Divers Notes & Observations

We're indebted to the New York Review of Books, and commentator Garry Wills, for this one: "They made a handsome couple, sitting on the aisle of Spaulding Auditorium-too well-dressed, it seemed, to be students; though they are, in fact, Dartmouth seniors, she majoring in chemistry, he in mathematics. I asked why they had come to hear Pat Buchanan speak, and he answered, with an elegant British accent: 'I just want to see a man who could say words I thought no human being capable of.' What words, for instance? He pointed to Buchanan sayings that had been handed out in front of the auditorium. 'If we had to take a million immigrants, say, Zulus next year, or Englishmen, and put them up in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate?' Why did that quote disturb him? 'Because we're Zulus,' said Mdudzi Keswa; and Chuma Mbalu nodded ruefully."

Paul Tsongas '62, Dartmouth's first serious presidential candidate since Nelson Rockefeller '30 made his runs in 1964 and 1968, appeared too last week, for a workout in Spaulding Pool the afternoon before his talk in Webster Hall. With a mighty cannonball at one end, he thoroughly drenched a corps of photographers and reporters, then did a couple of dozen laps freestyle, shook hands with all 16 members of the women's swim team, and finally, with a half-length handicap from varsity breaststroker Josh Tobin '92, just touched him out. At this writing, six days and an inexhaustible number of TV commercials before primary day, this other race of Tsongas's could still be anybody's, though Richard Nixon has said that Tsongas was too responsible a man to be nominated by the Democrats.

It will soon pass, but it's flattering, while it lasts, to live in a state that's so much in the national spotlight. The Washington Post's Richard zorin, denying that "the state's immensely disaffected and angry voters just can't wait to send Bush a message tied to a granite rock on primary day," says that we're pretty much "like the rest of the country in politically important ways." Not so David Shribman '76, in the Wall Street Journal: "New Hampshire is, as anyone born, reared or educated here will tell you, different....There's something in the wolf-winds, or in the stony fields, that sets it apart. Something in the tax code, too—no broad-based sales or income tax here....A remarkable number of people have their first names on their license plates. You can still buy anything from a snow plow to a cutlery set at Nichols Hardware in Lyme—and come away with advice about how to clean either of them." And closer to home, we got a kick out of what Sports I11 ustrated's Alexander Wolff said about the Upper Valley: "Ground zero for the region is the intersection of Interstates 89 and 91-White River Junction, also known as Food/Phone/Gas/Lodging, Vt." Wolff also mentions the "clapboard-quaint villages of Wilder, Norwich and Thetford"; "the antique-infested towns of Quechee and Woodstock"; and "the Dartmouth faculty ghettos of Hanover, Etna and Lyme."

Well, Carnival passed quietly. UVM continues unbeatable on the slopes. Not enough snow for the jump. One unscheduled event worth noting: driving past Occom Pond, reminiscing on the oval where speedskater Jack Shea '34 trained for his double gold-medal win at Lake Placid in 1932, we noticed a crowd huddled around something on the other side. We parked quickly at the Outing Club House, and gingerly made our way along the edge—to where a succession of students were stripping to their shorts, diving into an eight-footsquare hole that had been sawn in the ice, and climbing out of the frigid and murky water on a ladder. We could ascertain no reason for the derring-do; neither keg nor can was nearby; and after we had asked too many questions, we began to get the sort of looks that hinted maybe we too were a prospective polar bear, willing or unwilling, so we left.

Carnival reminded us that we should have reminded you earlier of the induction into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame, in Colorado Springs, of Secretary of the College Mike McGean '49 and his late wife, Lois '84. The McGeans, among the pioneers of ice dancing, were twice U.S. and once world title holders in the sport. Mike recalled their favorite outdoor evening Carnival performance, in Memorial Stadium, the steps in the stands packed with snow—and the Outing Clubbers skiing down from the top rows, carrying torches, surrounding Mike and Lois as they glided over the frozen surface of the flooded football field.

Compared to the shocking eightfigure deficits and surgical budget cuts faced by institutions such as Yale, Columbia, and Stanford, Dartmouth has emerged with a relatively small ($2.5 million) spending trim for the coming year, a tuition increase of 6.1 per cent, the administration's five major priorities intact, and, after three financially foresightful years, a balanced budget. Even The Dartmouth's editors, while bemoaning the lack of student input into what should and should not be cut, had a grudging word of praise for "Dartmouth's portfolio managers—may your wise counsel and business acumen continue to move Dartmouth above and beyond the means of competing schools." Among the priorities rumored to be threatened continues to be the Skiway. Though a not inconsequential expense by any means, it is everyone's hope that some way will be found to maintain this unique embodiment of Dartmouth's outdoor tradition.

The Review, incidentally, carried a well-researched and temperate plea for the Skiway in a recent issue. Not so their editors' low-balling of the Alumni Fund, now $448,000 ahead of last year, and the Capital Campaign, now at $ 157 million, well ahead of its four-month time line. (This figure includes the magnificent gift of $5.5 million just given by Charles Collis '37 and his wife Ellen, to expand College Hall and the existing Collis Center into an entirely new student center). We also question the Review's obsessional trashing of President Freedman, who disappointed them by not taking the Harvard job last year, and whom they now are pushing for president of U-Mass. (Gentlemen, we suspect Freedman will be here when you are in the wide, wide world, hard at work digging up the dirt for the Undermining Foundation.)

We did a little dire predicting of our own last month, and the basketball team has made us a liar by successively defeating Penn, Yale, and Brown and rising to second in the Ivies, to superhuman Princeton. The hockey team has also clawed its way out of the ECAC cellar, though not by much. And though she was two places short of an Olympic bronze, the fifthplace finish of Cammy Myler '92 in the women's luge was as high as any U.S. slider has ever placed in this heart-stopping event.

Those of you who recall the days of bitter competitive haberdashery between the Co-op and Campion's will be interested, if not fascinated, to know that Gene Kohn and Allen Stowe, both '6O, present owners of the Co-op, have leased and are relentlessly remodeling the space in the Hanover Inn building just vacated by Campion's—so again Main Street will boast two across-the-street clothing emporia, though one ownership. And you will also be pleased to know that—possibly as a result of this magazine's article last month on Thayer food—Pete Napolitano, director of Dartmouth Dining Services, dropped us a note: "Just got a package of silverware from an alum with a note saying 'thanks for the ten-year loan.'"

President Bush might have saved himself that controversial trip to Japan if he had learned in time, as our operatives have just told us, that the new Mustang, unveiled in great secrecy at the Thayer School two weeks ago, is the work of a Ford design team headed by Will Boddie '67, Th' 69. Or, if you prefer another ending but of similar relevance, how about this 17-syllable opus composed by former Detroiter Lem Bowen '37 for his ILEAD class in Haiku:

Smart young Nihan kids Grow up, build good motor cars. lacocca weeps.

Would-be PresidentBuchanan attracts thekeen attention ofDartmouth Zulus.