Friday, March 1, 2002

by Sanggee Kim
Gazette News Reporter

It’s that time of the year again, and love is in the air. But, we’re not
talking about Valentine’s Day – we’re talking about Swarthmore’s famous (or
infamous) Screw Your Roommate.

With the romance scene sadly lacking at Swat, this Saturday will be the
chance to find that special someone you’ve been missing out on.

Find your date at Sharples during dinner. Depending on whether your
roommate likes you or hate you, you might or might not have to perform some
crazy deed to get him/her to notice you.

Then you have a couple hours where you could actually grab a bite to eat
(you don’t actually expect to eat dinner in Sharples, do you?), be
entertained by vertigo-go in Mephistos, or be inspired by the performance of
“Dust” in LPAC.

Then comes the anticipated/feared part: THE DANCE. Held in Upper Tarble
from 10pm-2am, the theme this year is “A Night with a Strange Screw.”
The
rest is left to your interpretation and imagination.

With all this drama and intrigue, you would figure that Screw would have a
rich history at Swat. Unfortunately, nobody really knows when the tradition
started.

I asked around, and got some pretty vague replies. According to Dean Bob
Gross ’62, “It wasn’t around when I was a student, but when I got back
to
Swarthmore, it was in full swing.” For your information, Bob Gross joined
the Swarthmore faculty in 1977 as an assistant professor of education.

So, its precise initiation is yet unknown by this reporter.

Generally, it is widely accepted that Screw is the best-attended campus
event, and offers a chance for everyone to show his or her crazy side, at
least momentarily. And, for the most part, it is enjoyed by everyone from
administrators to students.

Dean Tedd Goundie, for example, is very supportive of the whole event and
recounted several instances where members of the Deans’ Office partook in
some Screw matchmaking. For actual stories, go talk to Tedd. I promise, he
won’t bite.

Many students are just as fond of the tradition as Dean Goundie.

Some of the freshmen, including Chris Atanasiu ’05, are eagerly anticipating
their dates with much enthusiasm. Others, such as myself, are jaded
upperclassmen who have discovered their own significant others, and thus,
refuse to participate. Nevertheless, we still look forward to observing the
creativity of our peers.

So, with that said, let the love begin!

*****

by Sanggee Kim
Gazette News Reporter

This weekend, Swarthmore hosts “Dance in South Asia: New Approaches,
Politics, Aesthetics,” a symposium to explore and integrate cultures through
the medium of dance, particularly dance forms from South Asia and the Indian
subcontinent.

On Saturday, a symposium will be held in LPAC cinema from 9:15am to 6:15pm,
with a performance of “Dust” at 8pm in the Pearson-Hall Theatre in
LPAC. On
Sunday, there will be a kathak workshop from 12-3pm in Troy Dance Lab.

Pallabi Chakravorty, a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of
Music and Dance here, is one of the principal organizers of the event.

She hopes that “people will be able to contextualize more within dance
forms
and the culture of dance in South Asia… It’s an unprecedented forum for
scholars and practitioners of South Asian dance and culture to share the
knowledge they have and learn from one another.”

Anyway, to lend the event a personal twist: I’m currently taking Pallabi’s
soc/anth and dance class. Today, we had various speakers for the symposium
speak to us in class, and they were absolutely great – the topics they
covered were interesting and totally engaging. And Kumudini Lakhia, the
keynote speaker, is a perfect example of the definition of kathak, for she
is a weaver of tales, and she will likely have more tales to tell this
weekend.

*****

by Jeremy Schifeling
Section Editor

On March 1, 1919, a group of united Korean nationalists declared
independence from Japanese rule in Seoul’s Pagoda Park. The proclamation
led to non-violent demonstrations throughout the country, which were often
brutally suppressed by occupying soldiers. Within the next few weeks,
provisional Korean governments were set up in Vladivostok, Shanghai, and
Seoul. However, it would be 26 years before Korea would gain true
independence from Japan – at the conclusion of World War II. And then, only
in 1948, would the nation gain complete sovereignty, after being released
from US and Soviet occupation.

*****

* The Israeli army attacked a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin
on Friday night with armored convoys and helicopters. Casualties have not
yet been reported. Israel claims that Jenin, with its approximately 12,000
Palestinian refugees, is “a hotbed for militant activities.” On Thursday,
an Israeli soldier and 13 Palestinians were killed in another refugee camp,
Balata, and just outside of Jenin. Palestinians are condemning the attacks
as a threat to the progress of peace-keeping efforts being proposed by
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and supported by the U.S.

* A passenger aboard Air India Flight 101 from London to New York was
mistaken by an airport screener for someone on the “watch list” of
suspicious people developed in the wake of September 11. The alert sent
Canadian and U.S. fighter jets into the skies to escort the flight into JFK
International Airport, where the passenger was escorted off the plane by
authorities, interviewed, and soon released. No specifics about the
passenger have been released, but police assert that it was simply a case
of mistaken identity.

* Monty Delk was executed in Texas yesterday after the Supreme Court
refused to hear his final appeal to postpone execution until his sanity was
determined. Delk was convicted of killing Gene Allen on November 28, 1986,
but his attorneys have continued to attest to his insantity. There is a
Supreme Court ban on executing the insane. A federal judge granted Delk a
stay of the execution on Wednesday, but Texas appealed the decision and the
stay was lifted four hours before the scheduled execution. The Supreme
Court then declined the case, resigning Delk to become the fifth person
this year to be put to death by Texas.

*****

Today:

“Occam’s Razor and the Cookie Cutter – Useful (and Possibly Dangerous)
Tools
in Cosmology”
Colloquium with Charles Dyer, Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of
Toronto
Dupont 133, 4:00 p.m.

Shabbat Services and Dinner
Bond Memorial Hall, 5:30 p.m.

Anime Club Showing
Kohlberg 330, 7:00 p.m.

Swarthmore Christian Fellowship Meeting
Kohlberg 115, 7:30 p.m.

Film: “Goonies”
Kirby Lecture Hall – Martin, 7:30 & 10:00 p.m.

International Club Movie Night
Kohlberg 116, 8:00 p.m.

Rose Tattoo Cafe,
PACES, 9:00 p.m.

Saturday:

Wage Peace: Campus and Community Gathering to Educate, Activate and Organize
Friends Meeting House, 9:00 a.m.

Film: “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”
Kirby Lecture Hall – Martin, 7:30 & 10:00 p.m.

Dust with Mark Taylor ’75 of the Pittsburgh Dance Alloy
and Anita Ratnam of Arangham Dance Theatre of Chennai, India
Pearson-Hall Theatre, 8:00 p.m.

Grapevine Alumnae Concert
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

Vertigo-go Pre-Screw Show
Mephistos – Willets, 8:30 p.m.

Screw Your Roommate Formal
Upper Tarble, 10:00 p.m.

Sunday:

Celebration of Mass
Bond Memorial Hall, 11:00 a.m.

Protestant Worship
2nd Floor Worship Room – Bond, 4:00 p.m.

Celebrating 20th Century Poland
Maureen O’Flynn, soprano, with Orchestra 2001
Lang Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m.

—————–

* Pittsburgh Penguins star Mario Lemieu was advised by team physicians
yesterday that he should not play for the rest of the season to avoid doing
further damage to his hip, which he injured during training camp. Tests
revealed chronic tendonitis in one of Lemieu’s hip flexor muscles as well as
inflamation of the hip capsule. Lemieu, a six-time NHL scoring champion and
Hall of Famer who was also a member of the victorious Canadian men’s hockey
team in the recent Olympics, said that he does plan to play for the Penguins
next season. The Penguins did not find out about the loss of Lemieu until
after they had eked out a dramatic 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets
last night. The Penguins were trailing 3-2 with 31.2 seconds remaining in
regulation when Alexei Morozov tied the game, and Michal Rozsival went on to
win it in overtime. The win snappd an eight-game skid which had put the
team’s chances of securing a playoff berth in doubt, and the news about
Lemieu may make a playoff run a still more difficult prospect for them.

* Despite trailing 77-65 with seven minutes remaining, the Virginia
Cavaliers came back to defeat third-ranked Duke 87-84, thus keeping its NCAA
hopes alive and depriving Duke of its sixth straight ACC title. The title
instead went to Maryland, who had not placed first in the league outright
since 1980. In other college basketball news, Frederick Jones hit a runner
with one second left to give No. 13 Oregon a 67-65 victory over USC. The win
guarantees the Ducks at least a share in the PAC title, the first conference
title they have won in 57 years.

* Dan Duquette, who served as general manager of the Boston Red Sox for
eight years, was fired yesterday less than 24 hours after new owners John
Henry and Tom Werner closed their $660 million deal to buy the team, its
stadium and its television network. A permanent replacement for Duquette was
not yet named, but in the interim the position will be filled by former
California Angels gm Mike Port, who assisted Duquette in Boston between 1993
and 1996. Team president Larry Lucchino said that he will be meeting with
the owners today to discuss the future status of manager Joe Kerrigan. The
Red Sox went 656-574 during Duquette’s tenure as general manager, and while
they set attendance records, they made the playoffs only three times and
advanced to the second round just once.

*****

Today:
There are no contests scheduled for today.

Saturday
Men’s Lacrosse at Manhattanville, 1:00 p.m.
Women’s Basketball vs. DeSales at Lebanon Valley College (ECAC Semifinals),
4:00 p.m.

Sunday
Men’s Tennis hosts Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, 11:00 a.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had
to
worry about where the next meal would come from.”
–Peter Drucker

*****
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