Word: hums
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Died. Dr. Morton Charles Kahn, 63, adventurous bacteriologist who tramped through the jungles of South America on numerous expeditions to study tropical diseases, developed (1948) a trap that could destroy 1,500 malaria-bearing mosquitoes a day (a recording of the hum of the female mosquito lures the males from miles around to an electrified screen that kills them on contact); of a heart attack; in Manhattan...
Thus among the countless traumas a freshman may fall heir to an agonizing struggle in Hum 5 or Phil 1 with Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Theology is certainly one of the most severe; many a small town has lost its most promising Methodist in those ordeals--and for one reason or another, Anglicans defect at the rate of one out of every four. Freud's Moses and Monotheism or The Future of an Illusion must provoke nearly equal distress: one atheist passes up all alternatives listed on the questionnaire and writes, "God is man's interpretation of what dissatisfies...
...literature and philosophy in the humanities illustrate what might be offered--area syntheses as have been suggested for possible non-honors group tutorial. Such seminars--which could be taught by teaching fellows with occasional discussions led by professors--should not serve as introductions to the departments (as for example Hum. 6 does at present) or be overly specialized. Although presumably requiring a higher level of work, they should preserve the Big Question goal of General Education...
...prayer. There are nearly as many Living Buddhas as there are lamaseries, including one female incarnation whose name translates as "Thunderbolt Sow." Prayer is everywhere, on the lips of men and on flags and bits of paper stamped with woodblock imprints of the sacred words: "Om mani padme hum [Hail, the jewel in the lotus)." The phrase flutters from tall poles outside villages, from trees and cairns; it is stuffed inside the chortens' hollow towers at crossroads, and revolves constantly in the prayer wheels in every temple, nearly every house. There is gold in Tibet that cannot be mined...
Hotspur lies dead, however, at the end of the play, and the coming repudiation of Falstaff is announced near the beginning. Shakespeare's theme, one of his favorites, is the defeat of high disorder and glorious idiosyncrasy by a comparatively hum-drum and rather chilly practicality, in the person of Henry, Prince of Wales. In Part II of Henry IV Shakespeare shows us that Hotspur's colleagues are merely anarchic self-seekers and that Falstaff and his friends have a sizeable streak of moral rottenness; in Henry V the now-eponymous hero reconciles (with some disturbing overtones) personal grandeur with...