Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.
Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died late last Monday after suffering a stroke the previous day. Puckett was the third overall pick in the 1982 draft by the Minnesota Twins. Two years later, his major league career began. Thus started a career of a man that touched the hearts of everybody he met.
The Brandeis Mens Fencing team will be well represented at the 2006 NCAA Championships as Jeremy Simpson 06 and Eugene Vortsman 08 both qualified this past weekend at the Northeast Regional Fencing Championships at Harvard University. Vortsman, who has been one of the most successful fencers for Brandeis this year, finished in fourth position on the mens foil division. Teammate and co-captain, Simpson took home fourth place overall in the mens saber event.
Baseball
Former three-time all-star second baseman Bret Boone retired last week. Boone finishes with a .266 batting average and 252 career home runs. He played for 14 seasons with five different teams, including Seattle. His best year came in 2001 when he had career highs of a .331 batting average, 37 home runs, and 141 RBI and finished third in the MVP voting. He also won four gold glove awards during his career.
I know the number one thing on most of us liberal arts kids wish lists isnt another book to read. Just keeping up with what Im supposed to have done for class is enough of an uphill struggle. Yet every time break rolls aroundand, lets face it, that happens a lot hereI start to feel nostalgic and excited about reading for fun. Not that I dont enjoy some of the books I read for classI dobut its not the same. Something about the fact that I cant read them on my own time plus those two hundred other pages sitting on the desk waiting to be read takes the enjoyment and relaxation right out of reading.
How many near-death experiences can a man have in a lifetime? If youre a non-fictional person like you, then perhaps maybe 12.7 give or take 13. Though if youre like me, you can rack up something on the order of 47. One for the time you had to undergo minor oral surgery involving a mild coma-inducing opiate, another for the time you gave blood involving what certainly felt like a mild coma-inducing opiate given that both lapses into unconsciousness felt pretty much the same, and the other 45 for the time you were driving in a car with a transmission jerking like a bucking bronco with latent Parkinsons disease while a passing cement truck sprayed congealed cement sludge on your windshield and your power windows were broken.
Friends, let me tell you about the weirdest trip I ever took. It was two-thousand miles past Hawaii to the island of Ponape, a two-day flight over the turquoise side of our planet. For long crossings, no body of water even remotely compares to the Pacific Ocean. I took Continental Airlines island-hopper shuttle between Hawaii and Guam, a six-stop bus-ride across the sea. People from the countless islands fly on it…
“Do you ever feel that you have outgrown Brandeis?”
My friend asked me this on the shuttle taking us home from Harvard Square. It took me by surprise. Outgrown Brandeis? I, Leah Berkenwald, the young-for-my-age 20 year old definition of “late bloomer, have outgrown Brandeis? No. Of course not.
Ever since he asked me that, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Mostly because I think I actually am starting to outgrow Brandeis. Perhaps not Brandeis, but college in general.
Last Friday, Aaron Braver certified Brandeis' greatest embarrassment of 2006: BIPAC's disgustingly irrelevant petition against Iran. Although the hypocritical and hawkish message of the petition truly offends my mind, I am deeply concerned with what the future will hold with the Iranian Petition as a precedent of success. BIPAC can now say that the “Brandeis Student Body endorses action against Iran.”
A few weeks ago, Student Events held an open forum for students to come and help determine how to spend $9,000. The staff stuffed bags of fake money, put up signs everywhere explaining the event, featured it on the Student Events website, and sent several all-campus emails about it to ensure that the student body knew about the forum. But no one came.
To the Editor:
Im probably one of the last people that someone would expect to defend the premed students at Brandeis, but last weeks Rafi Farber column really leaves me no choice.
