Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 6, 2001

Volume 29, Number 25

"We don't simply assemble facts into narratives; our sense of the way stories go together, how life is made meaningful as narrative, presides at our choice of facts as well, and the ways we present them. Our daily lives, our daydreams, our sense of self are all constructed as stories."

-- Director of the Whitney Humanities Center Peter Brooks in his article "Stories Abounding," The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 23, 2001.

"If [chief executive officers] reduce things to simplicity, it's not because they're simple but it's the way to get thousands of people to form an image of who they are."

-- Dean of the School of Management Jeffrey E. Garten, "Rules-Happy Cabinet: Rumsfeld, Powell and O'Neill Weigh In," The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2001.

"There's a problem in our culture. We romanticize the powerful and tough. . . . We don't emphasize the importance of getting along with people."

-- Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry Dr. James P. Comer, "Intervention Necessary Before Teasing Begets Violence," New Haven Register, March 15, 2001.

"Jimmy [poet James Merrill] was interested in the paradoxical nature of experience. It was his stylistic habit to try and see everything and its opposite together. That's the nature of metaphor itself. It could be anything, from a butterfly to a bomb."

-- Editor of The Yale Review J. D. McClatchy, "Reconnecting With the Spirit of a Departed Poet," The New York Times, March 14, 2001.

"If people continually up the ante for what they expect to eat in a single serving, then the calories will be out of control."

-- Director of the Center for Eating & Weight Disorders Kelly Brownell, "Little Comfort," washingtonpost.com, March 13, 2001.

"There are dense communities that make [New York City] a natural place to come to."

-- Lecturer in history Max Page, "Once Again, There May be 8 Million Stories in the Naked City," The Associated Press & Local Wire, March 13, 2001.

"We don't like the idea of government taking something that belongs to someone and giving it to somebody else. But at the same time, there is also a vague feeling that what the economy is producing in terms of rewards is not always in accordance with what people deserve."

-- Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law Michael Graetz, "Should the Tax System Redistribute the Wealth?" washingtonpost.com, March 12, 2001.

"Not much will change [in the Northeast] for millions of years, until the Atlantic Ocean gets cold and starts to sink onto the mantle. Then a subduction zone will form along the shoreline, creating earthquakes and volcanoes."

-- Professor of geology & geophysics Jeffrey J. Park, "Next Quake? It's a Mystery," New Haven Register, March 5, 2001.

"It's a little bit like the Soviet Union. You know, they are telling their people, the Communist state is going to have this wonderful future, but it never happened. . . . [W]e're now living in an age where we have great expectations for the Internet and digital technology. And of course, it's good, but whether our expectations are too high is something that we're going to find out."

-- Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics Robert J. Shiller, "Tech Industry's Fall from Grace," National Public Radio, March 10, 2001.

"When should one pardon a proven traitor? Should such a pardon be an act of unconditional mercy? Or should the pardon-giver name a price? Those questions may puzzle us today, but in 18th-century China the emperor had a clear answer: One should pardon a traitor when absolute proof of guilt was accompanied by absolute contrition."

-- Sterling Professor of History Jonathan D. Spence in his op-ed article "Asking for Forgiveness -- At What Price?" The New York Times, March 27, 2001.

"It's going to be impossible to run for office without knowing a little Spanish."

-- Richard S. Ely Professor of Management and Political Science Douglas Rae about the rising number of Hispanic voters, "Hispanic Count, Black Population Shifts Scramble Racial Profile," The Associated Press, March 25, 2001.

"Art is fundamentally unlike science. Science is a crescendo, art is an expanding circle."

-- Professor of computer science David Gelernter, "Unibomber Victim Finds Vitality in His Art," Connecticut Post, March 18, 2001.

"The modern American law reform movement, at least the reformers who wrote the model penal code, clearly recognized a broad defense of necessity, or justification as they called it, which would permit, in some cases, the intentional killing of an innocent person in order to save more than one life. I think that this is, in some sense, a slippery slope. If we begin saying it's OK to kill one to save two, do we then say it's OK to kill an old person to save a young person, or a dumb person to save a smart person? Exactly how far does this social calculus bring us?"

-- Lafayette S. Foster Professor of Law Kate Stith, "Professor Kate Stith Discusses Case Law Governing Life-Or-Death Matters at Sea," National Public Radio, March 24, 2001.

"When choosing a computer or operating system, people should have a good reason to upgrade."

-- Director of information technology services Philip Long, "Apple Unveils New System," New Haven Register, March 24, 2001.

"[T]here are more middle-class Latinos now who have a common consciousness with their urban counterparts, and that may push the suburbs to bridge the urban-suburban divides that threaten Connecticut."

-- Alfred Cowles Professor of Government Rogers Smith, "Census Reveals Suburbs Swelling With Minorities," New Haven Register, March 21, 2001.

"[There has been] a slow changing of assumptions about what women should consider doing."

-- Director of admissions at the Law School Jean K. Webb, "More Women in Law School Than Men, "United Press International, March 26, 2001.

"With a downturn, we always see voluntary quits fall and involuntary separations increase. You have workers less willing to voluntarily leave their jobs because they're less certain if they'll be able to find new jobs. All a company can do is offer more generous packages or just have to rely on direct layoffs -- which I think we'll see. It's the only way to get workers to separate."

-- Assistant professor of economics Ann Stevens, "Weak Economy Puts the Brakes On Job-Hopping," The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2001.

"I think all four characters [in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'My Dinner With Friends'] express things that I have thought or felt or certainly speculated about. They are all me, all my imaginings of women I know and men I know. That's one of the things a writer has to do, get inside the heads of people whose opinions you may not embrace."

-- Lecturer in English and theater studies Donald Margulies, "Fragile Friendships; IRT Production of 'Dinner With Friends' Reveals the Nuances of How Relationships Break Down," The Indianapolis Star, March 18, 2001.

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

Scientists get $9 million from NIDA to study genetics of addiction

British Library administrator to be new Yale Librarian

Yale tops nation in number of Truman Scholars

Ex-Treasury Department official named director of public affairs

Archive and initiative honor alumnus' art and activism

Old Campus will be a festival of fun and learning for annual Communiversity Day

The Alps have stayed same size for 15 million years, study finds

Former U.S. trade representative to discuss 'trade policy . . .'

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