Patient, Heal Thyself

Patient, Heal Thyself

One Man’s Informed Attempt to
Navigate the Medical System

Editor’s Note: Our writer classmate Jeff has worked mainly as a science/medical journalist. He’s also the son of a doctor (Yale ’44). Following a recent health scare, Jeff offers some thoughts about the costs and pitfalls of our “sickcare” system. The bottom line: Have your wits fully about you if you want to survive.

Four Yale students win Rhodes Scholarships

Four Yale students win Rhodes Scholarships

from Yale Daily News Four Yale seniors will cross the Atlantic next fall for graduate studies at the University of Oxford as part of the Rhodes Scholarship. JORDAN FITZGERALD  NOV 28, 2021   Mary Orsak ’22 hid in the Pierson College seminar room on Nov. 20, shielding herself from the Yale-Harvard game festivities while she found out which applicants received this cycle’s prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. She won. Orsak and three other Yalies — Liam Elkind…

Class Colloquium 12 – Recording, Transcript and Action

Class Colloquium 12 – Recording, Transcript and Action

Today we hosted a Class Colloquium addressing Alzheimer’s, dementia and other degenerative diseases for the Yale Boom group (Yale Classes of 1967-73).   Drs.  Art Segal and Ken Davis guided the discussion led by the two experts from the staff of Mount Sinai.  See the original announcement for background on the speakers and program.

Below is the video of the event, with the transcript. Several suggestions and interesting ideas are included in the Comments area below the post.

A Retiring Democrat Places Blame for Paralysis in Congress

A Retiring Democrat Places Blame for Paralysis in Congress

Interview in The New Yorker, by Jane Mayer (Yale ’77):
It was too early in the afternoon for Representative John Yarmuth, of Kentucky, to open the bottle of Larceny bourbon that he keeps in his Capitol Hill office, but the situation he described might drive anyone to drink. Yarmuth, who turns seventy-four next week, is one of a dozen House Democrats who have announced their intention to retire or seek other offices. The rush to the exits has triggered speculation …

The Isthmus For Christmas

The Isthmus For Christmas

Editor’s Note: I’m still looking for News and other items ABOUT classmates.   Given gaps, though, I’m sharing stories, poems, essays, and other works FROM you.  This one’s a Christmas-time adventure story. See also Michael’s memoir about 1965, 1966, 1967.

Back in the 1950’s, when I was a skinny little kid with a preternatural love of geography, I used to spend long half-hours staring at the maps of the world and imagining myself somewhere out there. … One of my favorite romantic places to imagine myself being was on the Pan American Highway, that thin red line on […]

Class Colloquium #12:  Losing my mind … and my good health

Class Colloquium #12:  Losing my mind … and my good health

Something on the order of half of us will deal with dementia — either our own or our spouse’s. Class Secretary Dr. Art Segal and Class Council member Dr. Ken Davis have arranged for two experts to join us for a close look at the disease, what can be done to forestall or attenuate it and what else we should know.  Their presentation will be followed by your questions and candid conversation.

Yale’s Grand Strategy Program Has Always Been Broken

Yale’s Grand Strategy Program Has Always Been Broken

Op-Ed in Foreign Poilicy magazine:The university set out to train the next generation of U.S. leaders—but it often failed to educate them.

Yale professor Beverly Gage has been praised widely for defending academic freedom by announcing her resignation from the directorship of Yale’s Program in Grand Strategy. But there are more politically urgent, and arguably profound, questions at issue here beyond professors’ right to design their courses free of outside interference.

Yale posts 40.2% return on endowment for 20-21 fiscal year

Yale posts 40.2% return on endowment for 20-21 fiscal year

from Yale Daily News Yale’s endowment reaches $42.3 billion, posting highest rate of return since 2000 The endowment had a rate of return of 40.2 percent, on par with peer institutions and marking a significant increase from Yale’s endowment growth in recent years ZHEMIN SHAO 3:36 PM, OCT 14, 2021 STAFF REPORTER   Courtesy of Amay Tewari   The University’s endowment soared to $42.3 billion during the 2021 fiscal year, the Yale Investments Office announced Thursday…

Rep. John Yarmuth, chairman of House Budget Committee, will not run for reelection

Rep. John Yarmuth, chairman of House Budget Committee, will not run for reelection

from WaPo:   Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), chairman of the House Budget Committee, announced Tuesday that he will not run for reelection in 2022, citing his desire to spend more time with his family.

Yarmuth has represented the Louisville-based 3rd District of Kentucky since 2007 and has led the powerful budget panel since 2019. He becomes the 10th House Democrat who will not seek reelection in 2022.

Leader of Prestigious Yale Grand Strategy Program Resigns, Citing Donor Pressure

Leader of Prestigious Yale Grand Strategy Program Resigns, Citing Donor Pressure

from The NY Times, The historian Beverly Gage, who has run the Grand Strategy course since 2017, says the university failed to stand up for academic freedom amid inappropriate efforts to influence the curriculum. By Jennifer Schuessler Sept. 30, 2021 The Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy is one of Yale University’s most celebrated and prestigious programs. Over the course of a year, it allows a select group of about two dozen students to immerse themselves in…

Is it time for alumni action to counter legacy admissions?

Is it time for alumni action to counter legacy admissions?

from The Boston Globe as Boycott targets college admissions boost given to children of alumni at Harvard, other elite schools By Rebecca Ostriker | September 25, 2021 A national group is launching a campaign to end “legacy” preferences, using an alumni donations boycott Viet Nguyen quickly realized what he was up against when he applied to Brown University as a high school senior. The California native, a child of Vietnamese immigrants, had top grades and…

Yale student’s winning run on ‘Jeopardy!’ makes history

Yale student’s winning run on ‘Jeopardy!’ makes history

from The Seattle Times By Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press  |  Sep. 25, 2021  NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Amodio’s historic run on “Jeopardy!” has now netted him more than $1 million in non-tournament play, making him the third person in the show’s history to pass that mark. The only other contestants to win more than $1 million in regular season games are Ken Jennings, whose 74-game streak netted $2,520,700, and James Holzhauer, who earned…

A Classmate’s Vietnam Era – and Ours

A Classmate’s Vietnam Era – and Ours

Elsewhere Than Vietnam, a historical novel-cum-memoir by classmate David Schwartz, is a fictionalized account of his experience as an Army language specialist and interrogator for military intelligence.

As both a novel and a memoir, Elsewhere takes us to places where Dave served and wandered, from the Army’s language school in California to Munich and even to an Israeli kibbutz.