David Kaufmann Reviews Poetry and More for Tablet Magazine

David Kaufmann is writing about poetry and other literary topics at Tablet Magazine. He teaches at George Mason University in Virginia. His latest essay is about poet Karen Wieser.

Bob Bradley Coaches U.S. Soccer Team at World Cup

Yesterday England (OK, it was a tie), tomorrow the world? Classmate Bob Bradley is shooting for the top as the coach of the U.S. Team in the World Cup being placed in South Africa. Everybody's covering Bob and his team; for a sampling, try ESPN and Wikipedia for profiles and the official U.S. Soccer website.

Peter Elkind '80 Writes Big Book on Eliot Spitzer '81

Peter Elkind's new book, Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, is getting widespread reviews. The book is published by Penguin USA, which says on its website that the book:

gets at all sides of this complex man: the well-intentioned do-gooder, the aggressive lawyer, the hardball politician, the dutiful son, the loving husband and father, and the secretive "Client 9" of the Emperor's Club escort service.

Elkind interviewed dozens of key sources ranging from Spitzer's family, friends, and closest aides, to targets of his high-profile investigations, to central players in the prostitution ring. He reveals many groundbreaking new details about Spitzer's rise, his short time as governor, and the way his enemies plotted against him.

A sampling of major reviews includes:

New York Times

Washington Post

Newsweek (an interesting approach to look at the book, including grades for prose and ideas on "hidden agendas)

PAW Article Features Henri Ford '80 and His Brothers on Haiti Medical Work

The April 28 issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly ran an article about the three Ford brothers, all doctors, who returned to their native Haiti after the earthquake to provide medical services. The article says,

Henri was not the only Ford family doctor to go to Haiti on a volunteer medical mission. His brothers Billy ’83, an anesthesiologist at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y.; and Jean, a 1978 Columbia University graduate and pulmonary specialist at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, arrived a few days later. They came under the auspices of Medishare, a nonprofit with a longstanding interest in Haitian medical relief.

Arlen Kassof Hastings Takes Runner-Up Place in PAW Wordplay Contest

Word whiz Arlen Kassof Hastings '80 took a runner-up prize on the Princeton Alumni Weekly's constrained writing wordplay contest. An article about the contest and the winners appeared in the April 7 PAW, here. Inspired by an freshman seminar on wordplay, the contest draw this entry from Arlen called "Alphabetical Soup":

Appetizing broth, cooking delectably, emanating flavor, greets her in Jespersen’s kitchen. Letters made neatly of pasta quickly revitalize Sara, the unhappy vegetarian whose xeric yam ziti a belligerent carnivore didn’t eat, favoring goose.

Having inauspiciously jeopardized Kevin’s (lately mentioned nasty omnivore’s) palate, quiet, remorseful Sara took up violent wailing. “Xantippe! Yucky ziti!” angrily barked churlish diner, eying foie gras. “How I jubilantly kill living meat! Nothing outdoes poached quail. Rabbit stew tastes unbelievable. Venison’s wonderful. Xiphias — yum! Zebra’s absolutely breathtaking. Cat’s delicious, especially fried.”

Greatly horrified, inexpressibly jolted kitten lover moderates nonetheless: “Ooh, poor queasy rascal.” She then uses Vedic wisdom. “Xylophones! Yahweh’s zithers!” Accompanying Brahmin choir, dinner eating forgotten, go harmoniously, invoking joyful karma, latterly mortal nemeses. One particularly quixotic religious song tells us verily why xanthism — yellowish zoological aberration — begets color, dyeing egrets’ feathers. “Gosh!” humbly intones jittery Kevin, liking music. “Now obnoxiously plucking quills really seems terrible.”

Ultimately, vegetarianism wins. Xenogogue yells, “Zounds!”

When not doing crossword puzzles and playing with words, Arlen works on fostering science in developing countries as the executive director of the Science Initiative Group at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Dr. Henri Ford Returns to Haiti to Provide Medical Services

Dr. Henri Ford, Vice-President and Surgeon-in-Chief of Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, returned to his native Haiti last month following the earthquake. His humanitarian activities have garnered several media mentions, including ABC News, National Public Radio and Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times.

The photo at right shows Henri, left, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta prior to operating on a 12 year old with piece of brick impaled in her skull.

Steve Strogatz Starts Online Math Column for the NY Times

Classmate Steve Strogatz is contributing a weekly online column on math issues to the New York Times. The Times profile of Steve says:

A professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University, in 2007, he received the Communications Award, a lifetime achievement award for the communication of mathematics to the general public. He previously taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received the E.M. Baker Award, an institute-wide teaching prize selected solely by students. “Chaos,” his series of 24 lectures on chaos theory, was filmed and produced in 2008 by The Teaching Company. He is the author, most recently, of “The Calculus of Friendship,” the story of his 30-year correspondence with his high school calculus teacher. He writes a series on math, from the basic to the baffling.

His January 31 column, "From Fish to Infinity," attracted over 500 reader comments.