The Ivy League has had a rather complicated relationship with the military in recent years (see Sanchez, Matt-- or better yet, don't). Despite the ideological gap that has alienated many liberal Ivyfolk from their country's adventures in Iraq, the Schools have produced a few good military men with a penchant for writing about their experiences. A couple years back, Columbia's magazine The Eye ran recurring dispatches from Lt. Josh Arthur, CC ’04 in Baghdad. Now Princeton alum Capt. Nate Rawlings is providing commentary and answering questions about his current deployment in Iraq for NPR.

Rawlings comes across as extremely hesitant to cross party lines and doesn't say anything even remotely controversial, but it's hard not to have some affection for a guy who's writing a bafflingly eclectic advice column from a war zone. In yesterday's installment, his three questions were: a heart-tugging letter from a soldier who will likely miss his son's birth, a scathing anti-war screed disguised as a question, and a jaunty inquiry about being an Ivy Leaguer in Iraq. I wonder which of these we're interested in? Read the rest of this entry »

John P. Pryor, director of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's (HUP) trauma program, describes in a fantastic Washington Post op-ed from Sunday how Philadelphia's violent crime rates in low-income areas are spiking. "The War in West Philadelphia" is the second national bit I've read this summer that likens Philadelphia's dangerous neighborhoods to Iraq:

In Iraq, ironically, I found myself drawing on my experience as a civilian trauma surgeon each time mascals [mass-casualty situations] would overrun the combat hospital. As nine or 10 patients from a firefight rolled in, I sometimes caught myself saying "just like another Friday night in West Philadelphia."

Penn is situated between West Philly and Center City in the neighborhood of University City, a district Penn helped found in 1997 to make itself sound and look yuppier. And if you measure yuppie success by Starbucks, I usually passed two on my way to class.

Mmm... gentrified Frappuccino with eminent domain sprinkles... University City makes me feel so warm and guilty inside.

But to the Penn '11s, you might consider hiding a collective Glock under those "New Student Orientation: Library Social 2007" t-shirts you'll soon get. University City is still only 6 or 7 blocks from the new Sadr City. Thank God I peaced out when I did. Boogity boogity boo!

If students have any defense it will be behind the Daily Pennsylvanian's hard-nosed crime awareness reporting, as exemplified recently by the paper's weekly summer outlet, the Summer Pennsylvanian. Think Ernie-Pyle-in-World-War-II quality. Then imagine the complete opposite, only fully realized in vibrant Adobe Creative Suite 2 mauves and ecrus.

After the break, "Why report on this 'crime epidemic' when Nintendo's making some 'Wii' dojiggly?"

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