The Bowdoin Orient

Push-ups may no longer be just for the gym. According to Bowdoin students, Brunswick Police officers have resorted to a variety of penalties, some of them unusual, for disruptive weekend conduct.

Controversy over the ejection of two Bowdoin students from President George W. Bush's recent rally in Bangor continued this week as the story circulated around the Internet and in local press.

Maine's top three Democrats emphasized the importance of the youth vote in interviews with the Orient at the Maine College Democrats of America College Convention. Keynote speaker Governor John Baldacci spoke in Moulton Union on Saturday to a packed house.

For many of the ten children who stepped off the bus and gazed up at the ornate College buildings, it was the first time they had ever been outside of Maryland. This was their first major introduction to higher education?and perhaps a beginning of a long journey within it.

The Inaugural Convention of the Maine Chapter of the College Democrats of America was deemed a success by Bowdoin Democrats and visiting delegates.

Gone are the days when students headed off to college can pack their belongings in a single trunk and ride to school in the family station wagon. Now, Bowdoin students spend thousands of dollars on brand-new goods.

Bowdoin Student Government saw four tight races in its Fall election, which ended Wednesday. The newly-elected senior class president, junior class president, first-year class president, and sophomore class treasurer, won by less than ten votes.

Two Bowdoin students were ejected from President Bush's campaign appearance in Bangor yesterday on suspicion that they planned to protest inside the event. Another Bowdoin student, who worked at the event, was involved in the removal.

Last week we expressed our concern over the sorry state of political discourse on this campus, particularly between both the College Democrat and College Republican organizations. Evidently our suggestion for a more meaningful debate that goes beyond senseless squabbling was not heard by the Republican protesters during the Maine State College Democrats Convention.

Realizing that Bush's policies have been nothing short of disastrous at home and abroad, Republicans have skillfully centered their campaign around attempts to paint Kerry as an indecisive leader unfit to deal with the numerous crises facing the nation.

The thought of Parents Weekend has been looming over my head for weeks. Here's a preview of what introductions are going to be like for me: I'll turn to my roommates and say, "I'd like you to meet my family. This is my mom, my dad, my step-mom, my step-dad, my brother, my half-brother, and my half-sister." Your family might take even longer.

Columbia University historian Jacques Barzun once said, "Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." These words are undeniably true, so it is critical that we elect a president in November who understands baseball, and, in turn, America. Very few people understand baseball more than Red Sox fans, which would make a Red Sox fan a great President.

Readers are undoubtedly familiar with the most egregious mistakes of the Bush administration, so I will not concentrate on providing a laundry list of missteps. Rather, I think it is important to explain Kerry's sweeping vision of a hopeful future for America's young people.

Campaigns have grown to the point where they pander to TV news formatting, speaking in one-line sound bites and engaging in outrageous attacks to attract attention. To some extent, the biggest challenge is to gain the maximum quantity of exposure, whether it is positive or negative.

In regard to "President Rallies Fans," it surprises me that the Orient, a campus newspaper consumed primarily by college students, made no mention of the 200 volunteers, all college students and members of the College Republicans, who spent their entire day in Bangor making sure the event ran smoothly.

Last week I saw President Bush speak in Bangor. I left the public rally disheartened with the divisive state of American politics. It all began when I went to pick up my ticket at the Maine Republican Party headquarters in Augusta.

I am writing this just minutes after I ran into what might be the most pointless display of passion and fervor I have ever witnessed in my time at Bowdoin, excepting perhaps the toothless anti-war petition we all signed in 2003 and the "nonviolence vigil" that occurs every Friday downtown.

Whatever Dave Noland's reasons for writing his opinion article in last week's Orient, "Caricature of Bowdoin Students Vast and Varied," they had nothing to do with either empathy or understanding.

Here at the Outing Club, we pride ourselves on our unfailing senses of direction. Like the drug-sniffing dogs at the airport, we can sense North in fog, blindfolded, even while asleep. However, since we are only human, occasionally the inconceivable happens and we get very, very lost.

Dear Dr. Jeff: "I am a student at Bowdoin who is almost at my wits' end about my studies. I am not doing as well as I would like to, and only wish that I knew someone with Ritalin or Adderall. A solitary pill when I need to study is hardly likely to be an overdose.

Bowdoin's Third Annual Energy Conservation Dorm Competition starts today! "Phenomenal prizes," to be unveiled in mid-October, will be awarded to dorms and social houses that conserve the most energy during the month-long competition.

Twelve Bowdoin students signed on with architect Alan Holt last Saturday to facilitate a day of collaborative planning and design for the civic center in the town of Ogunquit. Open to year-round community members, the event drew an outspoken crowd of 60 citizens whose dispositions ranged from enthused to enraged.

Dear Dr. Jeff: What's the difference between alcohol poisoning and just being real drunk? R.S.

Parents Weekend is upon us, and what better way to interact with your visiting folks than through wine? No, I don't mean you should go out and try to get your parents drunk; that would just be wrong. Sitting down with your parents and sharing a bottle of wine either with dinner or before, however, is a good way to spend some time with them.

It goes without saying that nothing Green Day did subsequently could ever match Dookie. The year 1994 was the three-chord wonders' moment. Not only was Dookie the album that finally broke punk into the mainstream, but it also carried the 90s' second-most iconic cover after Nevermind's naked swimming child, and it was quite possibly the best release the genre has ever seen. Similarly, Green Day's music will never again touch the mainstream cultural consciousness the way their atypical acoustic ballad "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" from 1997 did; after all, Seinfeld isn't around anymore, except in reruns.

It may have started back in our wild days of high school, but ever since it became cool, a certain crop of insubordinate post-teens have loved to say they hate Titanic. This isn't just another lewd teenage annoyance, like Barney and pogs. At its worst, it's a vicious, vilely anti-conformist movie loathing. Lady Leo lovers beware. These guys are still out there, still raging, still jealous of DiCaprio's ability to steam up a car.

Maria Full of Grace, Joshua Marston's new film starring the revelatory Catalina Sandino Moreno, is a film that takes great pleasure in silence, for it knows the understanding that comes with silence is far greater than what words can express. This Sundance Film Festival hit has the authenticity of a documentary, which, combined with Moreno's phenomenal performance, carries the viewer further than one would think possible.

Eating nothing but McDonalds for a month straight might seem like a dream come true for some, but when Morgan Spurlock concocts his own Golden Arches meal plan, the consequences are nightmarish. Spurlock's shocking?and sometimes disgusting?descent into liver disease and heart trouble serves as a caustic critique of the fast food industry, which, he argues, is a chief cause of the American obesity epidemic. Don't miss this "Michael Moore lite" muckraking documentary; you just might swear off of Big Macs forever.

One fine day a few years back, director Kerry Conran had a vision, and most everything in it was fake. Fake sets, fake monsters, fake airplanes?real weird. So he got his crew together, busted out the blue screen, filmed for a measly 26 days and let the computer do the dirty work. And out came Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

SC: The characters in the play are all based on various people I've met in my life, but also are very rooted in who I am as a person. I was interested in exploring what happens to people who, in some ways, have their horizons limited by various problems, both personal and social. For this reason, the characters speak poetically, in a heightened language we do not associate with these types of people. To borrow a line from Charles Mee, I've written characters that "sound right to me."

The Bowdoin Women's Soccer Team split two games this past week against tough NESCAC foes. In a very close match, the Polar Bears fell to Williams 2-1 on Saturday, but turned the tables around on Bates Tuesday in their 3-1 victory. The team improved their overall record after the matches to 4-2.

The warm sun shone down on the rolling hills of Colby this past Saturday, where the Bowdoin women's cross country team battled a tough course of hilly terrain in their first meet against Colby and Wesleyan. The Bowdoin women finished third with a score of 61, behind Wesleyan, in second with 42, and Colby, winning with a team score of 28.

I've got a lot to talk about this week, and I don't know if I can fit all of it in. So, as my roommate Adam Goodfellow would say, "I'll spare you my excess verbiage. Let's cut to the chase." Here are a few thoughts coming out of Week Three:

It's a common sight in professional sports today. After a routine play, a player will begin to celebrate wildly. In baseball, home run celebrations are commonplace. Many players have signature moves, such as the Bret Boone bat flip, the Sammy Sosa hop, or the now-defunct Barry Bonds spin. Soccer players take off their shirts, run around, and do all sorts of crazy things.