Letters
Surely someone remembers
the inundation of June 2000...
Gay past and present
Today, more than ever, I am proud to be a gay University of Chicago
alumna (“Moment
of Decision,” August/03). When I started college in
1995, the buzz surrounding George Chauncey’s Gay New
York was deafening. I did not yet understand how profoundly
moving it would be to step onto a campus that wholeheartedly accepts
the study of the identity I now embrace.
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Praise for Preuss
piece
Amy Braverman’s excellent article on Daphne Preuss’s
research (“The
Weeds of Change,” August/03) is the type of piece I
had been afraid your publication was neglecting. Articles about
faculty research are what I enjoy most in the Magazine.
George W. Gross, AB’54, AM’64
Chicago
PG-13 publication
“Speaking of the Balkans” (“Investigations,”
August/03) describes linguist Victor Friedman’s early researches
in foreign curses and obscenities, and notes, with no further
explanation, that “Many are unprintable.” What exactly
does this mean? Are they accompanied by elaborately choreographed
dance moves that cannot be represented in print? Are they sung
in a tonal system that has no recognized method for transcription?
Are they in languages that have no writing system?
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SAT not the only test
I enjoyed the August issue’s “Glimpse”
of Richard Atkinson, especially the glances at the lucky accident
by which he took the entrance exam, thus gaining admission to
the College, and his shake-up of the SAT. While it’s true
that “the SAT will be reinvented” in 2006 to focus
on achievement rather than aptitude, a test emphasizing achievement
(“the form that the Chicago group advocated many years ago”)
has helped students to plan for and gain entrance to college for
many years.
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When it
rained, it poured
Re “By the
Numbers” (August/03): Surely someone who remembers the
inundation of June 2000 must still be around. The College session
was just finishing, and the head of the recession reaching the
center of the quad, when a few droplets began. Within minutes
there was a drenching downpour. The Convocation aides broke open
the ponchos and we all dashed to get them. And very nice they
were, too.
Jordy Bell, AB’65
Croton-on Hudson, New York
Rechecking the poncho records shows that 2,000 were used in June 2000; another 500 or so of the original 25,000 have been distributed in drips and drops since 1998.—Ed.
More Nobelists in the nest
In addition to Bellow, Cronin, and Chandrasekhar, Milton Friedman, George Stigler, and Robert Mullikan also resided at 5825 Dorchester (“Chicago Journal,” August/03).
Theodore P. Hurwitz
Bethesda, Maryland
Narrow-minded elitists
Re: “Promoting
a Preemptivist” (“Letters,” August/03):
It is hardly surprising how consistently the U of C promotes its
image as a place for intellectual exploration, on multiple levels
and from many perspectives. Chicago’s self-regard rests
upon legitimate and admirable realities. However, I find it stunning
how equally consistent is the U of C’s underlying hypocrisy.
As long as the cause is the predictably progressive, politically,
socially, or otherwise, the University revels in its “role”
in fostering the world-class scholars and thinkers who perpetuate
this image.
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Disputed facts, figures
M. A. Sullivan, who responded in the August/03 issue (“Go
Figure” e-letter sidebar) to my letter regarding Robert
Pape’s work on suicide bombers (“More on suicide terrorism,”
June/03), ought to get his facts and figures straight. Sullivan
claims that Barak offered Arafat 80 percent of 22 percent of 100
percent of the land that originally belonged to the Palestinians.
Sorry. The land never belonged to the Palestinians.
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Wood Works
I particularly enjoyed “Classified
Knowledge” (June/03) and the photos of Romeyn Hough’s
“American Woods.” It is great that this original work
is available at the U of C, but I would like to bring to your
readers’ attention two items of information. First, it has
been reprinted by Taschen, www.taschen.com, as The Wood Book.
Second, the Yale University Library has made the original photos
and text available online at inky.library.yale.edu/hough/index.html.
Members of our local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners
use this site frequently when we have questions about wood identification.
Links to this and other sites are on our Web page, www.channelislandswoodturners.org.
David H. Frank, MD’71
Camarillo, California
Get chip off Chicago’s shoulder
I am a graduate of the College, from a
family of Chicago graduates. My sister, brother, and first cousin
graduated from the College, and my brother-in-law from the College
and the Business School. Having said that, I am constantly annoyed
by the attitude at Chicago that it is necessary, or at least acceptable,
to put down other top universities, especially Ivy League schools,
and especially Harvard.
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Department of corrections
“Mixing race, religion, and policy”
(“Chicago
Journal,” August/03), should have noted that the nine-year-old
Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture was hosting
its first miniconference.
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