February 2019 – Volume 51 Issue 4

Editors’ Note — Volume 51, Issue 4

Dear readers, The time? April 2015. The place? Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Dazed by the floodlights overhead and the pearly-white smiles of our high-achieving peers, we wandered the extracurricular bazaar at Bulldog Days. Ballroom dancers besieged us. We could have become stars of the polo team. Every single improv group wanted us, bad. Instead, we each … Continue reading Editors’ Note — Volume 51, Issue 4

Dear readers, The time? April 2015. The place? Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Dazed by the floodlights overhead and the pearly-white smiles of our high-achieving peers, we wandered the extracurricular bazaar at Bulldog Days. Ballroom dancers besieged us. We could have become stars of the polo team. Every single improv group wanted us, bad. Instead, we each ended up at a table in the back staffed by scruffy-looking representatives of an unregistered organization who had snuck their way in. The nice people at The Magazine About Yale. . . Read more

Various Authors

Five Beers Deep at the Union Station Sbarro

A discount at a train station offers an evening of intoxication.

Illustration by Merritt Barnwell. Right outside the Sbarro, near the bottom of the escalator in New Haven’s Union Station, tucked around a corner like a rarely-played side quest in a video game, is a sign from another universe. It says, “Buy 4 Beers, Get the 5th for a Penny.” Now, I can imagine a universe in which I would order one beer at the Union Station Sbarro. A universe in which it’s a quarter past five, say, and my train home is delayed by yet. . . Read more

Mariah Kreutter

Facing the Flood

As seas rise, New Haven enacts an ambitious plan to combat climate change.

Illustration by Merritt Barnwell. “This house is 115 years old,” Sal DeCola said as he guided me into a bright sunroom overlooking deep blue waters. It was one o’clock in the afternoon, clear skies, and low tide. We stood in DeCola’s home in Morris Cove, a neighborhood on the east bank of New Haven Harbor that he represents as an alder. The waves pushed up against a dark concrete barrier extending below the other dozen houses along the beach. DeCola patted the wall of the. . . Read more

Sarah Adams

In the Red

Can Ned Lamont save Connecticut from a staggering budget crisis?

On September 17, at the Shubert Theatre, two blocks from Old Campus, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont took the stage for his second general election debate. Dressed in a crisp suit, not a hair astray, Lamont looked equal parts politician and businessman. Standing in front of televisions emblazoned with a large American flag, he battled Republican nominee Bob Stefanowski for almost an hour. Lamont fielded jab after jab about his privileged upbringing and his similarity to former governor Dannel Malloy, who left office with a. . . Read more

Conor Johnson

what you told me about the fig tree

first the story: mark and the others chanced upon the tree, but it did not bear fruit. so the disciples went hungry, and jesus cursed the tree, and the fig tree withered and died. second: you are the impotent tree, the circumstances the winter, and i am mark, who will not be fed. you tell … Continue reading what you told me about the fig tree

first the story: mark and the others chanced upon the tree, but it did not bear fruit. so the disciples went hungry, and jesus cursed the tree, and the fig tree withered and died. second: you are the impotent tree, the circumstances the winter, and i am mark, who will not be fed. you tell me at some point you will bear fruit but just not now. the time is not right, and the shape of our surroundings is not right, and your mind is. . . Read more

Rachel Koh

Mind Matter

Yale neuroscientists are probing the human brain for the secrets of consciousness.

Photo by Yehia Elkersh. Kate Christison-Lagay grabbed a rubber brain off a countertop in the basement of Yale School of Medicine’s library and pried its two halves apart so that we could have a look inside. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Hal Blumenfeld’s research lab, Christison-Lagay studies sensory perception, which she and her team believe can provide a model for human consciousness. She speaks seriously and energetically about brains, and clearly knows her way around one. After separating one of the lobes, she pointed. . . Read more

Matthew Kleiner

How to Solve Everything

Yale’s effective altruists strive for an ethical lifestyle.

Illustration by Sam Oldshue. Frankie Andersen-Wood stood beside a projected cartoon of a light bulb with its filament twisted into the shape of a heart. In front of her, five Yale students sat along one side of a seminar table. Upbeat pop music played in the background. “Effective altruism isn’t something you can just learn about in two hours,” said Andersen-Wood, co-president of Yale Effective Altruism (YEA), going off-script from her presentation at YEA’s spring information session. She spoke quickly and in a soft English. . . Read more

Eli Mennerick

A Good Hat is Hard to Find

New Haven’s lone hat shop recalls a bygone era.

Illustration by Merritt Barnwell. “A hat is a timeless piece,” Ben DelMonico declares. The manager of New Haven’s DelMonico Hatter sits across from me in Java Café with a mint tea, tapping the visor of his grey wool baseball cap. His hat — a Wigens, he informs me — complements his crisp button-down and grey wool sweater. Ben chooses his words carefully, massaging one hand with the other as he focuses on a point over my shoulder. The 44-year-old New Haven native isn’t used to. . . Read more