May 2003 Columbia University in the City of New York
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THE BLUE AND WHITE Vol. IX, No. V May 2003 Columbia University in the City of New York SENIOR REFLECTIONS ON NEW YORK THE LAST FAÇADE ROAD TRIP by Jacob Shell by the B&W Staff THE BLUE AND WHITE Vol. IX New York, May 2003 No. V ove it or leave it. That’s what THE BLUE AND WHITE they say about New York, and with good reason. After all, CONTENTS Editor-in-Chief this isn’t the kind of town you CRAIG B. HOLLANDER, C’04 can leave on a whim - there Columns are trains to catch, bridges to 127 Introduction Publisher cross, and tolls to pay. So if you stay you’d 128 Campus Characters ISAAC V. KOHN, C’04 best be prepared for everything New York 130 Culinary Humanities Managing Editors has in store. Yes, that includes the best enter- 133 Blue J VIJAY IYER, C’03 tainment and cultural opportunities in the 137 Measure For Measure AINSLEY M. ROSS, B’04 world, and you can read all about them in 138 Told Between Puffs PAUL HEYER, C’04 your Fodor’s. But this is no guide book. It’s 144 Booze Humanities The Blue and White and we can be as brash, Editor Emeritus 147 Postcard From Paris ANAND VENKATESAN, C’03 stimulating, and downright amusing as the 148 Book Review city we like to call home. 149 Digitalia Editors Let’s not forget that, unlike the B&W, the 151 Lecture Notes ALEX ANGERT, C’03 city isn’t free. In Kelly Swanston’s article, 155 Campus Gossip ERICA GRIEDER, C’03 you’ll learn that some benches in Central Park D. JEFF SOULES, C’03 (Webmaster) can be adopted for $25,000 each. Thankfully, MICHAEL S. PAULSON, C’04 (Literary) Features there are cheaper spots to relax while reading CALEB VOGNSEN, C’04 131 The Last Façade this issue. Of course, the Blue J is hardly coo- 134 Senior Reflections on NYC Contributors ing about having to pay an additional 50 cents 140 The B&W Road Trip ELISA BARQUIN, C’03 in getting to many of them by subway. But, it’s 146 The Kings of East 12th Street STEVEN PULIMOOD, C’03 as Jacob Shell illustrates in his “Last Façade” 152 Central Park Turns 150ish NEMANJA SLAVKOVICH, C’03 – the greatest city does not always have the 154 Letter to the Editor THOMAS GORMAN, C’04 greatest city planners. Sometimes, we need TELIS G. DEMOS, C’04 to escape its endless rows of skyscrapers and KELLY SWANSTON, C’04 miles of concrete. So if you’re feeling a bit ALLEN O’ROURKE, C’04 Cover by Paul Heyer confined or claustrophobic, why not hightail DAVEY VOLNER, C’04 ERICA DeBRUIN, C’04 it out of town with the B&W staff on its “Road Typographical Note JOSHUA W. BOOTH, C’05 Trip?” Soon, we’ll all go home and sleep off final The text of The Blue and White is set in Bodoni DANIEL PALUCH, C’05 CARA RACHELE, C’05 exams. Sometime around the summer sol- Old Face, which was revived by Günter Gerhard JACOB SHELL, C’05 stice, we’ll awake from our slumber and real- Lange based on original designs by Giambattista ZACHARY H. BENDINER, C’06 ize that life’s pace is far too slow where we Bodoni of Parma (active 1765–1813). The display MAX DiLALLO, C’06 are. We’ll miss the City, and begin to ponder faces are Weiss and Cantoria. DANIELLE F. D’ONFRO, C’06 the various activities that we simply must do PAUL C. MAZZILLI, C’06 there during the next semester. But for the JARED C. SPENCER, C’06 Class of ’03, there won’t be a next semester here. That is why our seniors are sharing their personal “Reflections on NYC” with us in this The B&W invites contributions of original work issue. The B&W bids an affectionate farewell from the Columbia community and to Anand, Vijay, Alex, Erica, D. Jeff, Elisa, welcomes letters from readers. Articles represent the opinions of their authors. Steven, and Nick...We know that Manhattan has lost some of its brightest lights. e-mail: [email protected] website: http://www.theblueandwhite.org 126 The Blue and White May 2003 127 Denise De Las Nueces And, in keeping with Illustrated by Danille D’Onfro When Columbia is only a few subway stops the name of the downtown, leaving for college is just a step in program that first Campus Characters brought her to the process of leaving home. Having grown up st ou might not know the following figures – but you should. In Campus Characters, The Blue and on 161 Street in Washington Heights, Denise campus, she finds YWhite introduces you to a handful of Columbians who are up to interesting and extraordinary De Las Nueces C’03, has been making the trip that her service things, and whose stories beg to be shared. If you’d like to suggest a Campus Character, send us an e-mail up and down Broadway for years, traversing has been a pro- at: [email protected]. a familiar fifty-block stretch between two cess of double unfamiliar worlds. Washington Heights has discovery: in Jonathan Manes this revelation, our reporter continued to provided a unique perspective of Morningside helping oth- Upon first glance, one would be prone to reveal evidence of Jonathan’ pleasant pecu- Heights; Columbia was a hospital and a neigh- ers, she’s suspect Jonathan Matthew Manes C’03 of liarities. Not only is he Canadian, but his bor for Denise before it was a home. come to manic, geeky obliviousness. All the familiar family is from Chile (from the second string It is perhaps an elegant symmetry that find herself, fatal flaws are in evidence: the Einsteinian of the south to the second string of the north, Denise was born at Columbia Presbyterian; and her calling. hair, the fidgety energy, the darting, distract- it was remarked; at this – as at all depreca- now, as a pre-medical student majoring in Finding “people who really ed stare. And let’s not forget the quirky, rub- tory chidings – Jonathan returned an earnest biological sciences, she performs research in believe in me and care about me so much” bery, bulbous shoes. But Jonathan, a senior chuckle). Having attended school in Canada, the pathology lab of Physicians & Surgeons. has been inspirational, and critical in her majoring in philosophy, proves instead almost he refuses to alter his recreational pastimes; to Indeed, there is a serendipitous quality to the decision to move away from research-based unnervingly retiring and attentive. Meeting this day, he can be observed cross-checking storybook arc of her Columbia career. Denise science, which she aspired to as a freshman, me in the Broadway lounge, thesis “on natural his female fellows with guiltless abandon. first began coming to campus regularly in the and towards a future as a pediatrician. kinds” in hand (or perhaps two hands, given Having recently been nominated for the eighth grade, as part of the Double Discovery A closet suburbanite, I am captivated as its imposing girth), Jonathan took a while to senior class prize for Mind & Character, Center’s Talent Search program. Suffice it to she graciously tolerates my naïve badgering come to grips with the demands of celeb- Jonathan shamefacedly admitted that he say that her efforts were successful: during on her New York childhood. Listening to rity, however limited. In fact, it required the was at a loss as to what among his features her senior year of high school, she was named her reminisce, it becomes apparent that her Herculean efforts of no less than two of our of character his compeers had noted; finally a New York Times Scholar — one of only six in youth, steeped in the culture of her family and illustrious staff to get him to relent in nervous settling on those facial in nature, he smiled the Tri-state area — an award that brought her neighborhood, has created an intense connec- fiddling with his cell phone and to fiddle (con- broadly, if cautiously, and declared, “check back to campus permanently. tion with the people and places she grew up versationally) with us. But upon opening up, those dimples.” Wishing to inquire further After moving in freshman year, she moved up with. At Columbia, as mentee and now men- Jonathan at once became surprisingly genial into Jonathan’s character (or perhaps simply to a tutoring position at the ddc, and eventu- tor, Denise has spent four years deepening her and self-effacing, even though his honors – to his cheeks), this reporter was reluctantly com- ally became a member of the Center’s student connection to the city she’s spent her entire say nothing of his oddities – often come along pelled to attend the Varsity Show, but he left outreach program. The two of us stop by the life in, with the exception of a one-week vaca- with a pernicious superciliousness in others. Jonathan deep in discussion with his fellow ddc office in Lerner one afternoon, a home tion. As she notes with a laugh, “Queens is far With respect to his life’s resumé, Jonathan interviewer, the conversation having extended away from home for her, and everybody has a for me.” is remarkable. Possessing stupefying smarts far beyond its projected length. Looking back smile and a hug for Denise; as with everything Which brings us back to moving on. Rare (which have earned him, among other as he exited the Broadway dorm, he felt cer- she undertakes, her involvement with the ddc enough as her tireless work ethic and aca- things, a Columbia senatorship and a Kellett tain that, for all his demurrals, Jonathan’ the- has been marked by deep loyalty, quiet com- demic achievements are, they are rarer still Fellowship to Oxford), as well as broad musi- sis was in superb hands – those of one at once mitment, and impressive achievement.