.com/category/ stay-tuned Twitter: @moryan

Alan Sepinwall: What’s Alan Watching: http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/ whats-alan-watching Twitter: @sepinwall

See comments

THE TUFTS DAILY

6

Thursday, October 14, 2010

WEEKENDER

THEATER REVIEW

Fringe theater production ‘Summer House’ a relevant exploration of mother-daughter relationships BY

EMMA BUSHNELL

Daily Editorial Board

Here at Tufts, we are not exposed to much fringe theater. At convenient up and downhill locations,

In the Summer House Written by Jane Bowles Directed by Ellie Heyman At the BU Theatre through Oct. 23 Tickets $7 you can find everything from sketch comedy to straight plays, opera and miming, but you would be hard-pressed to find much in the way of actors telling the story of “The Odyssey” through interpretive trapeze choreography.

Fringe theater can be among the most cerebral and rewarding live theater to watch, though.

So luckily for Tufts students, our neighbors at Boston University are in the middle of their 14th Annual Fringe Festival, just a short T ride away.

The festival originally began as a way to cultivate a wider audience for opera, but this year, it encompasses both opera and straight plays written by the husband and wife duo, Jane and Paul Bowles.

Playing through Oct. 23 is Jane Bowles’ “In the Summer House.” A dark play about mother-daughter relationships, “Summer House” follows the comings and goings at Gertrude Eastman Cuevas’ Southern California ocean-side home in the mid-20th century. The show opens with Mrs. Eastman Cuevas (Jessica Moss) sitting in a chair rigged up in the air by ropes — her balcony — knitting and watching her daughter, Molly (Lily Narbonne), in the backyard. Narbonne, a spectacularly adroit physical actress, spends the majority of the first scene secluded in her summer house — a small box covered in vines in which she can read her comics and hide from the world.

The summer house does not shield Molly from her mother’s voice, however. Moss dominates the first scene, setting the audience up with useful plot explanations while showcasing the

COURTESY BU PHOTOGRAPHY

At some moments of ‘In the Summer House,’ the stage feels overcrowded with characters. psyche of a self-involved mother trying to put a confident veneer over deep-seated insecurities and fears. In her monologue to Molly about their lives, she mentions at one point, “I’ve always hated everything that was larger than life-sized.” The figure speaking

TV REVIEW

‘Eastbound’ knocks second season out of the park; Kenny Powers makes roaring return BY

MITCHELL GELLER

Daily Editorial Board

Comedy isn’t easy. Anyone who’s ever told a joke that has fallen flat can attest to this fact. There are so many elements that have to

Eastbound & Down Starring Danny McBride, Steve Little, Ana de la Reguera, Michael Peña Airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on HBO come together to make something truly funny that it’s astounding when any TV program manages to have a thoroughly humorous episode — let alone a whole season of hilarity.

When HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” premiered for its first season last year, expectations were sky-high, and somehow it managed to blow them all out of the water. Now Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) and company are back for a second season, and so far, it’s just as gut-busting as ever.

“Eastbound” follows Powers, a former pro baseball player trying to make it back to the big time. It’s a story of redemption, cussing, offcolor jokes, hillbillies and mullets. This season progresses in the same format as the first — that of six episodes filmed as a movie — which means that each half-hour episode doesn’t always have a nice, clean arc. From start to fin-

ish, though, the season does work well.

The first season presented Powers as a classic fish out of water: Upon returning to his hometown after a busted career, Power quickly put himself at the center of attention to win back his high school sweetheart. As a whole, the season gradually set the story up and featured an unlikeable protagonist: Kenny Powers is a repugnant human being.

He’s a narcissistic egomaniac with delusions of grandeur and no respect for anyone, traits that make him ripe for comedy.

The second season picks up some time after the first ends. Powers is living in Mexico trying to find himself while still running away from real-world problems. The season works as a sequel, although it could easily stand alone and welcome first-time viewers into the cult of Kenny.

The new south-of-the-border setting is ripe for mockery and obvious humor, but the “Eastbound” creative team doesn’t go for easy jokes. White-trash jokes are a dime-adozen, but Powers isn’t funny because he’s a hick — he’s funny because he’s a fully formed human being.

As we watch Powers get back into baseball — he starts the season undercover, living as “Steve the Cockfighter,” but quickly joins a local baseball team — it would be too easy for him to be terrible.

A dramatic scene in the second episode is concerned with Powers’ first pitch in front of his new team. A lazy show would have the pitch — which Powers assures his new coach will be over 100 mph — be a dud. “Eastbound,” see EASTBOUND, page 7

from above clearly has a desperate need for control.

Her seemingly merciless attacks on Molly’s “laziness” and ingratitude are recognized as harsh by the audience, but she fails to see that when Molly tells her mother about the per-

fume of the honeysuckle vine, she is trying to please her mother, not mocking her. Every relationship in the play is cleverly set up to showcase splinters and tiny disconnections. see SUMMER HOUSE, page 8

THEATER REVIEW

Play’s mechanical portrayal of job interview paints a bleak picture BY

BRIANNA BEEHLER Senior Staff Writer

Who’s interviewing whom? Nothing is straightforward in Jean-Claude van Itallie’s play, “Interview.” Every word, action and

Interview Written by Jean-Claude van Itallie Directed by Joey C. Pelletier At the BCA Plaza Theatre through Oct. 16 Tickets $20 thought is crucial, while the characters — interviewers and interviewees alike — all struggle to find and maintain their sense of individual identity.

Van Itallie’s topic of singularity and the search for employment in a capitalist society is extremely relevant in this day and age. However, the generalizations and vague characterizations that make up the play also leave it lacking in specificity that, if included, would make the performance’s message more powerful.

Simplicity, while intended to give the play a universal applicability, ends up making the play seem dry and flat in comparison to the stories that abound around us. On the whole, though, the play succeeds in driving home a message about what it means to be living in today’s society.

The stage is simple: Black boxes and white

iron chairs are the only props the actors use as they travel beyond the scene of the interview to parties, public transport and the gym. The play begins with the central applicants — a house painter (Nick Miller), a floor washer (Corina Bucur), a banker (Mikey DiLoreto) and a lady’s maid (Kiki Samko) — undergoing an arduous interview process before four masked interviewers. The four applicants, while originally comfortable with who they are and why they are there, experience a wide range of emotions in the first scene, setting the stage for later insights into their lives outside of the interview room.

The interviewers are harder to judge: They first come off as instantly unlikable, cold interrogators for whom it is demanding to feel any empathy. Their masks are garish, Halloween-esque items that add an even spookier element to the already bare stage.

We immediately identify with the prospective employees onstage as a result of the lights coming down over the interviewers’ already obscured faces — we’ve all taken our turn in the hot seat before distant, inscrutable figures.

As the questions continue to cycle, though, the applicants achieve a sense of solidarity. They begin to move with each other in choreographed exactitude and at one point literally jump on the backs of their interviewers, so that the roles become reversed.

This dynamic is then further confused by games of leapfrog and circular movement, and by our growing sense of identification with the interviewers. This evolving relationsee INTERVIEW, page 8

What’s Up This Weekend Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey presents ZING ZANG ZOOM: The legendary circus troupe will captivate audiences through the mystery of magic and the mastery of skill. The show combines traditional circus arts with fun-filled magic to present a new version of the “Greatest Show on Earth.” (Today at 7 p.m., tomorrow at 7 p.m., Saturday at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at TD Garden. Tickets $15-$140.)

Tufts Unplugged: Acoustic Music Showcase: The Musicians Collective presents a lineup of Tufts musicians showing their original stuff, acoustic-style. (Tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Distler Hall. Admission is free.)

Major: Undecided Presents The Robot Revolution Will Be Televised (Because It’s Robots): Tufts’ student-written and -performed sketch comedy group performs their first on-campus show of the year. Some sketch titles include “Hey Wife!,” “Charlie and the Sweatshop Factory” and “The Man Who Misjudges Social

Situations.” (Tomorrow at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in Braker 001.

Admission is free.)

Colonial Theater. Student rush tickets $25, one hour before curtain with student ID.)

Veterans Memorial Convention Center. Tickets $25-30 for one day, $50 for weekend.)

Rock of Ages: A small-town girl falls in love with a big-city dreamer in this theatrical homage to ‘80s hair bands. This laugh-out-loud play is told through the hit songs of Pat Benetar, Whitesnake, Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon and many more. The show received five Tony nominations in 2009 during its Broadway run and promises to provide a rockin’ and rollin’ night for theatergoers. (Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. at the

Wizard World New England Comic Con: Celebrate the magical world of pop culture with New England Comic Con. James Marsters, Charisma Carpenter and Mercedes McNab of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003) fame will be some of the celebrities paying a visit to this year’s event. Share in contests and expos featuring today’s movies, comics, toys and more with thousands of other avid fans. (All weekend starting tomorrow at 5 p.m. at John B. Hynes

Boston Book Festival: This all-day event celebrates the literary-minded and their writings. Boston Book Festival features talks with novelists, poets and illustrators, as well as food and vendors. Special guests include authors Bill Bryson, Jeff Kinney and Tyler Florence, among others. (Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in and around Copley Square.

Attendance is free.)

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, October 14, 2010

WEEKENDER

HBO.COM

Danny McBride stars as Kenny Powers in HBO’s ‘Eastbound & Down.’

Plight of washed-up ballplayer makes for intelligent comedy EASTBOUND continued from page 6

however, is not a lazy show: While the pitch doesn’t break 100, it does clock in somewhere in the 90s. Powers is clearly a talented player, but he has to work to reclaim his ability and the adoring public.

Powers is a challenging character to play, but McBride is an insanely talented actor with impeccable timing; he manages to pull it off flawlessly.

The interactions between Powers and the locals (“villagers,” as he refers to them) are possibly the laziest setup the writers go for, but they even manage to make conversations in broken Spanglish funny. In the most recent episode, for example, Powers attempts to tell his girlfriend’s son to remove his headphones.

The boy, who speaks English fairly well, doesn’t respond at first, so Powers shouts at him: “Remove los computers from your ojos!”

To non-Spanish speakers, this line is funny because it refers to Powers’ oft-referenced, deep-seated mistrust of technology.

Viewers who do speak Spanish, however, get another joke that furthers Powers’ characterization: “Ojos” is Spanish for “eyes.” This slip-up shows that Powers is trying to learn the language, but as with everything else in

his life, he’s a little off.

So far, the only recurring character besides Powers has been Stevie Janowski (Steve Little), Powers’ sidekick who almost certainly suffers from some mental disability.

Last season, Stevie was an uncomfortable character, and jokes made at his expense felt wrong. This season, Stevie, although still slow and awkward, is smarter and stands up for himself more (Powers changes his title to “sidekick” rather than “b----”).

New additions to the cast include Deep Roy in a bizarre role as Powers’ dwarf henchman, Efren Ramirez — best known as Pedro in “Napoleon Dynamite” (2004) — as Powers’ landlord and Ana de la Reguera as a new love interest.

If anything, this season is funnier than the last. Although the fan-favorite catchphrases (“I’m Kenny f-----’ Powers!”, “I’m f-----’ in, you’re f-----’ out!,” etc.) may be gone, the show has retained its unique flavor and strangely compelling characters.

In a review I wrote after the first season’s finale, I lamented the fact that Kenny Powers didn’t die at the end of the season. At the time, it seemed to me that he was a tragic hero and thus had to die. Boy, am I glad HBO didn’t feel the same way.

The Supreme Court Justice Brennan, meet Chief Justice Roberts

Thursday, October 14 7:30 p.m.

Barnum 104 Speaker: Steve Wermiel, co-author of Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion Convener: Sol Gittleman, University Professor, Tufts Moderator: Lawrence Bacow, President, Tufts Panelists: Dean Hashimoto and John Savarese, former Brennan clerks, and Emily Woodward, Supreme Court historian

Sponsored by the Experimental College

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

WEEKENDER

Play’s effectiveness threatened by weakness of comic characters

Television criticism coming into its own in the Internet age

SUMMER HOUSE

TELEVISION

continued from page 6

A colorful array of characters makes up the supporting cast. Mrs. Eastman Cuevas’ suitor, Mr. Solares (Philip Berman), and his band of Mexican relatives bombard the stage many times throughout the piece, and overwhelmingly enthusiastic Vivian — a foil for the introverted Molly — also joins the story with her mother. Along the way, Molly gains a love interest.

Though this work is seldom performed, it is obvious why the festival has found it worthy of staging now. The writing is compelling, and the story is intricate. Bowles excels at writing dialogue between two parties — the most interesting moments occur during scenes in which two characters are facing off or seeking solace from one another. Molly and her mother share a fascinating and gut-wrenching scene before their double wedding, and Bowles’ language explores their relationship and revelations in an interesting and refreshing way.

The writing gets into trouble when a third party is added, though. In both the chaotic scenes with Mr. Solares and his large family and scenes in which just a single person is added to an on-stage pair, Bowles simply cannot capture the dynamic properly. This is a writing shortfall, but Ellie Heyman’s direction does little to help the clumsiness — at

one point, for about 15 minutes, Vivian’s mother is left sitting on the floor with a drink in her hand, hardly reacting to the action playing out in front of her.

Additionally, in a play where the specific focus of exploration is the mother-daughter relationship, the presence of Mr. Solares and his family feels unwelcome. Berman does his best to play the strutting suitor as a light-hearted comic relief, but he and his lazy, almost animalistic troupe come off more as abrasive caricatures than harmless entertainment.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this play is that it is an appropriately complicated and intelligent exploration of the mother-daughter bond, a theme that caught on among psychologists two decades after the play was written. A whole host of feminist writings and revised readings boomed after revolutionary studies of this relationship in the 1970s, but Bowles proves to be ahead of her time and an able and compelling observer of human nature by portraying it with all of its intricacies and paradoxes.

Fringe theater isn’t for everyone. You have to be willing to view “In the Summer House” with an open mind and a willingness to watch something smart. But if you put the effort into following this performance, it will reward you.

continued from page 5

Comments sections on TV blogs are generally well trafficked, as viewers seek a forum to discuss their favorite shows and interact with others.

“A print TV critic could expect to get maybe a dozen letters from readers in a month — if that. Online, I get tons of feedback and input all the time, every day,” Ryan said.

McNutt noted that this audience was not a new one. “They were once the forum members at Television Without Pity, or the people who yell at their televisions,” he said. “Their commentary is sharing the same space as critical analysis, a new relationship which has done some pretty wondrous things for television criticism.”

While McNutt said that the immediate fan response made possible through comments sections defines the way he works and writes, VanDerWerff was less sure that it made a big difference in the way he does his job. Yet they both shared the belief that the development should not weaken their commentary.

“What’s important is that it doesn’t compromise what we write,” McNutt said. “So long as we are still willing to be critical or still willing to give credit where

Simple characterizations, poor directing leave gaps in plot development of van Itallie’s ‘Interview’ INTERVIEW continued from page 6

ship between interviewers, interviewees and audience positively reflects the ability of the actors to not only give us a representation of a system, but to also show us the complications and incongruities within that same system.

Fissures in the overarching ideology being considered take the form of memory loss, visits to a psychiatrist (Erin Rae Zalaski) and prayer, which all define moments of questioning and revelation. Who these characters are is at the center of the play, but unfortunately, it is at times difficult to follow the trajectory of the characters’ lives through such a convoluted narrative. The moments are alternatively passionate, devastating and enlightening, but they are scattered throughout the play in such a way as to make them disjointed and less effective as a whole.

For instance, the age and origins of the floor washer take quite a long time to determine. While Bucur pulls off an especially moving scene that takes place on the metro, her performance is otherwise hard to read.

The play only allows for glimpses of

credit is due, the audience is simply a way to ensure the debate continues.”

VanDerWerff agreed that critical integrity takes precedence. “It can become an all-consuming thing, where you’re only writing pieces to please readers, rather than being honest,” VanDerWerff said.

“If I have an opinion about something, 60 people saying, in some way, ‘You’re wrong!’ isn’t going to change what I think. It sometimes just deflates the experience,” In the end, television criticism existing online “basically allows for lengthy pieces that are then as much about introducing points of conversation for readers as anything else,” VanDerWerff said.

In the online forum, the critic becomes part of the audience. “In many ways, I am just another television viewer in the comment sections: I may have the first word, but I am unlikely to have the last,” McNutt said.

In the late 1950s, in an article for the biweekly news magazine, the Reporter, CBS news journalist Eric Sevareid wrote that roughly three out of four television reviews “read like the way a dog’s breakfast looks.” My, how times have changed.

TOP TEN | HALLOWEEN COSTUMES Nobody wants to wear a beenthere, done-that costume this Oct. 31, but as Halloweekend draws nearer and nearer, the pressure is on to think of something groundbreaking. We’ve compiled a list of costumes that promise to get you noticed — and if this fails, go “Mean Girls” (2004) with lingerie and some form of animal ears.

(Yes, fellas will turn heads dressed like this, too.)

10. “Jersey Shore” Season 10: Do your laundry, spray on a tan, gain 15 pounds and fist-pump your way to Halloween costume awesomeness.

COURTESY NORA BELAL

Amy Meyer plays one of the interviewers in ‘Interview.’ character development that leave gaping holes in the characters’ personalities. We only see them at instances of extreme pain, anguish or despair that ultimately make them appear incomplete.

In fact, the whole play has a very mechanical way of dealing with a very human topic.

This machine-like representation of human-

ity is prone to stereotypes, brief episodes and choreographed movement that traps the characters inside rehearsed motion and speech. During a time when concerns over future employment and aging are prevalent, the somber social criticisms of the play definitely strike a chord, but at the same time leave little hope for change.

Week in Review | TV Cancellations continued this week as NBC’s “Outlaw” became the third new series to get the ax this season. The legal drama, starring Jimmy Smits as a playboy Supreme Court Justice-turned-justiceseeking defense attorney, was lambasted by critics for its ridiculous premise, and after three low-rated episodes, the network placed the series on production hiatus. An even poorer showing for the fourth episode sealed the deal, and NBC moved the remaining episodes to the Saturday night burn-off slot.

It was not all bad news this week, though. “Raising Hope” became the first new series of the fall to receive a fullseason pick-up. The Fox comedy, which the Daily’s Joseph Stile gave a three-star review commending its mixture of humor and humanity, has not received stellar ratings, but it has been a relative bright spot on the network’s schedule and is certainly outperforming fellow freshman comedy “Running Wilde.”

On the creative side of things, “Glee” finally had a great episode on Tuesday night and provided proof that the show can still be good when the right ele-

ments are in place. Last week’s “Grilled Cheesus” episode was an improvement over the erratic stunt-episode “Britney/ Brittany,” but this week’s “Duets” was the first episode this season that represented the kind of show “Glee” can and should be. There was no overarching theme being drilled into our heads, the musical numbers were integrated organically into the plot, nearly all the main characters got meaningful screen time, and those who didn’t appear weren’t really missed. If only Ryan Murphy would keep his hands off the show more often.

And last Thursday, “Fringe” continued its strong streak of season three episodes. The two-universe story arc has injected a sense of urgency into every plot, and playing two versions of Olivia is bringing out strong performances from Anna Torv. Although “The Plateau” wasn’t revolutionary in its storytelling, it was a solid entry and another great look at Earth 2.0. Tune in tonight, when the action shifts back to Peter, Walter and Faux-livia in our universe.

—by Ben Phelps

9. Jonathan Franzen: It’s okay if you don’t get this one. Take our advice and slap on a pair of thick glasses and a smug look: you’ll be sure to get some English-major booty come Halloween night.

8. Green Man: Popularized by Charlie Kelly from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” Green Man wears a skin-tight Lycra suit that covers his entire body. Show off your curves in the creepiest manner imaginable.

7. An owl: “Who? Who? Who is that wearing that fine owl costume?” You’ll hear that one all night if you opt to be an owl for Halloween this year. Costume contest winner for sure.

6. Kenny Powers: Only on Halloween can you justify growing out a mullet, swearing profusely and making overly forward comeons to everyone you see.

5. Lady Gaga in her meat dress: Made with real meat. Unless you’re a vegetarian, in which case, use tofu.

4. Zombie Michael Jackson: Still both funny and too soon a year later.

3. Slutty Jumbo: Mm, baby got back.

2. Humble Kanye West: You have two weeks to figure this one out.

And ... go!

1. A Ghost: Take a white sheet, cut two holes for your eyes and drape over your head: Spooky fun for all!

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

Thursday, October 14, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Tufts Hillel presents a lecture by

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR ELIEZER AYALON

A survivor of the Holocaust, Eliezar Ayalon lived through the atrocities of five Nazi

concentration camps and a death march. After the war, he emigrated to Israel where

he served as a soldier in the 1948 War of Independence. Join us for an extraordinary opportunity to hear Mr. Ayalon as we welcome him from Jerusalem to share his first hand account of persecution, survival and rebirth.

OCTOBER 19, 2010 | 8PM in Cabot Auditorium This program is made possible through the generosity of Joyce and Bill Cummings and the Cummings Foundation.

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

EDITORIAL Managing Editors

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

Thursday, October 14, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

Google expands into the green sector Tech-giant Google has recently taken a 37.5 percent equity stake in the Atlantic Wind Connection Project. The project is in its developmental stages and, if approved, would have the ability to connect 6,000 megawatts worth of offshore wind turbines to approximately 1.9 million homes in the mid-Atlantic.

While there is no question that clean energy is a good thing and that, by investing in the project, Google is serving as a good example for businesses throughout the world, the obvious question is: Why Google in the first place?

Google’s Green Business Operations Director Rick Needham posted on the company’s blog, “We believe in investing in projects that make good business sense and further the development of renewable energy. We’re willing to take calculated risks on early stage ideas and projects that can have dramatic impacts while offering attractive returns.”

This situation is a win-win for all parties involved. Beyond those who would benefit from access to clean energy, Google itself stands to gain a massive return on its investment if the project is a success.

However, clean air projects involving wind turbines have run into some heavy opposition in the past. The Cape Wind project is an initiative to build in the Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod, a much smaller wind farm than the one being proposed by the Atlantic Wind Connection Project. Various stonewalling lawsuits delayed government approval for the project by 10 years.

The project was only approved by the U.S. Interior Secretary this past April.

The main complaint against the project was that the wind turbines would create an eyesore for those with homes from which the wind farm was visible.

Google also faces the possibility of opposition from fossil fuel companies unhappy about another alternate

energy supply reducing demand for their products.

Those involved with this project should not expect it to win approval unopposed. Although Google is hoping to receive a substantial profit from this business venture, how long it has to wait for it remains to be seen.

A pollution-free energy source has been a goal of numerous countries for quite some time. This project has the potential to serve as a jumpstart for alternative energy initiatives not only in the United States, but all over the globe as well. Despite considerable risk, Google is putting in a significant amount of capital in order to see this project come to fruition. This is not only a good decision for the company, but also a significant step toward a fundamental shift to alternative energy sources. If more companies followed Google’s example of socially responsible investment, we’d be more sustainable in no time.

ERIN MARSHALL

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OFF THE HILL | NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

The Internet isn’t free

BY SUSANNAH

GRIFFEE

Washington Square News

Across the U.S., young professionals are implanting computer chips into their ears in order to constantly receive information on the go. These chips collect signals from the nervous system and send detailed personal profiles of every user to advertisers across the globe.

Sound like science fiction? That’s because it is. People aren’t actually implanting computers into their brains just yet. But they are sharing almost everything they do on a computer with organizations across the world, often without even realizing it.

Every time a person opens up an Internet browser, that person engages in a transaction. No money changes hands; the Internet user simply trades a reasonable expectation of privacy for access to an almost unlimited supply of data. That exchange enables the Internet to progress rapidly while, at the same time, allowing people of various economic backgrounds more or less equal access to vast stores of

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

information. Everyone has some measure of control over their privacy, and everyone also has the authority to give their privacy away. Personal privacy becomes a commodity.

Soon, the new HTML5 programming language will go even further.

Theoretically, HTML5 will allow companies to enable more cookies and consumer tracking capabilities.

However, the new coding will also allow users to view multimedia without plug-ins like Flash and to browse the Internet more quickly.

The recent prominence of HTML5 in the news and an investigation by [ The] Wall Street Journal into the tracking habits of Internet companies have caused a wave of alarmist outcries concerning the erosion of Internet privacy. Fox Entertainment and NBC, along with other companies, have faced class-action lawsuits concerning Internet privacy issues in the past months.

House Energy and Commerce [Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet] Chairman Rick Boucher [(D-Va.)]

recently announced that Internet privacy legislation will be introduced during the next session of Congress.

[Energy and Commerce’s] Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush [(D-Ill.)] introduced a bill that would allow users to opt out of having their information collected on the Internet as well as allow users to sue Internet companies for breach of privacy. The bill would also prevent companies from selling consumer information to third-party advertisers.

It’s as though people have forgotten that “Internet privacy” never existed in the first place. The Internet is not free; users must pay for their information with their privacy. Advertisers fund websites in exchange for data about the people who visit those sites.

If laws require sites to stop collecting that data and allow users to opt out of sharing their information, the Internet will no longer be able to depend on advertisers to exist.

If you aren’t comfortable with that transaction, turn off the computer and pay cash for a book.

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

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

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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OP-ED

Sex talk revolution?

BY

JOSHUA YOUNER | CONSCIENTIOUS AND CONTENTIOUS

KAT ROBINSON

Sex is BIG. It’s big, and it’s everywhere.

The media is saturated with sex. It floods the forums on the website College ACB at Tufts, the cast members of “ Jersey Shore” have an entire room dedicated to “smushing,” and on-camera teen moms juggle jobs, schoolwork and screaming babies in the background (a big slap-in-the-face reminder to use protection). It’s on our minds constantly: Girls think about it all the time (…right?), and guys definitely do (if I’m ever questioning this, I simply tune in to the constant conversations of my two male roommates talking about the “bangable” girls they see at the gym). Apparently we Tufts students are so sexually charged that the administration had to lay down the law with some dorm room policies last year. If you’ve resorted to the sketchy scenario of sex a few feet away from a “sleeping” roommate, dear God, read on, and hopefully you’ve been able to think of some creative solutions since then.

Even if you’re not actively doing the deed — because of misfortune or personal choice — don’t skip ahead to the Sudoku puzzle just yet. Let’s be honest, reading this is probably a lot more fun than Sudoku.

Sex is all over the place, but ironically, this extremely “out there” topic can cause a lot of people to close up in conversation.

Unless I’m lounging around with a couple of close friends, a few drinks in, I’ll admit that sex can feel like a bit of a taboo topic.

Thankfully, I have a pretty open relationship with my roommates. If I ever need to figure out the dos and don’ts of sexual relationships with guys, I can generate some laughingly awkward conversation and get all my questions answered right away. But not all of us can (or want to) be this lucky with housemates. So I propose a sex talk revolution of sorts. I’m tired of trying to turn to Cosmopolitan for sex advice: I don’t want to know 50 great things to do with my breasts. I propose real conversation. Be talkative in the classroom (if the course is appropriate for that), and most importantly, be talkative in the bedroom. Even if you’re drunkenly wobbling back to Wren Hall with a potential hook-up in tow, attempt some real talk. Communicating your desires and asserting what you want will likely lead to an even better sexual experience than will a somewhat silent, awkward encounter, perforated by the creaking of the dorm bed and a few of those weird, uncomfortable noises.

In the interest of full disclosure and of this proposed sex talk revolution, I want to take this space to talk about the female orgasm.

Of course, there are plenty more topics I could approach, but I feel as if women have been socialized to believe their sexual needs

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DANAI MACRIDI/TUFTS DAILY

and desires are less important than those of their partners. Often there seems to be a bit of a sexual double standard. Women are expected to please their partner, with little expectation of reciprocation. Or, when a guy orgasms, sex is over. Maybe I’ve been getting with the wrong guys, but there’s nothing more frustrating. Now, my attempt to debunk some orgasm myths: Myth: Female orgasms are always these huge earth-shattering events, a la the diner scene in “When Harry Met Sally.”

Fact: You do not need to have what she was having. Some women have orgasms and don’t even know it. This “peak of arousal” can feel differently for every woman and can occur in different ways.

Myth: If you’re not having an orgasm through intercourse, you’re probably not normal.

Fact: Nah! Many women claim to not be able to have an orgasm through penetration alone. In general, many women need direct stimulation of the clitoris to reach climax. The act of penetration sometimes leaves a woman’s clitoris entirely neglected.

That’s no fun.

Myth: It takes women a crazy-long time to reach orgasm.

Fact: The duration of time between the prime point of arousal and the actual orgasm is about the same for women and men. The thing is, it takes women longer to reach this peak of arousal. Let’s stop making foreplay a “thing” and just have it be an actual part of the “play,” not an added-on special. One of

my ex-boyfriends made it his personal quest to get me to orgasm, like it was a puzzle he was trying to crack. It pretty much killed it for me. That’s a no-no.

If you can’t make yourself orgasm, it doesn’t mean you just can’t — unless you have a medical condition, which is not very common. It’s different for everyone, so it might take some time figuring out what works for you.

Receiving pleasure is pretty good, but remember, you’re not the only one in the bed (or closet or laundry room or shower).

Sex shouldn’t be selfish — unless your sexual kinks denote otherwise — but even so, everyone involved in the sex act should be cool with what’s going on. After all, it takes two (or three or four) to tango.

After imparting all this perhaps too personal advice, I can’t help but make a shameless plug. Tufts VOX is hosting an event with sexologist Megan Andelloux today at 51 Winthrop Ave. called “Oh Ohh OH: Sexual Pleasure with OhMegan.” In this fun, interactive workshop, she’ll explore Cosmo’s promises of sexual satisfaction, finger fun, G-spot play, the female orgasm and much more. Most importantly, Megan will make that awkward conversation a little easier so that sex is safe and fun for everyone involved. You’ll also leave with tons of free sexual goodies in hand for a fun Thursday night. Are you gonna come?

Kat Robinson is a junior majoring in English. She is a co-president of Tufts VOX.

Balancing the narratives: Israel and Palestine

BY SEAN SMITH

At a university that prizes humanitarianism and the just recognition of all voices in conflict, events like tomorrow’s Tufts Sderot Awareness Day present a serious imbalance. Tufts’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine urges the Tufts community to review contending narratives and hear the Palestinian voice. It is our hope to initiate a campus-wide, inclusive discussion that respectively incorporates all voices on behalf of Israel and Palestine.

Sderot Awareness Day recognizes the daily trauma inflicted upon residents of Sderot, a town located in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. Since 2001, thousands of rockets have landed upon the Israeli town, psychologically afflicting thousands of residents and encouraging the rise of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, especially among Sderot’s children. From 2001 to late 2008, 13 Israeli citizens were killed by rockets fired from Gaza.

However, the information advertised to the Tufts community provides no mention of who is firing these rockets or why. The Gaza Strip is occupied Palestinian territory, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. The simple label of “terrorists” cannot account for the highly diversified views and politics of Gaza, nor can it explain the 62 years of history that have produced the frustrations,

hopelessness and alienation that launch rockets in the first place.

Gaza’s borders remain largely sealed beneath a heavy blockade, and its residents face severe difficulties exiting the Strip. The blockade, in place since 2007, continues to prevent the entry of much desperately needed cement and other building materials, as well as medical equipment, textiles and dozens of other items; it has rendered the Gaza Strip economically destitute. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem records 70 percent of Palestinians in Gaza living at or below the poverty line, with over 40 percent unemployed. Food is tightly controlled and has left 60 percent “food insecure.” A full 80 percent of Palestinians in Gaza, Oxfam International reports, are dependent upon some form of foreign aid for survival.

Tomorrow’s event also fails to mention the Israeli Operation Cast Lead in 2008 to 2009, which in three weeks ransacked the remaining infrastructure and economy of Gaza. With the death of nine Israelis, the conflict killed 1,400 Palestinians. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch document breaches in the international laws of warfare on behalf of both Israeli and Palestinian forces, though especially on the part of Israeli forces. Amid deployments of white phosphorous and the use of human shields, B’Tselem reports that

more than half of Palestinians killed were unarmed civilians.

There is no dispute that life in Sderot is psychologically difficult and physically dangerous. But Sderot Awareness Day’s exclusion of any consideration of life in the Gaza Strip blindsides Tufts students to the cause of the conflict, reducing the issue to simplistic, strongly prejudiced sound bites that offer nothing but a perpetuation of an undesirable quality of life in both Sderot and Gaza. Without embracing the narratives of both Israelis in Sderot and Palestinians in Gaza, the misunderstandings at the root of this conflict are only entrenched.

If Tufts is serious about securing a peaceful livelihood for residents of Sderot, its future events and discussions must seek the voices of all concerned in this conflict. Instead of deepening divides, we have an opportunity to foster commonality between Israel and Palestine as communities of human beings first, and as nations in conflict second. It is the ardent belief of Students for Justic in Palestine that without positive, inclusive discussion, even enforced peace is an illusion.

Sean Smith is a senior majoring in International Relations. He is a member of Tufts’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

arlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a staggering decision in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Court struck down parts of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, known as the McCain-Feingold Act. In doing so, the Court has unequivocally allowed corporations, both of the for-profit and nonprofit variety, to spend unlimited amounts of money in political campaigns.

Corporations will now be allowed to broadcast “electioneering communications,” which were defined in McCain-Feingold as “a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or within 30 days of a primary.” Previously, no such organization could have this opportunity. However, the Roberts Court found that this rule was a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. This assertion has some sort of logical basis, as corporations pay taxes and can own property. However, corporations do not have the right to vote and therefore should not be granted the right to unduly influence elections.

Unlimited spending by huge corporations will give certain candidates an unfair advantage. This advantage will be easy to see and feel, as it is clear that the biggest supporters of corporate America will benefit the most.

More often than not, these candidates consist mainly of conservatives, who favor lower taxes and a hands-off approach to business.

Since these candidates will receive greater support from the largest corporations, this will clearly put other candidates, such as liberals and progressives, at a huge disadvantage. Granted, unions and similar organizations are part of the definition of corporations in this case, and they tend to support more liberal candidates. Although unions would also be given free reign to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns, it does not take a graduate degree to see that corporations would necessarily have more money in the bank than unions; for-profit corporations exist to make profits, after all.

This will create an insurmountable problem, and it will clearly sway elections in the direction that these corporations desire.

Clearly, this will result in a weakening of democracy. The Supreme Court may have been trying to enforce and strengthen the constitutional rights our citizens are grateful for and are lucky to enjoy, but by doing so, it has denied citizens equal opportunity and therefore skewed the system away from the individual rights of our citizens. Without a level playing field from which to choose, how can our citizens continue to benefit from equality of opportunity and all the other protections the Constitution promises?

The Court has put corporate interests over the interests of the people. This was a grave mistake, but it is not the end of the road. The solution to this situation would be a new constitutional amendment covering this area.

As the midterm elections approach, voters must bear in mind the specter of such a constitutional amendment, and vote accordingly.

They must prevent these bodies from exerting undue influence in the political arena in order to preserve our democracy and the rights of the common citizen. There is no doubt that this decision has changed the course of our nation’s history, and that it has undermined our nation’s belief in and right to government that derives its power from its citizens.

Hegemony of corporations over state and national politics will have negative effects for everyone. “It’s to the point where it’s virtually impossible for participants in the current political system to enact any significant change without first seeking and gaining permission from the largest commercial interests who are most affected by the proposed change,” Al Gore recently said. What will it matter what we think when corporations control the candidates and, for all intents and purposes, the elections?

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

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12

COMICS

Thursday, October 14, 2010

DOONESBURY

CROSSWORD

BY

GARRY TRUDEAU

NON SEQUITUR

BY

WEDNESDAY’S SOLUTION

MARRIED TO THE SEA

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Filling Bobby Cox’s shoes in Atlanta

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Wednesday’s Solution

Steve: “That was my best Ke$ha voice.”

[Later...]

Carter: “Make sure there’s a dollar sign in Ke$ha, I will not stand for any fake ‘Keshas.’”

Please recycle this Daily.

WILEY

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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13

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MORALITYCognitiveMIND : Science and Policy and the

October 16-17, 2010 Cabot Auditorium

The Center for Cognitive Studies and the Synaptic Scholars Program of The Institute for Global Leadership A symposium bringing leading cognitive scientists and policy analysts together to explore the cognitive science of morality and its implications for economic policy, legal and juridical practice, and diplomacy.

Saturday, October 16 9:00am

Welcome and Introduction ศ Sherman Teichman, Director, Institute for Global Leadership

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Morality in the context of human social cognition

9:45am

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฏอ อ วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ฦกวก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฆ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

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General Discussion

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ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

Session I

อ วฃอ อ ย ย

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ฦกย ย

อ วฃอ อ ย ย

Session III

ย ย ย ฦคย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฃ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วควควค ย ย ย ย ย ย it might not exist

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย วก Deconstructing the Mind

Just Babies

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย วก Descartesโ Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human

Commentary

ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย วก Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Military Policy ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย วก Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย (provided for conference presenters)

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Session II Moderator: Nick Stratton Aโ 11, Synaptic Scholar, IGL

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Are Monkeys Moral?

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What Can Evolution Teach Us About Morality?

ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ฦคย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

Sunday, October 17

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Commentary

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General Discussion

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

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Why this issue is compelling

Moderator: Benjamin Perlstein Aโ 13, Synaptic Scholar, IGL

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4:40pm

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก The Origin and Evolution of Cultures

Moderator: Nadia Nibbs Aโ 11, Synaptic Scholar, IGL

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ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฃ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย decides?

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฏย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฃ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ฦกย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

ย ฦกย ย ย ย ย ย

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

วฎ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วฏวฃ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Cognition

อ อ วฃอ อ ย ย

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย วก Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย

Commentary

ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ศ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย วฆย วฆ ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วก ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย วข ย ย ย ย ย วก Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality

อ วฃอ อ ย ย

General Discussion

อ วฃอ อ ย ย

Concluding Statements

4'' #0& 2'0 61 6*' 7$.+% ย 14 /14' +0(14/#6+10U 999T67(65).1$#..'#&'45*+2T14) 14 :KGGEH

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

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Dean’s Lecture

SAM HARRIS New York Times Bestselling author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation

“The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values” _________________ 7:30 P.M. Thursday, Oct. 14 Cohen Auditorium

Book signing to follow in the Cohen Lobby

Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education, The ToupinͲ Bolwell Fund and The Center for the Humanities at Tufts (CHAT)

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Thursday, October 14, 2010 Event Chaplain`s Table 5-7 PM A Look at Dealing With Loss: Reverend Kerrie Harthan, Protestant Chaplain & Erik Marks, Counseling and Mental Health Center. MacPhie Conf. Rm.-Dewick Dining Concert 12:30 pm-Goddard Chapel Noontime Concert featuring Nick Dinnerstein on violoncello. This is a free concert; all are welcome Goddard Chapel

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SAILING

T

COURTESY ADAM WEISMAN

The Jumbos faltered at the Moody Trophy regatta this weekend without regular B division skipper junior Nicolas Russo-Larsson, who was sailing in the Singlehanded New England Qualifiers at Yale University.

Hutchings attributed his own success at Yale to aggression and confidence at the starting line.

“I was fast upwind because I had great upper body technique through the waves,” Hutchings said. “I trimmed and steered well, and most importantly, I

hiked really hard.”

He said he is confident that the sailors, with time, will see better results.

The Jumbos will have an opportunity to do so next weekend, as the team travels to the Navy Fall Invitational and the Women’s Intersectional at Yale.

Expect Rays-Yankees match-up to be close continued from page 16

But the Rangers won’t go down easily.

Their dynamic offense, which features speed at the top and tremendous power in the middle, should enable them to keep up with the Yankees on the scoreboard, and their young relievers have the talent to shorten games the same way Mariano Rivera and Kerry Wood have for the Yankees.

In the NLCS, the Phillies will seek their third consecutive pennant, while the Giants, who have yet to win a World Series since moving to San Francisco in 1958, will hope to earn their first since 2002.

The series begins Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. EST with a pitching matchup for the ages: Tim Lincecum vs. Halladay.

But don’t sleep through the Game 2 battle between Jonathan Sanchez and Roy Oswalt

or the Game 3 duel between Matt Cain and Hamels either.

Runs will be at a premium in the NLCS, especially if both offenses remain as dormant as they were in the division series. The Giants’ one-dimensional attack, which lives and dies by the long ball, was kept in check by the Braves’ bevy of sinkerballers, while the Phillies’ highly reputed lineup managed only a .212 average, a .574 OPS and one homer against the Reds’ unproven pitching staff.

If the Giants trail the Phillies in rotation talent, they surpass them in the bullpen, where manager Bruce Bochy has more quality options than his counterpart, Charlie Manuel. Brian Wilson is a more trustworthy closer than Brad Lidge, and the Giants have an excellent lefty specialist in Javier Lopez to neutralize the Phillies’ southpaw sluggers — Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Raul

Ibanez. Philadelphia’s lone relief advantage may come in the eighth inning, where Ryan Madson thrived to the tune of a 1.50 ERA after the All-Star break.

Offensively, Philadelphia unquestionably has more depth. The Giants do not have enough left-handed hitters in their lineup to pose a threat to Halladay or Oswalt, while the Phillies have both the speed and power to do more damage than the Braves. It is worth noting that the Giants were 5-2 during the regular season in games started by Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels, but the Phillies have similarly dominated Cain, who is 0-3 in five career starts against them.

The Giants’ pitching should make this a closer series than it appears on paper, but the Phillies are a deeper, more talented team and will likely remain on track to return to the World Series.

Men’s soccer suffers another disappointing loss SOCCER continued from page 16

before lofting it into the net, doubling the Jumbos lead.

“Keiran has been working hard all year, and he’s been a great addition to the team,” Poon said. “He’s a good guy, he brings a lot of passion to the game, and he’s very talented. People on the team felt, and he felt, that he was due for a goal, so having him get those first two early on was awesome, and you could tell he was really excited, and it really pumped the team up.”

It seemed like Tufts was in control of the game, but the Corsairs seemed to tire the Jumbos out with physical play that led to three yellow cards for UMass Dartmouth.

The Corsairs got a foothold on the game and would not let go. Ten minutes after the break, a poor tackle in the box by a Tufts defender had head referee Delfim Rainho signaling for a penalty kick. Senior UMass Dartmouth midfielder Mike Alves stepped up to the spot and, with the pressure on, slipped one past Bernstein to reduce the deficit to one.

“We came out really disorganized in the

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Divided loyalties

continued from page 16

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Tufts’ top sailors come up short over the weekend weekend at Coast Guard, and that came through in our racing, though not as much in our results.”

There were still plenty of positives to take from the regatta, though, including Levinson and Haeger’s eighth-overall finish in the B Division, just one point behind the boat from Hobart and William Smith.

“I know that [two weekends ago] wasn’t representative of what we are capable of as a team, and I wanted our results this weekend to show it,” Levinson said.

In addition to the Moody, the Jumbos sent three competitors to the Singlehanded New England Qualifiers hosted by Yale University. The sailors competed in Lasers on a day with strong gusts and choppy waters. Tufts again faced strong competition, with a majority of the sailors from schools in the top tier.

Sophomore Will Hutchings, junior Nicolas Russo-Larsson and sophomore Jake Denney represented the Jumbos in the regatta. Hutchings placed sixth of 20, while Russo-Larsson and Denney placed 17th and 18th, respectively.

The sailors usually practice and compete in double-handed boats such as Larks, FJs and 420s, so the switch to the singlehanded Lasers required adjustment.

According to Hutchings, however, the team loves sailing Lasers and can’t wait to sail the event again next year.

Housing

first ten minutes of the second half, and we gave up a weak penalty kick,” Poon said.

Tufts continued to control much of the play in the second half, but UMass Dartmouth increased its pressure in the last ten minutes. While the Jumbos almost withstood the storm, a late shot from freshman forward Anthony Basile was not cleared, and after a scramble in the box, the ball fell to Beaufils, who netted a scrappy goal for the equalizer.

“It didn’t feel to us like they should have scored, and we felt as though we dominated the entire game, and so that hurt a lot,” Poon said.

The game eerily resembled the Jumbos’ last non-conference match, another Tuesday night game where Tufts had control before letting the lead slip away late. The two defeats, combined with a loss this past Sunday to Colby, have the Jumbos’ confidence plummeting.

Luckily, only one of the three games in their losing streak has been a conference match. Tufts still ranks sixth in the NESCAC, despite having played one less conference game than most of their rivals. If the Jumbos can turn things around in the next week or

so, they have plenty of time to put together a strong finish.

“Even with these past couple setbacks, we’re confident we can turn things around quickly,” Flaherty said. “We know we have the ability, and we’ve shown that with some of our wins this season.”

“We really need to focus on our NESCAC games so we can get a home playoff game,” Poon said. “I think we can definitely be really dangerous because our offense is really starting to come together.”

Their first opportunity comes this Saturday at Trinity, with kickoff set for 12 noon in Hartford, Conn. The Bantams sit one point below Tufts in the table, making it a key game for the Jumbos to define themselves as a contender in the conference.

“Trinity has always played us really tough, so we know that we need to fix some of the mistakes of the last couple of games, the lapses in focus and concentration, and really bring our best effort in order to get back on the right foot and make a charge for a top-four finish,” Flaherty said.

Alex Lach contributed reporting to this article.

he cricketing world has recently been embroiled in a power struggle between club cricket and international cricket. The recently inaugurated Indian Premier League (IPL), the brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has opened up new avenues for cricketers, exposing them to huge amounts of money that international cricket cannot possibly hope to compete with.

The IPL is full of the glitz and razzmatazz that you would normally associate with a Bollywood movie, which is unsurprising, as two of the teams have been bought by Bollywood stars. IPL is a domestic brand of franchise-based 20-20 cricket, with seven teams owned by franchises competing for the championship over two months. The money being thrown at the cricketers borders on the ridiculous, as the hype generated by the IPL has quadrupled BCCI’s coffers.

What more do you expect when a Formula-1 team owner buys a team from Bangalore, hires cheerleaders from the Washington Redskins and throws a party after every game? Could there possibly be a lack of money when you have a Mumbai-based team owned by the fourth-richest man in the world?

It’s only natural that international players’ heads have been turned by the event, with some worried that players will be willing to retire early from international cricket in order to focus on the IPL. Meanwhile, the younger generation deals with fame and adulation for which it is not prepared, and many lose their way as they find themselves in ostentatious environments after being plucked from relative obscurity.

Power struggles continue between the national cricket boards and their players, who have become reluctant to play international cricket during the IPL season. The boards are understandably unwilling to commit their players to the IPL, as they lose out on revenue and their players are subjected to a heavy workload, increasing the risk of injury. The most recent impasse occurred when New Zealand cricketers threatened to not sign national contracts if any games were scheduled during the IPL season. In that case, the players won the power struggle.

This has set a very dangerous precedent, and there will be more players finding themselves reluctant to play away from their homes and families throughout the year when they could simply play for a month and pocket a bigger paycheck.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has to tread carefully around this matter. It cannot afford to confront the BCCI, as it provides the ICC with more than 70 percent of its revenue.

If it does not take some sort of action, though, chances are that cricket will change in a way that no one but the players will be happy about. Cricket has a rich tradition and culture, and representing the country has been the biggest source of pride for players throughout history. The IPL threatens that culture as the players change their priorities.

The ICC must take a proactive stand and ensure that international cricket and the IPL coexist. It must leave a window open for the IPL to be played over a period of two months, during which no international games will be played. They should push the BCCI to ensure that the franchises are accountable to the country boards if players get injured while playing in the IPL. The IPL has been a huge commercial success, and proper steps should be taken to ensure that it helps in globalizing the game as cricket evolves to cater to the needs of the modern era.

Avinash Asthana is a junior majoring in computer science. He can be reached at Avinash.Asthana@tufts.edu.

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MEN’S SOCCER

Jumbos squander early lead against Plymouth State Despite three-game losing streak, Tufts remains hopeful for a playoff run BY

ETHAN STURM

Daily Editorial Board

Everything that was going so right for the men’s soccer team in late September is now going dreadfully wrong in October.

MEN’S SOCCER (2-2-1 NESCAC, 4-5-1 OVERALL) at North Dartmouth, Mass.

OT OT2 Tufts 2 0 0 0 — 2 UMass Dartmouth 0 2 0 1 — 3 In a familiar storyline, Tufts let a secondhalf lead disappear before falling to UMass Dartmouth, 3-2, in double overtime on Tuesday. The Jumbos have now lost three straight games and have a losing record for the first time since Sept. 25.

“We came away with a really sour, bitter taste in our mouths because that was one of the best games offensively that we’ve played, and to come out of it with a loss, and not even a tie, hurt a lot,” junior defender Jesse Poon said.

The Jumbos were done in by a pair of late goals by first-year Corsairs. It looked as though Tufts had the victory in hand before freshman forward Brenton Beaufils put away a rebound to equalize with just over a minute left in regulation.

Then, with less than two minutes left in the second overtime period, and after at least three Tufts shots hitting the post, Corsair freshman forward Victor Ferreira chipped in a shot from 30 yards out that caught Tufts junior keeper Alan Bernstein off his line. The ball fell into the back of the net, putting the game away for UMass Dartmouth.

“Soccer is a game of bounces, and sometimes they go your way, and sometimes they don’t,” senior quad-captain Chris Flaherty said. “Tonight, they just didn’t go our way.”

Everything was clicking early for the Jumbos, who outshot the Corsairs 8-5 in the first half. Sophomore Kieran Lewis came in off the bench for the Jumbos early in the half and promptly found himself at the center of the action.

In the 17th minute, fellow sophomore John Lewis found space outside the box and played a cross to the post. Kieran saw his opportunity and with one touch redirected it into the back of the net. It was the first goal of Kieran Lewis’ collegiate career and the first career point for Lewis.

But Kieran Lewis was not done. Less than two minutes later, senior quad-captain Ron Coleman worked the ball to Kieran Lewis once again. He settled it see SOCCER, page 15

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Kieran Lewis, above in a game against Wesleyan, scored two goals in the first half for Tufts, though the team ultimately fell 3-2 to Plymouth State in double OT.

SAILING

Top sailors have poor showing at Moody Trophy

BY SARAH

TRALINS

Contributing Writer

Getting back into peak form is not easy for any athlete after a tough game or match; the mental and physical challenges and expectations are draining. The co-ed sailing team, however, is climbing back after two straight weekends of hardship and a loss of momentum.

The Jumbos this weekend won the IRC 35 handicap division in the Storm Trysail Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta hosted by Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, N.Y. The team sailed a 33-foot Corby sailboat owned by Tufts alum David Kellogg (E ’76), capturing the division by two points over Hamilton College.

Senior skipper Jamie Altreuter and his team enjoyed sunny weather and kind breezes that varied from 10 to 20 knots over the course of the two-day regatta.

Altreuter said he and the seven other Tufts sailors did not quite know what to expect entering the regatta. The boats in the Jumbos’ division ranged from 32 to 37 feet, and because the speed of the boats was not naturally equal, final times would be adjusted based on the boat’s given speed rating to more accurately measure performance.

“Since our boat was rated the fastest, that meant to win a race we had to not only beat our competition over the finish line, but win with a varying amount of time to

spare, depending on how long the race was,” Altreuter said.

The team had not sailed Kellogg’s boat before the race and had to learn the ins and outs of the new yacht while racing it.

The Jumbos ultimately succeeded in this endeavor, as they improved their boat handling and rarely struggled with the variables that were new to them, such as an asymmetrical spinnaker. In the majority of collegiate regattas, spinnakers are not used, so this posed a potential problem. But the Jumbos handled the situation with grace and cruised to victory.

Meanwhile, this weekend at the Moody Trophy hosted by the University of Rhode Island, junior Massimo Soriano, who

skippered the A division, and his senior crewmember Margaret Rew raced alongside a B Division boat sailed by freshman skipper Will Haeger and senior crew Sally Levinson. Combined, the Jumbos finished a disappointing 12th among a field of 18 boats, 13 of which are ranked in the top 20 in the nation.

The A boat sailed to 14th place in its division. Rew attributed the subpar results to a handful of mistakes that cost the Jumbos crucial points.

“Massimo and I were sailing fast but failed to capitalize on our gains,” Rew said. “We improved a great deal last see SAILING, page 15

INSIDE MLB

Yankees and Phillies surge through division series Rangers take down Rays to move on to ALCS, seeking first AL pennant in franchise history BY

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

The first round of the 2010 playoffs began and ended with Texas Rangers left-hander Cliff Lee beating the Tampa Bay Rays. But there was plenty of drama and top-notch pitching sandwiched in between.

The Philadelphia Phillies proved that their vaunted starting rotation is every bit as good as advertised in a resounding sweep of the Cincinnati Reds. Roy Halladay began the threegame demolition with the second no-hitter in postseason history, the first since Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, while Cole Hamels closed it out with a complete game shutout, a sign that he has rediscovered the form he showed in 2008.

Meanwhile, the NewYorkYankees continued their postseason dominance of the Minnesota Twins with a sweep of their own. Manager Ron Gardenhire’s team simply could not contend with the stellar pitching of CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes or the hot bats of Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira.

The San Francisco Giants also advanced on the back of their

MCT

Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter in his postseason debut against the Reds, but he allowed five runs in seven innings to the Giants on April 26.

pitching staff, but then needed help from the Atlanta Braves’ porous infield to score enough runs to eliminate Bobby Cox’s team in the final season of the manager’s legendary career. Without a plethora of errors by Brooks Conrad and Alex Gonzalez — along with a critical missed call by second-base umpire Paul Emmel in Game 1 of the series — the Giants might not have cashed in on their starters’ stellar performances, which led to a combined 0.93 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 29 innings.

In the final series, the Rangers used an onslaught of home runs — including three each from Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz — to oust the favored Rays in five games. The series featured a couple of postseason firsts: It was the first time the visiting team won all five games in the series and the first seriesclinching victory celebrated with ginger ale instead of champagne, in honor of outfielder Josh Hamilton’s recovery from alcohol addiction.

Now, with their first playoff series victory under their belts, the Rangers will seek to attain another first — the first American League pennant in franchise history. But they’ll have

to overcome the defending World Series champions — the Yankees — in order to do it.

With Game 1 scheduled for Friday at 8:00 p.m. EST in Arlington, Texas, the Rangers are already at a disadvantage. Because Lee pitched on Tuesday night, he will be unable to start for the Rangers until Game 3 in the Bronx. The Yankees, by virtue of their sweep of the Twins, have had plenty of time to realign their rotation so that Sabathia can pitch three times — in Games 1, 4 and 7 — if necessary.

The Rangers’ pitching staff will also face a tough test in the Yankees’ lineup. Not only do the Yankees have quality hitters from top to bottom, but Joe Girardi’s offense also excels against lefthanded pitching. The Yankees ranked second in the American League with a .790 OPS against southpaws during the regular season, and Granderson’s resurgence has eliminated their lone weak link. With C. J. Wilson toeing the rubber for the Rangers in Game 1, the Yankees will look to immediately seize home-field advantage. see MLB, page 15