@thepittnews Vol. 105 Issue 42 Thursday,October 2, 2014 Pittnews.com As Ebola continues to spread through Afri- can countries, and now, with one case con- firmed in the United States, many people have expressed worry that the virus will find its way to their cities and towns. But, according to experts, it’s unlikely the disease will have similar effects in the United States. While Pitt has historically contributed developments to vaccines, the University does not have the proper biosafety level clearance to work on Ebola, which is a level-4 disease. One of Pitt’s most famous accolades is the development of the polio vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk and his team. The vaccine began widespread use in 1955 and eradicated the disease in the United States. More recently, researchers at Pitt have been working to develop a vaccine for the Middle East Re- spiratory Syndrome. Dr. Amy Hartman, research manager of the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory and assistant professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, has done extensive work with the Ebola virus during her career. Hartman conducted her post-doctoral research with the CDC in Atlanta from 2003 to 2007. During her time there, she worked on curing the Ebola virus. In 2005, she worked in Africa in a post-diagnostic lab that tested patient samples for Ebola. “I think it [Ebola] is very serious in Africa in general,” Hartman said. “But there is no huge risk to the U.S. or other developed countries.” According to Hartman, the United States and other first-world countries have such strong health systems that, if someone brought Ebola into the country, it would not cause an epidemic like the one in Africa. “If someone came here who was infected, it would be stopped pretty quickly,” Hart- Pitt lacks resources to develop Ebola vaccine Jess Muslin Staff Writer Ebola 3 HEALTH HEALTH CITY CITY For those who can stomach it, try running two miles after eating six sweet, glazed, iced, cream- filled and jelly doughnuts. The Donut Dash 2014 is a race on Oct. 5 sponsored by Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Carnegie Mellon University. Participants, in- cluding Pitt students, will run a mile-long route along Forbes Avenue twice. The event, which will raise money for the Pittsburgh-based ALS foundation LiveLikeLou.org, begins at the parking lot at the intersection of Morewood and Forbes avenues. Those in the competitive division have to run the two miles, stopping between the miles at the race’s starting point where they will eat the doughnuts. “There’s a casual division of the race where you don’t have to eat the doughnuts, you can just run the two miles,” said Peter Pacent, presi- dent of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the dash’s event manager. “In the competitive division, though, you get disqualified if you don’t eat all six before starting the second mile.” Sigma Alpha Epsilon expects roughly 100 people to participate in the competitive di- vision. The fraternity has raised more than $50,000 so far from registration money — approximately double last year’s number, Pacent said. Dash for doughnuts: CMU fraternity hosts ALS fundraiser Kathy Zhao Staff Writer Donut Dash 2
Transcript
@thepittnews
Vol. 105Issue 42
Thursday,October 2, 2014Pittnews.com
As Ebola continues to spread through Afri-can countries, and now, with one case con-fi rmed in the United States, many people have expressed worry that the virus will fi nd its way to their cities and towns.
But, according to experts, it’s unlikely the disease will have similar e! ects in the United States. While Pitt has historically contributed developments to vaccines, the University does not have the proper biosafety level clearance to work on Ebola, which is a level-4 disease.
One of Pitt’s most famous accolades is the development of the polio vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk and his team. The vaccine began widespread use in 1955 and eradicated the disease in the United States. More recently, researchers at Pitt have been working to develop a vaccine for the Middle East Re-spiratory Syndrome.
Dr. Amy Hartman, research manager of
the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory and assistant professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, has done extensive work with the Ebola virus during her career.
Hartman conducted her post-doctoral research with the CDC in Atlanta from 2003 to 2007. During her time there, she worked on curing the Ebola virus. In 2005, she worked in Africa in a post-diagnostic lab that tested patient samples for Ebola.
“I think it [Ebola] is very serious in Africa in general,” Hartman said. “But there is no huge risk to the U.S. or other developed countries.”
According to Hartman, the United States and other fi rst-world countries have such strong health systems that, if someone brought Ebola into the country, it would not cause an epidemic like the one in Africa.
“If someone came here who was infected, it would be stopped pretty quickly,” Hart-
Pitt lacks resources to develop Ebola vaccine
Jess Muslin Staff Writer
Ebola 3
HEALTHHEALTH
CITYCITY
For those who can stomach it, try running two miles after eating six sweet, glazed, iced, cream-fi lled and jelly doughnuts.
The Donut Dash 2014 is a race on Oct. 5 sponsored by Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Carnegie Mellon University. Participants, in-
cluding Pitt students, will run a mile-long route along Forbes Avenue twice. The event, which will raise money for the Pittsburgh-based ALS foundation LiveLikeLou.org, begins at the parking lot at the intersection of Morewood and Forbes avenues. Those in the competitive division have to run the two miles, stopping between the miles at the race’s starting point
where they will eat the doughnuts.“There’s a casual division of the race where
you don’t have to eat the doughnuts, you can just run the two miles,” said Peter Pacent, presi-dent of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the dash’s event manager. “In the competitive division, though, you get disqualifi ed if you don’t eat all six before starting the second mile.”
Sigma Alpha Epsilon expects roughly 100 people to participate in the competitive di-vision. The fraternity has raised more than $50,000 so far from registration money — approximately double last year’s number, Pacent said.
Dash for doughnuts: CMU fraternity hosts ALS fundraiserKathy Zhao Staff Writer
Donut Dash 2
2 October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
The race is open to the public, but contes-tants must pay a registration fee, with student discounts in both the casual and competitive individual categories, as well as student teams of two to six members per team. The student-discounted prices are $15 for individuals or $13 per team member.
“We’re expecting a total of about 700 par-ticipants this year,” Pacent said.
When Donut Dash began in 2008, the fund-raising goal was $2,000 for Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh — more like a doughnut hole than a full-sized fry cake. This year, Sigma Alpha Epsilon redirected its philanthropy because of a more personal reason.
Robert Dax, a CMU graduate and recipient of CMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, was diagnosed with ALS last spring. The choice of charity is a tribute to Dax, the fraternity’s alumni adviser.
Pacent said they researched the ALS Asso-ciation, the organization behind this summer’s popular Ice Bucket Challenge, and LiveLikeLou.org. Neil and Suzanne Alexander founded Live-
LikeLou.org in 2011 after Neil was diag-nosed with ALS. Pacent met with the couple in the months leading to the race to discuss the race’s tie to their fund.
“When you think about some-one with a debili-tating disease, you expect them to be broken down, but Neil isn’t like that,” Pacent said. “He has a really positive attitude about life, this event, the entire Pittsburgh community. It comes from a very pure place in his heart.”
People’s Natural Gas donated $15,000 for the event managers to spend on advertising, such as large banners on Port Authority buses. The Pittsburgh Foundation provided practi-cal help: closing Forbes Avenue for the race, consulting pointers and helping with public relations.
Other local and national companies also
donated prizes: a Microsoft tablet for fi rst place and doughnut-shaped medals for three individual com-petitors and the top team. There will also be a ra! e, whose winners will receive bags of signed Pittsburgh Pirates merchan-dise.
Although the ratio of Pitt to CMU
participants is usually low, Pacent said there are a handful of runners from Pitt every year.
Eric Kochinsky will be at the starting line on Sunday.
“There’s a run called the Krispy Kreme Chal-lenge in North Carolina that I’ve been wanting to do for years,” Kochinsky, a senior major-ing in fi nance and accounting, said. “When I found there was a similar event in Pittsburgh, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Kochinsky said this is the fi rst time he’ll be running the Donut Dash, but he’s confi dent in
his abilities to both eat and run. “In high school, when I ran cross country,
we would sneak o" to Rita’s [Italian Ice] dur-ing practice, so I have some experience eating mid-run,” he said.
Every race needs spectators, who some-times need something more to do than just cheer and hold signs. Jake Correa, philanthropy chair of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said there will be room to watch the doughnut feeding frenzy at the Morewood Avenue parking lot. Food trucks selling refreshments from Mac & Gold, a maca-roni and cheese to-go truck, and Franktuary, a hot dog and sausage restaurant, will also be stationed in the area.
Spectators can also buy doughnuts in the spirit of the race — and pay with money in-stead of sweat.
Those who don’t enjoy their cardio with a heaping side of carbohydrates are probably wondering, how many runners have thrown up their doughnuts at the end of the race?
“That’s probably our No. 1 most-asked ques-tion,” Correa said. “But we haven’t had anyone throw up. [But] some people feel really terrible when they fi nish.”
“But no one has had doughnut-induced vomiting,” Pacent said.
DONUT DASHFROM PAGE 1
Illustration by Aby Briner
3October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
man said. According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, the recent Ebola out-break in West Africa is the largest in history and also the fi rst epidemic of the disease.
As of Oct. 1, there were 6,574 reported cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and one confi rmed case in the United States. The disease has killed 3,091 people so far in the West African countries.
The CDC confi rmed on Sept. 30 that an unidentifi ed person in Dallas has Ebola. Their website says health o! cials in Dallas are “taking precautions to identify people who have had close personal contact with the ill person.” So far, the CDC hasn’t yet identifi ed any other cases in the U.S.
Pitt is not currently able to work on a vac-cine for Ebola, Hartman said, but is working on other important vaccines and therapeu-tics for other ailments.
“[Pitt] doesn’t have the biosafety level 4 to work with the live virus, but we do have level 3 for other viruses equally as important
as Ebola,” Hartman said. Some of these other viruses are yellow
fever, H5N1 avian infl uenza and Rift Valley fever virus.
According to Hartman, the only way Pitt would be able to work on a vaccine for Ebola is in a “collaborative sense” with other universities and places that do have level-4 biosafety clearance.
They are not currently doing that, but Hartman said that there has already been work done by other places prior to this epi-demic.
Janet Truebig, a fi rst-year student in the Graduate School of Public Health in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, said she doesn’t think that Pitt should start work on an Ebola vaccine.
“Pitt has been really involved in the past, but I think we should leave Ebola to the high-er-ups like the CDC and WHO [World Health Organization],” Truebig said, referring to the highly lethal nature of the disease and Pitt’s facilities, which aren’t properly equipped.
But, Truebig said she does think that there are ways to help Ebola patients in Africa.
“The big problem is people in Africa are
scared of hospitals and medical workers,” Truebig said. “To educate on safety and good intentions is the biggest way to help. There is a low doctor-to-public ratio. They need help getting medical people down there to help with treatment units.”
As a student working with infectious dis-eases, Truebig said that she wouldn’t choose to work on or around an Ebola vaccine.
“You can stick a monkey, and it fl inches and waves its arm, and the needle goes fl y-ing and it sticks you in the thigh, and it’s as easy as that to contract Ebola,” Truebig said.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior associate at the UPMC Center for Health Security, agrees that there are risks involved with making all vaccines but says that, if you follow the proper biosafety precautions, exposure should be prevented.
“The risk is very small, but never going to be zero,” Adalja said.
Adalja said he does not believe Pitt needs to start working or collaborating on a vaccine for Ebola, since the Ebola vaccine process is already on human trials in other places.
He would not, however, rule out Pitt help-ing other schools work on “wider human
trial testing.”“Pitt is no stranger to vaccine trials, since
the polio vaccine was done here,” Adalja said.In a Sept. 30 death-toll prediction re-
leased by the CDC, the death toll from Ebola was estimated to reach from 550,000 to 1.4 million people before this epidemic ends.
As terrifying as these numbers are, Adalja said they are not to be taken literally as a prediction.
“If you read the CDC paper closely, they back away from that number. It’s based on a model assuming nothing is being done,” Adalja said.
According to Adalja, Ebola is only spread through blood and bodily fl uids, and, if the burial practices in these areas change, it would help stop the disease from spread-ing. Ebola can spread through contact with corpses as well.
But, Adalja said, people often underes-timate how di! cult changing practices in Africa could be.
“Sociocultural factors impede the abil-ity of this message to get through to this population [there],” Adalja said. “There is a severe distrust of public health authorities [in Africa].”
EBOLAFROM PAGE 1
4 October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
OPINIONSAmerican history: How should we teach it?
This fall, the College Board introduced a new framework for its AP U.S. History course that has recently come under fi re .
According to the Washington Post, Ben Carson, a prominent pediatric neu-rosurgeon and potential 2016 GOP pres-idential candidate, said, “Most people, when they fi nish that course, they’d be ready to sign up for ISIS.”
Of course, Carson was more than likely using hyperbole to get his point across. However, his opposition to the framework was shared by many, includ-ing the Republican National Committee, saying that it “emphasizes negative as-pects of our nation’s history, while omit-ting or minimizing positive aspects.”
Because of this uproar, the College Board has since revised its framework to include more positive fi gures, such as Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr., who it previously either omitted
or briefl y mentioned.Regardless, this controversy high-
lights an important lesson. United States history is fi lled with great success and achievement. We should be proud of our enduring national constitution, our leadership in the world wars, our scien-tifi c innovation and our diverse makeup. But, like any nation’s history comprised of imperfect men and women, it is also fi lled with failure and disgrace. From slavery, to forced American Indian re-moval, to harsh imperialism, the United States has had dark moments. But, when teaching history, teachers at all levels, from kindergarten through college, must be balanced in their assessment and presentation of our past.
History is an extraordinarily com-plex subject. Those who have only viewed American history through rose-colored glasses will be hit hard by the
harsh realities of our past. Alternatively, only dwelling on the bad can lead to an overly cynical generation that ig-nores the innumerable achievements for which its predecessors bravely fought. Therefore, a balance must be sought.
From an early age, schools should present students with both sides of his-tory — not only the good or not only the bad. Students must realize that his-torical fi gures were human, just as they are, sharing in the same struggles we continue to deal with today. Instead of primarily focusing on names and dates, students should learn through litera-ture, letters, photos, archival footage and interviews to better understand and relate to the fi gures and events that came before them.
History is nothing more than the story of us, not merely our past. As historian David McCullough said in his
2003 Je! erson lecture, “The Course of Human Events,” “If you think about it, no one ever lived in the past. Washing-ton, Je! erson, John Adams and their contemporaries didn’t walk about say-ing, ‘Isn’t this fascinating living in the past! Aren’t we picturesque in our funny clothes!’ They lived in the present.”
We continue to do so today. As our nation responds to growing threats in the Middle East and around the world, as we recover from harsh economic times, are we thinking about history, or are we simply acting as humans try-ing our best? The truth is, sometimes our best will come up short. Does that make us inherently bad? No. It makes us human, no di! erent than our pre-decessors.
If more schools took this approach, perhaps more students would be excited to take a course like AP U.S. History.
EDITORIALEDITORIAL
Usually when I encounter trending ar-ticles, videos and stories on social media sites, I need not ponder long before I can take a stance on them.
They either deserve attention or they do not. Similarly, the standard editorial thinkpiece takes defi nitive stances. It sup-ports or it objects. It answers yay or nay to most any situation.
But the recent viral video of Emma Watson’s United Nations speech on femi-nism and men’s role within the movement has given me consistent pause all week. Something about it does not sit well with me, but I’m not sure what.
I’m not the only one with feelings about the speech, as it has sparked a dialogue among news and social media. However, I may very well be the only one without a decided position on it, which
has ranged from near-religious panegyric to stern critique. It has been variously described as “game-changing” and “30 or 40 years behind the times.”
My uneasiness certainly does not lie in the content of the speech. Watson de-livered a concise call for men’s participa-tion and acceptance within the feminist campaign for gender equality — a call that I enthusiastically embrace and for which I have previously advocated.
I understand the well-placed critique of the gender binary implicit in her call for “men and boys to support women and girls.” But not everyone can be easily identifi ed in one of those two camps, nor does everyone ask to be.
Nevertheless, I can also understand that identities such as transgender and genderqueer may not carry much pur-chase for policymakers and even feminist activists in many — if not most — of the countries represented at the UN. One
can justly militate for those identities’ inclusion, but possibly at the expense of alienating allies for women’s rights in many regions of the developing world.
If it wasn’t the speech that I can’t easily digest, perhaps it’s the speaker. I fi rst con-sidered my discomfort with the speech’s popularity in the person of Emma Watson. Besides, I thought, no one is paying atten-tion to Emma Watson, the UN Goodwill Ambassador, but to Hermione Granger, Gry" ndor’s star pupil. There are people across the globe dedicating their lives to combating sex tra" cking, gendered wage discrimination and female genital mutilation. Would any of them receive the attention that one starlet garnered just by her name?
Evidently not. I had to spend an in-ordinate amount of time looking for the identity, let alone the speech, of the speaker who preceded Emma Watson. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka — former
deputy president of South Africa and cur-rent executive director of UN Women, who has spent much of her life advocating for gender-equal education and for the rights of black South African squatter women — has not appeared in any of the articles lauding Watson for her coura-geous speech.
But it isn’t that simple. As soon as I had identifi ed that this arbitrary hero worship obscured the work of dedicated feminist activists, I realized that I didn’t have a very good idea of what a dedicated femi-nist activist should be in the fi rst place. Watson is not the most accomplished or committed feminist advocate, but not everyone has to be. Although the feminist community certainly needs more advo-cates to dedicate their lives to challenging systematic gender inequity in industry
Celebrity activism: Examining its ethics and effectsSimon Brown
Columnist
SIMON SAYSSIMON SAYS
Simon Says 5
5October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 1 0
Editorial PoliciesSingle copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around
campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each.
Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, car-toons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter in-tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University a!liation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to [email protected]. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left.
The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is pub-lished Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer.
Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the editors, may be referred to the Community Relations Com-mittee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.
The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law. The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University sta", fac-ulty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and edito-rial o!ces of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.
Copy Sta!Sarah Choflet
Anjuli Das Kinley Gillette Johanna HelbaEmily Maccia
and politics, we need even more people from all backgrounds to address the ev-eryday sexism in language and culture.
One need not be a full-time teacher at a girls’ school or a full-time labor orga-nizer for female workers to be a full-time feminist.
What is more, Emma Watson does commit herself to global gender equality
beyond the podium. She has travelled to Bangladesh, Zambia and Uruguay within the past year to spread her message. To dismiss her as merely a celebrity advo-cate disregards the proactive work she continues to do.
At this point, I was hopeless. How could I not know my opinion about this popular, important issue? Why did I have this lingering unease about an accom-plished woman’s admirable message of gender equity?
And then it struck me: I had no ob-
jection to the speech or the speaker. I certainly don’t have any objection to my Facebook feed aglow with commentary on women’s rights. My only complaint is that there isn’t more. When gender equality becomes a Facebook trend ini-tiated by big-name actors, the everyday person needs to do more. I’m not opposed to Emma Watson’s popularity, but I am opposed to the lack of recognition for Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
I found it di! cult to articulate this dissatisfaction because most editorial
columns express fi rm opinions. Watson’s speech had little to do with my opinion, but the fl eeting attention to it allows me a moment to address a gathered audi-ence attentive to further commentary on gender equality.
Cultural critique isn’t about support-ing or opposing isolated instances. It’s about using an instance to speak to much broader social goals. It doesn’t begin with a defi nite opinion. It begins with a feeling of unease.
Today’s di! culty level: Very HardPuzzles by Dailysodoku.com
6 October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
ARTS and ENTERTAINMENTPREVIEWPREVIEW
“ Stop Kiss,” unfortunately, has turned out to be a timeless play.
The o! -Broadway production, which de-buted in 1998 at The Public Theater in New York, focuses on two women who uninten-tionally fall in love, despite their existing re-lationships with other men. It’s a complicated situation, but it only gets more involved on the night of their fi rst kiss, when they’re bru-tally assaulted, leaving one of them comatose.
Just last month, when rehearsals for Pitt’s production of “Stop Kiss” were underway, life started to mirror art.
In Philadelphia, a gay couple was walking to get pizza just before 11 p.m. They were interrupted by a group of nearly a dozen at-tackers who allegedly shouted homophobic
slurs before beating them. One of the men came away with an orbital fracture and a laceration from his nose to his lip.
Brittany Coyne, the play’s director and a senior theatre arts major, wishes that there could be an alternate universe that presented “Stop Kiss” as a historical play, documenting events that no longer happened, instead of one that parallels current headlines.
“I wish that we would be able to do this play as a period piece,” Coyne said.
The play, which runs Oct. 2-12 at the Henry Heymann Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial, will be the fi rst Mainstage production directed by an undergraduate. Six undergraduate performers comprise the small cast of “Stop Kiss.”
This degree of undergraduate participa-tion in a Mainstage production is highly un-common, since graduate students or faculty
usually have more active roles in direction and oversight. Pitt’s Student Lab perfor-mances are where undergraduates usually gain experience behind the scenes, but on a slimmer budget. Coyne directed a Student Lab last year called “Matt & Ben,” and she has another Lab, “Urinetown,” planned for February.
Sara (Leenie Baker), who falls into a coma after the couple is beaten on the street, and Callie (Lucy Clabby, who has written for The Pitt News) form the central relation-ship. Their former love interests , Peter (Ben McClymont) and George (Kieran Peleaux), are mostly supportive of the new romance, but Peter still holds out hope for winning Sara back during her recovery period. Despite the major roadblock, Callie and Sara remain committed to each other. Bri Wagner and Chris Bennett also star as Mrs. Winsley/Nurse
and Detective Cole, respectively. In many ways, “Stop Kiss” is two stories in
one — scenes slalom back and forth between the present-day e! ects of the assault and Cal-lie’s memories from before her fi rst kiss with Sara, but they maintain their chronology within each storyline. Despite its tremendous ripple e! ect, the assault isn’t shown onstage.
Jessica Hecht and Sandra Oh starred as Callie and Sara during the original run of “Stop Kiss” fi ve years before the actresses appeared in Alexander Payne’s “Sideways.” “Stop Kiss” was extended only three times in New York, but it has since taken on new life with small theater troupes and college groups all over the country.
Bennett thinks the play has more reso-nance now than when it fi rst hit the stage.
‘Stop Kiss’ portrays a ‘stumble into love,’ mirrors the headlinesShawn Cooke
A&E Editor
Clabby and Baker star as the accidental lovers of “Stop Kiss.” Photo credit to Vincent Noe
Stop Kiss 8
7October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
Pitt musician spotlight: The Brothers Craig score fi rst big
gig opening for Hoodie AllenBritnee Meiser
Staff Writer
MUSICMUSIC
Favorite Oakland pizza shop: Little Nippers II
Biggest musical inspiration: Paul: Brantley Gilbert; Stephen: Tie between Guster and Arcade Fire; Jack: Noel Gal-lagher from Oasis
Favorite movie with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: Paul: “Race to Witch Mountain;” Stephen and Jack: “The Other Guys”
Favorite Pittsburgh venue: If we had to pick one we would want to play the most, it would be Stage AE.
Favorite place to go for inspiration: Paul: Yosemite Valley, Calif.; Stephen: Narnia; Jack: Downtown, although most of our ideas end up coming from our living room
Academic building you’d hold a concert in: Paul: David Lawrence lecture hall ; Stephen: Hillman Library, on any of the quiet fl oors; Jack: Loe! er Building, for obvious reasons
After winning Pitt’s most recent round of Battle of the Bands, acoustic trio The Brothers Craig will make their live debut opening for Hoodie Allen at Fall Fest.
Roommates Stephen Kraus, Paul Carey and Jack Loeffler started the band after months of playing for fun in their apartment.
“After a while, we decided to get serious and start trying to play some gigs that didn’t involve our neighbors yelling at us for being too loud,” Kraus said.
Fall Fest will be The Brothers Craig’s first large performance. Besides Battle
of the Bands, the only other public
show they’ve done is an open mic night in the William Pitt Union last year.
The band describes its sound as “high-energy acoustic,” which makes for interactive performances.
“What makes [our sound] unique is the completely different musical back-grounds all three of us come from,” Carey said. “Because of that, we draw inspiration from nearly every genre of music.”
The Brothers Craig opens for Hood-ie Allen and Chiddy Bang 1 p.m. this Sunday at Fall Fest.
Each band member had a different opinion for most of the questions on our standardized Pitt musician survey.
The Brothers Craig performing at Battle of the Bands. Photo courtesy of Stephen Kraus
8 October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.comACROSS
1 Dangler on a dog6 D-Day city
10 “A likely story!”14 19th-century
English novelistCharles
15 Greenish-blue16 Gear teeth17 *Programs that
generatehardware sales
19 Religious offshoot20 Paperless
publication21 “Ditto!”23 Having “but one
life to give for mycountry,” to Hale
26 *Certain repairsite
28 “__ you finished?”29 Feel sorry about31 Gael or Druid32 Retin-A target33 Greenish-blue35 __ Martin: flashy
car39 LAX listing40 *Brings up to
speed42 “Surfin’ __”43 Like painter Jan
Steen45 Assents at sea46 Capture47 Extremely
attentive49 Big laugh51 It may need
boosting52 *Bargain for less
jail time56 Capital on the
Sava River58 José’s “Moulin
Rouge” co-star59 Salvage crew
acronym61 Literary bell town62 Climactic
announcementsuggested by thestarts of theanswers tostarred clues
67 Shed tool68 Quaint oath69 Antipasto
ingredient70 Span. ladies71 Feature of some
stadiums72 Green
DOWN1 Aggravate2 Agnus __3 Latvian chess
champ of 1960-’61
4 Only woman tooutwit Holmes
5 Eccentric sort6 Reading at the
checkout counter7 Laid-back sort8 Indy circuit9 Kind of surprise
kick10 Confronts rudely11 Word in two state
names12 White house?13 Lens setting18 Ceremony22 “Lay Lady Lay”
singer23 Knocked down24 “Un Ballo in
Maschera” aria25 Imply27 Dublin-born
playwright30 Consider identical34 Chase scene
maneuver,slangily
36 One working onpitches
37 Missouri river orcounty
38 Mover andshaker
40 Blokes41 Troopers, e.g.44 Extreme jitters,
with “the”48 Put50 Explosive
sound52 Business
magnates
53 Very hot celestialorb
54 Arctic garb55 Tea-producing
Indian state57 Big name in
wine60 Give up63 Earlier64 Rouge or blanc65 Eden dweller66 “L.A. Law”
actress
Wednesday’s Puzzle SolvedBy Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke 10/16/14
“I think there’s defi nitely still a view on gays that [they’re] obviously not widely ac-cepted,” Bennett said. “And, personally, this play [resonates] with me a lot — just the fear of it all.”
For Pitt’s production of “Stop Kiss,” Coyne made some minor updates to the script — such as replacing answering machines with cell phones and changing the names of closed restaurants — to modernize it and remind the audience that “this is something that could have happened while we were watch-ing this play.”
Nearly everyone involved with the play emphasizes that its social implications aren’t necessarily the centerpiece of the story. At its core, “Stop Kiss” is very much an unconven-tional and organic love story, albeit one that’s interrupted by a particularly horrifi c event.
“If the phrase is ‘falling in love,’ they really kind of stumble into it. They kind of ‘trip in love,’” Baker said. “It isn’t intended at all. It’s not a romantic love story in the stereotypi-cal sense.”
Coyne also acknowledged how di! cult it is to defi ne the progression of the relation-ship, since they’re a bit reluctant to fall in love. She was also critical of an instinctual desire to put a label on Callie and Sara’s situation.
“There’s just no hint that [they’re falling in love],” Coyne said. “They’re just two people who like to spend time together. It doesn’t have to be anything.”
Despite its brisk running time of 95 minutes, “Stop Kiss” covers a lot of spatial ground — despite the smaller Henry Hey-mann Theatre.
“Every single scene happens in a di" erent place. Scene one’s in an apartment, scene two’s in an interrogation room, scene three’s back to the apartment — so every scene switches places, which is very hard,” Coyne said. “We had to create an entire hospital in 10 square feet.”
The play’s intimacy has forced the cast to adjust to sharing a limited physical space, but they’ve also grown closer o" the stage, fi nding common ground on the play’s central themes.
“Because of all the issues that surround the work we’re doing, we all feel like we’re on the same page, and that kind of brings us together,” Peleaux said.
STOP KISSFROM PAGE 6
9October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
SPORTSL ast fall, Suzie McConnell-Serio was brows-ing Pitt’s athletic website and found an article about the Panthers volleyball team.
While reading the article, something caught the then fi rst-year Pitt women’s bas-ketball coach’s eye: a name.
“I knew it wasn’t a common name,” Mc-Connell-Serio said. “I remember thinking, ‘There cannot be two Monica Wignots’”.
During her senior year of high school at Holy Redeemer in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., it seemed to everyone that Monica Wignot was poised to begin a promising collegiate basketball career after graduation. A star all throughout high school, the 6-foot-3-inch Wignot tallied 1,000 points during her high school career. She was a two-time confer-ence MVP and a three-time all-state team selection.
But much to the surprise — and perhaps chagrin — of her family, friends and coaches, Wignot had a di! erent sport with a net in mind: volleyball.
Wignot was a skilled volleyball player in high school despite never having played
before her freshman year, earning all-state honors three times and leading her team to the state semi-fi nals twice. She received countless o! ers from colleges, including one from McConnell-Serio, the then head coach at Duquesne University. Wignot even verbally committed to the University of Delaware to play basketball earlier in her senior year. It was an unprecedented move for a basketball player of her caliber to throw the sport to the wayside.
“I had tried to recruit her at Duquesne six years ago,” McConnell-Serio said. “Then I found out she wanted to play volleyball, so I stopped recruiting her. I didn’t know where she ended up.”
Eventually, Wignot would garner a grand total of one volleyball scholarship o! er, com-ing from the University of Pittsburgh. And that was something that Wignot decided to jump on.
“Personally, I felt like I was burnt out,” Wignot said. “I had been playing basketball since I was fi ve or six, and volleyball was fresh and new. And once I was presented the opportunity to play in college, I knew it was time to switch it up.”
Wignot said she felt a little bit of guilt,
remembering that her parents had driven her to countless AAU games and practices, while coaches helped her sort out her recruit-ment o! ers.
“In a sense, I kind of felt bad because I didn’t want to make it seem like all of their hard work was for nothing,” Wignot said.
“I really did appreciate everything that all my coaches and my parents did for me. But, overall, they were still happy and supportive, because it was what I wanted.”
Wignot appeared to have made the right
After four years away, Wignot returns to basketballDan Sostek
Assistant Sports Editor
Monica Wignot works on getting back into basketball shape. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics
FEATUREFEATURE
F antasy football is the worst.And I’m not just saying that because I lost
this week — which I did. I’m saying that be-cause fantasy football, together with Yik Yak and inserting lines from 2 Chainz songs into everyday conversation, is slowly taking over my life. I’ve become what I thought I’d never allow myself to become: a Sunday bum, with my butt glued fi rmly to the couch, my hands glued fi rmly to a bag of potato chips and my eyes darting uncontrollably between the television and my phone (in actuality, this is what I’ve done every Sunday since college began. It’s just become more intense).
I’m obsessed.But I hate myself for being obsessed be-
cause now I get angry at players whose only fault was being available on the draft board when I made my selections. I benched Frank Gore after he went a full game with just 10 yards on six touches. I cursed his name and considered dropping him.
Apparently, Frank didn’t like that I pun-ished him with the fantasy football equiva-lent of “go to your room,” so he decided to rebel by rushing for 120 yards and catching a touchdown pass, tormenting me in the process. Real mature, Frank.
I thought I had a sure pick in Drew Brees. He’s been a consistently great quarterback for years now, even cracking 5,000 yards in a single season. But Brees hasn’t come anywhere close to my expectations. He’s been mediocre. And what’s worse, he hasn’t been throwing to his rookie wide receiver
Brandin Cooks, who I drafted in hopes of having a deadly one-two punch. In a way, I was right. It is deadly. Because it’s killing my team.
But the biggest disappointment so far has been my fi rst-round pick, my shining star, the one I thought I would be able to count on, even if all else fell apart. Calvin Johnson has given me nothing. He tallied 12 receiving yards last week. Twelve! How am I supposed to win fantasy games when the best wide receiver in the game can’t get the ball?
But Johnson isn’t my only wideout who’s struggling. Andre Johnson has been atro-cious. The Eagles’ o! ense went stagnant on Sunday, meaning Jeremy Maclin gave me nothing. I already talked about the Brandin Cooks problem. He’s been my fl ex player
each week since his great debut (when he was, naturally, on my bench).
After some serious thought, I’ve come up with a few conclusions about fantasy football.
First, I’ve reached the conclusion that my players don’t care about me. And that hurts. If nobody else in this world, I thought my fantasy football team would have my back. I thought they’d always be there to bring me that little bit of joy for the week, working as hard as they could to ensure my happiness for an afternoon. But I guess I overestimated my guys. They don’t love me.
The second conclusion I’ve reached is that fantasy football is really no di! erent
Frustrations of a fi rst-time fantasy football playerAlex WiseSta! Writer
Wignot 10
Fantasy 10
COLUMNCOLUMN
10 October 2, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
decision, as she ended up producing a stel-lar four-year career as a key member of the Panthers volleyball team, even making second-team all-Big East in 2012 and fi nish-ing with 822 kills in 93 matches. Her career as a Panther appeared to be over — that is until McConnell-Serio decided to make a phone call.
The coach decided to reach out to Pitt’s head volleyball coach Dan Fisher to make some inquiries.
“I remember telling [McConnell-Serio], ‘I don’t know if she can shoot or dribble,” Fisher said, now in his second year at Pitt, “but I know that she’s 6-foot-3 and can touch the rim. How many players do you have on your team that can do that?’”
Still, it wasn’t a quick decision, Fisher said, as Wignot was apprehensive about her lack of basketball experience over the past four years.
“I don’t think at the time Mo was totally ready to say yes,” Fisher said. “It took a bit of convincing.”
Eventually, the two sides realized that the partnership could be mutually benefi cial.
“The one thing she wanted to do was go to grad school, and she wanted to stay here at Pitt to do it,” McConnell-Serio said, “so it ended up being an opportunity for the both of us.”
Wignot needed to get basketball-ready over the summer after not having stepped on a court competitively in four years, go-ing through countless basketball workouts, playing in a summer league and scrimmaging against the Panthers team.
“She spent some time getting back into basketball skills,” McConnell-Serio said. “She’s had some time to work on her skills, and we’re happy with her progress ... She hasn’t skipped a beat.”
Despite the lack of recent experience, the Panthers will rely heavily on Wignot this sea-son. The second-tallest player on the roster, Wignot’s versatility is lauded by McConnell-Serio, who cited Wignot’s ability to play both along the perimeter and in the post as one of her most important skills.
“She will be a major contributor for us, I can already see it,” McConnell-Serio said. “She’s going to play a lot.”
WIGNOTFROM PAGE 9
from playing roulette at the casino. If you play roulette the way I play roulette, you stick to the outside of the table. There’s no need to play the numbers when you’ve got red and black right in front of you. Simply choosing a color makes it easy to tell whether or not you’ve won: if you have chips on black and the ball lands on a black space, you win. If you have chips on red and the ball lands on black, you lose. It’s a 50/50 chance. You have no idea what the outcome will be when you put your chips down. There’s no skill, game-play or strategy involved. You just guess and wait and hope. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. Based on my luck, it typically doesn’t.
And that’s what fantasy football is to me. Guess, wait and hope. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. When I look at my roster be-fore each week, I have no idea what’s going to happen. I don’t choose which of my running backs will play based on the strength of the run defense of their opponents. I don’t have a clue which teams have good run defenses and which don’t, and I’m too lazy to Google it.
Instead, I look at Alfred Morris, Frank
Gore, Fred Jackson and Pierre Thomas and think to myself, “Which of these guys do I have a good feeling about this week?” And, since my good feelings at the roulette table are almost always wrong, I play the other two. If Morris and Jackson are red, and I have a good feeling about red, Gore and Thomas are starting. It’s a highly unscientifi c and ine! ective way to run my team, but I don’t really have much of a choice. I’m as good at fantasy football as I am at winning money at the casino: not good at all.
If you’ve learned nothing from this, I’ll summarize: don’t use the Alex Wise Method at the casino. And defi nitely don’t use it for fantasy football.
I’ve given this league the old college try. I’ve paid attention on Sundays. I think I’ve watched more games in the fi rst four weeks of this season than I watched all of last year combined. I even remember to update my lineup. But my frustration is mounting with each passing weekend, and I don’t know how much longer I’ll last. Fantasy football is killing me.
