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PAGE
02
THE INTERNATIONAL NEWSMAGAZINE
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
Founded in 1772, the Badfly is an internataionl newsmagazine distributed to over 600
students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis
campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Badfly reserves the right to reject, reject, and
reject submissions in any way necessary
to publish a professional, informative,
and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
The Badfly meets on the Lower Level of the
BBC, once a semester.
STAFF
Sebastian Barajas • Editor-in-Chief
Allison Tretina • Keyholder to Morgue
Kira Anderson • Managing Editor
Lyra Meurer • lllustrator
Frederick Nesfield • Staff
Mallari Richards • Staff
CONTRIBUTORS
Dr. Jack Brews, PhD
Adolfo Barajas
'
-
Mad Style
BREAKING NEWS
0
Jellyfish gains sentience, relays the last number of pi.
0
Perseus temporarily stops working, students riot in the coffee shop,
breaking several windows.
0
Kingdom of flesh-eating bacteria found at the bottom of College Creek
with Spartan system of government.
0
Students wins seminar, steals pants from tutor.
0
Pallas Athena descends from heaven to declare Aristotle readings, "foo
damn hard."
0
Iron Throne built in snow on front campus, blood bath ensues.
0
Pirates have infiltrated crew team, insider says.
0
Freshman stage coup de tat, calling Campbell the "new powerhouse of
campus."
0
'
PAGE
nside sources confirmed last week that sophomore Gunther
Peterson (A' 17) is still complaining about being overworked.
"I'm so tired," he told an undercover Badfly reporter, "I got, like,
six hours of sleep last night. I had to finish an essay, and I still have
another to do for Monday. I am so stressed right now."
When our reporter asked why he was complaining to his own core
members, who have the exact same workload as himself, Mr. Peterson replied, "Because I also have to work two and a half hours at the
library, and then I have yoga later. I literally could not do a single
thing more. I am so tired."
However, eyewitness accounts have shown Mr. Peterson sitting in
his room at 3 PM on a Monday, eating potato chips and watching a
Benedict-Cumberbatch-a-thon on Netflix. "That was literally, like,
the one break I took," he explained, "All the rest of the time, I was
working. Plus I've been sick."
Other Johnnies have expressed irritation with Mr. Peterson's attitude. "He needs to get over himself," an anonymous sophomore
commented, "This kind of complaining was old even when we were
freshmen. Hell, it was old even in high school, when you could talk
about how many more AP classes you were taking than your friends .
News flash: we're all taking the same classes now, dipshit. We're
not impressed."
Harvard psychologist Bertrand Bloomingham has identified a
likely cause for Mr. Peterson's behavior. "We all do it," Mr. Bloomingham told the Badfly, reclining in his commemorative Harvard
Class of '87 easy chair, "We all want validation. And sometimes, if
we're going through a rough patch where it's not all that easy to see
the benefit of our work, we want to be consoled. We want to reach
out and find someone who will tell us that we're an impressive person, that what we're doing is valuable. And one very common way
we have found to seek this validation is to whine incessantly like a
little bitch."
Of all those interviewed, juniors and seniors were the least sympathetic to Mr. Peterson's complaints. Senior Orphilina Rhizomo
(A' 15) commented, "Don't worry. Junior year will cut him down
to size. He'll be so tired, he won't have the energy to complain.
Besides, it's really seniors who have it the hardest. We have to apply
for grad school, and spend an hour a day minimum just generally
stressing about our futures- and all of that's on top of our schoolwork. That's why we've only gotten six hours of sleep in the last
week. Plus we've all been sick."
Mr. Peterson was too overwhelmed with work to comment.~
--- --~~------
'
Prospie's Question
Perplexes Tutor
E
v.ery prospi~ who stays overnight has a chance to
sit down with a tutor and ask any questions about
St. John's. Alexander, an eager high school senior from
upstate New York, very much looked forward to his
interview. He had read all of Stringfellow Barr, Scott
Buchanan, and Mortimer J. Adler and was well versed
in the history of the liberal arts education.
Alexander asked several questions about life at
St. John's and the Program. The conversation was
comfortably well-paced- that is, until it came to
an abrupt halt. Without realizing the weight of his
question, the student asked, "What is the purpose of a
St. John's education?" The tutor fell silent and slowly
slid back in his chair. A few long seconds went bycomplete silence. In a frantic effort to relieve the tutor,
Alexander proposed his own answers. "Is it to make
better citizens?" he asked. "Or, how about make
students think on their own?" The tutor grunted- no
reply. A few more long seconds rolled by, until finally
the tutor sat up, looked at his watch, and said, "I think
our time is up." Then, without a formal goodbye, the
tutor stood up, put on his coat, and quickly walked
out of the Coffee Shop. Alexander was shocked and
thought out loud, "What the hell?"
Next fall, Alexander enrolled as a Freshman. i\>
DINING HALL
€"1)#Sophomore Still Trying to Solicit Sympathy for Heavy Workload
Literature & Fine Arts
03 '
~•
Health center sends out helpful information.
~/
I
uoI mm@fl'I· m
- -·---
'
INTENTIONALLY
SMASHES ALL PLATES
Recently, the dining hall has been denying requests for
specific food items, which it identifies as "too unhealthy"
for its students. Some such declarations state that lemon
juice has "too much sugar" in it for the dining hall to put
out in good conscience. (You know, compared to the Rice
Krispie Treats they serve at the very beginning of the food
line.) Also, a request for chocolate chip cookie dough ice
cream was marked out in pen and the dining hall suggested kale flavoured ice cream instead. Needless to say, the
dining hall's fascism is obviously executed with only the
best health of the students' in mind, not the price of these
items which we already pay out the nose for on the meal
plan.
However, in a shocking tum of events, all of the plates
in the dining hall have been broken, and a sign has been
posted stating simply, "Watch your portions." As reminiscent of as this is of a "Big Brother is watching you,"
schtick, students should be reminded that you are in fact
being controlled and your requests are being rudely denied for your own good. The dining hall knows best, children. Remember that. i\>
A
fter disappearing from public view for 11 speculation-filled days, Russian President Vladimir Putin resurfaced Monday, March 16, meeting with Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev at a St. Petersburg
palace. The meeting marked Putin's first public appearance since March 5,
when Putin met with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The strongman's abrupt and unexplained absence had set off a flurry
of rumors, including that Putin had died or was in declining health, had
traveled to Switzerland for the birth of his girlfriends 's child, or even had
been ousted in a Kremlin coup.
But there he was on Monday, most assuredly not dead and showing no
outward signs of illness. The New York Times reports that during a j oint
appearance, Atambayev told reporters that Putin "had a philosophical
emergency," and flew out to Siberia, where he dieted on "raw fish, black
tea and parsnips."
"He was not only dietining and meditating, he read voraciously,"
Atambayev added.
On the top of his to-read list, the Russian leader spent most of the
week-and-a-half-long disappearance toiling over Nietzche's der Wille zur
Macht and Heid~gger's question of authenticity. But more that these, he
took to reading Zizek into the late hours of the night, trying to once and
for all resolve all his persistent questions imposed by previous German
philosophers.
Putin's "philosopphical emergency" came during particularly dire times
in Russia, with the country embroiled in Ukraine and amid the residual
fury over the assassination of the leading dissident Boris Nemtsov. No one
should be surprised.~
FUN FACT:
PUTIN IS ALIBRA
.n. .n. .n.
�~ookie ~AtAoist
c2\cciileotnll!J
At three in the morning this past Tuesday, I was abruptly awoken
by an unearthly howling. At the outset, I didn't worry too much the freshmen have been reading Herodotus lately and cries of lost
souls have become a comforting lullaby on Sunday nights - but
shortly after a desperate tapping came at my chamber door. Try as
I might, the poor soul was insistent. Not even my slurred "Slerp
stoody" could deter them; I stumbled to the door. Staring up at me
with watery eyes was a girl I'd never spoken to, though I'd seen her
on campus many a time.
"Sorry to wake you," she said. "But I've got a bit of an, err, problem down in the Humphreys basement."
"What?" I replied, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Oh, right.
Shit. RA Duties. Those are definitely an unfortunate reality. "Is
someone hurt?" The possibility of a bleeding student in my care
shocked me that much closer to full wakefulness.
"No, no. No one's hurt, it's just. .. " She huffed in frustration and
raked a hand through her hair. "Can you come with me? Please?"
It was my duty, dear reader, to do so. After grabbing a pair of
flip-flops and my robe, we trekked down from the third floor of
Humphreys to its basement. Let me say this: I have been well acquainted with fluorescent lighting in my lifetime. One might even
say 'painfully well acquainted' after viewing the buzzing ceiling
panels at my public high school. I had grown used to such lighting
in Humphreys basement, if only as a reason to avoid visiting it, but
the soft, rosy-fingered dawn-like yellow and neon purple spilling
into the hallway were most certainly not fluorescent.
"Excuse me?" A voice called from the room. The girl next to me,
I think her name was Elizabeth, froze. Her fear made me cautious,
but I entered the room anyway.
"Excuse me," the voice repeated, but I couldn't answer.
Jesus Christ floated gently in a ring of purple fire in the middle of
Humphreys basement.
"Hello," He said, lips curving into a smile. "Have you heard the
good word of me?" His laughter rooted me to the spot. I have never
been a religious person, but now seemed a great time to start. I
straightened up and tried to breathe a little more deeply, fisting my
~ummoos ~oo
of Qoil
hands in the pockets of my robe. I bowed stiffly.
"How can I help you ... Mr. Christ?" I managed to squeak out.
"Please, call me Jesus."
"Alright then, Jesus. May I ask what you're doing here?"
"I was hoping you could tell me," He glanced into the hallway. "I
believe I'm part of a seance gone wrong. It's okay, Elizabeth," He
motioned for her to come into the room. "Everyone messes up their
first invocation, but you get better. Why, I remember Mark tried to
summon Beelzebub one time and just got bees and bubble bath."
He laughed long and hearty, like it was the funniest joke he'd ever
heard. "Pronunciation is tricky, dear Elizabeth, if you inflect one
word wrongly you're likely to be given a phallus not a palace." Jesus wiped a tear from his eye and I briefly wondered if Homer had
these sorts of problems with his gods. Maybe.
"Oh, anyway, if you would just release me, I believe it's time for
me to get home. Daddy-o will be wondering where I am," He almost
started laughing again. My look of confusion must have tipped Him
off. "It's funny," He said, "Because He's omniscient. He's never
wondered in his life."
"Oh, yes," I nodded dumbly, "Very funny." I turned desperately
back to Elizabeth. "How do we let the nice man go?"
"That's just it," she said quietly, "I don't know."
"Well, if this is the trap that I think it is, you can just erase that
sigil," He gestured with his sandaled foot, "And change that to an
epsilon, I should be free to go."
Elizabeth hurriedly did as she was instructed, and soon the room
was filled with a white light. Jesus laughed again, he seemed like a
pretty jovial guy.
"Farewell, my friends . I am gone."
"Have a safe trip," I waved weakly. Elizabeth did the same.
Afterwards, there was no evidence that anything had ever transpired there. Only Elizabeth and I knew what had occurred, but I
didn't have the energy or presence of mind to berate her. Forgiveness seemed like a good option.
"Elizabeth," I began.
"Yes?" She sounded terrified.
"You know we have rules about this sort of thing."
"We do?" She seemed genuinely surprised.
"You can hold as many seances as you want in Humphreys. You
just have to get everyone's permission first."
"Wait, really?"
"Yes. Every resident has to okay it."
"So can I-"
"No. Because I will never say yes to you again."
I left her sputtering in the basement and returned upstairs, much
too tired for this nonsense. I had a nine am in a few hours and I
didn't think my tutor would take divine interruption as an excuse.
Back in bed, I reached down to take a swig from my water bottle;
dealing with Jesus was thirsty work. I gagged ungracefully at the
sour taste and swiped at my bedside lamp to turn it on. I stared in
frustrated disbelief. Pinot Noir glittered in my Came!Bak. ~
\.....L---------------------------, the
!-----------------------------"
Saint John's College to Become its own Country
Recently, a bill passed through the legislation of the American country
to declare the campus of St. John's College, formerly William and Mary's
School, to become its own country. This bill was started by several
students on-campus a few years ago, who have since graduated, but one
of them was recorded as saying, "I just think that our college is so much
more than a place of education, but... something more ... like, a country or
something. Yeah, a country," while very drunk at a party. The idea gained
steam, and slowly, petition after secret petition, the bill was presented to
Congress. The president did not veto this declaration, perhaps because it
was slid in as a clause on the one hundred and seventy second page of a
three hundred page bill about the standards of elementary geology classes
in the states. Nonetheless, we are excited to announce, here, in the pages
of our very own school paper, that you are all now citizens of Saint John's!
It is with great sadness, however, that I must announce several
drawbacks to this new status. Due to issues over land with the city of
Annapolis, the BBC will no longer be part of the campus. In fact, after a
lawsuit by the British Broadcast Company, the building can no longer be
called the BBC at all, and is being renamed something considerably more
boring. Also, residents of Pinkney and Randall are being asked to vacate
the buildings as soon as possible, since these, too, have been taken by the
city of Annapolis to be used as either tourist traps or restaurants which
are in themselves a form of tourist traps.
The polity is also to be made aware of a few new rules that will be
enforced in our great country.
1) Citizens must submit to the Gadfly at least one article per year.
2) The New Year's celebrations on Wednesday may only continue if the
singers reach no note higher than the middle "g" in the treble clef.
3) Axolotls are the only pet allowed now in dorm rooms.
4) For every Kant pun uttered, a citizen must receive twelve lashes.
5) The existence of mountains is to be denied at all times. Any people
who believe in mountains should be reported to the assistant dean
immediately.
6) Sophistry is no longer allowed to be mentioned in regards to the
education our school is providing.
7) The words "swag," "totes my goats;' "weebs," and "omg" are from
this moment on forbidden.
And finally,
8) Dogs are now allowed back on campus!
These rules are designed for the safety of everyone on campus, so
please respect them. Also keep in mind that the Wi-Fi can be shut down at
any time so that Perseus will no longer be available for use in "assisting"
translations.
Even though these are dramatic changes, please know that many of
things that you know and love about St. John's College will
remain the same. For example, eating at the dining hall will still be
mandatory for freshman, and Arcadia will remain on campus. In
fact, she had been promoted as the national animal for our country!
Isn't that charming? And for those of you that are wondering,
smoking will still be allowed on campus, but only if one uses the
ashtrays. We highlight this last part, since we feel this that this may
be a habit change for some of our citizens. We also would like to
reiterate that this new country is by no means anarchic. We do not
know what it is, really, other than a country.
If you want to put in an idea of how our new state should be run,
there will be a meeting at 2 am in the bell tower of McDowell on
April 16th, 2015. There will no refreshments nor will there be food,
and if you arrive to challenge those in power, you will be removed
from campus.
We at the Badfly sincerely hope that everyone enjoys their new
freedoms and lack of freedoms! However, we ask that you contain
your excitement enough that you do not draw the ire of the United
States, lest they decide to conquer us. ~
May Socrates be ever in your favor,
The Badfly Staff
Did You Know?
Famous sayings that originated from the
Bible:
0
0
'Judge not lest ye be judged.' (Matthew 7:1)
'Let he among you who is without sin cast the first
stone.' (John 8:7)
0 'Don't throw your pearls before swine.' (Matthew
7:6)
0 'Damned ifyou do, damned ifyou don't.' (Job 3:3)
0 'You gotta do what you gotta do.' (Johah 2:2)
0 'How do you like them apples?' (Genesis 3:5)
0 'Are you feeling lucky, punk?' (Exodus 14:23)
St. John's New Revenue
T
here have been several questions about the economy of
the new country of St. John's, all of which have pointedly
asked what in god's name we should do to stay afloat. A questionnaire was sent out to students, and the Delegate Council has
announced that tourism will be central to our new economy;
namely, St John's will bring in people to watch the students like
animals in a zoo, exactly like Prospies do already. Also, thanks
to an overwhelming amount of unsolicited advice, geeks from
all over St. John's have declared that the tabletop Role-Playing
Games (RPGs) are something that should be factored as a way
to make revenue. One letter to the Council declared, "We host
the sweetest RPGs around. People would totally pay to watch
me pretend to be a gnome paladin." Another stated, "I know all
of the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition onward, and
I am fully prepared to police all games played to make sure that
nothing goes wrong. Also, I know Pathfinder." t>
�LJ[}{][
mm@Ftry -
PAGE
06
'
Of course you do.
LJ~[
mm@FLY --
B&G To Give Student Award:·Most Annoying Trash
T
his review will perhaps be most helpful for a specific
species of modem coffee enthusiasts- at this point in our
modem era an ever-expanding species-the torturers of Nature,
or, the Baconian Vexers. It will therefore be most sensible to those
who have already frequented the establishment this publication
has occasioned me to review, as well as those who share my and
other modem coffee enthusiasts' Baconian inclinations, that I am
indeed writing about Ceremony Coffee Roasters, perhaps the most
torturous, but at the same time revealing investigators of Nature's
fruits.
It is a truism that is unfortunately unnoticed by most modem
coffee enthusiasts that their own principles and modus operandi
are in fact founded on Baconian principles. Thus, those who
deviate from their own craft's principles should not be surprised to
find themselves befit for Idols of the Theatre and therefore subject
to scrutiny and perhaps correction on behalf of their betters. (Dare
I mention that most despicable venue, the that which something
lesser cannot be drank, Starbucks?) Fortunately for us Vexerswould that fortune obeyed me more often!-our tasks have been
re-delegated to those martyrs of scientific knowledge at Ceremony
to reveal the shadows on the cave wall, disguising flat, weak crema
atop a double ristretto-shot, and that over-aerated milk which, from
afar to those in chains, looks like latte art but most certainly is not.
Ceremony Coffee Roasters was first mentioned to me by a
colleague of mine in the basement of the Baconian Institute at
M.I. T., an institute devoted to essentially putting various exotic
flowers and animals through Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
until they reveal to us Nature's mechanisms. I was telling her that
I was going to give a talk for a conference at the Naval Academy
entitled, 'Torture is Justified: Put it in Your Cup', and she told me
my pilgrimage would be remiss if I didn't visit Ceremony, advice
which, coming from the Chair of the Department for Nature's
Very Real and Reductive Mechanisms, I was required to obey.
When I arrived at Ceremony I was presented immediately
with one of the most serious and profound displays of Baconian
investigation and rigor in the modem Western world. One of these
displays can be found at the most immediate part of Ceremony's
brand, its logo, which features an exquisite set ofleaves that house
one of the Baconian's foods and jewels-the Arabica bean, that
sweet, complicated question that is the subject of the modem
coffee enthusiasts' and Vexers' project alike. But Ceremony's
displays grew that much more striking when I soon discovered
the tools at Ceremony's disposal for extracting Nature's nectar,
impressively varied and powerful: a set of calibrated kettles
designed to put Nature through a most vexatious routine in the
public spectacle, that most divine and zenithal symbol of the
Baconian Vexers project, the (Synesso) espresso machine, as well
as modem science's most sophisticated roaster equipped with
the appropriate graphing functions for roasting and extraction
temperature, and finally a glass-encased room for tasting various
aspects of the answers with which Nature has decided to present
us. One merely has to watch one of Ceremony's baristas-or
should I say Bacon-istas?-grind Nature to a fine, powdery
condition, tamp, beat, and pound onto the portafilter a la Novum
Organum, making Mother Nature finally acquiesce underneath
9-bars of pressure of the espresso machine's unceasing power.
And EUREKA! Nature's secrets are revealed in its most delicious
form! There are absolutely no idols and idolaters to be found at
this establishment- this most glorious kitchen of Nature!
Comrades of the Baconian Project- I beseech you for a
cappuccino at Ceremony ! Imbibe Nature's answers and savor the
fall of its last stand against Man's unceasing efforts! Cease your
Interrogation Techniques, and grant Ceremony the privilege to
supply you with the fruits of its torture!
)ltticus <Beaumont is no ordinary coffege student. J{e fias Grokfn many
Goundaries to arrive wfiere fie is now-St. Jolin 's Coffege, )lnnapofis. :Not
on{y did fie fiave to overcome a ratfier offensive po[icy tfiat anima[s, no matter
fiow inteffigent, are not affowed on ca1TIJ!.us, Gut fie a[so, wit fiout tfie aGi[ity to
read, fiad to convince tfie admissions office tfiat fi e was w ortfiy of acceptance.
)ltticus' story Gegins wfien fi e was just a kjtten, craving k,now[eage and
askjng questions sucfi as, "Wfiat is virtue?" and "Is virtue a teacfiaG[e thing? "
)ls fie grew, fie found tfiat institutes of [earning wouftf not accept fiim. Jljter
)ltticus fieard aGout St. Jo fin's fie k,new tfiat tfiis was tfie pface to come.
J{e fiad a friend witfi opposaG[e tfiumGs post a picture of )l tticus fookjng
mefancfiory on tfie internet and askfd for support. '[fie picture Gecame an
internet sensation. Witfi over one fiundred tfiousand notes on 'TumGfr and siJ(
fiundred tfiousand retweets, and even Gecoming a popu[ar meme for a so[id
day and a !iaft it Gecame fiard to ignore )ltticus'.
'Tfiougfi fi e aoes not speak, <Engfrsh, cannot read, and needs a fitt er Go:ic and
cat food, )ltticus was acceptea into St. Jolin 's, and it was discfosed tfiat,
since fie fiad no concept of currency, tfie )ldmissions office offered fiim a juff
ride scfiofarsfiip. )ltticus fias made a Grave step for alt cat-Bnc[, so f eeC(ree
to congratufate our new peer if you see fiim watkjng around camp_us. <f'(ease
Ge aware, tfiougfi, tfiat is in ]act offensive to confuse fiim with tfie foca[
raccoon, wfio was spotted again recentry after tfie fong winter. If you wisfi to
address tfie raccoon, fie fias Geen duGGea )lgamemnon "'l(ing of 'Trasfi" <i(ockft
<i(accoon, and a[so wisfies tfiat peop[e wouftf stop tfirowing beer cans at fiim
wfien fie comes too dose. ~
This Friday, a Buildings & Grounds spokesperson announced that
senior Todd Billings (A'lS) is scheduled to be given the first-ever lifetime achievement award titled Most Annoying Trash. "This is the first
time we've given this award," B&G spokesperson Roy "Rope-A-Dope"
Carter told Badfly reporters, "... or any award, for that matter. And
we're doing it because honestly, we've never seen such consistently
annoying trash come out of one student's room before."
A team of trash analysts has kept careful records of the annoyingness of trash throughout the St. John's campus, and discovered that
the highest concentrations are always found in the trash areas closest
to the residence of Mr. Billings. Recent surveillance footage from his
nearest trash area shows him depositing, within the span of a single
night: a CVS bag full of assorted sharp objects, three dozen half-full
cans of Milwaukee's Best, and a refrigerator-sized cardboard box
filled with loose packing peanuts.
When interviewed as to why he decided to leave half a Domino's
pizza in the recycle bin, Mr. Billings replied, "Well, it was a lot of food.
I didn't want it to go to waste. I thought maybe they could turn it into
stationery or one of those post consumer recycled Frisbees. I've been
making an effort to be more environmentally conscious."
While many Johnnies see this award as a rebuke, both parties firmly deny this. "We're honestly just amazed," B&G spokesperson Carter
told the Badfly, "I mean, we're used to picking up annoying trashthat's part of the job. But this guy's trash is annoying to the point
where it's like, 'Hats off.' You know? I mean, we didn't even think this
kind of annoyingness was possible."
Mr. Billings had a similar take on the matter: "Yeah, I'm pretty
psyched about it, actually. It makes me feel like I've really had an
impact on this community. Like, I've never really been all that great
at Greek or French. And I'm kind of so-so in Seminar and Math
and whatnot. But when I look at that award, I'll be able to think to
myself, 'I was truly outstanding at something.' And you know, like
Socrates probably said, any action can be virtuous. I think Socrates
. would be proud of me." ~
L...------------~-,,,(~)
:>
! Jrl~~I! ltl1J
mmnm~
~~®"R!gDJ
~m~~!I
In natura constricta et vexata,
Dr. Jack Brews, Ph.D
Jllmmfm~~Q
#RaceTogether
F
A
fter the fifth Frank Underwood quote, the Sophomore seminar had enough. "We
wanted to throw something at her," says one her peers. "Are you really going to try
to defend Machiavelli with the opening scene of House of Cards? Like, are you for real?!"
That is the reaction coming out of the seminar on Machiavelli's Prince, where a Sophomore reportedly only referenced the TV show House of Cards for the entire seminar. Says
a classmate, "We were just going along, having a great discussion, and he brings this shit
up. I mean, at least, bring up Season 3, if you are going to give a half-convincing argument." Another one of her peers was more upset she never referenced Clare Underwood.
"Once we started wondering about the Prince's virtue, she went on and on about Frank
Underwood, but without ever mentioning the sexiest person on the show, Clare. How is
that even possible?" The student in question, who requested anonymity, said: "I mean, I
thought I was focusing on what was important." ~
or once ever, the United States wants to
come together and have a real dialogue
about an important issue, thought Johnnie
Philip Anderson when he learned about
Starbuck's new campaign, called "Race Together". "Okay, really, the campaign only
inflates the ego of a gentry liberal billionaire CEO, but what the hell?" Philip told
his friend, on their way to Farbucks. "An
excuse to ask philosophical questions is
an excuse to ask philosophical questions."
Immediately arriving at the counter, Philip
asked the barista, "When is civil disobedience justified?" The barista stopped what he
was doing, and the two of them had an engaging conversation on the issue for nearly
three hours. Then, the barista was fired. ~
�UPCOMING
E VENTS
Tuesday 03/24
All kazoo marching band practice
on the roof of Mellon.
4AM
Dining Hall serving sauteed campus bunny-get it while it's hot!
11:30AM
Wednesday 03/25
All classes meet as scheduled ...
upside down?
9AM
Impromptu horseback Frisbee
game on quad followed by horseback ice cream social in McDowell 33 .
2:31 PM
Screening of educational film, "So
You Married A Johnnie?" in FSK.
8PM
Thursday 03/26
SPRJNG BREAK BEGINS
AGAIN!!!
lOPM
Friday 03/27
Lecture: All Program authors
return from the dead to wordlessly
throw pies at each other for an
hour and a half. No Q&A session.
8PM
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule,
please email sjca.gadfly@
gmail.com.
~ · ~ ~!?~
Gl~ «IID'il'il~ ~~
NCAA TO INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE WRONGDOING IN Sr.
JOHN'S ATHLETIC DEPT AND CONSIDER LIFETIME SANCTIONS
I
t was only a matter of time. Following high-profile scandals in Syracuse basketball, University of North Carolina basketball and football, and the once storied and unimpeachable
backgammon program at Princeton, St. John's now finds itself embroiled in its own version,
which school officials are calling "outrageous", "an insult to our academic identity", and "a
good laugh". The NCAA Committee for Integrity and Honesty in Wicket-Based Athletics announced on Friday that it is opening an investigation of the centuries-old croquet program,
looking specifically into how players are recruited, how strictly their academic requirements are
enforced, and how alleged perks-monetary and otherwise-have been channeled to them for
years. CAIHWBA spokesperson Brouha Strictnorm confidently stated, "Well, it's a very tough
decision to make, there are a lot of balls in the air and on the field and whatnot. The truth is,
we're really looking for the deciding factor to push our decision one way or the other."
Indeed, eyebrows have been rising for some time around campus, with the appearance
of subtle but suspicious signs that the balance between academics and athletics at St. John's
was shifting. The gleaming 24,000-person capacity Mallet Dome facility, which appeared
suddenly during Spring Break 2010 and all but dwarfed
FSK; the hiring of a former University of Oklahoma ' '
Indeed, eyebrows
Athletic Director as the Assistant Dean of Admissions;
have been rising for
the housing of croquet players in the Varsity Yacht; not
some time around
to mention the ever-growing share of incoming students
campus.
with physiques resembling more that of an Olympic
athlete than of a student of Olympus.
Not everyone is so sure that something is amiss, however. One anonymous student (who 's
a junior, living on the 3rd floor at Gilliam) opined, "I guess it kind of makes sense now, but I
really didn't think there was anything unethical going on with croquet players. I mean, I did
think it was kinda strange that they were allowed to Facetime into seminars, and that when they
did participate it was usually to say something like 'Yeah, what he said', but it never occurred
to me that they were getting special treatment or anything like that. I thought it was just another
example of St. John's' constant push to innovate and embrace new technology".
Another student, who we'll call Shillabong Engelhoof: "Sure, yeah, there's the yacht, the cars,
the 'no-show' courses with no reading requirements and only a diorama as the final project, but I
thought this was in keeping with the St. John's philosophy that every student personally design
and customize his/her own study program that best fit his/her needs."
Ultimately, St. John's will have to decide which is more important, the lure of the funds
coming from alumni boosters and television rights for the post-season tournaments or the purity
of its academic mission. Some are defending the croquet program, arguing that it goes hand-in
hand with everything the school stands for. As the current Assistant Croquet Coach Falable
Croinkerblust-Head Coach Spratt was on a recruiting trip to Turks and Caicos, and therefore
unavailable-put it, "Of course, right now everyone's piling on the croquet program, but they
don't realize that it's because of high-profile revenue sports that other, niche sports at St. John's
like basketball, soccer, and tennis are possible. Do you think St. John's could afford to have
its precious intramural soccer field if it weren't for the money croquet brings in? Oh, and this
'Great Books' thing the school is so proud of. Do you have any idea how dusty those old books
get? Do you think they think they get dusted for free?" ~
Sophomore's Mediocre Essay on
Dante Improved by Elaborate
Page-by-Page Illustrations
�
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Belarus, a Bismarckian Model • 02
Letter to the Polity • 03
Drilling in Alaska's Offshores • 06
Fifty Shades of Grey Reviewed • 07
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY
131 1 116961 1~mr011661'1 ~ 3323
1 1 1 1 ~ i1 1i~1
1111111111111111111
~
....
�02
THE GADFLY
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
21401
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
WWW.ISSUU.COM/SJCGADFLY
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SJCAGADFLY
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over
600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and
edit submissions in any way necessary
to publish a professional, informative,
and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
The Gadfly meets on the Lower Level of
the BBC every Sunday at 7pm.
Articles should be submitted by Friday
at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.
STAFF
Sebastian Barajas • Editor-in-Chief
Allison Tretina• Editor-in-Chief
Kira Anderson • Staff
Frederick Nesfield • Staff
Malori Richards • Staff
CONTRIBUTORS
John Dusenbury
Henry Hirsch
Madeline Kiss
George Ward
From the Editors:
D
earest Johnnies: by the time you
read this, we-the crack team of
journalism commandos known as the
Gadfly Force, (or Gadlfy for short) will
have been surprised in a nighttime raid
by the nefarious forces of the Badfiy,
our hated adversaries. These villains
will dress up in our clothes and act in
our place for the next issue! We wish we
could avoid this terrible fate, but it has
been ordained by the oracle we consult
in order to update the weekly calendar.
Until our triumphant escape, then, Polity!
-The Gadfly Force
Belarus, a Bismarckian Mode l
Allison Tretina
A'16
03
THE GADFLY
A Letter To the Polity
John Dusenbury A'll
When tension between Austria and Russia threatened war in Europe, Otto von Bismarck,
the first chancellor of the German Empire, refused to take a side. As he told the Reichstag
in December 1876, "I am holding two powerful heraldic beasts by their collars, and am
keeping them apart for two reasons: first of all, lest they should tear one another to pieces;
and secondly, lest they should come to an understanding at our expense." Bismarck's balance of power diplomacy preserved Germany's unity and saved Europe from a tumultuous
war.
Bismarck's firm stance toward Austria and Russia has become a present day model for
Belarus during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Minsk, Belarus has become a neutral meeting
place for many world leaders. Earlier this year, EU and Western officials met in Minsk to
discuss the crisis in Ukraine. Just last week, the capital hosted the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia to negotiate a peace deal.
While the Russia-Ukraine conflict has afforded Belarus the position of host, it has also
challenged Belarus's efforts to sustain neutrality between Russia and the West. As Moscow
Times explains, "For a long time [Belarus Prime Minister] Lukashenko has sought to walk a
very fine line between Russia and the West, professing loyalty to Moscow and participation
in Putin's Eurasian integration project, the Eurasian Economic Union, while at the same
time seeking to sustain working diplomatic and economic relationships with the West, in
particular with the European Union."
Belarus's ties to Russia continue to grow stronger. In March, Belarus expects to finalize
the guidelines for its agricultural trade with Russia. They will discuss amounts and finalize
their agreements. According to CISTran Finance, in 2014, Russia imported 113,000 tons
of beef from Belarus, 20% of Russia's total imported supply. Of Russia's 800,000 tons of
cheese consumed, Belarus supplied 15% of it, a total of 120,000 tons. Belarus Agriculture
and Food Minister Leonid Zayats considers further dealings to be a prosperous venture.
In the past, dealings with Russia have not been as successful. In the 2013 global potash
market conflict, Belarus accused the top executives at Russian producer OAO Uralkali of a
criminal scheme. According to Bloomberg Business, Belarus detained Uralkali Chief Executive Officer Vladislaw Baumertner and charged him for abusing his power in a joint venture
with state-owned Belaruskali. Uralkali w as the world's largest potash producer at the time.
A few years before the global potash market conflict, Belarus cut off Russia's crude oil imports after the country failed to agree on a price, Bloomberg Business reports.
At the same time, Belarus has faced challenges with the West. Five years ago, the EU and
the United States sanctioned Belarus for Lukashenka's corrupt presidential election that
violated a specific international code. The EU extended the sanctions for another year as of
October 30, 2014, according to the Moscow Times.
Despite the sanctions on Belarus, the United States's attitude towards the country
has improved. For example, when Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makei visited
Germany the first week in February, the U. S. applauded the Foreign Minister's initiative.
W ith Ger many's fede ral auth orities, deputies of Bundest ag, representative of political
foundations, and other institutions in attendance, Makei openly discussed long-term goals
to cooperate with the EU and improve Belarusian-German relations. Lukashenka's "role in
the attempts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine made us look in another way at the leader of
Belarus," an official of the European External Action Service told the press.
As much as Belarus improves its ties with either Russia or the U. S., Belarus still faces
another challenge: the hostility of Russia toward the U. S. When former Belarusian Prime
Minister met with U. S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Victoria Nuland, Russia responded with dismay. According to the Belarus Digest, Nuland is
w idely blamed by the Russian regime for the Ukrainian crisis. Chairman
of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, Alexei Pushkov, warned
that by befriending America Lukashenka might finally face the fate of
Milosevich, Qadhafi, and Hussein.
The Ukraine-Russia conflict has made neutrality increasingly difficult
for countries such as Belarus. It is unclear how long Belarus will be able to
uphold a Bismarckian model, but for now, they are succeeding.
+
Q: Is Antigone girlfriend material?+
lovely garden party inaugurating the arrival of spring in Maryland's
Dear Students,
capital, is that it is a reiteration of the Peloponnesian War, pitting
It is with great sadness that I report to you that four-score and
however many days ago (April 12th, 2014)- for the first time in the
the philosophical Athenian spirit of St. John's against the disciplined
history of the Annapolis Cup of croquet- St. John's College failed
Spartan spirit of the Naval Academy. How allegorical one wishes to
to reclaim the trophy and bring it back to its proper home in the
be when analyzing this sporting event is, of course, a matter of perAlumni Office; after a year spent across the street and over the wall,
sonal preference, but it is certainly not forbidden to see the tournahidden somewhere in the depths of the Naval Academy. How could
ment as a symbolic war between good and evil.
For the past two years, the militaristic Spartan spirit of the MidSt. John's have sunk so low?
I have four guesses:
shipmen across the street and over the wall has well-marshaled its
significant resources to outdo the scholarly Athenian spirit of the
NUMBER ONE: Everyone was distracted by the rebranding
scandal (which, by the way, was a Naval Academy conspiracy to
Johnnies. Perhaps this should come as no surprise, as St. John's is
thwart a Johnnie croquet comeback). Fortunately, we've all forgotthe natural underdog. St. John's has approximately a tenth of the
ten about that ordeal (and how bureaucracy is steadily sapping the
student population as the Naval Academy, is not well known for
vitality of American higher education) and we can now focus on
athletic achievement, and is not owned and operated by the most
what really matters: croquet!
powerful government in the world. But this two-year losing streak
NUMBER TWO: This generation of croquet players never saw
for St. John's is its first losing streak in the history of the Annapolis
Micah Beck play. (He graduated in '09) He's walking proof of "the
Cup. St. John's is generally the favorite. In 25 out of 32 meetings, the
great person theory of history." Not only a scholar and a gentleman,
spirit of St. John's outdid the spirit of the Naval Academy.
How could this be so? Well, the champions of St. John's have
Mr. Beck is also a Viking of a man who can run a three-ball break
with one hand tied behind his back. St. John's went undefeated
taken their not-so -serious pastime of croquet quite seriously. The
while he was a student and remained unAnnapolis Cup is the most attended croquet
defeated for as long as the freshman class
( ( Intercollegiate event in the world, and the most attended event
of his senior year, i.e., the class of 2012, still
of the year at St. John's. It is just about the most
athletic competitions public facing St. John's gets. The members of the
attended the school. With any luck, another
are always, in t he croquet team have taken representing the school
Micah Beck is out there somewhere in the
wings waiting for the chance to usher in a
final account, symbolic seriously because they want the world to know
new Golden Age of St. John's Croquet.
that a liberal education produces folks capable
battles of spirit.
NUMBER THREE: The restrictions on
of practical mastery, and that St. John's is better
drinking have thrown the Johnnies off their
than the Naval Academy, and that St. John's is a
game. Beginning in 2012, the year before
helluva lot more fun.
the slump began, the school banned outside alcohol and began fencThat last point is of particular significance. A liberal educaing off front campus from the rest of the world. I have also heard a
tion teaches students how to examine their lives so they can freely
rumor that the school is capping the amount of beer that the team
choose a path in life that makes them happy. Croquet is a game that
can consume on the day of the Cup, which is actually to the disadfacilitates happiness and good feeling. It is fun and no stress. For
vantage of the Johnnie's because lore has it that Red Stripe is to the
some it is little more than an excuse to consume beverages with
St. John's croquet player as spinach is to Popeye. At the same time,
their friends outside on a nice day. It is in this skill, the skill of enthe restrictions have put a damper on the carnival atmosphere that
joying oneself, that I think Johnnies most outshine their neighbors
in years past so intoxicated the straight-laced Midshipmen that
across the street and over the wall.
their prowess on the court was greatly impaired; this gave the St.
Croquet is a game that anybody can play. One doesn't have to be
John's croquet players, veterans of many a bacchanalia, a significant
tall, or strong, or swift of foot when the most physical action a player
home field advantage. Until this administrative error is corrected, I
must master is how they guide a mallet's swing between their legs.
am afraid the champions of St. John's will just have to persevere.
It's easier than throwing a Frisbee. Anybody can play. And everyNUMBER FOUR: The croquet team seems to have beeome
body at St. John's should play.
distracted by another croquet tournament that occurs in a whole
So I ask my readers, have you played croquet recently, and if not,
'nother state. The team has been spotted playing on back campus,
why not? Do you not wish to help your little school win glory in the
perhaps because it's flatter than the front lawn and thus more
wider world? Are you more focused on what kind of status you are
similar to the courts played on in Pennsylvania. It's even been rugoing to eke out for yourself after graduation? Remember, the Canon
mored that the team is traveling large distances to practice a type of
will always be there, but your chance to play croquet against Navy
croquet that has fewer wickets per court than the nine used in the
lasts only so long. In this life, we are all Achilles- we are all asked
Annapolis Cup, and while the croquet team used to distinguish itself to choose between a life of glory and a life of comfort (Iliad Book 9,
from the croquet club (that every member of the polity is a part of)
Lines 410-416). Which one will you choose?
only by wearing absurd dress on the day of the match, members of
the team can now be seen dressed absurdly over the course of the
Go, St. Johns!
whole year. You can't miss them. They are decked out in all white -kinda like the stormtroopers in Star Wars.
Signed,
But of course, these are mere excuses. Intercollegiate athletic
John Dusenbury (A'll)
competitions are always, in the final account, symbolic battles of
spirit.
P. S. Sam, don't forget to time the matches this year, and rememThe charm of the Annapolis Cup, aside from the fact that it is a
ber the clips!
+
�04
New Haven, Connecticut
Willamette River Valley, Oregon
First Fish Taken Off Endangered Species List: Believe it or not,
no fish has ever been taken off the endangered species until last
week. According to Smithsonian Smart News, the U. S. Fish and
Wildlife service announced on Tuesday, February 17, that a tiny
minnow in Oregon has recovered from drastically low population
numbers, and has been taken off the endangered species list. Thriving in beaver ponds, flooded marshes, and backwater sloughs, the
minnows can only be found in western Oregon's Willamette River
Valley. When the minnows were first listed as endangered, they
numbered 1,000. Now, there are more than 140,000, reports the
Pacific Region Fish and Wildlife Service. "This doesn't mean that
all of a sudden it's hands off, and we never need to do anything for
them," Paul Henson, Oregon director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, told
the Seattle Times.
05
THE GADFLY
THE GADFLY
Around the U.S.
Why Marijuana Makes You Hungry: Researchers at Yale University discovered that marijuana prohibits neurons in the brain
from suppressing the appetite. "It fools the brain's central feeding
system;' Tamas Horvath, lead author of the marijuana study, said,
according to the Washington Post. ''We were surprised to find that
the neurons we thought were responsible for shutting down eating
were suddenly being activated and promoting hunger, even when
you are full." Horvath and his researchers found that instead of
suppressing the appetite, cannabinoid receptors actually release
endorphins that encourage eating. It is still unclear why people
have stronger responses to marijuana than mice, the Washington
Post explains.
Westminister, Maryland
A New Dr. Seuss Book: Random House is publishing a neverbefore-seen book from Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as
Dr. Seuss. The hidden treasure is What Pet Should I Get?, a likely
sequel to the story One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. According
to the New York Times, the manuscript was first uncovered shortly
after Dr. Seuss's' death. In 2013, Giesel's widow, Audrey, and his
secretary and friend, Claudia Prescott, found it buried in a box
along with several other mysterious works. Random House expects
to release the new book on July 28, as well as the other works at a
later date.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah's Possible Capital Punishment: Utah may bring back execution by firing squad. On Friday, February 13, Utah's House of Representatives passed Bill OOll, which will allow executioners to resort
to firing squad when materials for lethal injection are not available.
According to Mic News, the bill passed the Republican-dominated
chamber with a 39-34 vote. It still has to pass the Senate, but if the
Senate shares the views of Representative Paul Ray, passing the bill
is highly possible. Ray told the Salt Lake Tribune, "A firing squad
is absolutely one of the most humane way to execute someone
because it's so quick and, quite honestly, one of the most painless
ways."
Beston, Virginia (CIA Headquarters)
Bentonville, Arizona
Wal-Mart Offers a Living Wage: In the last year a number of protests spread across the country and more than 1,600 on Black Friday
alone-all concerning Wal-Mart's poor treatment of employees and
severely low wage. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, more
than half of the company's workers earn less than $25,000 a year.
This year things are going to change. Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillan announced that by the end of next year, Wal-Mart will raise its
wage-floor to $10 an hour, which is $2.75 higher than the federal
minimum wage. ''We are trying to create a meritocracy where you
can start somewhere and end up just as high as your hard work and
your capacity will enable you to go," McMillan told Associated Press.
1
j
That Scary Place on the Internet
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma Looks to Ban AP U.S. History: Oklahoma's legislature
passed a bill on Monday, February 16, that will ban public schools
from teaching Advanced Placement United States History, Newsweek reports. Republican Daniel Fisher, author of the bill, complained that the AP history course focused heavily on "what is bad
about America" instead of emphasizing "American exceptionalism,"
according to Tulsa World. Oklahoma teachers are furious. "My first
reaction is that this is totally going to undermine public education
in Oklahoma," Matt Holtzen, who has taught 17 years of AP U.S. history teacher in Enid, Oklahoma, told Newsweek. ''We're looking at a
$6ll million shortfall in the budget for Oklahoma this year. And AP
U.S. is what they target to cut?"
That Lonely Place on the Internet
Man Creates Dating Site for Himself : Partly joking, partly serious, Brandon Scott Wolf created a dating website, for which he is
the only dating option. The site is called DateBrandonScott Wolf.
Any woman can become a dating candidate by filling out a profile
and writing an essay between 500 and 1,000 words about a specific
accomplishment or event that impacted their life, the Huffington
Post reports. "People have asked me, 'Are you serious? Is this a joke?'
And my only response is, 'I'm not even sure,"' Wolf told Mashable.
"There's a part of me that's hoping someone is going to get this 100
percent, and won't catfish me, and then I'll ask them on a date."
Anti-Dinosaur Mother Goes Viral: A Christian anti-dinosaur
mother started a message board online that has gone viral, according
to Mic News. She uses her screen name CADministry (which stands
for "Christians Against Dinosaurs Ministry") to protest to the world
that dinosaurs are harmful for our children. "Nothing about dinosaurs is suitable for children, from their lack of family values through
to their non-existence from any serious scientific point of view," she
writes. Dinosaurs, she claims, are invented by "curio-hungry Victorians", but apparently we have Charles Darwin to thank, because he
disproved dinosaurs' existence. According to Mic News, when her
children received toy dinosaurs for Christmas, she wrote, "My children were delighted because they know that dinosaurs are evil. I am
fortunate that my family has been very supportive, and has disowned
my children's former aunt."
CIA Bought and Destroyed Iraqi Chemical Weapons: According
to a new report from the New York Times, the CIA and U.S. military
teamed up to find and remove 400 chemical weapons from an
undisclosed Iraqi seller. "This was a timely and effective initiative
by our national intelligence partners that negated the use of these
unique munitions;' Retired Arm Lt. Gen. Richard P. Zahner told the
Times. The report, however, revealed that many American service
members involved in the operation did not receive the proper care
following their exposure to the harmful chemicals. As Aaron Stein,
an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said to
the Times , "As it became more clear over the course of the war that
our troops had been exposed to [chemical compounds], why wasn't
more done to protect the guys on the ground?"
Daytona, Florida
New Bacon-Eating Record: Matt 'Megatoad' Stonie, on e of Major
League Eating's top two eaters in the word, set the bacon-eating
record by housing 182 slices in five minutes, Huffington Post reports. The sponsors of the Daytona, Florida competition estimates
Stonie ate more than six pounds of cooked b,acon and over 28,000
milligrams of sodium. Stonie felt no regret after the event and still
somehow had an appetite for bacon. "The bacon was cooked just
the way I like it-a little crispy because I don't like having to chew
it," Stonie told the Huffington Post after the competition. "I don't
feel that bad. I'm used to 10 or 12 minute contests, where I'm eating
10 or 15 pounds of food. I came into this prepared."
'
r
r
�06
THE GADFLY
THE GADFLY
07
"The kind of book that Madame Bovary would read"
-The Ne}V York Times
·
Offshore Drilling in the Atlantic
"Inexplicably a worldwide phenomenon"
-The Washington Post
·
What is the Smart Choice?
"No. My opinion is no.''
-Rebecca O'Brien,
St. John's College Delegate Council member
Note: these uotes ma not be real
This past month, the White House took action to effectively ban
thousands of species of marine wildlife in the Gulf and countless
oil exploration and drilling in 22 million acres ofland in Alaska.
residents and business owners in the effected coastal areas. BP has
Great! However, they also opened up the leases for oil drilling off
already paid billions of dollars in fees, fines, and claims and is in a
the East Coast. This may sound great- it'll be good for the economy,
position to pay out a total of upwards of $43 billion once everything
right? Or, it may sound like a disaster- it's going to destroy the
is settled and done. This spill was a direct result of a badly built and
delicate ecosystems of the Atlantic and the East Coast! There's a lot
badly regulated rig. The initial explosion killed 11 people, and the
going on here, and a lot of possibilities up in the air. What should
estimated total amount of oil leaked was around 4 million barrels
we think about this decision? In order to figure that out we must ask
(the US Government says 4.2 billion, BP claims it was closer to 2.45
ourselves: is it a smart move?
billion). This type of disaster could happen again, and it could prove
In order to answer this question we must first look at all the conto be even worse.
sequences, both good and bad, that could result from big oil comEast Coast states rely heavily on the revenue generated through
panies drilling in the Atlantic. To start with the potential benefits:
the tourism industry. There are entire towns that live and die with
it could result in a growth in state economies along the East Coast,
the busiest tourist seasons. If something were to happen to destroy
as the oil companies will need to invest in proper infrastructure to
their main attractions, the beaches, not only would the state economies be hard hit, but countless people who make their living in this
accompany the offshore drills (which are in federally controlled
waters) and the increase in oil production could possibly lower gas
industry would be devastated. The collective value of the tourism
prices.
industry for Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
Now, let's look at the potentially harmful consequences: possible
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia is $189 billion. In the
oil spills destroying coastal eco-systems and painful financial blows
event of an environmental disaster, a spill could reach the shores of
to the tourism industry for coastal states, deepening our reliance
any or all of these states, destroying the livelihoods of millions of
on non-sustainable energy sources, and the
Americans.
definite harm caused by sonic-canons used to
In addition to the financial impact a disaster
' ' Will we make short- would have, the environmental consequences
survey possible drilling sites to over 100,000
sighted decisions that would be unquantifiable. If another oil spill of
sea creatures.
put the planet, its ani- the same size were to happen in the Atlantic
Yeah, there are more cons than pros... Maybe
the significance of the benefits outweigh the
mal life, and our future Ocean, the harmful effects would be widenegative consequences?
descendants in possible spread and uncontainable. As it is, there are
The estimated sum that could be generated
already 138,000 sea creatures who are in
jeopardy?
by offshore drilling is upwards of $10.8 to $60
direct harm's way just from the effects of the
billion (that number represents the collective
sonic cannon that would be used to survey the
total benefits to coastal states from Delaware
ocean floor to find suitable drilling areas. Most
to Georgia). Additionally, there could be another $2.1 to $11.6 billion
marine life relies on sound to communicate, and the cannon could
made in tax revenue. Finally, any effect on gas prices wouldn't be
cause significant and possibly permanent hearing damage, thereby
seen until 2030, fifteen years from now, and it is only estimated to be leaving these dolphins, whales, turtles, crabs and other creatures as
a difference of three cents. We can't predict what the geo-political
good as dead.
landscape in 2030 will look like, so there is no way of guaranteeAll of these possible consequences are just in the event that there
ing that the extra oil production would actually result in lower gas
is an oil spill-we haven't even looked at the significance of offshore
prices.
drilling encouraging our country's reliance on unsustainable fossil
Fifteen years is a long time to wait to see benefits from a venture
fuels. Leaving aside the obvious effects these fuels have on the clithat could end up causing more harm than good. Which brings us to
mate, the United States' reliance on oil has been a consistent cause
the cons of offshore drilling...
for our involvement in contentious political situations, particularly
Oil spills happen, and they aren't pretty. The last major one
in the Middle East, since the mid-twentieth century. As it is, we rely
to effect the United States was the largest one in our history, the
on oil to power our economy
Continued On
Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, which proved catastrophic for
Pg. 7
and our lives- leaving us in
George Ward
A'.17
Is it tough to imagine a piece of cinema as revolutionary as Fifty
Shades of Grey? Yes. Its subject matter? Staggering. Its characters?
So fleshed out, it hurts. In all seriousness, this is a film that isn't just
groundbreaking, it takes the ground and dismisses it entirely, drilling through it until it's nestled in the spicy hot lava underneath.
Christian Grey is the kind of man who makes money almost as
fast as he makes his enemies sad. He's the kind of guy who has a
house that's so big, even though no house is big enough to contain
his piercing gaze. He's the kind of guy who has an unsettlingly
strong handshake, like a handshake ghost, maybe. He's the kind of
guy who thinks your girlfriend is ugly, but will steal her anyway
Continued From
because then you will feel lonely like he does all the time.
And nobody gets stolen faster than saucy college coed Anastasia
Steele. She yearns for him so much, and who can blame her? Christian Grey is the kind of man whose body is like a typhoon! His torso
undulates like an ocean warning a peaceful island village of the
violence to come. Imagine the peaceful island villagers to be kind of
turned on, too. That's how I was the whole movie. I would wreck islanders' villages for Christian Grey. I am not sure what his company
does, but maybe it will help. I would wreck them sensually.
And nobody gets wrecked more sensually than wide-eyed,
virginal twenty-something Anastasia Steele. Sh e takes one look at
Christian Grey and alluringly bites herself in the face. Sometimes,
she exhales deeply, and sometimes, she bites a pen. All this because
of a man. A man so powerful, he has *many* cars.
I think I've made my case. Their names may be metallic, but
their love is fierce and wild, like a dog and a cat who want to be
friends. At one point, they are both naked at the end. Christian looks
at her naked body and wants it so much. Anastasia says no, and
Christian makes an angry face. The sexual tension is palpable, and
as an audience member, I'm sure I'm not alone in being grateful... if
you know what I mean!!!!
Fifty Shades may not be a fun treat for the whole family. But it's
certainly a fun treat if you're on a girls' night out ... and an *especially* fun treat if you're saucy enough to be out with a *boy!*
"Laters, babes"! This is George Ward, signing out!
+
Pg.6
a position w here we find ourselves needing to interfere in messy
and costly situations overseas so that we can maintain our energy
imports. One could say, "Sure, but that only makes offshore drilling more important! We can become self-reliant!" But this is a
foolhardy claim. First off, the oil reaped from these rigs would be
controlled and sold by the oil companies leasing the rigs, and more
often than not the oil would be shipped overseas to be sold on the
world market. Secondly, by saying "yes" to offshore drilling, we are
only supporting the unsustainable reliance we have on oil, thereby
keeping our nation's interests and assets tied to those of unstable
governments overseas. Time and time again we have imposed our
influence on regimes and governments of foreign states in order to
ensure the stability of our energy supply, but we shouldn't continue
to go down this path. To sum it up, any move to continue our reliance on fossil fuels when we could be investing in more sustainable
forms of energy is not only a foolish choice when it comes to the
environment, but an unwise choice when it comes to foreign policy
and national security.
The truth is, there is a lot of damage that can result from drilling
in the Atlantic off the East Coast. Sure, it may be financially profitable to some of the coastal states, but does that make it the smarter
choice? As humans we may feel a sense of control over our environment, to the point that we can manipulate it to our whim at will,
but shouldn't we also feel a sense of duty too? We are not alone on
this planet and any decision regarding offshore drilling is going to
effect the other species we share this environment with. They can't
survive on money, and neither can we when it really comes down to
it, so right now is the time when we need to choose. Will we make
short-sighted decisions that put the planet, its animal life, and our
future descendants in possible jeopardy? Or, do we make the wiser
choice and act on behalf of our children and this shared environment-a choice that would be even more likely lead to a stronger
economy and n ational security down the road? Now, it is time for
you to choose: what is the smart choice?
+
A Poem Inspired By Aristotle's Ethics
+Anonymous
As two stones
are scraped together to be
smooth
so friends must chip off
their faults, mimicking each
other to become good people.
�08
THE GADFLY
Plate I' ll (cont i11J1cd)
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Tuesday 02/23
Crossfit
11:40AM
Kunai
4PM
~..:J' · ~.J
t'
Fencing
7:30 PM
Wednesday 02/24
Crossfit
11:40AM
St. John's Chorus, Great Hall
7 PM
Thursday 02/25
Crossfit
11:40AM
Intramural Basketball
Championship Game
lOPM
SPRING BREAK BEGINS
lOPM
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule,
please email sjca.gad:fly@
gmail.com.
~-=·
;
h=
rrr
THE STUDENT COMMITTEE ON INSTRUCTION:
Examining Freshman Laboratory
Henry Hirsch
A'15
and structure of a subject.
On Thursday, February 19, the Student
A tutor who was present at the forum
Committee on Instruction convened in the
Private Dining Hall to discuss freshman
suggested that a tension exists between the
laboratory. What questions does freshman
authors who are read in the first and second
laboratory (especially in the first semester)
semesters of freshman laboratory. Some
try to address? What aspects of the laborasecond semester authors (notably Lavoisier)
tory can be improved?
claim that nothing is created or destroyed.
Many of the students who were present
Yet, much of the activity of first semester
at the forum regarded freshman laboratory
involves destroying beings, for example,
(particularly in the first semester) as an exdissecting a fish. The idea of w holeness that
ercise in learning to see in a variety of ways.
permeates the first semester is absent in the
They thought that the laboratory encoursecond semester. It is replaced by the idea of
ages students to compare the different permeasurement. For instance, one can break a
spectives provided by observation of living
rock and measure its parts. But one cannot
do the same activity with a fish; the fish has
organisms and dead organisms, of exteriors
and interiors, and of wholes and parts.
a wholeness that the rock does not have.
In other words, the primary focus of the
One freshman was disturbed by what she
perceived as the flippancy that is shown
laboratory is not the subjects that are being
observed, but rather
for the lives of the
the different ways in
organisms dissected
which those subjects
' ' Freshman are provided in freshman laboracan be observed, and
with almost no guidance tory. She felt that
thus understood. One
alternatives (such
or methodology during as models or videos)
student pointed out
their practicums; they are should be provided for
that this is why freshmen are provided with
learning to look for them- students who didn't
almost no guidance or
want to partake in the
selves.
dissections. Howmethodology during
ever, another student
their practicums; they
are learning to look for themselves.
believed that using these alternatives would
undermine the purpose of the practicums by
Another student at the forum felt that
the most fruitful conversations in freshmen
inhibiting students from learning to look for
themselves.
laboratory occur when students attempt to
create theories to explain why the subjects
Lastly, one laboratory assistant thought
they are observing are the way they are and
that the Goethe readings should be moved
how they work. He attributed this to the fact later in the curriculum. (This year they
that students often generate a diversity of
have been scheduled earlier than usual) He
thought that these readings were too theothese theories, while they usually come to a
general consensus regarding the appearance retical for freshmen to undertake so early.
+
�
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Tretina, Allison (Editor-in-Chief)
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The Gadfly, Vol. XXXVI Issue 11
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ST. JOHN' S COLLEGE LIBRAIW
131 1 1 11696i~ 1i j/101166~ 2168
1 1 1 1 1 l1li1 1i1l1fIi
1
1111111111 111111
1
SCI: Language Tutorials • 02
I Dig Your Mirth • 03
Edwin Dickinson Exhib it • 06
A Johnnie of the Vine • 08
ST. JoHN's COLLEGE• 60 COLLEGE AvE, ANNAPOLIS, MD 21401 •FEB. 10, 2015 • VoL. XXXVI • IssuE 10
�02
THE GADFLY
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
21401
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
WWW.ISSUU.COM/SJCGADFLY
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SJCAGADFLY
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over
600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and
edit submissions in any way necessary
to publish a professional, informative,
and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
The Gadfly meets on the Lower Level of
the BBC every Sunday at 7pm.
Articles should be submitted by Friday
at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.
STAFF
Sebastian Barajas • Editor-in-Chief
Allison Tretina • Editor-in-Chief
Kira Anderson • Staff
Jonathan Gordon • Staff
Frederick Nesfield • Staff
Malori Richards • Staff
Julia Kulon • Photoshop Extaordinaire
Lyra Muerer • Illustrator
SCI: Language Tutorials
Henry Hirsch
A'15
From the Editors:
G
ive us your voices, Polity. In you
resides the potentiality for a
euphonious choir, singing the praise
of wisdom. In you is the capacity
to appreciate, to love, to critique, to
complain about the quality of the dining
hall food, all in perfect harmony. Will
you not contribute? Will you not join
our celestial harmony? Give us your
voices, Polity. We aim at the Good.
-The Gadfly
Book Collecting Winners
Th e Greenfield Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 4th annual Book Collecting Contest.
First Prize
Christopher Hutter, Junior (Al6)
I Didn't Learn That in High School: Books on Obscure
American History
Second Prize
Brady Lee, (AGI14), Web Specialist, Senior Resident for
International Student Services
Legos and Greek: Books for My Daughter
Read the Prize-Winning Essays here:
http://www.sjc.edu/academics/libraries/greenfieldlibrary/exhibits/
Please stop by the Library to view these unique collections. The exhibit will be on display from February 4th
through March 30th and is located in the Lillian Vanous
Nutt Room on the 1st floor of the Library. +
03
I Dig Your Mirth
Jerry Januszewski
On Thursday, January 22, the Student Committee
on Instruction (SCI) convened in the private dining
hall to discuss the language tutorials. The primary
goal of the language tutorials, according to the Statement of the St. John's Program, is "training in the
~
means of precise communication." It is also often said
that the language tutorials explore the connections
between language, thought and experience. Do the
language tutorials accomplish these objectives? Do
students have any practical concerns regarding the
language tutorials?
Most of the students at the forum did not feel their language tutorials were training
them to communicate more precisely. Several thought that not enough emphasis is put on
examining the relationship between language, thought, and experience. They objected to .
the amount of time that their classes spent both comparing the technicalities of their translations and discussing the "plot points" of whatever text they were translating. The latter,
one student argued, could be mitigated by translating texts that are familiar to students, as
is done with Antigone in the sophomore language tutorial.
Several others students believed that the language tutorials could better achieve their
stated objective by incorporating texts into the curriculum that address the nature of language such as Heidegger's The Ode on Man in Sophocles' Antigone, Nietzsche's The ~irth of
Tragedy, and Strunk and White's The Elements ofStyle. One student reported that ~1s class
had begun to address the nature of language by translating in reverse (e.g., translatmg a
Shakespeare sonnet into Greek). Another student thought that it would be constructive for
freshmen to spend some time reviewing English grammar in their language tutorials.
The forum concluded that the language tutorials currently fall short of their objectives.
Not enough emphasis is put on investigating the connections between language, thought,
and experience. This might be rectified by incorporating additional readings into the curriculum and by adjusting which aspects of translation are focused on in class discussion. +
CONTRIBUTORS
Alimni Office
Greenfield Library
Henry Hirsch
Holly Huey
Jerry Januszewski
Warren Winiarski
THE GADFLY
Counselor
In the late 1970s, I lived in a rural university town where a significant
number of people could have been called hippies. They rejected
prevailing bourgeois values and led back-to-the-land lifestyles.
I respected their bold, independent ways and imagined myself a
kindred spirit, even though I myself was thoroughly bourgeois.
One day I was reading a book in the "radical cafe" near the campus
when a hippy-man sat down at my table. Sharing tables was common
in that cafe, which espoused a more Marxist, communal way of doing
things. When I glanced up from my book to acknowledge the man, he
started talking. Eventually he explained his philosophy oflife and his
solutions for what ailed the human race. One of his big ideas involved
bananas.
prisoner who escaped a brutal Soviet labor camp described a brief but
humorous encounter with the great man: One day as Wallenberg was
being treated roughly by his captors he called out, "Taxi! " -much to
the amusement of his fellow prisoners who, despite their privations,
were heartened by his gutsy gallows humor.
A sense of humor in the face of suffering can be a saving grace that
strengthens resilience and suggests a spark of hope. When we laugh
we are fully present in the moment, if only briefly. The clarity of that
present-ness is pleasing despite what other burdens we carry. As they
say, laughter is good medicine, but it can also be good food, water, and
oxygen.
While traveling in India, I lived for a time
He said, "Everyone's so depressed and you '
'
in a third floor apartment adjacent to a beautiful
knowwhy?"(Ididnot)"Theydon'thaveenough
Mirth at its best is a park. I immediately learned that a Hindu
potassium, man! If everyone ate bananas they'd
shared experience. worship group gathered in the park beneath my
get enough potassium and they wouldn't be
window every morning at 7AM. Egads! Their
depressed. It's all in the bananas!" This made me
meetings lasted one hour and always ended with
laugh and so we talked for a while, enjoying each
laughter yoga.
other's company, laughing at each other's jokes.
Laughter yoga involves group members
When he got up to leave, he paused and with genuine sweetness said, looking directly at each other and forcing laughter, in the belief that
"I dig your mirth, man." We shook hands, then he was gone and I feigned laughter is as beneficial to the body and soul as spontaneous
never saw him again. But the memory of him and our brief but warm laughter. I noticed it didn't take long for the fake laughter to become
encounter still makes me smile and appreciate the connecting power genuine, leaving the whole group cracking up for real. Sometimes I'd
of humor.
stand at the window and tell jokes at my normal volume and pretend
Sometimes humor can penetrate our discouragement when all to enjoy the hysterics of my "audience". What might have been a
else has failed. Ten years ago a friend of mine was admitted to an noisy nuisance became a secretly shared mirth that helped me feel
inpatient addiction rehab clinic. I sat with him for moral support tenderness towards this group of devotees.
while a staff counselor conducted the orientation interview. For my
Mirth may be a higher order of humor, a deeper kind of delight.
friend, entering rehab was a moment of real defeat-just barely better The poet William Blake said, "Too much fun is of all things most
than going to jail.
loathsome. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than
The counselor asked, "Do you smoke
mirth." It is reasonable to me that a growing
cigarettes?" My friend looked at her with
sense of mirth, rather than a growing cynicism,
despair, as if this were the final indignity, and
is a tremendous asset for a happy life. "Mirth is
answered, "I'm trying to quit" -which made
better than fun" is a strange sounding phrase
all three of us laugh out loud, considering
to the modern ear, which distinguishes very
where we were. I greatly appreciated his sense
little between the two. Contemporary life offers
of humor and how it slightly but significantly
countless options for mirthless fun, empty
mitigated his misery in this situation.
entertainment, and banal diversions. Mirth,
Mirth at its best is a shared experience
on the other hand, is uplifting and informative:
that has power to reduce obstacles to
it has meaningful content. It brings people
intimacy. When I worked with incarcerated
together and leaves a person physically and
men, laughter was a great therapeutic tool
emotionally healthier when concluded.
that often eased them closer to each other,
In a moment of mirth we've banished the
creating bonds and softening the hardened
critical voice that brings toxic judgment to
edges that men sometimes form around tl{eir
ourselves or to others.
deep sadness. As one inmate astutely observed, "If I didn't laugh, I'd
A mirthful approach to life may be akin to meditation, attending
cry, but laughing makes crying feel better."
fully to the present moment, the opposite of escapism. I wonder how
A shared laugh is a great leveler, a way to feel human together, even much sooner we'd hear whispers of contentment in our souls if we
a way to restore dignity. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat intentionally cultivated a humorous or mirthful filter for the moments
in Hungary during WWII who saved tens of thousands of Jews from of our day that might otherwise be irritating or discouraging. Mirth
extermination. After the war, he was arrested by his former Soviet enlarges our capacity to take on the poignant struggles of life. For
allies and charged with espionage. He was presumably taken to these reasons and others, I dig mirth, too. And with all due respect
Siberia, and no one heard from him again.
to my long lost hippie friend, I'd say mirth is probably better than
Information about Wallenberg in captivity is scant, but one bananas. +
�04
THE GADFLY
Detroit, Michigan
Salem, Oregon
Angry Owl Attacks Joggers: Salem officials warn joggers of an
angry, hat-snatching owl located in the state capital area. According
to Reuters, Keith Keever, the city's parks superintendent, explained
that the Salem officials had never heard of case like this before. Brad
Hillard, 36, was one of the last two joggers to have lost headgear to
the owl. "It was kind of amazing how [the owl] just swooped down
and grabbed my hat like that, Brad Hillard told Reuters. "It just
pulled it right off like it was nothing!" Signs are now hung around
Bush's Pasture Park to warn runners against jogging before dawn.
05
THE GADFLY
Around the U.S.
Vital tubes pulled: A 69 year old marriage ended when both man
and wife died in the hospital only 8 hours apart. Gene and Pat Warrington met in junior high and married while Gene w as on leave
from boot camp during World War II. After his safe return the
couple had been inseparable ever since. After a visit to his wife's
hospital room, which revealed her ailing condition, Gene decided
to pull his own tubes and cords out telling a son, "It wouldn't be
fun without her." This did not come as a surprise to the family who
knew the couple to only do things together. The couple has left
behind 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
Burlington, Vermont
Pinedale,"lllTyoming
Sheriff Bans Western Attire: Longtime deputy of Sub-
Oldest known time capsule: On January 6, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston conservator Paul Hatchfield opened th e nation's oldest known time capsule in the walls of the Massachusetts State
House. It was originally buried on July 4, 1795 by none other than
midnight-rider Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, who was then
Massachusett's governor. Inside the plaster-sealed, corroded box
were five neatly folded newspapers, a collection of 23 coins dating
as far back as 1652, a medal depicting George Washington, a replica
of Colonial records, and a silver plate commemorating the erection
of the new State House. Th e capsule had until last week remained
unopened since it was orinally found in 1855 by workers making
some repairs on the State House.
lette County, Gene Bryson, retired after the new sheriff in town
changed the deputies' dress code. Sublette County's deputies are
now banned from wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots and are
instead required to wear black trousers, a tan shirt, black boots, and
a black ball cap, Associated Press reports. The new deputy, Sheriff
Stephen Haskell, 53, told the Star-Tribune the change was for safety
reasons and uniformity. But for Gene Bryson a change in uniform is
a change in identity. He explained, "I've been h ere for 40-odd years
in the sheriff's office, and I'm not going to go out and buy combat
boots and throw my vest and hat away and say, 'This is the new
me."'
Boston, Massachusetts
Harvard Just Banned Sex Between Teachers and Students: It's
official. Harvard has banned sex between teachers and students.
According to Quartz, Harvard announced their revised policy
on Monday, February 2. Previously the university only warned
against "amorous relationships" between faculty and students or
junior colleagues, without ever banning them. The revised policy
explicitly states that no faculty member can engage in a romantic
or sexual relationship with any undergraduate student. However
there is an exception: graduate students. Harvard only prohibits
such relationships when the professor is supervising or teaching
the student in some way. In those cases, Quartz explains, as long
as the supervision has concluded, the final grade has been submitted to the Registrar, "professors and graduate students may enter a
romantic relationship."
Denver, Colorado
Marijuana Makes Taxpayers Money: Colorado's taxpayers are
making money off the tax revenue from the legal marijuana sales.
Passed in 2012, Amendment 64 from the Tax Payer Bill of Rights, or
TABOR, restricts the amount of money Colorado's state treasury can
take from tax revenue. As Mic News explains, once the state has estimated how much the state will generate from a new tax, the state
treasury must refund however much falls under their projections.
For the Centennial State residents, this could mean $50 million in
tax cuts in one year. "The only way to fix the refund would be to ask
Coloradans to vote yet again, this time on an initiative that would
exempt taxes on marijuana from the refund," Mic News reports.
Annapolis, Maryland
Kermit, Texas
Boy Suspended for "Lord of the Rings" referenc: When 9-yearold boy, Aiden Steward, in a playful act of make-believe, told a classmate he could make him disappear with his "one ring to rule them
all," Kermit Elementary School called it a threat and suspended the
boy. According to the Daily Times, Aiden claimed he could put the
ring on his friend's head and make him invisible like Bilbo Baggins,
who stole Gollum's "precious" in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy series
"The Lord of the Rings". When the boy's father, Jason Steward,
heard the school suspended him, he was shocked. "It sounded unbelievable,'' Steward told the Daily Times. He insists his son "didn't
mean anything by it."
'Serial' Star Has Been Granted an Appeal: Maryland Court of
Special Appeals approved Adnan Syed's application for appeal, the
Baltimore Sun reports. Adnan Syed, convicted of strangling his exgirlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was the subject of Serial, a podcast series
hosted by Sarah Koenig. "It's th e first step in a pretty long process,
but we're extremely happy," Syed's attorney, C. Justin Brown, told
the Baltimore Sun. Syed was convicted of his ex-girlfriend's murder in 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Many years after
his conviction, Syed's family wrote a letter to journalist Koenig to
further evaluate the case. Koenig has since shared her investigative
work on what has become the most downloaded podcast in history,
Serial. Public pressure pushed the state of Maryland to re-open the
case. Syed's appeal is sch eduled to be heard in June.
Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Comcast Turns Customer's Name to "Asshole": When Ricardo
Brown's wife, Lisa Brow n, called Comcast and tried to waive a cancellation fee, Ricardo's next billing statement read "Asshole Brown"
in place of his real name. Comcast bounced Lisa from a customer
representative to a "retention specialist", a member of the army of
employees responsible for keeping customers from dropping Comcast, Consumerist reports. Lisa told consumer advocate, Christopher
Elliott, that she was never rude and cannot figure out why she was
called an asshole. According to Consumerist, Comcast's local offices
could not explain the name-calling, and Comcast headquarters has
since apologized and refunded the Browns two years of service.
Chris Christie Faces Criminal Investigation: Bennett Barlyn,
former prosecutor with the Hunterdon County office, may likely
have jeopardized Governor Chris Christie's political future as 2016
presidential candidate, the Inquistr reports. Four years ago, the
former prosecutor accused Christie for obstructing justice to help
some of his political allies. Christie's then-Attorney general, Paula
Dow, overturned all 43 of the grand jury's indictments; and, Barlyn
was fired soon after. Four years later, the Justice Department is
returning to Barlyn's charges. According to the Inquisitr, no formal
charges have been leveled. Michael Drewniak, Christie's spokesperson, said, "This is conspiracy theory stuff from someone who
is obviously casting a wide net with hopes of coming up with a big
fish or something. It's nonsense."
�06
THE GADFLY
Edward Dickinson
Holly Huey A'16
The Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Gallery celebrates the life and work of Edwin Dickinson in its exhibit, A Lineage of America! Perceptual
Painters. Gallery guard, Holly Huey,focuses our attention on one of the many fascinating pieces included in the exhibit, An Anniversary. Be sure to stop by the exhibit before it closes on March 1. Gallery hours extend from noon to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday.
(This piece was originally published on the Mitchell Art Gallery's blog, themitchellgallery.wordpress.com.)
For Edwin Dickinson, life and art were
talented yet deeply depressed and alcoholic
musician. "Burgess was the chief influinextricably joined. As one of his students
ence in my entire life," Dickinson once
once commented, "Dickinson didn't think
stated (Carbone). After Burgess committed
independently of his life and what happened on the canvas or the drawing paper
suicide-it was Dickinson who found the
- they were exactly, identically the same
body-Dickinson was awakened to a new
thing." (TFAO).His large hauntingly, enigaesthetic of intensely dark and profoundly
matic paintings are a piercing look into the
psychological symbols.
mind of the artist.
At the top of the trinity, a male musician (mostly likely symbolizing Dickinson's
Dickinson was highly influenced by
realist artist and mentor, Charles Webster
brother) holds, but does not play, a vioHawthorne. Under Hawthorne's instruclin. Multiple other unplayed instruments
tion, Dickinson learned to look for the
scatter the scene, and sheets of music score
unexpected and to paint without formulas,
lie unnoticed by the figures of the painting.
to squint to determine value relationships,
The fact that neither the instruments nor
to establish compositions between "spots"
the music score are used seem to suggest
of color (Hawthorne, wiki). It is here
Burgess' unfilled potential as a musician.
in the seemingly strange juxtapositions of
The somber gathering of people, all dressed
monochromatic forms, dark figures, and
in black or dark attire, seem to depict a
miscellaneous objects of his paintings that
funeral setting. Yet Burgess' presence
Dickinson's life emerges in image.
within An Anniversary (perhaps an anniversary of Burgess' death or
In An Anniversary (1920-21), the dark symbols of Dickinson's
funeral) is very much living. Symbolically as a musician dressed in a
life are an overwhelming and intimate portrayal of the artist. Anniver- lively red and clearly a major influence of the painting, Dickinson's
saries were significant dates for Dickinson, who meticulously record- brother is quite present. In a painting of memories, time blends. Past
ed the anniversaries of births and deaths of relatives, dear friends,
and present come together in the artist's mind.
and individuals he greatly admired-including Beethoven, Bach, and
The following year of his brother's suicide, Dickinson's father
Proust, as well as Civil War battles and other major events in history remarried to a young woman twenty one years his junior. It is argued
(Driscoll, wiki). It is thought that the painting was directly inspired th at perhaps besides Dickinson's broth er (or more so), Dickinson's
by Thomas Hardy's poem "An Anniversary,"
relationship to his stepmother is th e greatest
in which anniversaries are "the saddest days ' ' The profound depth of influence and subject of An Anniversary.
of the year." Yet Dickinson's An AnniversaHis father's marriage was a deep source
ry does not seem to depict a single day of the
Dickinson's personally ofresentment for Dickinson, whose taboo
year. The crowd of figures, who appear to be
dark life are seen and
Oedipal conflict with his father caused him
unaware of each other, and clutter ofmiscelintensely felt in his
much estrangement from society's aclaneous objects strewn across the bottom of
ceptable norms (TFAO). The aged father
the painting do not contribute to a unified
work.
(left within the trinity) waves a weak but
narrative. Instead, the shadowy forms and
admonishing or accusatory finger toward the
densely layered composition of the painting
viewer. In this moment, the viewer is immeseem to evoke the notion of memories.
diately and uncomfortably placed within the disjunct narrative of the
At the center of An Anniversary, three brightly toned faces-an
painting. Here, the viewer would seem to assume the role of Dickinaged father, musician, and young woman- form a certain composison himself. It is clear Dickinson does not paint his father favorably
tional and symbolic trinity of Dickinson's life.
nor does his father look back favorably upon the viewer- that is,
Several major tragedies deeply affected Dickinson and his work.
Dickinson. Yet it is unclear whether the decrepit father truly sees the
During his youth, Dickinson was a constant witness to his mother's viewer; his eyes are barely open and given his appearance of extreme
protracted tuberculosis and eventual death. After her death, the
age, it is possible presbyopia h as altogether claimed his sight. Like his
family was sh attered, and relatives drifted away from each other as unawareness to his son's romantic feelings toward his wife, so too is
he physically blind.
Dickinson's father was unable to hold together the family.
Ten years after his mother's devastating death, Dickinson found
Continued On Pg. 8
himself living in New York with his brother, Burgess, who was a
+
07
THE GADF LY
Johnnie of th·e Vine
Warren Winiarski is a much celebrated California winemaker. He graduated from St. John's College in A nnapolis, Maryland, in
1952. Winiarski then returned to the University ofChicago to begin graduate work in political theory, as well as spending a year
ofstudy in Naples and Florence, Italy. He taught at the University of Chicago for six years while working toward his Ph.D. Winiarski's experience in Italy invited him to be a winemaker. After working for, and learning from, various wineries, including that
ofRobert Mondavi, he bought a carefully selected SO-acre prune orchard in 1970, which he turned into a vineyard that he named
Stag's L eap Vineyard and W ine Cellars .
Six years later, a bottle ofWiniarski's very firs t vintage at the winery (1973) was selected for comparison in the historic Paris
Wine Tasting of1976, where it won first place among iconic Bordeaux-classed growths and California Cabernet Sauvignons. A
bottle ofhis award-winning 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon wine is on display at the Smithsonian's National
Museum ofAmerican History in Washington, D.C. In its November 2013 issue and related book, Smithsonian
magazine included this bottle as one of the "101 Objects that Made A merica." The wine bottle was selected
from among more than 137 million artifacts, works ofart, and specimens in the collection f or its historic
ornia. Other
importance in creating awareness and recognition of the quality ofwine being made in Calif
items chosen from among the collections for this historic list included Neil Armstrong's space suit, Abraham
Lincoln's top hat, Charles Lindberg's Spirit ofSt. Louis, and Lewis and Clark's compass.
~
Winarski played an integral role in the creation of the 1968 Agricultural Preserve A ct in Napa County and
was inducted into the California Vintners H all ofFame at The Culinary Institute ofAmerica at Greystone in
2009. Winiarski sold Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in 2007 and continues his passion for greatness in grapes and
wine at his Arcadia Vineyard in
the Napa Valley.
Warren Winiarski
A'52
quickly and make up for a late start) an unsleeping need to ask
St. John's College's curriculum implies the possibility of a philo"Why?" Now, my teacher in the first, small winery where I was an
sophic life. The way the liberal arts are practiced at St. John's is a
apprentice was not the kind of man to say each morning "This is
path to this life in part because its curriculum has such a strong
the lesson for the day." H is winery was a workplace and we had
focus on learning about learning, what learning is, and reflecting on
jobs to do - so while being a good master, in the sense that he was a
what it means to know. But such an education also prepares one to
good practitioner of th e craft, his morning
ask questions about all sorts of other more
greeting was followed by the words "This
But such an education
practical and non-philosophical things. It
prepares you to reflect on the form of your
also prepares one to ask is the job for today." Being thrown back on
my own resources to understand required
questions and thereby to reflect on how
questions about all sorts a certain reliance on my training in those
your questions relate to the objects or the
skills of questioning and reflection that I
of other more practical
realities you are attempting to understand.
h ad learned at St. John's. After awhile I reSt. John's attempts to give you the habits
non-philosophical things.
alized I was getting good at knowing why
of a learning frame of mind, maybe even a
step B followed Step A - and that step C
learning 'frame of soul'.
would be next or else, given the end to be
So what is it like learning the habits of
achieved, step D might be the alternative. I also began to see that to
the soul to become a wine maker and a grape grower? It is, in many
achieve a goal, some means would be better than others that were in
ways, the "way" of the St. John's liberal arts curriculum - trying
general practice at that time in the wineries of the Napa Valley. With
to get down to the bottom (or to the top) of each step in a complex
the resource provided by this kind of learning, I was enabled, maybe
sequence of things that can be described by means of some of the
even compelled, to innovate beyond the methods and practices
methods students employ in curriculum inquiries. For example,
which were, for the most part, current at the time.
"what is it," "how is it," "where," "how much or little" and similar
modes of pinning things down.
Getting to the bottom of the craft of grape growing and wine
making also required for me to acquire (since I had to catch up
''
+
�08
THE GADFLY
Continued From
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Tuesday 02/10
Kunai
4PM
Fencing
6PM
Wednesday 02/11
St. John's Chorus, Great Hall
7PM
Thursday 01/15
CrossFit
11:40AM
Friday 01116
Fencing
6PM
All College Seminar:
Heraclitus' Fragment
McDowell Hall
7PM
Saturday 01/17
New Carrolton Shuttle
9AM
Pg. 6
Indeed, only the young woman is startlingly aware of the viewer. Though the
trinity of figures lies at the center of the
painting, the young woman's face (right
within trinity) is most central to An Anniversary. With pursed lips, her Mona Lisa-esque
expression makes it unclear of her feelings
of the viewer. Yet as the viewer looks upon
her, she gazes back with equal attentiveness. Amidst the chaos of dark images, the
viewer's gaze natural settles on her enigmatic face. Her face is calm, and as one gazes
into her eyes, so too does the viewer become
calm. Perhaps An Anniversary the depression Dickinson experienced at his father's
marriage to another woman or perhaps the
depression experienced when he realized
his love for his father's new wife? Perhaps
the painting depicts his father's impending
death or funeral?
The profound depth of Dickinson's personally dark life are seen and intensely felt
in his work. Because of the viewer's perspective and painted deliberate relationship
with the figures of the painting, the viewer,
in a sense, becomes Dickinson himself. The
viewer sees and feels as Dickinson does.
Yet as much as these images seem to symbolize Dickinson's life, they do not explain
his life. Perhaps these symbols do not exist
at all. Dickinson generally "avoided explanation except to describe procedures, technical problems, and formal concerns. Even
when he mentioned the underlying subject
or theme of the painting or identified, he
acted mystified abut some of its particulars."
(Ward, wiki).Yet in this, Dickinson frees the
observer to experience the painting in terms
of its mood and formal interplay and its
suggestion of memories evoked by the title.
The viewer need not experience the dark
intensity and sadness of the painting merely
as Dickinson's feelings. The viewer feels the
intensity and sadness as one's own.
+
Q: Who would win in a fight,
happiness or virtue?
+
Sunday 01/18
Shopping Shuttle
4:30 PM
Gadfly Meeting,
Lower level of the BBC
7PM
A Question About Johnnies
Q: Why do Johnnies check their mail 7-8 times a day when they only ever get,
like, one thing a week? Isn't that kind ofsad?
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule,
please email sjca.gadfiy@
gmail.com.
-Concerned Citizen
A: The checking of the mail is an important ritual in the daily life of a Johnnie.
After class, and after meals, the Johnnie feels lethargic, either with a belly uncomfortably full offood, or a mind uncomfortably full of knowledge (or drained
ofall knowledge it thought it possessed, as the case may be). In such situations,
the Johnnie does not feel like immediately returning to work. However, neither
does the Johnnie (usually) feel like sitting around like a bum when there is so
much work to do. Therefore, the subconscious says, "Hey, I know! I can check
my mail before doing work. That's a thing responsible people do, right? Check
their mail? And hey! I can keep hanging out with my friends!" So you see, it is
a way ofavoiding work while also pretending to be responsible. Thank you for
your question!
-The Gadfly
�
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<em>The Gadfly</em>
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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Tretina, Allison (Editor-in-Chief)
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The Gadfly, Vol. XXXVI Issue 10
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Text
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY
131 1 1 11696~ I~l~01166 1 101051111
1 1 1 1 1 ir11i~lf 1~11 1 1 1
f
Protests in Kosovo • 02
Intramurals or Bust• 03
Around the U. S. • 04
Review of SJC Bathrooms• 06
ST. JoHN's COLLEGE• 60 CoLLEGEAvE,ANNAPous, MD 21401•JAN.27, 2015 • VoL. X:XXVI • IssuE 09
�02
THE GADFLY
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
Protests in Kosovo
Allison Tretina
06
THE GADFLY
15 Reasons to-Go tu Intramurats
10. Take a shot for Clayton Williams.
Joe Kensok
A'16
A'16
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
WWW.ISSUU.COM/SJCGADFLY
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SJCAGADFLY
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over
600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and
edit submissions in any way necessary
to publish a professional, informative,
and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
The Gadfly meets on the Lower Level of
the BBC every Sunday at 7pm.
Articles should be submitted by Friday
at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.
STAFF
Sebastian Barajas •Editor-in-Chief
Allison Tretina • Editor-in-Chief
Kira Anderson • Staff
Jonathan Gordon • Staff
Jake Israel• Staff
Frederick Nesfield • Staff
Jensen Pratt • Staff
Malori Richards • Staff
Julia Kulon • Graphic Designer
Lyra Muerer • Illustrator
CONTRIBUTORS
Alimni Office
Henry Hirsch
Joe Kensok
Adam Kuester
Malori Richards
Hank Whittemore
On Saturday, January 24, a protest flared
up in Pristina, Kosovo: one of the largest
since it declared independence in 2008,
Reuters reports. Some 7,000 protesters were
throwing stones at a government building
and attacking police officers, injuring 20. By
Saturday evening, police retaliated by firing
tear gas to disperse the angry mobs, and a
fire broke out on central Mother Theresa
Square.
The protest comes a few weeks after
Minister Jablanovic called Albanian protesters "savages," because they were picketing and
throwing ice at Serb pilgrims visiting a church in Gjakova/Djakovica on Orthodox Christmas, January 6. During the Kosovo War, Gjakova/Djakovica was the scene of heavy fighting
between the Yugoslav forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Jablanovic had since apologized for his statement, claiming that he was unaware of what
happened there during the war. But his apology could not quell the anger of the people. For
the past few weeks, a wave of protests has broken out all over Kosovo. "Jablanovic offended
us. The entire world knows what happened in Kosovo, Jablanovic doesn't know even
though he was born here," one protestor, Sagete Pula from Gjakova/Djakovica, told BIRN.
Albin Kurti, the head of the nationalist Vetevendosje (Self Determination) opposition
party, which organized the protest alongside the Mother's Call NGO, threatened the Kosovo government, ''We will give Prime Minister Isa Mustafa time until 6 pm on Monday to
remove Minister Jablanovic from his post. If not, we will protest again on Tuesday at noon."
As well as the sacking of Jablanovic, protestors were calling for the Trepca mine complex, the subject of dispute between Pristina and Belgrade, to be taken under Kosovo state
control. The complex oflead, zinc, and silver mines that lies in the northeast of Kosovo has
long been the subject of political dispute. The mines are split among ethnic lines. In the
northern part of the complex ethnic Serbs are employed, and it is run by Belgrade, while
the southern part of employs Kosovo Albanian workers and is under the control of Pristina.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008, but Serbia refuses to recognize its
independence.
According to the Reuters, the mine complex dispute was postponed on Monday due to
pressure from Belgrade and "intense discussions with Western diplomats". Demonstrators
blame Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa for giving into Serbia. Driton Caushi, the head
of the Vetevendosje branch in Gjakova/Djakovica, told the press, "Finally the people of
Kosovo are showing their discontent with the government. They should not be representing these people. Isa Mustafa does not serve the people, he serves Serb fascism."
Albanian MPs in the Kosovo parliament also slated the government's decision. It was "a
surrender to Serbia and an unacceptable decision;' said Donika Kadaj-Bujupi, the head of
the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo in parliament. Protestors held up placards
with slogans saying "Either with Jablanovic or with the people", "All of Kosovo supports
Trepca", and "Trepca will work, Kosovo will be built."
The violent protest is a bold warning to the Kosovo's government officials that any delays
in resolving Kosovo's final status could be fatal. +
I From the Editors:
T
hrough the snow. Through the
sleet. Through Senior Essay
Writing Period. The Gadfly trudges
the 457 feet to the BBC. Bring the
war. Bring the plague. Bring the
celestial missiles that fall from the
heavens in such profusion that
even the great worms that live far
below the earth's crust are crushed
to death. The Gadfly cannot be
stopped. Remember that, Johnnies.
Remember that...
Yours in perpetuity,
-The Gadfly
Q: If Aristotle held a warm gun,
would he change his definition of
happiness?
+
1. John Jane's hair.
As was noted in my (lesser) colleague Sam Collins' article, St.
John's recently lost a great man to the Colorado School of Mines
(Mimes?). Clayton, though he was only at the college for one
basketball season, changed the way I looked at the game forever.
Whenever a shot would not go into the hoop, he'd reach out his
arms for the rebound in the same way a frog would extend its
tongue to catch a fly. The intense enthusiasm he played with
will forever be in our hearts. Come take a shot for Clayton. The
kind you take on a basketball court.
11. Josh Nichols has a beautiful three-pointer.
If it were a person, I'd take it out to dinner.
It's sexy. There, I said it. Someone had to.
12. The New iPad in the gym.
2. Marybeth Beydler will fight you.
One time Will Pack was running his mouth during a basketball
game and Marybeth punched him in the face. He cried. It was
awesome.
Thanks to one of the many recent upgrades that our fearless
leader Mike McQuarrie, has made to the facility, we can now
listen to some of today's hottest hits while we're playing. You
know you want to hear to "It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy while playing volleyball. Or whatever the kids are listening to these days.
3. So you can tell your kids you played on the same court as
13. Matt Saburn's New Haircut
Nikos Frank.
Nikos is a budding NBA prospect. Nobody in the 300+ year history
of the college has gone straight from St. John's to the NBA, but
that could easily change when Nikos graduates next spring. If you
ask him about it he'll tell you that this claim is simply factually
false, but he's just being modest. Don't believe him.
14. Terence Washington's Beautiful Face
It won't be around much longer. Catch it while you can.
4. Druid Freshman Soap Opera.
So many questions surround the newest members of Druid Nation: Can Tyler "Moses Malone" and his sidekick Robin Lancaster
lead the Nation into the promised land? Is Ramsey Mahaffey
secretly Santa Claus? Will Joseph Loomis spontaneo.usly combust
into a ball of flame that can only speak French? Is Ahce Meyer
going to come out to a single game? Will Jack "Shaq" Mooradian
dunk by the end of basketball season?
The answer to all of these, we all hope, for the sake of the greater
glory of St. John's College, is a hard yes.
5. Free pizza at every game*.
Who doesn't like pizza?
You may have seen it around campus, but you won't see it in
its full glory until you've seen it glistening with sweat under
Temple Iglehart's bright lights.
15. It's a lot of fun.
In all seriousness, we get together and play a few days a week
because it's a good time. If you haven't come out before, you
should really try it. We don't bite. +
*This is completely false.
SCI: First Seinester
Senior Seininar
Henry Hirsch
A'15
6. Come hang out with the ladies of2018.
Oh wait... Never mind. (Yes, freshmen girls, you have all effectively
On Thursday, January 15th, the SCI convened in the private
been called out. Come out or face the consequences.)
dining hall to discuss the junior mathematics tutorial. This is the
first year that juniors are reading Dedekind and Cantor before
7. J oh n Neal's r efer eeing.
.
Newton. How are students finding the transition from Leibniz
It has been described by many, including Chris Zeller, as "a slap m to Dedekind and Cantor to Newton?
the face to the very institution of basketball". Enough said.
One student at the forum stated that she had struggled to
compare Leibniz's treatment of infinitesimals to Newton's be'
8. Spartan Women: The Next Generation.
cause her experiences of the two authors were separated by the
The Spartans started out as.~ women's only team, and has .main.Dedekind and Cantor readings and by winter break. She also
tained a long-standing trad1t10n of strong female leadership. With noted that the inclusion of the Dedekind and Cantor readings at
the departures ofMandee Glasgo and Catherine Moon last spring, the end of first semester had forced several classes to skip porthe future of this tradition was in doubt. Captains Sam Collins,
tions of the Leibniz for lack of time.
Matt Denci, and Joe Roberts restocked the shelves in the draft
A tutor who was in attendance was worried that students will
with the additions of Grace Athanas-Linden, Claire Racette, and
dismiss Newton as an outdated throwback because they have alHaley Ford. All three were key parts of Sparta's dominant volleyready read Dedekind and Cantor. He was especially concerned
ball season, and are pretty cool outside'the gym too. Get to know
because Cantor is more modern than the other authors. Howthem, and play with them!
ever a junior maintained that he had not found this to be the
case'. Rather he felt that the Dedekind and Cantor readings had
9. Witness Eke Uche's miraculous comeback.
enriched hi~ math tutorial by providing additional alternative
When Green Wave senior Eke Uche hurt his knee last semester,
perspectives.
. .
doctors told him he'd never play again. Eke, however, had seen
Another junior appreciated the new structure of the Jumor
way too many sports movies to believe that, even for a second.
mathematics tutorial because the Newton readings are no lonEke immediately started rehabbing harder than anybody had ever ger broken up by winter break.
rehabbed before, and should be back on the court/field sooner
The forum was unable to resolve whether the new structure
rather than later. Come witness this inspirational story of perseof the junior mathematics tutorial is more or less beneficial to
verance in person. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll even get a little
students.+
exercise.
�04
THE GADFLY
Augusta, Maine
Olyinpia, "V\Tashington
A comedian-inspired bill: Thanks to comedian John Oliver,
Washington state Senator Cyrus Habib has authored a new bill, SB
5226, which will allow citizens to comment on pending legislation
over the Internet rather than in-person at the state Capitol. At the
end of 2014, in a Last Week Tonight segment, Oliver exposed "how
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was running
roughshod over net neutrality," according to Mic News. "The FCC
was seeking public commentary on its proposed net neutrality
regulations, helping turn an issue the comedian admitted 'sounds
boring even by C-SPAN standards' into a major PR disaster for the
FCC." The segment encouraged so many people to comment on
the FCC's net neutrality plan that it broke their servers. Inspired
by the overwhelming response, Sen. Habib authored SB 5226 with
full support from both parties, hoping for a more diverse critique of
legislation.
Around the U.S.
Taxing to cut taxes: In his recent budget plan, Republican Governor Paul LePage included an overhaul of individual, corporate,
and sales taxes, which would make Maine the first state to require
colleges, hospitals, and local charities go on the property-tax rolls
in their municipalities. According to the Lincoln Institute of Land
Policy in Cambridge, Mass., the northeast region relies heavily on
property taxes to fund the government and has a particularly high
concentration of tax-exempt academic and medical institutions. As
the Washington Journal explained, the proposal may result in anything from litigation to nonprofits moving out of the state. It would
certainly require that the state law be re-written.
IJ
"V\Thitteville, North Carolina
Innocent man freed over two decades later: On Friday, Joseph
Sledge was exonerated from teh 1976 murder of Josephine Davis
and her daughter, Aileen Davis, Reuters reports. A 2012 DNA test
revealed that the hairs at the crime scene, according to his attorneys, did not belong to Sledge. At a hearing on Friday in Whitteville, the local district apologized to Sledge and vowed to reopen
the case to determine the true killer. Sledge is now one of eight
inmates exonerated from criminal charges by the North Carolina
Innocence Commission. "The state agency, the first of its kind in
the United States", Reuters explains, "has investigated hundreds of
innocence claims since it was created by North Carolina lawmakers
in2006."
"V\Testern Oregon
Loneliest wolf no longer lonely: Gray wolf OR7, also known
as Journey and "the world's loneliest wolf," is no longer alone.
Since 2011, Oregon wildlife officials have been monitoring Journey's movements with a location-transmitting collar. Initially
intending to track the progression of the wolf's pack in the state,
they found that, within a year, Journey had strayed from his pack
and left Oregon. After ranging over 500 miles and becoming the
first grey wolf in California since the 1920s, Journey has finally returned to Oregon and formed his own pack, consisting of his mate
and three offspring, TakePart's Todd Woody reports.
Atlanta, Georgia
Jim Clancy leaves CNN: After 34-years, Jim Clancy has left CNN
after a controversial tweet. On January 7, in a late night feud on
Twitter regarding the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebda,
Clancy told online adversaries they were ganging upon on him and
practicing "hasbara". As the Mondoweiss, a publication about the
"war of ideas in the Middle East", explains, "'Hasbara' is the Hebrew word for 'explaining' that describes pro-Israel advocacy often
at the behest of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Clancy
also directly insulted the former journalist for the Jerusalem Post,
Oren Kessler: ''You and the Hasbara team need to pick on some
cripple on the edge of the herd." Neither Clancy nor his employer
explained why Clancy resigned from CNN, but his controversial
tweets have caused much speculation.
Boise, Idaho
14-year-old's proposal turned down: When 14-year-old Ilah
Hickman requested for the giant salamander be named the state
amphibian, the House State Affairs Committee voted 10-6 against
her plan, reports the Associated Press. This was the fifth time she
has attempted this. "I was kind of disappointed, but either way
I'm going to come back next year and push it again," Hickman told
the Spokesman-Review. Representatives who voted against the bill
feared "potential federal overreach" should the salamander become
endangered by the state's water litigation. However, according
to Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d'Alene, "It can become protected.
There's actually no legal impediment."
Chicken, Alaska
Chicken was scared: Senator Dan Sullivan CR-Alaska) ha made a
new amendment to the Keystone XL Pipeline bill, which bars Environmental Protection Agency officials from carrying guns. According to the Daily Beast, the amendment was inspired after "a raid"
was conducted in the tiny gold mining town of Chicken in 2013,
says the Daily Beast. In August 2013, Chicken was inhabited with
no fewer than 80 miners, all hoping to one day strike it rich. That is,
until ten armed "criminal law enforcement officials from the EPA''
visited nine of the miners to investigate possible violations of the
Clean Water Act, reported the Daily Beast. "In addition to the guns,
they brought military helicopters, wore body armor and donned
jackets with the word 'police' on them." Chicken was scared, and
others may be if Sullivan's amendment does not pass.
05
THE GADFLY
Fort Collins, Colorado
Tuscan, Arizona
New way of adoption: According to the Arizona Daily Star,
earlier this month, Robb and Ladd Keith finalized a step-parent
adoption for their kids, Liam, 6, and Rowan, 2. This is big news
for the same-sex couple. Even after a recent court ruling overturned the state's gay-marriage ban, Arizona's adoption law only
allows husbands and wives to jointly adopt. Local attorneys have
circumvented this law with step-parent adoptions. As Emily Bregel explains for the Arizona Daily Star, "If one marriage partner
is already the legal parent of a child, their spouse can undertake
a second adoption proceeding-the step-parent adoption-to get
equal custodial rights." The Keiths' attorney, Heather Strickland,
has helped ten same-sex couples adopt since November.
"V\Test Palm, Florida
Hearing through the tongue: A three-person research team at Colorado State University has found a new way to mitigate significant
hearing loss: through the tongue. Fitting onto the tongue, a smart
retainer takes in Bluetooth signals from a microphone earpiece and
excites somatic nerves in patterns that represent words. The strategy is similar to reading Braille, but there are a couple of differences,
JJ Moritz explained to Popular Science, ''We're using sound information instead of symbiotic information." Also, unlike reading Braille,
a person has to have parts of their brain re-programmed to help
them interpret various sensations of the tongue as certain words.
Once the system is complete, it is said to cost around $2,000, a lump
sum cheaper than a cochlear implant, which has a cost upwards of
$40,000, according to Popular Science.
National debate over circumcision: A 4-year-old boy from
Florida became the subject of a nationwide debate over whether he
should be circumcised or not. When Chase was born, his estranged
parents disagreed on his circumcision. "To me, it's not worth it to
put my son's life at risk for a cosmetic procedure," Chase's mother,
Heather Hironimus, said, according to the Associated Press. But for
his father, Dennis Nebus, the procedure is "a normal thing to do."
The court ruling has dragged on, and now nearly four years later,
on January 16, the Florida Supreme Court ruled for the boy to be
circumcised. Chase is now much older than most boys who get
cut. "Not everyone is against circumcisions, but I think everyone
is against a 4-year-old's circumcision," Jonathan Friedman, who
organized a demonstration, told the Associated Press.
�03
THE GADFLY
Potty Talk
Project Politae: Letter of Thanks
First-class reporting on the qualiry of SJC bathrooms
Malori Richards
A'l 8
Randall 3rd The bathroom of Randall 3rd is home to many
problems, like moisture that never seems to totally dissipate,
hair in the showers, only plastic sheets separating the showers,
a leaky shower, no changing area, a roof that started to fall in,
bathroom doors that are not quite close enough to the walls, and
faulty water temperatures. The only real benefits of the Randall
3rd bathroom are the large storage unit for shower caddies and
the working heater.
Rating:~§
Randall 2nd The bathroom of Randall 2nd is scary. One can
usually find some kind of body fluid in the Randall 2nd bathroom
at all times, there is a pervasive bad smell in the bathroom, the
showers are covered in hair, there seems to be a constant buildup of gross material on the floor of the showers, the showers
often do not work, the sinks are stained an odd brown color
like smokers' teeth, and the stalls do not allow for one to step
in easily, one has to squeeze into the stalls. The only nice thing
about the Randall 2nd bathroom is that the water pressure and
temperature is good ... usually.
Rating:~
Library Ahh, the bathrooms of the library! Equipped with
doors that actually lock, normal water temperatures, a generally
good clean smell and clean environment, the library bathrooms
are top-notch. If the library bathrooms had showers, I am sure
they would be clean, well lit, with perfect water pressure and a
Humphreys 2nd Humphrey's 2nd is home to a small
nice changing area.
Humphrey's bathroom, with a lot of problems. There are a
Rating:~~~~~
variety of molds in the Humphrey's 2nd bathroom, ranging
from a putrid green to a dark brown color. The mold is not as
Gym The gym bathroom is very under-rated. Yes, the locks bad as the smell however, which pervades the air and rivals
on some of the stalls do not work that well, they get a little dusty a sour litterbox. The toilets are small, the stalls oddly placed,
and sometimes the water temperature is finicky but overall, the they have very small cubbies for their showers and a feeling
gym bathrooms are great. The showers and bathroom stalls are of general uncleanliness. A benefit of the Humphrey's 2nd
clean, along with the locker room area, the water pressure in bathroom is that the showers are separated by an actual wall
the shower is not too strong and there is a changing area right and the water pressure and temperature are relatively good,
outside the shower, if one lives in Randall, one should consider although reputedly the water takes a while to warm up.
taking showers in the gym bathroom.
Rating:~
Rating:~~~~
Humphreys 3rd The bathroom on the third floor of
Humphreys is another small Humphrey's bathroom, with an
awkwardly placed stall right by the door, faulty locks on the
stall doors, unusually small toilets and cubbies, and the sinks
counter looks like it could fall down at any time. However, it is
usually clean and has nice showers that are separated from one
another by an actual wall and has good water pressure.
Rating:~~
''
... the showers often
do not work, the
sinks are stained an
odd brown color like
smokers' teeth ...
05
THE GADFLY
Spector 1st The first floor of Spector is home to great
bathrooms. There are some problems however, like light
bulbs that have very short lives, bad ventilation, and one of
the showers has warm water, whereas the other shower is a
hit-or-miss as to whether or not it has warm water. However,
the bathroom is clean, and a single unit- with the shower,
sink, and toilet all in the same room, and that room has a door
with a working lock so when one needs to use the bathroom,
one can have all the privacy in the world.
Rating:~~~~
Spector 2nd Another glorious Spector bathroom, clean,
private with good water pressure and temperature. This
bathroom is on a co-ed floor though, which can make it quite
unclean on weekends, it does not have anywhere to store
shower caddies in the bathroom and shares the problem of
Spector 1st, with short-lived light bulbs.
Rating:~~~~
Continued On: Pg. 8
Adam Kuester
A'16
Towards the beginning of the school year, Jacob Kilgore approached me with an offer to join Project Polity. Jenna Alton
and he were hoping to revamp the club and were looking for
some extra help to make sure it succeeded. Yet another, freshman Rebecca O'Brien, soon joined the group. We met- and
still do - in the Starbucks at the top of Main Street, 9 AM on
Saturday mornings. Together, we pondered how best to motivate the Polity to community service. After a semester more
wildly successful than any of us had imagined, we would all
like to deliver our sincere thanks to the Polity for helping us to
fulfill our service-related dreams.
To give a better idea of the dedication the Polity has shown
to service, I would like to describe a few of the projects we
have been working on. Our most consistent and major project has been tutoring students grades K-8 at the Bloomsbury
Square Community Center. Here, 35 Johnnies have offered a
total of 131 hours of their time to help underprivileged students succeed in school.
At our first annual Trick-or-Treat for Canned Goods, the
King William's Players opened their costume closet to let
those of us without costumes dress up for a night of lighthearted service. The Druids and the crew team even offered
their members for the cause (and, boy, were they enthusiastic). That night, 39 students collected 624.9 lbs of food and
$125 in cash to donate to the Light House Shelter.
Project Polity then paired up with the Cooking Club for a
night of baking cookies. While we happily consumed a few
along the way, we sold the rest at the Holiday Agora the following day, raising almost $90 for this semester's Habitat for
Humanity trip.
Finally, Project Polity hosted two holiday parties for the
kids at Bloomsbury Square, one for our Tuesday group, the
other for our Wednesday one. Instead of tutoring in math, science, or reading, we spent the day teaching a different lesson.
In between the pizza, cookies, and games, we sat down with
the kids to write Christmas cards for African children with
AIDS. We explained to the kids that some children get sick
over the holidays, and some with incurable diseases. What
resulted were 100 adorable cards, written mostly in crayon,
wishing the sick children a Merry Christmas, talking about
what Christmas really means- sharing in the love of family
and friends.
In total, 72 Johnnies out of the 425 or so undergraduates
donated 415.5 hours of their time, putting St. John's on the
path to becoming a dependable member of the community in
which we live. This semester we have already seen a few fresh
faces at tutoring, and we are looking forward to some more
new ideas on how to spend our time in valuable commitment
to the Greater Annapolis Community.
This was a truly astounding semester, surely the greatest
Project Polity has seen in years. And those who we have to
thank are you. Thanks again, Polity. You've done a real service to yourselves and others. It was greater than anything we
could have asked for. +
Student Video Contest:
"Why Choose a St. John's Education?"
How would you persuade prospective Johnnies to attend St. John's? What kind of buzz could you create about the Great Books? The
Alumni Association wants to know how current students would answer this question: ''Why Choose a St. John's Education?"
We would like to see your answers in video form. It doesn't have to be cinematographic, just creative and compelling, especially to those
who might be considering applying to St. John's. Do anything you like--a song, a skit, a poem, an animation, a puppet show, a short documentary. Videos should be no longer than 5 minutes.
The contest period begins at 12:00 PM MST on Friday, January 23, 2015 and ends at 12:00 AM MDT on Friday April 24. During that time
you can upload your video and try to get as many popular votes as you can. The videos will be showcased to Alumni, film-making ?r?fessionals and other members of the St. John's Community in June during the Alumni Leadership Forum on the Santa Fe campus. D1stmguished judges will choose winners from the top five videos determined by the popular vote. This is a great opportunity to showcase
your talents!
FIRST PRIZE: $500
SECOND PRIZE: $100
THIRD PRIZE: SJC branded goodies
For more information about the contest and to register for the contest, contact the Alumni Office at:
anna.perry@sjc.edu or 410-295-5532.
Regards,
St. John's College Alumni Association
�04
THE GADFLY
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Tuesday 1127
Kunai Netball
4PM
Fencing
6PM
Wednesday 1128
St. John's Chorus, Great Hall
7PM
Storyteller's Guild, Chasement
9PM
Thursday 1129
Long weekend begins
lOPM
Friday 1130
Kunai Netball
4PM
Fencing
6PM
NO LECTURE
8PM
Saturday 1131
Shuttle to New Carrolton
9AM
Weight training class
5PM
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule,
please email sjca.gadfly@
gmail.com.
Classics and .Catalogues
Hank Whittemore A'18
St. Johns loves doing things the traditional way, but we can't keep all our information on scrolls and folios. The Greenfield Library has recently added a new set of
electronic resources to their collection, including 3,500 classic works of French literature, The Chicago Manual of Style, and over 500 new Greek and Latin texts. They
can all be accessed from the library's web page on the SJC website.
The Digital Loeb Classical Library is a comprehensive collection of classics from
Greek and Roman authors, and includes side by side original and translated versions
of almost all the Freshmen readings and a good chunk of the Sophomore readings. These online books are fully searchable in both the Latin and Greek alphabet,
making them really useful for tricky translation questions. The entire library can be
accessed for free automatically through school computers, or from off campus with
your library card number.
The Chicago Manual of Style is an incredibly useful tool for writing and editing
papers, (just in time to help with our end of term essays) including a searchable
grammar Q and A, samples of different types of writing, and a list of proofreading
marks to help decipher tutors' corrections and to correct your own drafts. It also has
the full text of the regular Chicago Manual, fully searchable and clear to read.
The ARTFL Project, short for The Project for American and French Research on
the Treasury of the French Language, has most of the texts you'll need for Junior
year in their original French (no translations, unfortunately, but hey, more practice for language class, right?), along with smaller collections like a set of writings
by French women from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth century, a large collection of
ancient (12th and 13th century) French poetry, and over one hundred ancient French
texts from a variety of sources. Possibly most useful, the ARTFL website includes
a set of French dictionaries from the seventeenth through the twentieth century.
Again, the dictionaries are fully searchable, though you'll have to translate them and
have extensive information on the origin of the words and their different meanings
and connotations over time.
The library has also added new journals on subjects like art, art history, classics,
film studies, history, language and literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, and
religion to the JSTOR, an online collection of academic journals. So, go to sjc.edu and
check out the library's page, or just go down to the Greenfield Library and ask the
librarians about the digital catalogues. +
Continued From
Pg. 6
Spector 3rd The best bathrooms in Spector are located on Spector 3rd. These
bathrooms have great water pressure and temperature, are very clean, the lights have
longer lives and of course, it is private. Spector 3 bathrooms are the equivalent of the
library bathrooms, with showers.
Rating:~~~~~
Gilliam 1st The bathrooms on Gilliam 1st are a little messy, and the shower curtains
are reputedly ineffective about stopping shower water from running outside the
shower, so there is a slight mold problem. However, like the bathrooms in Spector,
the Gilliam 1st bathrooms are private units, handicap accessible, with better quality
toilet paper than is found in Randall bathrooms and has great water pressure and
temperature.
Rating:~~~~
Gilliam 2nd One will find a clean, private space when walking into a Gilliam 2nd
bathroom. The water pressure and temperature are good, the bathrooms are clean,
with no odd smells or mold. The only complaint to be found about these bathrooms
is an old one: that last year one of the sinks fell off the wall and remained off the wall
for a week. But that historical fact does not mar the clean-tiled face of the Gilliam 2nd
bathroorr>~ trvl<>y, which are wonderful.
Rating~~~~~
Gilliam 3rd The Gilliam 3rd bathrooms are Gilliam bathrooms, so they are
gloriously private and clean, with great adjustable water pressure and temperature
and the residents of Gilliam 3rd love them. The showers do have the same problem
as the showers on the first floor, however, and can get water all over the floor if one
fails to position the plastic curtain correctly. Compared to Randall bathrooms, these
are a paradise.
Rating:~~~~~
�
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Bosnia Responds to Paris Attack • 02
Parker Quartet Reviewed • 03
An Intramural Round-Up • 06
An Unsolved Geometry Problem • 08
ST.
JoHN's COLLEGE•
60
COLLEGE AvE, ANNAPOLIS,
MD 21401
•JAN.
13, 2014 • VoL. XXXVI • IssuE 08
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY
131 1 1 11696r~ 1 ~101165nr1 1 11193621
1 1 1 1 1 1 1i1· 1i1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
�- - -
02
------
THE GADFLY
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
21401
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
Terror in Bosnia
Allison Tretina
A'16
03
THE GADFLY
Concert Review: The Parker Quartet
Featuring Pianist Shai Wosner
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
WWW.ISSUU.COM/SJCGADFLY
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SJCAGADFLY
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over
600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and
edit submissions in any way necessary
to publish a professional, informative,
and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
The Gadfly meets on the Lower Level of
the BBC every Sunday at 7pm.
Articles should be submitted by Friday
at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfiy@gmail.com.
STAFF
Sebastian Barajas • Editor-in-Chief
Allison Tretina• Editor-in-Chief
Kira Anderson • Staff
Jonathan Gordon• Staff
Jake Israel • Staff
Frederick Nesfield • Staff
Jensen Pratt • Staff
Malori Richards • Staff
George Ward • Staff
Julia Kulon • Graphic Designer
Lyra Muerer • Illustrator
CONTRIBUTORS
Alumni Office
Robyn Bell
Samuel Collins
Kerrigan Dougherty
Erik Neave
Yosef Trachtenberg
The recent attack on Paris has sent a pang of
terror through countries across the world and
Bosnia is certainly one of them. With half of
the Bosnian population following Islam and a
tumultuous history of religious division, Bosnia
is taking necessary precautions to prevent
uprisings from within their own country. "[The
Paris attack] was a hugely important event,"
Mladen Ivanic, the Serbian chairman of Bosnia's
tripartite Presidency, told Radio Free Europe on Thursday, "one which will certainly have
consequences like those of the 9-11 or the attacks in London and Madrid."
It was only a week ago-and a day before Mladen lvanic's talk with the press- when
Bosnian Muslims, on the border between Christendom and the Islamic lands, celebrated
the Orthodox Christmas on January 7. Adherence to the Orthodox Christmas, or any celebration of Jesus Christ's birth, is a matter of controversy in Islam. Sunni fundamentalists
prohibit the celebration of any prophet's births, Muhammad included, as an "impermis- .
sible innovation in religion," according to Stephen Schwartz, the Executive Director of the
Center for Islamic Pluralism.
Throughout Islamic history, however, some traditional Muslims have disregarded the
Sunni fundamentalist's prohibition, offering their non-Muslim neighbors Christmas greeting and adopting their holiday. For Bosnia, participating in the Orthodox Christmas is a
great act of goodwill toward their Serbian neighbors. It was only twenty years ago, with
the fall of the Yugoslav Republic, that more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were
massacred largely by Christian Serbs in the Srebrenica town.
Unfortunately, this spirit of goodwill is not present throughout all of Bosnia. Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, a primarily Serbian entity of Bosnia, is deeply aware
of this truth. ''We dread something eventually happening to us here because the records
about people in Bosnia and Herzegovina who promote radical Islam show that there are
more of them," he told the Balkan Insight. He estimates that around 3,000 potential Islamist
radicals are present in the country, a great deal too many for the weak security structures in
Bosnia.
Bosnian officials and leaders are doing what they can to secure national security. As of
Thursday, securities around the French embassy and other diplomatic premises in Sarajevo
have been increased. As the Balkan Insight reports, prominent voices in the Islamic community have been speaking out against the killings in Paris. Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic,
for example, sent a telegram to the French ambassador in Bosnia, Claire Bodonyi, which
read: "I express my full solidarity with France and its people in the fight against terrorist
violence and the suffering of innocent people, and I condemn in the strongest terms those
who plot and carry out terror and spread fear." In addition, Mustafa Ceric, former Bosnian
Grand Mufti, joined citizens, journalists, and intellectuals in front of the French embassy in
Sarajevo to pay their respects to the victims of the Paris attack.
For a country whose history is impaired by regular religious division, the attack on Paris
has foremost served as a reminder of this dangerous division; it is a warning of Bosnia's
susceptibility for harm. Bosnia can only hope that it is only a reminder and nothing more.+
From the Editors:
I
t's been awhile, Johnnies, so welcome
back to the pages of the Gadfly!
We'd like to draw your attention to
two new columns starting this week.
The very best, Samuel Collins and Joe
Kensok, will deliver us a regular scoop
on all things intramurals- and, yes, that
includes Kunai! Then, highlighting the
most intriguing stories from the past
two weeks, "Around the U.S." will be
sure to deliver overlooked, absurd, and
wow moments from around the U.S.
Happy reading!
Q: Would you trust Socrates to be
your real live actual midwife?
+
Kerrigan Dougherty
A'16
The Parker Quartet returned to St. John's to offer yet another close to the stage, I could see precisely what was being done to
enchanting program. This year, the group brought together composers bring out the sharp chirps and flutelike sounds. The players used
Franz Schubert and Gyorgy Kurtag as well as guest musicians Shai many, if not mostly, harmonics. This is the process of bowing as
normal but only lightly touching a finger down on the string, rather
Wosner and Thomas Van Dyck.
The two hour program, divided at the midpoint by an intermission, than pressing all the way down to the fingerboard. Juniors and on
with a keen sense for Laboratory practica
was very smartly crafted. At first, we heard
will recognize the importance of nodes on a
Schubert's Quartettsatz. This one movement
vibrating string. Placing a finger either above
was composed for an otherwise unfinished ( ( Wosner played a
or below the prefect spot will produce a dull
string quartet. There is a 40 bar fragment of the
Schubert delight
and muted sound, but placing the finger in the
second movement, which the Parker Quartet
and then the Parker precise place of string division will bring out
graciously played for a few music classes on
an amazing and metallic sound. In the end,
Thursday morning.
Quartet launched
six consecutive sweet Schubert pieces or six
Shai Wosner, a well-rounded NYC pianist,
into difficult and
consecutive challenges from Kurtag would be
teamed up with the Parker Quartet, currently
too much. However, the alternation between
made up of Daniel Chong on violin, Ying Xue on
disorienting, but
styles and instruments lead to a very exciting
violin, Jessica Bodner on viola, and Kee-Hyun
extremely exciting, and pleasurable listening experience.
Kim on cello. Both the classical powerhouse
Most of the musicians from the first portion
Schubert and modern, cutting edge, still-living
Kurtag
returned to the stage to play Schubert's rarely
Kurtag adopt the form of moments musicaux
performed but very worthy Trout Quintet.
for some of their compositions. The harmonic
structures and the playing techniques necessary for these two sets of Chong on violin, Bodner on viola, Kim on cello, and Wosner on piano
moments differ greatly, but something about the two sets made them march back out. However, they have the young but quite tall Thomas
a natural pair. Wosner played the first Schubert moment, marked Van Dyck in tow. He apparently had to drive many hours to come down
Moderato, and it was everything a sophomore music student should from Boston, where he plays in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Just
expect: a clear A-B-A structure, understandable tonal centers, and minutes before the performance, he was spotted walking around
FSK auditorium with his
discernable phrasing and
shirt, jacket and shoes in one
meter. Then, the Quartet
hand, and what looked like
immediately launched into
an iced latte in the other. He
a chaotic and sour sounding
seemed to be searching for
Kurtag piece.
the backstage area! The cello,
A classmate remarked on
which in a traditional quartet
the similarity between the
is the foundation and lowest
middle of this piece and part
sounding, biggest instrument,
of Jingle Bells, the holiday
was made quite small in this
classic. Aside from this, the
second segment.
piece was fascinating with
Van Dyck plays double bass
short and dissonant outbursts
and was situated right next
blended with long and eerie
to Kim (cello). I had to giggle
soundscapes.
Sometimes
when looking at the two
the players would all bow at
instruments. What at first
the same moment, but then
had seemed like such a large
they would slow down and
and commanding instrument,
each play longer and less
the cello, then appeared
urgent lines, leading to an
quite petite by comparison.
unparsable sound. Listening
As well, the cello happens to
to the piece on a recording,
I can no longer tell which sounds come from viola, violin or even be a lighter stained wood with a consistent color. The bass is much
cello. This pattern continued: Wosner played a Schubert delight and darker and varied brown and seemed to have bracing on the sides,
then the Parker Quartet launched into difficult and disorienting, but only adding to its stature and prominence. This team of five played
extremely exciting, Kurtag. Sophomores and older students should the simply lovely Schubert. In the moments musicaux, the piano and
recognize the second Schubert moment from many listenings in strings were not played simultaneously. But here, in the final offering,
music tutorial. The piece, marked Andantino in Ab major, is featured the players united to put on a great show. The bass added great depth
in The Sense of Music in Texture and Structure in the section called as well as warmth. The piano nicely punctuated the music on the
strings.
A-B-A-B-A.
Both guests contributed greatly to the musical presentation and,
Also, many listeners remarked on the birdlike sounds of the
strings in Kurtag's fifth moment, ... rappel des oiseaux ... Sitting as always, the Parker Quartet did excellent work. +
'
lr
�04
THE GADFLY
Chicago, Illinois
"Kale Chips", an 85-pound beagle: One Tail at a Time, a rescue
shelter in Chicago, rescued a 85 -pound beagle, well over the 22-25
pound range for a healthy adult male of his breed. They named
the dog "Kale Chips", because "that's pretty much what his future
looks like," the animal shelter said in a Facebook post last Tuesday.
Members of the rescue team had to use a wagon to transport the
beagle to his new home at the rescue. Heather Owen, co-founder
of One Tail at a Time, told the Huffington Post, that they are testing
the dog for medical-related reasons for his obeisity, but she suspects that his obeseity is due to a poor lifestyle. "It's our assumption that the owner wasn't able to walk him or care for him," Owen
explained. "His nails were really long and the owner certainly
overfed him."
05
THE GADFLY
Tiffin, Ohio
Around the U.S.
Vital tubes pulled: A 69 year old marriage ended when both man
and wife died in the hospital only 8 hours apart. Gene and Pat Warrington met in junior high and married while Gene was on leave
from boot camp during World War IL After his safe return the
couple had been inseparable ever since. After a visit to his wife's
hospital room, which revealed her ailing condition, Gene decided
to pull his own tubes and cords out telling a son, "It wouldn't be
fun without her." This did not come as a surprise to the family who
knew the couple to only do things together. The couple has left
behind 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
Boston, Massachusetts
Oldest known time capsule: On January 6, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston conservator Paul Hatchfield opened the nation's oldest known time capsule in the walls of the Massachusetts State
House. It was originally buried on July 4, 1795 by none other than
midnight-rider Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, who was then
Massachusett's governor. Inside the plaster-sealed, corroded box
were five neatly folded newspapers, a collection of 23 coins dating
as far back as 1652, a medal depicting George Washington, a replica
of Colonial records, and a silver plate commemorating the erection
of the new State House. The capsule had until last week remained
unopened since it was orinally found in 1855 by workers making
some repairs on the State House.
Los Angeles, California
Bullet-proof train: Last week, California began construction on
a $68-billion bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which
is predicted to be completed sometime in the 2020s. The train will
travel at 220 miles per hour and deliver passengers from one city
to the next in three hours. It will be the first high-speed rail system
in the United States, CBS News reports. Proponents of the project
say it will help with traffic and improve air quality, as well as bring
in new jobs, while opponents believe it will destroy neighborhoods
by tearing down buildings and blocking streets. Diana Gomez of
the High-Speed Rail Authority says the train is good for California,
telling CBS News, "Our project is going to transform how we move
around in the state."
Hartford, Connecticut
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Forced chemo treatment: Connecticut Supreme Court forced 17
year old cancer patient, Cassandra C., chemo treatment against her
and her mother's will. Cassandra was diagnosed with Stage 3 or
4 of Hodgkin's lymphoma in September and immediately underwent a surgery operation to have part of her lymph node removed.
Once her treatment shifted to chemo therapy, Cassandra and her
mother, Jacki Fortin, left the hospital against the doctor's orders.
The hospital reported child abuse and neglect to the Department
of Children and Families (DCF), which in turn made Cassandra's
case a state Supreme Court issue. The court granted DCF temporary custody of Cassandra, and the hospital went on to perform
two chemo treatments-that is, until Cassandra ran away from the
hospital for a second time. Cassandra has since been removed from
her home and forcibly hospitalized since late December.
Terrorist bombing: The FBI is searching for a "person of interest" -described as a balding, white male in his 40's driving an
older-model pick-up truck- connected to the small explosion at a
building that houses the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) office in Colorado Springs. Nobody was
injured by the Monday incident. The homemade device damaged
the sidewalk besides the building but did not ignite a canister of
gasoline placed next to it. The Denver chapter of the NAACP said
that the blast appeared to be a "cowardly" hate crime, the Los Angeles Times reports. "This is proof that racism is still alive," the civil
rights groups said in a statement.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Hudson , Florida
Baltimore, Maryland
Wearing a hoodie illegal: The Republican state senator of Oklah oma, Don Barrington, proposed a new law prohibiting people from
concealing their identity in public by "means of a robe, mask, or
other disguise." Violators can be fined up to a $500 ticket or could
be subject to "imprisonment in the country jail for a period of not
exceeding one year." There are, however, a few exceptions to the
bill: anyone wearing "religious garments, protections from weather,
parades, Halloween celebrations and numerous other circumstances", such as "minstrel troupes" and "sporting events". According to
Oklahoma's KOTV, the bill was written, because lawmakers received
too many complaints about robberies committed by men wearing
hooded sweatshirts.
"I have drugs" T-shirt: John Balmer was strolling through his local
K-Mart in Florida, wh en h e was arrested while wearing a t-shirt
printed with "Who needs drugs. No, seriously, I have drugs." Balmer
was standing in the check out line when he saw a deputy walk in. After failing to swiftly hand a bag to the customer behind him, he then
placed the bag on the ground and attempted to continue to check out.
The cashier told the deputy about the bag, who then asked Balmer if
he had drugs. After noticing the t-shirt the deputy found the bag to
indeed contain drugs. He will now be charged for possession on two
counts, the first for methamphetamine and the second for 20 grams
or less of marijuana. Photographic evidence of the shirt can be found
on the Pasco County Sheriff's Office official Facebook page.
Misdiagnosed uterus: Joyce Ferguson checked into a John's
Hopkins h ospital experiencing severe pelvic pain only to be
released misdiagnosed. After three trips to the emergency room
and no solution, the 59-year-old woman was re-examined after
being found unresponsive. Doctors found an infection in her
uterus that had hindered her blood circulation enough so that
she was cold to the touch. The restricted blood flow resulted in
an amputation of both arms and legs. Ferguson has now filed a
lawsuit against John Hopkins over the loss of her extremities due
to their failed attempts to diagnose the infection sooner. Ferguson's attorney insists that the amputations could have easily been
avoided.
Brooklyn, New York
Turned backs on Mayor de Blasio: At the funeral for Wenjian
Liu, one of two New York City police officers killed on December
20 in an ambush by a gunman who had said he was out to avenge
the deaths of unarmed black men killed by officers, thousands of
police officers and city officials were in attendance. In a eulogy to
Liu, Mayor de Blasio took the opportunity to call for reconciliation.
But, according to the Gothamist report, hundreds of police officers
"turned their backs on de Blasio," whom the officers believed to
have stirred up anti-police sentiment.
�06
THE GADFLY
Intramural Madness
Samuel Collins
A'15
Welcome back Johnnies! I hope you all had a wonderful break,
full of leisurely intellectual inquiries and close examination of your
seminar readings and senior essays. Now that we're all back at
school we can direct our rested minds towards enlightening and
thoughtful conversations, both inside and outside the classroom.
But not here. Here, we talk sports. What kind of sports? The best
damn sports around ... intramurals. In a new weekly segment, a
couple others (looking at you Kensok) and I will explore the wide
world of sports at St. John's. We're talking basketball, handball,
rowing, croquet, and those other ones that people don't really consider sports (looking at you CrossFit). In this article, I'll be laying
down the what's what about the upcoming semester in intramurals: Who's hot, who's cold, who's wearing who. You know, real
talk. Without further ado, here we go.
First up: Basketball. It's the sport we all came here for. Everyone has had enough of that weird feet and disc stuff; do not even
get me started on that weird oblong "ball" that somehow purports
reason as its muse. No, this is a real sport, filled with real balls and
real rules. Let's talk teams. The Hustlers and Greenwaves dominated last year. Nikos Frank, TJ Schaub, and a whole lot of other
men in red exhausted the other A-teams with their athleticism and
physical
play. If it
Expect blood everybody, had not
been for
expect blood.
the Greenwaves,
led by the
stellar play of Sebastian Abella and Jerry Januszewski, the season
would have been case closed early on. Both teams were close all
season, up until the final buzzer which coincided with a missed
buzzer beater by some Greenwave (source?).
Still, graduation, the draft, and other variables make for a different storyline for this year.
The Hustlers, losing several key players, reloaded their team
with GI Jeremy and brothers Marco and Jordan. All three are stellar players with great court vision. Former MVP Nikos Frank and
senior floor general Joe Hamd return to make for another stacked
Hustlers A-Team. Unfortunately, the B-Team took a major hit
when they lost 1st Team All-Hustle Clayton "Bigsby" Williams to
the Colorado School of Mines (Mimes?). However, the two-peat is
looking possible.
The Greenwaves lost star A-Teamer Brett Lowry to the real
world, but still have the stalwarts of their program, Sebastian
Abella and JJ, to lead the charge. Both players bring a whole lot
of skill and basketball I.Q. to the table, with Abella as the main
ballhandler and JJ as THE MAN down low. The B-Team has a lot
to offer. Jermaine and the Kims promise a lot of shutdown defense
in the 1st and 3rd quarters, hopefully fo llowed by a heap of fast
break points. The Waves certainly can threaten for first this year.
However, with an ever dwindling stable of alumni and a general
animosity towards them, anything can happen.
The Spartans return with their Big 3 intact. Matthew Denci,
Christopher Zeller, and Graham "Cracker" Gordon all tower over
the opposition with the shortest being 6'3. The loss of point guard
Ian Tuttle is hard, but I see Zeller taking over that role with ease.
On B-Team, they are as stacked as ever: Grace Athanas-Linden,
Matt Saburn, Zachary Peyser, SUBHA, etc. The only question is,
can they stay calm and not get so angry? My bet is they will be as
angry as ever. Expect blood everybody, expect blood.
''
To Know the Joy of Leaving
+Erik Neave '16
To know the joy of leaving-flesh and blood
On flesh and blood-between the murmuring tongues,
Before the song is buried in thunder,
Takes the gentle burden of tired offspring
Filling the cradle of cause and result;
Eyelids heavy, set on sleep, mimicking
Pizzicato cries and swells of close chords
Sound, diminished, down the skeletal hall
Emptied of life, a ghost of the future.
(When clapped hands might carry grateful bodies
Into the cavernous foyer for tea
And tan coffee and pleasant, hushed talk
And force the ghost to shuffle, wind-like,
And slip slow between civilised whispers
And into the cold corpse of now... and now...)
And now each quivering step on matte ice
Sends memory to its mirror image.
Like summer rain and white-washed nights converge,
Toying with memory.
Each season demands absolute regard,
A quartet of individual voice
THE GADFLY
07
weasly Guardians). Now,
both are gone and a lot depends on how well John Neal and TJ Schaub can haridle the scoring load. Will Pack, Mike "Could you please pass the" Mayo and
Mr. Burke fill out a solid A-Team. The B-Team is where this team
has a chance to win it, with sophomore ballers Josh Mccourt
and Thanja Jaygbay going all out each time on the floor. Unlike
the Greenwaves, the Guardians' stable (albeit this one of tutors)
remains strong-minus the presence oflights out scorer J-Mac
due to foreseen sabbatical. Still, the talent in the league this year
might be too hot to handle for the cagers in gold.
Second: Kunai. Listen, I have a confession. I am a man (boy?)
and therefore cannot play Kunai. The strong, virtuous, Amazonian character required to play in the fiercest league at the school
has not been endowed to me. All I can do is sit on the sidelines
and watch the She-Dogs of the Underworld as they take on every
sport imaginable. They do so with a swagger and a level of fun
incomprehensible to most people out in the world. The music
is blaring, the captains are cheering, the smiles abound on every
person who makes the trip to Iglehart to take part in one of the
college's best traditions. Whether you are looking to compete,
exercise, or have some down time with the best ladies on campus,
Kunai is for you. It is such a valuable experience that two years
ago a senior male paid around 300 dollars to be able to play
sports with these women. No where else in the world do you get
the chance to be a part of something like this; the Kunai girls that
I have talked to profess that it is truly a unique, powerful, joyful
thing to partake in. Tuesdays and Fridays at 4 p.m., whether its
snowing or not, Kunai awaits.
Third: Handball. Unlike with basketball, most people at the
college are probably unfamiliar with this game. In this category,
I include myself. I just do not understand how it works. Sure, I
have scored some goals, argued with the refs (in fact I have even
referred a few games), and gone iso mode before, but what is
handball? Is it basketball? Soccer? Baseball? Spin the Bottle?
Are weapons allowed? Can one discuss the absurdities oflife and
their manifestation in our rational thought at this sport? Can
Continued From
Pg. 6
we investigate the
property and puissance oflanguage
while playing? The
issue is, no one
knows, not even
Mike McQuarrie.
A couple of days
ago I asked him
about handball.
Here was his response1: "Handball? Honestly, I
thought it was a
type of macrame..."
There you have it
folks, its a type of
craft reserved for
those who probably
had trouble learning how to tie their
shoes as a kid and
people not allowed
around sharp
objects2. Games
are on Wednesdays
at 4pm and will
Rt~( t \II."'- ll11tt l'\(\1~
continue up to the
end of March. Find
out if your team is playing and put on your handball hands.
Well, that is all I have for you today. There is a lot more to
cover, and I'll make sure to get to those in later articles. In the
mean time, feel free to ask any of the Intramural and Kunai captains about whatever. Also, do your homework and don't drink
on Wednesdays. The latter is a loud and obnoxious thing to do,
and I can hear you all from Gilliam.
+
Legato as the sliding, icy steps.
Stones to home and warm, silent midnight-a
Squirming torso bending towards the darkness,
The haze, or the vague routine of childhood
Guiding the dying present to dead past.
One hears, at last, the palm-muted ballad
Of flesh and blood on flesh and blood leaving
Overflowing auditoriums then,
For a vacant, translucent stillness now.
A stillness that fills the whole unended song with joy.
"Fallen" Tyler, and "Jack" John ''.Jack" ''.John" "Jack" Whitman gear
up for one last go around. In their 4th year together, chemistry
will b e at an all-time high. In addition, they retain stud Florian
"Nacho" Ancho. Things are looking good for the Druid A-Team.
The B-Team has a lot of athletic talent, the only question is: Can
MaryBeth and Jenna put aside their issues with one another. The
team has split up into factions, Team Beydler and Team Alton,
with former friends Will Kinum, Connor Mccourt, and Corey
Kirner all now bitter enemies. As a result, the B-Team offers up a
stark contrast to the grooving A-Team.
The Guardians ... well they had a good showing in the Holiday
Invitational, thanks to now-gone Chris Tracey and his ill-gotten
"cousin" Anthony (who is in reality
Continued On Pg. 7
a good guy and does not reflect the
Student Video Contest:
"Why Choose a St. John's Education?"
How would you persuade prospective Johnnies to attend St. John's? What kind of buzz could you create about the Great Books? The
Alumni Association wants to know how current students would answer this question: "Why Choose a St. John's Education?"
We would like to see your answers in video form. It doesn't have to be cinematographic, just creative and compelling, especially to those
who might be considering applying to St. John's. Do ai;iything you like--a song, a skit, a poem, an animation, a puppet show, a short documentary. Videos should be no longer than 5 minutes.
The contest period begins at 12:00 PM MST on Friday, January 23, 2015 and ends at 12:00 AM MDT on Friday April 24. During that time
you can upload your video and try to get as many popular votes as you can. The videos will be showcased to Alumni, film-making professionals and other members of the St. John's Community in June during the Alumni Leadership Forum on the Santa Fe campus. Distinguished judges will choose winners from the top five videos determined by the popular vote. This is a great opportunity to showcase
your talents!
FIRST PRIZE: $500
SECOND PRIZE: $100
THIRD PRIZE: SJC branded goodies
For more information about the contest and to register for the contest, contact the Alumni Office at:
anna.perry@sjc.edu or 410-295-5532.
Regards,
St. John's College Alumni Association
�08
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Tuesday 01/13
Kunai
4PM
Fencing
6PM
THE GADFLY
Geometry ·Problem:
For the Math Enthusiast at the College
Yosef Trachtenberg A'.15
A geometry problem has come up in an experiment I've been working on, and I thought
I'd enlist the help of fellow math enthusiasts at the college in solving it. Seniors might
recognize the diagram from the Rutherford lab reading, but the problem presented is just a
problem in geometry.
Wednesday 01/14
St. John's Chorus, Great Hall
7PM
Thursday 01/15
CrossFit
11:40AM
Friday 01/16
Fencing
6PM
Lecture: "What Does Music
Mean?" by Tutor Matthew
Caswell
FSK Auditorium
8PM
Saturday 01/17
New Carrolton Shuttle
9AM
Sunday 01/18
Shopping Shuttle
4:30 PM
Gadfly Meeting,
Lower level of the BBC
7PM
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule,
please email sjca.gadfiy@
gmail.com.
Given 2 branches of a hyperbola with foci S, B, center 0, and tangents.
Other givens:
AC =FD = SN= p
FC =DA,= b
OS = OB = OC = OF
<NOR = cl>
<OCA = cl>/2
<COA = <AOR = 9
<SNO = <FDO = <CAO = right angle
Let a random point M be taken on the right branch of the hyperbola, and from the focus of
the other branch join SM, making <ASM = a .
It is required to find an expression (the simpler, the better!) for the length SM as a function
of the angle a and the givens b, p, e, cl>.
If you have a solution or an idea for a solution, email me at yosef.trachtenberg@sjc.edu, or
just find me around campus. +
�
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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Barajas, Sebastian (Editor-in-Chief)
Tretina, Allison (Editor-in-Chief)
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The Gadfly, Vol. XXXVI Issue 08
Date
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2015-01-13
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Volume XXXVI, Issue 08 of The Gadfly. Published January 13, 2015. (Mislabeled as January 15, 2014)
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Vol. 36 #8
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College
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English
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text
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pdf
Gadfly
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4271a89c0d2aa3fe780685fb2f115714
PDF Text
Text
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY
131 1 1 116961~ 1~1~01165li i1 1 157091111111
1 1 1 1 1 ~r1 1n11
A Saintly Johnnie • 02
A Review by Ms. Brann • 03
Seniors Discuss Seminar • 04
ST. JoHN's COLLEGE• 60 COLLEGE AVE, ANNAPOLIS, MD 21401 •Nov. 18, 2014 • VoL. XXXVI • IssuE 07
I
Photo by Sebastian Barajas
'
�02
THE GADFLY
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
The Power of "The Works"
Nancy Calabrese
Nurse Practitioner
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
WWW.ISSUU.COM/SJCGADFLY
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SJCAGADFLY
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over
600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and
edit submissions in any way necessary
to publish a professional, informative,
and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
The Gadfly meets on the Lower Level of
the BBC every Sunday at 7pm.
Articles should be submitted by Friday
at ll:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.
Having worked at St. John's College for almost 14 years I have seen first-hand
the influence of the studied works on the students' lives. As an example I offer the
following:
During the past summer while collecting mail at the mail room I happen to notice a Dominican Priest sitting at a computer in the adjacent room. I approached
him and asked if he was indeed a Dominican priest (he expressed surprise that I
recognized the habit) and we began talking. He told me that he had been a Graduate Institute student and at that time had no particular interest in formalized religion per se. HOWEVER the works of Saints Thomas Aquinas and Augustine (as
part of the curriculum) particularly "spoke to him" and thus he pursued the study
of Catholicism which lead to entering the seminary.
He was ordained a Dominican priest in California May 2014 and was encouraged by his order to return to the place of inspiration, St. John's College. During
his visit he was able to meet with some tutors and officiate at a Mass at St. Mary's
Parish.
Suffice it to say "The Works" continue to influence and inspire.
+
STAFF
Sebastian Barajas • Editor-in-Chief
Allison Tretina• Editor-in-Chief
Kira Anderson • Staff
Jonathan Gordon • Staff
Jake Israel • Staff
Frederick Nesfield • Staff
Jensen Pratt• Staff
Lyra Meurer • Illustrator
Q: Do we really live in fish-heaven?+
contributed to our most recent issue. Both articles, one titled
"Facebook and Facades" the other titled "Where's Waldo," went
through the same editing process that every article goes through
before being printed. First, the article is sent to a copy editor who
reviews the piece for spelling and grammatical errors. Before
the entire issue is printed, the Gadfly staff as a whole reviews
every piece in order to catch any mistakes the first editor may
have missed. Finally, the edited issue is read by Taylor Waters
before being printed and distributed to the student community.
This system is designed for fact-checking and copyediting, so the
fact that two writers had the styles of their articles altered goes
against the purpose of the editing process.
The article "Facebook and Facades" had a sentence that read
"I typically resign myself to implying snarky contradictions, and
leave it at that" but it was changed to "I typically refrain from
Eva Brann Tutor
A third delight is stumbling on familI would like our community to know
iar items. At one point, Zafar mentions
about a book whose 500 pages I drank up,
"a lovely little volume called What is
so to speak, in one week because it seemed
Mathematics." It is Courant and Robwritten for us Johnnies. The novel lives
bins' classic by which, in the old days, our
under the aegis of Godel's Incompleteness
seniors (and myself) were introduced to
Theorem, which our seniors study. Here it
the calculus. (It must be beloved of East
is given a wisdom-interpretation: There are
Asians, because it also plays a role in
things we feel to be indefeasibly true but
Vikram Seth's marvelous novel, A Suitcannot know to be so. Much of the book is
able Boy.) Another, human, item is Emily,
taken up by an ongoing conversation bethe entirely ungiving upper-class Engtween the Pakistani-American narrator and
lishwoman that Zafar falls in love with,
his Bangladeshi friend Zafar. Half a thoupast hope and past despair. She is the
sand pages of philosophico-personal talk
twentieth century avatar of a figure well
might seem terminally boring. It's in fact enknown to Juniors, Rosamond Viney of
tirely engrossing, like a really good seminar
Middlemarch, who is totally centered on a
on a deep text in which opinions emerge that
self which is a big null and who calculates
seem just wrong-headed to me (as in fact do
every thing and thinks of nobody.
many of the two protagonist's) - still, it's a
In the Light is, for all its delights, a
common text and a shared enterprise and so
In the Light of What
novel full of tragedy, the tragedies of
time well spent.
We Know
ethnic rootlessness, of personal beingConversation isn't all there is; the story
by Bruce Chatwin
out-of-kilter, of mismatched pairings. But
intensifies to a really explosive denouement.
it has one redeeming moment, to me the
All the discussion and action is underwrithigh point. It occurs late in the novel, and by the time you
ten by the author's stupendously detailed acquaintance with
reach it, you'll have forgotten that I gave it away; anyhow, I
big subjects, ranging from high-stakes trading to East Asian
can't contain myself. Zafar is
history, with a lot of observant
visiting Josie, the little daughter
local knowledge thrown in. A
t's in fact entirely engrossing,
of a friend. She is obsessed with
reader who likes learning how
giraffes, and he has brought her
alien types live will love this
like a really good seminar on a
a toy giraffe. "When she
book.
deep text in which opinions emerge the toy, this child of fourtook
said,
Another source of pleasure
that seem just wrong-headed to
with her soft brown eyes lookis Rahman's deft English. In
ing straight into mine and in a
my reading experience the
me ...
voice containing a tiny element
contemporary sources of
of surprise that almost broke my
lovely writing are American
heart, You thinked of me." ''You thinked of me" is, I think, the
mid-western home-grown and Anglo-Asian emigrant writers
- because they're both so staunchly unaffected by the loose,
most poignant sentence in a very appealing book.
deteriorated lingo of now-speak.
+
Eva Brann
Nancy Calabrese
Henry Hirsch
Gadfly
who felt that the Gadfly editors altered the articles that they
In. t:he Light: o£What: We Kn.ow
I
''
CONTRIBUTORS
From the Editors: by two writers
Last week, the
staff was approached
03
THE GADFLY
Cranberry Marsh01allow Crea01 Salad
snarky contradictions." The article titled" Where's Waldo?" had
the sentence "where in the world was she?" removed from the
end of a joke that implied that Waldo was in a relationship with
Carmen Sandiego.
Because of these concerns, the Gadfly staff is reviewing the
editing process in order to assure that every article that gets
printed is made up of the writer's own words and style rather
than the editors'. The Gadfly staff believes in preserving each
writer's own style and word choice in order to accurately portray
their thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Any deterioration from this
does not fulfill the Gadfly's purpose. The Gadfly staff would like
to extend its apologies to the polity and specifically to the two
writers whose articles were taken out of their original context.
If you are interested in submitting to the Gadfly, and would
like to see our changes before we go to print, please tell us this
explicitly, and give us at least a week before the deadline so that
we can get it back to you.
Thank you for your support
-The Gadfly
Pam Anderson Johnnie Mom
1 lb. fresh or frozen cranberries, ground
1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 c. sugar
1 (10 112 oz.) bag mini marshmallows
2 c . heavy cream, whipped
Mix together cranberries, pineapple, and sugar in a large
bowl. Fold marshmallows into whipped cream. Fold
whipped cream mixture into cranberry mixture. Chill until
serving time.
If you prepare recipe a day or two ahead, chill cream and
cranberry mixtures separately. Fold together before serving. Makes 10 cups or 20 (1/2-cup) servings.
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cranberry-ft uff-salad-thanksgi ving-bli tz-9/
�04
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Tuesday 11/18
Kunai Netball
4PM
Fencing
4PM
Wednesday 11/19
St. John's Chorus, Great Hall
7PM
Storyteller's Guild
9PM
Friday 11/20
Kunai Netball
4PM
Fencing
6PM
Lecture: "On Classical Liberalism and the 'Liberal' Point
of View," by Roberto SalinasLeon
8PM
Saturday 11/21
Soccer
S vs. H, 1:30 PM
Sunday 11/22
Masquerade Waltz Party,
McDowell Hall
9PM
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule,
please email sjca.gad:fly@
gmail.com.
THE GADFLY
SCI: First Semester Senior Seminar
Henry Hirsch
A'15
On Thursday, October 30th, the SCI seminar readings might contribute to
held a forum at 11:45 in the Private Din- this by changing the behavior of both
ing Hall to discuss the first semester of students and tutors. In addition, several
senior seminar. Do the ideas presented students were upset by the way in which
in the readings cohere? In what ways their tutors approached the Marx readcould the first semester of senior semi- ings. They felt that theirs tutors didn't
nar be improved?
take Marx's ideas seriously and made no
Many of the seniors who were present attempt to hide their personal opinions
at the forum felt that the Hegel readings from their students. This negatively imdid not form a cohesive whole. Notably, pacted their seminars.
Hegel's preface to the Phenomenology of
Another senior claimed that his semiSpirit is not included in the reading list. nar had suffered because his classmates
Much of this book is currently skipped, were not viewing the readings historiand the sections that are read are scat- cally. This raised the question of whethtered throughout. 200 pages are cur- er some ?books are inherently great in
rently skipped between the second-to- themselves, or whether the greatness of
last reading and the last reading. In the texts is due to their historical relation
latter, the final two pages of the entire to other works. Most of the students
book seem to be shoehorned in.
present at the forum believed that all of
One student complained that while the texts that we read can be viewed as
the last reading in
having great worth in
the Critique of Pure
their own right. NevReason provided an
ertheless, it is certainly
' '
N:arly all of the
opportunity to rebeneficial to relate the
seniors present
flect upon the book
expressed dissatisfaction thoughts of different
as a whole, the last
authors to one another.
with the quality of their
reading in the PheMost of the seniors
seminars.
nomenology of Spirit
in attendance at the
did not. The stuforum felt that many
dents felt that in
of the first semester
general the Hegel readings are not struc- senior seminar readings are too long,
tured as well as the Kant readings. There especially the Marx readings. Some stuseems to be a parallel between the struc- dents suggested shortening the length of
ture of the Hegel readings in senior year individual seminar readings by stretchand the structure of the Hume readings ing out the reading schedule to include
in junior year. Specific sections of Hume seminars during senior essay writing peare read so that Kant can later respond riod. While it might be beneficial for seto those particular ideas. In the same niors to have this structure during writway, we seem to read particular sections ing period, such a proposition could also
of Hegel so that Marx, Kierkegaard, and be problematic. If the first semester seNietzche can later respond to those par- nior seminar readings are meant to form
ticular ideas of his.
a cohesive whole, it would be detrimenSome students suggested having a tal for the readings in first semester to
guide on how to read Hegel available be separated from the readings during
that could be optional reading for stu- writing period by more than two months
dents. One student advocated having a of preceptorial, Thanksgiving break, and
vocabulary list of Hegel's terminology Christmas break.
The forum concluded that the first
distributed to seniors. Another student
noted that her tutors had encouraged semester of senior seminar suffers from
her seminar to read the guide to Hegel organizational issues. The ideas presentin the back of the Miller translation of ed in the first semester readings cohere.
the Phenomenology of Spirit along with However, the individual reading assignments might benefit from restructuring.
the assigned seminar readings.
Nearly all of the seniors present ex- The students also concluded that semipressed dissatisfaction with the quality nars would be benefited if both tutors
of their seminars. It was suggested that and students reevaluated the manner in
the nature of the first semester senior which they approach these texts.
+
�
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<em>The Gadfly</em>
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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Barajas, Sebastian (Editor-in-Chief)
Tretina, Allison (Editor-in-Chief)
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The Gadfly, Vol. XXXVI Issue 07
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2014-11-18
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Volume XXXVI, Issue 07 of The Gadfly. Published November 18, 2014.
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Vol. 36 #7
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College
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pdf
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