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November/December 2005
Volume 69, Number 2

Feature stories:

Half Full and Half Empty
by Steve Olson ’78
Alcohol is a glorious student tradition: the life of the party and the maker of hilarious memories. But for some students, it is a killer. Steve Olson—who has seen it in both guises—explores the latest thinking on what makes alcohol deadly for some people, and what can be done to help them.

Aural History
by Anne Midgette ’86
Want to hear the greatest diva of the late 1800s sing an aria in her home? A soprano, coached by Wagner, performing Isolde? Or Duke Ellington in a test pressing of “Bouncing Buoyancy”? At Yale’s collection of early vocal recordings, history doesn’t just come alive. It sings.

Comfort Food
by Cathy Shufro
For 30 years, Claire’s Corner Copia has nourished town and gown with big portions, too much butter, and love.

First-Year Students

New Arrivals
by Alejandra O’Leary ’04
Photographs ©Mark Ostow
As the semester began, we talked with first-year students about what brought them to Yale, and first impressions.

Friendship and Individuality
by Richard Levin ’74PhD
Painters Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne learned from each other in order to go their own ways—a useful lesson, says President Levin in the 2005 Freshman Address.

from the editor

letters
Parent management training, pro and con; Sterling Library memories.

light & verity
+  New Orleans students find a home at Yale
+  a commitment to make the university greener
+  an anarchist professor says he was fired unfairly

milestones
Serge Lang, math professor and tilter at windmills, dies at 78.

scene on campus
A torosaurus comes to stay.

q&a: rick levin
It makes the world go round.

forum
The great motherhood debate.

findings
A license to shop; of mice and moths; how the zebra lost its stripes; solving a Mayan mystery.

arts & culture
Our young man in Afghanistan.

sporting life
Potential in the pool; a bad start for the gridiron Bulldogs.

old yale
How Yale launched the oil economy.

where they are now
An alum who left the television business to follow his bliss: pickle making.

news from alumni house
The president’s passage to India.

deaths

last look

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