Mayday 1970

Mayday 1970

A number of us classmates were in New Haven on the weekend of May 1, 1970, be it for grad school, working, finishing our undergrad work or just visiting.  The rest of us read about it.

It was definitely a scary time — three weeks before, violent protests erupted at Harvard and major destruction followed.  The Weather Underground promised to destroy Yale, and the announcement of a […]

Mt. Sinai Co-workers Remember Dr. Richard Mackay

Mt. Sinai Co-workers Remember Dr. Richard Mackay

Editor’s Note: This set of remembrances was compiled by Dick Mackay’s colleagues at Mt. Sinai.

I asked people to share their thoughts and memories with me last night.  We live in a world where we often get the message that you have to be assertive and boisterous, sometimes to the point where being self-serving seems to be encouraged.  Richard Mackay proves that even in a place like New York City and in a field like […]

The Skeptical Pilgrim: Melville’s Clarel

The Skeptical Pilgrim: Melville’s Clarel

In October 1856, Herman Melville left the tinted hills of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for a lengthy excursion to Europe and the Holy Land. Just thirty-seven years old, Melville was a half-broken man. He suffered from headaches, sciatica, eyestrain, crushed hopes — in a word, burnout. His epic Moby-Dick had failed to catch on in 1851, and his next novel, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, was head-scratching at best, a laughing stock at worst. Subsequent […]

How to Keep Consumers’ Lights On: Send the Electric Bill to the Feds

How to Keep Consumers’ Lights On: Send the Electric Bill to the Feds

Editor’s Note: This reprint from Barron’s is another op-ed from a classmate, circulated for your consideration. Please send any recent op-eds by any classmate to support@Yale1969.org.

One economic reality is inescapable: The rents and bill payments of one American family are the income of another, and this circular flow has been broken. Circular flow needs to be re-established quickly and efficiently, or the loss will be magnified as liquidity issues are transmitted throughout the economy.

Richard Tedlow on Charisma, Steve Jobs & Donald Trump: (a podcast)

Richard Tedlow on Charisma, Steve Jobs & Donald Trump: (a podcast)

Here is a podcast interview of our classmate Richard Tedlow, by Chris Yeh, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor.  Those of you who attended the 50th reunion may have seen Richard’s outstanding session on Thursday … demonstrating the “Socratic method” he perfected as an immensely popular HBS professor and later on the faculty at Apple…

“Group Email” now available to any ’69 Group.  Want one?

“Group Email” now available to any ’69 Group. Want one?

Recently I’ve attended a handful of organizational Zoom meetings for some “Shared Interest Groups” (SIGs).  Each of these SIGs needed an easy way to communicate within the group.  The answer is a group email address.

Concurrently other groups of classmates needed group email, too — the Class Council, a senior society … even my roommate and some of our friends.  🙂
Yale1969.org email now supports group email.  Any group of classmates can have a group email account on Yale1969.org. Want one?

Yale historian Grandin wins 2020 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction

Yale historian Grandin wins 2020 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction

from news.yale.edu May. 4th, 2020 Greg Grandin ’99 Ph.D., professor of history in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, has won a Pulitzer Prize in the general nonfiction category for his book “The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America” (Metropolitan Books). Grandin’s book was one…

Fair Sustainable Society SIG Holds First Meeting; Plans Next One

Fair Sustainable Society SIG Holds First Meeting; Plans Next One

In early April, I announced an interest in assembling some classmates to try to create a fair, sustainable society. See Yalies for a Fair, Sustainable Society.
We met by Zoom on April 15th. The group of attendees had broad interests and the kind of depth that reminds you how much talent was around us as undergrads … often without our appreciation. At the meeting, we […]

Yale study: Selfish people misremember their own past selfishness, thus like selves

Yale study: Selfish people misremember their own past selfishness, thus like selves

from fastcompany.com Yale study: Selfish people misremember their own past selfishness, thus like selves By Arianne Cohe Selfish assholes do not remember their own selfish behavior, according to a new study out of Yale University that helpfully answers your pivotal question: How can he live with himself? He can quite easily, due to a self-protective trick of memory: Selfish…

Dial It Back Or Die

Dial It Back Or Die

Editor’s Note: This report describes a podcast series created by a classmate.
I’ve been listening to this podcast for a few months now. I’ll do a full review next month, but I can tell you already that it is very rich, deeply researched and seriously worth your time, especially if you enjoy new integrations of history and science toward a theory that explains both the current dysfunctions and a promising path ahead. Click through to read a more complete description.

Saliva samples preferable to deep nasal swabs for testing COVID-19

Saliva samples preferable to deep nasal swabs for testing COVID-19

As testing for the novel coronavirus continues to scale up, a new study finds that saliva samples are a “preferable” indicator for infection than the deep nasal swabs now widely used.
The study led by the Yale School of Public Health — and conducted at Yale New Haven Hospital with 44 inpatients and 98 health care workers — found that saliva samples taken from just inside the mouth provided greater detection sensitivity and consistency throughout the course of an infection than the broadly recommended nasopharyngeal (NP) approach. The study also concluded that there was less variability in results with the self-sample collection of saliva.

Do you podcast?

Do you podcast?

I love podcasts.  I listen to them when walking.  I listened to them when driving, before being grounded by stay-at-home orders, that is.
I’m curious, though: What’s YOUR experience with podcasts?  Are you a frequent listener?  A podcaster?
 Are podcasts moving into the mainstream far enough to reach educated Boomers like us?

To that end, please answer the following 2-minute survey.  I’ll “close” the survey and […]

The Meaning of Yale for the Class of 1969—One Man’s View

The Meaning of Yale for the Class of 1969—One Man’s View

Why is it that the four years from our arrival at Yale early in September 1965, to our graduation on June 9, 1969, have proven so important to so many of us? Most of us will be seventy-two years old in 2019, the year of our fiftieth reunion. Those four years we spent in college constitute a mere one-eighteenth of our lives. Why so important? Why is it that today you can initiate a conversation with a classmate with whom you may not have spoken in a half-century, and it will be as easy to talk to him as it was when we were undergraduates together?