Letters

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "This stupid, vituperative and fake biograph is nothing less than insulting. The editor should be fired immediately."

Truthiness

"I AM DARTMOUTH"—AND SO CAN You! I'm just writing to tell you what a great cover you had on the July/Aug issue. The "Truthiness Alert," his picture and raised eyebrow catch it all. When I worked on the Jacko we always enjoyed feedback so I thought DAM might, too.

My wife and I enjoy Colbert regularly I am a member of the Montclair Golf Club and so is Steven (Stephen). We haven't met him there yet, but a number of our friends have.

I smile or laugh every time I look at the Colbert cover. Thank you!

Montclair, New Jersey

IN HIS ACCOUNT OF STEPHEN Colbert's legendary years on the Hanover nover Green ["The Unknown and Unsung Undergraduate Days of Stephen Colbert '86," July/Aug] Bob Sullivan '75 forgot to mention Colbert's heartbreaking disappointment at not making the cut at Jacko tryouts because of his many clear and present deficiencies as a satirist. I believe the title of Colbert's failed tryout piece was "I am the Jacko: And so can you!" This was a hard moment, but plainly commentary, not humor, was Colbert's destiny.

In this, the 100th year of the Jacko, perhaps at last Colbert can be welcomed into the fold. Perhaps Sully [Robert Sullivan '75] can, too.

Knoxville, Tennessee

LOVED YOUR COVER FEATURING Stephen Colbert and the related story. Suspect not all alums will feel the same!

Norwell, Massachusetts

WOW! I AM SO ASHAMED OF DAM.

Until now I never thought of it as a mouthpiece for the administration but with this cover story I can't reach any other conclusion. I assume that this was an attempt at humor. If so, it fell remarkably wide of the mark.

At what point did it become acceptable to single out individual alums for ridicule and fallacious slurs on their characters? This does not represent the Dartmouth that I know and love.

The discourse related to the controversy of the governance of the College has been, until this point, civilized and fairly reported. This stupid, vituperative and fake biograph is nothing less than insulting to all of your readers. The editor should be fired immediately and Robert Sullivan should limit himself to nonfiction or perhaps just put down his pen.

If you had run this before the June 5 voting deadline, I'd bet the vote would have gone the other way.

New York City

ROBERT SULLIVAN'S ARTICLE WAS a disappointing piece of journalism. The most interesting part of Colbert's story, it would seem to me, would be his transformation from a Dartmouth Review loyalist to a first-rate comedian with a left-wing bent. In the absence of an actual interview with Colbert, however, the article relies primarily on petty anecdotes and "friend-of-a-friend" recollections of his awkward years in Hanover. Such writing is neither informative nor compelling; in fact it's rather dull.

Atlanta

DESPITE SULLIVAN'S ASSERTION,

Colbert appears to be more of an independent who leans left or right depending on the issue or guest. All his guests are equally exposed to his comedic satore. He also encourages them to have a dialogue while not taking themselves too seriously. I believe Colbert's success comes from the fact that his views seem to be in line with most Americans, somewhere in the middle, straying to one end or the other depending on the situation.

Perhaps the reason Colbert doesn't reminisce about Dartmouth is because he actually may not be proud of his participation in The Dartmouth Review. Sullivan used the shantytown incident as an example of Colbert's shining moment, but this incident put Dartmouth in the national spotlight negatively because of the Review's actions and indifference regarding the issue of apartheid. I believe this time was a low point in his life, one that he may not care to remember or embrace.

I believe that Colbert, like many of us during our time at Dartmouth, was finding his way and himself. In doing so, he may have embraced some extreme views to simply fit in and now as an older, wiser and more confident man, realizes this and has evolved. Maybe we can all learn something from Colbert. After all, if he is Dartmouth maybe we can too.

Royal Oak, Michigan

I WAS EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED by the full-page image sharing the title spread of "The Unknown and Unsung Undergraduate Days of Stephen Colbert. " In the 1970s Dartmouth chose to recommit to its founding obligation to educate Native Americans. Recognizing the unofficial symbol of the Dartmouth Indian that had been in use since the 1920s was "inconsistent with present institutional and academic objectives of the College in advancing Native American education," the board of trustees discontinued the use of it "in any form."

Although The Dartmouth Review and its supporters mounted an attempt to revive this symbol in the 1980s they were not successful. A cheerleading uniform such as the one presented on page 37 as well as the "Wah Hoo Wah" caption beneath it would never have been condoned by the administration nor would the majority of Dartmouth students have condoned it during Colbert's time on campus.

If you had chosen to use the presentation of this image as an opportunity to historicize the controversy surrounding the Dartmouth Indian in the mid1980s, then its appearance in an official publication of the College would be defensible. But as you make absolutely no mention of this controversy, the image and its caption function only as a reductive, insensitive slur.

The editorial board of DAM should issue an apology. The magazine should take care to use sensitive images such as that of the Dartmouth Indian and sensitive language such as "Wah Hoo Wah" only in the context of considered and thoughtful discussion of the impact they have.

Southport, Connecticut

DAM OWES AN APOLOGY TO LAURA Ingraham '85. For that matter, it owes an apology to all Dartmouth alumni. Your article on fictional alumnus Stephen Colbert smeared Ingraham by repeating, indeed expanding on, a crude piece of Colbert's shtick. Evidently it is okay to treat women, even Dartmouth alumnae (in this case a nationally renowned radio host and author), to crass innuendo so long as they are conservatives. Without doubt, howls of outrage would greet any such treatment of a liberal icon.

This latest display of low moral character by DAM is, sadly, not unexpected from the people who brought us a respectful feature ["Continuing Ed" interview with Bill Asher '84, May/June 2.004] on a captain of pornography.

Columbia, Maryland

Congratulations

I WAS THE STAFF WRITER AT THEPennsylvania Gazette when it won the Sibley and other awards, and I have served as a judge in several categories of CASE's publications competitions. I know exactly how great a magazine can be without winning—and how it has to be even better than great in order to win.

As an editor now, I know how hard it is to have everything, or almost everything, in every issue go just right. You managed that Herculean feat. I'm proud to have DAM in my house. You've made it so good that I read it from front to back—an almost unknown direction to take in one's own alumni magazine.

Philadelphia

When in Doubt, Wite Out

I WAS AMUSED BY THE OFF CAMPUS article on Jeff Deck '02 ["Copy Edit U.S.A.," July/Aug]. Years ago on a solo bike trip across our Northwest I found myself calculating that 39 percent of rural Americans—I was on back roadsgot the syntax of their surnames wrong on their mailboxes. I leave it to Deck to determine whether these are the same 39 percent who vote in presidential elections.

I vowed to write a monograph on apostrophes but have yet to do so. My life's work is not finished!

Brevard, North Carolina

ACCORDING TO CAROLYN KYLSTRA '08, Deck roamed the countiy in the name of grammatical correctness seeking out and destroying typos and misuses of the language. I wonder what Deck would have done if he had encountered a sign that read, "Go no further"?

We here at www.shadesofmeaning. com know what we would have done: Out would have come the paint to cover over the offending "u" and correct it with an "a." This misuse of "further" must go no farther!

So, in furtherance of that effort, the Shades of Meaning Police are issuing a citation to the editors of DAM for the penultimate sentence of the aforementioned article where Deck is quoted as saying, "This might go further." Either he was misquoted or (sic) should have followed the word further.

In the meantime, despite this possible grammatical hiccup by the crusading Deck, we here at Shades of Meaning wish him well and hope that he will go fur [sic]. Also, we want to assure Deck that there is no truth to the rumor that www.shadesofmeaning.com is considering a hostile takeover bid for www.jeffdeck.com/teal.

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Where the Heart Is

IMAGINE OUR SURPRISE WHEN MY husband, Jack Creamer '52, called me into his study and showed me a picture of a lovely home ["Form and Substance," July/Aug]. We were astounded. It just so happens we were a very small part of the history of that home way back in the 1950s, when my mother, Claire Larsen, married Hiram Blauvelt in 1954 and the home became a part of our life as well.

Thank you for giving my husband and me a look at the home and the history of its early days, as well as an insight into the talented architect who created such an outstanding home.

Scottsdale, Arizona

More Fiction

I READ WITH SOME AMUSEMENT the letter by Josh Nossiter '79 ["Letters, "Mar/Apr], In his letter he quotes with high dudgeon from a Web site that he believes to be that of the undergraduate Phrygian Secret Society. The problem? The site isn't real. It is a spoof, a parody. Its authorship is generally credited to members of the Jack-O-Lantem humor magazine. That the site is a parody was widely reported last fall when The New York Times was forced to issue a public correction for quoting from the same site. So to make sure Nossiter understands how this works—the "news articles" in The Onion are not true either. Katie Couric, real; Stephen Colbert, not real.

Did Nossiter seriously believe that a secret society would have a publicly available Web site where it posted material for the world to see?

Falls Church, Virginia

Write to Us We welcome letters. The editor reserves the right to determine the suitability of letters for publication and to edit them for accuracy and length. We regret that not all letters can be published, nor can they be returned. Letters should run no more than 200 words in length, refer to material published in the magazine and include the writer's full name, address and telephone number. Write: Letters, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, 7 Allen Street, Suite 201, Hanover, NH 03755 E-mail: DAMletters@dartmouth.edu Fax: (603) 646-1209