I'm squeezing this message in between celebrity madness.  Darrell Hammond AND Alex Trebeck visiting in one week?  (Plus Steven Pinker, Ernesto Zedillo, and a host of other notables.)  Well, this IS Yale, my good man!  To add further to the list of exciting people to hear, Tuesday night (tonight) is the Freshman Prize Debate of the YPU!

This morning, while zoning out a bit during my classes, I contemplated the saturation point of listening.  How long can any single-speaker lecture, sermon, reading, diatribe, newscast, performance, presentation, or whipsheet be before the audience loses interest?  Jonathan Edwards could keep a congregation rapt for hours, but he had the threat of eternal damnation to back him up.  (I guess the threat of a "gentle-person's A minus" doesn't keep students on the edge of their seats in intro lectures in quite the same way.)  Even Darrell Hammond performed for only a little over an hour, and he had frequent audience feedback
.
How did the average American reach this sorry, inattentive state in which he only chooses to listen to "sound bites" and "clips" and monosyllabic grunts?  The evil influences of video games, Sesame Street, MTV, quarrelsome news commentators, and dating shows with constant onscreen popups have converged to make us more distractible.  Not to mention the Internet!  What kind of rant can go on without mentioning that modern snare, the World Wide Web?

The solution to the boredom caused by one voice pontificating is not a flashier presentation (take that, dating show popups!) or adding inane banter (take that, Kelly Ripa!);  rather, it is increasing involvement in the discussion by a diverse group of people.  With that in mind, I encourage you to come to Tuesday night's YPU Freshman Prize Debate and Wednesday's Lib Discussion!  (Details, links, and announcements below!)

Good night, sleep tight!
Betsy

Upcoming!
Freshman Prize Debate:  Resolved:  "The two party system prevents effective government."
Tuesday at 7:30 pm, LC 102
Present perhaps a 4 or 5 minute speech, aff or neg, notes or no notes, hell or high water!  If you'd like to speak on this topic (which could go so many ways:  Nader as a spoiler, democracy as an illusion, Democrats and Republicans as embodying the classic struggle between good and evil (respectively)) and you're of the freshman persuasion, please let Sean.Campion@yale.edu know, as well as Lindsay.Bliss@yale.edu if you're speaking in the affirmative, or Aaron.Margolis@yale.edu if you're defending our bipartisan establishment. 
Where does this "prize" come in, you ask? First prize is $100 and a lifetime membership to the YPU. Second prize is a lifetime membership, and third is a four year membership.

Lib Discussion:  "How do grad students work at Yale?"
Wednesday at 7:30, Berkeley Common Room
In a multiple entendre, this week's question can be read as a call to rate the effectiveness of the current employment ladder and teaching quality in the ivory tower or to reflect on the status of graduate students as para-employees in a positive or negative light.  (Ask Jason to read it with all the inflections for you.)  We will cover all this and more in a genuine, bonafide, electrified Lib party discussion!

Lib Dinner
Next Monday at 5:30, in Commons, under the picture of that President whose lips we read over a decade ago
Get to know other Libs in a less formal setting!
~links~  (Sorry to distract you!)
http://www.yaleunions.org/geso/history/chronology.htm  Graduate Employees and Students Organization
http://www.literature.org/authors/bronte-emily/wuthering-heights/chapter-03.html  Wuthering Heights:  the danger of falling asleep during a sermon
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.06/interrupt-driven_pr.html  Wired article on ADD & ADHD
http://www.classicgaming.com/mailbag/mail178/ (most of the way down the page)  Attention spans and "gaming"
http://www.ctw.org/sesamestreet/elmosworld/games.php?contentId=4095465  Clouds, brought to you by the letter E

*Bart: *Damn TV, you've ruined my imagination, just like you've ruined my ability to -- to, um...uh...oh well. [/Turns on Itchy & Scratchy on a portable TV/]
from http://www.snpp.com/episodes/1F11.html

~announcement~
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride (www.iwfr.org)

Building on the historic struggles for justice of the Freedom Rides of the 1960's, the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride has four points of unity:
-a road map to citizenship for immigrants; and
-family reunification; and
-the right to organize; and
-civil rights for all!

On SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4th, hundreds of thousands of people will gather in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, NY to rally for immigrants' rights, workers' rights, and civil rights for all. In the face of the policies of the Bush Administration and the political climate in post-9/11 America, now is the moment for this movement for dignity and justice, and this is our opportunity to help push it forward. Thousands of people are taking buses from the New Haven region to attend the rally, and we can join them.

Here are the details:

When - Saturday, October 4th at 7:30 a.m. (until the late afternoon)
Where - High Street Gate on Old Campus (to walk to the buses)

It costs $10 for a ticket on one of the buses, but the organizers will waive the price if anyone is unable to pay. To purchase a ticket or to let an organizer know you plan on attending the rally, contact:
Saqib at saqib@yale.edu (773-988-3870), or
Julie at julia.gonzales@yale.edu (203-500-3206).

To learn more about the Freedom Ride movement, check out www.iwfr.org! It's time to GET ON THE BUS!

News from the Times on the Freedom Ride: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/national/28LABO.html?ex=1065326400&en=eb7d6ca6105eed25&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE