Newsmakers
QUOTE/UNQUOTE "I like characters who mess up. GREY'S ANATOMY CREATOR SHONDA RHIMES '91, IN ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY DECEMBER 29
told the Valley News that the most difficult question he faced was, "The Lusatian Mountains, part of the Sudeten Range, form part of the border between which two countries? He correctly responded, Germany and the Czech Republic." Haines returned to Dartmouth in January to resume his studies as a music major and government minor, explaining his sabbatical to the Valley News: "I wanted to have a great idea of what I wanted to do and go with it. And I realized sometime last year that that wasn't going to happen. You don't have the luxury of knowing what you want to do with your life. You just live your life, and take the opportunities that come along.".. .Calling it "a propulsive horror novel so unnerving and elegant it transcends the genre," Entertainment Weekly rated The Ruins by Scott Smith '87 No. 2 on the magazines list of best fiction for 2006....F0rmer Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Reggie Williams '76 was featured in a photo essay chronicling the pro football-related injuries of current and former NFL players in the November issue of Play, the sports magazine of The New York Times. Despite suffering a concussion and undergoing two knee operations during the course of his 14-year career, Williams missed only a few games due to injury. In October 2005 he had both knees replaced and has since undergone three follow-up procedures to address complications. "I still have scars from Astroturf bums that have lasted 20-plus years," says Williams, now vice president of Disney Sports Attractions....An article on neuroeconomics in the September 18 issue of TheNew Yorker featured Peter Sokol-Hessner '04, a second-year grad student working toward a doctorate in psychology at New York University. Sokol-Hessner is studying "loss aversion"—a term coined to describe people's dislike of losing money—and working on a research project that utilizes MRI technology to explain how neural processing influences economic decision-making....TheVillage Voice's annual "Pazz & Jop Critics Poll" was published in February, despite the recent ouster of longtime writer Robert Christgau '62, who started the poll in 1971. However, a number of the nations top music critics have elected not to participate this year. "He was one of three or four people who invented rock criticism," Sasha FrereJones of The New Yorker explained on NPR's Morning Edition in January. "When you fire Bob Christgau, you know, it's a slap in the face to so many of us in so many ways." Christgau was dismissed after 32 years by the Voice's new owners (for reasons of "taste," according to Christgau's Web site, www.robertchristgau.com). He is now a Rolling Stone contributing editor and a music critic for NPR's All Things Considered.
...Rachel Dratch '88 was featured in Time magazine's "People" section on November 27 in connection with her upcoming film, Spring Breakdown, which she co-wrote and produced. Co-starring Parker Posey and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Amy Poehler, the movie features a trio of thirtysomething friends who spice up their lives by vacationing at a popular college spring break destination. "It's Revenge of the Nerds meets Nine to Five" Poehler told Time. Dratch has also been making appearances on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, created by former SNL head scribe Tina Fey...Cyberonics chairman and CEO Robert "Skip" Cummins 76 resigned last November, along with the company's CFO, after a board committee concluded that "incorrect measurement dates were used for certain stock option grants made principally during the period from 1999 through 2003," reported the Houston Chronicle. According to USA Today, which published a special report investigating the Houston-based medical-implant maker in late November, Cyberonics is one of some 130 companies that are being investigated for options-backdating by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice. "We have nothing to hide," Cummins told USA Today last August, shortly after the SEC launched its investigation. As The New York Times noted in a December 10 article that included Cyberonics on a list of companies whose leaders have recently resigned, "Many companies caught up in the current option-backdating scandals have replaced senior executives, even when it has been unclear how much they knew."...Cinematographer Will Rexer '86 has three films coming out this year—Chris Rock's directorial debut, I Think I Love My Wife; actor/director Ed Burns's Purple Violets; and The Accidental Husband, starring Uma Thurman. Additionally, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, for which Rexer shot early footage and also produced, will be shown in select theaters this year. The documentary, about a North Carolina man who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 20 years, was directed by Anne Sundberg '90 and Ricki Stern '87. Last November the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the film was one of 15 on the Oscar "short list" for best documentary....Last October the expansion of George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens in northern Virginia met with great acclaim. Construction of the new 66,700-square-foot Ford Orientation Center and Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center was overseen by Sean Regan '91 and his real estate and construction consulting company, Regan Associates. What's wowing architecture critics is that two-thirds of these buildings are underground, beneath a 4acre pasture. "The new architecture shows how buildings can defer to, rather than dominate, the landscape, merging with the land yet still achieving appropriate aesthetic character and presence, not to mention energy-conserving sustainability," according to The Washington Post...."What brought me to L.A. was the surfing. Now I hardly surf anymore. I'm completely involved in writing these travel guides," Los Angelesbased James Kaiser '99 told the Bangor Daily News last November while discussing his forthcoming book on Yosemite National Park. His advice to those who want to write travel guides: pack lightly; quickly write down your first impressions; see as much of the area as possible on foot, bike, car and canoe; and talk to everyone you meet along the way because they'll provide local flavor and the best insider information... .After 14 years as executive director of the independent Minnesota News Council, which serves as a statewide ombudsman for the news media, longtime print and broadcast journalist Gary Gilson '57 retired from his post on December 1. "He has wanted (the organization) to grow beyond being a place for people to take grievances to an organization that promotes better understanding of how the media works," Jay Furst, managing editor of the RochesterPost-Bulletin and a news council member, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Peter Sokol-Hesner '04
QUOTE/UNQUOTE "if you're in a feat basement or something, you kind of stink afterwards, and you want to wear your jeans the next day." —EMILY WATSON '09, IN A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE JANUARY 3 ON THE GROWING USE OF AIR FRESHENERS IN COLLEGE DORMS
