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July/August 2008
Volume 71, Number 6

Credits, from top: The Frick Collection New York, Gregory Nemec, Julie Brown.

Feature stories:

Who Wrote the Serenity Prayer?
by Fred R. Shapiro
It’s the best-known prayer of modern times: “Give us serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed…” It has long been attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr ’14BDiv, ’15MA. Now, new evidence points to deeper roots.

It Takes a Master to Make a Masterpiece
by Elisabeth Sifton
Niebuhr’s daughter responds.

Old Hat
by Angus Trumble
Why do academics wear such preposterous ceremonial hats? An art historian explains the evolution of your mortarboard. (Diagram included.)

What They Do on Their Summer Vacations
As Yale seeks to go global, administrators are urging every single undergrad to spend time abroad. We survey the results, and four undergraduate writers share their summer experiences.

Commencement 2008
It was a mini-British invasion: Tony Blair gave the Class Day address and Sir Paul McCartney got an honorary degree. Meanwhile, President Levin reflected on “life on a small planet” in his baccalaureate address.

from the editor

letters
Both sides on Buckley; better capitalism; who gets blamed for excess Prozac?

light & verity
+ Yale College to expand enrollment by 15 percent
+ Governors sign on to climate statement
+ Brits claim another Yale provost
+ Updates
+ Quoted
+ Naughty Latin 101
+ Yale online book project hits setback
+ Webwatching
+ Yale engineering gets a promotion
+ Campus Clips

milestones
+ Brain researcher shares million-dollar prize
+ More news of Yale people

where they are now
A year and a half later, a U.S. Attorney reflects on her firing.

notebook
Brek-ek-ek-ex… say what?

scene on campus
Robots to the finish line.

old yale
What do the Olympics and the Erector set have in common?

forum
Note to professors: teach, don’t preach.

findings
+ How cancer spreads
+ A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
+ Don’t smoke, don’t drink. Do eat chocolate.
+ What makes a fruit fly sing
+ The daughter effect
+ Noted
+ The geometry of music

arts & culture
+ Object Lesson: Irrational exuberance in the 1700s
+ The Naked Brothers Band.
+ Fred Shapiro on famous quotes
+ Photographer David Ottenstein ’82
+ Calendar
+ Better-than-beach reads
+ Books by Yale authors

sporting life
+ The spring sports roundup
+ Olympic Blues
+ The 143rd Yale-Harvard Regatta

news from alumni house
New ways to be of service.

school notes
News about your Yale school.

deaths

last look
Word on the street.

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