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You are to be commended for publishing Steve Olson’s thoughtful study on alcohol (“Half Full and Half Empty,” November/December). I have been a regular in Alcoholics Anonymous for almost 20 years. My favorite AA slogan is: “We come from everywhere. We come from jail and we come from Yale.” I had the dubious distinction of being in both places on the same night. As an undergraduate, I started vociferously heckling a Broadway tryout from the Shubert balcony. I was arrested by New Haven’s finest and carted off. I subsequently found a New Haven lawyer who “got me off.” In his office, I vividly remember him telling me the bad things he had done as an undergraduate. I felt like I had gone through some sort of rite of passage, but what he should have said was this: “Son, you have a serious problem. What are you going to do about it?” Neither he, nor anyone in the dean’s office when my adventures became known, offered this advice. Would I have stopped drinking then if encouraged to do so? I don’t know, but I do know that a lot of people in their 20s are coming in to AA these days. In my view, Yale’s priority should be to identify, to the extent possible, problem drinkers on campus and seek to intervene. Alcoholism is a dreadful disease. If Yale can help just a few people early on, it would be providing a valuable service.
Steve Olson’s excellent piece on the excessive use of alcohol at Yale, on other college campuses, and in our society in general was an intriguing choice for a cover article. I found his use of personal anecdotes coupled with reports from the research community to be effective in striking the right balance and tone for this complicated and sensitive topic. As a clinical physician who specializes in treating both adult and adolescent substance abuse problems, I did note that the information given on pharmacologic modalities available to treat alcoholism could have been more up to date. Specifically, while there was information given on both Antabuse and naltrexone, there was no mention of acamprosate, which was made available in the U.S. in early 2005. In studies this medication has shown significant clinical benefit in decreasing alcoholics' reported cravings for drinking and signs of “post-acute” withdrawal symptoms in the weeks and months following cessation. Its use has also been associated with longer and more stable periods of abstinence. More generally, readers, especially those with children at or below college age, should be aware of the growing epidemic of illegal drug use in adolescents. Drugs that in my time at Yale were unheard of have now become widely available to kids in high schools and even middle schools around the country, especially in urban areas. The most problematic and widespread of these drugs include methamphetamines and prescription narcotic pain relievers. My point in mentioning drugs is not to imply that alcohol abuse is somehow less severe a problem; on the contrary, alcohol causes much more morbidity and mortality than any other drug besides tobacco in our society. Nonetheless, I suspect that many readers of this magazine may have no personal experience with the types of substances which have at this point entered our adolescent population’s everyday reality. Indeed, most parents' experiences are likely to be consistent with Olson’s recollection of bygone college days of binge drinking as “benign” and a source of nostalgia, an attitude which for many may stand in the way of recognizing a problem in their own child. Parents need to be vigilant about regularly screening their kids for substance abuse of all types, and to intervene quickly if a problem is suspected by seeking professional help. The consequences of ignorance and/or denial are too great for the affected individual, the family, and society in general not to do so.
Steve Olson’s article provided an excellent overview of many issues, but it may also have inadvertently reinforced stereotypes about individuals with alcoholism. The description of patients seen outside of the Connecticut Mental Health Center—patients who suffer from chronic, persistent, and severe psychiatric disorders and who may also be dependent on alcohol or tobacco—does not accurately portray the more general population of individuals with alcohol problems. Approximately 8.5 percent of the U.S. adult population, representing 17.6 million Americans, meets criteria for an alcohol related diagnosis. For most, their difficulties with alcohol may be invisible to all but their closest family members. Unfortunately, many never receive treatment because of a number of barriers discussed in the article, including the stigma associated with the disease. The availability of effective pharmacotherapy has the potential to alleviate one of these barriers, access to care, by enlisting primary health care providers into the treatment system. This setting may also encourage earlier detection and treatment with the goal of reducing the overall burden of this disease, in much the same way that early and effective treatment of hypertension can reduce the risk of stroke. At the same time, there is clear evidence that specific behavioral interventions provided by specialists are also effective and should be made more available.
Mother Yale Some of the articles in the November/December Forum (“Mother Yale”) take one illogical conclusion, tack on another, and then finish off with a stern warning for women not to engage in any happy fantasies about family life lest their careers be hopelessly derailed. Louise Story almost certainly misconstrued the responses of Yale women—planning to cut back or stop work entirely (“for at least a few years”) does NOT constitute planning to suspend or end one’s career. Lenore Skenazy takes a giant leap from this to saying that Yale women think women with careers can’t be good mothers. Neither seems aware of the transforming nature of parenthood. When faced with the choices of how to spend the time allotted to one’s life, we all have to make decisions. Yale women generally have more choices than most. Perhaps, being young, ambitious, and idealistic, they imagine that they can have meaningful careers that contribute to society with an 80 percent time commitment instead of 90 percent. Frances Rosenbluth is right, women’s careers do take a hit when we take anything less than a career-above-all-else approach. But it shouldn’t be that way—for women or men—and that’s what the discussion should be about.
Regarding your “Mother Yale” article: motherhood is a unique experience and different from fatherhood. I am divorced and I have two children ages 17 and 11. I have been a lawyer in private practice since I left Yale in 1980. I made partner in 1986, the ultimate goal of most attorneys, and walked away to take two years off when my second child was born in 1994. I now have a solo practice and have just this year started working a “full-time,” 35-to-40-hour week. I truly enjoy my work, but I would not have given up the extra time I have spent with my children over the last 11 years. Am I making less money? Sure, but we live comfortably. Giving up paid work, working part-time, or choosing jobs with less demanding hours is a rational trade-off for many women who have multiple goals in life. Ambition for professional success is not the only worthy goal in life. Ambition for a rich family life in which both parents and children fully participate is of great value. The fact that I even have to say that is a sad commentary on our societal values.
An old man’s reflections on the alarmed response in the “Mother Yale” article to the “stunning expose in the New York Times”—that 60 percent of Yale coeds intend to cut back on work or stay at home after they have children—probably don’t count for much, but some response is called for. The statement, “Only when men are equally likely to be seen with banana puree on their suit lapels will we know we have arrived,” seems to summarize the erroneous tenor of the article. That is simply never going to happen. Men and women are not the same, and while Father is important, there is no replacement for Mother. The article tries to present strategies to obtain that politically correct outcome by making a number of incorrect assumptions. Having a great career is not the only way to succeed in life. We all have to make choices, both men and women, about the balance between career and home. Most of us know that home produces much more happiness than our ephemeral careers. Somehow the article made me think of the lonely, dying professor in the play Wit, as an example of what one would give up putting career first. If you define all your core relationships as subservient to your “success,” at the end you will reap what you sow and your family, if any, will just be waiting for the will to be read to see what they get. On the other hand, if you go for it, you may live your life with an adoring spouse, surrounded by loving children and armfuls of beautiful grandchildren. I assure you that this is possible. It is just flat wrong that you can’t be both a mother and take some time off during the crucial years of a child’s development and have them still be the first priority after you go back to work … and work successfully. Ask Congressman Nancy Pelosi, who has five kids, or Margaret Thatcher, or Meg Whitman—or my wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Life is all about choices, and the choice to be a mother to her children is not more dangerous to a woman’s happiness than not making the most money or having the most exalted title or publishing the most academic papers. I was not upset by the New York Times article at all and am delighted that Yale coeds show more common sense than their elder sisters.
I don’t know if a Yale spouse has the right to voice an opinion in this forum, but I will dare to do so in the hope a Brown affiliation counts as close enough. Evidently a group of Yale coeds have set the intellectual community astir because they’ve perceived a fundamental truth about America: our children are expected to raise themselves. Where are the federal programs that mandate day care in the office place, paid parental leave, or funding for in-home child care? Why is it too often relegated to the recently immigrated and the disenfranchised working poor? Why aren’t our public schools providing after-school care? These young women choose to define achievement by how we provide for future generations, and not by attaining partnership or tenure or becoming a CEO. If more people thought like them, the garb of politics could be cast off. Humanism would prevail. Maybe even men (Yale-educated at that) would be proud to work as stay-home dads, because we will all come to understand—the Emperors and Empresses have no clothes, and in the end it is our children who will lead.
Reducing greenhouse gases Congratulations to Yale for taking the initial step to cut greenhouse gas emissions (Light & Verity, November/December). It is a step in the right direction and keeps Yale as a bellwether for change. However, I would encourage Yale to take the next step by making investments in the area of clean technologies, which includes clean energy, clean air, and clean water. By fostering the continued development, advancement, and reduction of cost of technologies and advanced materials in these areas, Yale can have an even greater impact far beyond New Haven. There is the potential for very positive industry and societal shifts. This bold step would truly establish Yale as a leader in environmental performance among universities and endowments.
Platters Forgive me for taking advantage of the hospitality of your letters column to highlight a small but intriguing culinary point arising from the fascinating article by Anne Midgette '86 about Yale’s collection of historic sound recordings (“Aural History,” November/December). The coloratura soprano Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931) in fact gave her name to at least four separate dishes, sauces, or ways with food, of which the most famous is Peche Melba or Peche a la Melba. The dessert was invented by the great chef de cuisine Auguste Escoffier in 1892 for a dinner party given in Melba’s honor by her soon to be ex-lover, Louis-Phillippe, Duc d'Orleans, at the Savoy Hotel in London. The prototype consisted of the halves of a peach mounted on a swan made of ice—Melba was starring as Elsa in Lohengrin—the whole perched atop vanilla ice cream, raspberry puree, and surrounded by an aureole of spun sugar. The highly versatile raspberry puree was presumably known separately as “Sauce Melba” from that point on. Escoffier also invented very thin, dry Melba Toast, which he offered to the singer during her convalescence at the Savoy in 1897 after she had returned from an arduous Northern American tour. The name was suggested by Escoffier’s friend, the great hotelier Cesar Ritz. I have not been able to find a plausible explanation in the operatic repertoire for why small cuts accompanied by tomatoes stuffed with diced chicken and mushrooms bound with a veloute sauce are known as, for example, Lamb Noisettes Melba. I should add that Melba, who was famous for using bad language, took her name from the city of Melbourne in Australia, where she was born in 1861. Bon appetit.
Wax and vinyl are only the first and third of the major materials from which phonograph records have been made. Your article gives no indication that you have ever heard of shellac—the dominant material during the entire 78 rpm era of the early to mid-twentieth century. All of the classic recordings referred to or pictured in the article would have been manufactured on shellac, which is not a subset of vinyl, but a completely different material. Vinyl did not appear until the beginning of the long-play era around 1950 when it made possible the 45 rpm and 33 rpm recordings that supplanted the 78, just as digital media would almost entirely supersede the LP later in the century. Richard Hall ’71MDiv We used “wax” and “vinyl” in their colloquial sense of pre-CD disc recordings generally. But you are correct that they are chemically inaccurate. Curator Richard Warren explains: “The masters of early disc recordings were cut into blanks of a waxy compound. The earliest pressings made from these recordings were on a hard rubber compound. Later, most were made on ‘shellac’—an informal term, since shellac was only one ingredient, and not the major one. Vinyl and related compounds came into use in the 1930s. Most discs shown in the article were on ‘shellac,’ but the picture discs were not, and Horowitz’s Carnegie Hall performance is either aluminum or glass coated with lacquer.”—Eds.
You say tappit… The November/December issue contains letters that confirm certain stereotypes of Yalies. We hope that Michard O'Brien '51 will offer a little forgiveness to Yale Alumni Magazine writer Warren Goldstein '73, '83PhD, for calling Click and Clack the Tappit Brothers—rather than the correct Tappet Brothers—when he finds out that many National Public Radio stations make the same mistake in their publicity for Car Talk. If Mr. O'Brien ever decides to listen to the show he will discover that it is as much a humor show as a show about auto repair. Mr. O'Brien might then be able to divine the meaning of “tappit” as referring to the way mechanics fix a car—they tap it. Then there’s the letter from Patrina Huff '97, who notes that she will soon have her doctorate and be able to conduct more nuanced research in more locations than Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres '81, '86JD, was able to accomplish. It is nice that she already has funding that many researchers never obtain in their whole careers. Will she tell us her secret? More seriously, perhaps she should spend some time earning a living as a cab driver before pronouncing that tipping is unnecessary.
International needs Yale College dean Peter Salovey finds no cause for concern in new undergraduate admissions dean Jeff Brenzel’s lack of experience in the admissions field (“Light and Verity,” November/December 2005). Salovey may be right. A greater cause for concern may be Yale’s decision to fill the admissions post with an individual whose long, varied, and impressive résumé seems to include no substantive international experience. President Levin has often invoked his own (rather mechanical and uninspired) determination to internationalize Yale College. There is, too, the likelihood that many of the students whose admission to Yale Brenzel is to oversee will spend significant parts of their academic and later professional careers abroad. Further, assessing the applications of students from overseas demands the ability to understand educational and social contexts very different from that of the United States. Extensive experience outside the United States makes that task far easier. One wishes Dr. Brenzel luck in mastering these challenging dimensions of his new brief.
Spell check I was delighted to see that President Levin chose the Pissarro/Cézanne exhibit at the MOMA as the inspiration for his address to the incoming students. But I had just chastised my chairs for having misspelled Caribbean on the title of a course I’ll be teaching in the spring, when I saw that the same mistake appeared in President’s Levin piece. We should set that record straight: Caribbean is spelled with one “r” and two “b"s. We regret the error.—Eds.
That sinking feeling Regarding the legend that the Sterling Memorial Library had to be modified because the architect forgot to calculate the weight of the books (Letters, November/December): I hadn’t heard that before, but I was told the exact same story about the Cambridge University Library in 1977. According to Snopes.com, a website devoted to exploring urban legends, there are many accounts of sinking libraries, as well as tales of gyms descending into the earth because an architect failed to factor in the weight of a full swimming pool or dorms disappearing because no one included students in the load-bearing equations. One instance of a truly sinking library that urban-legend detectives have uncovered was in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. But in that case, the building’s problems were apparently caused by unstable soil, not heavy books.—Eds.
A perfect pickle Madeline Farbman’s article “The Real Dill” (Where They Are Now, November/December) really interested me! Rarely do I read an article in the magazine, but hers hit home, and I enjoyed every sentence. I’ve been hunting for the perfect dill pickle since I last tasted one in Daloniga, Georgia, 35 years ago. (Note: The pickler included dill flowers in her jar, also!) I will order Rick’s Picks dills so that I might chance to rediscover the magic taste that I miss and forever have been seeking.
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