We report, you decide
When I read “Fair and Balanced” [the excerpt from Murdoch’s World by David Folkenflik ’91, January/February 2014], I was reminded of an observation made recently by a friend of mine. He said that if your news source continually claims to be “fair and balanced,” it isn’t.
Slide Step
I think it’s great that Architecture, Art, and Planning has extensive activities in New York City (“Urban Outfit,” January/February 2014). But it might also be productive if AAP involved itself with one of New York’s medium-size upstate cities, e.g., Syracuse or Rochester, or possibly have a regional focus on the Albany–Buffalo corridor. Over the past half century or so, Upstate New York’s economy has lagged behind that of the U.S. overall. Focusing on reversing this slide could be both intellectually and economically rewarding.
Cover Shot
Re: January/February 2014. Couldn’t your photo editor have gotten a current picture of New York City looking south, which would show, off to the right of the Empire State Building, the proud One World Trade Center at its full height?
Ed. Note: Ah, if only we had a photo editor.
Green & Clean
If anyone wonders why so many of us refuse to donate to our alma mater, look no further than faculty votes. For an institution devoted—it claims—to the diversity of ideas and to knowledge, Cornell has a faculty that is decidedly uninformed about divesting from companies holding large reserves of fossil fuels (see From the Hill, page 10). Â
After four hours of lecture in Japan, I asked where the electricity for the region’s electrical cars came from. All of a sudden, no one spoke English. Our delegation let the question hang until a small voice answered, “From coal.” Even an engineering dropout like me can tell you that converting coal to electricity and then calling the car “clean” doesn’t make it so.
I am a green—I don’t even allow people in my kitchen if they won’t compost. But fossil fuel companies are the major funders of clean energy research. Duh.
Scarf Search
I’m looking for help in solving the Campion “Ivy League Scarf” mystery. Those who have been to Dartmouth’s hometown—Hanover, New Hampshire—might remember the Campion store on South Main Street, across from the campus. In 1949, the store’s proprietor, James “Big Jim” Campion, had a silk scarf made, to sell at the store, showing classic Dartmouth scenes surrounded by the words to a college song. It was a huge success—so much so that Mr. Campion decided to have scarves designed for the other Ivy schools (although this was seven years before the official formation of the Ivy League). These scarves, in the same design, show scenes of that particular college, surrounded by the words of a school song. They are fabulous.
So far, I have found Campion’s Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale scarves, which I now own. I discovered the Penn version in their archives this past January. I have researchers looking in the archives of Columbia and Harvard for those scarves. But we came up empty in the Cornell archives. I have seen the Cornell scarf online once, so I know it exists.
I am reaching out to the Cornell community to help me find this Campion Cornell “Ivy League Scarf.” Any leads would be extremely helpful; please write to me at bobofeen@yahoo.com.