And, why the toothbrush, cavity-conscious readers are asking themselves?

Because this years’ winners will receive a new and unused Hood River toothbrush, containing a scene of windsurfing in the handle!

Well, enough of the mind-boggling prizes. On to the winners.

2010, the third run for the glory that is EphBlog, featured 11 entrants (12, but I’ll get to that);

Yes!

A two-way tie for first place, each with all seven categories selected correctly – Young Alum and Chris

In second place with 6 out of 7 correct selections – Jimmy.

And in third place with 5 out of 7 correct selections – JG.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to ebaek, Ronit, Jeffz, Jr Mom, Whitney, Brandi, and Andy for their valiant but misguided contributions.

But wait, there is
Winners will need to contact me with a mailing address to receive their valuable recognitions.

This simple chart clearly shows that winners are winners and losers probably had chosen Amherst as their first choice for admission.

Also notice that of the 11 entrants, 9 selected Mo’Nique and 8 Ms Bigelow!

Now, Mr Lazar had cut off voting a few minutes before the end of the parade of shamelessness and start of the actual program. Yet one entrant submitted the correct entrants to all categories at 7:30 pm EST.

And so, Fei, if I may call you this, I believe you have somehow manipulated the International Dateline for illegal purposes. Readers, if you’re like me, and I know I am, you will join with me in not recognizing this submission, even though it would have made our entry pool an even dozen. Fie on you, Fei!

Statisticians are welcome to analyze the data in the chart to their hearts content.

Mr Lazar knows when things are over, including your career.

NB

I am unable to provide a credit for the wonderful photo of this most famous agent.

Any reader know?

The ’50’s were the years when shoe stigmata by social types became popular: white, brown, and black. And “He’s a real shoe guy”, with as much lockjaw in your accent as you could muster.

http://www.word-detective.com/2009/08/24/white-shoe-firm/

Some thoughts from my memory bank: Weejuns could have a square of white adhesive tape on the top of the back to indicate well-worn, white bucks (red soles) were worn dirty, but you did not buy them dirty, cordovans were bulbous-toed, Purcells could be white, blue, or black (very daring), Top Siders were best if well-worn with salt stains, saddles could be either brown or black (avant).

Remember, in the 50’s, only men’s shoes were kicking up the dust of Spring Street. In truth, though, most of the styles were also walking the streets of Northampton and South Hadley.

Certainly your school years’ had equally fascinating footwear. Your comments are solicited!

http://www.takeamericatocollege.com/vote-for-a-finalist/online-vote-winner-dennis-medina/

Thanks to all for your support!

Wasn’t this guy in Sage B with you? You remember – his Momma- her continuous quotes- “Box of Chocklits … never know what you’re going to blahblahblah”?

Anyways, To help you know what you’re going to get, the NYT has come up with this graphic that is almost as good as the one for the Mass race (doesn’t that seem like a million years ago?).

Here to help you select are the previous results for a zillion years and the prognostications for 2010 of the Big 5 beside Oscar: The Golden Globes, The National Board of Review, The Screen Actors Guild. The Producers Guild,and The Directors Guild.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/05/movies/awards-history-graphic.html?ref=global-home

And here to help you remember just who is up for what, the post announcing Ephblog’s 3rd Annual Oscars Contest!

http://www.ephblog.com/2010/02/04/you-should-not-be-here-the-oscars-2010/

Be sure to get your votes in before the show starts on Sunday. You could win something really swell!

Jasmine Alinder
The Right to Representation: Toyo Miyatake’s Camera as a Symbol of Japanese American Resistance to Incarceration
“This paper will examine how Miyatake’s Manzanar camera has come to symbolize a kind of protest against the politics of incarceration that rests in the power to represent the self.”

Beneath are excerpts, the reference, and an observation.
“While images in the popular press dehumanized people of Japanese descent, the government exclusion of cameras and photographs owned by Japanese Americans curtailed the possibility of alternative portrayals of Japanese American life.

According to Bulletin no. 126 from the Japanese American Citizens League dated 24 March 1942, “After March 31, 1942, no person of Japanese ancestry shall have in his possession or use or operate at any time or place within any of the Military Areas 1 to 6 inclusive, as established and defined in Public Proclamations Nos. 1 and 2, above mentioned any of the following items a. firearms b. weapons c. ammunition d. bombs e. explosives f. short wave radio g. radio transmitting sets h. signal devices i. Codes or ciphers j. cameras.”

“By seizing cameras, and classifying them in the same category as weapons, government officials believed that they were discouraging sabotage, and at the same time they also took away the right of Japanese Americans to represent themselves photographically.”

“A bronze sculpture representing a large, weathered view camera stands on the sidewalk outside of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

“Its lens focuses not on the street but the museum; poised to photograph the building in which Japanese American history is made public. Installed in 1993 by artist Nobaho Nagasawa, the sculpture is an enlarged replica of the camera used by Toyo Miyatake inside Manzanar, the concentration camp where he was imprisoned with his family and 10,000 other Japanese Americans. A slide projector placed inside the cast metal box is meant to display Miyatake’s wartime photographs against the window of the museum every evening.”

http://www4.uwm.edu/cie/research/conferences/Constant_Capture/abstracts.html

‘Metonymy’ is not without interest to those thinking through the direction for EphBlog. The part for the image of the whole. The replacement of one image with a new and desired one. Difficult when the old part-for-the-whole has been so intimately identified. What eidetic will arise?

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

I look around me and I see a campus haunted by apathy. I see 2100 young men and women of promise, with sturdy heads on their shoulders and reserves of determination waiting to be unleashed … later.

This characterization is immediately familiar to me from twenty years ago– and more recently.   It was not by accident that Amy Butler drew the College,  encased in the bubble of a Christmas decoration,  on the cover of the ‘92 FaceBook– nor without irony.

To what extent is the College’s isolation an advantage– and to what extent a disadvantage– and what are the issues,  on the ground,  of today?  To what extent is apathy or lack of engagement,  a failing?

What does this mean? I do not wish to engage in unsubstantiated speculation, but does this imply closing the Club? This seems an excellent moment to discuss the place and function of the Club, and if there are any ideas / models to sustain it or activities like it.

Other authors– please feel to improve the head. More under fold.

From V’83:

The college just took ownership of the building that houses the Williams Club, and disclosed in its financial reports that it “intends to sell” it (see Note 1 for the definition of “Real Estate Held as an Investment,” and Note 4 for the list of the actual properties). It was appraised at $21 million, but when was the appraisal done? What has happened to Manhattan real estate since the appraisal was completed? The building is used as a hotel and restaurant. Is this its “highest and best use” compared to say condo/co-ops? Will the College only sell it for cash, or would it be willing to hold a mortgage for the purchasers? The Williams Club is still accepting new memberships on its website – are there efforts underway for the Williams Club to secure new financing and buy it back? Will it be listed publicly?

I don’t think the trustees are obligated to invest the proceeds from a sale into the endowment. Are there any indications of how the proceeds of a sale might be used? Just wondering.

http://www.ephblog.com/2010/02/04/you-should-not-be-here-the-oscars-2010/

Chris Hikel ‘13 described the Commons Club on WSO.

“The WCCC was formed in response to what we viewed as a general discomfort towards meaningful interpersonal engagement among students on the Williams College campus. In our view, this discomfort is not exclusive to social engagement, it also envelopes intellectual and political engagement. What does this mean, and how do we intend to address it?

Social engagement: Here is an example of the type of thing we see and intend to address–While there are various spaces, events, and occasions on campus that cater to heavy-drinking and its polar opposite, abstinence from drinking, there is virtually no event, space, or occasion on campus that specifically targets what we view as the most desirable yet conspicuously absent form of drinking: social drinking.

For example, look at the WAD/Goodrich dynamic. Don’t get me wrong–I like the parties in Goodrich as much as the next guy–but they are not “social” in nature. Everybody is 100% drunk and even if two people did manage to actually “meet” each other there, it’s not a suitable environment to get to know each other (nor will you be suitably sober enough to remember each other). As for the Williams After Dark events in Paresky, as an example of zero-alcohol events, a lot of people just don’t think making quilts (and completely sober, no less) is fun.

Therefore, one of our goals is to increase the number AND QUALITY of social drinking events on campus. Do not misinterpret our goal: we are not deriding any form of social life currently on campus, nor are we trying to reduce the amount of heavy-drinking or non-alcoholic events. We want to supplement them with other events that will fill in the gaps that are currently not covered by any groups on campus.

I have brainstormed, spoken to alumni, and to people who attend other schools of similar size to Williams and have come up with many ideas for events and ways to make them happen, including funding ideas.

Intellectual engagement: We feel that there is a surprisingly small amount of real intellectual engagement that goes on outside of the classroom at Williams. As a believer in the phrase “If you build it they will come,” I refuse to chalk this lack of discourse to something as simple as, “Oh, well it’s just not in the Williams culture to speak intelligently to each other outside of the classroom.” We believe that intellectual diversity is as important as more visible types of diversity, and therefore there should be events geared toward both fun AND intellectual engagement. We predict that these would be smaller events (20-30 people), but again, the WCCC’s goal is to fill in the gaps where they currently exist, large and small.

Political engagement: Along the same lines, I would argue that Williams College is one of the most apathetic campuses I have seen in terms of politics. Once again, I don’t believe this is because we just happen to have 2200 students that don’t care about anything or hold political opinions upon which they are willing to act. To be honest, we have done the least amount of brainstorming about how to energize political engagement on campus relative to social and intellectual engagement (mostly because the small group of us that has organized this club from the beginning has such a diverse set of political views that we prefer not to get sidetracked in political discussion when we meet). Nonetheless, we have some ideas and we would like to form a committee (once we are CC-official) to explore ideas for events that are both FUN and political in nature.”

The WCCC has already conducted its first event on the first day the students got back from Dead Week– the No Holds Barred Comedy Night. As a student, I admit that I was very impressed with how much publicity the creators of the WCCC fostered. They had a quite a large showing, especially considering that it was the night before Claiming Williams Day and the WCCC was not an official campus club yet. (I have not received word back about WCCC’s current status as an official campus group.)

However, an article appeared in the Op-Ed column of the Record, raising a concern that the “no-holds barred” and “intellectually free” (The WCCC’s own words in promoting their Comedy Night) humor may be offensive to a point where its effort to break away from the norm may stifle a different kind of dissent. The writer cited the old College Smokers as an example to show that the potentially offensive group was eliminated not to remove offensive material but to let the students targeted by the sexist, racist, homophobic, and other offensive jokes have the safety to belong to the larger society.

While I do not believe for a single moment that the WCCC is all about spreading vulgar and offensive jokes, it is curious to see the argument against the creation of WCCC. Many of the messages the WCCC is sending are cryptic. Underage (for many of us here are, in fact, underage) social drinking events sponsored by a CC-approved club? More intellectual discussions for students to come to, despite disinterest in already established discussions, talks and panels? The plans to change the political engagement levels on this campus when the few people that met to discuss the group didn’t want to get “sidetracked” by political discussions? I acknowledge and applaud the WCCC’s courage to put words and actions to these issues, but many of the plans laid out are confusing, which may explain why the writer of the Op-Ed article was confused about WCCC’s activities and intentions as well.

The first meeting of the WCCC has taken place over this week, and it seems, whether already CC-official or not, that this new club is on its way to a strong start in the Williams community.

What is your take on the Commons Club?

Thus, persuasion by speech is equivalent to abduction by force, as she was compelled to agree to what was said, and consent to what was done. It was therefore the persuader, not Helen, who did wrong and should be blamed.

That persuasion, when added to speech, can also make any impression it wishes on the soul, can be shown, firstly, from the arguments of the soothsayers, who by removing one opinion and implanting another, cause what is incredible and invisible to appear before the eyes of the mind; secondly, from legal contests, in which a speech can sway and persuade a crowd, by the skill of its composition, not by the truth of its statements; thirdly, from the philosophical debates, in which quickness of thought is shown easily altering opinion.

The power of speech over the constitution of the soul can be compared with the effect of drugs on the state of the body: just as drugs by driving out different humors from the body can put an end either to the disease or to life, so with speech: different words can induce grief, pleasure or fear; or again, by means of a harmful kind of persuasion, words can drug and bewitch the soul.

– (remaining fragment)

Like many, I was surprised at your decision!

You are the Father Founder of EphBlog, the most successful independent blog dedicated to one collegiate entity. This is one heck of an accomplishment. Thank you from all of us for giving so many a chance to chime in under the banner of Williams.

You have taken a well-earned vacation before, February, 2009, as a matter of fact. And those of us lazy and occasional scribblers suddenly knew what you had been doing from the inception of the blog: filling a month (thank goodness it was Leap Year) with interesting material.

My hope is that you will not desert these pages entirely. but will from time-to-time add an insight and create awareness of a particular situation that might go unnoticed.

The board knows of your desire to have EphBlog be a broader forum including more students, faculty, and members of the administration, in addition to the alumni and parents and other members of the Williams family at large.

We see this step on your part as a challenge to make this happen. And make it happen under our own steam.

Thank you, David, for giving us this strong base from which to expand to that greater audience you have envisioned.

Dick Swart 1956
President
EphBlog

—————–
A preliminary reaction– is this a major step, towards a sort of Schengen Area for the Latin Americas; and what does that mean for the US? Or is it– an entirely opposite move (and what does that mean…?)

UPDATE:  this was of course “a long time coming–” but it’s the precise timing and the characterization in the English-speaking Press that grabs my attention.  Latin Am (Spanish) press does not seem to be echoing that phrasing.

The actuality of Manzanar as recorded by four photographers, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Clem Albers; has been published as Elusive Truth by Gerald H Robinson with an introduction by Archie Miyatake, Published by Carl Mautz Publishing, 2002, rev 2008.

Continuing the discussions in the inserts in the comments to the post Executive Order 9066, the views of reality are what the photographer chooses to see.

See some for yourself in the listing of 91 photos here (scroll down to the section) http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/manz/hrst.htm and read more about the book here http://www.boredfeet.com/singles2/elusivetruth.php

Per a request from a current student,  this is a 24-hour removal pending further thought and discussion between the parties affected.

And as always,  “more later.”  –Ken

We are back online and a backup should be complete (shortly).  Er.  Four hours later.

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s whiskey freed from South Pole ice after 100 years!

The whiskey was abandoned when the expedition had to stop the mission.

Read more about Shackleton of The Endurance while you curse the weather in Washington and other points heading North.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/global-green/100207/whisky-recovery-shackleton

http://gerrymaxeyworkshop.com/blogging/?tag=the-hunter-valley-distillery-limited-allandale-austral

and about the distillery who may be able to recover a disappeared brand and taste.
http://www.whyteandmackay.co.uk/

No Williams connection at all, as noted in the escher furniture post comment of a few days ago. Purely cocktail chatter. While a great many of the directly Williams-related posts are extremely interesting and produce many comments, I find a steady diet too content-rich for my aged digestive system. I try to throw in a piece of candy, the occasional cookie. or even, God help us, a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine blahblah.

Were we from Penn, the head would have been “Drink a Highball at Nightfall”.

Duck Soup 1933. Margaret Dumont is rolling bandages.

This article in The New Yorker.

“Boola” Dept._ Irony 101 _ The New Yorker

(will require first click to get to reference, then a second click to get to source)

… this advertised desk and chair set may be just the ticket!

Available at escher-r-us.com.

Thank you, http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/ for this and too many other catastrophes!

Contestant #2 – My name is David Kane and I want to be a Trustee of Williams College.

Contestant #3 – Whatever. I want a five year contract. And no Leno appearances at Chapin!