http://www.observer.com/term/harvard-university en http://www.observer.com/2008/j-k-rowlings-harvard-commencement-speech <img src="/files/article/jk.jpg" /><p>Is it lame to still geek out whenever J.K. Rowling makes a public appearance? It probably is but, no matter, we're going to update you about her Harvard Commencement speech anyway. She was the university's fifth female Commencement speaker since 1950. At the June 5 ceremony talked about her greatest challenges and achievements: failure and imagination. Aw!</p> <p>You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part...</p> http://www.observer.com/2008/j-k-rowlings-harvard-commencement-speech#comments Culture Style Harvard University J.K. Rowling The Culture Czar Books Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:53:41 -0400 http://www.observer.com/2008/j-k-rowlings-harvard-commencement-speech http://www.observer.com/2008/harvard-scholars-publish-online <img src="/files/article/harvard_shield_021208.jpg" />To publish or perish? That is the question Harvard faculty will face today, when they vote whether or not to publish their scholarly articles online (and open up their research to millions of readers) or continue to distribute their work in obscure journals with steep price tags and minuscule readership. According to Patricia Cohen of <em>The New York Times</em>, the vote's impact, given the university’s prestige, could be significant for the open-access movement, which... http://www.observer.com/2008/harvard-scholars-publish-online#comments Style Harvard University The Culture Czar Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:39:36 -0500 http://www.observer.com/2008/harvard-scholars-publish-online http://www.observer.com/2008/our-critic-s-tip-sheet-current-reading-3 <img src="/files/article/Bookie-MartinAmis1V.jpg" />Is it still schadenfreude when it’s the indestructible Martin Amis getting kicked around? His new book, a collection of essays and stories about militant Islam, <em>The Second Plane: September 11, 2001-2007</em>, won’t be published over here until April Fools’ Day, but it’s already out in the U.K. (Jonathan Cape, £12.90) and was greeted last weekend with a one-two punch that would have left any ordinary writer reeling. On Saturday the <em>Guardian</em> (www.guardian.co.uk) ran a... http://www.observer.com/2008/our-critic-s-tip-sheet-current-reading-3#comments Style Begley the Bookie Drew Gilpin Faust Harvard University Martin Amis Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:42:33 -0500 http://www.observer.com/2008/our-critic-s-tip-sheet-current-reading-3 http://www.observer.com/2008/j-k-rowling-speak-harvard-commencement <img src="/files/article/jkrowling.jpg" />Harvard announced today that J. K. Rowling will deliver the keynote address at this year's commencement ceremony, which will be held on June 5th. As is customary, the <em>Harry Potter</em> author will receive an honorary degree from the university. <p>Newly minted Harvard president Drew Faust issued a statement this morning in which she praised Ms. Rowling for getting kids to read.</p> <p>"Perhaps no one in our time has done more than J. K....</p> http://www.observer.com/2008/j-k-rowling-speak-harvard-commencement#comments Media Harvard University J.K. Rowling The Media Mob Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:21:14 -0500 http://www.observer.com/2008/j-k-rowling-speak-harvard-commencement http://www.observer.com/2007/yale-harvard-plaid-pipes-hammers-and-soulja-boy <img src="/files/article/Yale Football.JPG" />Star Childs, who graduated from Yale with a forestry degree 27 years ago, was hammering a nail into a stump outside Sunday’s Yale-Harvard football game. He wore a tie, vest, and blazer, plus matching knit cap, and had a red cup in his non-hammering left hand.The dozen students gathered around him cheered. “I’m a forester, I’m a lumberjack! And I’m okay,” Mr. Childs said. His family owns the one-room Yale Outdoors Cabin, with fireplace,... http://www.observer.com/2007/yale-harvard-plaid-pipes-hammers-and-soulja-boy#comments Style The Daily Transom Daily Transom Harvard University Yale University Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:11:10 -0500 http://www.observer.com/2007/yale-harvard-plaid-pipes-hammers-and-soulja-boy http://www.observer.com/2007/st-martin-s-press-won-t-publish-harvard-student-travel-guide-after-2009 <p class="MsoNormal">St. Martin’s Press will end its partnership with the Harvard-based, student-produced travel guide series Let’s Go after more than twenty-five years. St. Martin’s, which provides Let’s Go with final edits, printing, distribution, and advertising, will continue to put out Let’s Go guides through fall 2009--one set of 15 books will come out this November, and another 15 next year. But after that, Let’s Go will need to find another publisher.</p> ... http://www.observer.com/2007/st-martin-s-press-won-t-publish-harvard-student-travel-guide-after-2009#comments Media Harvard University Let's Go St. Martin's Press LLC The Media Mob Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:45:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/2007/st-martin-s-press-won-t-publish-harvard-student-travel-guide-after-2009 http://www.observer.com/node/31931 Rudy Giuliani said it's "fundamentally irresponsible" to set a date-specific timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq. Eliot Spitzer wanted to borrow millions of dollars and spend it on pet projects for legislators. Bill Thompson said some landlords got tax breaks from the city they didn't deserve. The city may open a jail in Brooklyn and double its population within five years. Andrew Cuomo issued a legal order requiring medical labs to get written consent before performing certain genetic... http://www.observer.com/node/31931#comments Politics Eliot Spitzer Harvard University Keith Richards Politics Daily Rudolph Giuliani Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/31931 http://www.observer.com/node/36914 Laurence Tribe, the celebrated liberal Constitutional scholar, was looking at a black plastic “Countdown Clock” that sits on a desk at his home in Cambridge, Mass. “Time until Bush goes,” reads the legend accompanying the digital read-out. The countdown stood at 692 days. If the number seemed exhausting to the Harvard Law School professor, it may not be George W. Bush that’s to blame. “Keeping up with Hillary’s machine is not easy,” he... http://www.observer.com/node/36914#comments Politics Barack Obama Harvard Law School Harvard University Hillary Clinton Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/36914 http://www.observer.com/node/31397 Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith just said that his conference is going vote Martha Stark for comptroller. Here's a snippet of the exchange Smith had with a radio reporter who asked why they're backing Stark. Smith: "It's a conference decision." Reporter: "But why is she more qualified than the other two?" Smith: "Because Martha Stark is the person we voted for." Reporter: "I didn't ask why, who you voted for. I asked why is she more qualified than... http://www.observer.com/node/31397#comments Politics Harvard University Malcolm Smith Martha Stark Politics Daily Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:16:47 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/31397 http://www.observer.com/node/36616 <img src="/files/article/012907_article_book_goldste.jpg" />The power of Louis Begley’s <em>Matters of Honor</em> sneaks up on the reader softly. The story is told with a quiet control that deepens into silence, which is to say that it is as much constructed from suppressions and elisions as from anything actually stated. The sentences never deviate from their subdued precision, no matter whether what’s being described is the acquisition of the right dinner jacket, a mother’s shameless seductiveness toward her adopted... http://www.observer.com/node/36616#comments Style Book Review Harvard University Henry White Sam Standish Stephen Dedalus Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/36616 http://www.observer.com/node/33653 Simkhe accuses me of ignoring a lot of other leftwing Jews' critiques of the neocons, and assuming I'm the first Jew to notice. I'm sure you're right; it's not a discourse I'm that familiar with. One thing I'd note is that I talked to Phyllis Bennis a couple years back and, yes she knows the issue better than I do, but she also said she wasn't bringing her Jewishness into it, it's an American... http://www.observer.com/node/33653#comments Benny Morris Harvard University Iraq Israel MondoWeiss Thu, 18 Jan 2007 03:33:30 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/33653 http://www.observer.com/node/33641 I've just gotten a copy of a 79-page paper called "Setting the Record Straight: A Response to Critics of 'The Israel Lobby'" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. The scholars began circulating the rebuttal privately in December but have not published it on-line, I gather, because they are working on a book about the lobby and are trying to keep some of their powder dry till publication. Nonetheless, the paper is getting around. I... http://www.observer.com/node/33641#comments Alan Dershowitz Harvard University John Mearsheimer MondoWeiss Stephen Walt Tue, 09 Jan 2007 07:13:46 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/33641 http://www.observer.com/node/33619 I'm actually shocked that Niall Ferguson, a Harvard professor, used Tolstoy's opening line from Anna Karenina, "All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," as the lead of his review of a book about business dynasties in my latest New Republic. It's shocking that Ferguson would display such laziness in a leading magazine, shocking that he seems to regard the use of the thought as original—it provides his... http://www.observer.com/node/33619#comments Anna Karenina Harvard University MondoWeiss Niall Ferguson The New Republic Tue, 26 Dec 2006 06:45:36 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/33619 http://www.observer.com/node/53084 <p>Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan has a message for New York lawyers.</p> “Like New York City,” she said in an annual state-of-the-school speech in September, “Harvard Law is in large part described by its scale and scope, and the energy and vibrancy that come with them.” Harvard is the New York City of law schools, in other words; and, in fact, the large, diverse faculty is the linchpin of her efforts to... http://www.observer.com/node/53084#comments Elena Kagan Harvard University New York University Noah Feldman Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/53084 http://www.observer.com/node/36482 <img src="/files/article/122506_article_ASM.jpg" />Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan has a message for New York lawyers. “Like New York City,” she said in an annual state-of-the-school speech in September, “Harvard Law is in large part described by its scale and scope, and the energy and vibrancy that come with them.” Harvard is the New York City of law schools, in other words; and, in fact, the large, diverse faculty is the linchpin of her efforts to recruit... http://www.observer.com/node/36482#comments Elena Kagan Harvard University New York University Noah Feldman Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/36482 http://www.observer.com/node/53011 <p>Author photos are never on oath, but George W.S. Trow’s make you wonder. Trow, who died last week in Naples at 63, possessed one of the more indescribable sensibilities to adorn The New Yorker, that most sensibility-driven of magazines. He was snob, moralist, wit, cultural critic, aesthete, nostalgist, lost boy, citizen. “Wonder was the grace of the country,” the first sentence of his essay “Within the Context of No Context,” may be the most...</p> http://www.observer.com/node/53011#comments Style Ahmet Ertegun Harvard University Henry James New Yorker's Diary Robert E. Lee Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/53011 http://www.observer.com/node/36376 Author photos are never on oath, but George W.S. Trow’s make you wonder. Trow, who died last week in Naples at 63, possessed one of the more indescribable sensibilities to adorn <em>The New Yorker</em>, that most sensibility-driven of magazines. He was snob, moralist, wit, cultural critic, aesthete, nostalgist, lost boy, citizen. “Wonder was the grace of the country,” the first sentence of his essay “Within the Context of No Context,” may be the most... http://www.observer.com/node/36376#comments Style George W.S. Trow Harvard University Henry James New Yorker's Diary Robert E. Lee Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/36376 http://www.observer.com/node/30820 Rep. Charlie Rangel, speaking at a Crain's breakfast in midtown this morning, shared his thoughts on the draft and some Ivy League students. <p>"I spoke about the draft at Columbia, Harvard and Brown. These kids don't even know there's a war in...</p> http://www.observer.com/node/30820#comments Politics Charles Rangel Columbia Harvard University Ivy League Politics Daily Tue, 28 Nov 2006 05:46:21 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/30820 http://www.observer.com/node/33561 In Esau's Tears, a study of antisemitism, UCal/Santa Barbara prof Albert Lindemann quotes Harvard scholar Ruth Wisse as saying that antisemitism functions "independent of its object." That is, it's a malady that has nothing to do with the reality of Jews. But then Lindemann notes that Wisse herself says that the "dynamism" of Jews in the 19th and 20th century has been "unparalleled." Wisse would know; she is a Harvard scholar whose son... http://www.observer.com/node/33561#comments Albert Lindemann Harvard University Joseph Lieberman MondoWeiss Ruth Wisse Sun, 12 Nov 2006 04:33:43 -0500 http://www.observer.com/node/33561 http://www.observer.com/node/33542 Last night Yivo Institute on W. 16th Street hosted a talk by the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson on "Jews and Money." How excited I was to hand over my $15. The center dedicated to the study of Yiddish-speaking Jews was bringing in a heavyweight prof, a biographer of Rothschilds and Warburgs, to anatomize the culture of Jewish success. What a fizzle. Niall Ferguson was overawed by the SRO New York audience and his Lazard... http://www.observer.com/node/33542#comments Harvard University Lazard LLC Marty Peretz MondoWeiss Niall Ferguson Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:17:40 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33542 http://www.observer.com/node/52795 <p>The Jack Sprat Law</p> Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing a powerful piece of legislation that will do wonders for the health of New York restaurant patrons: banning all but tiny amounts of trans fat from the city’s 20,000 restaurants. The proposed law echoes the Mayor’s smoking ban, enacted four years ago. That law has transformed the experience of dining out in the city: No longer are diners subject to inhaling a waft... http://www.observer.com/node/52795#comments Barry Scheck Columbia Editorials Harvard University Lee Bollinger Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52795 http://www.observer.com/node/39566 The Jack Sprat Law Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing a powerful piece of legislation that will do wonders for the health of New York restaurant patrons: banning all but tiny amounts of trans fat from the city’s 20,000 restaurants. The proposed law echoes the Mayor’s smoking ban, enacted four years ago. That law has transformed the experience of dining out in the city: No longer are diners subject to inhaling a waft of cancerous... http://www.observer.com/node/39566#comments Barry Scheck Editorials Harvard University Lee Bollinger Scott Fappiano Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/39566 http://www.observer.com/node/33531 One great thing about blogging is it reveals a writer's true nature, flaws and all. (Like my flakiness; I try and ground myself but there it is; I think in Kabbala they would say I am too much in my chochma). The latest evidence of this is Marty Peretz's pro-Israel blog, the Spine. Peretz is warm, funny, passionate and charismatic (I've met him), but there's something inevitably superficial and vicious, even scurrilous about him.... http://www.observer.com/node/33531#comments George Soros Harvard University Marty Peretz MondoWeiss Morton Halperin Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:12:21 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33531 http://www.observer.com/node/52784 <p>To judge from What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts?, Michael Bérubé, a literature professor at Penn State, seems to be one of those strange academics who actually enjoys the undergraduates. While teaching William Dean Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham, for instance, he gets at the issue of social capital without help from Karl Marx or Pierre Bourdieu—instead, he heads straight for Thom Yorke.</p> If he wants to explain to his class that... http://www.observer.com/node/52784#comments Style Book Review Harvard University Michael Brub Pennsylvania State University tuneProfessor Brubs Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52784 http://www.observer.com/node/52730 <p>Forget the baseball rivalry: The real Boston–New York dispute is over bragging rights to Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). As a composer, performer, writer and teacher, Bernstein made an indelible impression in this city as music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958-1969 and laureate conductor thereafter. He kept an apartment at the Dakota, lodged his family a commute away in Fairfield, Conn., and penned the ur-New York Broadway musicals West Side Story, On the...</p> http://www.observer.com/node/52730#comments Style Boston Bostons Bernstein Harvard University Leonard Bernstein Manhattan Music Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52730 http://www.observer.com/node/39488 <img src="/files/article/100206_article_ivry.jpg" />Forget the baseball rivalry: The real Boston–New York dispute is over bragging rights to Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). As a composer, performer, writer and teacher, Bernstein made an indelible impression in this city as music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958-1969 and laureate conductor thereafter. He kept an apartment at the Dakota, lodged his family a commute away in Fairfield, Conn., and penned the ur-New York Broadway musicals <em>West Side Story</em>, <em>On the...</em> http://www.observer.com/node/39488#comments Style Boston Harvard University Leonard Bernstein Manhattan Music Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/39488 http://www.observer.com/node/32938 At the Core Club launch party for <em>02138</em>--the magazine dedicated to the unity of the Harvard experience--attendees fell neatly into separate categories. Magazine staffers walked around wearing square pins affixed to their lapels, with their names and "02138" engraved on them. Their flacks hovered, making sure that Bill O'Reilly was ushered in with the appropriate amount of warmth ("Bill!"). Members of the magazine's "Harvard 100"--a list mixing Harvard College dropouts with Harvard Business School... http://www.observer.com/node/32938#comments Media Bill O'Reilly Harvard University Josh Barkan Quincy Jones The Media Mob Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:21:15 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/32938 http://www.observer.com/node/32240 <strong>TEDDY:</strong> I woke up last Sunday in a dorm room in Harvard's Dunster House, logged into facebook.com and noticed a recently published photo album entitled, "Austen and Tito's Wedding!!! Location: East Hampton." It wasn't the first album of this nature I'd encountered. I contemplated waking up my lady friend, who is Harvard class of 2008, to show her the album and quite possibly ask for her hand in marriage, but instead I... http://www.observer.com/node/32240#comments Adobe Photoshop Bridal Blog East Hampton Harvard University Philadelphia Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:59:23 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/32240 http://www.observer.com/node/32926 Yesterday, The New Republic introduced its readers to The Open University, its "first-of-its-kind blog, featuring America's top academics on today's top stories." As promised, there are lots of big-name professor types--the University of Chicago's Cass Sunstein, Harvard's Steven Pinker--and they've already taken on such weighty topics as "ideological amplification" and the demise of the HBO series "Deadwood." Also among the contributors is deposed Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who ran afoul of female academics by... http://www.observer.com/node/32926#comments Media Abigail Thernstrom Harvard University Lawrence Summers Manhattan Institute for Policy Research The Media Mob Wed, 06 Sep 2006 06:19:33 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/32926 http://www.observer.com/node/52421 <p>A good exposé is irresistible, especially if it reveals the ugly side of something pretty and bursts some bubbles in the process. See The Devil Wears Prada, in which the glitzy world of fashion journalism is stripped of its glamour, or VH1’s Behind the Music, in which rock stars get the blues just like the fans who love them. And see also Ivy League chick lit, a genre very distantly related to Faulkner’s...</p> http://www.observer.com/node/52421#comments Style Book Review Charles River Columbia Harvard University Ivy League Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52421 http://www.observer.com/node/33420 Jason Horowitz did what I asked someone to do, stuck Israel right into the Connecticut Senate race: Asked specifically if he felt that the wave of opposition to his candidacy had anything to do with his religion or his support for Israel, Mr. Lieberman paused, stepped toward the blue sedan that would speed him to a meeting outside of Hartford and said, "That's too big a question to answer on one foot. We should... http://www.observer.com/node/33420#comments Connecticut State Senate Hartford Harvard University Israel MondoWeiss Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:19:11 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33420 http://www.observer.com/node/32907 Women's Wear Daily has filled one of its openings on the media beat with Irin Carmon, a 2005 Harvard graduate and freelance journalist. Most recently, Carmon has been writing a travel column for the Boston Globe, and has freelanced for the New York Times, Village Voice, and The Buenos Aires Herald. At Harvard, Carmon was an editor of Fifteen Minutes, the weekend magazine of the Crimson. --Gabriel... http://www.observer.com/node/32907#comments Media Harvard University Irin Carmon New York Times Company The Media Mob Village Voice Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:19:57 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/32907 http://www.observer.com/node/33378 On Charlie Rose, that is. The outgoing Harvard President was on for an hour, rebroadcast just now. It was interesting to see him up close at last. Some observations: Summers seems a business executive by temperament. He's too tan and doesn't miss meals. He's bold. The strongest impression of the hour was how often he rode right over Charlie Rose when he tried to make a point, or cut in. Summers's voice would rise and... http://www.observer.com/node/33378#comments Baltimore Charlie Rose Harvard University MondoWeiss The New Republic Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:48:53 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33378 http://www.observer.com/node/52355 <p>“We don’t consider ourselves an alumni magazine in the traditional sense,” said Bom Kim, Harvard class of ’00 and the founder and president of 02138 magazine.</p> Mr. Kim’s embryonic magazine—named for the Harvard Square ZIP code—has nonetheless mastered one of the traditional roles: putting the touch on alumni. His principal backer is Atlantic Media boss David Bradley (Harvard Business School, 1977), who put up $4 million last year in support of what the... http://www.observer.com/node/52355#comments Media Bom Kim Daniel Loss David Bradley Harvard University Off the Record Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52355 http://www.observer.com/node/52337 <p>In 1959, in Torremolinos, on a break from a failing academic career and a year after the end of his second marriage, Timothy Leary had a sudden attack of a mysterious illness which gave him enormous blisters. On one night of suffering, as he described it in his 1968 autobiography High Priest under the title “Trip 1,” “I died. I let go. Surrendered …. My career, my ambitions, my home …. With a sudden...</p> http://www.observer.com/node/52337#comments Style Ann Marlowe Book Review Harvard University Timothy Leary Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52337 http://www.observer.com/node/52335 <p>Former dean of Harvard College Harry Lewis loves to quote old documents about the purpose of liberal education and the meaning of intellectual experience. These are very boring phrases, but Mr. Lewis uses them often in Excellence Without a Soul.</p> The phrases mostly appear when Mr. Lewis is excerpting material he’s acquired from the Harvard Archives (and on eBay, as he revealed at a talk delivered at Harvard’s Memorial Church last month). They... http://www.observer.com/node/52335#comments Style Book Review eBay Inc. Harry Lewis Harvard University Leon Neyfakh Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52335 http://www.observer.com/node/39017 <img src="/files/article/061906_article_otr2.jpg" />“We don’t consider ourselves an alumni magazine in the traditional sense,” said Bom Kim, Harvard class of ’00 and the founder and president of <em>02138</em> magazine. Mr. Kim’s embryonic magazine—named for the Harvard Square ZIP code—has nonetheless mastered one of the traditional roles: putting the touch on alumni. His principal backer is Atlantic Media boss David Bradley (Harvard Business School, 1977), who put up $4 million last year in support of what the 27-year-old... http://www.observer.com/node/39017#comments Media Bom Kim Boston David Bradley Harvard University Off the Record Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/39017 http://www.observer.com/node/38997 <img src="/files/article/061906_article_book_marlowe.jpg" />In 1959, in Torremolinos, on a break from a failing academic career and a year after the end of his second marriage, Timothy Leary had a sudden attack of a mysterious illness which gave him enormous blisters. On one night of suffering, as he described it in his 1968 autobiography <em>High Priest</em> under the title “Trip 1,” “I died. I let go. Surrendered …. My career, my ambitions, my home …. With a sudden... http://www.observer.com/node/38997#comments Style Book Review Harvard University Timothy Leary University of Alabama Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/38997 http://www.observer.com/node/38995 <img src="/files/article/061906_article_book_neyfakh.jpg" />Former dean of Harvard College Harry Lewis loves to quote old documents about the purpose of liberal education and the meaning of intellectual experience. These are very boring phrases, but Mr. Lewis uses them often in <em>Excellence Without a Soul</em>. The phrases mostly appear when Mr. Lewis is excerpting material he’s acquired from the Harvard Archives (and on eBay, as he revealed at a talk delivered at Harvard’s Memorial Church last month). They include... http://www.observer.com/node/38995#comments Style Abbott Lawrence Lowell Book Review eBay Inc. Harry Lewis Harvard University Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/38995 http://www.observer.com/node/33307 Commenter Miriam Reik points out a significant hole in my reporting from Newport yesterday: I wish Weiss had reported the answer given to the Lt. Commander's question about "how the Palestinians can combat the Israelis' foreign influence in the United States." Maybe it wasn't answered, but it is a key question that needs to be engaged if US foreign policy is to return to normal and a healthy relationship with the Arab/Muslim... http://www.observer.com/node/33307#comments Harvard University MondoWeiss Newport Stephen Walt War College Thu, 15 Jun 2006 05:12:15 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33307 http://www.observer.com/node/33282 Arthur Sulzberger Jr. urged SUNY New Paltz grads to stick to their guns and have courage. Here is a simple test of the Times courage. Stephen Walt and Kaavya Viswanathan are both Harvard authors who published the most significant writing of their lives this spring. Go to the Times site, the search box, and type in their names for the past 90 days. "Stephen Walt" : Seven results. One article, six letters. Now type... http://www.observer.com/node/33282#comments Arthur Sulzberger Harvard University Kaavya Viswanathan MondoWeiss Stephen Walt Fri, 09 Jun 2006 05:27:43 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33282 http://www.observer.com/node/33249 Finally someone has done the article I wanted to read long ago: What is Harvard's reaction to the Mearsheimer-Walt paper on the Israel lobby (which was half-produced on the shores of the Charles, where co-author Walt was a dean). The LA Times sent the redoubtable Eve Fairbanks to report, and she came back with stunning news: Instead of a roiling debate, most professors not only agreed to disagree but agreed to pretend publicly that there was... http://www.observer.com/node/33249#comments Fairbanks Harvard University MondoWeiss New York Times Company Sat, 03 Jun 2006 08:05:55 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33249 http://www.observer.com/node/32892 <em>Good Morning America</em> executive producer Ben Sherwood has resigned from ABC, according to three network sources. Sherwood, who agreed to the terms of the resignation in a meeting Thursday with ABC News president David Westin, will leave the network October 1, the sources said. Sherwood, a Harvard graduate, Rhodes scholar and the author of two novels with a third forthcoming, has run the second-place morning program for two years--the two most successful in the show's... http://www.observer.com/node/32892#comments Media ABC Inc. Ben Sherwood Harvard University Nielsen Media Research Inc. The Media Mob Fri, 02 Jun 2006 12:30:18 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/32892 http://www.observer.com/node/33216 <br /> caption The keen reader will note that I complain about having gone to Harvard, all the way to the bank. O.K. But I was a University of Michigan student trapped in a Harvard student's body. Here's my latest complaint. According to my calculations, by 2032, Harvard will be putting out more self-referential material for alumni on a weekly basis than the volume of The New York Times. At right is what came... http://www.observer.com/node/33216#comments Harvard University MondoWeiss New York Times Company University of Michigan Fri, 26 May 2006 04:47:09 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33216 http://www.observer.com/node/33166 My most successful item on this blog, to judge from comments, was called Harvard's Plagiarism Scandal, and was successful for two reasons, because I brought up issues of racism in the Kaavya Visnawathan case, and because Roger Ailes, the political strategist, zapped me and started an intense conversation. (Thank you, Mr. Ailes.) [Got that wrong too: comment was from a blogger named Roger Ailes--Weiss, 5/20] Here's what he said: How is this Harvard's Plagiarism Scandal?... http://www.observer.com/node/33166#comments Ben Domenech Harvard University Jayson Blair MondoWeiss Roger Ailes Mon, 15 May 2006 09:57:22 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33166 http://www.observer.com/node/33141 <br /> Helen Newman Memo to all plagiarists, fabricators, jailhouse-memoirists and other literary charlatans: This is a story about a writer. Helen Newman, 29, lives at her mother's place in Brooklyn. She teaches English at a cram school for Korean kids, sometimes she also assists an art dealer. Her mother pays the rent. Newman got my attention when she put an alumna note in the back of the latest Harvard magazine. It said she was writing... http://www.observer.com/node/33141#comments Arol Zendik Brooklyn Harvard University Helen Newman MondoWeiss Mon, 08 May 2006 05:54:48 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33141 http://www.observer.com/node/52183 <p>I wanted to buy How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life by Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, but now I will have to wait until she removes the parts she plagiarized from Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty.</p> I have plagiarized twice in my life that I know of. The first time I did it was in my first book, The Outside Story, an account of the 1984... http://www.observer.com/node/52183#comments Harvard University Kaavya Viswanathan Stanley Elkins Stephen Ambrose The National Observer Sun, 07 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52183 http://www.observer.com/node/52175 <p>It started with a late-night e-mail from a friend and fellow journalist: “Have you seen this?” I clicked on the link and got an article on what has become the latest scandal to send the New York publishing world into paroxysms: novelist Kaavya Viswanathan’s admitted theft of language and passages from another young-adult writer, Megan McCafferty. Turns out that many parts of the Harvard student’s heralded novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild,...</p> http://www.observer.com/node/52175#comments Style Harvard University Megan McCafferty New Yorker's Diary Street Productions Wall Street Journal Sun, 07 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/52175 http://www.observer.com/node/38791 It started with a late-night e-mail from a friend and fellow journalist: “Have you seen this?” I clicked on the link and got an article on what has become the latest scandal to send the New York publishing world into paroxysms: novelist Kaavya Viswanathan’s admitted theft of language and passages from another young-adult writer, Megan McCafferty. Turns out that many parts of the Harvard student’s heralded novel, <em>How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild,...</em> http://www.observer.com/node/38791#comments Style Harvard University Kaavya Viswanathan Megan McCafferty New Yorker's Diary Street Productions Sun, 07 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/38791 http://www.observer.com/node/33107 Something else bears mentioning re the Viswanathan story. Just about everyone is an Asian-American. David Zhou, the kid from the Crimson who went on national TV after he broke the story is Asian-American. Viswanathan is of course an Asian-American. So, I'm guessing, is my horse, Jon Liu of the Independent (who has teamed up with Shane Wilson on what they call Kaavyagate). I'm late on everything—I live in the woods—but it interests me because my... Harvard University Jon Liu MondoWeiss Nicholas Lemann Shane Wilson Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:03:07 -0400 http://www.observer.com/node/33107