TuftsDaily10-24-2012

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 32

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Open Access Week showcases research

by Stephanie

Haven

Daily Editorial Board

Associate Provost Mary Lee is hosting Tufts’ fourth annual Open Access Week from Oct. 22 through Oct. 28.

Part of an international program to expand education and research audiences, the initiative at Tufts is an opportunity for professors to showcase the work they will publish in open access journals, or publications that anyone can access for free.

“Scholarship that is both highquality and openly available is more likely to be used and cited, thus raising the prominence of the faculty and of the affiliated institution, as well as increasing the opportunity for interdisciplinary work and reuse,” Lee told the Daily in an email. “Open access is a movement of concern for all of us involved in advancing scholarship and research — no discipline is excluded.”

Throughout the week, professors’ and some of their Ph.D students’ articles will be on display in Tisch Library on the Medford/ Somerville campus and Hirsh Health Sciences Library on the Boston campus. Yesterday, these libraries live-streamed an International Open Access Week lecture from Harvard University entitled “How to Make Your

Research Open Access.”

“Many students are not aware of this movement and how readily they can access tremendous amounts of scholarship,” Associate Professor of Biology Julie Fuhrman said. “Any effort to help everyone understand the best routes to this literature would be helpful.”

Faculty members from the natural science and engineering departments are participating in this year’s Open Access Week, which features research on a range of topics including biomedical optics and tropical disease.

“Having the papers be freely accessible to all on the web ensures that everyone, especially students, will have access to our work,” Professor of Biology Michael Levin said. “This is especially important for students at Tufts. Many of the undergraduate students who do guided research in my lab end up as co-authors or even first authors on manuscripts, and having their work freely available is very good for their careers and development as future scientists.”

For the second year in a row, these professors also received Open Access Funds to pay for the open access see ACCESS, page 2

Jodi Bosin for The Tufts Daily

The Somerville Board of Aldermen is moving forward with a long-term plan to redevelop Union Square into a thriving business district.

Somerville moves forward with plan to revitalize Union Square

by Jennifer

White

Daily Editorial Board

Somerville legislators earlier this month approved a long-term redevelopment plan to transform Union Square from a largely stagnant, underdeveloped area into a lively business district and transportation hub.

The Union Square Revitalization Plan, originally proposed in 2009, anticipates the creation of a station along the extension of the T’s Green Line through the neighborhood. The plans utilize existing available lands in the area to

accommodate the future construction of the station.

In an Oct. 2 meeting, the Somerville Board of Aldermen approved the 20-year plan, which in its first phase gives the Somerville Redevelopment Authority (SRA) power to determine the disposition of certain land parcels in the Union Square area.

The Board also last week authorized an $8 million bond to acquire land and plan for the proposed Union Square Green Line station.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Massachusetts Department of

Transportation (MassDOT) and the City of Somerville signed a memorandum of agreement this summer to put a Green Line stop in the square by 2017 as part of the Green Line Extension Project, City of Somerville Director of Communications Tom Champion told the Daily.

“If you look at just what the Green Line requires in terms of preparing the area and what it offers in terms of sustainable economic growth, that creates a sense of urgency in planning for the area see UNION, page 2

Ahmed presents Islam Talking Tufts with Steve Tisch in global framework by

Aaron Leibowitz

Daily Editorial Board

by Jennifer

White

Daily Editorial Board

Durre Ahmed, senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Gender and Culture in Lahore, gave a talk last night before a classroomsized group on the top floor titled Cabot Auditorium on “Modernity and Religion, Gender and Islam: New Heretical Imperatives.”

Ahmed claimed that globalized modernity is changing the way we think about religion, from South Asia to the United States. In the twohour lecture, she presented a more

traditionally spiritual way of conceptualizing connections between religion and culture, examining the impact that Westernized thinking has imposed on these two realms of society.

Ahmed, a psychologist by training, began the lecture by describing the chasm that has been created between modern, Western formulations of religion and what she considers to be the spiritual essence of religious tradition at its roots, noting the importance of see ISLAM, page 2

Zhuangchen Zhou for the Tufts Daily

Durre Ahmed came to the Hill yesterday to speak about the connection between gender and religion in Islam.

The ceremony to dedicate the new Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, held Monday afternoon in Chase Gym, featured many of Tufts’ power players. Sitting in the audience were former Chairman of the Board of Trustees Nathan Gantcher and current Chairman Jim Stern. Steve’s brother and Tisch College donor, Jonathan, was there, as was Dan Kraft, president of the group that owns the New England Patriots. Former University President Larry Bacow and current University President Anthony Monaco were both in attendance as well.

And then there was Steve Tisch (LA ’71) himself. Upon taking the podium to address the suit-wearing crowd, Tisch began: “There’s a saying that if you remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there.”

A few minutes later, the film producer and New York Giants owner again drew laughs, playfully suggesting a plaque be placed in the fitness center’s Kraft Family Atrium with the scores of the Giants’ two recent Super Bowl victories over the Patriots.

Once Tisch completed his remarks, the audience was led into the Kraft Atrium by the Tufts cheerleaders, where about 100 athletes, a handful of non-athletes simply there to work out, and the pep

Inside this issue

band, were waiting. When Tisch walked in, the crowd cheered, eight students spelled out “T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U” with signs, and the band played “All-Star,” by Smash Mouth.

Before all the fanfare, and before even having seen the beautiful new space inscribed with his name, Tisch sat down with the Daily in Ballou Hall to reflect on his time at Tufts, his connection to the school since and the one thing he has that no one else does.

Tufts Daily: What’s it like being back at Tufts?

Steve Tisch: I think I’ve been here in the last five or six years, but I remember when I was here a few years ago, the weather was terrible, and it certainly wasn’t for an event as wonderful as this one today. The campus looks amazing. There’s a lot that looks new, and from my perspective there’s also a lot that was the same when I walked on campus in September of 1967. It’s hard for me to say that, but I like the fact that there’s still so many familiar buildings and streets. The students are a lot younger, but it’s — it’s a great campus, it’s a great school.

TD: Have you seen the new gym yet?

ST: I haven’t, I’ve only seen pictures.

I’m very anxious to see it. From what I’ve been told, the feedback from the students, and the people involved in the gym — the admin-

istration of the gym, the trainers — they love it. That’s fantastic to be involved in something that is being used so productively to the benefit of so many students.

TD: At what point did you decide to make this donation, and why did you specifically decide to donate a new athletics center?

ST: It had been an issue that I’d been thinking about for a number of years. When I found myself, eight years ago after my father passed away, getting much more involved with the New York Giants and becoming the team’s chairman, it seemed like it was finally an opportunity to connect the dots between my involvement in professional sports and my alma mater.

I did some due diligence, and there seemed to be a real need ... that it should be in the area of sports, specifically with a new facility. Eight years later, I’m thrilled that today is the formal dedication.

TD: Tell us about your undergraduate experience at Tufts.

ST: Keep in mind, it was the 1960s, which was an amazing time to be in college, to be in college in Boston, to be in a community like Tufts — not in the middle of the city, but close enough to Cambridge and close enough to Boston, and a little bit of a safety net of being in Somerville. see STEVE TISCH, page 15

Today’s sections

The job search takes post-grads near and far.

A powerful “Wuthering Heights” film adaptation dabbles in dark themes.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Op-Ed

1 3 5 8

Comics Classifieds Sports

12 14 Back

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News

Trash mountain, banana-themed dinner on the menu for Campus Sustainability Day The Office of Sustainability (OOS) and the Tufts Eco-Representatives have joined forces to present a number of green-themed events today in honor of the annual Campus Sustainability Day. The day marks the end of the Zero Waste Challenge, in which participants carry all the wrappers, cups and garbage they produce over a weeklong period in a plastic bag.

“It’s just a way to see the amount of waste you’re actually generating and bring awareness to the ... ingrained condition to throw away things,” senior Claudia Tajima, the Eco-Rep coordinator for Campus Sustainability Day, said.

The approximately 200 students who participated in the Zero Waste Challenge will gather on the Res Quad at noon today to drop off the garbage they have accumulated over the week. The trash they generated will be placed next to a mountain of waste collected from five uphill residence halls.

“We are emptying those dorms’ dumpsters onto the Res Quad so that the visual impact will catch peoples’ attention and change their habits,” Haskell Hall Eco-Rep Lauren Deaderick, a senior, said. “We want to show people how much could have been recycled or composted.”

The piles of trash will be on display on the Res Quad today and taken away by the afternoon.

Tufts Dining will also participate in the day’s line-up with a themed dinner in Dewick MacPhie Dining Center tonight. “The Story of Bananas” dinner models “The Story of Stuff,” Annie Leonard’s book on global consumption patterns. It will feature an educational look at the life span of the banana.

“The overarching goal of the event ... is to inform student deci-

continued from page 1

around the station itself, and planning for the rest of Union Square to take advantage of the coming of the Green Line,” Champion said.

Among seven land parcels in Union Square that make up the Revitalization Plan, the lot called D2 will be the first priority for redevelopment as the planned location for the Green Line station.

This block of land, located along Prospect Street, is currently an underutilized area serving as a scrap metal yard, Champion said.

“When the Green Line comes, I think there is going to be a lot of interest in the area,” Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz said.

Mimi Graney, executive director of the neighborhood business group Union Square Main Streets (USMS), said the square as it exists today is highly atypical among commercial areas.

“Other districts have about two percent of industrial or auto uses in their area ― like a gas station ― Union Square proper has about 18 percent,” Graney told the Daily.

Champion said these low-level industrial sections of Union Square, such as the D2 lot, have been limiting factors in Union Square’s revitalization, starkly contrasting with recently revived business activity in adjacent parts of the neighborhood.

“What you have today is the emergence of Union Square as a dining and entertainment destination, and so the increasing popularity of the square as a business district,” Champion said.

Several Aldermen opposed the plan on the whole. Gewirtz, who voted against the plan, is concerned that the SRA will be given too much control over what happens to existing local businesses on the lands set for restructuring.

Ahmed talks gender in Islam ISLAM

continued from page 1

Sofia Adams / The Tufts Daily

Students participating in the Zero Waste Challenge have been carrying around plastic bags with all the garbage they have produced in the past week. The challenge concludes today. sions so that they know the moral, of global consumption patterns and environmental and physical signifi- the impact of waste on society, was cance — past and present — of this this year’s common reading book food they might be eating multiple for all incoming freshmen as part of times a day,” OOS intern Anne Elise their orientation program.

Stratton, a sophomore, told the The book was part of a nonprofit project Leonard started in Daily in an email.

The dinner will also feature inter- 2008 after she produced a popular, active games, banana-based foods kid-friendly web film on the culture of waste in the United States. The and prizes for participants.

In honor of Campus Sustainability video has been viewed millions of Day, Leonard will also appear on times and embraced by teachers campus tomorrow to speak about as a way to simplify issues like polher book and answer audience lution and global warming for a questions in Cohen Auditorium at younger audience.

8 p.m.

“The Story of Stuff,” an account —by Hunter Ryan and Amelie Hecht

Revitalization moves forward UNION

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

“If a developer comes in and decides they want to develop on one of those parcels of land, the [SRA] could take that parcel by eminent authority and give it to a developer,” Gewirtz explained. “I believe the city must tread very, very carefully around issues of eminent domain. I don’t think that kind of action breeds confidence.”

Some property owners in Union Square have expressed the desire to negotiate directly with private developers, objecting to the plan’s allocation of power to the SRA as the intermediary to purchase property from owners and then resell to developers, Graney said.

According to Alderman Tom Taylor, some of his colleagues are also concerned that the city is acting too quickly to make room for the Green Line. The memorandum of agreement with the MBTA and MassDOT was not a guarantee of the Green Line’s arrival in Union Square, he said.

Before the Union Square Revitalization Plan can go into effect, the state Department of Housing and Community Development will have to approve the plan within the next month, according to Gewirtz.

USMS, which focuses on bringing economic and commercial development to Union Square, is supportive of the plan because serious, largescale change is needed to push the area out of a rut and into a position to thrive, Graney said.

“Transformative scaled projects haven’t happened in Union Square since in the mid ’80s.

We’ve seen no new construction in this area in decades,” she said.

Graney emphasized that the plan will mark a return to Union Square’s former self. The neighborhood was historically Somerville’s downtown and a nexus of public transportation, she said.

gender in the discourse.

In the West, the conception of both the psyche and the divine have become overwhelmingly the Freudian, Apollonian, masculine ideals of power and control at the expense of other types of masculinities and femininities, she said.

Ahmed said that human life has historically thrived on symbolism and subjectivity, but in recent centuries institutionalized religion has gradually erected a divide between religion as a way of life and religion as a system of belief. Mainstream thought in the West has favored compartmentalization of varying elements of the human existence.

Pointing to the unprecedented scope and scale of violence and weaponry that emerged in the 20th century, Ahmed called for a breakdown of today’s conventional perceptions of violence, arguing that any mental belief, whether based in secular ideology or religion, can provoke people to violence. She suggested this idea be applied to looking at terrorism of fanatics in the modern world.

“Rationality can lead as much to murder as faith can,” Ahmed said.

“Fanaticism is not born necessarily with religion, but is born with the human psyche.”

Ahmed mentioned that many of the top al-Qaeda leaders were trained in the sciences, and that, for example, Osama Bin Laden was trained as an engineer. She discussed this example with the idea that there are implications of the modern phenomenon of sectioning religious belief away from religious practice and alongside a literal way of thinking.

This bringing of science to religion is a very destructive thing, she said.

Ahmed evoked a legend central in her article titled “Real Men, Naked Women and the Politics of Paradise,” to demonstrate that even in cases of apparent division, like Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir, there is an underlying unity.

In this case, the highly gendered body of the woman in the legend draws similarity to Kashmir, which has been compared to the body of a beautiful woman, Ahmed explained.

A woman’s body is an object of claim, and both she and Kashmir are objects of claim between India and Pakistan, Ahmed said.

Ahmed considered the gendered nature of this perspective on the legend and on Kashmir to ultimately reveal a masculine discourse, but that gender as shown in the example may be a less dichotomous conception than modern society perceives. She argued that gender can be considered less a tangible, visible distinction than a deeper internal framework.

“Masculinity can mean many psychological qualities,” she said.

“We can conceive of gender as psychological capacities in each of us.”

She continued to say that according to religion, in the eyes of God, everyone is a woman, adding that modern, Western fashioning of thoughts ignores the unifying characteristics of religion, culture and gender.

“There’s this modern mindset that says you have to choose, that there’s only one way meaning of scripture; there’s only one way of performing religion,” Ahmed said.

The culture of globalization is homogenization, according to Ahmed. “[When there is] diversity and multiplicity, only then can you talk of unity,” she said.

Lee plans to expand Open Access Week programming, increase research audience ACCESS

continued from page 1

journal fees or to digitize their scholarly resources. Lee said she awarded $16,183.25 to each of the 11 professors who requested funds.

“As our work is more widely disseminated in these journals, more of our peers come to appreciate the quality of Tufts as a research institution,” Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Eric Miller said. “Such growth then helps Tufts faculty to secure additional grants for even more interesting work and the cycle continues.”

Lee said she plans to distribute a second round of Open

Access Funds in November to professors who applied later than those participating in Open Access Week.

“We’re using Open Access Week as a springboard for launching more longstanding projects that will sustain beyond just a week in October, forging relationships with various parts of the Tufts community to provide assistance and information about going open access,” Lee said.

As Open Access Week continues to grow at Tufts, Lee said she would like to see more professors participate from the humanities and social science departments, as well as those from The Fletcher School of

Law and Diplomacy.

Although this year’s program only features science and engineering work, those who are involved said the opportunity Open Access Week presents is invaluable.

“Publishing in Open Access journals allows researchers and students at Tufts to reach a wide audience, particularly in world regions where personal and institutional journal subscriptions are not common,” Associate Professor of Biology Mitch McVey said.

“Papers that are published in open access journals are available to anybody, regardless of whether or not they subscribe to the journal.”

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

Open Access Week, which encourages faculty to publish their work in open access journals, will draw to a close on Sunday.

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

Alexa Petersen | Jeminist: A Jumbo Feminist

Binders full of awkward

A

Meredith Klein / the Tufts Daily Archives

Upon graduation, Tufts students often choose to explore career opportunities in which they may remain close to their alma mater.

Students explore variety of locations, job opportunities following graduation by

Claire Felter

Contributing Writer

With the Career Fair a distant memory and senior degree sheets due in just a few short weeks, one question gnaws inexorably in the minds of every senior: “Where do I go from here?”

The gamut of possible academic and professional options can be daunting — master’s programs, law or medical schools, entry-level careers and internships — and factoring location into the mix ratchets up the indecision.

Not surprisingly, a popular option for graduating seniors is to stay right where they’ve been, or at least close by.

Jeffrey Prescott (E ’12) is settling into his entry-level position in the Edison Engineering Development Program with GE Aviation in Lynn, Mass. after two successful summer internships with the company.

“The program will rotate me to different jobs while I take classes to get a Master’s,” Prescott said. “My current job title is a design engineer for a nextgeneration military helicopter engine ... and I will rotate through three different 12-month jobs.”

Megan O’Toole (LA ’12), who worked for the Tufts Parents Program during her undergraduate career, preferred a career on the Hill. She began a job with Tufts Alumni Relations just weeks after her graduation.

“I just had a great experience at Tufts, so I went through the interview process with Alumni Relations and everyone in that office is fantastic,” she said. “It is a perfect, in my eyes, starting job, a great transition from leaving college to going into the working world.”

In addition to working as an Alumni Relations assistant, O’Toole is planning to begin graduate studies at Tufts in the spring.

Becoming a “Double Jumbo” is a common way for undergraduates to stay on campus after receiving their Bachelor’s degrees.

Eric Fournier (E ’11), who is a second-year Masters student, emphasized that the logic behind choosing to undertake graduate study at Tufts was his confidence in knowing that he would experience a smooth transition.

“The biggest motivating factor for me to stay here was that I already

knew my advisor. I could stay working with the same advisor that I did as an undergrad and that I did research with as an undergrad,” he said. “That was a huge plus for me.”

Tufts Career Center Director Jean Papalia told the Daily in an email that 38 graduates from the Class of 2012 reported that they would be attending one of Tufts’ graduate programs this fall, making Tufts the most popular graduate school of choice for undergraduates.

The breakdown of senior enrollment includes nineteen students in the Graduate School for Arts, Science and Engineering, nine in Tufts Medical School and five in the School of Dental Medicine, Papalia said.

While some remain close to campus, other undergraduates choose to establish careers in the Greater Boston area, staying in a familiar location.

According to Papalia, Boston ranks first in the “post-graduate plans” survey question concerning location preferences. While responses including the Southwest and outside of the U.S. received 15 percent and 22 percent respectively, 51 percent of seniors responded that they hope to live in Boston after graduation.

Papalia added that while the Career Center reaches out to employers and alumni across the country, the largest contingent of professional contacts is located within the state of Massachusetts.

“Of the 4,500 jobs and internships which we posted last year in Jumbo Jobs, [only] 1,500 of them were from out of state,” she said.

The high proportion of Boston hires can be at least partially explained by the extensive Tufts alumni network throughout Boston. According to Executive Director of Alumni Relations Timothy Brooks, 28,000 alumni live in the Boston area.

“I think it is safe to say that with a lot of seniors, when they graduate, the prospect of staying in the Boston area is a good one,” he said. “There is a wealth of opportunity in terms of graduate school, and Boston is an attractive city.”

Students such as Prescott and O’Toole who have taken part in internships, volunteer experiences or parttime jobs while attending Tufts, often

have a better chance of being hired for full-time positions after graduation.

“Students who pursue internships and who have some sort of experience are setting themselves up for better job prospects in the Boston area,” Brooks said.

Not all Tufts graduates, though, choose to stay so close to their alma mater.

While some choose to return to locations closer to their hometowns, others look for an entirely new experience.

Senior Karl Gaebler, originally from Wisconsin, came to Tufts to experience New England, a region vastly different from that of the Midwest and would like to continue expanding his repertoire.

“I would rather go to someplace else for graduate school,” he said. “I think it would be interesting and worthwhile to see a different program at a different school. I know Tufts culture and would want to experience another educational culture.”

Senior Emily Weiss also sees herself in a new place after receiving her degree this May. “I’m looking at jobs and graduate schools in places where I can use the knowledge that I learned here,” she said. “If I could pick anywhere, I would be in East Africa working for an NGO or non-profit that is concerned with international development.”

Location, though, is not always the highest priority for seniors during their career search.

The current state of the job market has led many students to place an emphasis on taking advantage of available opportunities.

Gaebler stressed that he is willing to put preferences aside when it comes to establishing his career.

“My top priority is being able to get a job ... I’m not too concerned where it is,” he said. “I’m not going to turn down a job because of location. You have to follow your opportunities.”

Prescott offered similar advice to current seniors.

“It’s more important to take advantage of opportunities that are out there than to be picky about exactly what you’re doing or what location you’re going to be in,” he said. “These next five years will be when you have the fewest ties and most freedom to work anywhere in the nation or in the world.”

t the presidential debate last Tuesday, it got awkward.

Surprise, surprise to all involved, Mitt Romney said a lot of awkward things about women. When asked about his stance on equal pay for equal work, he responded that as governor of Massachusetts, he allowed women flexible hours to care for their family — the urgent need to cook dinner was specifically mentioned. He also said that as governor he launched an initiative to look for qualified women to serve in his administration, ordering his staff to provide him with “binders full of women” to choose from.

There was another really awkward comment about how gun control relates to having married parents.

Here’s the problem. Mitt Romney’s depiction of women in the debate and throughout the election is blatantly outdated. It’s also offensive, but that isn’t the point. The point is that he doesn’t seem to understand or empathize with the idea that there are other women in this country who don’t act like his wife or his sons’ girlfriends. The idea that a major issue for working women is getting off early to cook and clean for their families is simply antiquated. The idea that a candidate’s response to an equal pay for equal work question in 2012 is talking about how he oh-so-heroically searched high and low to find women for government positions is also just plainly misguided. Women outnumber men in college graduation rates and currently make up a majority of the professional workforce.

So, let’s engage in a little mental exercise, shall we? Mitt, if you were to put women — the “women of America,” if you will — in those binders you speak of, who would be in them? Would it be the perfect wife and loving mother? Would it be the perfect female Republican politician who says her duty to her family and husband matter more than anything? Would it be women who believe in your God? Or at least women who believe in any God? Would it be women who are virgins until marriage and only use birth control after they have had enough children to do God’s work and before they hit menopause? I think this is a pretty good start to what Mitt’s binder would look like.

And, unfortunately, I’m pretty positive I’m not in it. You probably aren’t either.

True, Mitt’s got something right in that those women exist. But he’s got something wrong if he thinks the rest of us won’t speak up when we’re not recognized. Because some of us don’t want a husband — we want a wife. And some of us want neither.

Some of us have sex before marriage and do so in a perfectly safe and responsible fashion. Some of us put our career aspirations before family aspirations. Some of us — brace yourself — are perfectly morally upstanding, kind and generous individuals who don’t believe in God. And, for the big and ultimate doozy, some of us — we exist, I promise — don’t want to have children.

And we still matter. We mattered before this election and will matter after this election. We matter in the Republican primary, where Romney’s views on us were drastically more discriminatory and restrictive, and we matter in the general election. We matter to President Obama, and we should matter to Romney.

So if Mitt Romney wants to gain respect from women in this election, he must learn to consider us. All of us. Not just the ones who act like Stepford Wives, Ann Coulter or the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Ladies, if Mitt still doesn’t get it, he doesn’t deserve your vote. And without our vote, he cannot win. That, my friends, is American democracy at its finest. Women are watching. And we are voting. Bring it on.

Alexa Petersen is a senior majoring in political science and peace and justice studies. She can be reached at Alexa.Petersen@tufts.edu.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

“You’re not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have.”

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Arts & Living

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Director Arnold’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ runs Bronte’s classic through dark lens

After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year, director Andrea Arnold’s remake of “Wuthering by

Claire Felter

Contributing Writer

Wuthering Heights Starring Kaya Scodelario, James Howson, Oliver Milburn Directed by Andrea Arnold Heights” has finally hit theaters around Boston.

Numerous directors have attempted to transfer Emily Bronte’s sole novel to the big screen. The legendary Heathcliff has been played more than a dozen times by such acting luminaries as Laurence Olivier (1939) and Ralph Fiennes (1992).

Screenwriters have frequently chosen to approach the unwieldy text by addressing only the first half of the novel, which centers on the tormented relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. While Arnold adheres to this precedent, her adaptation delves more deeply into Heathcliff ’s internal struggles than past adaptations have.

Solomon Glave plays young Heathcliff, an orphan boy of unidentified ancestry who is taken in by the

acertainsmile via Flickr Creative Commons

The moody cinematography and setting of ‘Wuthering Heights’ are awe-inspiring.

Earnshaw family of Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff quickly forms a bond with the only daughter in the family, Catherine Earnshaw (Shannon Beer).

The film opens with a bleak and disquieting scene, with the camera shakily gazing at a child’s drawing etched into a wall. We see an older Heathcliff

( James Howson), standing in a bare room that will later be identified as Catherine and his bedroom. Heathcliff appears tortured as he propels himself, again and again, into the bedroom wall, each time crashing to the ground, see WUTHERING, page 6

Album Review

Concert Review

Dethklok pairs witty parodies, quality music by

Kate Griffiths

Daily Editorial Board

Dethklok is the most important band in the world. They single-handedly run the economy and have a fan base that signs

Dethalbum III Dethklok Williams Street

ing the stage with palpable joy. They were witnessing, against all odds, a resurrection.

Strangely, it all made sense. More than almost any other theme in their arsenal, The Mountain Goats write and sing about the eventual triumph of the small and vulnerable over the large and oppressive, be it Darnielle himself in his autobiographical songs in “The Sunset Tree” (2009), or aspiring metal musicians in the track “The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton,” a fan favorite from Darnielle’s cassette-recording era that closed out the surprise double-encore.

The decades-long career ofThe Mountain Goats also embodies this underdog spirit: starting out with just one man, a guitar and a boombox, Darnielle self-released hundreds of lo-fi songs for years as he gradually accumulated an extremely dedicated fan base. In 2002, Darnielle signed to 4AD and officially expanded The Mountain Goats into a proper band. He eventually

“pain waivers” in case of accidental death at their shows. At least, that’s the case in the Adult Swim cartoon “Metalocalypse,” in which the band members of Dethklok are the protagonists.

In a series made in the style of “This is Spinal Tap” (1984), “Metalocalypse” creator Brendon Small decided to make his joke band a reality and did so with much success. His first album release, “Dethalbum” (2007), became the most popular melodic death metal album ever released. The songs on the albums refer to episodes from each season of the cartoon, and although the music and vocals are legitimately good metal, the lyrics often relate to events that have happened in the episodes and therefore have a humorous spin to them.

“Metalocalypse” was created as a show to parody metal bands, but, in a way, it also idealizes the genre and lifestyle.

Released on Oct. 16, Dethklok’s third album is humorously titled “Dethalbum III,” for obvious reasons. The songs are taken from episodes stemming from season two of the show to season four.

Although songs relate to certain episodes, the album is still cohesive enough to be listened to independently.

The first song, “I Ejaculate Fire,” is an appropriately epic beginning to the eagerly awaited album. Brendan Small voices several of the characters on the show, most notably the lead singer of Dethklok,

see MOUNTAIN, page 6

see DETHKLOK, page 6

Ben Ross for The Tufts Daily

At a Thursday concert, The Mountain Goats proved worthy of their intense fan following.

Volatile The Mountain Goats show delights fans by

Paul Reilly

Contributing Writer

The house lights turned on. Applause slowed, then stopped. The crowd, sweaty and exhausted, groaned with disappointment and began to reluctantly crawl to the exits and merch tables. For those at the House of Blues Thursday night, The Mountain Goats’ concert had ended. And The Mountain Goats’ fans do not like it when The Mountain Goats shows end.

But when all hope appeared lost, John Darnielle, Peter Hughes and John Wurster roared frantically back on stage.

“The show is not over!” Darnielle cried.

“We don’t know why the house lights turned on! Come back!” And with those words, an unbelievable surge of energy struck the room. The Mountain Goats fans are often noted for their religious devotion, passion that has even inspired a piece dedicated to the topic in New York Magazine, but this unexpected moment sent all in attendance, devotees and fair-weather fans alike, crowd-

Megan Clark | Where’s the Craic?

‘The Guard’

R

eleased in 2011, “The Guard” is a black comedy that explores Irish stereotypes and Ireland’s relationship with the outside world, particularly the United States.

The film is set in Connemara, which is located in Western Ireland and has the largest number of Irish speakers of any Irish district.

As keepers of an ancient and rare language, the citizens of Connemara live fairly insular lives that are being disrupted by globalization and the development of Ireland.

The film’s opening scene establishes the tension between the tradition and the modern with an auditory and visual clash. A group of teenagers speeds through the hills while listening to profanity-laced rap. Out the window, the viewer can see green, rolling hills and scattered rocks — the quintessential image of Ireland. Seconds later, the teens die in a car crash. So as not to take this metaphor of tradition versus modernity too far, I should mention that the teens were drinking and driving.

The film also focuses on Ireland’s relationship with the United States. Within the first 15 minutes of the film, the protagonist, Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson), has already mentioned Barack Obama and Whitey Bulger.

This focus makes sense, considering that the movie’s plot revolves around U.S.-Irish collaborative efforts to arrest the members of an international drug cartel.

Specifically, the two collaborators are Gerry Boyle, an unorthodox Irish cop, and Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle), an upstanding FBI agent. The two men engage in a great, if not necessarily friendly, repartee early in the film. When Wendell calls Gerry racist, Gerry responds, “I’m Irish, sir. Sure, racism is part of my culture.” Gerry is a stereotypical Irishman: He drinks too much, he’s confrontational and he’s prejudiced, but he loves his mother. “The Guard” makes a joke out of Gerry’s racism as he questions Wendell, who is African-American, about his background.

The movie, filmed and produced in Ireland, is a self-critique, if a flippant one.

As an American, I found it interesting to explore the relationship between Ireland and the United States from an Irish perspective. This relationship is elucidated through a series of quotes. In order to discipline his men for their behavior in front of Wendell, the Connemara police chief chastises his men by saying, “Now, lads, not in front of the American.” In this small town, some of the residents are concerned about making a good impression on the cosmopolitan American. Other residents, including Gerry, are resentful of American interference, as evidenced by several townspeople impeding Wendell’s investigation when they pretend not to understand English.

“The Guard” also pokes fun at relations and animosities between Ireland and other nations. Of the film’s three criminals, one of them is English, a fact that the other two lament frequently. In Connemara, people hold strong opinions about outsiders.

However, due to its insularity, the audience wonders how much Connemara’s residents are really in touch with international matters.

Thus, when the police chief says, “Croatians are like that,” we laugh at his ignorance, while when both Gerry’s mother and the criminals discuss Russian authors, we are surprised and amused.

While the film presents a humorous study of the Irish national character as a whole, its real strength lies in the characterization of Gerry. Gleeson’s deft portrayal of Gerry reveals the sadness behind his humor. When Gerry says that he went to Disney World alone, it is both funny and heart-breaking. The audience grows to love Gerry by watching the way he treats his terminally ill mother. Ultimately, Gerry’s life is incredibly sad, which leads the audience to root for Gerry and Wendell as they try to catch the drug cartel.

Join me in two weeks as I discuss the lighthearted “Waking Ned Devine” (1998).

Megan Clark is a junior majoring in history. She can be reached at Megan.Clark@ tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

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Arts & Living

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Brendan Small proves himself a master of metal DETHKLOK

continued from page 5

Nathan Explosion. Nathan sings with the characteristic death metal growl, but in a way that makes the lyrics understandable — a rarity in the metal community. The song relies on a catchy guitar riff, but the song degenerates into Brendan Small’s more intense growl laid over an intense drum solo courtesy of Hoglan about halfway through.

“Crush the Industry” shows off Small’s prowess on the guitar.

Because Dethklok is a parody band, Small really never gets enough commendation on his technical skill, awesome growl and the fact that he created a hilarious television show as well.

Still, it isn’t just Small who has skill, as proven by the speed drumming at the beginning of “Andromeda” that continues throughout the entire song in Nile-esque intensity.

The album lags a little in the middle and although the songs are still quality metal, the instant catchiness that pervaded Dethklok’s previous two albums is absent. “Starved” and “Killstardo Abominate” are probably the weakest points of “Dethalbum III,” but the album picks up again as soon as the first drumbeats of “Ghostqueen” kick in.

Small’s rhythmically growled lyrics and the constant thrumming of the bass guitar make the song

somewhat hypnotizing.

“Impeach God” is one of the highlights on the album. The concept of the song is hilarious and the guitar weaves through the song with relentless technical skill. Small growls, “I challenge the gods, to stand their ground / Taste my word sword, in your filthy mouths.” About halfway through the song, the music takes on the typical Dethklok sound and the listener can relax with the knowledge that Small still has it.

“Skyhunter” probably has the best intro riff of the entire album and it remains in the song in between Small’s lyrical verses as he sings, “Take my power and trade it away / Now I live in Kryptonite / Do what I must to have it again / And I’ll explode the planet tonight.” Many of Dethklok’s lyrics are concerned with the faux-epic or absurd elements of metal lyrics, so there are plenty of mythology parodies and lyrics relating to death and sacrifice.

Dethklok’s skill lies in the fact that while parodying the metal genre as a whole, Small and Hoglan still make good music with memorable, witty lyrics.

The band’s albums are excellent, even when removed from the reference point of the “Metalocalypse” show. Still, with the added knowledge of the puns behind the songs, they are that much more entertaining to listen to.

punkcupcake7 via Flickr Creative Commons

An animated version of Dethklok is the basis for “Metalocalypse,” a TV show that parodies metal music.

The Mountain Goats’ Darnielle drives spirited Thursday concert MOUNTAIN

continued from page 5

acertainsmile via Flickr Creative Commons

Arnold’s adaptation gets to the dark, beating heart of Bronte’s classic novel.

Arnold’s film strays far from conventional ‘Wuthering Heights’ portrayals WUTHERING

continued from page 5

whimpering in pain. This unconventional opening scene effectively creates a tone that remains present through the remainder of the film.

Arnold devotes much of the screen time to wide shots of the English moors and close-ups of natural wonders — moths flitting on a windowpane or drops of dew bedecking blades of lush Yorkshire grass. Robbie Ryan’s evocative cinematography alone is worth the price of admission.

Catherine and Heathcliff, inseparable as children, need each other to survive in these harsh and vast climes.

Heathcliff abandons his duties on the farm to explore the foggy moors with Catherine. While other screen adaptations of the novel have played up the burgeoning love between the two quasi-siblings, Arnold takes another tack. She sacrifices objectivity by foregrounding Heathcliff ’s perspective, literally and figuratively. When he races over the moors, for instance, we see the view through Heathcliff ’s blurred eyes.

Halfway through the film, Heathcliff angrily departs Wuthering Heights, following what he defines as a betrayal

by Catherine. Arnold quickly cuts to a mature, well-dressed Heathcliff walking through the fog towards the camera.

The transition from the misunderstood

and mistreated younger Heathcliff to a wealthy and now vengeful character is seamless as he seeks retribution from those whom he perceives to have slighted him in the past.

Kaya Scodelario convincingly plays the adult Catherine as a woman worn down by her conflicting emotions.

However, Arnold forges a greater connection between Howson’s Heathcliff and the viewer, thanks in large part to a dynamic performance by Howson, who exhibits both Heathcliff’s crippling desire and his proclivity for violence.

Adding to the film’s original take on the classic text is Arnold’s choice to forego a musical score, which forces the audience to acknowledge the solitude that comes with living in the largely silent landscape of Wuthering Heights.

That silence is broken only in the very last scene, when a haunting original track by Mumford & Sons entitled “The Enemy” carries the audience from the film’s last moments to the end credits.

While the spare and harsh story that Arnold has created is not for every moviegoer, one doesn’t need to know the details of Bronte’s famous novel to enjoy its riches through Arnold’s reading. “Wuthering Heights” is a profound exploration of one man’s inner conflict and the way in which his struggle is further complicated by an incapacitating love for one woman.

incorporated drummer John Wurster and bassist Peter Hughes into the permanent core. Since then, pleasing his ever-expanding cult has been a delicate balancing act of promoting the newer, shinier material while preserving the nostalgia for his old recordings that long-time fans hold on to.

The opening set from Matthew E. White was tight but unexciting; while White arranged the horns on The Mountain Goats’ new album “Transcendental Youth” (2012), he also played as The Mountain Goats’ opener and then contributed a horn section for the main act. Horns are just another step away from Darnielle’s humble beginnings, but their live incorporation brought magnetic richness that made less instantly catchy new material more digestible, like the powerful “In Memory of Satan,” a tale about discovering Satanism to deal with depression, or “White Cedar,” which Darnielle singled out as being especially close to his heart. Long trumpet blares communicate the song’s desperate message excellently, though the effect is more supplemental than central.

On the other hand, “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator” and “Harlem Roulette” did not need the magic of horns to captivate the crowd. With instantly recognizable choruses and driving melodies, the first new songs played were adopted with as much fervor as the older classics, such that the transition from familiar favorite “First Few Desperate Hours” to the more contemporary “Amy” occurred with minimal bumps and maximum singing along.

If the strength of the newer songs was a pleasant surprise, even more riveting were the songs Darnielle pulled out in the middle section of the show. Refusing to

settle into a lull, the band shifted personnel onstage to keep the dynamics fresh.

Hughes and Wurster left and returned in turn for duets with Darnielle on an poppy rendition of “Dance Music” and the harrowing “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace,” respectively. The latter marked the setlist’s finest moment: Darnielle teased a lightweight cover of a Billboard tune before creeping into “Ezekiel,” an incredibly sparse and lyrically dissonant piano haunt about a torture/ murder committed in Northern Mexico.

Wurster’s cymbal washes and guttural, subtle drumbeats added depth to the rendition, but Darnielle owned the song with his deeply vulnerable vocal inflections. The Mountain Goats are, and have always been, the John Darnielle show; the band’s strengths and themes were best articulated when Darnielle took the stage alone. Instantly, he gratified longtime fans by performing — as requested on Twitter the night before — “Attention All Pickpockets,” a vividly descriptive tale of former lovers changed by time, and live-only paean to the high school outcast, “You Were Cool.” The subjects of both are potentially heartbreaking, but Darnielle delivered each with a delightful, deeply personal zest that could only indicate triumph.

With an enormous catalog and a conversational, improvisational stage demeanor, The Mountain Goats shows are seemingly designed to defy expectations. Ultimately, the unpredictable result is always victorious and cathartic.

“If you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don’t expect him to thank or forgive you,” Darnielle and the crowd shouted at one point in the show, in defiance of authority. “The best ever death metal band out of Denton will in time both outpace and outlive you. Hail Satan!” Hail Satan, indeed.

Ben Ross for The Tufts Daily

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats kept the energy high at a Thursday show.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

Launch your international career through Peace Corps service.

INFORMATION MEETING Thursday, October 25 Dowling Hall, Room 745A Tufts University

Peace Corps

www.peacecorps.gov -

855.855.1961

Committee on Student Life (CSL) is now accepting nominations for the…

2013 WENDELL PHILLIPS AWARD

The Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship is one of two prize scholarships (the other being assigned to Harvard University), which were established in 1896 by the Wendell Phillips Memorial Fund Association in honor of Boston’s great preacher and orator. The award is given annually to the junior or senior who has best demonstrated both marked ability as a speaker and a high sense of public responsibility. The recipient of the award receives a cash prize and traditionally is selected as the only student speaker at the Baccalaureate Ceremony in May. Nominees will be invited to apply and following a review of finalists, the Committee on Student Life will select this year’s recipient in March 2013. .

To nominate student(s) e-mail Office for Campus Life at ocl@tufts.edu Student(s) full name, Class Year and Tufts E-Mail (put Wendell Phillips in Subject Line)

Nomination Deadline: October 29, 2012, 5:00 pm Nominated students must be a current Senior or Junior.

Students may nominate themselves or other students.

For further information contact Joseph Golia, Director Office for Campus Life at joseph.golia@tufts.edu or x73212

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THE TUFTS DAILY Rebecca K. Santiago Editor-in-Chief

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Editorial | Op-Ed

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Editorial

Eligible students should participate in blood drive

This week the American Red Cross, in partnership with the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS), is holding its tri-annual on-campus blood drive in Carmichael Hall’s main lounge. A post by the LCS on TuftsLife expresses the importance of the event, saying that “the need is constant and your contribution is important for a healthy and reliable blood supply.” We at The Tufts Daily urge everyone who is able to participate to do so.

Blood donation became a major story over the past summer when it was revealed that America’s blood supply had dropped to its lowest in 15 years, according to ABC News. The need for

donation and donors, therefore, is not understated in the slightest.

Here are a few facts from the Red Cross’ website that may sway potential donors: Someone needs a blood transfusion every two seconds. Five million patients a year in the United States need blood for any number of purposes, including emergencies. A person who was in a car crash can need up to 100 pints of blood. Over 44,000 donations are needed on a daily basis. One pint of blood — which is the approximated amount given during each blood donation — can save up to three lives.

We are not the first to tell you that

if you are eligible to give blood, you should. We are also aware that not everyone on campus will be eligible to participate for varied reasons — indeed, the Red Cross states that less than 38 percent of the population is eligible to give blood. With midterm season in full swing, it is all too easy to find an excuse not to donate. But according to the Red Cross’ website, the average donation time hovers around 10 to 12 minutes. Considering the limited time required and the convenience of this event taking place right on campus, this drive is an opportunity the Tufts community should take advantage of to the fullest extent.

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Arrest of Green Party candidates calls out problems in elections

by Ian

Timberlake

Iowa State Daily

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and vice presidential candidate Cheri Honkala were arrested Oct. 16, the night of the second presidential debate.

Complying peacefully, they were charged with disorderly conduct after they were refused entry into Hofstra U., the location of the debate.

Stein and Honkala are the predominant Green Party candidates who show up on 85 percent of the nation’s ballot, including Iowa. After the Commission on Presidential Debates disallowed them from participating in the events, Stein and Honkala protested by sitting outside the debate hall with an American flag, surrounded by police officers preventing them from entering the facility.

After being jailed for more than eight hours, the candidate’s campaign manager Ben Manski said, “The arrest was outrageous and shouldn’t be tolerated in a country that is a leading proponent of democracy ... They knew that there was the possibility that they would be arrested. Their intention was to enter the premises and bear witness to the mockery of democracy that is tonight’s debate.”

Many might argue that Stein’s behavior, especially as a presidential candidate, was of slightly too high-intensity. Fair enough. That same kind of pacifistic mentality strips everything it means to be a democracy. I would like to note that when Stein debated Romney in Massachusetts in 2002, the Boston Globe claimed, “[Stein] was the only adult in the room”.

Larry King has decided to be a moder-

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. 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.

ator for a live-stream debate in Chicago for minor-party presidential candidates at 7 p.m. CT this Tuesday on Ora.tv/ ora2012/thirdparty. The debate includes: Libertarian Party, Gary Johnson; Green Party, Jill Stein; Constitution Party, Virgil Goode; and Justice Party, Rocky Anderson.

Larry King made it clear none of them will win, going on to say, “They have a story to tell. It’s a valid story. It’s a twoparty system, but not a two-party system by law.” The debate is organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation.

To go back to Manski’s remark about “mockery of democracy,” there seems to be a very legal but very shady way our debates are organized. Here’s a not so well known secret: The Commission on Presidential Debates is actually a private corporation.

You heard that right. All the presidential elections you’ve seen televised since 1987 are formed and run by the Democratic Party and Republican Party.

The commission is technically nonprofit, but the money comes from contributions of various foundations and corporations. And when a corporation has money flow and is under the control of the Republican and Democratic national committees, it becomes quite apparent nobody is going to devote attention or resources to a third party of any kind.

In 2000, Ralph Nader filed a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates, which cited a monetary favor to the Republican and Democratic national Committees and stated that was against the Federal Election Campaign Act. He lost the lawsuit on the basis he failed to provide enough evidence the commission was favoring or denying any party.

The commission has drawn criticism over the years, leading to protests at its headquarters and demanding of contact information being posted on its website.

The list of allegations is endless.

In 2004, Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik were arrested for civil disobedience after ignoring the police request to not enter the presidential debate.

In 2008, the Center for Public Integrity found 93 percent of the Commission’s money came from just six donors, all of which were kept secret.

Just a month ago, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson filed a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates for denying competition by the Sherman AntiTrust Act, a century old act that denies business from restraining competition in the market. Johnson asked the court to put a hold on all presidential debates until the lawsuit was completed or until all presidential candidates were allowed debate time by the commission and had the 270 electoral votes to win an election. That request was denied.

Do you notice a trend here?

Two active presidential candidates and three former presidential candidates in recent times have all protested both formally and informally for the right to a fair election process, and all have lost and/or been arrested.

Regardless of what the court finds in Johnson’s lawsuit and regardless of the likelihood of a third party getting elected, all parties that have a spot on an American presidential ballot should have the right to an equal and fair election process — what is this, a democracy?

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Tufts Daily

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Op-Ed

Off the Hill | West Virginia University

William Shira | Horrifyingly Hilarious

Obama, Romney fail to make distinctions

by

The Daily Athenaeum Editorial Board The Daily Athenaeum

Monday night, President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney met at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida for the third and final presidential debate of the 2012 election season.

The debate, moderated by CBS’s Bob Scheiffer, focused on foreign policy.

This debate provided the candidates with the opportunity to finally discuss issues such as the ongoing war in Afghanistan, which have not been extensively debated this election season.

It was also the last chance for the two candidates to attack one another in person, and both President Obama and Gov. Romney attempted to make the most of this opportunity.

Despite the fact that the partisan pundit-led discussion on the broadcast networks will undoubtedly focus its attention on these rhetorical jabs for the coming days, it is important to note that there were, in fact, some important takeaways from this debate.

The most compelling of these is that, despite what the candidates and their surrogates claim, the differences between President Obama’s policies and Gov. Romney’s proposals on most foreign policy issues are very hard to discern, if not altogether nonexistent.

On Syria, where a brutal dictatorship headed by Bashar Al-Assad continues to massacre its own people, both candidates expressed their support for the opposition without committing to getting involved in the conflict militarily.

On Iran, both candidates stressed that they will do everything they can, presumably including taking military action, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Both candidates endorsed Obama’s surge of troops into Afghanistan, which cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars without substantially improving the situation on the ground.

Both Obama and Romney also seemed to be on the same page concerning the U.S. response to the Arab Spring, with Romney agreeing that turning against Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and joining the

M

mct

NATO coalition to oust the late Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi were both the right courses of action.

Of course, neither candidate or political party will acknowledge these similarities, and the two argued over subtle rhetorical differences, such as Romney’s designation of Russia as our greatest geopolitical foe and Obama’s so-called “apology tour.”

But the reality is, the two candidates do not differ substantially when it comes to most foreign policy issues.

What this means for voters is that they should make an extra effort to understand the two different visions Obama and Romney have when it comes to domestic policy, as this is an area where there are substantial differences.

With only two weeks until Election Day and early voting underway in many states, it’s time for America to finally make its decision.

Based on this debate, it doesn’t seem to have much of a choice when it comes to foreign policy.

Off the Hill | University of Maine

Binders full of bigger problems by

Megan Revillo

The Maine Campus

Mitt Romney generated a lot of flak for his “binders full of women” remark during Thursday’s second presidential debate. And he deserves to be criticized, but not for some throwaway comment taken wildly out of context.

No, it is not the wording of Romney’s comments that offends, but the fact that he and Obama feel the need to pander to women.

Whether the topic is jobs or contraception, what makes a group of bureaucratic men, largely removed from public life, qualified to preach about issues they perceive to be important to women?

The answer is simple: nothing. No matter how many qualified female advisers — found in binders or otherwise — they have doing policy analysis and advising them, they can’t really know.

This is why politicians should campaign on principal-driven policies, rather than pigeonhole the American electorate into neat little subgroups based on race, gender and income level.

In short, your desire to court my vote should be driven by the areas where my individual ideals and principles coincide with yours. To do otherwise is

inherently sexist and fails to take into account the diversity of women’s interests. News flash, politicians: Women as a voting block do not possess a collective brain. We have different priorities, influenced by our individual thoughts and experiences.

Most Americans, and women in particular, are intelligent enough to extrapolate the impact that the goals of federal policy will have on their lives. If they like what they perceive to be the implications toward them personally, they’ll vote for a candidate.

If not, they’ll apply the same rational process to the stated goals of the other candidate.

It’s the only way to end this ridiculous “malarkey,” to borrow a phrase from Vice President Joe Biden, about one party wanting to take away women’s health care choices. Not only is this fear mongering downright asinine, but it ought to be extremely offensive to any self-sufficient woman.

Excuse me if I don’t define myself by whether or not I have access to “free” contraception or go running to the federal government to solve my problems.

Are we really going to allow others to dictate how we should act or feel about these personal issues? And what exactly about this follows the “feminist” doc-

trine of strength and independence?

And the same principle applies to subdividing voters by race or income level. Are we really going to let anyone besides ourselves frame how we should think about issues that affect us? That’s not individualism. It’s some bizarre form of collectivism, and it’s a perversion of the underlying foundation of American government — personal sovereignty.

Essentially, this means that because we’re individuals with unique experiences and viewpoints, no one but us can know what’s in our best interests.

That’s why government is limited and ultimately answerable to the people.

This is precisely why candidates for public office should run on ideals, not this degrading groveling toward the perceived priorities of narrowly defined groups of voters. As individuals, we can’t truly understand the thought processes of others because we do not share the same experiences or influences. But we can all understand overarching ideas and their applicability to our own lives. In the end, that’s what America boils down to: principles. So, when we perform our greatest civic duty — voting — shouldn’t it be based on this, not the divisiveness of political pandering?

Everything in moderation

onday’s debate was President Obama’s icing on the cake.

Unfortunately, the candidates were unable to circle each other like two roosters in a cockfight as they did in the town hall debate.

Instead moderator Bob Schieffer had these two seated right next to each other — quite possibly the first and only time the candidates will sit at the same table.

The topic drifted slightly from foreign policy to the economy about half of the time with the questionable logic that a weak economy doesn’t allow the U.S. to even have effective foreign policy, which made Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” tactic during his campaign for office in 1992 look like child’s play.

According to the media, Schieffer’s biggest gaffe was calling the president “Obama Bin Laden,” which really isn’t surprising when you consider how often our commander-in-chief has brought up the terrorist his administration killed. Except that isn’t even what Schieffer said. Listen closely and there is a definitive possessive at the end of the president’s name: “Obama’s Bin Laden.” Even if that did happen, it wasn’t his biggest error. His largest mistakes were having his spine snap after trying to keep Romney on track when the governor was discussing education, failing to bring up other countries like Mexico, and refusing to push candidates on Israel or Libya when they both began to dance around the subject.

Those are real gaffes.

Some — mostly Fox pundits — thought that Martha Raddatz from the vice presidential debate and Candy Crowley from the second debate were terrible moderators. They had the audacity to speak, fact check and keep the candidates on track. Might this have something to do with Fox’s candidates losing each of these debates? Don’t be ridiculous. For Fox, the role of the moderator is simply to introduce the candidates as they enter and then fall into a coma for the duration of the debate. Schieffer and his low-energy style must have been a godsend. The only real criticism from Fox revolves around the nonexistent “Obama Bin Laden” gaffe. But now Fox has no rogue moderator to explain why new polls show Obama winning the debate or pulling ahead in swing states.

Careful what you wish for. There will be no one to blame when it comes true.

Imagine a football game between two schools. These two teams are historic rivals. Each team enters. Cheerleaders bounce on the side with their pompoms held high. The referee calls the captains over for the coin toss, and then once the kickoff has been decided, he leaves. All of that hate would be released in a violent “Lord of the Flies” fashion that would probably leave a few players dead. Or picture a baseball game with no umpire to call foul balls, or safe at the plate. In both of these cases the competition devolves into an anarchic battlefield where there is no victor. A presidential debate with no moderator would lead to a “Gangs of New York” (2002) showdown, weapons drawn.

Moderators are integral for a fair and meaningful competition. Without them, chaos rapidly ensues. They are the balance, the referee. A silent moderator is like a porn groove with no bass: useless.

The president pulled off his strategy flawlessly like Ali in Zaire. Monday’s pounding of Governor Romney brought another victory to his fold. The Rope-adebate went off without a hitch, and no one seems to suspect that the President threw the first round. Now he comes out on top riding the wave of his debate victories into the seventh inning stretch of politics between now and Election Day. William Shira is a senior majoring in peace and justice studies. He can be reached at William.Shira@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 noon 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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Comics

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Doonesbury

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Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Filling binders with matzos

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David: “Imagine a hockey game with an Easter egg worth 15 goals thrown into the stands. It makes no sense!”

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

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THE 99:

The Controversy Continues Dr. Naif A. Al-Mutawa (A‘94) Founder and CEO, Teshkeel Media Group Wednesday, October 24 from 12:15-1:15pm The Terrace Room in Paige Hall President Barack Obama said The 99 are "superheroes who embody the teachings and tolerance of Islam," while the New York Post responded, "Cancel The 99 before it starts."

Join its creator, Naif al-Mutawa (executive producer) as he takes you through his entrepreneurial journey post-Tufts and learn why The 99 is making history. http://www.al-mutawa.com

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Intangibles only one component of Giants’ advantage in World Series GIANTS

continued from back

the team even has a section “Falling Short (2007-2010),” to prove the point.

The Giants hold the edge in knowing how to win in the clutch simply because they’ve been there before. They’ve faced adversity and possible elimination in the form of going down 3-1 to the Cardinals in the NLCS and coming all the way back to win the series. It will not be uncharted territory if they find themselves down. The Giants will be more prepared when they hit the unavoidable rough patches and will recover more quickly than the Tigers, who dealt with little adversity in sweeping the Yankees.

2. Bruce Bochy and the National League style The Tigers’ Jim Leyland is a great manager and he certainly played a role when the Florida Marlins won it all in 1997, but Bruce Bochy’s got the upper hand in this year’s coaching matchup.

The NL style of baseball fosters and requires better coaching. There is no Designated Hitter (DH) in the NL and, therefore, NL coaches have to be exponentially more active in defensive substitutions, pinch-hitting, and lineup manipulation. “Small ball,” a term referring to manufacturing runs with little measurable offense, has been used to describe teams like the Giants. Yes, attributing this label means a team does not often score runs, but this type of style is invaluable during postseason play. Ten-run slugfests are hard to come by in the postseason and even more infrequent in the World Series.

Bochy’s Giants are notorious around the league for scratching out close games by whatever means necessary. Baseball is a chess game and Bruce Bochy is Bobby Fischer. You think taking his queen was an impressive move, but now you’re in checkmate.

3. Home field advantage With the NL victory in the All-Star Game this year, the Giants will have home field advantage in the World Series (four games will be played in San Francisco; three will be played in Detroit). For two main reasons, this gives the Giants a significant advantage.

First, and probably most obvious, is the fact that playing in front of the home crowd usually gives a team distinct advantages.

Rowdy fans jeering, the ignorance of certain nuances of the field and a slight inclination for umpires to sway their calls all tilt the contest toward the home team. Statistically, the home team always gets a slight bump in winning probability. In Vegas and living rooms alike, the null hypothesis, with all other variables constant, is that the home team will likely have the advantage.

Second, in the World Series, both teams abide by the league rules of the home team. Since the NL does not allow a DH, the Tigers’ pitchers, who have a grand

total of 13 at-bats between them this year, will have to step up to the plate and do their best Henry Rowengartner impression. Pitchers from both teams are not going to make a huge impact at the plate, but situational awareness, plate discipline, and having a clue are all small factors that decide the outcome of a game. A team that is used to manufacturing runs (the Giants) benefits from the lack of a DH, while a team that plays for big innings (the Tigers) benefits from the addition. Luckily for the Giants, home field advantage means their beneficial situation will happen more often than not.

4. Pitching and defense If it came down to a one game showdown for all the marbles—despite Matt Cain’s perfect game this year—I think you’d be crazy not to give Justin Verlander the ball. Saying that, as a staff, the Giants are better on the bump.

The difference is consistency. The Tigers’ pitchers have what is normally referred to as “good stuff,” yet they lack the ability to perform reliably. Max Scherzer and Jose Valverde are great examples. Both have All-Star-caliber stuff, but neither was able to make it to the squad this year because of numerous meltdowns on the mound. In a series where every game counts and in a game where pitching undeniably sets the tone, a bad day for a pitcher usually means a loss for his team.

Even without their legendary closer Brian Wilson, the Giants’ bullpen has an overwhelming advantage. In nearly every category, they are superior. And even without Tim Lincecum pitching like he’s capable of, the Giants’ starting rotation is better as a whole.

Also, the obvious winner of the defensive matchup is the Giants. They may not have the bats of the Tigers, yet San Francisco has slick-fielding players at nearly every position, particularly up the middle of the field, with catcher Buster Posey and center fielder Angel Pagan. Again, in such close matchups, one defensive mistake can spell disaster.

5. Momentum The Giants have just won the NLCS in epic comeback fashion, and their confidence is sky-high. Meanwhile, what have the Tigers been doing since they swept the Yankees in the ALCS? Resting and playing scrimmages against their minor league rookie team, hardly a true facsimile of World Series games.

On the one hand, the Tigers have had a long time to relax, mend sore bodies and recover emotionally; on the other hand, the respite can foster rust. Some players directly admit to feeling lulled into a false sense of gratification and not being ready to play after a long time off.

The Giants will have the problem of no rest, but the advantage of momentum. They won Game Seven of the NLCS in convincing fashion and are probably chomping at the bit to get the World Series started.

MCT

Justin Verlander has finally brought his shutdown pitching to the postseason and the Tigers will be looking to ride their dominant ace to victory in Game One.

Stellar offense and power pitching should give Tigers the edge TIGERS

continued from back

Meanwhile, the benefits the Tigers have accrued from their rest are tangible. Giants ace Matt Cain pitched Game Seven of the NLCS on Monday night, meaning he won’t be available until Game Three of the World Series and wouldn’t be able to make his second start until either Game Six on threedays rest — a situation he’s never pitched in his professional career — or Game Seven.

San Francisco also only had five days off throughout the postseason, fewer days than the Tigers had off this week. With nagging injuries like Buster Posey’s hamstring problem threatening to have an effect on a series, a team that has now played 174 games this year could use some time off.

4. Young Bloods That’s referring to both the young talent the Tigers have in Avisail Garcia and the Delmon Young, who exploded in October.

After playing just 23 professional games before the postseason, Garcia is 6-for-18 in a platoon role so far in these playoffs. The Giants have two lefties in their rotation — Madison Bumgarner and Barry Zito — but Garcia will likely to be a thorn in the side of both at the bottom of a Tigers lineup that San Francisco wants to avoid turning over as much as possible.

Young, meanwhile, has become a certified postseason star over the past two years.

Women’s team sails well at Stu Nelson Trophy SAILING

continued from back

“I was expecting to finish top-five; sailing at our full potential,” Hutchings said.

“We could have won if we performed on Saturday as well as we did on Sunday; but we were still able to pull it together, thankfully.”

While the coed team met with their share of difficulties, the women’s team had the exact opposite occur to them at MIT’s Stu Nelson Trophy. Senior skipper and team captain Natalie Salk joined with fellow classmate Amelia Quinn in the A-division while B-division senior skipper

Mariel Marchand and her junior crew Sara Makaretz arrived at the Charles ready to compete. Quinn is also a features editor at the Daily.

“This was an intersectional, so the competition was high and each race for us is important in how it impacts us and our ranking,” Salk said.

The team’s preparation showed from the get-go. Salk and Quinn opened their first race with a victory, and repeated in their fourth, fifth, and ninth races, finishing up with just 87 points; good for second place, only behind Boston College’s 76 points.

In the B-division, Marchand and Makaretz

opened with mediocre finishes of 12th and eighth in their first two races, before cruising to a number of top-five finishes in almost all of their remaining races for the day. They finished fourth with 101 points, including victory in their 13th race.

“It felt great,” Salk said. “It was the best we’ve sailed since I’ve been at Tufts, and this regatta was really good for our selfconfidence. We’re feeling great right now, and we’re ready to enjoy ourselves.”

In total, the team finished with 188 points in the 18-team regatta, bested only by Boston College’s 157 points, and comfortably ahead of Yale’s 229 points. While the Eagles domi-

The ex-Minnesota Twin, who spent his first two postseason years being swept by the Yankees, is now the world’s newest Yankee killer. In 2011, Young went 6-for-19 with three home runs against the Bombers in the ALDS and ended up with five overall in the playoffs. This year, he’s hitting .294 in October, and though his home run total is down, he did have the game-winning RBI in all four games of the ALCS, earning series MVP honors in the process. He has at least one hit in seven of his last eight games and there’s no reason to think his bat will cool down in the fall classic.

5. Experience in the Clubhouse While some people only gauge a team by action on the field, many successes and failures can be attributed to what happens in the dugout. And for the Tigers, their dugout holds one of the most experienced and respected managers in the majors, Jim Leyland. Leyland, a three-time Manager of the Year, is best known for taking a scrappy Florida Marlins team in 1997 and turning them into World Series champions.

It is also important to note that Leyland managed three different NL ballclubs before coming to the Tigers, and had success with both the Marlins and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

His knowledge of the National League style of play will be invaluable in offsetting the typical disadvantage most American League teams have in an interleague series.

nated both divisions with victories in 13 out of 36 total races, the Jumbos made a mark of their own with perhaps the most consistent results of the weekend. Tufts had at least top-five marks in all but 13 of its races, and subsequently earned itself a top-two spot in a regatta for the first time since last month’s Regis Bowl hosted by Boston University.

The coed team faces its next challenge, the Erwin Schell Trophy, this weekend at Brown, with the hopes of earning a qualifying spot for the upcoming nationals.

Meanwhile, the women’s team will look forward to the Victorian Coffee Urn hosted

by Connecticut College.

The Tufts Daily

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

15

Sports

Women’s Soccer falls short of conference tournament with draw against Bowdoin to conclude season

Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

The political ‘arena’

I

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

Coming into last night’s matchup with Bowdoin, the women’s soccer team knew that it needed a win to even have a chance to catapult out of 10th place and into a qualifying spot for the NESCAC Tournament. However, despite a valiant effort on Kraft Field, the Jumbos only managed a 1-1 draw, meaning that they will finish an injury-marred season with only eight points, the lowest point total the team has accumulated in the NESCAC era. Freshman forward Allie Weiller (shown) scored the goal for the Jumbos less than a minute into the game, but it wasn’t enough, as freshman forward Kiersten Turner equalized for the Polar Bears in the second half. See tomorrow’s sports section for full coverage of the game, along with articles on the NBA and NFL, as well as Elephants in the Room.

Tisch explains Super Bowl rings more valuable than Oscars STEVE TISCH

continued from page 1

ST: [cont.] Because it was [a] pretty turbulent time. It was an amazing time.

I’m of that generation that really thought and believed that we were gonna change the world, and I do believe to some extent we did. I’ve got teenagers and kids in their twenties, and my older kids didn’t have that experience, I’m not sure my younger kids will, and I’m not sure [the current college generation] will. It was unique, it was special, and it was totally memorable.

now as you ever have?

ST: Four months after I graduated, I moved from New York to Los Angeles, and I was in Los Angeles in November of 1971 starting what has been a 41-year career in the entertainment business. So my connection to Tufts was somewhat diluted by 3,000 miles. But being here today for the dedication of this beautiful facility in my name, and knowing how many students are gonna be able to take advantage of it, 41 years later, is the reconnection that I’ve thought about for years.

TD: What specific parts of your time at Tufts stand out in your mind? What did you do here to start pursuing a career in filmmaking?

ST: I think the first film course I took was probably in 1970, and it wasn’t formally part of the Tufts curriculum. It was more of an experimental film course. But the four years I was here, the school did encourage students to create their own major — I believe it was called “The College Within,” which for me was a wonderful program.

I was able to sort of stitch together, with a lot of encouragement and help from Sol Gittleman, an area of interest that was almost personally designed. It included film, literature, working very closely with Dr. Gittleman and all of the courses he was teaching. He was kind of my rabbi on campus, and the four years I spent with him as a mentor were fantastic.

TD: How do you budget your time now between the Giants and your film company?

ST: Right now, we’re in the middle of football season, so in the past seven years and certainly this season I have gone to every [Giants] game. Once the NFL is playing, I’m basically traveling every weekend, eight home games and eight away games. I’ve got a great partner at the Giants, John Mara, and my father and John’s father, Wellington Mara, were partners starting in 1991, and they both passed away in 2005. They had a great partnership, and I think that partnership is sort of being replicated in my generation with my partnership with John Mara.

When I’m spending more time [with the Giants], I’ve got two great partners in our production company in Los Angeles, and we remain extremely active. ... I love the opportunity of being able to go back and forth, mentally, emotionally and physically.

TD: Tell us about your connection to Tufts since graduating. Do you feel as connected

TD: Is it still true that you’re the only person with an Oscar [for “Forrest Gump” (1994)]

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DAILY DIGITS

9

The margin by which the No. 8 field hockey team has outscored its opponents in the last five games. The team, which has won 12 games in a row, has finally started to translate its dominance into goals after winning three consecutive games with a score of 1-0. The Jumbos have already guaranteed themselves a home game in the NESCAC tournament, but they still have one regular season game remaining against No. 3 Bowdoin at home tonight, which will decide the finishing positions for both teams, who are currently tied at second in the conference standings.

The number of underclassmen that saw playing time for the men’s soccer team in their win this past Saturday against Hamilton. The win over the Continentals means that a tie or a win against Bowdoin on Wednesday secures home-field advantage in the NESCAC tournament for a young Jumbos team that can benefit from familiar turf in what will be many players’ first time seeing action in a collegiate playoff game.

The amount of games won by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA preseason. The Lakers, who were supposed to be the newest basketball juggernaut, thanks to the additions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to the already formidable pairing of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, have struggled to score points, failing to top the century mark in all six of their losses. The Lakers only have two games left to avoid a winless preseason and an ominous start to their “dream team.”

The number of teams remaining on the Atlanta Falcons schedule with winning records. The Falcons, at 6-0, are the only undefeated team left in the NFL, which means the discussion about a perfect season will start to ramp up in the Georgia capital. Atlanta, who normally competes with a Saints team that is 2-4 this year for the top spot in the NFC South, has a relatively clear path to perfection, blocked only by the 5-2 New York Giants and the 4-3 Arizona Cardinals.

0

2

and a Super Bowl ring?

ST: No, you’re wrong. I’m the only person with an Oscar and two Super Bowl rings.

(Laughs) TD: You’ve said you’re more proud of the Super Bowl rings than the Oscar. Why? ST: A lot of people have asked me if I had to give one trophy back, would it be the Oscar or the Super Bowl trophy? The first time I was asked that [after Super Bowl XLII in 2008], I sort of had to come up with an answer, and immediately, before I had a chance to think about it and edit what I was gonna say, I said, “I’ll give back the Oscar.” And the person who asked the question said, “Why?” I said, “Because the game you just saw, the game we just won, has all of the elements of not a good movie, but a great movie, and it happened in real time. It was unscripted, unrehearsed, it was not shot over a 70-day shooting schedule, we didn’t have a crew of 150 making the movie. We had football players, and 75,000 fans in the stadium. It had drama, it had good guys and bad guys, people you rooted for and people you rooted against. Everything you want in a great movie, you just witnessed over the past threeplus hours.”

When asked that question today, that’s my answer, especially after Super Bowl XLVI. When Tom Brady’s Hail Mary turned into a “Fail Mary,” I was more convinced that I had just seen one of the greatest live, competitive athletic events played out around the world, seen by 800 million people. Eight-hundred million people don’t see one movie.

14

The number of hits by San Francisco Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, compared to only one strikeout in 43 at-bats. Scutaro was named the MVP of the series as the Giants completed their comeback from 3-1 down by winning the last three games of the series, including a 9-0 blowout in Game Seven.

Scutaro will be looking to continue his hot streak in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers.

4-1

The current record of the Amherst football team, which the Jumbos will take on in an away game on Saturday. Tufts is still looking for its first win of the season, but it will be a tall order against the Lord Jeffs, who currently sit tied for third place in the NESCAC standings. Amherst is also leading the conference in both points and points allowed per game and have only been beaten this year by the undefeated Middlebury Panthers, who lead the NESCAC.

have a confession to make, one that won’t be popular on campus.

On Monday night, I didn’t watch the final presidential debate. Not one minute. It wasn’t that I was in class or studying for a midterm, it was just that Game Seven of the National League Championship Series was on and it was better television.

While we’re being honest, I didn’t watch the Oct. 16 debate either. My beloved New York Yankees were playing a do-or-die game against the best pitcher in baseball and that’s where my attention was.

Some might call me un-American for my choices, but I’d argue that I’m the one following America’s national pastime instead of America’s national traveling circus.

At a basic level, politics and sports have a lot in common. Both are overanalyzed by hundreds of journalists craving the same story. The difference is that, at the end of the day, sports are decided on the field of competition, while political debates are decided by even more analysis and biased judgment by partisan news agencies. If I wanted my competitions determined like that, I’d watch more figure skating.

Even the analysis itself in politics is behind the curve. People love to credit or blame every single event that has taken place over the past four years on President Barack Obama. But doing so would be the same as blaming David Carr for his lack of production with the Texans — when he was sacked a record 76 times in 2002 — or crediting replacement-level running backs like Ron Dayne for running successfully behind the stacked Denver Broncos offensive lines that existed five or six years ago. Nothing in team events like sports and politics is done in a vacuum, so let’s stop acting like it is.

The fix here, clearly, is to integrate sports into politics. The Congressional Baseball Game has existed since 1909, with the Republican Party winning 41 games and the Democratic Party winning 37 games. But why don’t we put some stakes on it? In election years, each presidential candidate picks a team. The candidate himself has to play the whole game. We’d televise the whole shebang, add two more events — let’s say basketball and football — and declare that the winning candidate gets to choose whether to take each question first or second at the corresponding presidential debate.

Think about how much more we’d learn about our candidates in this kind of competition than we do in a debate.

You can’t lie your way through a sporting event, nor can you make moves that only feign strength. We’d mike them up and see how they are as a teammate and a leader. We’d get to see if they have the confidence to remain tough in a high-pressure situation, or if they crash under the stress. No buzzword is going to save you from an 85 mph fastball with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

While we’re at it, let’s get sports inside the debate itself. Chess boxing is already a thing, so why not debate boxing. After every two questions, the candidates go at each other for two minutes in the ring.

A panel of judges score each round, and we get a conclusive — well... as conclusive as boxing gets — winner at the end of the night. Having to bounce back and forth between boxing and debating will show us just how cool our candidates are under pressure. It’ll also allow them to get their anger with each other out away from the debate pedestals, so that we will actually have time to get into the details of the issues at hand.

Maybe this whole plan is a little farfetched, but to be honest, if we implemented all of this, I know I’d tune into the elections. And the rest of the millions of people that gave Monday Night Football and the NLCS such impressive ratings on Monday night might just agree with me.

Ethan Sturm is a senior who is majoring in biopsychology. He can be reached at Ethan.

Sturm@tufts.edu or @esturm90.

Sports

16

tuftsdaily.com

Sailing

Teams get in practice prior to Atlantic Coast Championships Mixed results at various events mark weekend by

Andy Wong

Daily Editorial Board

As the Atlantic Coast Championships rapidly approach for both of the sailing teams, the opportunity to sharpen their skills in what could be their second-to-last weekend of sailing this season has become more important than ever. This past weekend, the coed sailing team took to their 420s at the Sherman Hoyt Trophy, hosted

by Brown University at the Edgewood Yacht Club. Meanwhile, the women’s team headed to the Charles for MIT’s Stu Nelson Trophy with hopes of improving what has been a somewhat inconsistent season.

And although this weekend’s trophy in itself was not particularly important, the location was specifically significant to the coed team, as well as for all New England Inter-collegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) teams participating. “[The Sherman Hoyt] was your normal intersectional, but all the top sailors were there,” senior tri-captain William Hutchings said. “Because of [the Erwin Schell qualifier] next weekend, all the NEISA teams brought their best teams to practice for next weekend.”

Junior skipper and tri-captain William Haeger and junior crew Paula Grasberger took to the A-division again, as a shifting southeastern breeze met them on the water, with mixed results. In their first two races, Haeger and Grasberger finished 14th and 10th before redeeming themselves in the third race and again in the seventh race with a pair of runner-up finishes, although those ended up as highlights in an up-and-down series of races, totaling 106 points, good for eighth place in the division.

Meanwhile, in the B-division, Hutchings partnered with junior crew Kathleen Kwasniak. Although they started with a runner-up finish in their first race, they were not much more fortunate than their fellow

Courtesy Ken Legler

Both the women’s and coed sailing teams took to the water this weekend with the intention of making tuneups before the Atlantic Coast Championships. classmates until the second day, where they had a breakdown in the 11th race before winning their 12th and final race. They finished in fourth with 84 points.

Overall, after Saturday, the Jumbos rested at a disappointing 11th place out of the 18

teams present. However, despite the underwhelming results on day one, the team managed to regroup on Sunday, finishing sixth out of 18 teams with 190 cumulative points, wedged in front of the host and seventh-place Brown’s 197 points, but behind

fifth-place Old Dominion’s 181 points. MIT took the Sherman Hoyt Trophy with 139 points, with Yale (153) and Roger Williams (157) rounding out the top three. see SAILING, page 14

inside mlb

Inside MLB

Five reasons the Tigers will win the World Series by

Ethan Sturm

Daily Editorial Board

MCT

Right fielder Hunter Pence will be looking to continue his clutch hitting and smooth fielding in the World Series, which starts tonight.

Five reasons the Giants will win the World Series by

G.J. Vitale

Senior Staff Writer

The San Francisco Giants come into the World Series with all the momentum.

After facing elimination in three straight games against the St. Louis Cardinals, the team from the Bay came back from 3-1 down to win the NLCS and advance to meet the Detroit Tigers. With it all on the line in baseball’s culminating event, here are the top five reasons why the Giants will be successful in the their 19th World Series appearance.

1. Playoff success The San Francisco Giants have history on their side — in short, they’ve tasted success and they’ve tasted it very recently.

In 2010, the Giants beat the offensively superior Texas Rangers in five games in the World Series. And their opposition this year, the Tigers, is again offensively superior in every conceivable way. However, throughout their history, the Tigers have been known to succumb to the pressure of the moment. The Wikipedia article on see GIANTS, page 14

With the Fall Classic kicking off tonight, there is no doubt that the Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball. In an October where five of six series have gone to the seven-game limit, the Tigers swept their way into the World Series with a 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees in the American League Championships Series (ALCS).

While the San Francisco Giants have had to fight off six postseason elimination games to get here, Detroit has had only one. The Tigers have the better pitching and the better lineup, but their advantage extends further than that. Here are the top five reasons why the city of Detroit will be hosting a welldeserved victory parade when the World Series is complete: 1. This year’s MVP Miguel Cabrera has been a freak of nature this season, winning the triple crown with a .330 average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI. In the ALCS, he was 5-for-16 with a home run and a double, and remains the league’s toughest out. New York came into the series with a plan to pound him inside over and over, and for most of the time, they were successful. But CC Sabathia left one mistake just slightly over the plate, and it was hammered deep into the seats as the Detroit faithful took their brooms out.

What makes Cabrera even scarier is that he can’t be pitched around when Prince Fielder is the man on deck. Fielder had an impressive year himself, batting .313 with 30 home runs, and though he’s trailed off a bit in the postseason, as most players have in this pitcher-first October, it’s not enough to allow pitchers to start getting comfortable putting

Cabrera on first base. And if you have to pitch to Cabrera, bad things will happen.

2. Last year’s MVP In his two trips to the postseason prior to this year, Justin Verlander has been far from the ace we’ve seen on the hill for years during the regular season. In fact, coming into 2012, he had never finished a postseason series with an ERA below 5.00.

Yet after putting in a likely second-consecutive Cy Young Award-winning season, Verlander is finally projecting his July self on October hitters. He’s more patient with fastballs, establishing control first and pitching 100 mph-fastballs later. Through three playoff starts, including a pivotal complete-game shutout of the Oakland A’s in Game Five of the American League Divisional Series, he has pitched 24.1 innings with a 0.74 ERA. He’s allowed just 10 hits while striking out 25.

He’s also facing a lineup full of hitters that have rarely seen him, a fact that almost definitely favors the pitcher. If they take two or three at-bats to figure things out, the Giants could very well already have lost Game One, and home field advantage.

3. Rest in peace Yes, history has favored the fresher team, and only one of the seven teams that swept a League Championship Series has gone on to win the World Series. But this is a Tigers team that has been here before, losing the 2006 World Series after sweeping the ALCS, and three-time Manager of the Year Jim Leyland is not going to let that happen to his squad again. The team has been scrimmaging with its practice squad during the week to stay fresh and should be good to go tonight. see TIGERS, page 14