Friday, February 14, 2003

by Evelyn Khoo
Living and Arts Editor

Larry Westphal, Professor of Economics and Myrt Westphal, Assistant Dean and
Director of Residential Life have been married for 39 years. The Daily
Gazette pokes a prying nose into their personal lives, to reveal the
practical but quietly romantic story that ties these two stalwart pillars of
the Swarthmore community so tightly together.

DG: How did the two of you meet?
M: We were in the same year in Occidental College in Los Angeles and had a
lot of mutual friends. It was also a small campus, like Swarthmore, so you
sort of knew people.
L: Our mutual friends kept trying to get us together. We had a date, decided
that the other was very nice but that was the end of it.

DG: There were no sparks in the beginning?
L: I suspect our first date was not really a good opportunity. We don’t like
making conversation to make conversation. If we’re going to have
conversation, we’d like to get into some substance. For Myrt, it was also
not that crowd in my fraternity she was particularly close to.
M: I didn’t know many people at the party, so it was basically his party,
his friends. I went with him, but it just wasn’t a fun place for me.

DG: Oh no!
M: (laughs) Wait for the rest of the story!
L: Then, in those days they had house parties and Myrt invited me to hers.
(Laughs) In part due to the insistence of our mutual friends.
M: In the spring, there was this party and I wanted to take somebody and he
was free. So I took him, and the mutual friends who were supposed to go with
us, one of them got sick, so we were on our own.
L: And this was a two-day date. It was a sorority weekend party and we faced
the prospect of a four-hour drive (from the college up into a location in
the mountains, where the party was taking place) just the two of us!

DG: Wow, what was that like?
M: (laughs) Well, we had plenty to talk about, and we’ve been talking ever
since!

DG: Hooray! So it was that four-hour drive that did it?
M: Yes, it was!
L: We did have preparation for that date. We had a date before that where we
went to see a play, and we both liked plays, so now we had something of
substance to talk about. (laughs) That was probably important.

DG: Did you discover you had a lot of shared passions then?
M: I wouldn’t say that we had a whole lot of overlapping interests. He was
involved in student government, I was in swimming and tennis.
L: I would say it was more complements than identicates. (laughs)

DG: So you started going out in your junior year and got married after
college. Now we all want the details: how did you propose?
L: (laughs) There was no formal proposal, there was just. evolving
discussion that led to, “well, I guess we should get married”. No bended
knee, none of the rest of that. But in my experience, women are always
waiting for commitment and commitment in this case was the engagement ring.
There was some folderol about the engagement ring in my family so it was
late in coming. But I gave it to her the night before her comprehensive
exams. I was thinking, this is a really good time to give it to her, she’ll
lighten up, she’ll be happy, and of course it just introduced more
turbulence in the form of “oh finally! At last! Look at my ring!”

DG: (to Myrt) How did you feel when he finally gave you the ring?
M: Oh, it felt natural and I sort of didn’t know what was going to happen.
L: I tried to maintain some surprise.
M:  Larry has a hard time keeping secrets so I think as soon as he got the
ring he was ready to give it to me. He’s sort of like a puppy dog that way.
(smiles)

DG: So what do you have planned this Valentine’s Day?
M: We’re sort of doing an extended Valentine’s Day this year, Saturday night
we’re going to the ballet, Sunday night to the tango and next weekend we’re
going to New York. Larry’s a big romantic, so he always outdoes himself with
gifts and flowers and all that kind of stuff. I’m terrible at that. I
struggle to come up with gift ideas and those kind of things. He’s
definitely the mover and the shaker in the celebration department.
L: Have you noticed that I put the wrapped presents out already?
M: I’m definitely the practical, utilitarian one and Larry’s the romantic,
but I will be wearing my ‘I love Larry’ button tomorrow! (laughs)

*****

by Mary Harrison (Point) and Alexis Reedy (Counterpoint)

POINT:

You know that feeling when you wake up from a dream and for a few seconds
the dream is more real than reality? Or that feeling when you see something,
and suddenly know with absolutely certainty that you’ve seen it before?
“Open Your Eyes” takes those moments and weaves them into the kind of
breathtaking story that leaves you feeling as if, for a few seconds, you’ve
almost grasped the secret pattern of the universe. It emphasizes the
interconnectedness of everything, the fragility of the boundaries between
dream and reality, and the sinister undertones that permeate everyday social
interactions. It’s about looking at your friends and realizing that they are
strangers, and than turning your gaze on yourself and discovering that you
are a stranger to yourself. The only flaw in the film is how chock full
o’symbolism it is. You stagger out of the movie feeling like you’ve been hit
by a truck full of greater meaning. It will take you a while to process all
the ideas in this movie. But, fittingly, it will change how you see the
world.

COUNTERPOINT:

If you like romantic comedies that are actually funny, if you like your
movies to end very happily, if you like Adam Sandler to act like Adam
Sandler, then you probably should not see Punch Drunk Love.

This movie has been falsely advertised from the start. People think it’s
going to be a funny movie where Adam Sandler soft shoes down the aisle of a
grocery store. Something sort of uplifting, and funny and nice. But it’s not
that. This movie is dark and twisted and down right disturbing. Adam Sandler
plays a character so mentally disturbed and out of touch with reality, the
movie watcher just doesn’t know what to think. This character that looked so
funny in the previews for the movie isn’t that funny. He’s pitiful. The
viewer is left wondering why the heroine in the movie even decides to go out
with this loser. There is nothing really loveable about him.

*****

by Sanggee Kim
Gazette Reporter

Love is in the air, ladies are so fair, in everywhere, but Swarthmore…

On Friday, invite your special friend(s) to an evening of sizzling poetry.
Bring your own or read from your favorite poets.  It’s an open-mic event and
everyone can participate.  Hosted by Ourstory, SASS, and Mjumbe, the
multilingual slam will be held in the IC at 8 pm. They will be serving
sushi, hot cocoa, and tasty baked treats!

For the more cultured folks, go into Philly and listen to The Philadelphia
Orchestra.  In a program filled with the radiance of nineteenth-century
Parisyou’ll find ballet together with evocative, romantic sound of Debussy
and Ravel. Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto, New York City Ballet principal
dancers, join the orchestra under Assistant Conductor Rossen Milanov in this
unique celebration of love and dance.

Saturday, go listen to The Vagina Monologues in Lang Concert Hall at 7 pm.
Directed by Eliza Cava ’06, this production will feature some of the best
acting by your Swarthmore peers.  Donations will be accepted, and all
proceeds will benefit the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia.

Afterwards, get decked out in your finest and go to the International Club’s
annual Valentine’s Day formal in Upper Tarble from 10pm to 2am.  Who knows,
you might be a victim of that infamous Quaker matchbox after all!

Sunday, go to The Art Museum in Philadelphia and check out the new Degas
exhibit that everyone is raving about.  The exhibition entitled ‘Degas and
the Dance’ features over 140 works in a variety of media the show explores
Degas’s investigation over some forty years of the dance world that was
central to the culture of Paris in his day. The exhibition traces Degas’s
involvement beginning with his quite realistic depictions of actual
performances in the 1860s and ’70s to his more discursive and intimate
scrutiny of the behind-the-scenes world of rehearsals and lessons, which
preoccupied him in the 1880s.  Although tickets for the exhibit are $17.00
for students, you can see the rest of the museum for free.

Also, remember to check out Qüb, the new café at Sharpless III.  Opening
night is Friday, and they will be open from 9pm to 1am every weekend.

*****

* Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, is scheduled to give a crucial
report to the Security Council on Friday. The report is expected to say that
Iraq is developing new missile systems, has imported parts for a nuclear
program and still isn’t cooperating 100 percent with the inspections.
However, Blix will also urge the continuation of inspections for a few more
months.

* Investigators announced on Thursday that the space shuttle Columbia almost
definitely suffered a breach of its skin. Such a breach would have allowed
superheated air to enter the left wing and possibly the wheel compartment.
This in turn could have caused the shuttle’s fiery descent.

* A US government plane carrying four Americans and a Colombian crashed near
the leftist strongold in the south of Colombia on Thursday. While two bodies
were spotted at the site, it is feared that the other passengers were
captured by leftist guerillas. The country has been embroiled in a civil war
for almost 40 years, with America consistently pouring in aid to the
government side in an attempt to stop drug flow to the US.

* Kissing habits may start in an unusual place. A German psychologist
reported on Thursday that whether people turn their head to the left or the
right during kissing is a trait developed in the womb but that usually lasts
through life. Twice as many people turn their head to the right, which has a
correlation with the number of people who are right-handed.

*****

Friday:

Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
Dupont 133, 4:15 p.m.

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

Italian Wine Tasting
Sheuer Room, 7:00 p.m.

Movie: “Punch Drunk Love”
LPAC Cinema, 7:30 and 10:00 p.m

Movie: “Open Your Eyes”
SCCS Lounge, 8:00 p.m.

The Vagina Monologues
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

Multicultural Poetry Slam
Intercultural Center, 8:00 p.m.

Saturday:

East Asian Film Festival
LPAC, 7:00 p.m.

Movie: “Punch Drunk Love”
Kirby Lecture Hall, 7:30 and 10:00 p.m

The Vagina Monologues
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

Valentine’s Day Formal
Tarble All-Campus Space, 10:00 p.m.

Sunday:

Breakfast, Meeting for Worship, and Fellowship
Friends Meeting House, 9:30, 10:00, and 11:15 a.m.

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

Young Friends Meeting for Worship
Bond Common Worship Room, 5:00 p.m.

The Vagina Monologues
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

———–

Small Craft Warnings is hosting a love-poetry/valentine-making booth at
Kohlberg Coffee Bar today (starting at 11:00 a.m.) in honor of Valentine’s
Day! We’ll have valentine-making art supplies & decorations, a typewriter,
lots of candy, and tons of cross-cultural love poetry for you to read,
peruse, and hopefully become inspired by. Come for the candy, stay for the
poetry, and leave with lots of valentines for your friends.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Despite valiant efforts by Katie Robinson ’04 , the Garnet, until now ranked
eighth in the Mid-Atlantic region, lost a close match with John Hopkins
University, 69-56. Robinson scored a game-high of 27 points against the Blue
Jays, who ranked sixth entering the contest. However, Robinson is now the
conference’s top stealer, beating out a Hopkins player.

*****

Friday:
There are no contests scheduled for today.

Saturday:
Track & Field at Boston U. 10:00 a.m.
Men’s Tennis hosts Temple, 11:00 a.m.
Women’s Basketball at Ursinus, 2:00 p.m.
Men’s Basketball hosts Ursinus, 4:00 p.m.

Sunday:
Badminton hosts NE Collegiate Tournament, 8:00 am
Men’s Tennis hosts St. Joseph’s, 3:00 pm

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the
dark place where it leads.”
–Erica Jong

*****
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