Why did you decide to create a new Dartmouth mascot?
CP: The whole thing started out as a joke. In the fall of 2003, there was a lot of concern over how Dartmouth was perceived by the outside world. The Student Assembly was trying very seriously to choose a new mascot, as if that would give Dartmouth some kind of visual identity. They proposed all the standard choices: moose, penguin, yeti, etc., but nobody seemed really psyched about any of them.
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Mascots across the country have come under scrutiny in the past couple of years, leaving many schools no choice but to re-examine their cheer-inducing symbols. Colleges are now being forced to join the other seventy-four eagles or forty-six tigers in the NCAA, settle for a non-offensive but hardly inspiring title like Whittier College Poets, or choose an original character that’s so obscure it’s comedic, like the University of California, Santa Cruz Banana Slugs.
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One evening early last October, just past midnight, about 30 Native American students were holding their annual Columbus Day drum circle on the Green. A solemn yet energetic ceremony, it aimed to remind the public of centuries of genocide following Christopher Columbus’s arrival and commemorate the death of Native Americans in the distant and recent past. A line of students outfitted in traditional blankets encircled a small group of backup singers and several drummers beating a large drum. In preparation, they had been practicing their songs and dances four hours a week.
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My name is Alex Howe, and I am Parkhursted.
Being suspended from Dartmouth, if I may romanticize, is like being a disavowed secret agent. It’s as if you never existed. The first and worst thing the administration does is bar your access to your Dartmouth e-mail address — or, as my friend Travis put it, they “take your Blitz behind the barn and shoot it.” Now that I’m separated from it, I feel like a divorced father hosed by the custody agreement: I can’t even see it on weekends. Computer Services (“Mommy” to me) better be taking good care of my 20,000 messages. (Forgetting how to delete did wonders for my delusions of popularity.)
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In the spirit of a new term and for all you weary sojourners, let’s talk travel. And no crowing about how you packed your carry-ons to mimick Aunt Inocencia’s stuffing of the turkey crevice. No, no, today is a time for reflection on an American institution — the Greyhound bus.
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The end of the year is a natural time for people to reminisce about recent events, and writers have milked this tendency for decades now. Because writers are often a very lazy bunch, they have settled upon a quick and easy formula to spare them the trouble of writing actual columns during the holiday season—the list! Simple, elegant, and the best way to provoke discussion, the list is the greatest weapon in the writer’s arsenal — though it also can backfire, as it can ultimately prove that the writer has absolutely no sense of taste whatsoever.
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Book: “Edie Factory Girl” by David Dalton
Poster child of the 1960’s counterculture, Warhol muse and original It Girl, Edie Sedgwick has earned a permanent place in the pop culture lexicon. The recent biography Edie Factory Girl by David Dalton with stunning photographs by Nat Finkelstein is a frank and gritty portrait that looks beyond Edie’s glamorous façade to chronicle her intriguing yet tragic life. Dalton and Finkelstein, both members of Warhol’s Factory scene, personally witnessed Edie’s rise and fall, and offer singularly revealing anecdotes, candid interviews, and rare pictures of the enigmatic gamine star. - Stefanie Zychowski
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“I think instead of saying ‘f*cked up’ we should say ‘fogged up.’ Like, ‘That’s fogged up.’”
- Girl on Main Street
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