Week in Brief

Don't buy this stuff: Students Against Sweatshops tell Yalies where their clothes were really made. JOHN YI/YH

Conn. governor still mired in scandal

The financial scandal surrounding Governor John G. Rowland continues as more allegations emerge. Former State Treasurer Paul J. Silvester—who has already been convicted on federal charges of racketeering and conspiracy—has recently said that Rowland used government jobs as a bargaining tool to push a questionable $25 million investment of state pension funds through the office of the state Treasurer.

According to Silvester, Rowland associate James Mengacci approached him after Silvester lost in the November '98 elections. Mengacci, a partner in Pioneer Ventures, told Silvester to invest in Pioneer Ventures Associates if Silvester wanted his staff to get new jobs. According to the Hartford Courant [11/14/99], nine staff members got new jobs by December 1998—following Silvester's $25 million investment.

Despite Silvester's claims, Rowland's administration stated that the new jobs were not the result of any investments. "There's absolutely no connection," Governor Rowland spokesman Dean Pagani said. "This happens whenever there is a transition of power."

—Yuka Igarashi

Brown wins Yale Mock Trial competition

This past weekend, 32 teams from as far away as Berkeley, Calif. came to New Haven to compete in the Yale Invitational Mock Trial Competition. All of the Ivies were represented at the competition, with the exception of Harvard.

Brown stole the show with its win. Neither Yale team officially competed in their own tournament.

The purpose of the event was to give Yale's teams a chance to hone their skills for the regional and national competitions next semester. The same legal case used in the regional and national events was used in the Yale competition. However, the Yale event is unique since the teams received the cases only a few weeks ago.

"Teams who compete in the Yale competition get practice, and they get thinking early about the case used for regionals and nationals," Yanev Suissa, CC '02, the tournament co-director said. "These teams tend to do better in these big competitions."

As for the Yale team, Suissa is confident about its chances next semester. "Yale is usually incredibly successful in regionals and nationals," she said.

—Jane Gao

Students petition to bring back econ intro class

JOHN YI/YH A shortage of TAs has led the economics department to abolish Economics 110

Since Econ 110 offered an alternative to the large Econ 115 lecture, students are upset. "Some students have never seen a large lecture before and just want to get their feet wet freshman year," Jessica Morgan, BK '02, said. Morgan is heading an intiative to reinstate Econ 110 and Econ 111, the macroeconomic version of Econ 110. Morgan and other students have met with faculty, some of whom proposed changing the structure of other undergraduate courses. Morgan believes that changes—if implemented—would free up more graduate students to teach Econ 110 and Econ 111. An undergraduate advisory committee will also meet in the spring with the director of undergraduate studies and faculty.

Deputy Chairman of Economics Merton Peck, however, said he has no plans to reinstate the seminars. "My view is that we will not offer 110 and 111 unless there is a dramatic change in the teaching fellow situation," he said. Peck added that there is not an overwhelming student preference for Econ 110 over Econ 115. "Student reaction was mixed, some people loved it; other people said taking it was a mistake," he said.

—Janey Lewis

Director from RADA to stage Macbeth

For its spring 2000 mainstage production of Macbeth, the Yale University Dramatic Association (Dramat) will host Australian director Peter Oyston, a regular director at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and past Dean of the Australian National School of Drama. Oyston has directed at theaters in his native Australia, in London's West End, at RADA, and at Nihon University in Japan. He has been teaching at RADA intermittently for over 40 years and is also a distinguished painter whose works have been displayed at galleries in Paris, London, Liverpool, and Melbourne. "Oyston's visit will give Yale students the opportunity to work with an internationally respected director who has more than 40 years of professional experience," Dramat President Matthew O'Neill, DC '00, said.

Nick Barter, Principal at RADA, said he is "very interested in strengthening links with Yale," and both the Dramat and RADA hope that Oyston's visit will establish a more permanent relationship with the University. The production of Macbeth is scheduled to go up Wed., Feb. 23 through Sat., Feb. 26. Auditions will be conducted via VHS tape and sent to Oyston in Australia. "This is a fantastic opportunity for the Dramat and Yale College," O'Neill said. "We hope Peter's work will help set a precedent for the future both of theater and of Shakespeare at Yale."

—Ayon Nandi

Around the Globe

Flushing out Shakespeare

Shakespeare's plays have been performed all over the world—in stadiums, small theaters, parks, even sidewalks. Now, bathrooms have been added to the list. A British theater company is putting up a series of shakespearean plays in a converted Victorian toilet.

The Bog Standard Theatre Company spent three years and over six thousand dollars renovating an ancient restroom in the town of Malvern in western England into a 12-seat theater with a tiny stage.

Troupe member Dennis Neale said to the Sun, a London tabloid, "Shakespeare said all the world's a stage so I guess that includes toilets."

Soccer and Sex

Casanova, the famous Italian lover, made hundreds of women ecstatic. His descendants, however, have soccer and mortgages on the brain when with their lovers.

A sexology study covered in Italian media reported that while new couples tend to worry about how their partners perceive them during sex, couples in long-lasting relationships tend to think about other things. Some reflected on paying off expensive mortgages, as well as on soccer.

The study also showed that, after the 1998 Women's World Cup final, the number of Italians fantisizing about sport bras increased exponentially.

Swinging drivers terrorize Brits

As if bathroom Shakespeare wasn't enough of an embarrassment to the English, London motorists were forced to deal with cheap imitations of an American parody of a swining British International Man of Mystery.

London police recieved a flurry of complaints after a car load of Austin Powers look-alikes terrorized commuters with fake guns, velvet suits, bad teeth, and the overuse of the word "shag."

The police had to erect a roadblock across an entire highway to stop the shaggedelic swingers. Though the guns were confiscated, they were allowed to keep the velvet suits.

—Compiled by Zoë Konovalov and Ayon Nandi from Reuters News Service

YALE INDEX
1) Games played	115
2) Games won by Yale	62
3) Times Harveard has been Yale's bitch	62
4) Games won by Harvard	45
5) Times Harvard has cheated	45
6) Games tied	8
7) Yale's ranking according to the Sagarin ratings	143
8) Harvard's ranking according to the Sagarin ratings	178
9) Expected margin of victory for Yale according to the rankings	38
10) Index writers' prediction of Yale's margin of victory	223
11) College football games decided by 223 points or more	0
12) Handsome Dans since Yale adopted the mascot	15
13) Number of different bulldogs serving as Handsome Dan	14
14) Two-term Handsome Dans	1
15) Two-term US Presidents	18
16) Bulldogs per Handsome Dan	.933
17) Handsome Dans including Yale Index writers	15
18) Handsome Cornelii, including Handsome Dans	1

—Compiled by Cornelius Kaestner and Daniel Serviansky

Sources: 1, 2, 4, 6) The back of that t-shirt; 3) We hold this truth to be self-evident; 5) Harvard Professor Stephen Jay Gould; 7, 8) USA Today; 9) Sagarin Ratings user's handbook; 10) The spirit of Elihu Yale via the Index Writers Ouija board; 11) Watching TV; 12, 13, 14) "Maurics" a.k.a. "Handsome Dan XV" a.k.a. "Handome Dan XIII"; 15) Monica Lewinsky; 17, 18) The women of Yale

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