The Daily Princetonian
Thursday February 20, 2014
page s1
Morgan Young Class of 2016 Major: English Personality: Friendly (pronounced “Frandly”) Style: Eccentric
Winter Wear I S S U E
Photos by
and
Senior Photographer LU LU
Contributing Photographer LISA GONG
Interviewed by
Tucker Shanley Class of 2014 Major: Architecture Personality: Goofy Style: Preppy Hipster
Contributor LIZZIE BUEHLER
Nahrie Chung Class of 2016 Major: Woodrow Wilson School Personality: Deepfeeling Style: Vintage
Olivia Adechi Class of 2016 Major: Comparative Literature Personality: Busy Style: Threequarter rule
The Daily Princetonian
Thursday February 20, 2014
page s2
Jose Meza Architecture GS Personality: Boldly understated Style: neutral
Niels Moller Instructor in the math department Personality: I don’t really know Style: Scandinavian
Cong Wang Architecture GS Personality: Architectural Style: Architectural
WANTED: KRISTEN COKE Staff Writer
A
s the snow piles against my dorm entrance and my daily dance with the hellish black ice continues to provide endless entertainment for the squirrels, I dream of warmer weather, summer sunshine and shorts (really, all I want is to wear shorts). But alongside my dreams of relaxation comes my growing anxiety for the seemingly endless round of applications for internships. I flash back to Frosh Week, where we would tell tales of the wonderful times we had, how much we learned and the great people we met. But I want to call shenanigans on the whole thing. It’s high time, I think, to explore some of the realities we face in our summer internships. THE FIRST DAY Approaching your first day, you spend an inordinate amount of time looking for an outfit that reads professional but approachable, flexible but serious. Most importantly, it must project an image that says, “Yes, I’m cool but will definitely say yes if you want to eat lunch together.” As a result, you run in five minutes late to your cubicle space and then spend a good 20 minutes in trying to find the proper lighting for a fun first-day Instagram. Sweet social media success. You put down your packed lunch and spread out all of your belongings to mark your space. You set up your laptop and create a to-do list. Step 1: Meeting with … THE BOSS This is the one person in the office who seems to go out of his way to forget your name at least once a week. You are overwhelmed by your laundry list of projects and tasks but realize that sometimes it literally includes picking up his laundry. His ability to be right behind
you at the exact moment you are checking Twitter scares you. However, you convince yourself that all of his closed-door conference calls could just be binge Youtube-watching. Besides, he wanted someone “proficient in a variety of social media platforms,” so aren’t you just living up to your resume? MEETINGS Meeting: a noun that refers to an assembly of people (typically the members of a society or committee) gathered to discuss something. A more accurate definition: a time for the overeager to share their AMAZING ideas and for the less motivated to delegate their time-consuming projects to the interns. Utilize this time for Facebook. THE OTHER INTERNS Think Mean Girls lunchroom grows up and meets The Office staff. In the group, you will find a few types of people: the person who wants to be friends with everyone, the person whose parents got him this job, the person who ignores everyone to chat to his cooler friends, the person who is needlessly competitive and then there is you. If you are lucky, you might be able to create “office friendships” with these people. These ambiguous alliances consist of creating inside jokes about office politics, laughing at the boss’s strange habits and talking about whatever was on ABC last night. However, your interactions with them are typically limited to meetings and joint projects. If you are feeling really bold, maybe a couple of attempts to “hang out” after work hours because you are the youngest people in the office. LUNCH A time for continued Facebook and forced office interactions. Most of the time you opt to stay in your cubicle to do more “work” because you find that by
sitting discreetly in the open office spaces you can overhear most lunch conversations. Coworkers air their grievances with the office, talk about their personal life and tend to over share. If you’re addicted to summer TV dramas, these lunchtime conversations can be the perfect midday fix to hold you over until 8 p.m. Word of caution – keep the volume of verbal commentary to a minimum. Unlike your TV dramas, these characters can hear you. DAYS 2-55 Spin in the swivel chair and count how many squares compile the ceiling tiles. Realize that the hour you thought you spent doing this was actually four minutes. Hit rock bottom and volunteer to make a coffee run. THE LAST DAY There will be an overwhelming feeling of triumph as you fling the doors open for the last time. You offer a final, chirpy “Good morning!” to the receptionist with whom you had vowed to become best friends to get an in on all office gossip, but with whom only ever exchanged pleasantries. You settle into your chair for the last time. What final words will you tell the boss? Will you finally add the other interns on Facebook? You spend your lunch hour awkwardly hanging around to see if anyone will come up and tell you how much they are going to miss you. When the clock strikes that final hour, you gather up the scattered wrappers and outof-ink pens that had become permanent friends in your cubicle. You walk towards the door for your final exit, already composing the description for your resume. “Summer Intern: collaborated with a motivated team of individuals to produce groundbreaking and innovative ... ”
The Daily Princetonian
Thursday February 20, 2014
IN DEFENSE OF
BRICK BY BRICK
PEQUODS KATIE BAUMAN Street Editor
W
ait, are those still a thing? Yes, yes they are. I, too, had the same doubts last week when I realized I had an assignment due in precept the next day, and I needed to at least glance at the readings to complete it. I clicked my way to E-Reserves, ready to knock out a few hundred pages in one swoop. It was blank. Not a single excessively long academic paper to be seen. Instead, I saw that my only option to access the elusive literature was purchasing a Pequod. A $98, 700-page collection bound in bright yellow construction paper. As I signed the receipt for this celebrated academic pamphlet, I wondered whether my intense hatred was perhaps misplaced. Was my rage blinding me from the Pequod’s pertinence? For starters, let’s talk about the name “Pequod.” What does it mean? Is it an allusion to the fictional whaleship of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” meant to represent the sea of knowledge I was metaphorically about to set sail on? Or does the etymology go back further? Perhaps it is a reference to the Pequot Tribe
that inhabited the Northeast in the 17th century: the tribe’s name derives from the Algonquian word, “pequttoog,” meaning “the destroyers.” Is the Pequod a destroyer of ignorance? A destroyer of modern technological advances that enable articles to be displayed on a virtual platform? The mystery of the word draws me in even as the injustice repels me. Further investigation into the origins of the Pequod led me to an intriguing website that seems to be the home of the modern Pequod. Under the header “Specialists in serving acadmia,” the website lists a variety of services offered by the Pequod Copy & Print Center. Course packets are only the beginning. This enterprising organization also binds theses and prints brochures as well as various other promotional literatures. The fun doesn’t end there though. In a shocking twist, they also offer a variety of Pequod gear (fact check if you want — this is real). This includes men’s and women’s wear, as well as a dog T-shirt emblazoned with “Pequod” in a rugged orange and black font. It’s hard to hate something that makes paraphernalia
BENJAMIN KOGER :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
for man’s best friend. Although the canine curveball significantly dampened my desire to tear the Pequod office apart, I could still feel the bubbling rage in my heart every time I glanced at the putrid yellow cover of my course packet. Was there any way to defend this fivepound testament to mankind’s disregard for the trees and Mother Earth? That was it. I needed to let go of my artificial concern for Mother Earth and focus on something more important — myself. This five-pound monstrosity was a testament to the trials and tribulations I faced by attending an elite institution of higher education. If you think about it, there is nothing satisfying or validating in storing your readings on a computer. No one wants to sit and watch you scroll through your readings as you try to convince them that your workload really was “the worst” and that you had far more reason to complain than any other college student. However, pulling out a 700-page collection of the entire semester’s workload — now, that’s a showstopper! That is whipping it out and proving once and for all that yours is bigger, and there is really nowhere else the conversation could go. No words necessary. Luckily, the usefulness of the Pequod doesn’t end with workload pissing contests. Looking forward to the conclusion of the semester, you are enchanted by thoughts of summer and happy to put the past 12 weeks behind you. Unfortunately, the lingering remnants of your classes — textbooks, novels, lab books — plague your transition into summer daze. Although book buyback and a moral aversion to reenacting “Fahrenheit 451” prevent you from disposing of those relics, there is nothing stopping you from annihilating your Pequod. With no refund prospects and commitment to your vow of never looking at another 19th century American document, light it up. That’s right. Burn that baby to bits. Sure, it’s basically burning about $100 out of petty spite, but the past 12 weeks will have distanced you from the initial financial sacrifice. What better way to welcome summer than to burn a physical representation of the past semester to ashes? It will be therapeutic, I promise. But until then, Pequods will remain in our backpacks, if not in our hearts. We have no other choice.
ASK THE SEXPERT
This week, she discusses bad sex. Dear Sexpert, I’ve been seeing this guy (let’s call him Dan) for a while, and we started having sex recently. At first, it was really bad. I just felt awkward and self-conscious and wasn’t enjoying myself at all. I had a similar experience in high school, but I only slept with my high school boyfriend a few times. I assumed it would get better once I had more experience, but Dan and I have had sex a lot, and it’s still weird. I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong, but I’m definitely not having orgasms like the ones in Cosmo magazine or in the movies. Am I just bad at sex? I’m not sure I want to bring it up with Dan — that would be embarrassing. Help!
— Not-so-good in Bed
Dear Not-so, One of the great things about sex is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. There is only what you and your partner find mutually desirable. Every single person’s body is different, so even if someone is experienced at sex, they won’t necessarily know how to please a new partner. It’s also true that what someone wants at one point in time may not be
what they want at another. In other words, people differ from each other, and a person’s likes or dislikes can also change. So, how do you know what Dan wants? How does Dan know what you want? How can you both enjoy sex more? The answer is to communicate with each other! One of the most unrealistic things about sex in movies and TV shows is that there is little verbal communication. In media, sex partners seem to read minds, when in reality, good communication is the key. It’s totally natural to feel weird bringing this up with Dan, but it’s important to face your fears and do it. A few techniques you can use are “I-statements” and “the sandwich method” — don’t worry, it’s not a sex move involving food! The sandwich method is a way of giving someone feedback in a nice way, with a compliment, then a constructive criticism and then another compliment. Try to use I-statements to give feedback; that is, make yourself the subject of the sentence. For example, “I love how you are really spontaneous about wanting to hook up – it’s fun and makes me feel wanted. Sometimes, though, I feel like there’s not enough foreplay before we have sex. You’re such a good
kisser, so maybe in general we could spend more time making out before we have sex?” In terms of comparing your experiences to movies and magazines, remember that what you’re seeing is unrealistic. Popular images suggest that you have to have sex a certain way to have satisfying sex. But in movies, teams of people, from make-up artists to lighting experts to choreographers, make everything appear perfect. Learning to recognize those images as unrealistic will help you enjoy real sex. Also, while films and TV shows suggest that “good” sex always results in mutual orgasm, that may not always happen. Like much of life, sex is just as much about the journey as the destination. Openly communicating will help you both have a fulfilling experience during sex! Enjoy yourself, — The Sexpert Interested in Sexual Health? The Sexpert is always looking for members of the community to join the team of sexual health educators who, along with factchecking from University health professionals, help write these columns. Email sexpert@dailyprincetonian.com for more information and questions about sexual health. Don’t be shy!
page s3
Nassau Hall HARRISON BLACKMAN Staff Writer
P
r incetonians’ hearts should rejoice when they sing in praise of “Old Nassau,” according to the University’s centuries-old alma mater. Presently, although Nassau Hall — the namesake of the song — stands triumphantly in the center of the colonial district of campus, Princeton students rarely set foot in the historic building, given its modern ceremonial and administrative functions. However, that shouldn’t stop students from “rejoicing,” because Nassau Hall is much more than an office building, albeit an office building that is also a National Historic Landmark: It is a powerful symbol of American higher education. Constructed in 1756, Nassau Hall was named for King William III of Orange at the suggestion of the University’s (then referred to as the College of New Jersey) major benefactor, Governor Jonathan Belcher, according to the Princetoniana website. The trustees suggested the building be named after Belcher, but he modestly declined, a decision that paid off—“In Praise of Old Belcher” wouldn’t have made the best University anthem. The building was monumental for its time. “It was thought to be the largest building in North America when it was being built,” Princeton historian and author of “Princeton: America’s Campus” W. Barksdale Maynard ’88 said. Nassau Hall played a critical role in the Revolutionary War when George Washington recaptured the building after the 1777 Battle of Princeton and the surrender of British troops who had taken control of the space. In 1783, Nassau Hall briefly became the nation’s capital, housing the Continental Congress for five months, another highlight in the
building’s rich history. The building’s function has changed over the years from a single building that housed both students and classrooms to a structure predominantly concerned with administrative and ceremonial uses. “If you look at Nassau Hall functionally, it’s a very generic building — a corridor with rooms on either side,” University Architect Ron McCoy GS ’80 said. “It’s adaptable to all kinds of uses … though it’s probably compromised in its ability to serve all of the functions of a modern administrative building,” due to the limitations of the original architecture, including narrow hallways connecting disparate office spaces, he explained. Nassau Hall has not only adapted in terms of its functionality but in its style as well. The exterior of the building has cycled through a range of architectural styles, from Colonial to Italianate, after various fires and subsequent reconstructions, some of which may have seemed to conflict with the campus’ dominant collegiate gothic theme. However, the gothic motif was only established around the turn of the century. “The question of style wasn’t such a conscious issue [at Princeton] until [then-University President] McCosh ushered in a different style of architecture in the
19th century,” McCoy explained. “Princeton has a beauty … as an overall campus which transcends individual styles.” Nassau Hall is so emblematic of the University’s public identity that the University even restricts reproduction of its image by copyright law. “When we protect names and images, we reserve the right to these images for public trust,” Assistant Vice President for Communications Lauren Ugorji ’85 said. “If we permitted a broad use of images, the association would be diluted.” Nassau Hall not only serves as an essential image of the University, but also helped define the language we use to talk about American higher education. The building’s position in front of a large lawn removed from Nassau Street created the origin of the term “campus,” deriving from the Latin word for “field,” usurping Harvard’s “yard” as the fundamental descriptor for the grounds of an American college, according to the 2008 Princeton Campus Plan. Nassau Hall is “an extraordinary symbol of not only Princeton, but higher education in America,” Maynard noted. “It symbolizes the great English idea of [the] university transplanted to the world.” In praise of Old Nassau, indeed.
LIN KING :: ASSOCIATE STREET EDITOR
The Daily Princetonian
Thursday February 20, 2014
page s4
Banana Bonanza PRINCETON’S
CHITRA MARTI Contributor
T
STREET’S
TOP TEN Middle School Email Addresses
1 3 5 7 9
dolphingirl23@hotmail.com
oday, I ate a banana. I peeled it back, admired its yellowy goodness and had nearly chomped into my delightful treat, when I was suddenly overcome with a wave of paranoia. Is that guy on his phone taking a photo of me right now? He is! How can I trust anyone to let me eat a banana without judgment anymore? Can I even trust my own friends? Ugh, I bet I look like a total moron eating this banana. Princeton Bananas — a new Facebook page launched Feb. 5 featuring photos of students eating bananas around campus, both inside dining halls and out — has taken the student body by storm, striking fear into the hearts of banana consumers everywhere. Their self-proclaimed purpose is to inform the Princeton community of the “slaughter of this majestic fruit,” the founders explained in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. The three agreed to meet with me, on the condition of anonymity. I told them in our initial correspondence that I’d wait outside of Cafe Viv at 10 p.m., holding a banana as identification of my pure intentions. The founders called themselves The Banana Republic and used the code names BananaHammock, Bananagram and BananaBread to protect their identities. They had told me they would be wearing banana masks to the interview. At 10:15 p.m., I started to worry because I hadn’t found them yet, and a study group had asked me if they could take all the chairs from my table. I took a lap around Frist with my banana in hand and quickly found three others who also had bananas with them. We silently nodded at each other, in acknowledgment of our mutual banana appreciation. We walked around Frist, trying to find somewhere quiet and secluded, so that no one else would know the insidious nature of what we were about to discuss — the desecration of the banana by typical, tactless students. They led me to an abandoned stairwell that happened to have exactly four chairs. Perfect. “How’s the meng arm?” Bananagram asked as the four of us struggled to move the chairs around. Immediately, the three went off on a banana pun spree. “A banana a day keeps the meningitis away?” “Yeah, write that down.” “We should have a meng-themed day
tomorrow. Everything we say will be meng.” “That’s the kind of creativity that just flows within an organization like this,” BananaBread said. The founders explained that they first conceived of the page when BananaBread sent Bananagram a Snapchat that included a person in the background eating a banana last November. “I circled the guy, like, ‘Haha, dude chowing down’ or whatever, and from there we started taking more photos,” BananaBread said. Though The Banana Republic has been taking shots of people eating bananas since November, starting with that first Snapchat, they only decided to launch the page after they had built up a bank of about 25 to 30 photos, which they now store on Dropbox. Since then, the page has been constantly growing. Forty-one photos have been posted thus far, and nearly all have been tagged with their culprits. The page has accumulated 674 likes as of press time on Wednesday night. “They’re coming in faster than we’re posting them now, so we’re building sustainability,” BananaBread said. The Banana Republic hopes its growth doesn’t stop there, however. “We do have one office on Nassau Street. We’re opening up our Hong Kong office, I think Thursday. Or Friday?” Bananagram explained. “Well, it’s Thursday here, Friday there,” BananaHammock noted. “We do have corporate offices in London, New York, as well as San Francisco. So I think it’s going pretty well,” Bananagram said. A phone call to each of these offices led to automated recordings informing me the number had been disconnected. I wondered if they had ever been connected at all. Though their stated mission is to “instigate drastic change in our gustatory habits,” the three see themselves as a warning service to the Princeton community, alerting students to what they consider the crime of biting the fruit with teeth. “We want to give people a safe space to report this crime, without feeling like they have to be attached to it,” BananaHammock said. The founders hope to eventually install banana-shaped BlueLights, the kind students can use to inform P-Safe of emergencies on campus, so that students can continue to report sightings of their peers gnawing on ba-
COURTESY OF PRINCETON BANANAS
Banana submission number eight: “The Thinker,” starring Kevin Cheng ‘17.
nanas without using forks and knives. “The idea would be that P-Safe would respond immediately,” Bananagram said. “Or we’d have our own task force,” BananaHammock added.
Facebook page that features anonymous love notes, students can submit posts through a confidential Google form, but the founders have not yet found a similar forum for pictures.
lipgloss4eva@hotmail.com
pokemonballer@msn.com
merxmcdreamyluv@yahoo.com
ptonclassof2024@aol.com
CAMPUS PICKS COURTESY OF PRINCETON BANANAS
“Pre-Concert Banana: nothing makes the fingers limberer than a healthy dose of yellow boomerang fruit,” featuring Princeton pianist Paul von Autenried ‘16.
Though about 70 percent of submissions are from underclassmen according to the founders, the Banana Republic hopes to infiltrate the eating clubs as well, and already have upperclassmen contacts within Tiger Inn and Cannon Dial Elm Club. “The entire Princeton community should be aware of the issue,” BananaHammock said. “Princeton Bananas, more than anything, brings the community together,” Bananagram added. That includes all undergraduates, graduate students, professors and administrators. “I think President Eisgruber the other day was considering actually eating a banana with his teeth, but then actually ended up using a knife,” Bananagram said. “That was just hearsay, that’s not a fact … It was really a friend of a friend of [President Eisgruber’s] doctor who said that.” The founders have set a few ground rules for submissions: they don’t take posed pictures, and people have to actually be eating the fruit, with a few exceptions. For example, Michael Chang ’16 was photographed with a banana in his ear. “We don’t really need to draw attention to the positive, because everybody should strive for the positive. We should really only shame those who are desecrating bananas,” BananaHammock said. Posting photos of people posing only glorifies the crime, the founders explained. “We’ve also hit a few glitches with the idea of anonymous submissions versus non-anonymous submissions,” BananaHammock said. For example, with Tiger Ad Mirers, another student-run
“We thought that might be a turn off for people to send photos in, but it definitely hasn’t, especially because we don’t insist on giving photo credit or anything,” BananaHammock said of this lack of anonymity. The founders are also not sure of what to do with photos of students from outside Princeton, such as a recent photo of a West Point student. In those cases, they generally ask for the student’s permission. In addition, if a photo subject ever asks to be untagged or for a photo to be taken down, the founders said they would immediately remove it. In the coming weeks, the Banana Republic said, it will be conducting two contests for the general public. First, the best screenshot of a Snapchat of someone eating a banana will be rewarded, as a throwback to the origins of Princeton Bananas. The winner, the founders say, will receive all-encompassing banana glory and a banana date with the three founders. Secondly, in a “Nana with a ‘Nanner’ ” series, the first person to capture a picture of someone’s grandmother eating a banana will win everything, the founders say. This person will be invited to join the Banana Republic team. The Banana Republic hopes its message on this inhumane slaughter of bananas is recognized not just by the Princeton community but, perhaps one day, the whole world. The banana, the founders said, is a special fruit that deserves extra care in consumption. “Bananas, they’re, like, alive, right? No other fruit is like that,” Bananagram said. “Apples are just apples. Bananas are forever.”
DAILY PRINCETONIAN STAFF
Princeton sophomore advances to Jeopardy! Final, still receives B-plus in HIS 361: The United States Since 1974
surferdude69@yahoo.com
bulbasaurprincess@aol.com
articles you didn’t read this week
Patton ’77 to release book in March; possible titles include: “Dr. Strangelady or: How I Learned to Stop Thinking and Love the Patriarchy”
sk8rgurlnoth8rgurl@aol.com
allam3ricanr3j3ct@msn.com
HEADLINERS AND HEADSHAKERS Final call for grade deflation survey, only top 35 percent of responses recorded
2 4 6 8 10
donteatheyellowsnow@yahoo.com
SALT DEEMED NONESSENTIA PERSONNEL, STUDENTS SLIP L
(BUT NO CASUALTIES)
Painting allegedly punched at Ivy Club; replacement Renoir to be flown in from Paris within five business days Gore named Class Day speaker; Class Day bingo to include “carbon footprint,” “responsibility to the planet,” “Harvard is a total suckfest”
COMEDY Lobster Club presents AAAHH!!! Real Lobsters! FRIST FILM/PERFORMANCE THEATRE Thursday and Saturday, 10:30 p.m.
Already feeling the pressure of spring semester? Sore meng arm got you down? They say laughter is the best medicine, and you’re in luck. For those needing a quick pick-me-up (or who have an inexplicable desire for a 90s Nickelodeon throwback), Lobster Club has just the show for you. For just three dollars, you can enjoy a night of witty entertainment and raucous laughter, hosted by Princeton’s only no-audition improv troupe. Though it’s still unclear as to whether Ickis, Oblina and Krumm will make an appearance at the show, there will definitely be some hilarious Lobsters in attendance to make your sides split!
CONCERT PSEC presents PURE + The Taco Truck CAMPUS CLUB Friday, 10 p.m.
Seeking a well-deserved break at the end of a long week? Satisfy your musical and food cravings at once with an an amazing performance at Campus Club this Friday, sponsored by the Princeton Student Events Committee. Enjoy jamming out to some of your old favorites with Princeton’s premier rock group, the Princeton University Rock Ensemble, accompanied by the best instruments of all — forks and knives. Grab a warm bite to eat courtesy of The Taco Truck, and try your hand at harmonizing with some crunchy tacos and sizzling quesadillas.
DANCE Naacho presents Kismat FRIST FILM/PERFORMANCE THEATRE Thursday and Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday, 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Yearning for some heat in this icy cold weather? Lacking some pelvic action in your life? Let Naacho: South Asian Dance Company fill the void with its 2014 show, Kismat. From Bhangra to Bollywood, Kismat will feature a variety of dance styles. It’s sure to be a night of entertaining dancing, beautiful costumes and awesome music. You have four chances to attend this party, so don’t miss out!
MUSIC Princeton Opera Company presents ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ MCCOSH 10 Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m.
What arrrrrrr you doing Friday night? Any answer other than attending POC’s performance, and you’re walking the plank. This comedic opera tells the tale of Frederic, an apprentice to a crew of uncharacteristically kindhearted pirates. Follow along as Frederic finds love and adventure with a great deal of humor along the way. The Princeton Opera Company is sure to offer a rousing rendition of this Gilbert and Sullivan great. Be a matey and get your booty to the show.