The Devil's Details

Beauty and the Ballad

March 17, 2010

“Mother dear, may I go downtown Instead of out to play, And march the streets of Birmingham In a Freedom March today?” “No, baby, no, you may not go, For the dogs are fierce and wild, And clubs and hoses, guns and jails Aren’t good for a little child.” “But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Ryan Brown

March 17, 2010

At 7:10 p.m. on a recent Wednesday, Reynolds Price began breaking down Virginia Woolf’s renowned novel, To The Lighthouse. It’s like this, he said: autobiographical fiction meets stream of consciousness at a beach house in Scotland. Oh yes, and there is this lighthouse. “The lighthouse is dangerous [as a literary device],” he told me. “If [Woolf] had just pressed one gram of excess weight on that image it would have been so corny. You know, ‘There’s a lighthouse! Here comes the beam! Everyone face it and smile!’”

The Start-up Challenged

Nim Barshad

March 17, 2010

To: Duke Start-up Challenge Executive Committee

From: Duke Start-up Challenge Executive Committee Chair

Date: Feb. 22, 2010

Subject: Elevator pitch competitors

Well, here are the submissions. Looks like a rough year:

DareDevil—Harvard had H Bomb. Boston University had Boink. We’re bringing the next generation of erotic student publications to Duke. But we cut to the chase. No artful compositions, no clever essays, no avant-garde gender deconstruction. Just naked-ass Duke undergrads, bundled with every Tuesday Chronicle.

The Popular Vote

Sam Schlinkert

March 17, 2010

The Duke Student Government subcommittee on electoral reform met last night to discuss possible alternative methods for electing the next DSG president. Citing the success of the reformed Young Trustee selection process, a panel made up of members of the subcommittee presented the findings of their week-long research.

To Whom It May Concern

Ben Cohen

February 10, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

Forty years ago, President John F. Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” My name is Colt W. Branson, and today, I ask: What can I do for Browning McKee?

Master of the Public Domain

Kevin Lincoln

February 10, 2010

Professor James Boyle can fly.

Boyle is the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and a co-founder of the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which supports scholarship and research in the field of intellectual property Primarily, Boyle studies the ramifications of copyright law on the ideas, writings, films, music and other forms of creativity it governs.

Coach

Charlie McSpadden

February 10, 2010

Despite the cold January downpour outside, Amy Unell, Trinity ’03, recently entered the Alumni House, calm and collected. Her relaxed, engaging nature came as quite a shock, considering how large a project Unell has been quietly but firmly captaining over the past five months, an enterprise that has slowly expanded across Duke’s campus. Unell is finally achieving a dream she’s had ever since she took a class as a doe-eyed freshman from the Midwest. She’s telling the world the story of former Duke track head coach Al Buehler.

The Devil's Details