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Author Archives: David Walter

3045549519_a3dba04a38Even with the outcome potentially spoiled, CDY on the Amazing Race is just so fascinating to me.

In my pre-Princeton life I followed The Amazing Race as fanatically as some people follow football or baseball or the Academy Awards. I would flip out at the announcement of a new destination (“We’ve never been to Ethiopia before!” I’d exclaim, as if I were actually along for the ride instead of bouncing on a beanbag chair in my basement), bawl at the elimination of my favorite teams, and spend hours poring over game analysis on Reality TV message boards.

It was weird, I know. But when you’re a high schooler looking to use pop culture as the means of escape from your so-called teenage life, you really have to commit to your obsessions. Polite interest in a show or team or band doesn’t really get you anywhere – and me, I wanted to go everywhere, skip out of Delaware and cross the whole world three times over, preferably with a CBS camera crew in tow.

What I’m saying is, given this past obsession, the prospect of any old Princeton student on the show would be compelling to me.  But what makes CDY on the Amazing Race­ especially compelling – like I said, out-and-out fascinating – is that CDY wasn’t just any old student during his time at Princeton. He was one of our private college’s public figures – politically, at least, our big man on campus.

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(Ed. Note: An earlier version of this post had a long meditation on Connor Diemand-Yauman and the popular reality TV show, The Amazing Race, which was a tad long for your weekly round-up. This rambling will be re-formatted and included in a new forthcoming post later today. Fun!)

Top of the agenda: This past weekend your uncle Sam got you drunk and made the sky explode with falling light.  When it was over he handed you a sparkle-stick and it was like the same thing (the sky-falling, not the uncle-drunking) but smaller.  It was pretty, too, but all of a sudden you felt empty and unsure.  You coughed and held the sparkler down away from your face.  What was the point of it all, the trails of light fading to tails of smoke?  What was the use?  And why was everybody around you dressed the same, matching reds and whites and blues?  Seriously ugly color combo, but still – they all looked so happy.  What did those people know that you didn’t?   Your uncle Sam said you just needed another drink.  Fine, you replied, but make sure it’s a real beer and not that awful low-carb stuff. He came back with the goods and you chugged it.  Then you doubled over and booted.

And then someone wrote a poem about it.

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The star in my
Hand is falling

All the uniforms know what’s no use

May I bow to Necessity not
To her hirelings.

  • Congratulations, you’ve just read something by W.S. Merwin ‘48, America’s next poet laureate (and, in case you haven’t get gotten hip to what the ’48 means ‘round these here parts – welcome freshmen! – a Princeton graduate from the Class of 1948).  According to the New York Times, Merwin, whose appointment was announced last week, is “an undisputed master” and enjoys composing his poems on paper napkins.
  • In my home state of Delaware there’s a man who sits in the Wilmington McDonalds and draws Mickey Mouse cartoons on napkin after napkin with a Sharpie.  He’s nice, albeit unlikely to ever hold a ceremonial post in the Obama administration.  I miss Delaware and I miss McDonalds.  Delaware I knew I’d have to leave behind once I went off to college, but McDonalds I figured would always be there.  Guess not. Thanks a lot, Princeton Borough.

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Guess someone took our advice!  CBS’s globe-trotting reality show The Amazing Race kicked off the filming of its 17th season on May 26.  Among the 11 pairs of two vying for the show’s million-dollar prize is Team NassoonFormer Student Body President – and Pyne Prize winner – Connor Diemand-Yauman ‘10 and Fantasticks star Jonathan Schwartz ‘10 (check out our linked interviews with the two Racers).

Filming began in the Boston area on the morning of the 26th.  First came an introductory segment filmed in Gloucester Harbor (Connor and Jonathan are the “Green Team” — you can catch a glimpse of them at around 4:15 in this video).  Then the teams made their way to Logan Airport, where they were photographed by bystanders not affiliated with the show.  Here’s Connor and Jonathan at the airport en route to the first leg in England (more details after the jump):

TeamGreen

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Donald Rumsfeld's former digs

Donald Rumsfeld's former digs

Just in time for Reunions, a heaping dose of Princetoniana in the New York Times.  Ever wonder where Elena Kagan lived while she was a Tiger?  Sonia Sotomayor?  Bill Bradley?

The University doesn’t publicize any of that information, but it’s available in the school’s archives.  Not all famous rooms have lasted into the 21st century, however:

Eager to bed down where James Stewart, the Hollywood legend, snoozed when he was part of Princeton’s class of 1932? Dream on. His freshman-year address at 8 North Reunion was razed, even though John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a future president, also briefly bunked at Reunion…

And don’t bother searching for former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s former home at 423 Brown. It is now a women’s restroom.

Whoa.  That’s the bathroom my high school friend threw up in after eating some bad fish!  At Princeton, history is truly all around us.

photo: Joe Shlabotnik, Flickr

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PRINCETON, N.J. — The run of the train known as the Princeton Dinky is both impressively long and unusually short. For 145 years, this rail link in a college town has ferried students and commuters over the briefest of distances.

But Year 146 has not been kind to the nation’s shortest regularly scheduled commuter route, which travels a four-minute, 2.7-mile stretch of track between a small station at Princeton University and a larger one at Princeton Junction.

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And waited, waited, waited for two hours yesterday to have my chance in front of the producers of this prospective show (if you remember from my previous post, the team is shooting a pilot first).  I brought work, though, so it was fine.

I waited in an upstairs lounge at the Nassau Inn.  While sitting around, I also filled out an application form that included all sorts of nosy prompts.

Describe yourself. “Pet peeves include oily hair.”
Did your parents go to Princeton? “No.”
Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend? “Yes.  Of the pillow variety.  Her name is Dianne.”
Why do you want to be on this show? “I WANNA BE FAMOUS!!!  No, not really.  But maybe a little?”

People got called up one by one for interviews.  Everyone remaining made small talk (”You were curious about this too?”  ”Yup.”  ”How are they gonna film this?  They’ll NEVER get into Eating Clubs.”)  A tall, broad-shouldered, chiseled-jaw type’s interview lasted almost half an hour.  (”They must’ve really liked him.”)

Then it was my turn to go into the conference room and submit to an on-camera interview.

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Sorry for the delay, Inkblots — had some papers bring me down.  Let’s finish this thing up on an expedited schedule, OK?

The third in a five three-part investigative series (no, not that one) about a party that happened this one time.  EVERYTHING YOU READ HERE IS TRUE.

The partygoers grabbed cans of Natural Light beer and circled up for a round of “Thunderstruck”, a game based on AC/DC’s 1990 song of the same name. As heavy metal blasted from Sparkletights’s laptop, the guests took turns downing beer, switching each time lead singer Brian Johnson growled “THUNDERRR”. Flag Girl, a spunky little pre-med, had the misfortune of chugging during an interminable guitar solo. “Yeah!  Come on!  Come on!  I love you!  Keep drinking!  Keep drinking!” roared the crowd as Flag Girl pumped her legs in seeming hopes that shifting her weight would move the beer down quicker.

The second-longest solo fell to a fraternity pledge dressed in a sleeveless undershirt (complete with fake nipple ring) and cargo shorts for a “White Trash” party he planned to attend later that night.  Frat Boy coughed, choked, and grimaced as he tried to force down the pale yellow swill.  “I can’t do it,” he lamented.

The Canadian contingent quickly claimed victory after Frat Boy’s shocking fumble.  But the American delegation refused to concede.

“You can’t spell ‘Canada’ without ‘nada’!,” a young man in a Captain America costume taunted.

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The second in a five part investigative series (no, not that one) about a party that happened this one time.  EVERYTHING YOU READ HERE IS TRUE.

We rejoin our revelers as the Canada vs. US party’s organizer makes a toast…

“Thank you all for coming to my favorite event of the year,” said Sparkletights, who, like the other attendees, wished to keep her real name private (drinking at their age is illegal on this side of Niagara Falls).  She wore shimmering red leggings, a maple leaf wristband, and war paint.

“Let’s make this biennial… bicentennial…” Sparkletights had started drinking before the other dozen guests arrived, and now searched for the right word.  “What’s once a year? …Annual!”

The group then made its way to a tray containing small cups of vodka-spiked Jell-o.   Someone had placed tiny toothpick American and Canadian flags in each cup.

“Potent beverage?” a girl in a red bandanna offered.

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The first in a five part investigative series (no, not that one) about a party that happened this one time.  EVERYTHING YOU READ HERE IS TRUE.

Sparkletights threw down the gauntlet earlier in the week via Facebook:

War of 1812. Hockey. Burning DC down the first time.
vs.
Obesity.  World’s #1 Superpower.

Canada vs. US.  Saturday night.  Pick a side.  Be there.

They came, this multinational group of Princeton University freshmen, to a tiny single-occupancy room in a tiny, unassuming dorm on campus.  They came for fun.  They came for booze.  But mostly, they came for pride.  This was binge drinking with a purpose.

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Photo is staged for dramatic effect.

Last week, the Prince brought you a five part — five part! — series on Greek Life at Princeton.  We were mighty impressed over here at The Ink, and decided to put together an investigative story of our own.

(PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 3 / PART 4 / PART 5)

Like the Prince’s, our story will stretch out across FIVE DAYS (though to be honest, ours could probably have been told in two — but we need posts).  Like the Prince’s, our story will take on a HOT BUTTON ISSUE that exists in the SHADOWS of campus life.  Like the Prince’s, our story will PULL NO PUNCHES.  Truth is our only mistress.

The subject: Parties.  College parties.  Par-tays.  Ragers.   What are they?  Who goes to them?  Are they fun?  Are they lame?  Is there drinking involved?  Does the involved drinking involve alcohol?  And what does it all say about the STATE OF YOUTH TODAY?  Also, Canada.

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jknutsonRISKY BUSINESS: CHARTER PREZ JUSTIN KNUTSON ‘11  LIKES TO MASTICATE UNDER THE MAGNOLIAS

Name: Justin Knutson
Age: 20
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Orting, Washington
Eating Club/Residential College/Affiliation: Charter Club

Who’s your favorite Princetonian, living or dead, real or fictional?
Either Joel Goodson, Tom Cruise’s character from the 1983 film Risky Business or General David Petraeus of the United States Army; I’d like to think my personality falls somewhere in between those two

What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in Princeton?
Formals dinner at Charter, Spring, 2009

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day?
Generally I sleep; nights are another story

What is your greatest guilty pleasure?
80s Music

What’s the last student performance you saw?
John Veras laying down phat beats at Terrace

Do you know all the words to Old Nassau?
Yes

What is your biggest fear?

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2317062349_d6c40c0780Earlier this year, we gave some advice to seniors struggling to find jobs: get yourself on a reality TV show.

But it turns out you don’t even need a diploma to cash in on that Princeton cachet — because the cameras are coming to us!  Yup, Old Nassau might just get its moment in the national reality spotlight.

According to recent notices floating around club listservs this week, a production company plans to hold  a casting session on May 8th at the Nassau Inn for a “campus lifestyle show” that will shoot its pilot at Princeton in September and October.  Princeton students who’ll be at school fall semester (ie freshman, sophomores, and juniors) are eligible to try out.

I asked the production company’s on-campus liaison, Ben Bush ‘10, for some more information.  Bush says he signed a pretty restrictive non-disclosure agreement with the company.  But here’s what he says he can disclose:

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