The Bowdoin Orient

Bowdoin students now have reason to think twice before parking in the admissions lot when they're running late for class. Following the recommendations of a private parking consultant, Bowdoin Security is cracking down on parking enforcement this year to help alleviate the parking situation.

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche spoke at Bowdoin on Wednesday night, as the Bowdoin College Democrats (BCD) warned that she might draw potential voters away from Gov. John Baldacci, who is campaigning for re-election.

The results of the Class of 2007 and Class of 2010 elections are in, and DeRay Mckesson '07, who has served as Class of 2007 president twice in the past, secured another year in the post with his 201-89 victory against Jay Tansey '07. Mckesson will also begin his second-straight year as president of Bowdoin Student Government, a position he was elected to in April.

Students will no longer need to make the trip to Hawthorne-Longfellow library to print out papers. Information Technology (IT) has begun the process of adding printers to dorms, college houses, and other locations.

After resolving a series of technical and logistical issues, the College is now finalizing plans to extend its wireless network into downtown Brunswick. Students and faculty will have access to the network along Maine Street indefinitely, while Brunswick residents will be able to use the wireless Internet during a free two-month trial period.

Students apprehensive about having to brave Maine winters now have one less reason to worry. A new arrangement with Cingular means that by the end of this month, students should get cell phone service in their dorms.

Stephen Laffey '84 will not be the Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Rhode Island.

Harvard College made a substantial policy shift this week when it announced that it will eliminate its early admissions program. In a statement, interim university President Derek Bok said Harvard's early action policy benefited some students over others.

During the fall of my first year at Bowdoin, I felt compelled to join a group on the then-benign Facebook called "Why Is My Life So Awkward?" Upon first discovering the group, I had been touched. "Finally," I thought to myself, "a group of collegians who, like me, have failed to outgrow their adolescent ineptitude. I shall find my niche at Bowdoin yet!"

To the Editors: This year's primary election season provides ample evidence that statements made in public or published during one's college years can be resurrected many years later, often to the detriment of a political candidate left struggling with an explanation about youth, context and intent.

To the Editors: On Tuesday, September 12, Harvard College announced it was doing away with early admissions (early action) for the next applicant pool.

To the Editors: Mr. Minot's sweeping generalizations in "Immigration insanity" (9/8) portrays H.R. 4437 in an unfair light.

To the Editors: The November 7 mid-term elections in Maine and elsewhere promise to hold many crucial and competitive races. We urge all those who are eligible to participate.

This week, Facebook debuted its latest innovations: a self-updating catalog of friends' activities dubbed the "news feed," and a record of personal activity on each user's profile called the "mini feed."

Hey there, [your name], you old horsethief, you! How was your summer? "Good?" Really? Because I usually get a different answer! No, it wouldn't be awkward if you had said anything other than "good," not awkward at all! Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'd like a few minutes alone with the first years.

While you may have heard some faint murmurs of the cacophonous debate over immigration this summer, it's often difficult to break through the banal partisan talking points for long enough to see what proposals are actually under debate. While many bills have been proposed from both sides of the aisle, only one has made it through even one chamber of Congress.

Dear Dr. Jeff: If I get the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, will I still have to get annual Pap tests?- S.A.

Nick Manny traveled to Switzerland and Austria to work on several organic farms. He participated in this venture through an organization called Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF). Over the course of the summer, he worked at five farms in Switzerland and one in Austria.

Welcome to Bowdoin 2006-2007, from all of us in the health services! In this first column of the new school year, I wanted to review some of our programs and services and write a little about our sense of mission here at Dudley Coe.

Multiple orgasms. The clitoris. Female ejaculation. Unless you need to get your eyes checked at the health center or are a rare example of a college student with no curiosity about sex, you've probably noticed these topics on posters advertising "The Female Orgasm." And they're not for a special screening of an unreleased episode of "Sex and the City."

The second Justin Timberlake album, four long years in the making, has already gotten much more hype than it deserves. "FutureSex/Love Sounds," a brainchild of Timberlake and urban producer Timbaland, who collaborated with Justin on six of the 13 tracks on "Justified," is confused, awkward, cocky, repetitive, and pseudo-original.

Summer novels are usually advertised and associated with words such as "fun," "light," "classic," and "bestseller." Though the weather is often in sync with these choices, it can prove refreshing to throw in the occasional foreign or slightly heavier novel. I don't like to include more than one Russian author on my summer reading list, so having disposed of Gogol, I chose Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood."

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale: $7.99 for a six-pack at Hannaford Last Thanksgiving, I had the unique pleasure of visiting my girlfriend in Prague, where we were treated to an incredible traditional Thanksgiving spread complete with an enormous turkey and all the fixings. Surprisingly enough, however, it was not the food that made this Thanksgiving so distinctive and unforgettable?it was the beer.

I thought the world had seen enough tragedy lately. Crikey. Our minds, our TV sets have both been stuck on the Calamity Channel for ages, weathered by the reliable vehicular accident, natural disaster, military mishap, the child molester du jour.

When William Cohen '62, secretary of defense under former president Bill Clinton, left office, many people surely expected him to write a memoir about his experiences. Instead, the Bowdoin alumnus authored "Dragon Fire," a highly charged thriller about a fictional U.S. secretary. His investigation of a potential nuclear threat thrusts him into a world of underhanded politicians and international terrorist threats.

Contracts in sports are truly unfathomable to the average person. In many cases, millions of dollars are doled out to athletes over the course of a few short years.

This summer I had an experience that totally altered my impression of professional athletes. I worked at Kraft Media Communications, inside Gillette Stadium (home of the New England Patriots, winners of three of the last five Super Bowls). Just walking into the office was intimidating enough. Each day on my way in I would walk through a veritable Patriots Hall of Fame, including historic balls and jerseys that left me wide-eyed. But inside the office was an even more amazing atmosphere.