The Bowdoin Orient

If you've ever had classes in Sills, you may have taken a closer look at the wall next to Smith Auditorium. There, in two rows, hang 17 plaques, announcing the titles of films that won annual awards like Best Picture and Best Documentary from the 70s to the early 90s. But these were not Hollywood productions; they were student films.

Four out of the six missing banners for the Asian Week events have been returned since their disappearance earlier this month.

Discarded smoldering material was the likely cause of a basement fire in Rhodes Hall Saturday night.

Bowdoin students will go to the polls next week to elect a slate of Student Government officers for the 2005-2006 school year. The election will be held Wednesday and Thursday and students will vote online.

Betty Trout-Kelly's upcoming departure from the College means the campus is losing a trusted leader and friend. Now College officials face the challenge of finding a replacement to fill a revamped position of adviser to the President on issues of diversity and equity.

The last vacant lot on downtown Brunswick's Maine Street may soon be put to better use. Development possibilities for the land?located by the train tracks next to the Hannaford supermarket?may include some combination of a train station, retail shops, residential units, parking, and entertainment facilities.

The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Bowdoin College will meet today.

There are several serious problems in the way BSG's current leadership approaches the concept of an election, including its refusal to release the numerical results of the election, and current President Hal Douglas '05's view of this paper's recent endorsement as "inappropriate."

There are some facts of life that scientists simply can't explain, such as the half-life of the proton or the shelf-life of a Twinkie. Perhaps the most perplexing of all natural phenomena is the one-body problem: loneliness. I don't have the answer for why people get lonely; I'm just good at noticing when they do and making fun of them for it. What follows is a day in the life in the overcast shadow of Loneliness based on true events, events that happen every day in my head, and things I've read on the side of a cereal box.

After Democrats successfully blocked several of Bush's most brazenly partisan first-term judicial nominations, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other conservative senators seem perilously close to doing away with one of the oldest and most puzzling senate traditions: the filibuster. Although Senate Republicans cannot merely pass a rule banning filibusters?as it would surely be blocked by a filibuster?Frist plans to seek a ruling from the Senate's presiding officer on whether or not filibusters are constitutional. Considering the fact that the ruling officer is Vice President Cheney, we can make a good guess as to what that ruling will be.

Professor Patrick Rael's op-ed in last week's Orient offers a sobering rebuttal to the mischaracterization of bin Laden and the sources of his hatred for the U.S. Though raising important points in his attempt to provide a more coherent framework for understanding bin Laden's terrorist campaign, Rael does not properly account for the Islamic fundamentalists' animus toward the U.S. by overlooking key factors that, aside from U.S. policy, contribute to their hostility. While I too disagree with the simplistic assertion that Al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. because they "hate freedom," there are profound sources of hatred that Rael ignores to which I would like to draw attention.

The recent Bowdoin Student Life Survey asked students this question: "Do you identify as heterosexual?" The answers may surprise you. The results are in: 91.3 percent of students identify as heterosexual, leaving a sizeable 8.64 percent of students non-heterosexual. This is a significant increase from last year's survey, which found 6.5 percent of students identifying as non-straight. Although the slight change in terminology ("straight" to "heterosexual") may have affected the results, the findings still prove intriguing.

Wednesday night was Bowdoin's first Speak Out. It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life and I want to thank the Brunswick and Bowdoin community including students and staff for being so courageous in sharing your stories and the stories of those who are close to you.

Using Bremer's talk as a springboard to launch his attack on students and professors, Ben Peisch (April 15, "The failure of lecturing the lecturer") argued that Bowdoin is plagued by students who question authority figures when they should listen to them, and by professors who encourage this behavior.

I ran for Vice President of Facilities in this past election. Alex Cornell du Houx '06, a member of the BSG, sent out an e-mail on behalf of my opponent. This email endorsed his candidacy and smeared my campaign. The email was sent out to people who my opponent didn't know. This is a clear violation of election rules.

Congratulations to the Bowdoin College Republicans on being voted College Republican Chapter of the Year! Your "campus activism" is certainly notable and deserves recognition. Your speakers are indeed well-known and controversial. However, I pose you one question: can you define yourselves, your actions, and your award without generalizing and altogether belittling "the Left," as Alex Linhart '06, Dan Schuberth '06, and Chris Averill '06 so eloquently did in their most recent letters to the Orient?

Despite relative progress in the nation's education system, school arts programs, on the whole, have recently been left neglected. Bowdoin sophomore Brandon Bouchard decided to confront this issue in his hometown of Caribou, Maine by organizing a committee called the Caribou High School Music Building Fund, a group with high goals and the energy and ability to achieve them.

With sunshine abounding, the weather hitting the 70s this past week, and the school year in its final weeks, most students have shifted their focus toward the summer. A small number of service-minded students, however, are still thinking about their spring breaks, unable and unwilling to forget their experiences.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I found a lump "down there" when I took a shower yesterday. How common is testicular cancer among college students? B.K. Dear B.K.: "Lumps down there" are fairly common and most often not dangerous. Testicular cancer is not terribly common, but it IS the most common cancer affecting men between the ages of 15 and 40. Most importantly, testicular cancer is very likely to be cured if it's discovered early and treated early.

When I waltzed into the Schwartz on Wednesday night?late as always?the cavalcade of stimuli nearly overwhelmed my senses in the greatest way. The heat of the day had dissipated, but inside it felt like a swanky New York restaurant.

Students may think that full knowledge of the Bowdoin social scene comes just by living within the realm of the "Bubble," but the results from the "Bowdoin Student Life Survey" just released by the Gender and Women's Studies Department might leave even the most astute social butterfly surprised.

What would you do if you or someone you knew was sexually assaulted? How would you feel if your metaphorical Bowdoin Bubble were burst by the occurrence of a rape or other sex crime? Who would you turn to for support, and how would the events change the way you viewed the Bowdoin community?

If you thought Kill Bill's flying body parts were as glorified as movie violence could get, think again. Sin City is violence and violence is Sin City. Nothing is made tolerable through cartoonish exaggeration, like Tarantino's ode to gore. Nor does this film ride on something as simple as the Bride's rampage of revenge. Not only is it deeply, darkly vicious, but Sin City is also viciously emotive, telling three tales of three men with a passion as graphic as its content.

He can't get involved with anyone until he knows what his life is about...God, he's so complicated. Sound familiar? Maybe you've heard it, or something like it, from that guy you think you want to date. What do Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, former writers for Sex and The City, think about his excuses? Their response is summed up in the title of their best-selling debut book He's Just Not That Into You.

Saturday night, seniors Audra Caler , Lenora Ditzler, Laura Jefferis and myself, Sarah Moran, are taking over the Visual Arts Center with the opening of "Natural Selection." The work spans different media and a variety of subjects ranging from trees to fish to girls, but comes together to show the many ways paint can be used.

The city of Lewiston is coming to the big screen in a powerful documentary with an important message. But the story director Ziad Hamzeh's The Letter: An American Town and the Somali Invasion tells of the old mill town is not an easy one to hear. This is because The Letter is about something many Mainers believe they are far away from?racism.

Welcome, oh happy readers. Inspired by this week's spring (or was it summer) weather, I thought that I would try wines with whimsical names. I am sure that you have seen these wines in the shops, and have wondered, perhaps even chuckled about some of them.

What is the best song to make out to? EW: "Freakmachine" by Tied and Tickled Trio. Its a sexy instrumental appropriate in any situation requiring freakiness...

A long awaited revival of the Bowdoin College Meddiebempsters is hitting the campus tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Chapel. After four months without an open on-campus performance, the Meddies are back and ready to show off their expanded repertoire with a 40-minute show.

Mara Partridge '05 hadn't had much exposure to gospel music growing up, but when she started her freshman year at Georgetown University, she joined a sixty-person gospel choir, and pretty soon she was hooked.

The Bowdoin Women's Outdoor Track Team competed against Bates, Colby, and MIT in the first meet of the outdoor season, held at Colby. Under sunny skies, the women started off what looks to be a strong season, with many of the women having good performances. With the top six places scoring, the women came in third overall on Saturday.

The Bowdoin Men's Lacrosse Team stumbled this past weekend against fifth-ranked Middlebury, but then recovered on Tuesday night against the White Mules of Colby. Bowdoin currently holds the 11th spot in latest national polls. This week, Bowdoin faces two more tough conference tests as the team visits two more top-20 teams in Amherst and Bates.

The sudden warm weather of the Mud Season in Maine means one thing to the men's track team?the State Meet is coming soon. The short spring season started for the men last week, and already they must prepare themselves for a physical and psychological war against Colby, Bates, and USM on Saturday.

A terrible trend has begun in sports: fans are going too far. Recently, Gary Sheffield, right fielder for the New York Yankees, was allegedly hit in the face by Red Sox fan Christopher House while trying to field a ground ball at Fenway Park. I am certainly not one to root for the Bronx Bombers: I loved seeing the Yankees choke last fall and enjoyed watching Alex Rodriguez get what was coming to him when he offended the great backstop Jason Varitek.

Beneath the towering, pristine pine trees that surround the closely-groomed neon green turf field, the Bowdoin Men's Lacrosse Team is creating quite a stir. This gritty group of gentlemen have complied a 7-2 record overall, and more importantly, an undefeated 4-0 record in the NESCAC.

The Bowdoin College Women's Lacrosse Team, now ranked seventh nationally, had a very successful weekend, bringing home two conference wins. The team defeated Connecticut College and Williams this week, and looks forward to an important match-up with Middlebury this weekend.