Yale Bulletin and Calendar

December 7, 2001

Volume 30, Number 13

"Bringing 900 al Qaida members or Osama back to the United States is too dangerous. It's hard to imagine how you would protect a courthouse against the inventive violence of al Qaida. So having the trial in Dallas, New York or downtown Washington is rather absurd."

-- Professor of law Ruth Wedgwood, "Experts Mull Tribunals for Terrorists," United Press International, Nov. 20, 2001.

"The narratives we reached for first [after Sept. 11] were standard military narratives of rooting out and destroying the enemy. Now the problem may be those narratives seem a little bit simplistic or un-nuanced for the actual situation. People are baffled as to what the right narrative is, and particularly baffled because any good narrative for something like this has an end in sight. The end is by no means clear. Nor is it clear what victory would mean."

-- Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature & French Peter Brooks, "Not the Same Old Story; The Theory of Storytelling Has Moved Well Beyond Literature and Into Medicine, Law and Even World Affairs," latimes.com, Nov. 11, 2001.

"Americans, like all people, have their sustaining cultural myths. Few of these are more powerful than the one symbolized by 'homespun,' the everyday textiles formerly made by ordinary women in households across the land. The myth declares, correctly, that both product and activity were ubiquitous in premodern times. Moreover, the myth makes homespun stand for an entire way of life based on 'household production': farmers in their fields, craftsmen in their little shops and forges, housewives beside the hearth, children at play in village lanes or learning at local schools. These images, taken together, compose an American pastoral."

-- Samuel Knight Professor of History and American Studies John Demos in his review of "The Age of Homespun," "The Stuff of Legend; Artifacts of American Material Culture Are Windows On the Past -- And On Our Romanticization of the Past," The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2001.

"In my view, we're making the enemy more elusive than he is. I don't give a --damn about bin Laden. The way to put an end to this is to take out every regime that's a nasty regime. And we can do that tomorrow if we want to do it. . . . If we took out the governments in Iraq, Syria and Palestine, that would strike a major blow. If that were to happen, people would be running from that cause (sponsoring terrorism) like you can't believe."

-- Hillhouse Professor of Classics & History Donald Kagan, "Kagan: Wage War On All Terror's Sponsors," United Press International, Nov. 13, 2001.

"[Doctors] view scars as natural, a sign a wound is healing well. But from the patient's point of view, there's often a very real concern about the cosmetic impact. And scars can also be an unpleasant reminder of trauma."

-- Professor of dermatology and surgery Dr. David Leffell, "Science Tries to Erase Scars; Over-the-Counter Patches Work to Make Them Less Visible," The Seattle Times, Nov. 18, 2001.

"The emergence of new technologies has called into question whether we might have gone too far in strengthening the rights of property holders against consumers."

-- President Richard C. Levin, who is heading an investigation by the National Academy of Sciences into the nation's intellectual property policy, "In the 'Idea Wars,' a Fight to Control a New World Currency," The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2001.

"Humiliation can go too far, as with the brief revival of chain gangs a few years ago. The judges are allowed to offer alternatives to prison, providing they are not cruel or unusual. These sentences may be unusual, but they are not cruel -- well, except for the polka, obviously."

-- Professor of law Dan Kahan about "shaming sentences," notably one where a teenager who played his stereo too loud was forced to listen to four hours of polka music, "Teen Offenders Fight Shy of the Shaming Judge," sunday-times.co.uk, Nov. 11, 2001.

"The kind of landscape that people orient themselves by is such a familiar part of their world that they really don't know what it means until it's gone."

-- William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology & American Studies Kai Erikson, "New Yorkers Lost Their Inner Rand McNally," The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2001.

"We worried about weapons of mass destruction and we worried about attacks in the U.S. Did we see this (Sept. 11) coming? Of course not."

-- Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization Strobe Talbott, "Strobe Talbott Lights Way to Global Cooperation," New Haven Register, Nov. 11, 2001.

"Peacekeeping in Afghanistan would be a more difficult and substantial job than [U.N. officials] have tackled anywhere -- topographically, politically, ethnically, in every conceivable way. The folks at the U.N. are doubtful about undertaking this, because of its inherent difficulty, and because there are doubts whether the U.S. and others are willing to provide the resources to make this possible."

-- Professor of political science Bruce Russett, "Response to Terror; Terror War Leads U.S. to Embrace U.N.," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 10, 2001.

"Our new awareness of the possibility of terrorism brings into focus a set of problems that have shadowed our voting system for decades. Natural disasters can compromise elections, as can a candidate's election-eve death or incapacitation, whether from natural causes or assassination. If tragedy were to strike in late October or early November, would voters be able to weigh their remaining electoral options? The fallout could be far more destabilizing than the few weeks of uncertainty we lived through last year."

-- Southmayd Professor of Law Akhil Reed Amar in his article "This Is One Terrorist Threat We Can Thwart Now," washingtonpost.com, Nov. 22, 2001.

"We have relatively few authentic slave narratives, and certainly a novel written by a black woman and former slave is almost sensational."

-- Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition David Brion Davis, "On Long-Lost Pages, a Female Slave's Voice," The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2001.

"All generalizations are wrong. That's why I find being an historian so interesting."

-- Sterling Professor Emeritus of History Peter Gay, "Dissecting the Era of Virgins and Satyrs," The New York Times, Nov. 10, 2001.

"Part of the return that investors have had over the past many years has been a windfall. You won't get it again."

-- Professor of the practice of finance Roger Ibbotson, "Boomers Betting On Bull Market Could Get Thrown Off," The Hartford Courant, Nov. 18, 2001.

"It will take more time than we think to fashion a new self and national identity that incorporates our feeling fragile. If we do it well, we will not be 'hardened.'. . . We will be a stronger and better people and nation."

-- University Chaplain The Reverend Frederick J. Streets in his letter to the editor "Redefining 'Normal' In Abnormal Times," The New York Times, Nov. 19, 2001.

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

Team to study common, but devastating brain virus

Theologian wins $200,000 award

Junior faculty members win University fellowships

Seasonal shopping market brings retailers to 'shop' New Haven

Historians both oppress and liberate the past, says Gaddis

Naomi Schor, noted French literature scholar and critic, dies suddenly

Medical students provide first line of care at clinic

Two researchers honored with election to Institute of Medicine

Galley of Gifts

ISPS talk to explore ethics of biotechnology, conservation

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes