HE GOT GAME
"Hail to the Coach" (The Register-Guard, Mar. 1, 2009)
Craig Robinson, MBA' 91, former head basketball coach at U-High and 2006-07 Ivy League coach of the year, hopes to put Oregon State University basketball back on the map.

• "Craig Robinson, First Coach" (CBS News, Mar. 1, 2009)


• "OSU Needs to Sell Itself to Robinson... Again" (OregonLive.com, Feb. 28, 2009)

LEADING THE WAY
"U of C Medical School Official Mentors Minority Students'" (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 23, 2009)
"There are too few physicians for minority patients. Who takes care of minority patients? It's minority physicians," says associate dean of multicultural affairs William McDade, PhD'88, MD'90.

• Pritzker School of Medicine, Office of Multicultural Affairs

TOP JUMPER
"Solus Shines for U of C" (Southtown Star, Mar. 1, 2009)
Men's indoor track & field triple-jumper Jacob Solus, '11, was named University Athletic Association Athlete of the Week.

Mixing photos with audio from archive.org, an anonymous creative soul reimagines the lectures of former social thought professor Allan Bloom, PhB'49, AM'53, PhD'55.

• The YouTube Channel of user MrAllanBloom


• "A Good Read about the Great Books" (University of Chicago Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2008)


• "Great Men of the Great Books" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug. 2002)


• "Bloom in Review" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug. 1997)

Twenty-somethings donning funky scarves and businessmen in neatly pressed suits danced around each other to find seats before the start of last Monday's ARS Scientia salon, an event held twice a month at the Chicago Cultural Center. Knowing I couldn't stay for the entire event, I gave up my seat for another attendee. With the 6 p.m. start time looming, strangers reluctantly split from their parties and plopped into the few random single seats available while two Cultural Center staffers quickly squeezed a few more chairs onto the floor for some of the remaining crowd that was spilling out the doorway.

We didn't know it, but during the find-a-seat commotion, Dario Maestripieri, professor of comparative human development and evolutionary biology—and one of the event's four panelists—logged our predictable pre-event behavior as only a researcher would.

Watch as Maestripieri turned his amusing observations of our shuffling into one of the highlights of the evening:

Joy Olivia Miller

• "How to Fight Monkeys" (Slate, Oct. 22, 2007)


• "Research on Rhesus Macaques Shows Monkey Tactics to Gain Power Are Much Like Human's" (Chicago Chronicle, Nov. 1, 2007)


• "Political Animals (Yes, Animals)" (New York Times, Jan. 22, 2008)


• "Popular Science: Two University of Chicago Professors Shed Some Light on the Animal in All of Us" (Chicago Weekly, Feb. 20, 2008)


• "The Secret of Our Success" (Excerpt from Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World by Dario Maestripieri, University of Chicago Press)

Rhythm and Jews perform "My Freeze Ray (Laundry Day)" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog in University Church before Off-Off Campus's final performance of winter quarter.

• "An Off-Off Kind of Evening" (The UnCommon Blog, Mar. 1, 2009)

Submit your best University of Chicago-themed photos to Phoenix Pix.

LEADING CHICAGO INTO THE NEXT CENTURY
"Chicago Matters: Beyond Burnham Visionaries" (Chicago Public Radio, Mar. 2, 2009)
The University of Chicago's Nichole Pinkard, Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, and Richard Thaler make up one-fifth of Chicago Public Radio's distinguished list of global visionaries.

• "Nichole Pinkard on Digital Media and Learning" video (MacArthur Foundation, Dec. 13, 2006)


• "Olopade Joins Other Cancer Specialists in Institute of Medicine" (Chicago Chronicle, Nov. 10, 2008)


• "Can Behavioral Economics Save Us from Ourselves?" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb. 2005)

MR. MOVIES
"Asner, In and Out of Character" (Washington Post, Feb. 20, 2009)
Actor Ed Asner, X'48, may have two films hitting the big screen this spring, but he's currently getting his kicks performing live theater across the country. Asner paraphrases playwright Bertolt Brecht: "Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it."

• Gigantic (First Independent Pictures: in theaters Apr. 3, 2009)


• Up (Disney/Pixar: in theaters May 29, 2009)

SNEAK PREVIEW: HELPING VETS
"Back from the War" (SSA Magazine, Spring 2009)
SSA alumni Robert Anderson, AM'71, Peter Chapman, AB'82, AM'86, Daniel Ibarra-Fitzgerald, AM'94, and Allison Murdach, AM'66, contribute to a special feature that looks at returning vets who have been affected by their military experiences.

Neuroscientist and psychology professor John Cacioppo answers audience questions at a lecture at Goethe-Institut Los Angeles about who gets lonelier: Americans or Italians? Extroverts or Introverts?

• Full video from Cacioppo's lecture


• "Loneliness Undermines Health as well as Mental Well-Being" (News Office, Sept. 3, 2008)


• "John Cacioppo: Linking the Mind and Body" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb. 2000)


• "Last Night: John Cacioppo on Loneliness" (The Public Square blog, Feb. 19, 2009)

WHO WILL WRITE THE ESSAY QUESTIONS?
"'Uncommon' Admissions Dean to Step Down" (The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 4, 2009)
"I still believe everyone's better served if we give students something to think about that enables them to make distinctions," says Theodore A. O'Neill, AM'70.

• "Longtime Dean of Admissions Ted O'Neill Announces Plans to Teach Full-time" (News Office, Mar. 3, 2009)


• "Turning the Tables on Ted O'Neill: Chicago Admissions Dean Answers One of His Questions" (The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 4, 2009)


• "Still Flying High" (UChiBLOGo, Aug. 20, 2007)


• "Hey, Mr. Postman, Is There a Letter for Me?" (UChiBLOGo, Mar. 24, 2004)

SEEDS AND THE CITY
"Online Magazine Explores the Intersection of Nature and the City" (Chicago Weekly, Feb. 19, 2009)
Sociology PhD student David Schalliol, AM'04, describes his new Web site metroblossom.com as a place to use photos, paintings, and stories to examine "the relationship that humans have with the non-human world and formal world."

CAT'S MEOW
"Hyde Park Cat Lovers Trap, Neuter, and Release" (Chicago Weekly, Feb. 19, 2009)
Terren Ilana Wein, the Divinity School's director of communications, helps homeless and lost neighborhood felines through her work with Hyde Park Cats.

ON THE MAP
First-year economics PhD student Evan Miller maps out common Hyde Park necessities in real-time, including the locations of open WiFi Internet connections, local buses, criminal activity, and mail boxes.

Fire Escape Films took over the basement lounge of Stuart Hall last weekend, transforming it into an impromptu film-editing studio for the third annual 48-hour Film Festival. For the festival, open to anyone, students form film crews that write, shoot, and edit a whole movie.

On Sunday afternoon, two hours before the 6 p.m. deadline, I visited Stuart. Earlier in the afternoon Claire Tolan, ’09, woke up late after pulling an all-nighter to record her dialogue in a sweltering hallway. The ten-person film crew for Tolan's movie—Myrtle Goes to Her Sister’s—had topped off the evening with a breakfast at Valois before taking much-needed naps. Then Tolan and part of her group (Aidan Roche, ’09, and Jon Kurinsky, ’09) edited the film and put in final touches.

The basement scene was somewhat hectic—Bollywood music and guitar riffs blared from speakers. Some groups sat in front of computer screens, paying rapt attention to their works, while others frantically tried to recall everyone they needed to thank in the credits. Fire Escape required that group members attend an introductory meeting where they were taught some basics (how not to break the camera), but for many groups, a lot of the footage splicing involved learning as they went along. Fire Escape's committee members meandered among the editing computers, answering questions about background music and how to make a credits sequence.

In the end, 16 groups completed the marathon. Last night Fire Escape screened the completed movies in Max Palevsky cinema. Students gathered to see an ode to vices (with John Donne’s poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning recited as voiceover), a mash-up of the beginning of the animated dinosaur classic A Land Before Time, and a Slumdog Millionaire parody. All the films were met with applause—the viewers knew that they were watching the results of an atypical college weekend. This time, it was on the big screen.

Rose Schapiro, ’09

Award-winning dance instructor Angel Fabian Coria and his partner Paola Bordon perform for members of the Argentine Tango Club at a mid-February workshop in Ida Noyes.

RETAILING IN THE RECESSION
"Chicago Solar Bag Company Basks in Green Craze Glow" (Medill Reports Chicago, Mar. 3, 2009)
Noon Solar business manager Byron Crawford, MBA'05, finds being that small is an advantage during the recession.

• "Taste of Chicago" (University of Chicago Magazine, Nov–Dec/08)

RETAILING IN THE RECESSION REDUX
"Transparent, Community-Oriented Hyde Park Grocer Sustains Sales Growth" (Medill Reports Chicago, Mar. 4, 2009)
Steven Lucy, AB'06, and Andrew Cone, SB'06, envision their five-month-old grocery store Open Produce, located on 55th Street, as "a way to directly involve in the community and provide the service that people would value and respect," says Cone.

• "Open Market" (UChiBLOGo, Oct. 24, 2008)


• Sustainability at the University of Chicago

MODERATION IN ALL THINGS
"A Moderate Manifesto" (New York Times, Mar. 2, 2009)
In a new op-ed David Brooks, AB'83, writes about being a moderate in a "war of the extremes."

• "Elemental Obama" (University of Chicago Magazine, Sept-Oct/08)


• "Everybody's a Critic" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb/04)


• "When Hyde Park Rules America" video lecture (Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum)


• "The Final Countdown" video lecture (UnCommon Core, Alumni Weekend 2008)

APARTMENT THERAPY
"Alum Anticipates South Campus Growth, Rehabs Old Apartment Buildings" (Chicago Maroon, Mar. 3, 2009)
"Over the next five to ten years, the market is going to appreciate quite a bit, especially since a huge number of students will exist on that 61st Street block," says Craig Huffman, AM'94, MBA'03.

During a Mandel Hall presentation last month called El Mexorcist 4: An Evening of Spoken Word Roulette, Artspeaks 5 fellow Guillermo Gómez-Peña used acid Chicano humor, hybrid literary genres, multilingualism, and activist theory to reflect on identity, race, sexuality, pop culture, and new technologies in the post-9/11 era: "I love to cross the border between low and high art."

HIJABI MONOLOGUES
"The Women under the Head Scarves" (Los Angeles Times, Mar. 6, 2009)
A play by Dan Morrison, AM'06, Zeenat Rahman, AM'06, and Sahar Ullah, AM'07—performed recently in Los Angeles—examines the Muslim head scarf through a series of ten monologues.

• "‘The Hijabi Monologues’ Speaks to Muslims and Others Too" (Chicago Tribune, Jan. 9, 2009)


• "The Hijabi Monologues Resonates through the Power of Storytelling" (Common Grounds News Service, Jan. 6, 2009)


• Hijabi Monologues' group on Facebook

FEAR FACTOR
"Shull Redefines Human Reaction to Market Volatility" (MSNBC, Mar. 6, 2009)
Denise Shull, AM'95, advises traders to use their emotions to take advantage of the scary marketplace.

• Trader Psyches


• Transcript: "The Government Gets A Bigger Chunk of Citigroup" (PBS, Nightly Business Report, Feb. 27, 2009)

FOSTERING WELLNESS ON CAMPUS
"UnCommon Interview with Meredith Haggerty" (Chicago Maroon, Mar. 3, 2009)
At her new Hyde Park-based private practice, former Student Care Center (SCC) movement specialist Meredith Haggerty, MFA'07, uses her knowledge of yoga and dance to help students manage stress.

From the Medical Center's Science Life blog of news and ideas in biomedicine: Irving Waxman, director of the Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, explains why pancreatic cancer is so difficult to detect and treat—and how screening methods may improve soon.

• Finding Hope With Pancreatic Cancer (Science Life blog, Mar. 4, 2009)


• Genetics of Pancreatic Cancer (University of Chicago Medical Center)

When we learned that two Chicago alumni were opening a state-of-the-art ice cream laboratory in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, we knew that this was an assignment that needed in-depth investigation (all in the name of good reporting, of course).

The mad scientists behind iCream Café—which opened Saturday—are Cora Shaw, MBA’07, and Jason McKinney, MBA’06, who met as students at Chicago Booth.

Shaw expects the shop will be brimming with new customers and employees, but it was nearly empty during our sneak preview on Friday—aside from a few curious people, the only ones behind the counter were Shaw, general manager Liz, and Neil Schinske, a representative from Cryotech International, who was there to confirm all was right with the café’s key ingredient: liquid nitrogen. Injected into a mix of milk and cream or yogurt, it freezes the icy treats within minutes. The liquid evaporates, and the crystals are much smaller than in regular ice cream or frozen yogurt, which creates a smooth and creamy texture. It’s essentially a science experiment for food lovers.

Indecisive people beware: the menu is fully customizable and offers myriad combinations. First, choose your base: ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, hot pudding, Italian soda, or a shake. Then select up to three flavors, which are injected into a beaker via syringe (the science-experiment ambiance doesn’t end with the liquid nitrogen). Fancy purple ice cream? The truly brave can inject food-safe coloring into their creation. And once the sweet treat has been created, top it off with candy. Lactose-intolerant patrons needn’t feel left out: soy-milk ice cream is an option, which Shaw says tastes much like real ice cream thanks to the liquid nitrogen.

Because we are dedicated to service journalism, these enterprising reporters sampled chocolate-and-peanut-butter frozen yogurt, mint-chocolate-chip ice cream, burnt-sugar-and-cinnamon hot pudding (with a dash of purple food coloring), and pomegranate Italian soda—the perfect way to spend the first spring-like day in months. We returned to the office with full stomachs and sugar highs.

Elizabeth Chan and Ruth E. Kott, AM’07

Members of the a cappella group Ransom Notes sing "You Know My Name" from the 2006 James Bond movie Casino Royale with soloist Ali Ekrem Yeşilkanal, '12, at their 2009 winter concert in McCormick Lounge.

BAD-LOAN FIX?
"The Better, Cheaper Mortgage Fix" (Slate, Mar. 2, 2009)
Law School professor Eric Posner and Chicago Booth professor Luigi Zingales propose a solution to the inevitable government intervention to solve the homeowner debt-relief problem.

EBONY EXPERIMENT
"Oak Park Couple Travels Far and Wide to Buy Only from Black-Owned Businesses" (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 9, 2009)
Maggie Anderson, JD'98, MBA'01, and her husband, John, are attempting to buy only from black-owned businesses for one year. "More than anything, this is a learning thing," says Maggie Anderson.

• Ebony Experiment Web site


• Ebony Experiment blog

FILM'S UNFORGOTTEN FRIEND
"Remembering Gene" (Roger Ebert's Journal, Feb. 17, 2009)
Film critic Roger Ebert, X'70, shares memories of his At the Movies cohost Gene Siskel on the tenth anniversary of his passing.

Renaissance Society director Susanne Ghez describes the importance
of showing cutting-edge work by regional artists.

• "Unromancing the Renaissance" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug/05)


• "Video Renaissance" (UChiBLOGo, Sept. 15, 2004)

Submit your best University of Chicago-themed photos to Phoenix Pix.

Voices in Your Head performed Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight"
at the International Championship of A Cappella in February.

FOSSIL WATCH
"Anthropologist Donald Johanson on 'Lucy's Legacy'" (Talk of the Nation, NPR, Mar. 6, 2009)
Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, AM'70, PhD'74, describes how “Lucy”—a fossil link between primates and humans that Johanson discovered in Ethiopia in 1974—helps us understand the human family tree.

POETIC COMPLICATIONS
"Beers Celebrates the Publication of Her Brutally Honest Poetry" (Chicago Weekly, Mar. 5, 2009)
In her new book A Brief History of Time poet Shaindel Beers, AM'00, explores what it is to grow up in rural America.

• "All That's Write" (UChiBLOGo, Feb. 18)

BROOKS... BEFORE
"Perchance to Dream" (Chicago Maroon, Mar. 10, 2009)
When the Maroon staff contacted its former editor (and current New York Times columnist) David Brooks, AB'83, about his April 6, 1982, column reprinted in the latest issue, he drew a blank: “Weird. I have no memory of that piece."

• Recessionism, Gholar's shredded money assemblages at Flickr


• Brooding Beauty, Gholar's blog

FOOTSTEPS WORTH FOLLOWING
"A Tough Flower Girl: On Norman Maclean" (Nation, Mar. 11, 2009)
Writer Philip Connors reflects on the effect Norman Maclean, PhD'40—and his writing—has had on his life.

• "The Norman Maclean Reader" (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 30, 2008)


• Maclean's A River Runs Through It, excerpt (University of Chicago Press, 1976)


• Maclean's Young Men and Fire, excerpt (University of Chicago Press, 1992)

JARRETT'S NEW JOB
"Obamas and Clinton Honor Women" (The Caucus blog, New York Times, Mar. 11, 2009)
Former U of C trustee Valerie Jarrett was chosen to lead the White House Council on Women and Girls.

• "Behind Every President..." (University of Chicago Magazine, Jan–Feb/09)


• "Elemental Obama" (University of Chicago Magazine, Sept–Oct/08)

OUR GIRL
"'My Girl' Has a Pilot!" (PopWatch blog, Entertainment Weekly, Mar. 13, 2009)
Anna Chlumsky, AB'02, debuts this fall in a CBS pilot about an aide to the Speaker of the House.

I don’t find myself visiting Cobb much after winter-quarter classes end. The coffee shop closes, there are no more discussion sections to attend, and the building becomes nearly desolate. But even though it’s reading period, on Thursday night a few dozen students, myself included, plodded our way to Cobb’s fourth floor to attend a laughter-yoga study break sponsored by the Wrens, the student group affiliated with the Renaissance Society.

Walking into Paul Chan’s exhibit My Laws Are My Whores was slightly unsettling—and not just because of the detailed pen-and-ink drawings of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, smiling serenely and staring down at me from 15 feet up the gallery’s wall. Coats, bags laden with course books, and shoes were strewn in the corner of the gallery, and students gathered in the corner of the exhibit. As students continued to trickle in, curator Hamza Walker, AB’88, introduced both the Renaissance Society and the exhibition.

Walker characterized Chan as a “post-medium” artist. The huge drawings of Chan’s “fonts” were on display on the back wall of the gallery. In his opening talk March 1, Chan emphasized the thought process that went into each font. Some of them speak in the voices of characters from the Marquis de Sade, while others echo historical or literary figures: Dr. Ebing and Gertrude Stein. Chan coyly noted in his talk that the fonts “say what you really meant to type.” Walker explained how Chan had used the fonts to subtitle an episode of “Law and Order,” emphasizing the themes of law, sex, and power that provide the structures for the show. He had stripped out most of the audio track, leaving only the characteristic menacing music, which intermittently descended upon the gallery.

After Walker finished, Ricardo Rivera, ’10, lead laughter-yoga exercises by directing the students to form straight lines. Walker turned the “Law and Order” music down, and the group began stretching. The purpose of laughter yoga (aside from providing a pleasant study-break opportunity) is to elicit unconditional laughter and combine it with Yogic breathing techniques. More extensive poses and exercises that stretched both the body and the diaphragm followed. The laughter-yoga exercises continue next week—this time away from the kind smiles of the Supreme Court. The Wrens are hosting daily study breaks on Bartlett quadrangles, weather permitting.

Rose Schapiro, ’09

• Paul Chan's talk at his exhibition opening at the Renaissance Society


• "Audio/Visuals: Leading the Way in Contemporary Art" (UChiBLOGo, Mar. 11, 2009)

CHICAGO'S LEXICOGRAPHER
"New Online Dictionary Redefines 'Look It Up'" (Christian Science Monitor, Mar. 16, 2009)
Erin McKean, AB’93, AM’93, hopes to revolutionize dictionary-making with the launch of Wordnik.

• "Words and Enthusiasm" (UChiBLOGo, Apr. 16, 2007)


• "Caution: Words at Work" (University of Chicago Magazine, Oct/06)


• "Search for Meanings" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb/01)

BEHIND THE SOCIAL NETWORK SCENE
"A Web Beast with a Rough Back Story" (New York Times, Mar. 15, 2009)
Wall Street Journal media reporter Julia Angwin, AB'92, digs into the history of social networking in her new book, Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America.

• "Q&A: Stealing MySpace Author Julia Angwin" (Epicenter, Wired blog, Mar. 3, 2009)


• Deep Links, Julia Angwin's blog

DRUGSTORE DIRECTOR
"Walgreens Adds Bob Evans' CEO to Board" (Crain's Chicago Business, Mar. 16, 2009)
Steven Davis, MBA'83, was elected to Walgreen's board of directors.

• "Betting the Farm" (Smart Business, Feb. 2008)


• "Home-Style Hero" (Chain Leader, May 1, 2007)

Seth Lerer, PhD’81, took home this year's National Book Critics Circle award in criticism for his analyses of children's literature from Aesop’s fables to Harry Potter.

• "Seth Lerer Wins the NBCC" (Chicago Blog, Mar. 12, 2009)


• "2008 Criticism Finalist Children's Literature, by Seth Lerer" (Critical Mass, NBCC blog, Mar. 8, 2009)


• "The Lion and the Mouse" (New Yorker, July 21, 2008)


• WGN's Extension 720 podcast with Seth Lerer


• Lerer's Children's Literature excerpt (University of Chicago Press, 2008)

It’s a story you’ve heard before: boy from the wrong side of the tracks meets girl from the right side, they fall in love at first sight and sing about it. Will their slightly misguided yet genuine love conquer all?

Of course, there are parts you haven’t heard: boy is inspired to take over the town's pay-to-pee toilet facilities and kidnaps girl as collateral—and, oh, the whole shebang is a farce on the nature of musical theater.

Expect no less in Urinetown, a Tony Award–winning musical written by Mark Hollman, AB'85, and Greg Kotis, AB'88. The play was performed the last two weekends by the University of Chicago’s University Theater. It might have betrayed its Chicago origins a bit—few audiences likely laugh as uproariously at gags about Malthus, Hume, the free market, and the nature of metaphysics. At one point the villainous father, Caldwell B. Cladwell (Augie Praley, ’09), asks his painfully sincere daughter, Hope (Molly Zeins, ’09), “Did I send you to the most expensive university in the world to teach you how to feel conflicted, or to learn how to manipulate great masses of people?”

The play is framed by dialogue between Lil’ Sally (Amanda Jacobson, ’12), a poor child who counts her coins to use the toilet and asks questions like, “What about hydraulics?” and Officer Lockstock (Morgan Maher, ’09), who answers deadpan, “In a musical, sometimes it’s better to focus on just one thing.”

On Friday evening the 16-person cast performed to a packed house in the Francis X. Kinahan Third Floor Theater. Kotis and Hollman were in the audience, surveying the work of the students and Jeffrey Award–nominated theater professional Jonathan Berry, whom UT brought in to direct this show. Berry hand-picked a professional design staff, who worked with student apprentices to create the eerie, dirt-encrusted setting. The cast threw itself wholeheartedly into numbers about the inanity of most revolutionary discourse—see the initials of our hero, Bobby Strong (Lucas Whitehead, ’09)—and what can happen if water is mismanaged to the point of absolute scarcity. Although Urinetown may have, as Lil’ Sally puts it, “happy songs,” the moral is anything but.

Rose Schapiro, ’09

• "Students Intrepret Quirky Hit" (Chicago Chronicle, Mar. 5, 2009)


• "Never Enough Theatrics" (UChiBLOGo, Jan. 28 , 2009)


• "Some Students Walk into a Bar..." (University of Chicago Magazine, Oct/05)


• "Off-key Smash" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug/02)

SAVING THE STATIONER
"Stationer Fights Recession with Civility, Wit, and Beauty" (Medill Reports Chicago, Mar. 12, 2009)
Chandra Greer, MBA'90, focuses on creativity and flexibility to keep her stationery store profitable during this economically challenging period.

• "Taste of Chicago" (University of Chicago Magazine, Nov–Dec/08)


• "A Small Store with a Big Mission" (Chicago Business, Nov. 15, 2007)


• "From Marketing Executive to Stationery Store Owner" (O, Oprah Magazine, Sept. 2007)


• Greer Chicago

FIGHTING MENINGITIS B
"Grad Works to Develop Vaccine for Meningitis B" (Advocate Tribune, Mar. 16, 2009)
Greg Moe, PhD'85, and his colleagues achieve a breakthrough in developing a vaccine for meningococcal meningitis, MenB.

THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS
"Professor Speaks about Second Amendment" (Daily Illini, Mar. 16, 2009)
"The text and history provide restraints on interpretations. It provides room for disagreements about what the amendment means," says Nelson Lund, JD'85, at an event Monday at the University of Illinois.

• "Future Reading" (New Yorker, Nov. 5, 2007)


• "The Humanist" (Princeton Alumni Weekly, Apr. 4, 2007)


• "The Nutty Professors" (New Yorker, Oct. 23, 2006)


• The Crumpled Press

"WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE A JOB, MR. CRAMER?"
"Financial Journalists Fail Upward" (Wall Street Journal, Mar. 18, 2009)
Thomas Frank, AM'89, PhD'94, dissects the failures of financial-entertainment journalists.

• "Everybody's a Critic" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb/07)


• Frank's The Conquest of Cool, excerpt (University of Chicago Press, 1997)


• Frank's Web site

THOUGHTS ABOUT TERKEL
"So Long, Studs" (AGNI Magazine, Nov. 20, 2008)
English professor emeritus Richard Stern shares his memories of Studs Terkel, PhB’32, JD’34: "It’s clear from the tributes to him that much of the reading country realizes it has lost a great man."

• "Studs: A Lifetime of Learning" (University of Chicago Magazine, Jan-Feb/09)


• Photo album: "Studs Terkel Turns the Page" (Chicago Tribune Magazine, Oct. 31, 2008)

HOW PREPARED ARE OUR STUDENTS?
"Graduate School in a New Ice Age" (The Daily Princetonian, Mar. 2, 2009)
In a recent editorial, historian Anthony Grafton, AB'71, AM'72, PhD'75, asks, "Can we be frank about the professional situation students face without inspiring despair?"

• Audio/Visuals: Codex in Crisis (UChiBLOGo, Mar. 17, 2009)


• The Crumpled Press

FICTIONALIZING POLYGAMY: PAST AND PRESENT
"David Ebershoff's Novel The 19th Wife" (Weekend Edition, NPR, Nov. 12, 2008)
Novelist David Ebershoff, MBA'96, discusses his latest book and his experience being Norman Mailer's last editor.

• "Plural Views" (University of Chicago Magazine, Nov-Dec/08)

• "College Report: Americans in Paris, and Vice Versa" (University of Chicago Magazine, Oct/03)


• "Wealth of Notions" (University of Chicago Magazine, Dec/01)

Submit your best University of Chicago-themed photos to Phoenix Pix.

"GLASS BOX" SUCCESS
"Do You Have Philip Glass in a Box?" (The New York Times, Mar. 13, 2009)
While other musicians struggle to sell albums, Philip Glass, AB'56, is enjoying the success of his limited edition, ten-CD retrospective set.

• "On Screen: Magnifying Glass" (University of Chicago Magazine, Jul-Aug/08)


• "Art of Glass at Court Theatre" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb/01)

PACKED FULL OF NOSTALGIA
"Alumni Enjoy 'Reunion' of Fan Fest" (Official Web site of the Green Bay Packers, Mar. 2, 2009)
Former NFL player and U of C trustee Willie Davis, MBA'68, had fun reminiscing with Packers fans: "I was back here a couple years ago to an event and they said, 'Hey, we like you old guys because it's almost like you make us feel special.' Well, I can tell you, they make us feel special when they relate back to when we played."

ARTISTIC SPACE
"Studio Visit: Wolf Kahn" (New Art TV, Jan. 06, 2008)
Artist Wolf Kahn, AB’50, tells how his vision impairment from macular degeneration helped him become "a much better painter." A profile of Kahn will appear in the May-June Core.

• "Phoenix Pix: Mar. 16-20, 2009" (UChiBLOGo, Mar. 18, 2009)


• "On Exhibit" (University of Chicago Magazine, Oct/02)

PROVIDING EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATION FOR IMMIGRANTS
"Latino Children Shortchanged on Preschool for All" (City Room, Chicago Public Radio, Aug. 14, 2008)
Erie House director Ricardo Estrada, AM'93, explains that we should "invest in these children or else we're going to pay for it down the road."

• "Glimpses: Ricardo Estrada" (University of Chicago Magazine, Mar-Apr/09)


• Video: Erie Neighborhood House in Little Village (Hosted by Bill Kurtis)


• Web site: Erie Neighborhood House

As soon as we started reporting our March-April/09 feature on the Oriental Institute’s mummy Meresamun—the focus of a special exhibit this year at the museum—we knew that a few pages in the Magazine wouldn’t be enough for the whole story we wanted to tell. So we took what wouldn’t fit in print and put it on the Web.

Meresamun was a high-ranking singer in Thebes’s Karnak Temple around 800 BC, but since 1920, when James Henry Breasted brought her coffin back from a trip to Egypt, the OI has been her home. Over the decades her life became a slowly unraveling mystery as Egyptologists there pieced together bits of information about who she was and how she might have lived. This past fall the mystery unraveled even further when the folks at the OI and the Medical Center strapped Meresamun to a gurney and loaded her into a new, 256-channel, “intelligent” CT scanner. Peering inside the mummy’s coffin, they saw a 30-year-old woman with bad teeth and perfect bones, an elite priestess who ate well and had a bunion on her right foot. Tendons still connected the fingers to the wrists, and everywhere expensive linen packing filled empty crevices.

And yet, other mysteries remained. Did she ever have children? Radiologists couldn’t tell. How did she die, and why so young? And what was that granular, gummy material that embalmers stuffed down her throat? Egyptologists had rarely seen anything like it.

So, alongside the online version of our story about Meresamun on the Magazine’s Web site, look for the interactive feature Meresamun: A Life in Layers. You can listen to Egyptologist Emily Teeter, PhD'90, talk about the sacred rattle Meresamun would have played during her work in the sanctuary and the scholarly debate over whether temple singers were celibate. You can see an ancient rendering showing what Meresamun might have looked like in life and view the CT images that convinced radiologist Michael Vannier that she had a pretty face. Examine her teeth, so worn they were almost concave, and zoom in on the hieroglyphic inscription that offered scholars the first clues to her identity.

Then head over to the OI exhibit for even more artifacts and images. You have until December 6, when the show closes.

Lydialyle Gibson

• "Priestess of Amun" (Archaeology, Feb. 9, 2009)


• "30-Year-Old Seen for the First Time in 3,000 Years" (CNN.com, Feb. 13, 2009)


• "Exhibition Recreates Life of a Temple Singer" (Chicago Chronicle, Feb. 5, 2009)


• "Photos: 3,000-Year-Old Mummy Seen Using Hi-Tech Scanner" (ComputerWeekly.com, Feb. 2009)


• Add Meresamun as a friend on Facebook

I'm no longer a helicopter parent, hovering over the lives of my undergraduate offspring. It helps that my daughters have both graduated.

Also keeping me grounded—at least partially—was the response to my first attempt at "helping" my younger daughter negotiate college life. A polite but firm note from the student-affairs office let me know that if my yet-to-matriculate child had a problem with her freshman-year roommate assignment, the staff was sure she would tell them about it herself. I quickly wrote back, cc'ing my chagrined daughter, to say that the only problem she had was me and promising never to write them again.

I kept my promise, but I didn't keep my distance, thanks in part to her campus's Web cam. I'd be sitting at my computer when my office phone would ring. "I'm about to cross Marsh Plaza," she'd say. "I'm wearing pink. Near the statue. See me waving?" I'd wave back at the computer screen, and we'd go on about our day.

I recommend it—to College parents and their kids. The best of the campus Web cams is the one that scans the quad between Bartlett Dining Commons and the Regenstein Library. Since College kids have to eat—and study—it's a convenient place to phone home. If the conversation gets sticky, you students can always end it, "Gotta go read my Western Civ," leaving your parents feeling proud.

Mary Ruth Yoe

MEDAL OF HONOR
"Former Ambassador to Vatican to Be Honored" (Associated Press, Mar. 22, 2009)
Mary Ann Glendon, AB'59, JD'61, MCL'63, will receive the most prestigious honor for American Catholics—the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal—during its May 17 commencement ceremony.

MARKETING PLAN
"Now Is No Time to Give Up on Markets" (Wall Street Journal, Mar. 21, 2009)
In a new interview, Gary S. Becker, AM’53, PhD’55, worries that "the basic theory of interest-group politics says that they will have more influence and their influence will be to try to maintain this, and it will be hard to go back."

MAKING THE CASE
"Storied Lawyer Represents Apache" (Yale Daily News, Feb. 24, 2009)
Ramsey Clark, AM'50, JD'51, is representing 20 descendants of Geronimo in their case against Skull & Bones and the federal government with the goal of recovering the remains of the Apache chieftain.

ARG! ACADEMICS
"Pirates Class at University of Chicago Among Most Popular" (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 18, 2009)
The undergraduate anthropology class "Intensive Study of Culture: Pirates" covers Johnny Depp–style Caribbean pirates, software piracy, and investment “pirate” Bernard Madoff.

• "Sally Marks the Spot" (University of Chicago Magazine, May-Jun/08)


• "Digital Pirates of the Midway" (University of Chicago Magazine, Sept-Oct/07)

FOOT TAPPIN' FUN
"The Cure for a Rainy Sunday: Live Music at Jimmy's" (The TOC Blog, TimeOut Chicago, Mar. 9, 2009)
Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap serves up blues and jazz along with inexpensive grub and suds on Sunday nights.

COURTIN' FOR COURT
"Five Bidders Compete to Redevelop Harper Court" (Chicago Sun-Times, Mar. 16, 2009)
City planners winnowed the pool of 11 developers looking to revamp Hyde Park's Harper Court.

Submit your best University of Chicago-themed photos to Phoenix Pix.

I SCREAM FOR iCREAM
"iCream, Take Two" (The TOC Blog, TimeOut Chicago, Mar. 6, 2009)
Cora Shaw, MBA’07, and Jason McKinney, MBA’06, reworked their formula and process for customizable, flash-frozen confections, just in time the reopening of their Chicago-based store, iCream.

• "They've Created a Monster" (UChiBLOGo, Mar. 9, 2009)


• "The Scoop" (julib.com, Feb. 3, 2009)

WHAT IS MATTER?
"Simulating Cosmic Evolution" (International Science Grid This Week, Feb. 25, 2009)
The U of C ASC/Alliances Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes runs simulations to solve the problem of thermonuclear explosions on the surfaces of compact stars.

GET WITH THE PROGRAMMING
"He Codes... He Scores!" (Chicagoist, Mar. 19, 2009)
Forget about basketball. The real action this March is happening among student programmers. After defeating 136 other teams, the U of C's Works in Theory heads to Stockholm for the Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Competition World Finals, which begins April 18.

• "Computer Programming Team Advances to World Finals" (News Office, Dec. 11, 2008)


• U of C ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest wiki

• "Art in Science" (University of Chicago Magazine, Jan-Feb/09)


• "Remains of a Greener Day" (University of Chicago Magazine, Sept-Oct/08)


• "Teeth the Size of Bananas!" (UChiBLOGo, Dec. 12, 2007)


• "Lord of the Skies" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb/04)

THE JAZZ SINGER
"A Tribute Supreme" (Washington Post, Feb. 27, 2009)
Kurt Elling, X’92, reinterprets the beloved songs of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.

• "Vocal Ease" (University of Chicago Magazine, June/97)


• Video: "You Are Too Beautiful," performed by Kurt Elling

GARDEN STATE GOV
"In a Tough Sell, Corzine Works to Connect " (New York Times, Mar. 9, 2009)
As governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine, MBA'73, tries to engage the community: “You’ve got to somehow break through on all these things, and the only time that people saw me break through was actually at the town hall meetings, and we ended up having a less-than-an-overwhelmingly-positive reaction because it was co-opted by the people who were opposed.”

FINANCE ADVISER
"Mary Holm Joins Capital Market Taskforce" (New Zealand Herald, Mar. 24, 2009)
Investment columnist Mary Holm, MBA'82, joined the New Zealand government's capital-market development taskforce.

"A WORLD" ARTIST
"Art Professor's Print Acquired by the National Gallery" (UDaily, Mar. 24, 2009)
The National Gallery has purchased Hilton Brown's A World for its American prints collection. Brown, who attended the U of C during the 1959 summer quarter, teaches art history, art, and women's studies at the University of Delaware.

NEW LANGUAGE FOR UNDERSTANDING RACE AND POVERTY
"How to Understand the Culture of Poverty" (Slate.com, Mar. 16, 2009)
In his review of U of C sociologist William Julius Wilson's new book More than Just Race, Sudhir Venkatesh, AM’92, PhD’97, reflects: "Change might not occur overnight, and it may not be wholesale, but it will take place."

ROCKET MAN
"Spacewalking Astronaut Practices Contingency EVA Procedures" (NASA.com, Feb. 12, 2009)
John M. Grunsfeld, SM’84, PhD’88, and other NASA engineers prepare for the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in early May.

"PUBLIC OFFERING" PRO
"Trustworthy Financial Pundits" (AskMen.com, Mar. 24, 2009)
Nightly Business Report's Scott Gurvey, MBA'82, is one of five financial commentators considered reliable by the editors of AskMen.com.

RELATED READING

• "Opine: Martin Marty" (Chicago Chronicle, Apr. 12, 2007)


• "With a Grin and a Prayer" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug/98)

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Web site: Divinity School


• Web site: The Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion

Inspired by Mayor Daley's stint as an art-minded tour guide on Monday, the Magazine chatted by e-mail with Smart Museum senior curator Richard A. Born, AM'75, about campus public art and downtown's must-see sculpture.

What public sculpture draws the most campus visitors?

Henry Moore’s Nuclear Energy is the most popular public sculpture on campus. Moore was an internationally renowned 20th-century sculptor, and this bronze sculpture sits on the site of a momentous event in modern history: the first sustained nuclear reaction. In light of the current debates about energy policy, Moore’s monumental sculpture continues to reverberate in complex ways.

What’s the newest piece of public art on campus?

It's probably the large, black-painted metal construction Star Sentinels by American master Louise Nevelson. The sculpture is on long-term loan in the Smart Museum’s newly re-landscaped Elden Sculpture Garden.

For those who haven't been back to Chicago lately, what do you recommend as don't-miss public art?

Definitely the “Bean”—as the Indian-born artist Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate is popularly and affectionately called. It is a work of tremendous visual appeal and sensual form, and has in a very short time become an iconic image for Millennium Park and the City of Chicago. The sculpture’s reflections and inversions of passing people, buildings, and the landscape of the park brilliantly capture the flux of Michigan Avenue.

RELATED READING

• "Show and Tell" (University of Chicago Magazine, Sept-Oct/07)

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Web site: Smart Museum of Art


• Map: Henry Moore's Nuclear Energy

HIGHER STANDARDS
"What Arne Learned" (Chicago magazine, April 2009)
Arne Duncan, U-High’82, uses what he figured out as CEO of Chicago Public Schools to bring change to the nation: "The idea of having 50 states doing their own thing has actually led to a race to the bottom, the dumbing down of standards. I want to flip that; I want to reverse that."

TRUE PUBLIC SERVANT
"Paving the Way" (OpEdNews.com, Mar. 25, 2009)
Filmmaker Kimberlee Bassford talks about the achievements of Patsy Takemoto Mink, JD’51, the first woman of color in Congress. Mink is the subject of Bassford's new PBS documentary Ahead of the Majority, airing in May.

STUNNING DEVELOPMENT
"Taser May Gain Year's Worth of Sales from Stimulus" (Bloomberg.com, Mar. 18, 2009)
Taser International, Inc.'s CEO Rick Smith, MBA'93, estimates that $2.7 billion of the $4 billion in the stimulus package allotted to law enforcement could be used for purchases including Taser products. “It could equal one year’s revenue for us, we think, if we perform well,” says Smith.

At Chicago Booth's second annual "Working with Private Equity" speaker series last month, Professor Erik Hurst provided his insights into the state of the macroeconomy and the effect of policy choices now being made.

Unlike many of its peers, Chicago ceremonially confers degrees at the end of each quarter, giving people who love academic pomp and circumstance plenty of opportunities to indulge. This year's Winter Convocation, held last Friday afternoon, marked No. 497 in a series that began in 1893.

With the largest number of graduates, Spring Convocation gets broken into four separate ceremonies over three days and is held in Harper Quadrangle. Like its summer and fall cousins, No. 497 took place in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, where the pews were crammed with robed degree candidates and their well-wishers.

The day's first degree was conferred upon musicologist and Chicago president emeritus Don Michael Randel, now president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In presenting Randel with an honorary doctorate of humane letters, Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum termed him "an inspiring teacher and a brilliant speaker" who "called the University community to greatness, stressing the essential need for the highest forms of intellectual inquiry and expression, and embracing diversity as a personal obligation."

After a composition from Spain's Golden Age (Randel's area of expertise) was performed on the chapel's E. M. Skinner organ, the roll call of graduates began. Of the 565 degree recipients, the majority were Chicago Booth graduates, including 406 MBAs, urged by President Robert J. Zimmer to develop economic resources "for the benefit of all people," and one PhD (dissertation: "Why Are CEOs Rarely Fired? Evidence from Structural Estimation").

As the last candidate, Tiffany Noelle Mehling, came forward, the audience burst into long-awaited applause, growing to a low roar. A minute later, when it was time to sing the Alma Mater, the noise level dropped noticeably. Not to worry—Chicago's newest alumni have a lifetime to learn the lyrics.

Mary Ruth Yoe

After spending eight years on campus as a student and staff member, it feels distinctly strange to be living in Chicago but not in Hyde Park. So I’m especially looking forward to returning to the quads next week for a special event hosted by the Center for Middle East Studies, a talk by Israeli playwright and peace activist Motti Lerner. In my role as director of advancement at the Silk Road Theatre Project (founded by Artistic Director Jamil Khoury, AM’92) I’ve been busy preparing for our production of Lerner’s powerful play Pangs of the Messiah (through May 10—visit www.srtp.org for more info), and I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say, surrounded by other U of C alumni, staff, faculty and students.

In Chicago fashion, Lerner is an interdisciplinarian to the core, balancing work as a playwright, professor, and peace activist. A true Israeli patriot, he has never hesitated to challenge his own countrymen on issues of nationalism, messianism, and the intersection of religion and government. His talk will focus on the role of writing plays in a society struggling with recurring wars, the obligations of the playwright to oppose the wars, and creating public discourse that will suggest alternative policies that are not lethal.

The U of C has never shied away from controversial or difficult topics, as evidenced by the Center for Middle East Studies’ enthusiasm to host Motti (an idea that seemed to frighten the faculties of some other Chicago-area universities). The talk will be followed by a Q&A, and we’re looking forward to a vigorous discussion—otherwise, how would I know I was back on campus?

The talk will be held Tuesday, March 31, at 4 p.m. in Pick 001. All are welcome to attend.

Kyle Gorden, AB’00

Trying to get pregnant?
Speak to Me in Foucault!
Robert Pape's *Bombing to Win*

Most of the listings on UChi Marketplace—the University’s version of Craigslist—are fairly banal: books for sale, rooms to rent, the kind of thing that would have appeared on fliers in an earlier era. But like everything on the Internet, the easier it is to post, the easier it is to be weird. Here are excerpts from last month’s more remarkable listings, as selected by an unscientific poll (sample size: me).

Oh, wait. That last one’s mine. Anybody want a door?

For more from UChi Bizarre-ketplace, check UChiBLOGo the last Friday of each month and the next issue of the Core, the College supplement to the University of Chicago Magazine, available in late May.

Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

BadAstronomy.com's Phil Plait interviews NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld, SM’84, PhD’88, about the final Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.

CRITIC'S CHOICE
"Magnolia at the Goodman" (Blogcritics Magazine, Mar. 21, 2009)
Chicago-based reviewer Marissa Flaxbart, AB'05, raves about the premiere of Goodman Theatre's new play Magnolia, based on Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard.

BY THE NUMBERS
"FREAK-Quently Asked Questions" (Freakonomics blog, New York Times, Mar. 12, 2009)
In an interview with Stephen Dubner, Nate Silver, AB'00, opens up about needing to play more Grand Theft Auto 4, wanting to write a book that "sells 40 percent as many copies as Freakonomics," and how learning to play Texas Hold 'Em got him to where he is today.

COME TOGETHER
"On Your Side Report: Spending Time" (ABC 7 Chicago, Mar. 24, 2009)
David Abuaf, AB'02, MBA'08, and his wife, Amanda, cut back on spending during the recession by finding new ways to hang out together.

MAGIC MUSIC
"Ben Folds to Release A Cappella Album" (PASTE, Mar. 19, 2009)
Student group Voices in Your Head's cover of "Magic" made the final cut for Ben Fold's upcoming album featuring university-based a cappella groups.

VIRTUAL IMPROVEMENT
"Cloud Computing Helps Scientists Run High Energy Physics Experiments" (Science Blog, Mar. 24, 2009)
High energy physicists can now run heavy ion simulations thanks to the Nimbus Context Broker, a mechanism developed by computer scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, and a portable software environment developed at CERN.

HOW DOES OBAMA THINK?
"Obamanomics: Ivory Tower of Power" (Chicago Tribune Magazine, Mar. 19, 2009)
Former U of C colleagues of President Obama—including professors Geoffrey Stone and Richard Thaler—share their ideas on how they believe he thinks.

Although you have until April 9 to enter the Chicago Tribune's Peeps diorama contest, the Magazine’s contest ends Tuesday night at midnight.

Alumni or their families are invited to create a Maroon-themed scene using the sprinkled-sugar and marshmallow chicks and bunnies. Then e-mail us a high-resolution JPEG of the finished scene (a campus spot, a local hero, or a book, phrase, film, or production inspired by Chicago or linked to a Chicago alum) and sit back to see if you’ve won a prize (first-, second-, and third-place prizes of $250, $150, and $100). The winning dioramas will appear in the May–June/09 issue, and all entries will be exhibited in an online gallery.

• "Peeps Into Our Pages" contest announcement (University of Chicago Magazine, Jan./Feb. 2009)


• "Photography 101 with Professor Dan Dry" (UChiBLOGo, Jan. 26, 2009)

VACANT-LOT FARMER
"Slices of Heaven: Illinois" (MNN: Mother Nature Network, Mar. 24, 2009)
In his book Sweet Earth, photographer Joel Sternfeld profiles City Farm, a sustainable organic farm built by Ken Dunn, AM'70, on a vacant lot in Chicago.

BETTING ON VOLATILITY
"Ex-Citadel Trader Sethi Said to Start Volatility Hedge Fund" (Bloomberg.com, Mar. 24, 2009)
Pavandeep Sethi, SM'99, is readying his own hedge fund. Named after a type of Roman sword, Gladius Investment Group is projected to start trading by June.

CREATING A CANCER SCREEN
"A Deadly Puzzle: Colorectal Cancer in African Americans" (SBSun.com, Mar. 24, 2009)
Gastroenterologist Christian S. Jackson, MD'99, developed a colorectal cancer screening program for uninsured in Chicago.

GOLDEN GLOVED COMEBACK KID
"A Chicago Boxer's Path to Redemption" (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 29, 2009)
"The boxing and the fighting—it's kind of a substitute for all the drugs and alcohol, and kind of not," says Mark Allen, AB'01. "It's obviously better. Some people will argue whether it's physically healthy because you're still doing some sort of harm to your body. But it's a healthier outlet for me."

Already the winningest head coach in Chicago baseball history, Brian Baldea earned his 300th career victory on March 23 during the Maroons’ ten-game, season-opening spring-break tour. Now in his 19th season at Chicago, Coach Baldea spoke to us from Phoenix while the team warmed up for a double-header against Colby College. The Maroons, now 5-5, play their first home games April 4, 5, and 7.

What went through your mind when you notched your 300th career victory?

I wasn’t thinking about it all until after the game and the guys told me. It feels good, obviously, but I’ve never focused on the number of wins as the No. 1 priority here, and certainly not the number of wins for me—that’s not what’s important.

So what is important?

The priority is the development of these young men and what they get out of their experience from four years of baseball combined with the most outstanding undergraduate education they can get. It’s all about how the experience they have with me and with baseball here contributes to them being better men and better people.

What are fans going to notice about this year’s team?

We’re scoring a lot more runs than we have in the past couple of years. We’ve had some freshmen come in and immediately contribute to key spots in our order. I think we averaged about 13 runs a game in our first seven games. So this team is putting up big numbers like we used to do five, six, eight, ten years ago.

What are your goals for the 2009 season?

I’d like to see us be a very, very strong defensive team. I need all of our pitchers to contribute so we can still compete with anybody we play, even if we don’t have our top two or three pitchers available that day. If that happens, I’d like to see this team win 25 or more games this year, and I think that’s possible.

What would you do if you got some baseball-free, University of Chicago–free time?

If I had total free time and no obligations, I probably would find myself watching baseball somewhere. To me, it would be awfully relaxing and satisfying just to travel around in Arizona or south Florida this time of year and watch all the guys who are trying to make their bones in Major League Baseball do it.

Last question: White Sox or Cubs?

Sox. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, so that’s a no-brainer.

Elizabeth Station

RELATED READING

• "Beyond the Quads: Diamond Anniversary" (Core, Spring/Summer 2008)


• "Number Cruncher" (University of Chicago Magazine, Jul-Aug/08)


• "Fantasy League" (University of Chicago Magazine, Mar-Apr/07)


• "La Dolce Baseball" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug/06)

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Schedule: Maroon Baseball's 2009 Season Schedule


• Web site: Athletics Department

LEARNING FROM WHAT SIMON SAYS
"Management Guru: Herbert Simon" (Economist, Mar. 20, 2009)
Nobel laureate and economist Herbert Simon, AB'36, PhD'43, gave a name—satisficing—to the real-world behavior of finding what is "good enough."

STRAIGHT TO THE TOP
"Sandell Named Simon Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery" (Economist, Mar. 20, 2009)
Scientist Linda Sandell, who did postdoctoral work in molecular biology at the University of Chicago, studies gene regulation of extracellular matrix proteins and its influence on cell phenotype at Washington University in St. Louis.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE FAITH?
"Americans Reject Labels, Not Faith" (On Faith blog, Washington Post, Mar. 18, 2009)
Brad Hirschfield, AB'86—named one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek and one of the top 30 “Preachers and Teachers” by Beliefnet.com—writes that saying 'no' to your parents' religion "does not necessarily mean saying 'no' to faith and/or to God."

John Hope Franklin, professor emeritus of history, died Wednesday at Duke Hospital in Durham, NC. He was 94. James A. Rogerson, AM’69, PhD’80, shares his memories. Add your condolences below in the comments section.

I delivered a personal message to John Hope Franklin in 1967. At the request of my mother-in-law, I told him about the death of their mutual friend, the head reference librarian at the University of North Carolina’s Wilson Library, who helped him with his doctoral dissertation, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860. Their friend had made space for Franklin to work in her office and retrieved materials for him when, by law, he wasn’t allowed to use the library’s materials.

After reminiscing, Franklin asked about my studies, and I told him about my research in Czechoslovak history. He asked why I chose this area, and I told him that after the betrayal at Munich in 1938, Czechoslovaks were referred to as “a people of whom we know nothing” by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and I did not want that to happen again. As a Southerner—from North Carolina—I wanted to understand racism in the American South. But I did not think that as a white Southerner, I could be objective. If I could understand racism in East-Central Europe, I decided, I could understand it everywhere.

After this first meeting, Franklin recommended me in 1970 for the University of Chicago doctoral program, and ten years later I completed my doctorate in East-Central European history.

The second time I met Franklin at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte at a 2007 event. He was there to speak about his autobiography Mirror to America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005). He signed my book, and I thanked him for his recommendation at the U of C. He was gracious, and we spent time catching up.

Looking back, I am one "redneck" who is grateful and proud that Franklin's reach was broad enough to include me.

RELATED READING

• "John Hope Franklin, Distinguished Historian, 1915-2009" (News Office, Mar. 25, 2009)


• "History in the News: John Hope Franklin" (Department of History, March 2009)


• "John Hope Franklin, 1915-2009: Noted African-American Historian, Scholar" (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 26, 2009)


• "Obituary: John Hope Franklin" (Guardian, Mar. 27, 2009)

LIFE AFTER CAMPAIGNING
"5 Questions with: Charlie Wheelan" (Chicago Public Radio blog, Mar. 6, 2009)
After finishing sixth with 7 percent of the vote in the primary race to fill Illinois's Fifth District congressional seat, Charles Wheelan, PhD’98, goes back to living a normal life: "It feels like that post-final exam period in college, only I feel like I just finished three months of finals."

ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR
"What Is Transhumanism?" (Exception Magazine, Mar. 23, 2009)
In an editorial about technological progress and medical care, Russell Blackfrod and Parijata Mackey, '09, ask: "Is transhumanism too outlandish, too futuristic to be taken seriously?"

A CLOSER LOOK AT HEALTHCARE REFORM
"Should We Finesse One of Reform's Thorniest Issues?" (The Treatment blog, New Republic, Mar. 23, 2009)
Public-health-policy researcher Harold Pollack writes that the "proposed public health care plan's bargaining power over providers is a feature rather than a bug."