Bike Riding
Fellow EphBlogger Mike Needham ‘04 has a funny letter in today’s Washington Post.
Happy Holidays
Perhaps the most deeply goofy of EphBlog traditions is our annual Eph Holiday Card Project.
Happy Holidays from the Kane Family!
Basic idea is that there are many Ephs out there to whom I should send a Christmas card to but, alas, to whom I don’t. I suspect that this is true for many of our readers. Top of my particular list would be several roommates that I have lost touch with as well as all my fellow EphBloggers.
What to do? EphBlog is here to help! Send a Holiday card to us. We will scan it in and post it. Presto! Your good wishes for the holidays are magically transmitted to Ephs far and wide. Send cards to:
True or False?
This story has the ring of an urban legend.
Colleges and universities should help cultivate an understanding of why it is blessed to be American and help us to avoid America’s disintegration. A sign of how far we are from that goal is found in a review in a political science journal of several books, including one by William Bennett, former U.S. education secretary.
Bennett is quoted as having written in Why We Fight that on the Sunday after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11 there was a Pledge of Allegiance at his alma mater of Williams College that was attended by “two hundred students, numerous maintenance and cafeteria workers, the college president … and exactly one professor.”
True or false or somewhere in between?
Eph Poll Geekery
Only a handful of our readers could possibly care about this, but I really want to figure out the correct answer to the question: How many Williams undergraduates preferred John Kerry for President?
Geekery follows below:
Get a Life
Professor Ralph Bradburd, my teacher in ECON 251 twenty years ago this spring, has the following comments on EphBlog.
David, to be blunt, why don’t you “get a life.” Instead of spending your time worrying about whether Williams is too liberal, or too this or too that, or gives too much money to the town, or doesn’t give enough, whatever, just move on. Do you harbor some deep grudge? Do you think that Williams failed you in some way? Do you wish that you could somehow remake Williams in your own image? Do you think that the college is going down the tubes? Or that it WOULD go down the tubes without your constant monitoring? Let it go. If you really believe that the best possible use of your time and skills in this world is to fuss about Williams, then either your skills aren’t what they should be or you haven’t looked outside your window to see the real problems in this world.
I am fairly certain that Professor Bradburd’s comments are not directed EphBlog in general. I suspect he has no objections to postings about Eph engagements, Ephs in warzones or Williams in the news. Instead, what Bradburd objects to are my constructive criticisms [How about "wild-eyed rants"? -- ed.] of how Williams is doing as an institution and how it might do better.
His is a fair complaint. I thank Professor Bradburd for taking the time to make it and for giving me permission to publish it. Much of the (meager!) success that I have had in graduate school and the business world is a direct result of the quality of the education that I received from Williams faculty like Ralph Bradburd — as well as Morty Schapiro, David Smith, Alan White and many others — so I take his comments seriously.
I hope to prepare a more substantive response in due course.
Kraft ‘86 and Patriots
Trustee Jon Kraft ‘86 gets a nice write-up here (scroll down toward the bottom).
When Robert Kraft purchased the New England Patriots in 1994, it was his son Jonathan whose behind-the-scenes negotiating skills helped finalize the deal and secure the risk-filled financing that was needed for the Kraft family to purchase the team for what was then the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise.
More quoted below. Morty no doubt already knows that a talk by Jon would be at least as interesting as — and probably better titled than — one by Bob Scott. Indeed, it would be a great idea to arrange a talk by one trustee during each of their quarterly meetings. The more interaction between alumni — especially rich, powerful alumni — and students, the better. [You mean "enganged, thoughtful alumni" -- ed. Them too!]
EphBlog and Firefox
EphBlog has long recommended Firefox for your web browsing pleasure. Since it takes me approximately 6 months to follow good advice, I have only now gotten around to doing so. Alas, Firefox (at least on Linux) and Movable Type 2.6 (our platform for EphBlog) do not seem to be playing nice. In particular, none of the keyboard short-cuts work.
Why do you care? Well, really, you don’t.
Be Nice
Laura McMillian ‘02 quotes approvingly the work of Philippe Rushton on the nature/nurture debate over niceness.
This is an interesting study, nevertheless, and I definitely think there’s a genetic component to “niceness” or social responsibility. It’s probable that upbringing may play a role as well, but it’s also possible that parents who try to bring up their children to be nice have the gene to be socially responsible in the first place, which is directly passed on.
In the Kane household, all desirable traits in the little lovelies are the result of top-notch parenting. Undesirable traits come from “your family.”
Pro-Jackall
Lest I be accused of anti-Jackall bias because of my comments here, I should attest that Professor Jackall is clearly a thoughtful and important member of the faculty. One example is his fine work three years ago:
The Gaudino Forum welcomed 19 alumni to recount and discuss their experiences regarding Sept. 11. The forum, held Sunday night and entitled “Views from Ground Zero: Alumni Recall Sept. 11,” was organized by Robert Jackall, professor of sociology and Gaudino Scholar, in conjunction with the alumni office. The event drew a mix of students, professors, alumni and families and friends of the speakers.
…
“The event really springs out of a certain conception of this institution,” said Jackall. “[It is] the conception of a cross-generational community of learning… where men and women who go out into the world are willing to return and share…even the quandaries and moral ambiguities they experienced in such a crisis.”
No one believes more than EphBlog in Williams as a “cross-generational community of learning.” This looks like something for our Quote Wall, if I can get the context better.
Quotable
Fellow EphBlogger Diana Davis ‘07 is considering a move to Movable Type for her anti-blog. This would be nice since it would allow us to include her in EphPlanet. She also has some choice Professor quotes from the Fall
E.J. Johnson:
This room is not a store in which to buy lettuce.Architects and curators are natural enemies, like the mongoose and the cobra.
Your feet will turn purple, your teeth will chatter, and you might die, so please dress accordingly.
De Veaux:
Statisticians like to talk about the magic land of asymptopia where everything finally achieves its limit.Most drawers I’ve seen have a finite number of socks.
Morgan:
If someone is fat but very very tall, is that person fat? No.The World Series is not actually a series — it’s a sequence.
You know that your a good professor when your students remember what you say and take the trouble to tell the world about it.
Letter from Iraq Part XIII
Long letter from Felipe this morning. The personal bit up front, the longer piece that appeared in Public Affairs Office will be in the extended entry (and it is the good part … I encourage you to read the whole thing).
Date: Thursday, 02 December 2004
Subject: Another Week
Although I am painfully slow at responding, letters and e-mail continue to brighten up my days here, and I just wanted to send my love and appreciation.
Below is a little piece I was asked to write up for the Public Affairs Office, called “A Week in the Life of a Civil Affairs Specialist.” It’s a little heavy on Army-speak, but it’s actually not a bad representation of life here. Thought I’d share it with y’all to give you another perspective on this whole mess. (for the more nervous types among you, you may want to skip Sunday’s entry- I considered editing it out, but the truth is truth).
Lotsa love-
Felipe
Eph Engagement
In what may be a historic first, a Williams sophomore and senior got engaged in the Driscoll Dining Hall. With many loyal Odd-Quadders looking on, Jake Manley ‘07 proposed to Suzanne Walsh ‘05, who happily accepted. They plan to marry in 2008, after graduate school.
Pass the Perchlorate
The current local controversy involves possible contamination of the ground water around Mount Greylock Regional High School with perchlorate. The Eagle reports that:
Perchlorate is most commonly used as an ingredient in solid rocket fuel, and its presence at Greylock remains a mystery. It is believed to inhibit thyroid function in some people, though how much is dangerous is still up for debate.
Massachusetts has set an aggressive limit at 1 ppb, but industries that make and use perchlorate, along with the military, have argued that it is safe at much higher levels.
I am having trouble unpacking all the issues involved here.
“Vague, rambling, and pedestrian”
I hope that Sarah Hart ‘02 isn’t thinking of EphBlog!
Note the comment to that post: her Dad reads her blog just like my Dad (’58) reads this one! Here’s to fathers everywhere! Although it must be noted that her Dad’s comment is more supportive than my Dad’s from earlier today. [Father/daughter versus father/son? -- ed. You make the call!]
No word yet on when my own daughters will start blogging . . .
Lopez ‘95: Inventor of First Days
One of the purposes of EphBlog is to highlight and praise concrete improvements to life at Williams. The canonical example of such an improvement is the use of interviews as a part of the JA selection process, thanks to the efforts of Jim Reichheld ‘87 almost 20 years ago.
From comments by Ohm Deshpande ‘04, I now know that Norma Lopez ‘95, while serving as an assistant dean at Williams, played the key role in developing the wildly successful First Days program.
It would be nice to know the backstory behind this. Who else deserves credit? What other options were considered? And so on. Besides remembering and congratulating those involved, it would be nice to learn from their experience.
Motherhood and Apple Pie
Someone like me should be pleased to see a famous alumnus and trustee like Robert Scott ‘68 speak at the College on a business-related topic.
Robert G. Scott, former President of Morgan Stanley, will discuss “Entrepreneurs are Good for Business” on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams campus. The event is free and open to the public.
He will relate stories of entrepreneurship from his 33-year professional career with Morgan Stanley, and will discuss the role of entrepreneurship in creating and sustaining much of corporate America.
Kudos to Scott for taking the time to speak and to Morty for arranging the talk. (And thanks to Ali Moiz ‘06 of the WES for providing me with some background information.) Morty does a fine job of involving alumni in the life of the College. The more such events that go on, the better.
Yet, I am still having trouble getting excited about this. “Entrepeneurs are Good for Business”? Give me a break. Next up, “Mothers are Important for Children” and “Apple Pie Tastes Good with Ice Cream.”
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