The Mac Weekly: October 3, 2003 Headlines

Broad changes in curriculum in the works By LIZZIE TANNEN While still working on the enaction of last year’s academic program changes, this year the faculty is beginning an initiative to renew the curriculum. {more}


Your complete guide to the first-year class By DANIELLE LANGONE Larger classes, first-years living in Dupre singles, the occasional food shortage in the cafeteria: all these factors point to a larger-than-usual first-year class. Although it is the largest class since 1971 (not 1969, as was previously reported in The Mac Weekly), it is merely eight students larger than the first-year class of 2001. {more}


Environmental Studies faces challenges in the near future By SARA NELSON Due to a technical error, this article did not appaer correctly in last week’s issue. It appears here in full. The resignation of former Environmental Studies Director Al Romero last spring left the Environmental Studies program with an uncertain future. {more}

WGS conference to host over 70 speakers over two days By VERONIQUE BERGERON This weekend, the Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) department hosts “Sustaining Feminism: A Cross Border Conference,” a feminism conference with an international focus. {more}


Tenth annual International Roundtable begins Thursday By TIFFANY SMITH Macalester’s tenth annual International Roundtable, which takes place Oct. 9-11, will explore the theme “Complex Contradictions: African, American, and Middle Eastern Perspectives.” {more}

Stop me if you’ve heard this... By ERIK MORALES From having the world on his shoulders While the rich kids is driving Benz {more}


Below the Belt By MIKEY McNAMARA in abject times when i look down {more}


Is Fair Trade coffee really a peaceful brew? By MAGGIE KINKEAD Whenever I go to the Grillé to get some coffee (and believe me, this is a place I go to oftent) I am always asked which type of coffee I’d like. Generally I mix it up. Some Kenyan on Tuesday, Somalian on Wednesday...that is, until I heard someone ask about Peace Coffee. Which got me to wondering, as an ignorant first-year, just what is Peace Coffee? {more}


It’s business as usual in the War on Drugs: By GRAHAM RAVDIN I’ve never snorted cocaine or smoked crack. But I’m willing to wager that at least one person at Macalester has done so; maybe more than we would expect. And we all know the damage that our war on drugs has wreaked at home—hey, we have movies like Traffic with sexy stars and rich white girls becoming prostitutes to momentarily edify and terrify the suburbs. Yes, the United States has a drug problem, but the way in which it approaches this problem has real consequences for other people far away, off the movie screen and out of our minds. The effects of military aid and aerial fumigation in the Andean region, particularly Colombia, have been escalating as the quiet battle against “narco-terrorism” continues. Instead of aggressively pursuing alternative crop development (and, more easily said than done, providing markets for those crops), the United States fuels a civil war between insurgent leftist groups and rightist paramilitaries. {more}

Democratic presidential candidates duke it out By DHRUVA JAISHANKAR I have long believed that political junkies were mutant sports fans. Politics is one of the few realms that has the analysis, predictions and scandals normally reserved for sports. Politics, like sports, is dominated by personalities, but is ultimately a team effort. Successful politicians, like athletes, get where they are by hard work, luck or occasionally pure skill. Stick with the analogy a bit longer and it’s not hard to conceive of political parties as franchises, defections as trades and polls as rankings. Basically, politics has all the scores, the stats and the strategies that so thrill sports aficionados. {more}


Less bitching, more shutting up By EMILY WIGGINS The Administration sucks. I can’t wait to get out of here. Living in Minneapolis is way cooler than living near Macalester. I’m soooo done with this place. {more}


Input encouraged in naming student lounge By HARIS AQEEL Have you been to the Campus Center basement? There’s a student lounge there now, and it’s nameless. We need you to name it and more. Read on: {more}

Narrow victory over Concordia in soccer By ANDREW GORDON With his second goal of the season, Nathan Knox ’04 led Macalester to a thrilling overtime victory over Concordia Cobbers. The Scots are now 6-2, with a perfect MIAC record of 4-0. {more}


An interview with John Leaney By DHRUVA JAISHANKAR John Leaney recorded his 400th win as Macalester’s head soccer coach when the women’s team beat St. Mary’s 6-0 on September 16th. He has been the men’s coach at Macalester since 1987 and women’s coach since 1989. His overall record, now 408-113-46, gives him a .760 career winning percentage. He has led his teams to 13 MIAC titles, taken them to 17 NCAA championships and won a women’s national title in 1998. He has been named MIAC’s Coach of the Year 11 times. {more}

Crew prepares for major race By TOM FULLER The Macalester men’s and women’s crew teams will compete this Saturday in University of Minnesota’s Head of the Mississippi Regatta competition. The five kilometer race is on the Mississippi River from the Lake Street Bridge to River Flats. The event includes college teams such as St. Thomas and St. John’s and several local rowing clubs. Races begin at the Lake Street Bridge, with the novices at 10:30 a.m., followed by experienced rowers at 12:30 p.m. {more}


Macalester Sports Roundup By DHRUVA JAISHANKAR FOOTBALL Macalester lost to Kenyon 17-20 at a neutral site in Naperville, Ill. Kenyon scored a field goal with three seconds remaining in regulation play. Nate Vernon ’07 gave the Scots an early 10-7 lead on a 34-yard interception return. Macalester also scored on a pass from quarterback Adam Denny ’04 to Tim Burns ’06. Denny’04 went 28-for-48 for 339 yards. {more}

Sandrine Lassalle: A touch of French class By EILEEN FITZPATRICK Sandrine Lassalle is a native speaker and teaching assistant who lives in the French Language House. I meet her at the French House, where she expresses some concern over having her photo taken and over what she considers imperfect English. In reality, I think her English might be better than mine. She is welcoming and unassuming, and all in all, I’m a bit smitten. {more}


Dating at Macalester By SARAH McCOLL When the editors of The Mac Weekly approached me to ask if I’d be the Carrie Bradshaw of Macalester College, I thought I was qualified. Though not yet the proud owner of Givenchy couture, I’ve been known to do a bang-up job of getting dressed up now and then, I like a vodka tonic as much as anyone else who has been 21 for six months, and I have a cute apartment with a very chic Selby Avenue address. I’m Carrie Bradshaw with a shoestring budget and another 40 pounds. {more}


The Forecast: hot and bothered By KATHERINE TYLEVICH What were you doing the day that rock n’ roll died? As for myself, well…I was enjoying a Shiitake mushroom plate, nestled atop a bed of white rice and lightly garnished with a mélange of seasonal squash and strips of ginger. To my left was seated renowned news broadcaster and journalist extraordinaire, Mr. Geraldo Rivera. Youthful enthusiasm had me convinced that Rivera was there to see with his own eyes the up and coming journalists of tomorrow. Old age and old morals had Rivera convinced that I was there seeking the expert advice of an experienced news veteran. But the pride and prejudice that accompanies both young and old alike prevented both of us from realizing what we were really doing at the flamboyant and festive Cheesecake Factory. That son-of-a-bitch Al Roker had set us up on a blind date! Say whaaaat?! {more}

Word on the street: Be with you, be with you By RÓSA GÍSLADÓTTIR Say what?! Yes, this is obviously not a common thing to say – but its short form, bye-bye, certainly is. I always had a hard time remembering how to spell that and its counterpart good-bye (my visual memory was telling me that a good buy looked ok – hence the spelling errors.) I also wondered what a bye was and why it should be good. But when I discovered the origins of the expression, I was saved: Good-bye comes from God be with you/ye (I guess God has many ways of saving us...hehe.) This expression was apparently a common greeting some centuries ago. But since it was so cumbersome, people started to shorten it and spell it God b’wy, god b’w’y, godbwye, and god buy’ye to name a few versions from the sixteenth century onwards. At that point, people were aware of what it originally meant. However, as time passed, almighty god was replaced by the commonplace adjective good through analogy with expressions such as good day and good evening. Then somehow the bye-part was reduplicated and the less formal version bye-bye was formed – don’t ask me why, that’s the part I couldn’t figure out. {more}


Kristy’s great idea: Babysitter's Club gone wild By AMY HOLTZ Earlier last week, in a small class much like one of your own, I was searching for my long lost syllabus in my bag, when boy a few rows ahead turned slowly to face me. I was momentarily surprised. How was it I had never noticed his potential before? His curly hair, the first thing on most of my friend’s to-do lists, and the way he was cutely yet accurately left-handed? It was clear to me that he was turning around merely to glance at me, but when I pulled my face out of my bag to completely check him out without him knowing, he was still watching. I was just about to smile, coyly and confidently, when a frown covered his entire face, even his hair. Then, he shushed me. I could say that I wasn’t even a little miffed, or even fazed. But the truth is, I was slightly hurt. I felt like a moron. More to the point, I was assured of my inadequacies for an entire half-hour after the incident, until a girl told me she liked my shirt and that boys are shitheads. {more}

Lost in the K-hole:

Red Eye does The Trial

Arts Editor

As the lights faded out on the final scene of The Trial, and the actors came out to take their final bows, I was left both frustrated and confused. This was not necessarily the fault of the Red Eye Theater’s innovative production of Franz Kafka’s novel, but more the nature of Kafka. Several days later, I’m still not sure what Kafka was trying to say—there are so many ways in which the story can be interpreted. {more}

A day in the life of an arts org intern

By BEN SACHS

Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve been an intern at the Minnesota Film Arts (MFA), a non-profit arts organization that runs two arthouse theaters on the East Bank of Minneapolis, in addition to organizing the Twin Cities International Film Festival every spring. My connections to programming and theater maintenance have been minimal, although I have gained a number of insights from asking my supervisors a lot of questions and by eavesdropping on staff meetings. For the most part, I have settled into the role of an eager if socially-awkward errand boy, much as Jerry Lewis did before me, collecting mail, biking to the copy center and doing a fair amount of Internet research. {more}

Damien Rice: another sullen Irishman sings his sorrow

By MAURA McANDREW

Introspective, depressed songwriting seems to be a big hit in the U.K., with Coldplay and Radiohead being the most obvious examples. More in the vein of emergent British voice of 2000 David Gray comes Damien Rice, whose debut album O has already gone double platinum in his home Ireland. O was released stateside this past summer with results. Though the radio has pretty much shut its doors to all male songwriters whose names don’t start with John and end with Mayer, Damien Rice has received rave reviews and regular play on MTV2. And rightfully so: despite an unappealing decadence in some places, O packs a similar punch to Gray’s breakthrough White Ladder in its fragile, somber beauty. {more}

Haris Aqeel, who, as last year’s Macalester College Student Government president, spearheaded the fundraising and planning effort for the student lounge, puts the finishing touches on his brainchild Wednesday afternoon. The long-awaited Student Lounge, or game room, will finally open today at 6 p.m. Campus programs will serve free treats. Photo by Peter Bartz-Gallagher.

News Links

Local News Sources
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
St. Paul Pioneer Press
National News Sources
The Economist
The New York Times
The Washington Post

Local Music Links

Macalester Music Events Calendar
Twin Cities All Ages Shows List
Twin Cities Alternative Shows List
WMCN Macalester Radio
MN Jazz

Local Arts Links

Walker Art Museum
Minneapolis Institute of the Arts
Weisman Art Museum
Oak Street Cinema
ArTrujillo Studio Gallery
Intermedia Arts
Bryant Lake Bowl
Mixed Blood Theatre
Citypages Movie Clock and Reviews

The Mac Weekly is an entirely student-produced publication. The opinions expressed in this document are those of its authors and editors, not of Macalester College.

1600 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
Newsroom: (651) 696-6212
Business Line: (651) 696-6684
Fax: (651) 696-6685
E-mail: macweekly@macalester.edu
Webmaster: nmeyer@macalester.edu

This site uses WPOISON (This link for spammers)