A P R I L 2 0 0 1 Alumni News
News Associates: Debbie Kennison, Emily Richards
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Sara Farber, A&S '96
The other day when Sara Farber met friends for dinner at a
little sushi place on the Upper West Side, one of them
mentioned something fabulous. In response Sara blurted out,
"Oh, me love that!"
Oops. Syntax problems are an occupational hazard when
working for the big yellow bird. "The language of the
Muppets sort of creeps through," Farber says of her
occasional lapses into Cookie Monster-speak. But that is
perhaps to be expected. After all, she says, "I have a job
where I sit in design meetings trying to decide if a
kangaroo is funnier than a chicken."
That last requirement is the hardest part of her job, Farber
reports, and the unhappy duty of the producer is often the
need to say no. "I work with so many talented people, and
they all want to make the games so good, [going] beyond what
was done before. A lot of my time is spent reeling it
in."
Which is not to say that Sesame Street games are passé.
Among the most consistently popular titles aimed at 3- to
6-year-olds is "The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland."
Farber recently completed "Sesame Street Toddler" (due out
later this year), and is currently at work on "Elmo's World:
Shoes, Bugs, and Farms." These games demonstrate the same
high quality and impeccable educational design that has made
the morning television show a staple for three decades. A
recent release that Farber produced, "Ernie's Adventures in
Space," was a family title-of-the-year finalist in the
software industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards.
"I love the whole creative environment I get to be in,"
says Farber. "The other day I spent an afternoon in the
recording studio with Caroll Spinney, who plays Oscar and
Big Bird. He had all these terrific stories about the early
days on the show with Jim Henson. Being able to work with
these characters I grew up watching is a thrill."
--MF
The Johns Hopkins ROTC Hall of Fame was established in 1997
and broadened two years later, making eligible all Hopkins
alumni who served in the military, regardless of ROTC
affiliation, component, or rank. The program was renamed the
Distinguished Military Alumni Program.
This year's honorees included George C. Creel, Engr
'55, a former executive vice president and acting chief
officer for BGE who served in the Army Reserve as an
engineer officer for over 10 years and is a former member of
the National Advisory Board for the Whiting School of
Engineering.
Also honored was Edward L. Rowny, Engr '37,
(pictured at right) the longest-serving U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff representative to the Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks in Geneva, who commanded troops in World
War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
The third honoree was Clarence D. Long III, A&S '65,
an associate general counsel for the Air Force who was
awarded the Silver Star, the Soldier's Medal, a Bronze Star,
and two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam as an
infantry platoon leader. In 1966 he bravely exposed himself
to direct enemy fire in order to lead his platoon and to
save fallen comrades.
Gene Detroyer, A&S '69
Gene Detroyer recounts the day he told his business partner
that the rights to the Today Sponge© were up for sale.
"That's a great product!" Detroyer remembers partner Robert
Staab shouting, leaping from his chair, and slapping his
hand on his desk. It was a sight not soon forgotten. "This
guy is six foot five, about 350 pounds," says Detroyer, "so
when he jumps up and shouts, you know it's something
special. I knew right then we'd found the perfect platform
for what we are trying to do."
Detroyer and Staab are men on a mission. With their
fledgling company, Allendale Pharmaceuticals, they're trying
to introduce additional choice in a contraceptives market
largely defined by condoms and a handful of variations on
the contraceptive pill. Staab, a toxicologist by training,
holds patents on a contraceptive sponge, on dissolvable film
that can be used as a delivery vehicle for spermicides, and
on a disposable diaphragm. However, before any of these
inventions can be brought to market, they must undergo
thorough and very expensive clinical trials to satisfy the
FDA of their safety and efficacy.
Detroyer, Staab, and a group of investors purchased the
rights to the Today Sponge© (at a figure Forbes
magazine puts at $7 million), and negotiated with a
Pennsylvania pharmaceutical manufacturer to produce it. But
a new manufacturer means new FDA certification, a process
that has proven agonizingly slow. "The process of
revalidating the plant for FDA approval has been tougher
than we expected," Detroyer says. "A lot depends on how fast
the FDA moves forward; we already have approvals in Canada
and the U.K., which is ironic."
In the meantime, a small but vocal cadre of Today
Sponge© enthusiasts has been petitioning the FDA to get
the product back on shelves. There is a website
(www.birthcontrol.com) where Forbes reports a waiting
list of 4,000 anxious Today Sponge© customers. And most
famously, an entire episode of Seinfeld revolved
around Elaine's efforts to hoard her dwindling supply of
sponges.
"This is a product that women love," Detroyer says. "It will
do well. Wal-Mart has already issued shelf tags for it. We
just need approval." --MF
Here in the World, thirteen stories by Victoria
Lancelotta, A&S 1990. Counterpoint (2000)
In stories that Albert Mobilio of the New York Times
says are filled with "visceral delight about scent, taste
and physical sensation," Lancelotta offers finely wrought
portraits of mood and moment. Explicit and sharp, the
stories shift between the earthy present and ghosts of a
Catholic girlhood: "Jerry is lying in bed, the sheet wadded
around his waist... he looks like a saint, like the
crucified Jesus that hung in my grandmother's kitchen."
--ER
Credit Card Nation, The Consequences of America's
Addiction to Credit. By Robert D. Manning, A&S '89
(Ph.D.) Basic Books (2000)
So pervasive is the impact of plastic money that Manning,
in his relentless chronicle, actually has written an
exegesis of the modern economy. It is no polemic, but the
baleful overall conclusion is that, "today, debt reigns
supreme as the marketing and refinancing of paper
obligations take precedence over the previous [banking]
industry standard of investing in tangible commodities with
potentially useful social purposes." --Lew Diuguid, SAIS
'63
Scott McCallum, SAIS '74
To natives, it's the Badger State, but for many
out-of-towners Wisconsin is the place with all those
black-and-white dairy cows. Never mind that the state's
economy is powered by internationally known manufacturers
ranging from Briggs & Stratton to Harley-Davidson, and
increasingly, by biotechnology, insurance, and financial
services. Holsteins still dot the landscape in Wisconsin,
the nation's leading producer of dairy products, and
dominate the landscape of public perception.
The annual World Dairy Expo in Madison is slated for October
3-7 this year, and so far there has been no announcement of
cancellation. "The disease represents a threat, but also an
opportunity for Wisconsin farmers to increase exports,"
McCallum notes. "The state hosts a great number of
international travelers every year who visit our farms and
dairy operations to see what makes us so successful. We're
taking steps to make sure that this travel doesn't endanger
our industry."
With a slowing national economy and an inherited $1.1
billion structural deficit in the state budget, McCallum's
first months in office have been challenging. But he remains
upbeat: "We've got a very strong work ethic and a highly
skilled and educated work force in this state," he says.
"Wisconsin is a state to watch." --MF
Come On In: Peabody's New Front
Door
We like to think of Mount Vernon as our campus," says Robert
Sirota, director of the Peabody Institute. "We are no longer
situated on one city block. We have offices, a piano store,
a bookstore, a cafe." And, the director adds, Peabody's
neighbors include the Walters Art Museum and Center Stage,
making Mount Vernon an altogether artistic locale.
Nevertheless, for many of the past 150 years the design of
Peabody's campus has worked to keep the neighborhood out.
With its walled courtyards, labyrinthine hallways, and
entrances leading to nowhere, Peabody can be a puzzle to
outsiders.
Iron bars and guardhouses will disappear. A Grand Arcade
with curving flights of stairs will cascade from Mount
Vernon Place to the Peabody Plaza. The arcade, roofed in
glass, will offer a sunlit gathering place for students,
faculty, and visitors.
Peabody holds approximately 800 public events annually,
attracting in a year as many as 40,000 members of the
public--equivalent to every man, woman, and child in 10
counties in North Dakota, or one out of every 16
Baltimoreans.
"We want to make this a place that people love to go to
again and again," explains Sirota.
The director's favorite aspect of the new design? "I like
the way it completes the old buildings," he says. "It has
the fabric and design of the 19th century, yet is
state-of-the-art, serving the purposes of a 21st-century
Peabody."
Planners estimate that construction will be completed in the
fall of 2003. --ER
Hopkins Traditions: The Two Faces of
Turtle Derby
During the 1920s, a Hopkins Hospital porter named Benjamin
Frisby kept his pet turtles in a pen between the Wilmer Eye
Institute and the original hospital Administration Building.
His growing menagerie attracted the attention of
gynecologist Edward Kelly, who asked to borrow them for a
day of fun and revelry. Thus was born the 1931 Johns
Hopkins Hospital Turtle Derby, a smash hit that quickly grew
into an annual all-day party, held on the Friday before
Preakness. House staff in each department put on satirical
skits, and even roasted faculty members, much to the delight
of patients, staff, and neighborhood families who attended.
Turtle-race gambling proceeds purchased libations for a
party afterward that often went on into the wee hours.
But by 1978, the party had died out and the derby was
defunct.
Nevertheless, two years later, in 1980, a group of medical
students resurrected the Turtle Derby, this time as a
fundraiser for the hospital's children's programs and an
area day care center. Cavagnero helped the students get the
necessary financial support needed to print the programs,
advertise the event, and rent the turtles from a company in
New Jersey.
In the weeks leading up to the derby, people are invited to
buy $8 "chances" on a turtle. The $8 also buys the gambler
the right to name that turtle. At day's end, the three
fastest turtles win modest purses for their sponsors, but
most of the money raised goes to charity. (When model Cheryl
Tiegs sponsored the grand champion turtle, "Model T," she
followed tradition by donating her winnings back to the
derby's organizing committee.)
The racing schedule includes up to six heats, such as
Turtle Trot for Tots and The Mudslinger Marathon. "One year
it was raining, so we did the derby in the Meyer gym,"
recalls Anne Sneed, coordinator of Student Services. "It was
never allowed after that. It was too hot in that gym, and
none of the turtles ran. None of them did anything."
The turtles start out in a tight circle in the middle of the
track. Whichever turtle is the first to cross the outside
perimeter of the track wins. First-year medical students,
dressed as jockeys, can't touch the turtles, but they are
known to crouch on the ground beside a reluctant reptile and
sing, coax, or whistle. It can be tough work, noted a 1958
Baltimore Sun article, which remarked upon the turtles'
"indifference, and innate tendency to remain quiescent even
under the most frantic persuasion."
The 2000 derby raised $3,500, which was donated to the Child
Life Program and nearby Walter Perkins Day Care Center.
Both the derby and Johns Hopkins have undergone major
changes since the first derby in 1931, when a tight-knit
group of Hopkins house staff, mostly men, used the gambling
proceeds to fund their evening revelry, and porter and
turtle farmer Benjamin Frisby, who worked at Hopkins from
1889 to 1927, held one of the highest jobs available to
African-Americans. Today, first-year students lighten the
spirits of children while raising money for their care, and
Russ Frisby, great-great-grand- nephew of Benjamin Frisby,
studies biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins. --
ER
Atlanta Chapter June 10 - Alumni Crab Feast
Baltimore Chapter June 4 - Baltimore Museum of Art Cone
Collection Tour
Boston Chapter July 14 - Alumni Crab Feast
Chicago Chapter August 12 - Chicago Chapter Day at
Arlington Race Track
Los Angeles Chapter July 27 - Angels vs. Orioles Game
Philadelphia Chapter June 15 - Philadelphia Phillies vs.
Orioloes Game
Seattle Gradutes of the Last Decade (G.O.L.D.) Chapter
June 21, July 19 - Third Thursday Happy Hours
Focus: Washington, D.C.,
Chapter
"There is often," says Mary Frances Repko, A&S '89, "an
intellectual component in our events. And the continuing
studies (SPSBE) and graduate studies presence (SAIS) in
Washington are great assets."
In February scores of alumni were treated to a lecture by
Professor Rudy Lentulay on the recent transformation of
Russia. After the talk, they dined on a four-course Russian
meal that included koulibiaka, large pastry balls filled
with rice and mushrooms. --ER
* There are 17,507 alumni and
friends in the Washington, D.C., area.
* 53% graduated after 1990. The
largest percentage, 27%, graduated from Engineering. The
smallest percentage, 2%, graduated from Medicine.
* Of the 3,392 alumni in D.C.
proper there are:
The Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes personal,
professional, or humanitarian achievement.
Pedro M. Cuatrecasas, Med '64, House Staff '62-64,
Fac '70-75, as a pharmaceutical research director has played
a key role in the discovery, development, and FDA approval
of some 45 products for therapeutic areas including
diabetes, HIV, epilepsy, cancer, and heart disease.
The Heritage Award recognizes outstanding service to the
Johns Hopkins University.
William Polk Carey, who has given Hopkins his
expertise and financial support as a trustee, member of the
Nitze School's Advisory Council, and member of the National
Council for Johns Hopkins Medicine, has also helped fund an
entrepreneurship curriculum for Homewood undergraduates.
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