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Off-campus, On-campus Teams Successfully Defend Trivia Titles in Contest’s 41st Edition

The Holy Brogan Empire captured its sixth straight Lawrence University Great Midwest
Trivia Contest off-campus title over the weekend in the 41st edition of the annual salute to the insignificant. It was the team’s eighth title in the past 10 years.

The Empire racked up 1,120 points out of a possible 1,800 in the 50-hour, 324-question trivia marathon that ended Sunday night at midnight. The team received a broom that was set on fire as a first-place prize. What’s the Frequency, Lawrence? finished second with 1,015 points, while Radio-Free Iowans finished third for the second straight year with 967 points.

Bucky’s successfully defended their on-campus team title with 1,127 points, while Coalition of the Awexome finished second with 1,021 points, edging I Hate Patrick Ehlers and His Big Dumb Face, which placed third with 987 points. Bucky’s was awarded a painting of a clown that had been spray painted in orange graffiti.

A total of 62 off-campus teams and 11 on-campus teams participated in this year’s contest, which was conducted with an all Internet webcast format rather than an over-the-air broadcast for the first time in its history.

No team was able to answer the contest’s final “Super Garruda” question: Spike O’Dell, the WGN radio personality, has a cup museum in Door County, Wis., that features cups signed by celebrities that have been on Spike’s show. What did comedian Tracey Ullman write on her cup?

While no one came up with the correct response (“To Spike, I don’t have herpes — love Tracey Ullman”), one team drew the wrath of O’Dell by tracking him down on the phone to ask him.

Holy Webcast! Lawrence University’s 50-Hour Tribute to Trivia Goes All Digital

Like nearly all long-standing events, Lawrence University’s Great Midwest Trivia Contest — the nation’s longest-running salute to all things inconsequential — is steeped in tradition.

But when the 41st edition of the 50-hour marathon dedicated to mindless minutia kicks off on Friday, Jan. 27, one of its original elements will be missing. Instead of hitting the airwaves at its customary 10:00.37 p.m. start time, the contest ventures into uncharted waters with its first ever all-Internet broadcast (www.lawrence.edu/sorg/trivia).

And while this year’s contest questions will be delivered digitally, the 65 or so off-campus teams and 10 on-campus teams will still try to answer those questions in the time-honored tradition of phoning them in to one of the dozen telephone lines set up in the WLFM studios just for the contest.

“As much as possible, we’re hoping it (the switch from an FM signal to a Webcast) won’t affect the contest,” said senior Reid Stratton, who, as this year’s grand trivia master, will officially preside over the contest that runs until midnight Sunday (1/29). “We hope players will tune in on their computer rather than on their radio and things will be just as crazy as ever.”

The change was precipitated by the sale of WLFM’s broadcast license last year and a conversion to an all Web-based broadcast format for the station.

“This is going to be a little like entering the ‘Twilight Zone.’ In some ways we feel like we’re stepping back in time 26 years,” said Carole Leslie, 70, whose serves as house mother, cheerleader and avid participant for “Jabberwocky,” a team that has religiously played the trivia contest since 1980. “We’re feeling excited as well as a bit nervous. It’s a new horizon for the contest and should make for an interesting experience.

“I just hope we don’t wind up in 43rd place like we did the first year we played,” Leslie added with a laugh. Jabberwocky’s team of 10 core members, who play out of the basement of Leslie’s Greenville home, has consistently been a top 10 finisher among off-campus squads over the years.

While Stratton looks toward the weekend with fingers crossed that no technical “glitches” will derail the madness — Lawrence has made arrangements with outside sources to provide additional bandwidth for the weekend — the transition from an over-the-air broadcast to an Internet one opens up possibilities for trivia fans all over the country to participate in the contest without having to travel to Appleton, or at least to the limited signal area of the old WLFM.

Count Rich Bennett among those who are looking to joining the fun from afar. Bennett, 33, who works as a production manager for an advertising agency by day in Baltimore, Md., also organizes a weekly “pub quiz” at his favorite watering hole, Max’s Taphouse. He stumbled upon Lawrence’s Great Midwest Trivia Contest earlier this month on Wikipedia while researching questions for his own contest.

Intrigued by what he read about the contest, he and three buddies are set to take the Lawrence trivia plunge this weekend.

“I know we’ll be undermanned, but it’s certainly going to be interesting,” said Bennett, who will hunker down for the weekend at TBC Advertising, his company’s office, which will serve as his team headquarters. “It will be fun. We’ve got some powerful computers we can use, but I’m more worried about how we’ll get food here all weekend.

“We expect to lose, but lose gracefully,” Bennett added. “Hopefully the madness won’t set in until the very end. I know I’m going to sleep in late on Friday to help get me through the weekend.”

In some ways, the broadcast format switch is merely catching up to the sea change the contest’s “landscape” has undergone the past half dozen years or so. Gone are the days of closets stuffed with index cards, encyclopedias and ready-reference books on movies, music and television shows that got unpacked each January. Laptops with high-speed Internet connections have made books passe and become the weapon of choice for all teams serious about silliness. A search engine guru is now just as important as a good quarterback on a football team for this generation of triviaholics.

Thanks to Google, and others similar “tools,” the trivia masters who generate the contest’s 350 or so questions need to exercise all creative outlets when coming up with the mind stumpers.

“We definitely have to be more careful when we write questions,” says Stratton. “The trick is to come up with questions that are interesting but not completely ridiculous, something that provides a ‘hmmmm’ moment when people hear it.

“A good trivia question will either have a funny set-up or a funny answer,” Stratton added. “The set-up may seem pretty arcane, but then the answer will make you smile.”

Combine 50 hours of off-the-wall questions with wacky music, in-studio skits, highly-caffeinated, sleep-deprived men and women of all ages on clever, oft-times politically incorrect named teams with “prizes” ranging from bags of human hair to plastic pink flamingos and you have the recipe for a truly original weekend.

“The reason I love the trivia contest is because for 50 hours, you get to live on an entirely different planet,” said Stratton. “There is no night or day. It’s totally absorbing and completely out of this world.”

As per usual, the contest will begin Friday evening with Lawrence President Jill Beck asking the opening question. Beck will return Saturday morning to host “President’s Hour,” a 60-minute salute to all things presidential.

And in keeping with one of the most sacred of all Lawrence Great Midwest Trivia Contest traditions, this year’s first question will be the “super garruda” that was asked at the end of last year’s contest.

All teams that remember Mushtariy Madrahimova of Uzbekistan wrote “It is the hugest building I’ve ever been” for her comment in the guest book during a visit to the Capitol in Madison on December 11, 2004, will jump start this year’s contest with a cool 100 points.

Lawrence University Theatre Department Presents “Finding the Laughter (Again)”

And now, for something completely different. Improvisational comedy steps into the spotlight for four performances of the Lawrence University theatre department production of “Finding the Laughter (Again).”

Performances are scheduled Feb. 2-3 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. in Cloak Theatre of the Lawrence Music-Drama Center, 420 E. Collge Ave., Appleton.

Drawing inspiration from a variety of improvisational shows and performers, such as “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” and the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, an ensemble of 11 students will perform a half-dozen sketches based on topics suggested by the audience.

The production is an off-shoot of an improvisational acting class taught last fall by visiting instructor Bo Johnson, a veteran performer and teacher with ComedySportz in Milwaukee as well as First Stage Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. This will be a reprized version of an improvisational show first performed by Lawrence students in 2003.

Tickets for “Finding the Laughter (Again)” are $10 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens and are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Habitat for Humanity’s “Green” Efforts Examined in Environmental Studies Lecture

John Weyenberg, executive director of the Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity and George Elias, a member of the organization’s board of directors, will discuss Habitat’s efforts to promote “green building” practices in the second installment of Lawrence University’s environmental studies lecture series on green architecture.

Weyenberg and Elias present “The ReStore Recycled Building Materials Project” Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102.

Habitat for Humanity is the only large-scale home builder in the country that adheres to “green building” standards in an effort to provide more energy-efficient and durable housing at the lowest possible cost for its partner families.

In addition to providing an overview of Habitat’s environmental initiatives to promote cost-effective, best-practice construction methods, Weyenberg and Elias will discuss the Fox Cities “ReStore” operations. Opened last September in a former grocery store on Appleton’s east side, Habitat’s ReStore is a retail store that sells reusable and surplus building materials to the public, providing quality construction materials at reduced costs.

A retail hybrid of Goodwill and Home Depot, the Appleton ReStore center is one of only three such operations in Wisconsin. Staffed completely by volunteers, all profits from ReStore sales are used to fund local Habitat house construction. Since it opened, ReStore has averaged $20,000 in sales per month.

Weyenberg has directed the Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity since 1999. Elisa has been a member of HFH’s board of directors in 2003.

The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

Noted Chinese Economist Delivers Pair of Addresses in Visit to Lawrence University

Leslie Young, the executive director of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Business and professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, will deliver a pair of economic addresses during a visit to Lawrence University.

Young presents “The Optimal God: Religion and the Institutional Foundations of Capitalism,” Wednesday Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. On Thursday, Feb. 2 at 4:30 p.m., Young will present “China and India in the World Economy.” Both presentations will be held in Lawrence’s Science Hall, Room 102 and are free and open to the public.

In his opening address, Young will compare and contrast the Western and Eastern models of political economy that developed from the influences of Christianity and Islam. According to Young, politics and religion overlapped in the West because the Church competed for resources. Religion, in turn, became the bridge over which law came to limit politics. Under Islam, law emerged from religion as a control on personal behavior, leaving politics as a separate entity that was able to oppress the economy with no restrictions on tyranny and expropriation.

Young’s second talk will focus on the medium and long-term effects of the growth of China and India on the world economy. In tracing the balance of payment problems between the United States and China to their demographic structures, he will explain why China’s growing impact on the global environment could ultimately harm its own economic development.

A native of Guangzhou, China, Young’s research interests focus on international trade, political economy and corporate governance. He has served as a consultant to the governments of Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and New Zealand and has been a long-time member of the editorial board of the American Economic Review, the leading academic journal in economics.

Young, who earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Oxford University by the age of 20, spent nine years on the faculty at the University of Texas as the V.F. Neuhaus Professor of Finance and Professor of Economics. He also has taught at the University of Canterbury in New Zeeland and held visiting professorships at the Australian National University in Canberra as well as at M.I.T. and the University of California, Berkeley.

He is the author of the book “Black Hole Tariffs and Endogenous Redistribution Theory” and co-editor of “The Hong Kong Securities Industry” and “China’s Financial Markets.”

Young’s appearance is sponsored by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee and the Henry Luce Foundation Program in the Political Economy of East Asia.

ArtsBridge America Program Awarded $250,000 Grant for Elementary School Initiative

Lawrence University and its ArtsBridge America program will share in a $250,000 grant from the National Geographic Society Education Foundation to bring an innovative geography-through-music curriculum to Fox Valley elementary schools.

Beginning in February, Lawrence will partner with Appleton’s Edison Elementary School fifth graders to introduce “Mapping the Beat,” a curricular program developed in 2002 by the Artsbridge America program at the University of California, San Diego that combines geography content with culture-based arts instruction.

ArtsBridge scholar Sarah Tochiki, a senior music education major from Aiea, Hawaii, will work with host teachers Katie Lecker and Matt Bronson at Edison to introduce the “Mapping the Beat” curriculum. The National Geographic Foundation grant will allow ArtsBridge to offer “Mapping the Beat” to additional fifth-grade classrooms in the Fox Valley starting in Fall, 2006.

Using music as a common language, “Mapping the Beat” ArtsBridge scholars will lead fifth-grade students on a musical journey through American history. The curriculum will explore migration patterns to the United States and the meaning of music within various communities and ethnic groups.

During the program, students will explore music and geography linked to their social studies curriculum and discover why music from one region sounds differently than that of other regions. The program is designed to raise awareness about the geographic features that determine culture and art forms around the world and create a connection between music and its place of origin.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to introduce the ‘Mapping the Beat’ curriculum to elementary children and their teachers in the Fox Valley,” said Jasmine Yep, national coordinator of the ArtsBridge America program. “‘Mapping the Beat’ was built around three main concepts — environment, identity and movement — which were selected for their parallel significance in the study of music. Past experience with this program has shown that students are truly energized as they create music in the classroom and understand the connection between that music and its place of origin in the world.”

Lawrence is part of a six-campus consortium working with the ArtsBridge America program that will share the National Geographic grant for the “Mapping the Beat” project. Lawrence will receive $30,000 over the next three years to implement the program in the Fox Valley. Sharing the grant with Lawrence is the California State University, Long Beach, Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, the University of California, San Diego and the Center for Learning Through the Arts at the University of California, Irvine.

Founded in 1996 by current Lawrence President Jill Beck when she was at UC Irvine, ArtsBridge America is a university/community arts education and outreach program featuring a network of 22 universities in 13 states and Northern Ireland and their surrounding schools. The program creates university and K-12 school collaborations by partnering university arts students with a K-12 teacher to introduce interdisciplinary arts instruction through ArtsBridge projects.

Since its inception, ArtsBridge America has delivered arts curriculum to more than 300,000 pupils, professional support for more than 1,500 teachers and scholarship support for nearly 4,000 university arts students. In 1998 ArtsBridge was the recipient of a national dissemination award from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and has received several awards for its work with schools and communities.

Lawrence serves as the national headquarters for the 22 university-based ArtsBridge America partners.

Lawrence University Celebrates Black History with Student Showcase

Lawrence University commemorates African-America history and culture with the 5th Annual Celebration of Black Heritage: New Beginning of the Sistah. The event, which replaced Lawrence’s celebration of Kwanzaa, takes place February 4 in the Buchanan Kiewit Center gym on the Lawrence campus. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the program starting at 5:30 p.m.

The event, which includes both a student showcase and dinner, focuses on accomplishments and culture as it relates to today — how we apply history to the present day, according to Rod Bradley, assistant dean of students for multicultural affairs. The student showcase presents historical snapshots of African-American history and things that are happening today that we may not be aware of.

“It’s a creative way to make a point,” said Bradley. “It’s educational and entertaining. People really enjoy it.”

Tickets are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749, and are $10 for adults and $4 for children 12 and under. The event is sponsored by the Black Organization of Students.

Lawrence University Jazz Series presents NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson

The Lawrence University Jazz Series will continue on February 17 with NEA Jazz Master and saxophonist Benny Golson. Joining Golson on stage will be the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (LUJE) and the Lawrence Jazz Trio.

The concert, which takes place at 8:00 p.m., will be held at Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Tickets for this concert are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749, and range from $15 for students to $22 for adults.

Golson comes to Lawrence University through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters On Tour program, organized by the NEA and Arts Midwest and supported by Verizon.

A composer, arranger, lyricist, producer and tenor saxophonist of world renown, Golson has contributed his distinctive saxophone style to ensembles led by such jazz greats as Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Earl Bostic and Art Blakey.

For more than five decades Golson has made major offerings to the world of jazz by composing standards such as “Killer Joe,” “Along Came Betty,” “Five Spot After Dark” and “I Remember Clifford,” along with compositions and arrangements for musicians such as Count Basie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. He has given hundreds of performances in the United States, Europe, South America, Far East and Japan.

In 1996, Golson was named an NEA Jazz Master. Established in 1982, the NEA Jazz Masters program honors living legends for their exceptional contributions to jazz and helps to connect them, and their music, to the American people through broadcasts, publications, educational initiatives and NEA Jazz Masters On Tour. The NEA Jazz Masters Initiative is sponsored by Verizon with additional support provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through a grant to Chamber Music America.

Most recently, Golson appeared as himself in Steven Spielberg’s film, “The Terminal” and recorded his new CD “Terminal 1,” which was released in June 2004, with Concord Records. He is currently putting the finishing touches on two books, a major college textbook and his autobiography.

For additional information on this and other “Performing Arts at Lawrence” series concerts, please visit www.lawrence.edu/news/performingartsseries.

Lawrence University Artist Series Presents the Empire Brass with Douglas Major

The Lawrence University Artist Series will continue with the Empire Brass Quintet. Joining the Empire Brass on stage will be Douglas Major, organist.

The concert takes place February 4 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Tickets are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749 and range from $15 for students to $22 for adults.

The Empire Brass enjoys an international reputation as North America’s finest brass quintet, renowned for its brilliant virtuosity and the unparalleled diversity of its repertoire. The five musicians, all of whom have held leading positions with major American orchestras, perform more than 100 concerts a year in cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., London, Zurich and Tokyo.

The Empire Brass has been featured on CBS’s “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today Show” and “Sunday Today” and PBS’s “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.”

A series of best-selling compact discs on the Telarc label offers music that spans 500 years from a dozen different countries. The most recent of these are Romantic Brass, an anthology of Spanish and French music; Brass on Broadway; Class Brass – On the Edge, featuring works from Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Bernstein, and Copland; and Mozart For Brass, arrangements of Mozart works by Rolf Smedvig, one of the group’s trumpeters, with the collaboration of the electronic percussionist Kurt Wortman.

Organist Douglas Major has made solo appearances in major cities around the world and has performed with artists and ensembles ranging from Ravi Shankar, Aretha Franklin and Dave Brubeck to the National Symphony, the French National Orchestra, the Folger Consort, and the Marine Corps Band. Major plays many solo recitals and dedications of new organs in the United States as well. In May 2001, he participated in the first American Organists Festival in Kiev, Ukraine, playing recitals to standing-room-only audiences.

As a composer, Major’s works include anthems, canticles, and psalms for chorus; organ solo music; and music for synthesizers and choir, as well as piano and vocal compositions. His solo recordings include eight organ compact discs recorded on the Washington National Cathedral’s magnificent 185-rank Skinner organ. With the Empire Brass, Major has recorded “A Bach Festival” for Angel/EMI.

For additional information on this and other “Performing Arts at Lawrence” series concerts, please visit www.lawrence.edu/news/performingartsseries.

Acclaimed Harvard Physicist Explores Hidden Dimensions in Lawrence University Convocation

The universe is keeping secrets and noted Harvard University physicist Lisa Randall would like nothing better than to expose some of them during a Lawrence University convocation.

Randall, a rapidly rising “star” in the world of theoretical physics, presents “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions” Thursday, Jan 26 at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

Recently featured in Newsweek’s special edition “Who’s Next” for 2006, Randall, 43, has been hailed for her ground-breaking theories on a new, fifth dimension of infinite extent beyond the four known dimensions of time and space. Many within scientific circles believe the implications of Randall’s research in theoretical high-energy physics, in which she investigates “warped” geometries, holds the promise of a 21st-century breakthrough on the scale of Einstein’s theories of relativity 100 years ago.

Randall’s work on hidden dimensions has attracted widespread attention and has been the subject of stories in the Science Times section of The New York Times as well as in The Los Angeles Times, The Economist and numerous magazines, among them New Scientist, Science and Nature. As a result of two highly regarded research papers — “A Large Mass Hierarchy From a Small Extra Dimension” and “An Alternative to Compactification” — Randall is considered the world’s “most cited” theoretical physicist in the last five years with nearly 10,000 citations.

A New York City high school classmate of acclaimed physicist Brian Greene, one of the world’s foremost proponents of string theory, Randall holds the unique distinction of being the first female physicist to earn tenure at Princeton University and the first female theoretical physicist granted tenure first at MIT and later at Harvard, where she has taught since 2001.
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Last September, Randall’s work was brought to the attention of the general public with the publication of her book, “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions,” in which she presented an accessible account on the possibility of additional unseen dimensions. The New York Times included “Warped Passages” on its 2005 list of the 100 most notable books of the year.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Physical Society, Randall earned both a bachelor’s and a doctorate degree at Harvard. She spent two years (1987-89) as a President’s Fellow at the University of California and one year as a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory before joining the faculty at MIT in 1991.