Princeton Diary - November 17, 1999

"Brains Grow Back!"
And other headline news from the campus and beyond

by Janice Harayda

The great Mercer Oak suffered heavy damage in a windstorm that severed one of its limbs and maimed two others. Town residents grieved for the losses as experts from the state Department of Environmental Protection tried to repair the tree, a white oak that had reached maturity by the time of the Battle of Princeton. "It's a significant historical tree, and it's a sad day for all of us," a town official said of the tree, which has stood for about 300 years on the site of the battle on Mercer Road. "It has a great symbolic value to all of us" . . . Gay Jeans Day drew students and faculty members to a rally at Firestone Plaza on October 11. Participants wore blue jeans to show support for gay rights at the event, linked to National Coming Out Day . . . Robert W. Ray '82 replaced Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Ray, a prosecutor who joined Starr's law firm earlier this year, will complete the inquiry into President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton . . . The National Book Foundation announced that the five finalists for this year's National Book Award for poetry include Repair, by C. K. Williams, who teaches in the Creative Writing Program. The organization will name the winners on November 17 . . . The tabloid newspaper The Trentonian published another in its bizarre series of front-page headlines sensationalizing the work of distinguished scholarly researchers at Princeton. Trentonians awoke on October 15 to read in blazing full-page type: "Monkey brain research indicates: brains grow back! p'ton docs find higher functioning cells regenerate." The headline described the work of Princeton psychologists Elizabeth Gould and Charles Gross, who reported in the journal Science that monkey brains grow new nerve cells. The psychologists' findings may eventually lead to an overturning of the belief that human brain cells do not renew themselves. The Trentonian broke the news along with a front-page teaser urging readers to try to win cash in a Lucky License plate game . . . The university said that Evelyn Glennie, the internationally acclaimed percussionist, would lead a spring-semester atelier for percussionists. In her performances Glennie fills the stage with instruments that include cowbells, drums, Chinese gongs, and a vibraphone . . . An exhibit of the work of master watercolorist Edward Lear opened at the Art Museum. Guest curator Fani-Marie Tsigakou has chosen 35 watercolors for the show, "Edward Lear's Greece: Watercolors from the Gennadius Library, Athens," which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Program in Hellenic Studies and the Modern Greek Studies Association 30th Anniversary Symposium in November . . . Viewers of This Week saw proof that the Princeton connection transcends politics. The left-leaning Bill Bradley '65 appeared on the television program with the right-leaning George Will *68, who was wearing what one alumnus described as a tie "with tigers running rampant on a black field" . . . Edmund Morris may have gotten more attention for Dutch, his fictionalized biography of Ronald Reagan, but Peter Delacorte '67 got there first. In 1997, Scribner's published his novel, Time on My Hands, in which a man travels back in time to prevent Reagan from becoming president. Not that Delacorte begrudges Morris his infamy. "If anything, I'm delighted, because I assume it will sell a few copies of my book," Delacorte says cheerfully . . . Four Princeton women ranked among the "50 Most Powerful Women in American Business" listed in the October 25, 1999, issue of Fortune. They are Meg Whitman '77, chief executive officer of eBay, No. 5; University trustees Heidi Miller '74, chief financial officer of Citigroup, No. 2, and Andrea Jung '79, president of Avon, No. 14; and trustee emerita Nancy Peretsman '76, executive vice-president of Allen & Co., No. 9, . . . Boxing promoter Dan Duva offered this explanation for why Mike Tyson hooked up again with rival promoter Don King: "Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton."

Princeton Alumni Weekly welcomes contributions to Princeton Diary, a compendium of offbeat, unusual, or newsworthy items from the campus and beyond. Send items to Princeton Diary, Princeton Alumni Weekly, 194 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542 or e-mail them to paw@princeton.edu.

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