By April C. Armstrong *14
In this week’s installment of our recurring series, students lament a lack of access to television, Albert Einstein talks about his leisure activities, and more.
March 24, 1950—Responding to the University’s enforcement of a 1926 rule prohibiting radio wires or aerials on the exterior of dormitories, which also prohibits television antennas, Peter H. Kurzman ’53 writes,
Prospects for the future of TV at Princeton look very dim. … sex and studies rather than Milton Berle and Howdy Doody will continue to be the chief topics of conversation on the Princeton campus.
March 26, 1996—Michael Sugrue’s “The Bible in the Western Cultural Tradition” class begins with an announcement met by cheers, applause, and whistles: he has been reappointed and will remain in Princeton another year. Though the “Students for Sugrue” campaign did not impact the University’s decision to make an offer to Sugrue for reappointment, its co-founder says that doesn’t matter. “What is important is that he is here.”
March 27, 1868—A local writer mocks recent claims of extremely high rates of alcoholism in Princeton, that “there is but one place on earth that will compare with this in point of drunkenness. Not even in that heaven-forsaken town, Naples, on the Illinois river, did I see such universal, beastly sottishness.” The local writer responds to this quote by saying that this is inaccurate, and sarcastically asks,
Do people groveling in beastly indulgences build churches, maintain pastors, support schools, and labor in the cause of science, virtue and religion[?] … A town on Illinois river, a dark spot in a region of Egyptian darkness, a place so depraved that the moral light of heaven has been withdrawn from it, is yet not plunged into a blackness of darkness so total and terrible, as this worse than heaven-forsaken town in which we live.
March 28, 1936—The Daily Princetonian follows up on a Time article about Albert Einstein with an exclusive interview of its own, asking the scientist about what games he likes to play. “I never play games,” Einstein is quoted. “When I get through work I don’t want anything which requires working of the mind.”
Did you read the previous installment in this series?
Fact check: We always strive for accuracy, but if you believe you see an error, please contact us.