THE MAGAZINE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLUMBIAWINTER 2009—10 Big Bang Theory Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow goes for the gut — and the head. STALKING CELIAC • FICTION BY VICTOR LAVALLE • BOLLINGER’S NEW BOOK C1_FrontCover_r1.indd C1 12/4/09 12:02 PM C2_ColumbiaClub.indd C2 11/27/09 9:19 AM CONTENTS Winter 2009–10 20 12 6 DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 2 Letters 12 Shoot Shoot, Bang Bang By Paul Hond 6 College Walk Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow makes hell-for-leather That’s Healthfotainment! . State’s Man . action movies that force us to think. Turns out there’s Timely Measures . Spin City . a method to her radness. Tourist Snapping Pictures of Children in Mali 20 Freeing the Flow 38 In the City of New York By Michael B. Shavelson As a fi ghter for waterfront parks, urban planner President Lee C. Bollinger talks about his new book, and historian Ann Buttenwieser knows how to and why free speech is something Americans shouldn’t swim against the current. keep to themselves. 42 News 24 Debt: A Short Story By Victor LaValle 51 Newsmakers A college graduate is caught in a cycle of diminishing returns. 52 Explorations 28 Against the Grain 54 Reviews By David J. Craig Peter H. R. Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center 62 Classifi eds at Columbia, separates the wheat from the chaff of a misunderstood disease. 64 Finals 34 A Book-Sized World By Susan Kismaric Photographer Tom Roma captures a humble workaday world that we can hold in our hands. Cover: Photo illustration by Martin O’Neill 1 ToC_r1.indd 1 12/4/09 11:59 AM letters GRAPHIC BY DESIGN the Language Tree,” Fall 2009). Language attacks on comparative effectiveness research I’ve been meaning to write to you for decades. depends upon what Kurt Goldstein called and health information technology, and run- New York is home to some of the best maga- the abstract attitude. This is the basis of ning straight on to her now-infamous efforts zine designers in the world: Milton Glaser. language function, which is the precur- to raise fears about the so-called death pan- Walter Bernard. Will Hopkins. And those sor to intellectual function. The transition els. Her habit of citing legislation from a are just some of the senior designers. There from the concrete to the abstract occurs in thick binder would be more credible if she is plenty of young talent, too. So why is your young children. There is then a transition showed even the slightest inclination to inter- magazine so poorly designed? It’s incredible from “the fl ower” (concrete) to “a fl ower” pret the legislation correctly. Health reform that it looks so amateurish. (a general, thus an abstract). The abstract needs its critics, but it does not need more of Columbia surely could afford to hire attitude is necessary to build a bridge, to Betsy McCaughey. decent publication designers. Columbia clothe oneself, or to farm. No chimpanzee While I certainly understand why she is a world-class university, and Columbia has ever done this, and never will. would be considered an alumna of note, should refl ect that. Gerald H. Klingon ’42CC Columbia owes a duty to its readers — all Elliott Negin ’83JRN New York, NY of whom are consumers of a health-care Washington, DC system in need of repair — to avoid glam- UNHEALTHY DEBATE? orizing a woman who is as reckless with Congratulations on the Fall cover of I was very disappointed to read Columbia’s the facts as McCaughey. Columbia (“Untangling Swine Flu”). It is kid-glove treatment of health-care polemi- Brian Wagner ’06CC truly inspired. cist Betsy McCaughey (“Care Tactics,” Washington, DC Dr. H. Peter Metzger ’65GSAS Fall 2009). While many people working in Boulder, CO health-care policy deserve even-handed pro- I wonder why you published an article fi les, McCaughey is not one of them. Her focusing on the former lieutenant gover- I loved the Fall cover. It reminds me of the tendency to select a viewpoint and manipu- nor of New York, Betsy McCaughey. Are swine fl u cover of the October 5 New Yorker. late or distort facts to justify that viewpoint we to take pride in an alumna who helped Hugo Beit ’61BUS makes her one of the most unproductive and sink the Clinton health-care bill and thus New York, NY unhelpful participants in the current debate. trapped the public in a health system dete- As a Columbia graduate working at a riorating relentlessly year after year, one CHIMP CHAT health-care nonprofi t, I’m embarrassed by who inspires demagogues and extremists To attempt to teach any organism lan- her shoot-fi rst, ask-questions-later approach by employing fear and deception to attack guage, which is the sole property of to the truth. This has been a banner year the pending bills? I would have thought humans, is a waste of time (“Hanging from for her distortions, starting with her spring she would have the wisdom of “Harry and 2 Columbia Winter 2009—10 2-5 Letters.indd 2 11/27/09 9:11 AM COLUMBIA Louise,” if not to reverse position, at least Fall 2009). I very much enjoyed teaching Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations to acknowledge that the present system is the doctor-patient relationship course Susan K. Feagin ’74GS inadequate and must be reformed. More at the Wake Forest University School of Executive Director of Communications frightening than what she calls “frightening Medicine over the past decade, includ- Offi ce of Alumni and Development scenarios” will be a failure to effect funda- ing the years after my retirement from Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS mental reform. Her devotion to infection active practice. It is such a wonderful Editor in Chief prevention is laudable, but she ought to experience helping and watching students Michael B. Shavelson refrain from infecting the public mind. begin to use their capabilities in ferreting Senior Editor Frederick M. Schweitzer ’72GSAS out the story of a patient’s health history David J. Craig New York, NY in a compassionate way, performing a Senior Writer Frederick M. Schweitzer is professor emer- thoughtful and caring physical examina- Paul Hond itus of history at Manhattan College. tion, and then being able to develop a plan for action based on an intelligent, Staff Writer Cindy Rodríguez I am certain that I join hundreds of others in informed response to the fi ndings. writing to express dismay at your pandering Learning to listen, react, and respond Contributing Editor Eric McHenry article on Betsy McCaughey. Did you need when appropriate and necessary during a to postpone any explicit statements that patient encounter is one of the most criti- Designer Eson Chan McCaughey is perpetuating misinforma- cal faculties the student physician must tion until the next to last paragraph? Would develop and perfect. The lectures and writ- Assistant to the Editor Allegra Panetto ‘09BC any reader benefi t from knowing how much ings of my inspiring teachers at Columbia, money McCaughey donates to the school such as Drs. Dana Atchley, Robert Loeb, Editorial Assistants Deaton Jones, Kylie Rogers, Jay Yencich and its potential impact on such an affi rma- and Yale Kneeland, were wonderful in tive profi le? Would notifying your reader- themselves. For the PS students to be able Mailing Address Columbia Magazine ship of such a tie be in keeping with accepted now to apply that teaching and those prin- Columbia Alumni Center journalistic practices of disclosure? ciples through involvement with patients 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 I am appalled that this article, no mat- early in their medical-education years will New York, NY 10025 Tel. 212-851-4155 ter how slyly written, stands for balance at help enable PS to graduate even better phy- Fax 212-851-1950 your publication. sicians now. [email protected] David Blaustein ’83CC Richard A. Dickey, M.D. ’63PS www.alumni.columbia.edu/magazine New York, NY Hickory, NC Address and Archive Assistance [email protected] 212-851-4155 POETIC LICENSE SIGNIFICANTLY SMALL To update your address online, visit As a neighbor of Queens poet laureate The story in your Science, Medicine, and alumni.columbia.edu/directory or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). Julio Marzán, I question his use of meta- Technology section titled “CO2 Shell phor in the comment, “In Queens, no one Game” (Fall 2009) is interesting on three Associate Director, Advertising is displaced. People, languages, cultures counts. (1) It repeats the common fallacy Taren Cowan just pile up on top of one another” (“Uto- that an increase of a very small number is 212-851-7967 To download our advertising brochure pia Parkway,” Fall 2009). In such a heap, necessarily signifi cant because when stated or submit a classifi ed advertisement those on bottom are apt to experience a as a percentage increase that number seems online, visit www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/ certain amount of discomfort. I hope that’s relatively large. Magazine/about.html. not what Marzán meant to say. For example, for something to go from To help offset the costs of production and Abby Belson ’56BC, ’59GSAS .000001 percent to .000002 percent is a mailing, please send Columbia magazine a donation of $50 or more to the above address. Jamaica, NY 100 percent increase, yet remains almost infi nitesimally small. Columbia magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the FIRST RESPONSE For the CO2 content of our air to go from Offi ce of Alumni and Development. It is good to learn that Columbia College 280 parts per million (ppm) to 385 parts per © 2009 by the Trustees of Columbia University of Physicians and Surgeons will begin million is indeed a 37.5 percent increase— in the City of New York exposing students to patient contacts ear- from .00028 percent to .000385 percent.