Monday, November 17, 2003

by Josh Hausman
Gazette Weatherman

Summary: This week will be unusually warm for mid November. High temperatures
will be around 60 every day, with lows mostly in the 40s. Rain is likely on
Wednesday, and windy weather could return to Swarthmore next Friday.

by Alex Glick
Gazette Reporter

DESHI, Swarthmore’s South-Asian student group, will hold its annual Diya Week
celebrations starting tonight and ending Saturday, November 22.

DESHI sponsors this event around the same time as the Indian holiday of Diwali,
the celebration of lights. According to DESHI co-president Jayanti Owens ’06,
Diya Week is observed instead of the religious Diwali since DESHI is a secular
group interested in celebrating South-Asian culture, and the week gives them
the chance to “share aspects of the culture with the entire campus.”

Diya Week will feature a variety of interesting events. DESHI will kick off
the week with the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer,” which will be followed
by a discussion led by Professor Mani of the English Literature department.
Tuesday evening will be highlighted by “Mississippi Masala: Clips and Conversation,”
a discussion dealing with South-Asian and African interactions.

A guest panel and workshop on South-Asian Activism and Community Organizing
will take place on Wednesday evening. This will be followed by Mehndi Night,
one of last year’s favorites. This night will give students the opportunity
to experience a celebratory form of body art with designs of Mehndi, a henna-based
dye, painted on their hands.

Thursday will feature a talk on Women and health and the movie “Taxiwala.”
Friday evening will be packed with activities. It will feature Sparkler Night,
in which everyone can get a sparkler from Sharples and participate in the “week
of lights.” This and other activities, according to DESHI co-president
Anisha Chandra ’06, are “a great opportunity for everyone on campus to
be included and feel welcome to join us in our week of celebration.” After
your sparklers bring light to Parrish Beach, DESHI offers a cultural show and
ends the night with a party in Wharton D Basement.

Unfortunately, due to budgeting constraints, DESHI will not have a Sharples
takeover this week as they have done in the past, but they hope to do so in
the spring. Instead, the group will offer a free brunch with great authentic
food on Saturday to the first 120 people who sign up. Diya Week will end with
a cricket match near Mertz on Saturday afternoon.

All in all, with its movies, speakers, and popular traditional events, Diya
Week looks to be filled with exciting experiences in which everyone on campus
can partake.

*****

by Lauren Janowitz
Gazette Reporter

On Friday afternoon, academics, playwrights, and yes, Olympia Dukakis gathered
in the Scheuer Room to discuss and debate the works of Aeschylus, ancient Greek
author.

The first half of the symposium discussed the performance of “Agamemnon,”
a play in Aeschylus’ popular trilogy “The Oresteia.” First to speak
was Helene Foley ’64, Professor of Classics at Barnard College, who discussed
trends in recent performances of the play. Gender conflict and the rise of the
feminist movement have resulted in a strengthened women’s voice, as well as
a reduction in male roles, she explained. She cited Martha Graham’s dance piece
“Clytemnestra” and recent cross-dressed stagings of “Agamemnon”
as examples of this.

Professor of Theater Studies Allen Kuharski responded in favor of Foley’s views.
He elaborated on the Martha Graham theme, discussing her numerous classical
works and the impact that they had on both the feminist movement and the performance
of Greek drama.

Director Peter Meineck and actress Olympia Dukakis next took the floor. The
two discussed Meineck’s upcoming staging of “Agamemnon,” in which
Dukakis is performing. “What would you look for in an American ‘Agamemnon?'”
Dukakis asked the audience. Meineck talked about the various decisions he is
making about the show, such as whether or not to replace references to “Zeus”
with “God.” “The play suddenly becomes very religious,”
he noted.

After a 15-minute break, the symposium reconvened to discuss the adaptation
of another Aeschylus play, “The Persians.” Erin Mee, professor of
Theater Studies, moderated while Robert Auletta and Ellen McLaughlin, who have
both authored adaptations of “The Persians,” spoke.

Mee first pointed out the coincidences, noting that a 10-year gap separated
not only the writing of these two adaptations, but also the two Gulf Wars. Auletta,
who penned his modern adaptation after the first Gulf War, spoke of his opening
night experience: “every 10 minutes or so, another group of people would
walk out,” he remembered, attributing this to the play’s anti-American
tendencies and habit of personalizing the enemy. “The people just didn’t
want to hear it.”

McLaughlin was commissioned for her adaptation in 2002, shortly after the war
began. She said that the producer wanted it as soon as possible: “he asked
me to adapt it and told me to start writingrehearsals began in two weeks.”
She explained, “‘The Persians’ is a play that warns of the dangers of conquest,
imperialism, and greed,” all topics that are prevalent in light of the
situation today.

The floor was then opened up for questions, with topics ranging from the Bushes
and General Schwarzkopf to the supposed gender of the ancient Greek audience.
After almost an hour of lively discussion with refreshments, the symposium finally
came to a close shortly past 5:00.

*****

On Saturday, November 8, the Swarthmore College Bowl team hosted SNEWT, its
annual novice tournament, drawing 22 teams from all over the region. The experiemced
members ran the tournament while three house teams played.

Swarthmore C, consisting of Dan Luban ’06, Arthur Chu ’06, and James Brady
’07 led the way with a 10-3 record (9-1 prelims), good enough for a three-way
tie for second place (fourth with tiebreakers). The B team of Ben “Raoul”
Bagley ’04, Cameron Higby-Naquin ’05, and Miriam Newman ’07 was fourth in its
bracket with a 7-3 record, and the A team of Micaela Baranello ’07, Rachel Winer
’06, and Alex Glick ’06 went 5-5. In addition, there were some excellent individual
performances: Dan was 4th, Arthur was 8th, and Micaela was 14th.

(thanks to Chris White for the results)

*****

University of Pennsylvania Tournament, November 14-15, 2003.

74 teams, 148 individual competitors

Sonya Hoo – 2nd place individual speaker
Chris Ford – 5th place individual speaker, 2nd place novice speaker
Ian Sulam – 20th individual speaker
Sonya Hoo and Nina Thanawala – 8th place team
Aviva Aron-Dine and Elisabeth Oppenheimer – 11th place team

(thanks to Emily Tredeau for the results)

*****

* Two Arabic-language newspapers received notes on Sunday that point to al
Qaeda as the masterminds behind synagogue bombings in Turkey. One of the notes,
sent to the London-based paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, said that the bombings occurred
because the terrorists had learned that agents of the Israeli intelligence agency
Mossad were currently in the synagogues. The Al-Majalla paper’s note also claimed
responsiblity for the car bomb outside the Italian police headquarters in Iraq
on November 12. That bombing killed 19 Italians and at least a dozen Iraqis,
while at least 23 people were killed and 300 wounded in the attacks on the synagogues.

* President Bush announced on Sunday that he was pleased with a tentative deal
on proposed Medicare legislation that would overhaul the current system and
provide a prescription drug benefit for seniors. Republican lawmakers first
announced the deal on Saturday, and they hope to pass the legislation by the
end of the week. Not all politicians were happy with the deal, however, as Democratic
leader and Senator Edward Kennedy called the legislation “a partisan attack
on Medicare.”

* California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to take office on
Monday. In contrast to both his Hollywood image and most inaugrations, the event
will be commemorated only with a low-key ceremony. Much of the reason for this
has to do with the state’s fiscal crisis, as well as the bitterness that some
still feel over the recall election. The governor-elect plans to call a special
session of the legislature in order to work on reducing the state’s projected
10 billlion defecit, as well as repealing a law that allows illegal immigrants
to get driver’s licenses.

* Two U.S. army Black Hawk helicopters collided in midair on Saturday in Mosul,
Iraq. Both helicopters crashed, killing at least 17 soldiers and injuring five
others. One soldier is still unaccounted for. It is unclear whether the collision
was caused by gunfire hitting one of the helicopters. It was the single deadliest
incident for U.S. forces in Iraq since the March 20th invasion.

*****

Diya Movie Night: “Mr and Mrs Iyer”
Kohlberg 115, 6:00 p.m.

SAC Meeting
Kohlberg 330, 9:00 p.m.

SWIL Movie Night: “Spirited Away”
Science Center 101, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

The men’s cross country team placed sixth and the women placed 12th at the
NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Cross Country Championships this weekend.

Lang Reynolds ’05 led the way for the men, placing 11th on the 8K course with
a time of 26:39. Fellow juniors Garrett Ash and James Golden finished 30th and
48th respectively, while sophomores Adam Hunt and Keefe Keeley placed 67th and
71st. Jim Kreft ’07 and Paul Thibodeau ’06 rounded out the scoring in 84th and
145th place to give the Garnet a sixth-place tie with Allegheny College.

Elizabeth Gardner ’05 paced the women, placing 66th, covering the 6K course
in 25:07. Njideka Akunyili ’04 placed 86th, and Pam Davis ’07 ran 91st. Emily
Wistar ’06, Caroline Ritter ’06, Krista Gigone ’04, and Cathy Danh ’04 rounded
out the scoring, giving the Garnet 452 points and 12th place in the competition.

*****

The men’s team (1-2, 1-1 CC) lost 111-89 while the women’s team(1-2, 1-1 CC)
lost 113-90 to the Diplomats on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference
action.

Tara Trout ’04 was a double-winner for the women, claiming the 1000-yard and
500-yard freestyles. Sarah Cotcamp ’07 and Leah Davis ’04 tied in the 50-yard
freestyle, while the team of Cotcamp, Martyna Pospieszalska ’06, Patricia Funk
’06, and Melanie Johncilla ’05 took the 400-yard freestyle relay.

On the men’s side, senior Eric Shang won the 200 IM, and the 400 medley relay
team of Anders Taylor ’07, Andrew Koczo ’07, Jason Horwitz ’07, and Jeff Schneider
’05 was also victorious, but the Garnet came up short against the Diplomats.

The Garnet travel to conference-foe McDaniel on Saturday, November 22 for a
1:00 p.m. meet.

*****

No contests are scheduled for today or tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.”
–John Kenneth Galbraith

*****

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