Download PDF - University of Rochester Libraries

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Ethel Bloom Gorham, '31, has not only done plenty of thinking about her husband's going to war, but has written her thoughts down in helpful form for sisters in the same boat, in a new book, "So Your Husband's Gone to War." The book was reviewed in the NEw YORK TIMES magazine section on October 5th, and was acclaimed for its humor and common sense. More recently, LIFE, in its December 21st issue, illustrated the major recommendations, using twenty photographs spread over six LIFE-sized pages. Its editorial comment was that the author "reviews all the practical devices which sensible women have always known" to resist loneliness and the other tribulations of temporary wartime widowhood. Ethel writes with an authoritative background, for her husband is a member of the R.C.A.F., she has a small child, and she is now working as the head fashion writer of a smart 5th Avenue department store. Included in the fifteen chapters are her comments on the problems a war wife has to face, and competent, level-headed suggestions on meeting them. Humor, too, has its place 20 W. BERT WOODAMS Anthracite • Bituminous Coke • Fuel Oil Thermostats 785 SOUTH AVENUE Monroe 4300 throughout the book and she deal s most effectively with the matter of telling an admiral from a head waiter and other such essentials. "What you want," claims Ethel, "is a grain of humor, two grains of salt, and a barrel of routine." THE REVIEW has many uses it is known, but never before has it found itselfin the capacity ofthe arbitrator. The occasion was the Thanksgiving recess . New alumnae teachers from the Class of '42 had gravitated to Judy Furman Harris' for their first real gossip session since graduation. June Baetzel, Betty Corbett, Winnie Martin, Ruth Chapin, Mimie Senzel -a goodly gathering. Conversation got so involved, so many talking about so many different things, so rapidly and so loudly, that they finally had to call a halt to the whole thing. Then using THE REVIEW as the source book, each member holding the floor was checked for accuracy. Whispering and interrupting were dealt with severely. Wonderful thing a college education. The traditional Boar's Head Dinner, held the evening of December 10th, emphasized the fact that the College for Men of the University of Rochester is a singing college. The Glee Club, national champions in 1942, was impressive in its program of Christmas carols; but the entire company of students, who packed Todd Union to pack their stomachs with Boar's Head viands, sang throughout the long meal with an unstudied fervor that was delightful to hear. Glee Club members, in authentic mediaeval costumes, acted as waiters, and spiced with song the courses of the feast; they brought in the soup, the boar's head, and the flaming pudding to the accompaniment of chanted verses, some in Latin, some in English. The Boar's Head Dinner is the undergraduates' own function. Some members of the faculty were invited, and they serve as carvers at the various tables. Occasionally an alumnus is bidden to the ceremony; this year Ezra Hale, '16, president of the Associated Alumni, was thus honored. Also at the "high table" were President Alan Valentine, Assistant Football Coach Bill Hubbard, soon to leave for Army service, and Lieutenant Leroy M. Deering, USNR, one of the officers in charge of the Navy unit now housed at the River Campus while its members study photography at the Eastman Kodak Company. The dinner has been an annual preholiday affair at the University for nine years, and has become one of the most popular events at the River Campus. It was borrowed from the Middle Ages, when long and elaborate banquets were among the major Christmas observances. There is a legend that Oxford University students originated the boar's head feature of the feast to celebrate the deliverance of one of their fellows, who was attacked by a wild boar while strolling in the forest. He was reading Aristotle when the beast charged, and he saved himself by thrusting his book down the boar's throat. The boar was unable to swallow the Aristotlean philosophy, and choked to death. Fame of the Boar's Head Dinner has traveled far. Fox Movietone wanted to film it for newsreel release, and asked Armin Bender, '33, head of the University News Bureau, to arrange a special rehearsal, some weeks in advance, so that the film could be distributed in time for the holidays. Movietone wanted a complete rehearsal, too, with real pork and fixings being consumed by several hundred students. Even Armin quailed at the task, and suggested that the 1941 event be photographed for distribution in 1942. So far, this proposal hasn't been adopted. Wilma Lord Perkins, '18, made radio broadcasting her main activity ROCHESTER ALUMNI-ALUMNAE REVIEW
when she was in New York City recently, for on November 27th she was a guest on "Information Please," and on November 28th did some recording for short wave broadcasting for the Office of War Information. The first and only graduate of the University ever to be invited to participate on the program, she reports that "Information Please" is really completely unrehearsed. The guest star arrives at the Radio City broadcasting studios a short time before the program goes on the air. About 1,500 people are sitting in the audience and standing on the fringes. All of the people concerned with the program, from the program sponsor to the tobacco auctioneer, bustle about the platform. A few minutes before broadcasting the experts run through about six questions to familiarize the guests with the procedure, and then they are on the air. On the program with Wilma were Franklin P. Adams, John Kiernan, and the other guest, Leon Henderson. It was tremendously interesting to meet Mr. Adams and Mr. Kiernan after hearing them on the air, she reports, and fascinating to see Clifton Fadiman in action. Two microphones are shared by the four experts so each has to be on his or her toes to respond to a question, taking command of the mike before anyone else slips the answer through. In spite of a bad head cold at the time, Wilma claims that it was not nerve wracking. It was a great relief to all alumnae and alumni listening to find that not one encyclopedia or war bond had been paid out during the program, which proves that even in realms other than food and vitamins, Wilma was right in there with the experts. The next day she made a record in Carnegie Hall that will be" broadcast by short wave to Austraila, translated for broadcasting to French West Africa, and used for rebroadcasting all around the world. The Office of War Information is sponsoring a tremendous educational DECEMBER 1942-JANUARY 1943 program through the world. Questions come in from people in all parts of the globe that the OWl has their experts tackle. Wilma's question was "Do Americans really live entirely on food from tin cans?' , Some people may think questions of that type are simple and silly, but they are the ones that peoples of the world wonder about. The OWl is attempting to break down prejudices against the American people and teach others what Americans are really like. Her answer dispelled the idea that all the food we eat is from tin cans, and showed how important such foods are at this time. She told how most of the food we were sending to starved countries and to the very peoples listening to the broadcast could be sent only in tin cans. She further pointed out that the nutritious elements of the food could be much better preserved by using the tin cans. The recording for these short wave broadcasts is all done at Carnegie Hall. To get into the building you have to show your badge to the guards. The offices are regular bee hives and the desks are so close together that one literally squeezes about the office. Cots have been set up in the building for the staff to catch cat-naps, for some of them work amazing hours since the broadcasting goes on twenty-four hours a day. It was a thrilling thing to have experienced, according to Wilma. On top of all of that excitement, the "Fanny Farmer Junior Cook Book" came off the presses the week before. For the benefit of younger alumnae, Wilma Lord Perkins is the wife of the nephew of the Fanny Merrit Farmer who established the Boston CookingI School and who published the famous cook book. Wilma is now the editor of the booK:. and revises it constantly to keep it current. The "junior" she has written specifically for children over ten, but not for adults. It assumes that the child knows nothing about cooking. Basic rules of good cooking, terms, a few tricks of the trade, some labor saving devices, and a table of equivalents and oven heats are included in addition to about 120 basic recipes. The book has been cleverly illustrated by Martha Powell Setchell and will fill a long needed gap for youngsters who are not quite ready for the "pinch of salt" theory. Japanese beetles make life miserable for gardeners in the New York Long Island area, devouring vegetables and choice flowers with true Nipponese ferocity. Elmer (Bud) Walzer, '23, financial editor for the United Press, has developed a successful counter-attack against the voracious Jap menace; he plants Nicotiana freely in his Westchester County garden. Nicotiana, a relative of the commercial tobacco plant, is an attractive annual with pink or white flowers, and an odor pleasant to human nostrils; the Japanese beetles don't like it, however, and not only leave it alone, but make only half-hearted assaults upon neighboring foliage. College professors won resounding praise from Henry Seidel Canby, associate editor of THE SATURDAY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, when he spoke before the Alumni Association of Greater New York on December 7th. Because they know the past, he said, they can forecast the future more accurately than members of other professions. A study made of the writings and addresses of various groups in the 1918-1942 era, he told the graduates, shows that the professors scored highest in the accuracy of their predictions in the field of international affairs. Second best as forecasters were foreign correspondents. Business men and bankers were a poor third, while professional military and naval leaders were at the bottom of the list. 21
Page 3 and 4: P). eK J..\ lUlle..1 'iVrr..1 ). PU
Page 5 and 6: THE ROCHESTER ALUMNI-ALUMNAE REVIEW
Page 7 and 8: Humanities Key to 'Peace and Freedo
Page 9: industrial nurses were doing and sa
Page 12: Wide Opportunities for Service Foun
Page 15 and 16: ALUM THE ROCHESTER I-ALUMNAE REVIEW
Page 17 and 18: A male student entering the College
Page 19: Colgate Swimmers Take Bad Beating A
Page 24: Second Lieut. Harry M. Taillie rece

Download PDF - University of Rochester Libraries

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?