IRIS login | Reed College home Volume 92, No. 1: March 2013
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Skeletons and Syphilis
Many years ago, when I was a psych major hunting for a thesis topic, I ran across a slender volume in the Reed library. It concerned an obscure neurological disorder known as general paralysis, quite common in the late nineteenth century, particularly among old mariners. The disease typically began with delusions of grandeur; as it progressed, sufferers were afflicted by a peculiar stammer, and they started to walk funny. Ultimately they lapsed into paralysis, dementia, and death.
Interesting stuff, but not really what I was looking for, so I shelved the book, promptly forgetting its title and author. One thing I did remember was the surprising conclusion that the disease had nothing to do with salt water or sea biscuit. It was, in fact, late-stage neurosyphilis, presumably acquired in dockside brothels.
Continue reading Skeletons and Syphilis
Run for the Hills
The day was muggy, the course hilly, the start time early at 8 a.m., but none of this deterred some 300 Reedies and their neighbors from tackling the challenging 5K loop around Reed's campus on Saturday morning, September 24.
At first glance, there's something incongruous about having the inaugural Reed College 5K Odyssey kick off the centennial community day celebration. Reed and athletics are hardly synonymous, after all. Yet one needn't dig too deep into the college's history to find that, despite the purposeful absence of varsity athletics, Reedies have always cherished the healthful diversion and stress relief of sporting pursuits. There was palpable energy among the the participants--many clad in our commemorative race shirts--as we waited for the race to start.
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100 Years!
Reed celebrated one hundred years this weekend with a gargantuan party, complete with dancers, drummers, jugglers, mad scientists, and a massive chorus reciting lines from the Iliad in Greek.
"If Portland is a great city, it owes a great debt to Reed, and I'm here to say, 'Thank you,'" declared Portland mayor Sam Adams before a raucous crowd of students, professors, staff, and alumni beneath a massive tent on the Great Lawn. "We need the spirit and the mission of Reed now more than ever--not just in Portland, but across the state and across the nation. You have made the world a better place."
Continue reading 100 Years!
Win A Bumper Sticker
Fall is here, and the September issue of Reed is out at last, chock full of irresistible features from the epic 80s-vs-the-world rugby match to the notorious burial of the MG under the library.
What do you think of the magazine? Does it feel authentic? Does it speak to you as a graduate? As an intellectual omnivore?
We want to know. Please take advantage of our new website to add your comments. Even better, take a few moments to do our survey-- you could win a free bumper sticker. After all, what better way to celebrate autumn than bedecking your vehicle with tribal insignia?
Continue reading Win A Bumper Sticker
"The Last Great Conservative College"
An article in the latest edition of Portland Monthly describes Reed as "America's Last Great Conservative College." And yes, the author is a Reedie.
Citing Reed's demanding requirements and classical curriculum, history major Ethan Epstein '10 makes a persuasive case that most Portland residents are looking at Reed through the wrong end of the microscope.
"As a Reedie, I long ago accepted that most Portlanders consider my alma mater a hybrid of Haight-Ashbury and Keith Richards's medicine cabinet," he writes.
Continue reading "The Last Great Conservative College"
Deal Faster, Cried the Losers
By Brandon Hamilton '11
No one likes to lose, and when the cost of defeat is an entire year's worth of timê, the stakes are high.
Continuing a long tradition, classmates sat down at the poker table in the Capehart room at Centennial Reunions to indulge in a little exercise in combinatorics.
Continue reading Deal Faster, Cried the Losers
Making Waves: Alumni Generate Mini Tsunami
Never underestimate the power of Reedies. At a Centennial Reunions class on Thursday, June 9, I learned firsthand that all we need to create a tidal wave in our very own sports center swimming pool is two dozen Reedies and a leader with an understanding of classical physics.
Okay, perhaps "tidal" is a bit of an exaggeration of the wave's size. But it's no overstatement to say that we managed to slosh water out of both ends of the pool by doing nothing more than hopping in and out of the shallow end at the direction of Brad Wright '61. Brad gave an explanation of the physics of wave-making before the experiment began (here is an extended version of the video above, complete with full scientific explanation). I confess that between the poor acoustics of the pool deck and the anticipation of jumping in the water, most of the science to passed me by. I can tell you that coordination of the physics of the event required someone to stand at the pool's edge swinging the so-called Pendulum of Destiny, a group of four rubber duckies with a golf balls attached to their bases floating in the middle of the pool, and our willingness to hop in when the wave was at its highest point only to hop back out each time it ebbed to its lowest.
Continue reading Making Waves: Alumni Generate Mini Tsunami
Rugby: Eighties vs. The World!
Brandon Hamilton '11
It's an ancient debate--are youth and speed a match for age and guile? At Centennial Reunions, Reedies traded eye goggles for mouth guards and lab coats for cleats to settle the question on the pitch as alumni from the eighties (the "First Fifteen") faced off against younger grads for a little post-thesis physics experiment.
Continue reading Rugby: Eighties vs. The World!
At the Helm: Bragdon, Koblik, Diver
By Ethan Knudson '11
Reed presidents past and present Paul Bragdon [1971-88], Steve Koblik [1992-2001], and Colin Diver [2002-] held a panel at Centennial Reunions to discuss how they surmounted immense challenges to preserve Reed College amidst financial and national turmoil (video).
Continue reading At the Helm: Bragdon, Koblik, Diver
A Song of Two Syllabi with Prof. Wally Englert
The first lines of Homer's Iliad reverberated to the carved rafters of the chapel on Friday as Reedies of all generations were reunited in the shared experience of reliving their first Hum lecture during Centennial Reunions. However, there was a twist. On the back of the lecture handout (distributed by a beaming President Colin Diver, who marched up and down the aisles brandishing copies) was a timeline that began, not in Greece, but in Egypt. And the Homeric epic of choice for the semester was not the tale of Achilleus and his anger, but that of Odysseus and his quest to return home. As professor Wally Englert [classics 1981-] explained, the Hum syllabus has undergone some significant changes in the past year...
"We used to say 'The Greeks were strange,'" Englert noted, while discussing the inclusion of new material from other Mediterranean cultures on the reading list, "But I'm going to do something a little radical here and say: Ancient cultures were strange."
Continue reading A Song of Two Syllabi with Prof. Wally Englert
Olde Reed: Was It Better?
It's a cry familiar to freshmen from every decade of Reed's existence: "You're doing what? Hah! Back at Olde Reed..."
Yes, it's Olde Reed! That elusive golden age in which classes were harder, Renn Fayres were crazier, laurels were shinier, and hijinks were, er, jinkier. Olde Reed was always dead by your freshman year, unless you are telling the story, in which case it was dead by your listeners' freshman year. It was epic, it was extraordinary, and it was, in whatever indescribable fashion, better.
Continue reading Olde Reed: Was It Better?
From Prometheus to Pork Shoulder
Steven Raichlen '75 knows more about barbeque than Prometheus knew about fire. His stat sheet includes 26 books, five James Beard Awards, three IACP awards, a PBS-TV series, his own line of grilling tools, the founding of Barbeque University, a beat-down of Bobby Flay in a barbeque cook-off, a BA in French literature from Reed, and his liver has never been eaten by a raptor. Not to gloat, but another advantage over Prometheus.
"I'm not a chef," Raichlen told alumni celebrating Centennial Reunions this week. "Food, for me, has always been a window into culture."
Continue reading From Prometheus to Pork Shoulder
Reed Activists Stage "Sit-Down"
By Brandon Hamilton '11
Several generations of activists assembled in the Chapel to trade insights, strategies, and stories as a part of Social Justice 101, one of more than 200 events being held this week to celebrate Centennial Reunions.
Speakers ranged from Peter Bergel '65, executive director of Oregon PeaceWorks, whose self-styled "graduate education" took the form of years of living in a commune, to professor Kristi Hansen '96, an agricultural economist who teaches at the University of Wyoming.
Continue reading Reed Activists Stage "Sit-Down"
New Mathematical Model for HIV
By Ethan Knudson '11
Uganda 1993: Sociologist and statistician Martina Morris '80 had just presented her sophisticated mathematical model on the spread of HIV to a conference attended by African elders.
In the back, a man raised his hand and asked, "Can your models account for having more than one partner at a time?"
When Morris admitted they didn't, the man walked out.
Continue reading New Mathematical Model for HIV
Get Your Kicks at Reunions
Yes, there's still time.
Register for our spectacular Centennial Reunions, June 6-12. And check out a sampling of the incredible delights that await you. Rugby. Dance. Basketry. Majuscules. A HOT-AIR BALLOON. Gary Snyder '51. Eggdog. (No, not eggnog. Eggdog.) Tikkler. Davis Rogan '90 and the Allstar New Orleans Rhythm & Blues Revue. FERRIS WHEEL. Stand-up economics. Gilbert & Sullivan. Fireworks!
For more about Reunions, especially the amazing art that will be be everywhere on campus, see more on our sister blog, the Riffin' Griffin.
Continue reading Get Your Kicks at Reunions
Was James Beard really a Reedie?
The latest James Beard Awards have just been announced, and it's nice to see that Mark Bitterman '95 won in the scholarship category for his book about salt.
The Beard awards typically prompt a flurry of interest in the epic gastronome himself. Last year, I was absently grazing on canapés at a gala function in Old Town when, somewhere in between the niçoise olives and the goat cheese, I got embroiled in a conversation about him.
Continue reading Was James Beard really a Reedie?
Let the parade begin!
There was much jubilation and noise: Friday was thesis parade.
Congratulations to everyone completed a thesis this year. Wear your laurels with pride.
Continue reading Let the parade begin!
Poop Scoop
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
On April 27 Sasha Kramer '99 returned to campus to give a talk on ecological sanitation-- the science of turning human waste (yes, we do mean poop!) into safe and sanitary fertilizer.
Continue reading Poop Scoop
Calligraphy Leaps off the Page
The greatly anticipated exhibition, Lloyd Reynolds: A Life of Forms in Art, has begun its run in the Cooley Art Gallery. Just hours after it opened, Robin Tovey '97 and I convened at the Hauser Library and headed to the gallery. An arresting exhibition poster hangs just outside, featuring an enlargement of Lloyd's piece "Calligraphy for People." It's a powerful piece--the words connect to one another through serpentine pen strokes--and aptly chosen. Lloyd, who was passionate about teaching, made this "beautiful writing" accessible to people in all walks of life, just as he made calligraphy at Reed prestigious worldwide...
The glass gallery doors carry a stenciled image of Thor's thunderbolt and Poseidon's trident, one of Lloyd's symbols that is featured in the show. Inside, we found outreach coordinator Greg MacNaughton '89, and curator Stephanie Snyder '91, along with gallery registrar Colleen Gotze, were busily putting the finishing touches on signage.
Continue reading Calligraphy Leaps off the Page
Clamoring for Elyse Fenton '03
It was standing-room only in the psychology auditorium when poet Elyse Fenton '03 read from her award-winning collection, Clamor, on Thursday night. OK, nobody was actually standing: late arrivals sat on the floor or reclined against the wall, situational discomforts that paled in comparison to the striking corporeality of the poems we heard.
Professor Lisa Steinman, Elyse's thesis adviser, praised her aptitude for "making things that are lost or imagined real" in a warm introduction. Steinman noted with pleasure that Elyse's Reed experience is evident in her work as much through references to Orpheus and Dante as through a distinctive "physicality of language" honed by a rugby player...
Continue reading Clamoring for Elyse Fenton '03
- The Turning of the Thesis
- Looking back, thinking ahead, loving Reed
- Davis Winner Hatches Scholarship Plan
- Celebrating “4/20” At Reed
- The Perfect Dinner
- Occupying Wall St--From the Inside Out
- Farewell Professor Rhyne
- Reedies Hold Union on Student Autonomy
- Memorial for Professor Emeritus Steve Arch
- Watson Winner Will Go to Africa
- RIP Professor Steve Arch
- March Madness at Reed—Yes, Reed
- How Do We Define Reed in the 21st Century?
- Educating Women Steadies the World
- Lena's Paintings on Display
- Memorial for Ottomar
- Beyond Paideia
- March Gets RAW
- Reed Takes to the Road in Seattle
- Paideia Pandemonium
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