weeklyTHE

03 07 08It’s not too cold to drink

Cougar and hipster TV

Get out your country get-up

VOL.6, ISSUE 2

decoding the health care debateWHAT IT MEANS FOR US

2 the weekly

How often do you use your insurance? Health care seems like just another distant debate, fleshed out by stuffy senators on Capitol Hill, but does the issue cross your mind while pick-ing up a prescription at CVS? Once gradua-tion hits and our parents cut us off, we have to either buy insurance or face monstrous ER bills later. Is paying for insurance worth it? The best way to answer that is to learn if we actually use it. We asked 100 people loi-tering in Norris if they’ve used their health care coverage in the last month. Turns out, 44 percent say they have whipped out their insurance cards, either for a doctor’s appoint-ment or to buy prescription meds. Only one person was without health insurance, and another complained about the way his insur-ance company billed him for his most recent foot X-ray. Wake up and smell the latex! It’s about time to start shopping for insurance.

EMMA HAAK

THE WEEKLY MEMO

weeklyTHE

EDITOR IN CHIEFalexandra ilyashov ilyashov@u.northwestern.edu

MANAGING EDITORkarina martinez-carter k-martinez-carter@northwestern.edu

ASSISTANT EDITORStara kalmanson t-kalmanson@northwestern.eduolya leptoukh o-leptoukh@u.northwestern.edu

ART DIRECTORpaulina lopez paulinalopez2010@u.northwestern.edu

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTORjaimie vaillancourt j-vaillancourt@u.northwestern.edu

contact the weekly at:847.491.4901

send confirmed and denied tips to the managing editor

want to join our staff?e-mail our editor in chief

A weekly supplement to The Daily NorThwesTerN.

SURVEY IN NORRISGot You Covered?

ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV

WHAT IF...You left Evanston for a year?

confirmed denied&

Sometimes, that enjoyable yet naïvete-inducing Northwestern bubble effect makes us forget the importance of staying in the loop about what’s happening in the world at large — and in turn, we also forget to take a moment to contextu-alize how major headlines will actually impact our lives. The health care debates exemplify something major and relevant to all of us (or someday, at least) that fall to the wayside due to our comfortably and completely out of touch daily priorities and concerns. Thankfully, Katie Glueck decodes all the latest lingo and drama pertaining to health care reform and insurance fracas as of late in our cover story. If you’re anything like us at The Weekly, the concept of being insured probably stays pretty distant. But our dirt-digging on Searle’s handling of that pesky swine flu situation for this week’s Confirmed and Denied reminded us just how messy it can be to get medical attention. And since it’ll only get more complicated post-grad, it can’t hurt to get clued in now. But don’t worry, for your interim concern and enjoyment, we’ve charted a slew of local alfresco imbibing spots in the latest Getting Graphic feature. Also check out Jeremy Gordon’s sweet ode to Taylor Swift, perhaps better known as of late as the acciden-tal attraction of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards–Kanye, even your endless Chi-town repping can’t redeem that rude live television gaffe we’re still talking about (and YouTubing). While you’re at it, take a moment to live vicari-ously through some fellow Wildcats who opted to check out for a year in this week’s What If.

WEEKLY EDITORS

Skipping out on three quarters of NU means missing Dillo Day, raucous tail-gates and Sheridan walks of shame.

The abroad experience for most Northwest-ern students goes something like this. Spend two or three months living it up like a combination local/expat/tourist, then return to the States, glad to be partying like a college student again (as if the college habits hadn’t continued abroad) and then spend the days talking about “the culture” and “my ex-boyfriend — he’s a local” as reasons to return after graduation. But when the students staying three-to-five months abroad jump on the plane home, a small minority has the guts to stay behind.

This past school year, of the 701 stu-dents who went abroad, just 38, or 5.4 percent, participated in full-year programs, says Alicia Stanley, associate director of NU’s study abroad office. And those ex-tra couple months made all the difference in the world to many of them when it came to immers-ing themselves in the local culture — and when it came to returning to their daily American lives.

After an entire year spent adopting a foreign lifestyle, re-entering American culture was jarring for Mary Dwyer, a Weinberg senior who spent the year in London and says she had a major case of reverse culture shock. “It took me a while to really feel like I was home,” she says. “When I got back I was converting everything into pounds, looking the wrong direction at crosswalks and asking for ‘take away’ instead of carry out.” The transition also was difficult for Weinberg senior Sirisha Yadlapati. “I had fully embraced Barcelo-na,” she says. “So I was really sad for a really long

time. They prioritize family and life over work. Things there were much less stressful than they are here.”

When on a different continent, friendships sometimes feel the strain. Staying in touch via Skype helped Dwyer make sure her friends back home didn’t feel separate from her English life, but most didn’t understand why she would leave Evanston for a whole year, though they eventually came around. “They were supportive, but angry at the same time,” she says.

“I knew my friends would still be here when I got back,” says John Lee, a senior linguistics major who studied in Paris. Despite oc-casional instant-messaging chats, Lee admits he heard what hap-pened among

friends while he was gone only once he’d come back. “I realized that their lives had gone on without me,” he says. But Lee’s friends had missed out, too. They didn’t stand on strike last spring with other French university students and blockade the school’s entrances, and they didn’t spend weekends jetting around Europe without worrying about missing valuable time in the City of Light, both of which Lee did. “I got to see the seasons change in Paris, meet more people and after adjusting to the different learning style, be-ing in class was a bit easier in the second semes-ter,” he says. “The fall students were just starting to settle in when they had to leave. If I had left then, I would have had a totally different reflec-tion on my time abroad.”

THE FUTURE OF THE CRUSH PARTY“Panhellenic unity” took on new meaning Tues-day when Theta and Gamma Phi hosted a joint crush party at Dream in Lincoln Park. The presi-dents of the two “unified chapters” are already finishing each other’s sentences: Theta President Eliza McNabb’s comment (“We thought it would be fun because lots of our members are friends”) echoes Gamma Phi President Amanda Swanson’s “Our chapters have a lot of friends in common.” The sororities shared the cost of the venue but each paid for its own buses and wristbands (a risk management decision, so each sorority is responsible for its own comatose/injured at-tendees). Each girl invited only one crush (two is typical); the estimated turnout was 200 to 300. But the real question: Will the drunken bonding continue? “We’d definitely do it again,” McNabb says. And Swanson says, “I would definitely.” But don’t worry, hopeful frat boys. Your potential in-vites are not disappearing, but multiplying: Both Theta and Gamma Phi will follow this joint crush party with the usual fall social line up.

INDIAN DANCE TEAMS ROBBING THE SORORITY PLAYBOOK?We knew sororities were into playing dirty, but multicultural student group dance teams? Last year, the South Asian Student Alliance (SASA) revamped its audition process for wannabe Bhan-gra boys and Deevas of NU. Now, prospective members rank the teams they tried out for and teams rank the dancers they saw. Sound familiar?

(Hint: sorority recruitment.) And it’s only get-ting worse—they’ve begun to incorporate an old Greek standby: alcohol. To woo their favorite au-ditioning dancers, some of the four SASA teams have been throwing parties — one of which was even held during another team’s tryouts. “They’re getting the freshmen drunk to make them like their team,” says one disgruntled dance team member. The top girls are especially in demand since two of the SASA teams are female-only. At least they’re “rushing” based on actual skills in-stead of keg stands and designer bags... for now? Keep it clean, SASA!

SWINE OVERLOADSome sorority houses on campus have taken in their H1N1-infected members for a proper quar-antining, and remaining rooms are occupied with girls seeking solace from their sickly roommates. Why have Greek houses assumed this role, you ask, when there’s a swine flu ward in a residence hall? The fact that the Res Life office is too busy to even call us back is a good indication — they’re swamped. And not only is the University unable to handle the piles of quarantining requests, but the CDC cut funding for the blood tests that de-termine if the swine flu virus is present. So if you have a low-grade fever and a cough, don’t head to Searle — they’ll give you a questionnaire but refuse to test you. We don’t ask you for much, but we’re asking this now: If you’re sick, find a hole and lock yourself up. If not, it’s time to respond to that student insurance email.

10.01.09

From left: Winston Choi, Nathan Nabb, and Masahito Sugihara

MASAHITO SUGIHARA saxophone

with &NATHAN NABB saxophoneWINSTON CHOI piano

Saturday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.Lutkin Hall, $7/5/4

Program includes a world premiere by Mari Takano and works by Christian Lauba, György Ligeti, and M. William Karlins

Two articles in last week’s issue omitted writers’ bylines. Era Dykhne wrote the Post-Grad Pursuit and Mandy Oaklander wrote the Chicago World Music Festival piece. The Weekly regrets the errors.*

Have you used your health insurance in the last month?

56

44

No

Yes

They prioritize family and life over work. Things there were much

less stressful than they are here.“

Sirisha Yadlapati, Weinberg senior ”

social diary [seven nights out with a swine-infected, Keg-cruising Communication freshman]

22 tuesday 23 wednesday 24 thursday 25 friday 26 saturday 27 sunday 28 mondayMade a huge scene af-

ter almost getting rejected at a bar last night, but got in when the manager told the bouncer he’s “a bouncer for a reason.” Af-ter two chilly willys, some shots and beer, skipped The Keg (long line), went to BK. First class ever this morning full of stale tequi-la, vodka, beer and maybe a roofi e. Skipped the rest of my classes.

Woke up with a stuff y nose, snorted tequila thinking it can melt any-thing. Wrong. Felt like death; went to the doc-tor. Skipped a week-long H1N1 testing wait list by yelling that if I die my fa-ther will stop giving mon-ey to NU. Tested positive, got invited to a “swine fl u cocktail party” in the wait-ing room, leave wearing a SARS mask.

H1N1 = no going to dining halls = I didn’t eat. My friends tried to con-vince me to go to Deuce Thursdays and hook up with as many girls possible to get back at the trick who gave me The Swine, but I felt that was incon-siderate and possibly a little illegal, plus I felt like crap so I went to bed.

Delirious, concluded that I got swine fl u from my Mexican tequila. Re-member thinking, “That H1N1 messes you up. I should market this — mi-nus the seven-day conta-gious hangover.” Found out that jacking off when you’re sick kinda hurts. Then decided to walk to the BK Lounge alone at 4 a.m. Shared a romantic but wordless meal with a homeless man.

Too tired for the foot-ball game. Rested up so I could go out instead — no alchie in days! Went to a few parties, played the LOTTO, on to The Keg. Random sober high school girls tried to take advantage of me. Sat outside smoking when my friend asked me if he could put his cigar out on some annoying girl. Then I passed out.

Got up late to the smell of my roommate’s puke, had an omelet for brunch that closely resembled my roommate’s puke and then sat next to a couple so ugly it made me want to puke. Then I went home, did 15 minutes of Spanish home-work (a.k.a. had my books open while on Facebook) and went to bed. Epic fail of a day.

Pregamed hard for The Keg. (Seeing a pattern, here?) Got some shots, got some girls’ numbers, not so sure if I got their names. Sounds like a lot of fun… Too bad I don’t remember leaving the pre-game, going to The Keg or really anything else that happened. I’m just going to assume it was a great night.

GETTING GRAPHICGet Out, Drink Up

JESSE WIENER

An alcoholic’s guide to Evanston’s best patios

the weekly 3 10.01.09

Day or Night?

Beer/Wine or Full Bar?

Live Music?

The Celtic Knot Public House

Tommy Nevin’s Pub

Flat Top Grill

Bar Louie

1800 Club

626 Church St., 847-864-1679

1450 Sherman Ave., 847-869-0450

707 Church St., 847-570-0100

We can all feel it: That loathsome and often bemoaned transition to winter is rapidly approaching. Experienced students know to get outside as much as possible before fur-lined boots and earmu� s are necessary to survive the trek between your front door and that Norshore cab. To maximize your boozing time as well as your hours in the open air, you’ll need a place with a menu decent enough to keep you from making a BK run. Restaurants like Nevin’s Pub, Bar Louie and The Celtic Knot o� er hearty portions, nightly specials and weekly live music. For cheaper options, lose the tunes and opt for the Flat Top Grill, or waste the night away on the patio at Hundo. Post this chart on your fridge and no matter how many liver-destructing libations you consume on your next Fraturday, you will � nd food and drink when night falls and that hangover has (almost) worn o� .

The Knot dishes up European faves like � sh and chips, Shepherd’s Pie and “Guinness Pasties” alongside steak and salmon. If you sit outside, Knot employees say you can see peregrine falcons nesting in trees across the street. The best part? If the weather turns, well, fowl, step inside the restaurant and head to the lively bar.

Nevin’s o� ers the best beer garden in Evanston and a menu loaded with burgers and Irish dishes. John Williams plays live Irish music on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 to 10 p.m. and on Sundays from 3 to 6 p.m. During football season, Nevin’s doubles as a sports bar for all you lonely Jets fans to congregate on Sundays.

Northwestern students from out of state must head to this Illinois chain at least once. Other than astronomical portions of do-it-yourself stir-fry, the spot serves up deliciously fun drinks such as the Cool Cucumber Cosmo and the Horny Monkey (rum, vodka and “undisclosed mixers”). It can satisfy even the most diverse group of eaters and drinkers. Students get $2 o� dinner and $1 o� lunch.

1520 Sherman Ave., 847-733-8300 If you’re already buying a drink, why not pay an extra dollar and get a hamburger? This is the logic that pulls Wildcats in droves on Tuesdays. For those seeking lunchtime boozing, brunch runs until 3 p.m. every Sunday. Ask about the monthly beer special, which has included Stella Artois and Shocktop for $3 per pint.

1800 Sherman Ave., 847-733-7900 With American beers priced at a friendly $1.50 and pitchers of PBR going for $5, NU students can relax on the Hundo patio close to campus. And who knew the steak entrees and wrap sandwiches are pretty tasty and served late? To witness — we didn’t say enjoy, mind you — musically inclined (and blacked out) students behind the microphone, move indoors for karaoke on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. John Mellencamp fans, enjoy.

The Celtic Knot Public House

626 Church St., 847-864-1679

Flat Top Grill707 Church St., 847-570-0100

1800 Club1800 Sherman Ave., 847-733-7900

1800 Club1800 Club

*

*

%*

*

Advertise in The Daily.Call 847-491-7206 ore-mail spc-compshop@northwestern.edu

Photos by Ray Whitehouse

4 the weekly

10.01.09

OBAMACARE:While you were hang-

ing at the beach (or,

let’s be serious,

schlepping off to an

internship or summ

er

orgo classes), much

of the country was

engaged in a pas-

sionate, heated and

at times shrill de-

bate. The health care

reform controversy

continues to raise

serious questions

about money, m

edi-

cine and ideology

as it rages on in the

House and Senate.

Here, the weekly takes

you from the dram

a

of town hall meet-

ings to the policy-

making on Capitol

Hill, breaking down

why this fall’s hot-

test topic should

matter to you.

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PREEXISTING CONDITIONS:

An illness or other health

condition a patient has be-

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insurance. Depending on

the plan selected and the

care required for the condi-

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company m

ay refuse to

cover the patient.

ike most who watched the news this summer, Jess Klein knew that somewhere, health care town hall meetings looked less like forums for debate and more like partisan bloodbaths. But the SESP ’09 grad was sure that a meet-ing in her hometown of Fairfax, V.A., would be diff erent.

She fi gured that in an affl uent, educated, left-leaning D.C. suburb like Fairfax , conversations would be civil and informative.

The “Obama is Hitler” signs were her fi rst clue to the contrary.“I really thought the town hall meetings would be a media dis-

tortion, but they turned out to be an accurate portrayal,” Klein says. “It was just as bad as the stuff you seen on the news.”

Klein, who went to hear Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA-8) and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean speak at a meeting in a high school gym, says attendees’ partisan rancor made substantive debate impossible.

“The second you walked in, people supporting health care re-form were lined up with signs, and the people who were opposed were carrying ‘Obama is Hitler’ and ‘Obama is the Joker’ signs, so right away, people divided themselves,” she says. “People were yell-ing at each other and Dean couldn’t even speak. There was lots of booing and no respect.”

Scenes just like this one played out in health care-focused town halls across the country this summer, with only marginally more po-lite discussion taking place in the halls of Congress.

“ ‘Controversial’ is the word I’d use to describe the health care debate,” says Dr. Bernadine Healy, who is, among other things, the health editor of U.S. News and World Report, former president of the American Red Cross and former director of the National Institutes of Health. “Ideological camps are battling with each other, focused on the role of government in medicine.”

But how does all that ideology play out in reality? And why should you care? On the off -chance that you have better things to do than wade through thousands of pages of legislation to answer that question, The Weekly breaks down how the health care debate aff ects your body and your bank account.

Defi ning the debate

Despite this summer’s health care drama, or maybe because of it, President Barack Obama reaffi rmed his commitment to passing a health care reform bill in his Sept. 9 address to Congress . He called for stable, universal and cheaper health insurance . Those objectives aren’t inherently controversial, says Greg D’Angelo , a health care policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies. “The broad goals everyone shares are cover-ing the uninsured and reducing rapidly growing health care costs,” D’Angelo says. “The question is, what’s the process? What’s the policy? And how do we get from here to there?”

Igor Volsky, a health care researcher and blogger at the Center for American Progress , says fi nding a solution that achieves these aims gets messy because health care is such a broad issue, with im-plications for so many people.“We’re trying to reform (one-sixth) of the economy ,” Volsky says. “It’s a big task and it’s hard to expand coverage while containing

costs. A whole lot of special interests, providers, insurers and phar-maceutical industries all have a stake in the system, too, so it’s hard to get everyone to agree to one reform package.”

But Congress sure is trying. This summer, three committees in the House of Representatives developed variations of a massive health care bill . They’re currently working on merging those three bills into a comprehensive piece of House legislation . On the Senate side, one committee produced a bill back in July. In mid-September , the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a diff erent health care plan, which started out as a bipartisan initiative but was ultimately aban-doned by Republicans. That legislation is still being debated in com-mittee. Both bills will have to be combined into one Senate health care bill. After the House and Senate committees fi nalize bills, then debate will begin again on whether or not to pass them . (Note: the following explanation of the legislation is based off of the proposals as they stood at press time.)

Are you willing to gamble?

Clearly, the health care legislating process is long and arduous. But our generation may have a unique stake in this debate: nearly 40 percent of uninsured Americans are between the ages of 18 and 34, making us the largest component of the uninsured pool, D’Angelo says . Healy of U.S. News attributes the vast numbers of uninsured young people to the staggering costs of insurance plans, and the fact that health insurance is frequently tied to jobs. That can make fi nd-ing coverage tricky for all those recent — and unemployed — grads out there. “Young people have been frozen out of the system in a terrible way,” Healy says. “For most young people, particularly those caught in transition periods, insurance is prohibitively expensive.”

A misguided sense of invincibility may also cause 20-somethings to forego health care for rent payments (or beer money).“Young people tend to be willing to gamble,” she says. “They can’t aff ord to put thousands down (on health insurance), so they think, I’m healthy, I can worry about that when I get older.”

Start worrying. It’s the law (or it may be soon).

But if the proposed legislation becomes law, everyone will have to fi nd comprehensive insurance.

According to both the House and Senate bills, we will ultimately have to possess health insurance that meets government regula-tions, whether through private insurance companies or some form of government-funded insurance (more on that later). Employers will also be required to chip in for our insurance, though diff erent bills call for diff erent employer commitments. Tough fi nancial pen-alties await anyone — individual or employer — who doesn’t shell out for insurance (although there are some exceptions made for small businesses) .

“We want to make sure everyone buys into the system so there’s a bigger pool, making insurance cheaper for everyone,” says Volsky of the Center for American Progress.

OK, so I have to have health insurance — what will that cover?

President Obama has repeatedly promised if citizens like the health care coverage they have now, they can keep it . That’s true, but what your plan covers may have to change.

“The plan you’re in has to meet quality standards that are the very bare minimum of what we think of for comprehensive cover-age,” Volsky says. “This eliminates the worst kinds of health care plans that necessitated reform in the fi rst place.” That may mean tossing out the skimpy-but-cheap options many recent grads select now, like high-deductible health plans, also known as catastrophic insurance . These plans don’t cover routine check-ups, but they will kick in if catastrophe strikes — like, say, you break your neck bungee jumping. If the health care legislation passes, we’ll have to get plans with comprehensive government-mandated coverage, Volsky says. But some, like Healy, argue that not all young people need those benefi ts — or should have to pay for them.

“Younger people need minimum benefi ts,” she says. “They prob-ably need catastrophic care, and they can pay for a gyno visit. But the bills say they must buy a comprehensive policy, rather than a risk-adjusted policy for being 20.”

Risky Business

The legislation also forbids insurance companies from taking individuals’ risk factors, or pre-existing conditions , into account. In the status quo, Volsky says, insurance companies can and do charge people more, or outright refuse to insure them, if they suff er from pre-existing conditions . Anything from cystic fi brosis to obesity can count against someone. If this legislation goes into eff ect, insurance companies must accept everyone, regardless of risk factors.

Similarly, insurance companies will set premium rates based on income, rather than pre-existing conditions. The legislation also sets special conditions for age : under the House bill and one of the Senate bills, young, healthy people will pay up to half of what older, sicker people (under age 65) pay for premiums (the ratio changes slightly in the Senate Finance Bill) . But that still amounts to a mini-mum of $4,000 a year for us under the House bill, while right now, young people can fi nd policies for $600, according to Healy.

“If they’re mixed in with a pool that includes the 63-year-olds, then they have to pay way beyond what a 20-year-old should pay (due to the riskier pool young people will be a part of),” Healy says. It’s really a disproportionate tax on the young.” But it’s a “tax” that some Democrats argue will pay off for the individual, both now and in the future, because of its emphasis on preventive care.

“The problem with the argument “Isn’t that unfair?” is it’s short-sighted,” Volsky says. “It’s only unfair for ten or 20 years of your life (until you need insurance). And if you have access to primary care when you’re young, you can prevent chronic conditions down the road, which are what account for 75, 80 percent of our insurance expenditures right now .”

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“It’s like Orbitz.com…”

To help the uninsured explore health care options, both the House and Senate bills call for the establishment of a Health Insurance Exchange .

“Think of the Exchange as an Orbitz.com for insur-ance,” Volsky says. “On Orbitz.com, you type in where you’re going, how long you’re staying, press enter and get nine diff erent options. An insurance exchange works in a similar way. You’d go to the exchange, say, ‘I’m so-and-so, I have these needs and take this kind of medication, what would be the best option for me?’ And the Exchange would provide you with (insurance plan) choices avail-able.”

The Exchange would be open to all individuals and some employers . It would include a pool of pri-vate insurance companies plus, under the House bill, a government-run insurance alternative known as the public option .

This option is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the health care debate: When people say we’re on the path to socialized medicine, this is what they’re referenc-ing. That’s because some think, according to D’Angelo of the Heritage Foundation, the public “option” ultimately wouldn’t be an option at all, especially for employees. Since most employers would be required to pay for a sub-stantial part of their workers’ premiums, employers would overwhelmingly opt for the cheaper public plan, he says.

“This is not an option,” D’Angelo says. “That’s a mis-leading way of selling it. Eighty-eight million Americans would end up on the public option because employers will drop their current insurance. It undermines the em-ployer-based system.”

Obama, however, says the public option would have to be self suffi cient and wouldn’t have an unfair advantage over private insurance companies. Instead, the relation-ship between public and private insurance would look kind of like the relationship between state and private schools, providing choice and competition, he says .

The latest Senate bill skirts the issue altogether. Instead of off ering a public option, it proposes non-profi t health insurance co-ops , kick-started with 6 bil-lion federal dollars in loans and grants . James D’Angelo , a Communication ’09 grad and account executive at a Chicago political consulting fi rm (and no relation to Greg D’Angelo of Heritage), says the co-ops, instead of a public option, would compete with private insurance companies. They look like private companies, except

they’re non-profi ts, so they don’t have to pay taxes. That means they can off er lower premiums, he says. People who receive government subsidies would be directed to a co-op, he says.

But the co-ops, meant as a compromise, have taken a lot of fl ak from both the left and the right. Liberals are still holding out for a public option, while conservatives say the co-ops look too much like the public option.

“A co-op would be extremely similar to the public op-tion,” says D’Angelo, the former president of NU College Republicans .”Bureaucrats would be in charge of adminis-tering health insurance — they just wouldn’t be govern-ment bureaucrats — and it would be started with federal feed money.”

But if some sort of government involvement in health care can bring down medical costs, then that’s important to consider, says Jamila Bahrainwala , a Weinberg junior who interned at the Cleveland Clinic last summer.

“People are worried about government takeover, but I saw how much doctors charge their patients and it’s ac-tually unbelievable,” the pre-med student says. “To save people’s lives and to not make people bankrupt, the gov-ernment needs to get involved.”

Change you believe in?

At that health care town hall meeting in Fairfax, Jess Klein saw ugly signs, screaming protestors and, as she put it, “democracy in its truest form.” The only thing miss-ing from the picture? Young people. “The vast majority of people I saw there were middle-aged,” Klein says. “It was kind of surprising, considering Obama’s (ability to) engage youth.”

The “youth vote” — voters between the ages of 18 and 24 — came out overwhelmingly for Obama in the last election. But that enthusiasm for politics hasn’t extended to the health care debate, Volsky says. “The problem is, we don’t think it’s an issue for us; it’s an issue for old peo-ple and we’re healthy, so whatever.” But a “whatever” attitude doesn’t protect our best interests, Healy says. “Young people have got to under-stand that they need to have health care and ought to be playing a role in determining what kind they (get),” she says. “The decisions made now won’t kick in fully until a lot of people in your generation are pushing into their thirties. So it’s critically important that you get involved, to see if you can make this better. No one is speaking for you.”

the weekly 5 10.01.09 the weekly 5

$1.2 TRILLION OVER 10 YEARS

-HOUSE BILL-HOUSE BILL

HEALTHCAREBY THENUMBERS

How are we going to pay for this?Proposals include...Tax sugary and alcoholic drinksReduce the growth of Medicare spendingTax the most comprehensive health insurance plansCut payments to hospitals and other providers of Medicare

20

HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE:Individuals and some employers could “shop around” for health insurance plans through this program, which would be run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

INDIVIDUAL MANDATE:Under proposed legislation, this would be a federal re-quirement that every citizen carry an approved form of health insurance or pay a penalty fee. Discounts and waivers are usually offered to low-income households.

HIG

H D

EDUCTIB

LE:Pay a low

monthly or

annual fee, and your insurance com

pany w

ill still cover cata-strophic events, but it w

on’t cover regular check-ups or physicals.

Experts predict reform will be really, REALLY expensive.Yeah, we can’t fathom such out-rageous amounts of money, either.

$900 BILLIONOVER 10 YEARS

-OBAMA’S PLAN

$856 BILLIONOVER 10 YEARS

-SENATE FINANCE BILL

Sources: Washington Post, New York Times, The Henry J. Kaiser Family

There are times when you realize you’re about to hit a new low. It’s like the moment after you trip but before you hit the ground, or when you see you’re headed for the tree, or when you’re careening off a cliff . You see that something terrible is going to happen and you are unable to stop it.

This is how I felt the moment I realized I was going to have to share a king-size hotel bed with my brother and his girlfriend.

How did I get to this point? It’s hard to say, but I think that it all started with a long-standing disconnect with the need for shelter. After undergoing more than a year of temporary hous-ing situations, I became pretty nonchalant about where I would rest my head. Since sophomore year, I’ve lived in Evanston, As-pen, Denver, Paris and Washington, D.C. — all in three-month increments. My things have been shuttled between four apart-ments, four houses, and one lovely facility called the Young Women’s Christian Home. I’ve slept in at least 31 beds — and, for one month last spring, spent all my nights on a couch.

Perhaps this isn’t so impressive. But the kicker in all of this is how many of these places I’ve stayed in for free. The key to being a good squatter, in my experience, is to know people with multiple houses and to appear pathetic enough to elicit com-passion. This summer, I split most of my time between two rent-free houses, one of which I shared on weekdays with a full-time caretaker (dubbed “your butler” by my friends). Sure, I was living in a small, windowless room in the basement. But this was the kind of house so nice it prompted tourists to snap photos (really, I had to ask one to move aside so I could get through the front gate once). The other house, though a lon-ger commute, was almost better. The owners — who my father

met in a YMCA, promptly befriended and convinced to take me in — said they’d be thrilled to have me back after I begged them to let me stay there for my fi nal week. “Drink the beer that’s in the fridge, too!” one of them urged. “We don’t want it!” Helplessness has never tasted so refreshing.

It’s also good to be fl exible. When I moved back to Evanston for spring quarter, I subletted half of a bedroom from a friend and promptly moved my suitcase into her closet. For the next month, however, our bedroom remained almost exactly the same: one bed, one dresser, one desk, all hers. I wanted to buy a bed, sure, but that would have required getting a ride to Ikea, something I was not willing to put much eff ort into fi nding be-yond dropping a few vague hints among car-possessing friends. When I fi nally bought the bed, putting it together proved dif-fi cult, but what’s another week on the couch anyway?

That doesn’t mean there aren’t pitfalls. When my butler-hiring family friends returned to town, I was asked to clear out, meaning I spent one weekend traipsing around D.C. unsure where I’d sleep. I crashed with a friend one night, but the next night I realized I had used up all my favors. With most of my friends out of town for Labor Day weekend, I only had one place to turn: my older brother, who was in town with his girl-friend and insisted that I could stay with them in their hotel room “the whole weekend.” Never mind the room only had one bed, or that the hotel was out of cots. Neither of them seemed to care, or to understand my horror. As I climbed into the bed and huddled as far to the right as I could without falling off , I fi nally learned my lesson.

Sharing a bed with your brother and his girlfriend? Maybe it’s worth paying rent.

Denver, ColoradoWeek-long stints in August and December 2008; March 2009

Aspen, ColoradoJune-August 2008June-August 2008

Evanston, IllinoisMarch-June 2009, Current

Washington D.C.January-March 2009,June-September 2009

Paris, FranceSeptember-December 2008

6 the weekly

10.01.09

If you’re a college student, health care’s pres-ence in your life may not be too obvious. It may feel like an amorphous but reassuring safety net, or a booming voice that delivers less reassuring messages such as “you are so eff ed.” Amid all the discussion of health care reform, you may won-der: What does it all mean for the frat king pop-

ulation? Somehow they manage to soldier through these four — sometimes fi ve years — minimally scathed, but you have to wonder what resources will be available once all the debaucherous behavior comes back to haunt them. And what’s the premium on The Weekly’s beloved, destructive Social Di-ary subjects, whose vital organs may soon bear volcanic craters?

I reached out to a Weinberg senior whom dedicated readers may re-member. He was the Social Diarist who passed out after a night of weed and booze with a warm pot of macaroni and cheese in his lap. He’s the friendliest frat monster I know; he can Hoover through Joy Yee’s, crappy beer and gallons of milk with a smile. I hoped to get a better sense of his habits and have my fi ndings interpreted by an M.D. We know the lifestyle is almost comically unhealthy, but I was curious about the extent to which doctors and the government are expected to actually help. And while we’re at it, maybe a ballpark guess regarding his life expectancy.

Off I went to our own Searle, a building that feels even less welcoming when everyone in sight is wearing surgical masks. After feeling silently peer pressured to sanitize my hands, I asked to interview a physician and was politely but forcefully turned down. The administrator led me away from her offi ce as though I were a ticking H1N1 bomb. I had another go at the Purell as a gesture of goodwill and left.

I called a family friend who works in health insurance for some Real Talk on the subject. “Insurance companies are friendly to college students because this is your pinnacle, the healthiest and prettiest you’ll ever be,” she explained, as I sank deep into depression. “But if you engage in behavior knowing it’s destructive and you’re clearly at fault, you may not be reim-bursed. And if you make a habit of it, expect to pay more.”

Knowing he would tolerate my most frivolous questions, I turned to David Weinberg, a recent NU grad and current student at NU’s Feinberg School of Medicine downtown. As I detailed our subject’s routine, he re-sponded, “I say this not as a med student, but as another human being: This kid is an idiot.” And his life expectancy? “It’s genetically based, so his behavior doesn’t sway it too dramatically. He could screw his liver up pretty badly, though. And I reiterate, this kid is an idiot.”

Fair enough, but that idiot and I wanted numbers. He did a timed keg stand, following the scientifi c theory that each second spent inverted chug-ging beer would grant him a year of life. “Twenty-four,” he said proudly. “Guess I have three more years to live.”

CULTURE BLOTTER

EMMY BLOTNICK

HEAD FIRSTLearning to adapt: A year spent living out of two suitcases

ELISE FOLEY

Amid all the discussion of health care reform, you may wonder: What does it all mean for the frat king population?

this weekend in musicOCT. 2 - 4, 2009

Keyboard Conversations: Chopin for LoversPick-Staiger, 7:30 p.m.$23/21/16

Jeffrey Siegel, piano

Each composition in this “concert with commentary” was inspired by a different woman in Chopin’s life. Bring a significant other and enrich your lives with some of the most stirringly romantic music ever written.

FRIDAY SATURDAY

@ P I C K - S TA I G E R

BIENEN SCHOOL OF MUSICN O R T H WE S T E R N U N I VE R S I T YTICKETS: 847.467.4000 OR WWW.PICKSTAIGER.ORG

02FRIDAY02FRIDAY 03ATURDAY03ATURDAY

Kids Fare: March with the BandTrienens Hall, 10:30 a.m.$6/5/4Bring your favorite instrument to play with the Northwestern University Wildcat Marching Band as you march down the field. Park free in the Ryan Field west lot on Ashland Avenue north of Central Street. Follow the signs to the Trienens Hall east side entrance.

Masahito Sugihara, saxophoneLutkin Hall, 7:30 p.m.$7/5/4

Nathan Nabb, saxophoneWinston Choi, piano

All three musicians are graduate-level alumni of Northwestern.Christian Lauba, ArsGyörgy Ligeti, LoopMari Takano, Takano, T Jungibility, Jungibility, Jungibility LigAlien I, and LigAlien I, and LigAlien I LigAlien IV (world premiere)IV (world premiere)IVM. William Karlins, Introduction and Passacaglia

SUNDAY04DAY04DAY

Je�rey Siegel

March with the Band

Photo by Ray Whitehouse

the weekly 7 10.01.09

MAN ON THE BEAT

NOLAN FEENEY

ALLISON PUTNAM, Dittmar Gallery CoordinatorAbout 4,000 people pass through Norris University

Center every day, and in a frenzy of rushing upstairs to student meetings or satisfying one’s caff eine fi x with a Venti, most coast past Dittmar Gallery without a glance in. But it’s there, tucked behind Starbucks on the fi rst fl oor of Norris, and it’s entirely student-run. Artist Coordina-tor Allison Putnam, a Weinberg senior, talks with The Weekly.

Being a curator of a gallery is defi nitely a dream job for students studying art, right? It’s kind of ridiculous that I’m the director of a gal-lery and I’m 21. But it’s such a great opportunity, why not?

How did you get this job?When I was a freshman I really wanted to become involved in the arts and I actually e-mailed ARTica downstairs in the underground (of Norris) just ask-ing if they had a position available as a menial task job. They were full, so they sent me to the Dittmar coordinator, who was a senior when I was fresh-man. I met with her and she said, “We can hire you as an assistant.” I’ve been here since then and became supervisor last year.

Do you think there are any benefi ts to having a gallery that’s entirely student run?It benefi ts us because we get the experience of running a gallery. Every artist that comes in has a diff erent experience with us because we’re balanc-ing the gallery work, other activities and our class load. A lot of times I do feel like some people are showing in the gallery and are expecting a profes-sional staff to help them install and it’s a bunch of students nailing into the wall.

Does that freak out some of the artists?It’s interesting, especially the fi rst conversation in person. When we’re working with the artists, I send tons of e-mails to them, so we have this whole communication before they actually come and in-stall the work. That fi rst meeting is usually a little weird because I’m clearly a student. But I think

we do a good job so I think they get over it and I haven’t had any complaints about it.

Are there any favorite artists you’ve discovered while working here?Defi nitely. Last year there was an artist Sarah Ross that we showed in the fall who was incredible. I ac-tually had a class come by and we talked about the work that was in the gallery, and it was a turning point for the class. She does more socially aware work that isn’t just a painting on a wall. It’s more interactive.

Are there any particular types of artists the gallery likes to support?We defi nitely support underrepresented artists. That can mean you’re a minority or you’re female. Later on this year we’re showing an artist who has mental retardation and it will be an interesting show because there’s not a whole lot of opportuni-ties for an artist with these diff erent handicaps to show, so we provide that opportunity.

Do you have a favorite artist or artistic time period?Right now I’m really into the Situationists. It’s especially important to be talking about...how government relates to everyday life and urban ex-perience.

Do you think that Northwestern stu-dents in general appreciate art as much as they should?No, I don’t, because you can always appreciate it more.

Week by WeeklyWe’ve sifted through every gala and gallery open-ing, festival and free event, sample sale and soiree to prepare a weekly schedule worthy of even the most culturally discern-ing. Drawing from Chicago, Evanston and our very own NU, the weekly gives you seven days of first-rate diversion.

It’s folk, pop, a cappella and classical piano all in one place. Taiwanese-American singer Vienna Teng melds all four musical elements at Evanston SPACE this upcoming Wednesday, and you only have to go as far as Dempster to see it. An ideal humpday cure if you ask us...

Nostalgic for the day when Wisteria was a Cray-ola color, not a scandalous

street name? Relive your childhood at Mary’s Attic in Andersonville with

TheaterBam’s production of Schoolhouse Rock Live, an adaptation of the classic educational

children’s show, running until Saturday. Yes, “Conjunction Junction” will be

featured.

It’s time once again to dust off those pleather

cowboy boots, pull out that frayed denim mini you wore on

spring break last year and head on down to Grant Park for the 19th

annual Chicago Country Music Festival. When you think of country music fans, Chicago probably isn’t where you’d expect to fi nd them. Not true -- just

ask Mayor Richard Daley. A proud country music fan himself, Daley started the two-day festival in 1991 for the sizeable (enough) contingent of Windy City country fanatics. Since its start, the festival has hosted an array of prominent country artists, including Faith Hill, Keith Urban and bluegrass legend Bill Mon-roe. In 2008 the festival was revamped and moved to Soldier Field Parkland to accommodate larger crowds. Headliners included Lady Antebellum and Taylor

Swift (the latter gave a fantastic performance that I witnessed from my seat 20 feet away). This year, the CCMF is back to Grant Park and once

again featuring a full lineup of country crooners. Performers include Miranda Lambert, John Rich of Big & Rich, Alejandro Escovedo

and The Flatlanders, plus the not-to-be-overlooked bevy of local bands and performers. The CCMF also includes

dance fl oors and instruction for line, square and clog dancing. Giddy up!

Sat 11AM-9:30PMSun 11AM-8:30PM337 E. Randolph StGrant Park, Free

Chicago Country Music FestivalSUNDAY

Shedd AquariumMONDAY

Vienna Teng ConcertWEDNESDAY

8PMSPACE1245 Chicago Ave.Evanston

Schoolhouse Rock Live!THURSDAY

8PM5400 N. Clark St.Andersonville

Eli’s Cheesecake Festival

SATURDAY

Biz Stone founded one of the

biggest phenomena on the Internet ever, and now he’s in Chicago to tell you all about it. This Twitter co-found-

er will share the insider’s take on all your social media needs, hopefully in

more than 140 characters.

Conversation in the ArtsTUESDAY

7PM1104 Wabash Ave8th FloorColumbia CollegeSouth Loop

Hidden in the depths of north campus lies the Dearborn Observatory, home to North-western’s very own functional telescope. Find that inner geek (shouldn’t be too hard at Nerdwestern) and head over to Dearborn for a chance to see

your favorite stars — the cosmological kind

— up close.

FRIDAY

8PM-10PMDearborn Observatory

On a college student’s budget, key cultural experiences in our

Chicago backyard often fall by the wayside. Monday and

Tuesday, the Shedd Aquarium’s “Commu-nity Discount Days” gets us in with the

fi sh for free. Just please don’t bring any fl asks to toss in the tanks. (Admission

to general aquarium is free Oct. 4-9 with special exhibits discounted.)

Cheesy can be good,

especially when it comes to cake.

Here’s an entire festi-val dedicated to the delectable dessert, and

all the proceeds go toward charity. The tasty event benefi ts the New Horizon

Center for Developmentally Disabled and the Greater Chicago Food

Depository.

8AM-10PM1200 S. LakeShore Dr.

9AM-5PM6701 W. Forest Preserve Dr. Dunning

Dearborn Observatory Viewing Party

Photo by Ray Whitehouse

EMILY MITCHELL

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THIS WEEK: Cowboys, cheesecake and conjunction junction.THIS WEEK: Cowboys, cheesecake and conjunction junction.

8 the weekly

10.01.09

critical reviews on the week’s new releases

WHY WE LIKETaylor Swift

The music video for “You Belong With Me,” from teen idol/perfect human being Taylor Swift, is as fair as the free market. We’re supposed to be-lieve that Swift, the blonde giantess with perfect teeth, is not only a misunderstood art girl, but that she would devote all of her romantic energies to-ward the high school quarterback? That she paints and writes songs about him, and not the misun-derstood art boys in class? Conventional romantic sensibilities have laughed in the face of alternative culture since Andie picked Blane over Ducky – Swift’s spin on She’s All That makes total sense. So while Taylor dances and yearns for a guy she’d have no problem dating in real life, you can watch it and feel like scum.

For people who don’t find parallels between a music video made in 2009 and a mediocre teen rom-com made a decade before, you have the song itself, which is four minutes of bubblegum pop-country bliss, driven by a solid power strum and filled with great lines. Take it from Kanye West, who included in his original apology over the Video Music Awards flap, “I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE’S IN THE BLEACHERS!” Swift isn’t Bob Dylan, but her lyrics are direct and articulate enough to capture her feelings of being a teen-ager without sounding stupid about it, as a lot of teenagers do. Her feelings might be a little typical, but with those high vocal notes and those mega choruses doing most of the work, are you going to point that out?

Some of my friends don’t get it. Two of them ran into each other this summer at their internship and actually talked about whether or not I was be-ing serious or not with my newfound Swift fandom – it seemed that weird. Never mind the validation from The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones or critic legend Robert Christgau; she couldn’t possibly be good because she’s mainstream or pop or whatever generalization you can make. But what draws me to Swift’s music is her lack of irony and completely artistic genuineness. More than her Disney peers, her constructed persona seems borne out of a spe-cific personal view and her honest interpretation of the world around her, from the boy at school to getting dumped by Joe Jonas in 27 seconds, from small-time to big-time all wrapped up in that big pop sound. Your music belongs with me and all of us, Taylor.

Bored to Death8:30 p.m. CST/Sun./HBO

The thing about “Bored to Death,” the new HBO comedy from creator/author Jonathan Ames, is that you want it to be better. Jason Schwartzman (“Rushmore”) leads the cast with co-stars Zach Galifianakis (“The Hangover”) and Ted Danson. Yet, the solid cast just can’t carry the show. Schwartzman’s character, Jonathan Ames, is a struggling Brooklyn writer in recent break-up mode who finds solace in sipping wine from coffee mugs, smoking weed and reading Raymond Chandler. Oh, to be a Williamsburg hipster! With little explanation, Jonathan decides to post an ad on Craigslist offering his services as a private detective. And that’s the show’s main problem. There’s no reason to invest emotionally in these characters. Jonathan, buddy Ray (Galifianakis) and a suspect in Jonathan’s first case are all grappling with their ended/doomed relationships, and the show makes it seem like we should care. But do we? Aside from a few scene-stealing moments from Ted Danson as a power magazine publisher, the answer is no. The show is simply uninspiring.

THE BROW

Low BrowMaybe he’ll be too drunk to remember that I

forgot who he was?

OVERHEARD AT NU“ - Sherman Ave. and Church St., walking home from The Keg, 1:45 a.m.

PAULINA LOPEZ

The Good Wife9 p.m. CST/Tues./CBS

After standing beside her scandalously adulterous politician hubby (Chris Noth) at his resignation press conference, “good wife” Alicia Flo-rrick (Julianna Margulies) returns to a career in law to get her and her chil-dren’s lives back on track in this new CBS drama. In their two brief scenes with each other in the premiere episode, Margulies and Noth shine as a believable couple torn to pieces in the harsh public eye. Margulies carries this performance deftly into her new workplace, where she is immedi-ately thrown into half a dozen potential story arcs recognizable to anyone familiar with TV legal dramas. With the concept of the “good wife” both relevant and uncharted on TV, the series has the potential to liven up the overcooked legal genre. Still, focusing on the daily grind of the courtroom while the good stuff is at home might be counterproductive. As it stands, “The Good Wife” is straddling two self-sustaining plotlines. With any luck, the show will get the balance right.

Mid Brow

STEVEN BERGER

Cougar Town8:30 p.m. CST/Weds./ABC

Don’t come to “Cougar Town,” Courtney Cox’s new comedy on ABC, expecting to see sultry, seductive housewives. Cox’s Jules is 40, recently divorced and desperately insecure. She spends much of the show be-moaning her lost beauty and youth. Appropriately, you spend much of the show wondering when Cox’s botoxed face will give up the fight and melt off. What Cox lacks in facial expression she compensates for in dramatic hand gestures, shouting and general overacting. The only sav-ing grace of “Cougar Town” is the supporting actors. Jules’ teenaged son, Travis (Dan Byrd), is tortured by his mother’s “M.I.L.F.” status and lack of social graces. From the moment he catches his mom blowing a boy close to his age, you know that kid is never going to recover. The following day he snatches a banana from her hand and says, “You’re not allowed to eat those anymore.” Those are the moments that make “Cougar Town” delightfully cringe-worthy.

High Brow

JONATHAN SIMRINJEREMY GORDON

POST-GRAD PURSUIT’06 alum offers community a

smarter kind of serviceKunal Modi is out to prove that getting ahead and giving back can be one and the same. A Weinberg ’06 grad, Modi has been bettering the community since his freshman year at NU. Modi and fellow grad Molly Day, SESP ’07, were both avid volun-teers and launched campusCATALYST in 2007, a program that pairs student consulting teams with local non-profits. The organization is mostly comprised of NU students and faculty, but is expanding to the greater community. Three years after gradu-ation, Modi is living the altruistic dream.

GRADUATION

FUTURE

Modi was involved with LIFT, a national non-profit organi-

zation where students help low-income individuals who are working to become self

sufficient. Volunteering with LIFT experience was “inspiring, hum-bling and ultimately rewarding... I felt empowered to impact my

community.” Modi also volun-teered at Illinois Representative

Jan Schakowsky’s and then-Senator Obama’s offices as an undergraduate. He finished NU

in three years with a double major in Economics and

political science.

AT NU

Modi splits his time between campusCATALYST, in which

a number of NU students are currently participat-ing, as well as his job at

McKinsey. After two years in McKinsey’s Chicago

office, he moved to New York to work for McKinsey’s Nonprofit Corps, where he connects consultants with

nonprofit organizations.

Modi decided to continue his noble efforts after leaving NU and moved to D.C. for a

year-long stint with AmeriCorps VISTA. Toward the end of his

service Modi and Day started campusCATALYST, and he

worked on the program full-time for three months before

starting at the Chicago office of consulting firm McKinsey &

Company. “We started the pilot program in Evanston

and went around for a whole summer, telling everyone who

would listen.”

Modi plans to get his MBA in Public Policy and continue to work toward his goal of

becoming “an evangelist of social policy,” as he says. “I don’t have plans for a spe-

cific job title or capacity, but there are a lot of things I’m

interested in. In the long-term, I want to impart the idea that

you don’t have to choose between getting ahead and

lending a hand.”

LYNNE FORT

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NOW