Some DOGS WE MISSED
Dogs Have Their Day
COMPLIMENTS ON YOUR ARTICLE ["Dogs Clamantis in Deserto," (May)], which stirred memories of a magnificent Samoyed who roamed the campus in the mid-1970s.
Odin spent a lot of time around Robinson Hall, where I was on the editorial board of The D. I recall many cold evenings emerging from Robinson, having just hammered out another thunderous editorial on some critical aspect of Dartmouth life, such as congestion around the Thayer Hall salad bar. As I'd set my remorseful path towards Baker Library, a full night of '02 Room study ahead of me, Odin would glide through the night, white fur proud and elegant in the crisp winter air, eyes sharp and joyous. He'd toss a quick nod of his head in my direction in recognition of my edit page striving. Just as quickly he would be off again, busily making his rounds. Yet I'd feel refreshed and renewed thanks to his canine acknowledgment.
I've forgotten the editorials I wrote, and the crises of the day that provoked them, but I've not forgotten Odin, who was both a prince among Samoyeds and a keen and discerning critic of New England collegiate journalism.
San Brund, Calofornia
I SEARCHED IN VAIN FOR ANY MENTION of the quixotic "Mad Dog" (circa 1976-78) in your otherwise entertaining article. Mad Dog deserved to be highlighted in the article. Nay, because Mad Dog was the quintessential Dartmouth dog, his visage not the pretty purebred should have graced the cover.
Like Sisyphus, there was no quit in Mad Dog. Whether Corvette or dump truck, Mad Dog raced them all down the length of the Green. But, unlike Sisyphus, Mad Dog's relentless racing was not a hellish punishment to be endured. Rather, Mad Dog raced for the sheer fun of it. It mattered not whether there was victory or defeat. The joy was in the race, not the result.
On that sad day when I learned that Mad Dog had been incarcerated in the pound, I was moved to write my first and only letter to the Daily Dartmouth protesting the injustice of that repressive action. And I am compelled now to voice my objection to the exclusion of Mad Dog, who so admirably represented the indefatigable Dartmouth spirit, from "Dogs Clamantis in Deserto."
Abilene, Texas
MUCH AS I ENJOYED THE MAY issue, had it been thoroughly vetted by your proofreaders, it would have discovered that the canine pictured with President Ernest Martin Hopkins is (A) not Bruce and (B) not a Scottish deerhound but a mastiff.
Little Compton, Rhode Island
You're right, and we're sorry.
Keep the Shop
I AM WRITING TO OBJECT TO THE decision to close the metalworking shop. No, I am not a "metalworker." But I made extensive use of the woodworking and jewelry-making workshops, both of which benefited directly from the metalworking shop's ability to provide tools, equipment, repair, and support. Classmates made use of the facility to explore untested design issues and complete engineering projects. Friends learned valuable skills that enabled them to build, refine, or maintain tools, engines, and equipment that contributed to the self-sufficiency so highly touted in the liberal arts curriculum.
More than 680 students have completed projects in one or more of the Hopkins Center Student Workshops over the last two years. They are there because working with the hands and the mind in tandem, in dialogue, in communion is an important aspect of life and learning.
I currently design and write training programs for Fortune 1000 companies. Much of my job involves undoing the damage of needlessly circumscribed and limiting definitions of "education." I must reintroduce the value of experiential learning, of fun. How do these values get lost? By budget cutters who view anything nonacademic as superfluous.
Evergreen, Ccolorado
The closing of the metal workshopseems to have touched a fairly large chord;so far more than a dozen letters have arrived from alumni wishing to keep theworkshop open.
Mentoring Notes
AS ONE OF THE RECIPIENTS OF the Presidential Medal for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement, I make some observations concerning our mentors. Of the 72 honorees, 39 listed only one mentor; most of the others listed two or three. The professor mentioned more often than any other was Royal C. Nemiah, who taught Greek from 1919 to 1959. This tribute to a professor in the classics suggests that a traditional liberal arts education is still relevant in today's world.
Many honorees, of course, entered professions which their mentors had graced. For example, second-place chemistry professor Leon B. Richardson '00, was listed by two chemistry professors and a "scientist." Sharing second place was Eugen F.M. Rosenstock-Huessey, a former diplomat. Two of the three citing him are diplomats. Several current alumni in the athletic field cited coaches. Interestingly, the Dartmouth alumnus most prominent on the national scene today, Paul Tsongas '62, cited swimming coach Karl R. Michael '29.
To me, a college or university administrator for 50 years, it is gratifying that Dartmouth presidents and deans are listed as mentors. President Hopkins and President Kemeny are listed twice, President Dickey once. Dean Syvertsen is listed three times, deans Bill, Dey and Seymour, once. We administrators like to think that we too have an influence on individual students!
Kingsto, Rhode Island
Libraries Are Fun
IN THE EDITOR'S NOTE PRECEDING May's article on campus social life ["Partying: A Peer Review," you say you asked John Scalzi to write because he attended the University of Chicago, "a place where the library is the center of fun." This implies that library and fun are words that only a pencil-necked geek could equate.
At the risk of being branded Queen Geek, I'd like to point out that many libraries are indeed fun. They provide meeting space for campus organizations; they host readings, receptions, films, and concerts; they exhibit materials on every aspect of popular culture; they encourage playful interaction, laughing, and discussion (in full voice); they even lend books ranging from nuclear physics texts to best-sellers.
With a little more support, emotional and financial, and fewer pejorative comments, Dartmouth might be encouraged to develop non-traditional library programs that even the most stalwart partier would enjoy.
Auastin, Texas
Jews as Nationality
Proffessor Jeffrey Hart '51 "Syllabus," February] speaks of Jews as being a people or a nation or a race rather than people who are of a religious persuasion. Otherwise, why did he speak of the Germans, Irish, Jews, Italians and Poles? For his information, there are Jews of German nationality, of Irish nationality, of Italian nationality, of Polish nationality, and of American nationality. For a man who presumes himself so learned, how could he write of Jews as a nationality?
It is interesting that he speaks of John F. Kennedy and Andrew Young as WASPS but does not name anyone of Jewish persuasion as a WASP. It is a pity that this man who is such a defender of Western culture seems to be ignorant of one of Thomas Jefferson's three most important accomplishments: the Virginia statute with respect to freedom of religion.
Montgoomery, Alabama
JEFFREY HART REPLIES:
Mr. Weil's letter is difficult to "reply" to since it makes no connection I can discern with the essay I published in the DAM.
Insofar as I can estimate the tendency of Mr. Weil's letter, it belongs to the fashionable new genre of "I gotta ethnic grievance" against someone, in this case me. All of this is awfully boring.
Now Mr. Weil does raise a question about the relationship of Jewishness to religion, in this case Judaism. "How could he write of Jews as a nationality?" But of course people who considered themselves Jews let the examples suffice of Leon Trotsky, Sidney Hook, Robert Moses were not at all of a "religious persuasion."
Egad, but I really cannot see the relevance here of Thomas Jefferson on freedom of religion. Does Air. Weil, in some confused portion of his brain, fantasize that I am against freedom of religion?
