Vol. 41, No. 90 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013 nyunews.com

WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWSNYU’s Daily Student Newspaper

NYU School of Law hosts lecture about race in AmericaAt the 18th annual Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society, University of Pittsburg School of Law dean and professor William Carter Jr. presented a lecture titled The Thirteenth Amendment, the Legacies of Slavery and the Promises of Freedom.

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Report shows subways decline in cleanliness

NYU-Poly to research storm response

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Thor sequel thunders into theaters with triumphant action

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Truth about ArmstrongA documentarian pushes himself stylistically in his film about Lance Armstrong’s drug use.

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Tisch sophomore to write for 24-Hour PlaysDevin Mojica discusses his upcoming opportunity to write for a Broadway show.

CORALINE WANG/WSN

By MARCUS JONES

In one the biggest movie events of the fall, America’s favorite As-gardian, Thor, returns for another epic adventure.

In the aftermath of “The Aveng-ers,” Marvel Studios has held strong with “Iron Man 3,” the highest gross-ing film of the year, and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” a frontrunner for one of the fall’s breakout television se-ries. But Marvel’s parent company

Disney is still coming off of two major flops with “The Lone Ranger” and Dreamworks’ “The Fifth Estate.” Disney is putting a lot on Thor’s shoulders this last quarter — so it’s good that he is a god.

The first “Thor,” was a solid film despite many considering it one of the weakest in “The Avengers” canon. Heavy on exposition, it in-troduced audiences to Thor, the God of Thunder and Son of Odin, King of Asgard. “Thor: The Dark

World” kicks off by introducing the new villain, Malekith, and his fleet of Dark Elves, who tried to take over the Seven Realms and shroud them in darkness using their weapon, the Aether.

Fortunately, Odin’s father Bor kills the Dark Elves, but Malekith escapes. Bor then hides the Aether, hoping no one will find it. Fast for-ward 5,000 years where Jane (Nata-lie Portman) finds a portal in Lon-don and falls into the hiding place

of the Aether. This action awakens the Dark Elves, who in turn wreak havoc on Earth and Asgard while they search for Jane. Their goal is to extract the Aether and destroy As-gard, ultimately bringing darkness to the Seven Realms.

Thor, of course, is the only hope for the Seven Realms. With the help of Jane and Thor’s devious brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston),

VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG THOR continued on PG. 5

By KLEIN ALEARDI

Last week, New York Gov. An-drew Cuomo announced the be-ginning of the New York State Resilience Institute for Storms and Emergencies, a research in-stitute housed at the Polytech-nic Institute of NYU and Stony Brook University in response to Superstorm Sandy.

A meeting that will address funding and the final plan will take place today Nov. 7. The funding group consists of the two co-directors, Minghua Zhang of Stony Brook and NYU-Poly professor Fletcher Griffis in addition to four other re-searchers — two from NYU and two from Stony Brook.

NYS RISE comprises 15 work units, and researchers will also include faculty from Columbia University, Cornell University, Brookhaven National Lab and the City University of New York.

By PATRICK ANKER

Dirtiness is commonplace in New York City’s subway plat-forms, but a new study has found increasing levels of filth.

The New York Public Interest Re-search Group’s Straphangers Cam-paign conducted a census of New York City’s subway platforms and rated certain elements of cleanli-ness. The third annual “State of the Platforms” report, detailing re-sults of the 2013 summer census, was released on Oct. 30.

Straphangers Campaign spokes-person Cate Contino said this year’s census included all 862 open platforms, an increase from 2012’s census of only 120 stations, thanks to a team of 21 staffers and interns.

Even though all measured fac-tors have worsened since the sum-mer 2012 census, the study found that four of the factors — exposed wiring, missing tiles, graffiti and floor cracks — have become “sub-

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Clear language gets point acrossBreaking language barriers and reaching a broad audience only requires simple diction.

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EXPOSURE

In college Halloween isn’t what it used to be. My Facebook timeline is filled with drunk, pictures of promiscuous people celebrating “Halloween.”

When I went to the Children’s Halloween Parade it reminded me of what Halloween was really about. When you were little, you would wait months to dress up like somebody you admired — maybe an astronaut or princess. And you’d wear that costume to school and show it off to your neighbors and get free candy. It was possibly one of the greatest days of the year, up there with Christmas and your birthday. Halloween was about making you feel great, like you were as special as a person you truly admired. It was also a day you could practice being the doctor or the policeman you would someday become.

The kids that I photographed this year captured the true essence of Halloween. For example, there were two little girls showing off their super powers and the muscles — if they were my age they would be showing off something else. I hope they never lose their innocence or their super powers. Sometimes growing up is overrated — the best people remain young forever in part of their hearts.

HANNAH LUU

NYUNEWS.COM | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 3

NYU-Poly, other New York colleges begin NYS RISE to analyze storm relief

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Third annual subway report shows plat-forms have become dirtier since last year

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“We’ll allocate the resources accord-ingly and that’s the function of the program planning group. It’s ongoing function is to continue to plan the program,” Griffis said.

Lawrence Swanson, associate dean of the School of Marine and Atmosphe-ric Sciences at Stony Brook, said NYS RISE was established when the two universities combined the individual proposals they had been working on to create one proposal for post-Sandy research after being cut off from fund-ing from Congress’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Swanson said Poly combined propos-als with Stony Brook at the suggestion of state officials.

NYU’s proposal began when Kate-palli Raju Sreenivasan, NYU-Poly president, wrote a letter about the university’s responsibility to respond to the storm.

“The main focus here is not the cost and inconvenience, but the vulnerabil-ity,” Sreenivasan wrote. “We have a re-sponsibility to assess this vulnerability and make a set of recommendations

to mitigate them. The responsibility is compounded because we formed [the Center for Urban Science and Prog-ress] with the promise, in broad terms, of making New York the crown jewel among the livable cities of the world.”

Griffis said the goal of NYS RISE is to analyze the effects of Sandy and the re-sponse to the storm and work toward improving that response.

“What we’d like to do is synthesize what’s been done, summarize it and look for gaps, areas that need further research and have been overlooked,” Griffis said.

Griffs said NYS RISE will work with response planning, the assessment of dynamics, interdependency of bodies of water and infrastructure, vulnerabil-ity and resilience in a storm and envi-ronment risk under climate change.

These research areas are phase one of the research, and the projects must be finished by March of 2014. Planning for phase two will begin in December.

Klein Aleardi is a staff writer. Email her at news@nyunews.com.

stantially worse” over the past year.“Many subway platforms are grim and

dreary,” Straphangers Campaign field orga-nizer Jason Chin-Fatt said in a press release. “Making observations at every platform allows us to paint a more in-depth picture of the conditions that riders experience [while] traveling through the system.”

The study measured staircase and hand-rail disrepair, rats, broken lights, peeling paint, water damage, exposed wiring, missing tiles, graffiti and floor cracks. No-tably, 32 percent of all platforms have sub-stantial amounts of graffiti.

However, Metropolitan Transporta-tion Authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz said the MTA’s data does not show an increase in graffiti.

“Over the last 3 years we have consistently met our goals of removing 98 percent of re-ported graffiti hits on time, within 72 hours of being reported on painted surfaces within station confines,” Ortiz said. “Graffiti on tiled surfaces is removed daily, upon discovery by a cleaner. Also, the number of reported graf-fiti hits has steadily declined over the last few years. Again, graffiti on track walls require track access and would impact service.”

The Straphangers Campaign’s report also stated that almost 84 percent of under-

ground platforms experienced substantial water damage, but Ortiz said water dam-age is difficult to repair.

“At this time, the only available treat-ment is chemical grouting and drip pans, other than excavation from above and ap-plying new waterproofing, which is cost prohibitive,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz said the issues addressed in the census are a low priority for the MTA because main-taining a perfect condition would be costly.

“Our operating and maintenance forces have identified and repaired more station defects each of the last few years than ever before, and we are on target to surpass last year’s results,” Ortiz said. “In 2012, over 39,000 defects were repaired, and we are pro-jected to complete more than 53,000 in 2013, a 36 percent increase.”

LS freshman and New York City resident Abbey Rowe said the conditions of the sub-way platforms bother and disgust her.

“I don’t particularly enjoy having to wade through a cesspool to get somewhere,” Rowe said. “I shouldn’t have to gingerly circumnavigate a puddle of vomit, a heap of garbage nor a nest of rats.”

Patrick Anker is a staff writer. Email him at news@nyunews.com.

Law school hosts lecture on race, slavery, freedom

By KLEIN ALEARDI

William M. Carter Jr., dean and professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, discussed the alternative applications and interpretations of the amendment that abolished slavery at the 18th Annual Bell Lecture on Race in American Society on Nov. 6.

Carter’s lecture, titled The 13th Amendment, the Legacies of Slavery and the Promises of Freedom was this year’s iteration of an an-nual lecture held in honor of Professor Derrick Bell, a late visiting professor, to provide an inclusive forum for con-versations about race.

NYU President John Sexton introduced Janet Bell, who started the lecture series to celebrate her husband’s 65th birthday, and spoke about Bell, who was his professor.

“Nearly 40 years ago,

when [my wife] and I first met him, we began to un-dergo the wonderful spell,” Sexton said while introduc-ing Carter. “That was both his ability ... to make you think in a way that you had not thought before.”

Carter began his lecture by examining the wide range of possible interpretations of the 13th Amendment. He said this amendment should be in-terpreted along two axes.

“One axis would be the connection that the individ-ual complaining of the inj-ury has to the institution of chattel slavery,” Carter said. “Are they a descendant of slaves? Are they seen as be-ing a descendent of slaves?”

“The other axis looks not solely to the identity of the victim, but to the nature of the injury,” he said.

Carter, who was chosen by a panel of faculty, aca-demics and Mrs. Bell, also

attested to the benefits of a new interpretation of the 13th Amendment.

“There is some real ben-efit to understanding that not only do our social val-ues and moments shape the law we have, but that the law has an expressive force that can shake social values and moments,” Car-ter said in his speech.

Kadeem Cooper, Law Sch-ool class of 2014, has at-tended these lectures for the past three years and said this year’s lecture was more impactful than last year’s.

“[Carter’s lecture] touched an area of law that’s not often spoken about,” Cooper said. “I just think that Derrick Bell was an amazing professor and I think it’s great that we have a lecture in his honor.”

Klein Aleardi is astaff writer. Email herat news@nyunews.com.

The prevalence of graffiti in subway stations has increased since 2012.FELIPE DE LA HOZ/WSN

Both sides discuss future of 5Pointz at hearing

By LARSON BINZER

A hearing at the Federal District Court in Brook-lyn on Nov. 6 addressed the plan to demolish 5Pointz, a Long Island City graffiti haven, and build a luxury apartment building in its place.

Judge Frederic Block, who presided over the case, said the hearing was an informal environ-ment without a jury, de-signed to give everyone a chance to speak.

Jonathan Cohen, the plaintiff and 5Pointz cura-tor, seeks to have 24 speci-fic works of art preserved. If the murals were proved to be recognized stature, the Visual Artists Rights Act would prevent them from being demolished.

“You can build above these walls or incor-porate the walls,” Co-hen’s attorney Jeannine Chanes said. “It’s done in Europe all the time.”

Outside of the courtroom, Chanes also mentioned that the defendant, Gerald Wolkoff, allegedly violated the temporary restraining order that is in effect until Nov. 11. In part of Cohen’s testimony, he said one of the pieces of art had been damaged by construction that violated the temporary restraining order.

The defense attorney David Ebert quoted a pre-vious statement of Co-hen’s where he compared

5Pointz to a museum, pointing out the state-ment’s inconsistencies.

“How is the work like a museum if it gets de-stroyed?” Ebert asked.

Block said one of his jobs in the case is to deter-mine if these works of art warrant the Visual Artists Rights Act’s protection.

To prove the wall is rec-ognized stature, Chanes said she would demon-strate that the artists of the pieces displayed are renowned both nation-ally and internationally.

“[Wolkoff ] has to pre-serve the works of visual art that are of recognized stature,” Chanes said.

Cohen said the demo-lition of 5Pointz would hurt the community.

“[By destroying 5Pointz] you’re killing a large part

of [aerosol art] culture and giving no alterna-tive,” Cohen said outside the courtroom.

Gallatin sophomore Catherine Schmitz said the two parties should negotiate, given the building’s purpose to the community.

“I think that Wolkoff needs to find a long-term compromise,” Schmitz said. “Clearly it isn’t right for the artists to take the building from him, but it also isn’t morally justified to rob the community and the world of this art.”

The trial will continue over the next two days until the court comes to a decision on Nov. 8.

Larson Binzer is a staff writer. Email her at news@nyunews.com.

5Pointz is known as a mecca for graffiti artists.

FILE PHOTO BY JUSTIN LANIER/WSN

4 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM

FEATURES EDITED BY JONATHAN KESHISHOGLOUFEATURES@NYUNEWS.COM

DAY IN THE LIFEBy NATHAN HO

Writing for a Broadway show

is a feat that takes many aspir-ing writers years and hundreds of hours of work to achieve. But an NYU undergraduate has reached that point in his career after win-ning a screenwriting competition.

Tisch sophomore Devin Mojica, only 19 years old, beat five other alumni in an Urban Arts writing program, earning him a guest writer spot on the Broadway pro-duction of The 24 Hour Plays, featuring many celebrities such as Jason Biggs and Zachary Levi. The annual production involves six writers, six directors and 24 actors creating and producing six plays over a span of 24 hours.

Mojica said he was excited

about being able to write for such a renowned cast.

“It’s a challenge,” Mojica said. “It is important for me to not stress out as much and have a little more fun.”

Mojica’s competition-winning work, “Naughty List,” is about a truck driver taking an anger management course.

“It’s called ‘Naughty List’ because the class counselor has written a book called ‘How to Get off Santa’s Naughty List,’” Mojica said.

Mojica’s said his script was in-spired by American film actress Bette Davis and the individual’s ability to endure so many com-plex anger issues.

For the competition, each can-didate had six hours to write a three minute play for three people, which was then performed the same night for a panel of judges and industry professionals.

The program’s sponsor, Urban Arts, is a partnership that serves to increase the presence of the arts in a New York educational system which CEO Philip Court-ney described as broken.

“We are the largest arts organi-zation in all of New York City,” Courtney said. “[Urban Arts] ad-vances the intellectual, social and artistic development of under-served public school students.”

Mojica said he has found his cur-rent success because of hard work and because he is almost always busy. Throughout his freshman year he juggled school, work and

writing at the same time. His ad-vice to NYU undergraduates was to use stress to your advantage.

“It’s the stress that brings out an artist’s greatest work,” said Mojica. “I don’t want people to think that my schedule fits so [perfectly.]”

“My favorite time to write is be-tween the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. In my freshmen year, I never started homework before 2 a.m. It’s where everyone else is sleeping so you can have space to breathe.”

Mojica had been a part of The Academy at Urban Arts, where students from ninth to 12th grade join to perfect their ar-tistic craft with teaching artists and professional staffs.

“We’re really about using all differ-ent kinds of art forms, be it theater, poetry, film making, graphic design, and using that and integrating that into the curriculums of schools across the city,” Courtney said. “So think more [about] how you can teach a social studies class by inte-grating filmmaking.”

Mojica has always enjoyed the curriculum at Urban Arts, which has ultimately helped him achieve this latest accomplishment.

“It was senior year when I was working at Cold Stone [Creamery] and coming here on Saturdays,” Mo-jica said. “I treated this as a manda-tory thing, although it wasn’t really.”

Nathan Ho is a contributing writer. Email him at features@nyunews.com.

SCPS think tank to observe how sports impact society

By NICOLE DEL MAURO For Sasha Sharova, an LS sopho-

more transferring to the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, peace means a day dedicated to writing plays and teaching ballet.

8 a.m. | After waking up, Sha-rova immediately decides whether she will make coffee in her dorm or grab a cup after she leaves Gramercy Green residence hall.

9 a.m. | Sharova meets Tisch freshman Julia Sanchez in a Lafay-ette Street residence hall practice room to rehearse a monologue for Sanchez’s role as Old Rebecca in Sharova’s original play “Reflec-tions.” The play was selected to be in Gallatin’s Brandspankin’ New Works Festival, a two-day event that showcases performances of plays written by NYU students. Sha-rova’s work focuses on Rebecca, who reflects on the choices she has made throughout her life. The cast includes three versions of Rebecca, each a different age.

“It’s really cool that Gallatin gives you the opportunity to do this,” Sharova said. “It’s a labor of love because I love doing this.”

1 p.m. | Sharova makes her way to the seventh floor club lounge in the Kimmel Center for University Life to meet with Steinhardt soph-omore Kim Buesser and LS sopho-mores Julie Jarema and Nicole Schreiber-Shearer for an officer meeting for Twinkle Toes, NYU’s ballet club. The club, which star-ted in spring 2013, offers free bal-let lessons for both beginners and experienced dancers. The club’s founders teach the classes every Sunday in room 606 of Kimmel.

At the meeting, Sharova, the

president, and the other three founding members discuss objec-tives for the following Sunday’s class, write a weekly newsletter to send to club members and plan upcoming events. The group is currently planning a trip to see the New York City Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”

“I like to do something fun with choreography,” Sharova said. “I like to incorporate contemporary elements … just to get people moving and actually dancing.”

3 p.m. | During this rare pocket of free time, Sharova tries to complete as much homework as possible. When she is not prac-ticing Russian for her Russian Grammar and Composition 1 class, she’s writing and editing “Coming Home with Julie,” a play for her Playwriting Practi-cum seminar about a psychiatric patient with an imaginary friend.

5 p.m. | Sharova heads to her work-study job at the Cantor Film Center for her shift as a production assistant. Her night consists of a wide range of re-sponsibilities, such as answering phones, handling room reserva-tions for both movies and classes and working with clients who rent space in the building.

10:30 p.m. | While walking home from her shift, Sharova stops for pad Thai at her favorite Thai res-taurant, Spice. She then returns to Gramercy and watches one of her favorite TV series — “American Horror Story,” “Doctor Who” or “How I Met Your Mother.”

Nicole Del Mauro is a staff writer. Email her at features@nyunews.com.

Tisch sophomore wins chance to write for 24 Hour Plays

By BAILEY EVANS In America, where every season is

a sports season, a week without ath-letic events is a rarity. Indeed, sports impact society with win streaks, rivalries and dedicated fans. But is there more to sports than just touchdowns and almost-missed goals? Arthur Miller, a professor at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, is attempting to prove so. Upon noticing a lack of sports-related dialogue beyond game outcomes and statistics, Miller launched a think tank called the NYU Sports and Society Program.

“No one thinks about the ethics of sports. Everyone thinks about runs, hits and errors,” Miller said. “We all love sports, but our pro-gram is to get thoughtful people together to worry about the pos-sible negative consequences.”

The program aims to look at many of the ethical dilemmas that present themselves in the athletic community on the field, off the field and from a business perspective. NYU Sports and So-ciety will also look at the impact

that sports have on all levels of society with the goal of increas-ing public awareness in regard to how much sports affect our lives.

“Sports is often dismissed as fun and games, but it’s a major central activity. It’s a major busi-ness and it’s a major teacher in ethics,” said Arthur Caplan, di-rector of the Division of Medi-cal Ethics at NYU Langone Medi-cal Center and member of NYU Sports and Society’s board of directors. “I hope we can form a program that takes sports seri-ously as a major social force.”

Sports broadcaster Bob Costas, former New York Giants line-backer Harry Carson and the first female Pro Football Hall of Fame member Lesley Visser are just a few inclusions in the wide range of the society’s board members.

“[The board members] come at the subject with different perspectives and different inter-ests,” Miller said. “We’re hoping by putting them together we’ll get a variety of viewpoints.”

“I’m glad someone is deciding to talk about this side of sports. Where

I’m from, sports have always been and will always be a giant force,” Steinhardt freshman Jonathan Boyd said. “I don’t think most peo-ple realize how much sports impact other areas of our lives.”

Students interested in taking part in NYU Sports and Society can contact the board of direc-tors. The program’s first panel discussion, “Integrity of the Game: Ethics and Today’s Ath-lete,” will take place Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Kimmel Center for University Life. The topic will fo-cus on ethical dilemmas athletes face today and how those choi-ces are presented to the public.

“I’m particularly interested the ethical dilemmas that arise from sports. I’m interested in the ethi-cal challenges across the board on the business side,” Caplan said. “Sports are more revealing of us than other areas of life. Some-times people cover up in law, ar-chitecture, medicine and sports just lays it all out there.”

Bailey Evans is a staff writer. Email her at features@nyunews.com.

Mojica participated in the Urban Arts program.

CORALINE WANG/WSN

Sharova practices with members of the NYU ballet club.JUSTIN LANIER/WSN

NYUNEWS.COM | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 5

ARTSEDITED BY JEREMY GROSSMANARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Powerful action, engaging plot combine to make ‘Thor’ another marvelous hit

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‘Armstrong Lie’ delivers unique account of famous scandal

By STEFAN MELNYK

Compared with some of his more attention-hungry con-temporaries, documentar-ian Alex Gibney has always re-mained resolutely behind the camera, doggedly attempting to prevent his personality from coloring his work. With that in mind, one can only imagine what it must have been like for Gibney to be unwillingly draf-ted into a story — not just as an observer but as a participant.

Gibney’s latest documentary, “The Armstrong Lie,” began pro-duction as a film about Lance Armstrong’s 2009 comeback ride at the Tour de France. When fresh evidence emerged support-ing the drug accusations that had dogged Armstrong for years, the film was put on indefinite hiatus.

Only after Armstrong publicly confessed to having used drugs in an interview with Oprah did Gibney retrieve the already shot footage and began to comb through it retrospectively for clues. It is this search that is the meat of the finished film.

Gibney is upfront about all of this, introducing himself at the beginning and narrating the documentary throughout. Though he may be uncomfort-able with this more visible role in his film, it demonstrates his willingness to extend the philos-ophy of thorough research and transparency even to himself.

What emerges is a film about narratives and particularly how the beauty of one narrative can give it precedence over a truer but uglier one. Gibney admits to wanting to believe Armstrong was the real deal and that he could win the 2009 comeback race without the help of drugs.

However, as if more eager than ever to prove his scrupulous-ness, Gibney presents a fasci-nating layman’s primer on how bicycle race doping can be done, how it can be hidden from the authorities and even how cer-tain powerful individuals in the cycling community might have been complicit in the cover up of Armstrong’s abuses.

Other elements of the story are perfectly suited to Gibney’s tal-

ents as a filmmaker. The sordid underbelly of the cycling world and the secret doping arms race Armstrong joined are precisely the types of subjects Gibney excels in investigating and he goes at it with his characteristic aplomb and attention to detail.

Gibney does not have the same kind of unrivaled access to Arm-strong as he did to Eliot Spitzer in the deliciously seedy “Client 9.” He still manages to find enough friends, colleagues and enemies of the former pro cyclist to put together a mosaic portrait of an immensely guarded man who may not even fully understand why he did what he did.

Gibney’s “The Armstrong Lie” may not be the definitive work that some of Gibney’s other films — like “Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room” or “Taxi to the Dark Side” — were for their respective subjects, but it is nev-ertheless an excellent account of the Armstrong scandal and a fas-cinating departure for Gibney.

Stefan Melnyk is a senior editor. Email him at film@nyunews.com.

By LAURA WOLFORD

As the fall TV season contin-ues, the success or failures of shows adapted from a source — whether from a book, film or another television show — become more readily apparent. Much of this has to do with the dedicated fanbases that are willing to give their show the support it needs, or the lack of a viewership networks expect a show to draw.

One of NBC’s first cancella-tions this season was “Iron-side,” a reboot of a late ’60s show of the same name. A cop series always has the potential to attract dedicated viewers, thanks to thematic elements that have remained popular with the public. Still, “Iron-side’s” downfall proved that the idea audiences are still will-ing to watch something they’ve seen hundreds of times is a mis-conception. A premise that may have worked in the ’60s is no longer welcome in a modern TV landscape replete with prefers high-concept dramas and in-depth fantasies.

But even though audiences seem to love fantasies, that didn’t help ABC’s “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” from be-ing a ratings disaster. It hasn’t enjoyed nearly the same success as its parent series “Once Upon A Time.” Though the show has avoided cancellation thus far, its perilously low ratings do not bode well for its future.

“Wonderland’s” lack of suc-cess is due to its inability to stake a unique claim separate from its predecessor. If both shows are too similar, one of them is bound to lose audience interest and between the two, the loser is “Wonderland.”

However, one of the fall sea-son’s biggest, and most sur-prising, successes came in the form of FOX’s “Sleepy Hollow.” The show has already been re-

newed for a second season and has quickly built a dedicated viewership. “Sleepy Hollow” en-gages supernatural-adoring au-diences and fans of the famous 1820 short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” while also drawing in younger audiences through the central romance, mystery and modern spin.

A show like “Sleepy Hollow” that can engage an audience in its world — not only through the setting but also through the lives of the characters — is a show that will stick around in the minds of viewers for years, constantly leaving them wanting more.

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is a clear example of this method put to practice. Not only does the apocalyptic world of zom-bies and constant terror draw in audiences in droves, but they also form a relationship with the characters, worrying for their fu-tures in a harsh world.

Even when critical reception wavers, “The Walking Dead” still manages to consistently rake in, and even gain, view-ers. The lives of the characters and their struggles hook that audience, and the built-in fan-base from the original graphic novel series only helped lay the foundation for the show’s ratings success.

This current TV season is a fas-cinating example of how adapt-ing from a previous entity can contribute to a show’s success — but doesn’t guarantee it. In the cases of “Ironside” and “Wonder-land,” the new iterations didn’t build or innovate upon their pre-decessors. It helps to introduce an audience to a universe while developing fresh, character-driven stories. That way, old ideas can transform into some-thing new and impressive.

Laura Wolford is a staff writer. Email herat entertainment@nyunews.com.

TV adaptations succeed by offering

audiences fresh takes

The “Ironside” remake fails to improve upon its source material.VIA FACEBOOK.COM

Thor devises a plan that could save the world — but if it fails, the Dark Elves win.

It’s safe to say that audiences are more excited to see “The Dark World” than the first film be-cause “The Avengers” was a box office success, and that excitement will not go unrewarded. There is more action in “The Dark World,” and it is packed with pleasant surprises, such as unex-pected cameos, clever twists and spaceship cha-ses that evoke some of the best of past sci-fi films.

The only struggle for “The Dark World” is how it fits decades of Marvel lore into its exposition. Those unfamiliar with the history of Thor can

still disregard any background knowledge and enjoy the movie for what it is — a very enter-taining action-adventure film that plays more like science fiction than a standard superhero movie. “Thor: The Dark World” might not be an important piece in the grand scheme of Marvel’s second phase of films, but it is sure to dazzle au-diences with its action and humor. And be sure to stick around past the credits as well — two bonus scenes are included.

Marcus Jones is a staff writer. Email him at film@nyunews.com.

6 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM

THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD & DAILY SUDOKU

ACROSS

1 ___ skirt

5 “The Tao of Pooh” author Benjamin

9 One with ergophobia

14 “Look what I found!” cries

15 Kind of tradition

16 “___ talk?”

17 “Good thing I don’t have the same problem!”

19 Following

20 River of film

21 1986 top 10 hit for Billy Idol

23 That’s the point

24 Meal at which to drink four cups of wine

25 Part of a pickup line?

28 “___, boy!”

29 Earth goddess created by Chaos

33 Expanse

36 “Apparently”

38 What fell in the Fall

39 That is the question

41 Robert of “Quincy, M.E.”

42 One who may need a shower?

44 Holder of a pair of queens

46 Shiner47 Milk sources49 N.B.A. Hall-of-

Famer Walker50 Belgian

battleground during W.W. I

52 Letters in car ads54 “Truthfully …”57 Brought up to

speed61 Yokel, in slang62 Classic rock song

in “Easy Rider”64 G.W. competitor65 P.D.Q. Bach’s

“I’m the Village Idiot,” e.g.

66 Rep. Darrell of California

67 Like the myth of Ragnarok

68 Luxury hotel name

69 Locale for a Village People hit, informally

DOWN 1 “Scrubs” locale:

Abbr. 2 “Don’t even think

about it” 3 Bats 4 Showed

politeness at the front door

5 Certain ring bearer

6 Relative of a gemsbok

7 ___ Schwarz 8 Fictional

substance in a Disney film

9 Zodiac symbol10 U.S.S. Enterprise

chief engineer Geordi ___

11 Where reruns run

12 Overly precious13 Mister, overseas18 ___ Balls22 Christmas hymn

beginning24 Events at which

people are dead serious?

25 Some pyramids26 In two, say27 Ohio city WSW of

Columbus28 It’s possessive30 Some buggy

drivers31 Name on a bottle

of Sensuous Nude perfume

32 Half of an old comedy team

34 Caen cleric

35 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, e.g.

37 Drifts away

40 Quaker product

43 Chardonnay feature

45 “Whatever!”

48 Fancy suite amenity

51 In and of itself

52 Ball mate

53 Mr. ___

54 What’s not for big shots?

55 38-Across’s genus

56 “Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears” poet

57 “I say” sayer

58 Menu section

59 Threat ender

60 Time of 1944’s Operation Neptune

63 “… goes, ___ go!”

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Campaigns, voters share blame for low turnout

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LANGUAGE

Simple diction reaches wider audience

Political diversity stems from state lawsGOVERNMENT

NYUNEWS.COM | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 7

OPINIONEDITED BY RAQUEL WOODRUFFOPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

EDITORIAL BOARD: Raquel Woodruff (Chair),

Edward Radzivilovskiy (Co-chair), Peter Keffer (Co-chair),Harry Brown, Marcelo Cicconet, Christina Coleburn, Omar Etman,

Nina Golshan, Nickhil Sethi

Email the WSN Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com.

By NINA GOLSHAN

On Monday, President Barack Obama submitted an article to The Huffington Post imploring Con-gress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a measure that would protect members of the LG-BTQ community from discrimination in the workplace. This past week, Senate Democrats have been rallying for Senate Republicans to support the bill rather than filibuster.

The American people are familiar with this congressional tactic of de-lays and interruptions, and the pres-ident has grown tired of Congress’ inability to legislate in a civilized manner. But the gridlock in Wash-ington, D.C. hasn’t left the country entirely helpless — thanks to feder-alism, the states have been able to take matters into their own hands.

State governments have always practiced their sovereignty by pass-ing laws leaning toward the public opinion within their smaller demo-graphic of constituents. Now though, the most divisive issues in the nation are those Congress has not deter-mined — gun control, gay marriage, immigration and abortion. States have been forced to pass their own legislation, and huge disparities in

public opinion from New Jersey to Oklahoma to California have contrib-uted to the political divide between red and blue states.

California passed a slew of fire-arm control bills in October, mak-ing it the state with the strictest gun control legislation in the coun-try. Meanwhile, states like Alaska and Arizona, which allow anyone over the age of 21 to own a gun, show a stark contrast.

The number of laws and reso-lutions related to immigration jumped by 83 percent since 2012 in a total of 43 states, and 34 states have passed voter identifi-cation laws, each one varying in stringency. Texas recently passed a controversial abortion law that would effectively shut down one-third of the states’ abortion clinics. Congress’ inaction following the NSA scandal has prompted over 10 states to pass online privacy laws, further restricting government us-

age of consumer information.These are the key issues facing the

country today and the ones that will dominate midterm and presidential elections to come. Under the 10th Amendment, states are legally per-mitted to pass laws on all of these far-ranging issues. But are we still in-divisible if none of our major policies coincide on a national level? Is it best for the country if, in the same year, one state permits concealed weapons in bars while another proposes ban-ning semi-automatic rifles ?

Many Americans blame money in Washington, D.C. and congres-sional gridlock for the growing political polarization in the Unit-ed States. Congress continuously passes laws that widen the gap be-tween residents of one state and another, so it comes as no surprise that there is disunity on a federal level. The deeprooted disagree-ments between states like Califor-nia and Arizona on fundamental issues are signs of an inherent problem, which the incompetent members of Congress cannot re-solve merely by passing legisla-tion on the federal level.

Nina Golshan is a staff columnist. Email her at opinion@nyunews.com.

Voter turnout has been a perpetual challenge in New York City, and Tuesday’s mayoral election was no exception, setting a record low of 24 percent of registered voters submitting a ballot for the general election. Out of the 8 million city resi-dents, 4.6 million of whom are registered to vote, only 1.02 million New Yorkers actually cast a ballot. This follows a grow-ing trend of low voter engagement in New York City.

In the 2009 mayoral general election, fewer than one in five New Yorkers of voting age turned up at the polls. In the 2010 New York state federal midterm election, voter turnout in the city was considerably lower than the rest of the state — 28 per-cent for the city versus 53 percent for the state, respectively.

Despite de Blasio’s campaign platform addressing perva-sive economic inequality, lower-income residents statisti-cally vote less frequently than their higher-income coun-terparts. 2009 estimates showed that if those in the lowest financial quintile voted at the same rate as the highest, 8.4 million more citizens would have cast ballots in 2008. An-other study found only 31 percent of black Americans vote consistently, a troubling finding given that the stop-and-frisk policy debate affects minorities the most.

One factor in particular can help explain the exceed-ingly low voter turnout of Tuesday’s election. Namely, the election fell on an off-year cycle where there are no major congressional or presidential elections, which can entice voters to visit the polls. But, even scheduling New York’s mayoral election to coincide with a more far-reaching one would not address the more systemic problems.

This downward voter trend can be attributed to faults on both the campaign and the voter side of the equation. A London School of Economics study of 340 mayoral elections showed that as campaign spending per voter increases, so does the total turnout. Devoting campaign funds to get-out-the-vote initiatives or more widespread circulation of infor-mation about the candidates will mobilize voters who would otherwise choose to skip the trip to the ballot box.

A number of simple yet effective measures have been sugges-ted to increase voter turnout, such as reducing the travel time to the voting location by increasing the number of ballot boxes. Another provision would allow eligible voters to register right before voting, which would convenience new city residents.

New Yorkers today are arguably the most apathetic vot-ers in the nation. While efforts have been made to provide for a more streamlined voting process that is more acces-sible to all New Yorkers, the ultimate responsibility resides with the voter. The largest city in the United States should be represented by more than just an eighth of its citizens.

By OMAR ETMAN

My articles appear online on Thursday mornings. Every Thurs-day by dinner time, my mom has called me twice, each time with a different review. She shares praise first — the argument is strong, good opening sentence, the piece is well organized. Then criticism — your counter argument needs work, your introduction is boring and, invari-ably, your language is too wordy.

“Why you are using such big words? Are you trying to confuse me and your dad?” she asks.

She hands the phone to my dad, and he repeats my mother’s cri-tique. “Omar, use smaller words, and fewer of them. I don’t under-stand what you are writing.”

“Okay, Baba. I’ll keep that in mind,” I always say with feigned understanding.

My mother prefers to speak in her native Arabic, in which she is eloquent and witty. But when she translates her thoughts to English, the meaning falters. Her lively per-sonality is dampened by fear of hu-

miliation. When spoken to in Eng-lish, her mind still turns to Arabic, taking in English thoughts, translat-ing them into a familiar language for comprehension and reverting them to English for verbalization. All of this happens in the half sec-ond it takes to say “hello.”

But after last week’s call, I gave their advice some more serious consideration. My mom and dad are physicians with doctorate degrees — proof that they can grasp complex ideas and abstract thoughts. So if they can’t under-stand the comparatively basic arguments I make, then perhaps their call for more straightforward words is warranted. The linguis-tic divide shouldn’t separate our shared cognition.

Big words, I slowly realized, do not equate to big thoughts. While it is easy to complicate an already complex issue, it is more difficult to make a complex problem simple. The late CEO of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs said, “Simplicity is the ultimate so-phistication.” Fortunately for my parents, they found the truth in Jobs’ statement sooner than I did.

Using language that is easy for the reader to understand is more important than using diction that gives the impression the writer has something to prove. The reader assumes intelligence — wordiness isn’t necessary to dem-onstrate it. Simple language is ap-pealing in its universality.

If I can make my articles easier for my parents to understand, then I can make them more ac-cessible to others, reaching more minds and influencing more peo-ple. Here’s hoping my epiphany scores more positive reviews on my weekly phone calls.

Omar Etman is a staff columnist. Email him at opinion@nyunews.com.