No Longer a Juggernaut?

The Review, Reviewed

Michael Cannell's "Whatever Happened to The Dartmouth Review?" (January 1997) is an absorbing overview of the rise and demise of a notoriously nasty publication. Unfortunately, what Cannell's piece offers in the way of entertainment it sometimes lacks in historical accuracy. It excessively attributes The Review's fall to President Freedman's leadership, for example, while virtually ignoring the important contributions of Dartmouth's undergraduates and faculty toward the same outcome.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

After reading William S. Kartalopoulos's piece, "Why I Left The Review," I was hoping he would have been a typical "silly, silly" sophomore, and his contention that, "There's nothing more pathetic than a group of 20-somethings writing for a group of 60-somethings" would be at least understandable. But, William, you are supposed to be a "wise old" senior!

Although the comments were directed at "old, wealthy," right-wing Review supporters, I feel that the paint from his "pathetic" brash has also splattered onto the entire Dartmouth 60-something community. Please consider that if only a few of "you" are writing for "us," for the last four decades, year in and year out, most of "us" have been writing a few but very powerful words for "you." Our words are signatures written on thousands of checks totaling millions of annual dollars, most of which are for the benefit of Dartmouth 20-somethings like you.

WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA CBRU07A@PRODIGY.COM

As a former staff writer, I never defended The Review's more outrageous escapades, and I eventually left the paper as a result of them. But The Review's greatest offense has been offense itself; it simply is not and never has been guilty of racism, anti-Semitism, etc., unless those terms have been broadened to include basically mainstream positions which run afoul of the academy's world view. Provocative and even nasty presentation, though anti-social, suggests immaturity, not moral deficiency.

Despite occasional campus chaos, Dartmouth is still a better place intellectually because The Review was there. As you grudgingly admit, its diminished importance reflects a changing world in which many core conservative values have been vindicated. By contrast, the magazine hasn't even bothered to ask, "What ever happened to Stet?" Speaking of which, what did ever happen to Stet?

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Your one-sided diatribe against The Dartmouth Review attempted to sully The Review's national reputation in ways that the College administration was never able to do. The article misses the point entirely. The Dartmouth Review won its case long ago. Single-handedly, it shook up the faculty into being more responsible to its teaching duties and helped to weed out incompetence. The Review has exposed intellectually deficient courses. In spite of attempts to throttle it, The Review has brought to the campus opportunities for students to hear a conservative point of view.

We look forward to the return of responsible articles in your next issue.

ETNA, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Curmudgeoned

One of the many things I learned at Thayer School was that no one who would call himself an engineer would ever call a concrete sidewalk a "cement" sidewalk. Concrete is composed of sand, aggregate, water, and cement. In his article about campus pavements in the January issue, Noel Perrin refers to "cement" sidewalks many times, which leads me to believe he did not attend the Thayer School of Engineering.

FORT MEYERS, FLORIDA

Beta

It was with a sense of sadness that I learned the College has shut Beta down. I was proud to be a Beta during my college days and as an alumnus. How many '25 Betas are still alive, I do not know, but I speak for at least one to express the sense of shame upon hearing the news. Sure, we did some drinking in the '20s— going to Wilder for applejack and Canada for whisky during Prohibition. We did some hazing and imported "dates" for the Winter Carnival. But we never went overboard. I only hope someday the local chapter turns itself around and is reinstated. Dartmouth does not deserve this problem.

WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

Mister Bike

The handsome guy assisting the beautiful Miss Bike in your January photo, is, I'm confident, my late brother-in-law George MacIver T'58. George used to talk glowingly about officiating at this annual bicycle race. Ruth (his sister) and I would love to have confirmation and recollections from George's Tuck School buddies.

NEW LONDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE

More Characters

I enjoyed "A Bunch of Characters" by Jane Hodges '92 (January). My wife's brother-in-law, the thriller-novelist Stephen Hunter, also used a Dartmouth character in a novel: The Master Sniper. "The doctor, a stocky, blunt Dartmouth grad with thick clean hands and the mannerism of an irritated bear..." is a forensic pathologist characterizing me. I suspect that Ms. Hodges's list only scratches the surface of "Dartmouth in Literature."

DAYTON, OHIO

Overlooked in Jane Hodges's guide to fictionalized Dartmouth alumni is James Salter, the genius of lean prose, who puts a Dartmouth character in one of the short stories in his collection, Dusk, winner of the 1989 PEN/Faulkneraward. Salterwrites: "Eddie Fenn was a carpenter though he'd gone to Dartmouth and majored in history.. ..He had, at one time, almost become a naturalist. Something in him, his silence, his willingness to be apart, was adapted to that."Not sure where Fenn fits in Hodges's schema of character types as he's too preciously sensitive to be a Marlboro Man.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

In Raymond Chandler's novel Trouble isMy Business, the detective Philip Marlowe encounters a guy named George who works as a chauffeur, errand boy, and general tough guy for some very rich people: "We sat with some of Miss Harriet Huntress' Scotch in our glasses and looked at each other across the rims. George looked nice with his cap off. His head was clustered over with wavy dark-brown hair and his teeth were very white and clean. He sipped his drink and nibbled a cigarette at the same time. His snappy black eyes had a cool glitter in them.

"'Yale?' I asked.

"'Dartmouth, if it's any of your business.'

'"Everything's my business. What's a college education worth these days?'

"'Three squares and a uniform,' he drawled."

Perhaps George's attitude to the value of education accounts for where he ended up?

HULTIN@CC.UMANITOBA.CA

At the end of her article on fictional Dartmouth grads, Jane Hodges speculates on the motives and strategies of their creators. Here's one she missed: the expression of disdain, even spite, for Dartmouth.

Charley Gray, Dartmouth circa 1926, the protagonist of Point of No Return by John P. Marquand, is a 40-something banker in mild midlife crisis, a hollow man beginning to tune in on his interior reverberations. His father, a Harvard drop-out, had been griped when his son went to Dartmouth. "'Dartmouth,' he said, 'lt is, sirs, a small college and yet there are those who love it. His marks are bad enough and he likes football, but if he can get into Harvard or Yale, why not Amherst or Brown?"' Of course, serious preparation is necessary: "And learn how to play golf...learn a few skills before he goes to Dartmouth."

Dartmouth is an impediment and embarrassment to Charley throughout his career, "but in recent years he no longer felt any particular handicap. He had lunched at the Harvard Club often enough to find his own way to the checkroom." You can't run away from it—he moves to New York, but "the New York banks he dealt with were fall of Harvard and Yale men." The taint is indelible "Mr. Stokes had never forgotten that Charley had gone to Dartmouth"—but you do get credit for being a Credit to your College: "But you never acted like a Dartmouth man," Mr. Stokes said. "Moulton always said so. He always said he shouldn't have let you go.'"

You might possibly expunge the smirch with fire and blood: "His having gone to the war would have been a gesture that could have erased the educational stigma. It would have been almost as good as being on a Harvard team." You must take care not to pass it on to your children. Charley's son '"wants to go to Exeter.' It doesn't matter so much where he goes if you're going to send him to Dartmouth,' Mr. Stokes said. I hope you're not going to send that boy to Dartmouth.'"

This novel has brought me great relief. In this Age of the Victim, the burden of being a white, male, European has been crushingly amplified by my educational background. I have had no one to blame for my failures but my parents. But now I understand that I bear a horrible stigma. I am a Survivor of Dartmouth (SOD—let's form a support group). Now, with something to blame for all my problems, I can crawl forward in life with head held high. I feel so much better now. Don't you?

EL CERRITO, CALIFORNIA

You have probably been flooded with messages from irate alums suggesting other Dartmouth characters that Jane Hodges missed, but she did forget my favorite, Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless. They appear in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, when she is talking with her beau, Buddy Willard. His mouth stiffens when she tells Buddy of her date with Peter and Walter: "I guess Buddy never read much history."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Dear Vox

I was delighted to read Noel Perrin's tribute to Baker's Oracle (December), but disheartened to read that the "higher-ups in Baker" have silenced Vox, deeming it a distraction of employees' time. My own question to Vox came after graduation: I asked Vox via postcard to translate the Hebrew words on the college seal, and the considerate sage mailed me an explanatory Xeroxed page from a College-history book. Now that's service! (The seal reads, by the way, "El Shaddai" - God Almighty.)

I suggest a modified incarnation of Vox: Instead of library staff conducting the research, have them farm it out to a cadre of students. This would preserve Vox, while offering some quirky but useful research training to students, who might well be honored to carry on this tradition.

Dear Vox: Does the College know your worth?

BRUCE_CHAFEE@BMUGBOS.ORG

It was with astonishment and regret that I read of the demise of the Vox in Noel Perrin's "Curmudgeon" column. Senior year a good friend visited me on campus for the weekend. My friend declared the Vox was "just the coolest thing" and wondered how she could engender a similar oracle at her own college.

Trapped for long hours that same year in a bleak and chilly Baker carrel, we found that the Vox afforded the most welcome, entertaining, and formative study breaks: we wore a path in the linoleum between bathroom, soda machine, and Vox. We composed questions to stump or challenge the Vox, or simply to find out the answers. My housemate Mark Surbaugh's request for the composition of household dust was duly satisfied—and to my knowledge Vox is the only entity to ever provide a thoroughly reasoned and convincing answer as to how much wood a wood-chuck could chuck if a woodchuck, in fact, could chuck wood.

It was in its own way a Dartmouth institution. Let the call ring out, then, through the Baker stacks and let the chorus rise and echo down the Reserve Corridor—for the sake of students past and for the students yet to come: "Come back, Vox—all is forgiven!!"

COBHAM, SURREY, ENGLAND

Shue

In response to "Shue Happens" (December 1996), I am anything but "sick of the inevitable connection people make between Dartmouth and Andrew Shue." As an old friend, I am actually proud of this connection. Having founded Do Something, a nationally RECOGNIZED community service organization, Andrew is doing wonderful things with his good fortune.

I think the photo showing Andrew's face covered with darts was tasteless, mean-spirited and downright inappropriate; such a good guy really deserves better imagery. Maybe you can make it up to him and "do something" by penning a story on his community service commitment.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

I know Jake Tapper's article on Andrew Shue '89 was meant to be a half-serious piece on the artistic mediocrity of Melrose Place and the Dartmouth connection with one of its main characters. However, I take exception to Tapper's phrasing and tone. His summary that "whether you resent the guy or not" is excessive and, in fact, not funny. Shue doesn't write or produce the show, he acts in it, and is successful, theatrical merit aside. Whether it lives up to our glorious standards as a community, or why we are apparently embarrassed by this "connection" is beyond me. It's TV, so what, and good for him.

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

Great Book

Any Dartmouth alumni who need reassurance as to the principles and purposes of their college should read President James O. Freedman's new book: Idealismand Liberal Education.

No Dartmouth president in this century has set forth so clearly what our institution is all about. Suggestion to alumni clubs that give Dartmouth Book Awards to promising high school students each spring: In the spring of 1997 give the Freedman book.

VERO BEACH, FLORIDA

Falsum Diploma

You published an ad for a firm called Diploma Display touting a handmade, "custom made" photo/frame combination for our Dartmouth diplomas. Custom indeed! The sample pictured in the ad combines a lovely photo of Dartmouth Hall with a diploma in Latin from St. Lawrence University in New York (Canton, I think, but the Latin gives only the state). Did Diploma Display really think that no Dartmouth alum would either a) look so closely or b) actually be able to read a Latin diploma? My classics degree made me quite popular in my row at Commencement.

PH.D. CLASSICAL LANGUAGES, BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, 1993 ABRAHAMSEN@CSU-E.CSUOHIO.EDU

Mad Dogs and OtherMascots

Tonight, while reading Steve Lough's letter advocating the Jack Russell Terrier as Dartmouth's mascot, I was reminded of another dog that lived in Hanover. He, or she (it being after 1972), was affectionately known around campus as "Mad Dog" for his/her propensity to chase cars around the Green. Mad Dog chased cars with abandon, with great skill, and pure joy, focused on his/her goal as if Truth itself lay just beyond the next bumper. To my knowledge, Mad Dog never caught so much as a Volkswagen Beetle, but is it not the very essence of Dartmouth to teach that it is the pursuit of excellence, knowledge, and truth that matters, not mounting them above one's mantle? Nearly 20 years ago, a student nominated Mad Dog to be Dartmouth's mascot, and having allowed the idea to gestate sufficiently, I am now writing to second the motion.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

Let there be no dragons loosed in our land, neither "Puff the Magic" nor especially the "Dartmouth Dragons." Aside from the tedious alliteration there is little that I can see to recommend a dragon as our mascot. How about "The Dartmouth Granite." A name right from our Alma Mater. A name linked to our place in the hills of New Hampshire. Moreover granite has positive qualities. It's hard, durable and elemental. So let us cry "Go Granites "...Crush those Lions, Tigers, and Bears...oh my!

NAPLES, FLORIDA

I hope I am the first to come up with this coined nickname: GRANITEERS. Just as Oklahoma has its Sooners, which ties in with the history and traditions of the area, GRANITEERS would stand for what New Hampshire is known for nationwide. It would signify strength and durability, which most athletic teams consider desirable qualities. Moreover, it could easily be the basis for an attractive logo— the well-known profile of New Hampshire's most famous landmark, the Old Man of the Mountain. This logo could grace the helmets of the football players and be displayed on all the uniforms of the various men's and women's teams.

HOUSTON, TEXAS DZFLOLA@PRODIGY.COM

Tribute to a '38

In reference to the book review of MyFather's War by Peter Richmond (January 1997), Tom Richmond was a member of Dartmouth '38, not '30. Richmond won the Silver Star medal on two separate occasions, one of only 20 marines to do so during WWII. Actions leading to the second Silver Star, and his last combat, along with the near destruction of the First Marine Division, took place on the nightmare island of Peleliu (not Peliliu as spelled in the review). The echoes fade. The men who made them grow old. As Wordsworth wrote: "Old unhappy far off things,

And battles long ago." I hope you will notify Dartmouth '38 of this tribute to their classmate. Some may remember—and be justly proud.

CAMBRIDGE, NEW YORK

Prior to World War II, the only colleges in New England where the U.S. Marine Corps could recruit officer candidates were Dartmouth and Boston College. As a result, the majority of the junior officers at Guadalcanal were graduates of both schools. Tom Richmond was one of them.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

The Writung Biz

A statement made in Elisa Murray's article "The Novel in You" (December 1996) got under my skin. Ms. Murray scribes, "don't place all the blame on the publishing houses; they just respond to market trends." Like iron filings to a magnet perhaps? Why not blame the publishing houses? Do they contain inanimate beings? Is slopping the trough of the stockholder the only good? I'm aware that slopping the trough is reality—but should there be no conscience at home minding the creative fires?

BOLINAS, CALIFORNIA

I find Murray's grim portrayal of the publishing industry to be an accurate one. I have had similar experiences. Regarding The First Book of Timothy, one well-known agent wrote to me that, "The writing is sophisticated, elegant, and (I hope this will be taken in the best way) very European. All of which, of course, makes me very fearful for your book's fate. Things in American publishing are about as bad as they have ever been for strong, serious fiction." Sadly, that is not a laughing matter. It calls for savage satire and ridicule, but who wins?

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

The Millennial Class

I was offended by the pompous, selfcongratulatory article concerning the class of '00. In an attempt to explain the steep rise in applications, the article pointed out the "good financial reasons" why parents and their children would choose to apply to Dartmouth. I felt it to be in very poor taste for this magazine to quote the average earning power of its alumni as a primary reason for application. I was reading this article while surrounded by my medical school classmates, the vast majority of whom went to state colleges and who have an image of Ivy Leaguers as pretentious snobs. The article confirmed their poor opinion, and it was highly embarrassing.

Dartmouth has always been the least intellectual of the Ivy schools, a place with a high number of what we use to call "pre-wealth" majors. It is unfortunate that this magazine wishes to foster that attitude.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY COAT@NWU.EDU

Rather than "Ought-Ought," might I suggest "Double Ought" as the sobriquet for the class of 2000. From a historical point of view, No. 00 Buck was once a popular hunting load in the South. It was also used for prison chasing and riot control in the U.S. Marine Corps.

And while buckshot with its references to violence and blood sports is probably not sensitive enough for the class entering the new millennium, I think "Double Ought" has a good ring to it.

MARYSVILLE, WASHINGTON

The November issue's insightful look at the Class of 2000 and the strengths of the College as we approach the millennium should give great pride to alumni, as well as Trustees, faculty, and administrators. All too often we look to the magazine mostly for an extension of the warm camaraderie of our own college years, but the facts and figures you have presented are a quite fascinating reflection of the College today.

Those articles, reflecting on the College's learning values, the type of students, the selection process, and the financial and endowment needs, say much that all families with future college students should understand in judging how any of America's top universities are positioned for the next century. In particular, Dean Furstenberg's "The Great Admissions Funnel" would interest every serious admissions consultant and many parents.

Good luck to the Class of 2000, characterized by Dean Furstenberg as "an extremely talented and interesting group of young people." They're also fortunate to be students at a college with wonderful traditions and a bright future!

JAMESBURG, NEWJERSEY

The recent heralding of the class of 2000 as Dartmouth's brightest, largely on the basis of their higher SAT scores, is a somewhat dubious conclusion. As of April 1, 1995, the Educational Testing Service arbitrarily decided to "re-center" the scores. For example, scores of 500 verbal and 500 math on previous exams would currently be the equivalent of 580 and 520, respectively. For such a basic statistic, one that is used for employment, school admissions, and as a yardstick of relative intelligence, readjusting the SAT was not a prudent move. It is a typically American response.

EAST BRUNSWICK, NEWJERSEY

DEAN OF ADMISSIONS KARL FURSTENBERG REPLIES: The claim that the Class of 2000 isthe brightest in Dartmouth's history is basednot only on standardized test results but alsothe high school performance of entering students. The combination of SAT I, SAT II(formerly called the Achievements), and highschool class rank data place the Class of 2000at the highest level in history, or at least aslong as such data has been collected. TheSAT scores of earlier Dartmouth classeshave been converted to the new SAT scale sothat comparisons are meaningful.

Brown Dartmouth

Last year, a group of students calling themselves "Dartmouth is B.R.0.W.N." (Building Real Options for Wrecking Nature) honored Senator Slade Gorton '49 for being one of Dartmouth's "most environmentally destructive alumni." Students gave the mock "Golden Stump Award" to Senator Gorton for his efforts in drafting the 1995 Salvage Logging Rider. We have decided to continue the tradition this year by presenting the second annual "Golden Stump Award" to another prominent and "environmentally destructive" Dartmouth alum.

However, this year we would like to add a second honor, the "Big Green Award," to recognize an alum who has made "a great contribution to grassroots environmental activism." We know that there are many alumni/ae out there who are fighting hard on a grassroots level to educate communities about environmental issues, protect landscapes, and ensure a more sustainable future. We are taking nominations for both awards and especially need suggestions for the "Big Green Award."

Please send your nominations by April 15th to:

HB 148, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE HANOVER, NH 03755 MATTHEW.R.BABINEAU@DARTMOUTH.EDU JIM HOURDEQUIN '97 ANN MELANDER '97

Middle Age Spread

I have been getting this publication for some 45 years, and I don't know whether you have noticed it or not, but some staffer is enjoying a great private joke at our expense: over the years my Class Notes have not remained in their appropriate place in the later pages, but have been surreptitiously creeping toward the front cover. THIS MUST STOP!

DHR@ATL.MINDSPRING.COM

Battles still swirl over The Review.

Mister Bike?