Amherst Magazine, Summer 2009
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FEATURES
These days, Zeke Emanuel ’79 is usually billed as “Rahm Emanuel’s brother.” But the less-famous sibling, who now works on health reform for the White House, wields more influence than most people know. By Sarah Auerbach ’96 |
Is the world different when there are a million words to describe it? Is it possible to translate a poem from a language one doesn't speak? And why do students pepper every sentence with “like”? A conversation between Richard Wilbur ’42 and Ilan Stavans |
Two by two, more than 400 members of the Class of 2009 paraded up the hill to the Quad on Commencement morning. Envy them. By Emily Gold Boutilier |
departments
College Row
Students as art buyers — Closing Guantanamo — Swine flu comes and goes — Norton Starr retires — And more
Visit
Extreme haircut, home edition
My Life
Natasha Staller, professor of the history of art
Sports
First he beat Agassi. Then he beat Williams.
Amherst Creates
Former FDA head David Kessler '73 on what not to eat — Comedy by Matt Besser '89 — Poet Dan Chiasson '93 — And more
What They Are Reading
Alexander George, professor of philosophy
Lives of Consequence
The Class of 1969

Back Cover
These bones, from a now-extinct bird called a moa, were found at the bottom of the trunk of a sailor who'd died in the South Seas. In the 19th century, Amherst's Edward Hitchcock carved the wooden cast that completes the leg and foot, now in storage in the Museum of Natural History. See the mermaid and other “Oddities of the Natural History Collection” in an audio slide show.