Yale Bulletin and Calendar

December 8, 2000

Volume 29, Number 13

In the News

"What makes a principle a principle is our willingness to apply it to our own disadvantage. Whenever lawyers get involved, principle goes out the window."

-- William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Stephen L. Carter in his article, "Suing Your Way to the White House," The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 27, 2000.

"Oh, I have been here half a century, ever since my undergraduate days. They shall have to carry me out of my classroom in a great big body bag."

-- Sterling Professor of the Humanities Harold Bloom, "There Are No Great English Novelists," Times Newspapers Limited, Nov. 28, 2000.

"I know it's not politically correct. But there may be something going on here biologically that we can't get around."

-- Research affiliate in epidemiology & public health Roni B. Tower about a study showing that couples over age 65 lived longer if the wife leaned more emotionally on the husband than he did on her, "Couples Live Longer if the Husband is Stronger," USA Today, Nov. 16, 2000.

"The worse drafted provisions of the Constitution are those dealing with presidential election."

-- Southmayd Professor of Law Akhil Amar, "Possibilities if Decision is Not Made in Presidential Election Before January," ABC World News This Morning, Nov. 15, 2000.

"The [doctor-patient] relationship is always: the doctor tells the patient what to do."

-- Professor of nursing Judith B. Krauss, "Communication Breakdown; A $2.8 Million Yale-UConn Study Aims to Improve Doctor-Patient Relationships," New Haven Register, Nov. 16, 2000.

"In the second year [of the nonprofit group Empower New Haven] I think we need to be task-oriented, to be sure we execute the mission, which is to reduce unemployment and reduce the poverty rate."

-- Vice President of State and New Haven Affairs Bruce Alexander, "Panel to Report on Progress of Empowerment," New Haven Register, Nov. 20, 2000.

"There is no single way to hand count ballots, no obvious way to divine how voters really intended to vote, if indeed they really meant to vote at all. These rules are inherently arbitrary. Yet is is one thing to adopt a standard before you look at the ballots, another to do so afterward."

-- Research affiliate at the Law School John R. Lott with University of Texas economist Stephen Bronars in their article, "Gore Rewrites the Rules to Win," The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 21, 2000.

"This constant sense of wonder is what gives [doctors] meaning, what gives us a spiritual sense. I don't think one has to find it within God and religion."

-- Clinical professor of surgery & gastroenterology Dr. Sherwin Nuland, "Believer and Skeptic See Spirituality in Medicine," The New York Times, Nov. 18, 2000.

"There's a whole cast of characters now involved in trying to create, to use the title of a book, 'the essay that works.' It makes sense to encourage students to present their own work, their own writing, without a lot of noise."

-- Dean of Undergraduate Admissions & Financial Aid Richard Shaw, "Targeting Essay Fraud; More College Applicants Asked About Authenticity of Work," The Boston Globe, Nov. 27, 2000.

"In general, it is common for the courts to defer -- quite rightly -- to the expertise and political accountability of agency heads. Now having said that, they often give lip service to that deference and then start second-guessing. And that is especially likely in cases where judges think constitutional issues are at stake."

-- Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law Peter Schuck, "Parties' Divide on 'Judicial Activism' is Nothing New," WashingtonPost.com, Nov. 23, 2000.

"[Forbidding the use of placebos] rules out development of all new therapies for conditions for which there are proven therapies."

-- Professor of medicine Dr. Robert J. Levine, "Health Officials Debate Ethics of Placebo Use," WashingtonPost.com, Nov. 24, 2000.

"[The low pay of child care workers] is the central issue in early childhood education. It means we can't recruit quality personnel. The situation is terrible, absolutely terrible."

-- Senior research scientist at the Child Study Center Sharon Lynn Kagan, "Not Enough Teachers in State's Child Care Classrooms," The Associated Press, Nov. 26, 2000.

"The next generation of antimicrobials will be completely different. Now we try to kill the bugs, which leads to resistance."

-- Lucille P. Markey Professor of Microbiology Jorge E. Galan, "Nasty Intestinal Bacteria Could Shed Light on Cancer Treatment," New Haven Register, Nov. 23, 2000.

"We all decry the low rate of turnout for elections and blame the apathy of our children or the blandness of the candidates. But the rapid decline in voting percentages began in the 1890s, just as Southerners began to disenfranchise blacks and Northern progressives set about 'improving' elections. In other words, the effort to 'clean up' elections -- and often to exclude legitimate votes -- had the direct effect of weakening our democracy, even as the 'cleaners' boasted of strengthening it."

-- Lecturer in history Max Page in his article, "The Votes We Traded to Get 'Clean' Machines," latimes.com, Nov. 29, 2000.

"I would conjecture that [the word 'boola'] originated because [composers] Cole and Johnson wanted a word that rhymed with 'hoola' and it has no other meaning beyond that."

-- Associate librarian for public services Fred Shapiro, "'Boola Boola' Continues to Create Yale Hoopla," New Haven Register, Nov. 18, 2000.

"What I'm doing is not so much forecasting a result as trying to find out what causes voters to vote one way or the other."

-- John M. Musser Professor of Economics Ray Fair about his economic model for predicting the outcome of a presidential race, "Election Results Leave Political Scientists Defensive Over Forecasting Models," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 17, 2000.

"It's a challenge, but [doctors] have to be able to have a positive, supportive relationship with patients without being judgmental or intimidating. We have to help patients deal with problems, whether it be smoking, drinking or substance abuse, without having a holier-than-thou attitude and condemn them."

-- Section chief of internal medicine Dr. Leo Cooney, "Many Folks Chronically Avoid Doctor Visits," The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), Nov. 20, 2000.

"It's more likely that Mr. Chadless [purported inventor of a keypunch machine that didn't generate chad] was invented to match the story, like Thomas Crapper, who was apocryphal and didn't invent the toilet."

-- Professor of linguistics Laurence Horn, "In a Word, Chad Is All That's Hot," latimes.com, Nov. 20, 2000.

"The inability to field a fighting force has been one of the consistent themes in history; it's difficult to find a labor pool of soldiers -- people don't like fighting in wars because they're likely to get killed. Societies have frequently had to turn to slaves to defend them, and there is an inherent contradiction and risk in arming people who you oppress."

-- Associate director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition Robert Forbes, "Arming Slaves Throughout History," NationalGeographic.com, Nov. 16, 2000.

"The recount teams -- one Democrat, one Republican and one independent -- checked a half-million machine votes against election night tallies. They examined 786,942 paper ballots by hand. Both sides actually seemed to believe that in a democracy the process of counting all ballots was more important than who won."

-- William Robertson Coe Professor of American History and Religious Studies Jon Butler about the 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election in his essay, "Massive Midwest Recount of 1960's," The Hartford Courant, Nov. 14, 2000.

"It's almost as if we see a messianic urge in boards to race to the outside for a savior. . . . It shows a lack of courage on the part of boards of directors to groom people from within."

-- Adjunct professor at the School of Management Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, "Company Carefully Cultivates Leaders Within the Ranks," WashingtonPost.com, Nov. 28, 2000.

"It's a chance occurrence. It's kind of like a roulette wheel, whether there will be a match or not."

-- Professor of surgery Dr. John Elefteriades about finding a donor for a heart transplant, "Mom Gets New Heart to go With Baby," Connecticut Post, Nov. 24, 2000.

"It's simple to become a marrow donor. I've seen a lot of sad stories, many in the black and Hispanic communities. This is the time of year when we think about giving gifts. Give the most outstanding gift -- the gift of life."

-- Associate professor of internal medicine Dr. Dennis Cooper, "Marrow Match Harder for Minorities in Need," New Haven Register, Nov. 28, 2000.

"Do reviewers imagine that they discover new authors, and by granting those favorable reviews, set them on the path to fame and fortune? This presupposes that reviews, favorable or otherwise, have influence -- and I am not at all sure this is true."

-- Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History Robin W. Winks in his book review, "Post Mortem; Five Novelists Make Their First Marks," The Boston Sunday Globe, Nov. 26, 2000.

"We still don't know what kills neurons [in patients with Alzheimer's disease]. The fundamental thing is preventing the death of neurons. How to prevent that, nobody knows."

-- Associate professor of pathology Dr. Jung H. Kim, "Too Young to Forget; Early Alzheimer's Erases a Family's Dreams," Hartford Courant, Nov. 26, 2000.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Study says 1 in 3 doctors don't go to the doctor

Allen Forte Chair honors renowned Yale musical theorist

Alumnus Thomas Golden creates chair in engineering

Shepardson tackling life on the gridiron in Women's Professional Football League

Author McCourt shares memories of his teaching days

Harry Adams will fill in as the acting dean of Divinity School

Event explores encounters between U.S., Middle East

Record-setting Bulldog garners regional awards

Czech Republic honors Demetz for scholarship

MEDICAL CENTER NEWS

Stained Glass: Photos from around the campus

Program targets speeders

'Angelic' Russian choir to perform holiday carols

Multimedia work combines the natural and the technological to tell a tale of love

In the News

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