The Rafles

Back in olden times, there was a band of 1988ers that I enjoyed.  They played this past weekend at their reunion, including two Yale classics - Dosvidanya Anya and My Girlfriend's in the Div School. Here are videos:

Not our reunion video -- bit this one made me laugh . . .

Well done, Class of 1993:

Come see the Tennessee Williams Play Jim Lande is producing

Classmate Jim Lande is producing a play in New York -- Tennessee Williams' Two-Character Play.

Jim has arranged to have a Yale Class of 1987 night during previews -- Friday, June 14 at 8, with a dinner beforehand at 6.  We will have discounted ticket prices and a prix fixe menu.  More details soon.

In the meantime, here is a short description of the play:

Tony Award winner Amanda Plummer (Agnes of God, Pulp Fiction) and Academy Award nominee Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) unite their white-hot talents for this highly anticipated production of Tennessee Williams’ The Two-Character Play.

Reality and fantasy are interwoven with terrifying power as two actors on tour – brother and sister – find themselves deserted by their troupe. Faced by an audience expecting a performance, they enact The Two-Character Play. As they dip in and out of performance they find it difficult to differentiate themselves from their roles and reality from illusion. Haunting, provocative, and often funny, The Two-Character Play is one of Tennessee Williams’ most personal – and mystifying – works.

What Lynn Oberlander Has to Say About the AP Subpoenas

Here is a post from the New Yorker by classmate Lynn Oberlander:

THE LAW BEHIND THE A.P. PHONE-RECORD SCANDAL

POSTED BY LYNN OBERLANDER

The cowardly move by the Justice Department to subpoena two months of the A.P.’s phone records, both of its office lines and of the home phones of individual reporters, is potentially a breach of the Justice Department’s own guidelines. Even more important, it prevented the A.P. from seeking a judicial review of the action. Some months ago, apparently, the government sent a subpoena (or subpoenas) for the records to the phone companies that serve those offices and individuals, and the companies provided the records without any notice to the A.P. If subpoenas had been served directly on the A.P. or its individual reporters, they would have had an opportunity to go to court to file a motion to quash the subpoenas. What would have happened in court is anybody’s guess—there is no federal shield law that would protect reporters from having to testify before a criminal grand jury—but the Justice Department avoided the issue altogether by not notifying the A.P. that it even wanted this information. Even beyond the outrageous and overreaching action against the journalists, this is a blatant attempt to avoid the oversight function of the courts.

The cowardly move by the Justice Department to subpoena two months of the A.P.’s phone records, both of its office lines and of the home phones of individual reporters, is potentially a breach of the Justice Department’s own guidelines. Even more important, it prevented the A.P. from seeking a judicial review of the action. Some months ago, apparently, the government sent a subpoena (or subpoenas) for the records to the phone companies that serve those offices and individuals, and the companies provided the records without any notice to the A.P. If subpoenas had been served directly on the A.P. or its individual reporters, they would have had an opportunity to go to court to file a motion to quash the subpoenas. What would have happened in court is anybody’s guess—there is no federal shield law that would protect reporters from having to testify before a criminal grand jury—but the Justice Department avoided the issue altogether by not notifying the A.P. that it even wanted this information. Even beyond the outrageous and overreaching action against the journalists, this is a blatant attempt to avoid the oversight function of the courts.

Massacre Pond -- Paul Doiron's new book is praised by Publisher's Week

Publisher's Week is praising Paul Doiron's new book, which is out in July:

Massacre Pond

Paul Doiron. Minotaur, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-03393-2

The people of Washington County, Maine, are in an uproar in Doiron’s fourth novel starring game warden Mike Bowditch (after 2012’s Bad Little Falls), the best yet in the series. Hippie-turned-millionaire Betty Morse has spent some of her fortune to buy 100,000 acres of woodland that she intends to give to the federal government for a national park. Morse now has a long list of enemies, including hunters and forest-product workers whose lives and finances would be adversely affected. The first manifestation of the hostile reaction to Morse’s purchase may be the shooting of five moose on her property. The state of the carcasses suggests that whoever gunned down the animals didn’t do so for their meat. Bowditch is first on the scene of the moose slaughter, but his unpopularity with his superiors soon relegates him to spectator status, even as the violence escalates. An unusual lead investigator, thoughtful plotting, and lyrical prose add up to a winner. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. (July)

Reviewed on: 05/06/2013

Tamar Gendler Wins Yale Teaching Prize

Tamar Gendler

Answers come from texts both ancient and modern for Tamar Gendler’s students

In her courses that often blend philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science, Tamar Gendler asks her students to probe some of life’s deepest questions using texts both ancient and modern. What she hopes they discover is that answers can be found in both, and that the rich textual tradition of which the students are a part helps them find and create meaning in their own lives. Gendler is the winner of the Yale College-Sidonie Miskimin Clauss ’75 Prize for Excellence in the Humanities.

What do you most enjoy about teaching at Yale?

What I absolutely adore about teaching at Yale is the receptivity of the students to questions and responses that cause them to challenge the ways that they’ve been thinking about their lives for the 18 or 20 or 25 years that they’ve been living before they got here. I’m constantly astonished by the willingness of students to ask deep, major questions about what allows them to flourish, what gives meaning to their lives, how it is that using texts from ancient and modern world traditions can help them answer questions that they care about, and how it is that coming up with their own answers to perpetual questions can help them find meaning in their lives and provide value to the communities around them.

A post from one of the participants of the YASC trip to Nicaragua

Entrepreneurship, Opportunity, Competition, and Hope. Observations and insights in Troilo, Nicaragua

April 24th, 2013 by kroberte under Entrepreneurship, International, Social Impact,Social Value. 1 Comment.

Written by Professor David Kirsch
Mar 31, 2013

Over spring break, my family and I participated in a week-long service trip to Nicaragua run by the Yale Alumni Service Corps, a recent creation of the Association of Yale Alumni. I am not a Yale alumnus, and though my wife went to Yale Law School, she has had almost no connection to Yale in the 20+ years since she graduated. The principal criteria for choosing the trip were (1) it fit into our schedule, (2) it would allow our kids to spend a week with Spanish speakers who did not also speak English, (3) it would open our kids’ eyes to the realities of life in the developing world, and (4) it was time to spend spring break doing something other than sitting on a beach talking about doing something.

By all these criteria, the trip was a success, but it also succeeded in a very unexpected way. My own efforts as a member of the “business consulting” group involved meeting with and advising small business owners in the village of Troilo. While other subgroups staffed a medical clinic or put a new roof on the community center or taught in the local school (all activities with immediate, obvious and tangible benefits), I was initially concerned that our “service” was designed to occupy the few of us who were unable to contribute in any other (read: productive) way. But after a week of intensely personal conversations with a dozen local entrepreneurs, I came to see that our efforts may have been more valuable than I had expected. In particular, the experience stimulated me to contemplate some fundamental questions about the role of business in society that I elaborate upon below.

Happy Mother's Day

Check out this moving video.  Classmate Ira Sachs and his partner are parenting with their children's mom.   Take a look at the smiles.  You can feel the pride and love that these parents feel for the kids.  A fitting tribute on Mother's Day.

Last Minute Mother's Day Gift Ideas | Video - ABC News

Woke up this morning to start the Mother's Day tea for Lisa and turned on Good Morning America.  What did I see?  I saw Bruce Feiler.  Check out his GMA segment:

Last Minute Mother's Day Gift Ideas | Video - ABC News

Read Paul Doiron's Commencement Address

Here is a post from Paul Doiron's blog.  Well done, Paul!

My Commencement Address to the University of Maine at Augusta

Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 1:56PM

Yesterday, May 11, 2013, I was honored to give the keynote speech at the forty-fith annual Commencement Exercises at the University of Maine at Augusta. Some people have asked me to publish my remarks. Here is what I had to say to the graduates and their families:

Thank you. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be here today to celebrate your commencement. Every time I give a speech, I like to quote Mark Twain who famously observed, "There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars."

I'll let you decide what I am.

As President Handley said, I am the Editor in Chief of Down East Magazine. I am also a novelist who writes books about Maine game wardens.

Usually, when people ask me for advice it’s about writing. But it occurs to me that writing advice can be life advice too. Let me give you some examples:

Rule #1: You can’t write well without reading.

You’d be shocked by how many submissions we get at Down East about cool things to do in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. These queries come from writers who don’t realize that when we call ourselves Down East: the Magazine of Maine, we mean that literally. We are not Down East: the Magazine of New Hampshire. The reason these freelancers make this mistake is because they haven’t bothered to read an issue for themselves.

The same goes for life. If you don’t read, you aren’t collecting information for yourself. You’re not exercising your brain. You’re jumping to false assumptions or letting other people tell you what to think. When you read, you take control of your own mind. You’re testing arguments. In short, you’re becoming an adult. Everyone gets older — we all grow old — but not everyone becomes an adult.

Another rule. Don’t sit around waiting for the muse to arrive.

Chang-Rae Lee on NPR's The Takeaway, Discussing the Great Gatsby

Here is a piece from NPR that featured our classmate Chang-Rae Lee:

Stream m3u

• Enlarge

  (Scribner)

"The Great Gatsby" may be the most revered American novel in history. Critics have celebrated the novel since F. Scott Fitzgerald published the book in 1925.

In the Los Angeles Times, critic Lillian C. Ford wrote, "F. Scott Fitzgerald, who won premature fame in 1920 as the author of 'This Side of Paradise'...has in 'The Great Gatsby' written a remarkable study of today. It is a novel not to be neglected by those who follow the trend of fiction." New York Times reviewer Edwin Clark described the book as one of "sensitive insight and keen psychological observation." He continued, "A curious book, a mystical, glamourous [sic] story of today. It takes a deeper cut at life than hitherto has been enjoyed by Mr. Fitzgerald. He writes well-he always has-for he writes naturally, and his sense of form is becoming perfected."

While the novel lack immediate financial success, today nearly every high school student in America reads the book. Critics continue to heap praise, as Washington Post critic Jonathan Yardley wrote in 2007, "'Gatsby' was, and remains, the monumental achievement of Fitzgerald's career. Reading it now for the seventh or eighth time, I am more convinced than ever not merely that it is Fitzgerald's masterwork but that it is the American masterwork, the finest work of fiction by any of this country's writers."

In anticipation of Baz Luhrmann's film version of "The Great Gatsby," three award-winning novelists, Jeffrey Eugenides, Nell Freudenberger and Chang-Rae Lee, sat down to discuss the book with The Takeaway's John Hockenberry. Freudenberger, author of "Lucky Girls" and "The Newlyweds," says that when she first read the novel in high school, the characters left her cold. "There's an idea that it's a young person's book and everybody reads it in high school," she explains. "But, in high school, I was sort of repelled by the shallowness of the characters. I wanted seriousness. I wanted Anna Karenina and Dorothea Brooke...not Daisy and Jordan."

Yale's Center for British Art One of the Best

From news.yale.edu:

Yale Center for British Art ranked among world’s greatest galleries

May 9, 2013

The Times of London article praised the architecture of the Yale Center for British Art, which was designed by Louis I. Kahn,

The Yale Center for British Art is #15 on the list of “The World’s 50 Greatest Galleries” published on May 4 by The Times of London.

The Yale gallery ranks between the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (#14) and Tate Modern, London (#16) on the list, which was created by a panel of five critics. All of the galleries chosen by The Times were recognized for their capacity to “surprise, please, and provoke.”

In particular, the article praised the center’s architectural design, and the depth and quality of its collections, which were presented to the University by the late Paul Mellon (Yale College Class of 1929). The entry ended with a special call recommending that visitors see the center’s painting “A Lion Attacking a Horse” (1762) by George Stubbs. Read the article here.

Did you hear about the YaleWomen Conference?

Here is a write up of the recent YaleWomen conference.  It was a huge success!

In Washington, Yale ‘sisters’ alliance’ takes stock

By Eric Gershon

April 24, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ’79 J.D. and PBS journalist Margaret Warner ’71 discussed the major infuences on the jurist's life.

Even by Yale standards, this was no ordinary gathering of graduates and friends.

Some were familiar from television or national magazines. One had rowed alone across three oceans. Another spread literacy among Afghan girls under threat of Taliban violence. Some had argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. One was a Supreme Court justice.

Scarcely any were men.

This was a meeting of Yale women — the largest ever, according to organizers — and the consensus was clear: Women have come a long way in the United States, but hardly far enough. The world will be a better place for everyone if they push for true equality.

Yale Day of Service Map -- Find a Service Project near you!

Yale Day of Service is in One Week.

Check out the Map of Service Sites here:




View Yale Day of Service 2013 in a larger map

Saturday, May 11th, 2013:  You are invited to join other Yale alumni and their  families and friends to give one day to make a difference in your community.

Feed the hungry...tutor children...restore a park...read to the blind...build a Habitat home...and so much more.

What do YOU want to do?

            

Last year, over 3,500 Yale alumni and friends came together to work side-by-side in service all over the world. At more than 245 sites in 42 states and 20 countries, members of the Yale community embodied the University's great tradition of service in giving back. Local communities were changed by the Yale alumni who live and work there.

The tradition of service is rooted in Yale’s past… but perhaps it is more relevant today than ever. There are few traditions as important to Yale alumni as service to others. We know you want to give back, not only to Yale, but also to your community.

So take a look at the many service sites available on this website and register for the one that is of greatest interest to you.And, if there is not a site in your area, or if you have an idea for another site, go to the Toolbox page or contact the Regional Director for your area to see how you can make one happen.

We hope you will be a part of this important and meaningful program. Join other members of the Yale community who come together to celebrate the many ways that Yale alumni give back!

A Yale Flash Mob -- not the way I remember the library

April 30, 2013

A flash mob of dancers took over the nave of Sterling Memorial Library (a.k.a. “The Heart of the University”) at 10 a.m. on April 29 to the tune of Macklemore's hit "Thrift Shop."

The library-organized event drew 40 performers from across the University. Undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and alumni rehearsed a piece choreographed by Christina Dancy, an area dancer and educator, for two rigorous weeks. The flash mob was co-organized by Laura Sider of the Yale University Library and Robin Ladouceur of the Graduate School.

The performance was timed to coincide with Macklemore's Spring Fling appearance and to celebrate the library's interior before it undergoes renovations, commencing this June.

Prom

Ok, I know that this has nothing to do with our class, per se.  However, we have a child who is going to the prom (or is it just "prom"?) for the first time this year, so I am particularly interested in it.  I imagine others in our class have prom-aged kids, too.

There are regional differences in what people spend on prom-related things (like dresses, tuxedos, etc.).  What I found more interesting is the difference based on socio-economic status.  It turns out that what a family spends on going to prom is inversely proportional to family income.  According to a study by Visa, discussed recently on a New York Timesblog, "parents surveyed who fell in the lower income brackets (less than $50,000 a year) plan to spend more than the national average, $1,245, while parents who make over $50,000 will spend an average of $1,129.  Additionally, single parents plan to spend $1,563, almost double the amount that married parents plan to spend at $770."  Why do you think that is?  

Here's the whole article, or you can click here, or here for another CNN piece on the same topic.  

 Spending on the annual high school ritual of the prom continues to outpace inflation and grew for the second straight year, hitting an average of $1,139 per family in 2013, results from a new survey released today by Visa Inc. show. That represents an increase of 5% from the $1,078 that American families who have a teenager attending a prom spent on all aspects of the dance in 2012.

Carl Zimmer Explains Where Feathers Come From in Latest TED-Ed Animation

Here is a recent post from geekosystem.com that features our classmate, Carl Zimmer:

Folks, can we talk about these TED-Ed videos? Because they are becoming some of my favorite things. In this magnificently animated piece, science writer Carl Zimmer waxes poetic on the aesthetic and engineering feats that make feathers so incredible before delivering a point by point walkthrough of what we know about how feathers evolved — and what we don’t. This lesson in how modern birds developed from ancient dinosaurs more or less the perfect thing to distract you from work today, and come on — it’s not like you’re here because you desperately want to get things done.

Don’t believe me? Let’s play “Things I Would Rather Do Than Work On A Friday” bingo for a minute, shall we? Watch cartoons? Check. Learn about science? Well, Carl Zimmer is talking, so got you there. Look at dinosaurs? Oh, yeah, plenty of dinosaurs. Think about how cool it would be to be a bird? Yup. This video will probably make you do that, too.

Game, set, match. Enjoy!

(via TED-Ed)

Defending accused terrorists

Our classmate, Tamar Birkhead, has been in the news a lot lately discussing lawyers representing accused terrorists.  Here is a selection of the coverage.  What do you think?

Christian Science Monitor:  “There is a certain personality that is drawn to this work,” says Tamar Birckhead, a former federal public defender in Boston who worked with Conrad and is now an associate professor at theUniversity of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. “This is more than an intellectual exercise ensuring constitutional rights are protected. I get great satisfaction out of being the voice for that person.”


Here is Tamar's last blog post:

To Defend a Terrorist: Reflections on Reid, Tsarnaev & How I Got from There to Here

Posted on May 3, 2013 by tbirckhe

Since my last post, I’ve been occupied with putting myself out there (via print, radio & cable news) to share the message that even those charged with the most heinous offenses are still human beings, that we are each more than the very worst thing we have done, and that execution is morally wrong.

In my last life, I worked as a federal public defender in Boston and had the occasion to represent Richard Reid, the failed or would-be shoe-bomber.  This wasn’t a role I sought out, and in fact, when the case was initially assigned to me, I felt apprehensive about taking it on.  It so happened, however, that I was “on call” during the last week of December 2001, meaning that any new cases appointed to the office were mine; so, when Reid’s American Airlines flight from Miami to Paris was diverted to Boston’s Logan Airport and he was arrested and charged with acts of terrorism, I knew that this 28 year old bin Laden adherent of British/Jamaican descent would become my client.