Previous Columns

November 2002 Kofi Annan at Yale; birthday honors for Edward Bouchet.

October 2002 R.W.B. Lewis recalled; new crew coach; jazz great.

Summer 2002 New Peabody head; Garrison Keillor; Ben Carson inspires.

May 2002 James Tobin remembered; an Eli on the Segway team.

April 2002 Art collectors memorialized; new BAC chief; Rushdie.

March 2002 Cyrus Vance recalled; Sopranos shrink; a contrarian on gender.

February 2002 The Times's literary gatekeeper; James Jeffords, the Shah's heir.

December 2001 Donald Cohen remembered; Judy Blume visits; a "hero" is honored.

November 2001 New Drama dean; Hart and Coffin discuss September 11.

October 2001 A royal shutterbug; Venus shines; Bobby Seale finally sees Yale; rhythm and blues on the Green.

Summer 2001 Beltway veteran, Survivor champ; new master.

May 2001 New dean for Divinity; plus-size model; lone bowlers; a psychologist for Morse.

April 2001 Sandra Boynton '74 on chickens, pigs, and Yale.

February 2001 A pianist's guide to life; candidate Schiavone; farewell to a hero on and off the field.

December 2000 Tom Wolfe on grad school; Ernest Borgnine on acting.

November 2000 The business brain behind the Palm Pilot; a zipless tea with Erica Jong.

October 2000 Goodbye to Larry Kelley; the alumni elect a fellow; Levin at the plate; Bloom v. Potter.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak urged an end to terrorism and dictatorship in the Middle East in an October 10 address at Battell Chapel. Arguing for the same "moral and strategic clarity" the U.S. showed in Afghanistan a year ago, he warned that "the greatest risk now lies in inaction." The hope that Barak expressed for a peaceful future was tempered by his experience with daily acts of violence. "We live in a tough neighborhood. It's not the Midwest, it's the Middle East."

The Berkeley Divinity School welcomed the Most Rev. Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, to its annual convocation on October 16. Griswold, who is the head administrator and "chief pastor" of the American church, preached a sermon on the "Oxford Martyrs," a trio of 16th-century scholars who were killed for their defense of Anglicanism during the reign of Queen Mary. "The struggle for truth requires wits and courage, courage that comes from Another," said Griswold.

On October 17, the Yale Dramat made actor Barry Humphries an honorary member. The Australian comic is better known as his pink-haired alter ego, "Dame Edna," who played New Haven's Shubert Theater as part of her U.S. tour. Although Dame Edna has had several TV shows, Humphries said at a master's tea that "the theater for me will always be more interesting than film and television. When you watch an audience laugh, it changes color. That doesn't happen when you watch television, in boxer shorts, with a six-pack, on a bean bag."

At the end of the month, John Ryden will retire after 23 years as director of Yale University Press. Some 4,000 books have been released by the Press during Ryden's tenure, among them the acclaimed Annals of Communism series, the multimedia French in Action course, Camille Paglia's breakout hit Sexual Personae, and Ahmed Rashid's Taliban. Ryden plans to stay in New Haven and work as a consultant; President Richard Levin has appointed a search committee to find his successor.

"If I had a real radio voice, I'd be doing butter commercials," said National Public Radio's Scott Simon at an October 22 master's tea in Calhoun College. The reporter, writer, and host of Weekend Edition Saturday said that radio journalism retains a "sense of personality" that has disappeared from most newspapers. Simon said he tries to deliver the news with a "light touch," explaining that he had a guest read a children's story on the Saturday after September 11 "because emotionally, it fit."