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Letters As a member of one of the Olde Curmudgeon Classes at Yale, I have spent the past three weeks, since the arrival of the June issue of YAM, attempting to marshal my thoughts of righteous indignation at the very idea of featuring an actress on the cover our alumni magazine. Yet, as the days pass, I grow more and more in my admiration of the intelligent beauty of Meryl Streep, and I am forced to conclude that protest would be stupid and futile. It is, in brief and in one reader’s opinion, the loveliest cover ever to grace your publication. The Campus The University Dramatic Association announced last week that it would give as its Christmas play this year T. W. Robertson’s military comedy, Ours. E. M. Woolley ’11, who produced An Ideal Husband and Troilus and Cressida with unusual success last year, is in charge of the production. The play deals, in an amusing way, with the transformation of a London dandy into a first-class fighting man in the Crimean war. At the University “Lottery—Nov. 25, 1889: A Loving Fellow Creature.” The inscription was weathered but still legible on a small flat stone marking a grave in the lot behind Yale’s personnel office at 143 Elm St. “Lottery” was one of a series of pet monkeys belonging to Justine Ingersoll, who once resided at the address. According to legend, the deed by which the property was transferred to Yale specified that the grave should never be violated. But in December, workmen removed the stone and explored the grave for remains. Only a small broken bone, of unknown origin, was found. The headstone was relocated at the rear of the lot, and workmen turned the rest of the site into a parking area. The Editor’s Window Although both words and music of “Goodnight, Harvard” are attributed to Douglas Moore ’15, we were recently tipped off to the fact that Moore had a collaborator—a Mr. Philip Mechem. Scenting a contribution to Yale memorabilia, we took the liberty of dropping Mechem a line. He replied: “Doug Moore and I were intimate friends all through our Hotchkiss days. He told me he had the idea of writing the song ‘Goodnight, Harvard’ and had sketched out a few lines and most of the tune. I took over, and, as far as I know, all of the lines, except the title, are my contribution to Americana.” At the time the song was written, Mechem shunned all credit. You can appreciate why when we tell you that Philip Mechem is a Harvard man. |
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