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OpeningREMARKS

Soaking Up Summer

When summer rolls into Central New York, there are few places I’d rather be. It’s a time for some of my favorite activities. There’s fishing, with the splash of a smallmouth bass rocketing out of the water after striking a lure; ripe cherry tomatoes plucked from the garden, bursting in my mouth; the crack of a bat tagging a baseball; and the seemingly endless swinging, running, and chasing that accompany hanging out with an energetic 4-year-old.

But summer is also a time for travel, whether it’s a daytrip to a local music festival or a family getaway to a new distant destination. As much as I enjoy knocking around the backyard, I also like to explore places beyond my traditional haunts, seeing new sights and meeting folks whose lives and experiences are anchored elsewhere.

In this issue, whether you’re an armchair traveler, a frequent flyer, or just running on empty, you can circle the globe. For starters, take a look at the photographs of SU Abroad students. You can journey to India with illustration professor John Thompson and his students, or visit Tanzania with social work professor Keith Alford and Meghan Hall ’07 to learn how caregivers there provide comfort and support to patients with HIV/AIDS. For a truly global perspective, hit the trail with Meg Noble Peterson ’50. Considering the treks she’s been on, that alone may exhaust you.

I also felt myself traveling in time and mind this issue through the works of writers from the Creative Writing Program. In “My Flamboyant Grandson,” I stumbled into George Saunders’s satirical vision of the not-too-distant future and followed his characters down a Manhattan street, where each step can be a reminder of personal consumption habits. In the opening chapter of Phil LaMarche’s novel American Youth, I returned to the lazy days of distant summers ago, when there was no telling what kind of mischief or downright danger that imagination and boredom might lead to on any given day for a few friends.

So no matter where you find yourself this summer, enjoy it while you can. For summer is always worth the wait—and always slips past us quicker than we’d like.

Jay Cox
Editor
SYRACUSE

NANCY CANTOR, Chancellor and President

TOM WALSH G ’84, Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement

NICCI BROWN G’98, Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communicatons; Publisher 

EDITOR
Jay Cox

ART DIRECTOR
Laurie Cronin ’81

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
David Marc, Amy Speach

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Kathleen M. Haley ’92

DESIGNER
Amy McVey

WEB PAGE DESIGNER
W. Michael McGrath

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Jennifer Merante

CLASS NOTES COORDINATOR
Monique Frost

STUDENT INTERNS
Jamie Miles ’10
Tracy Twombly ’09

CONTRIBUTORS
Wally Bobkiewicz G’89,
Aleta Burchyski G’08,
James Gendron G’08,
Judy Holmes G’86,
Christopher Kennedy G’88,
Phil LaMarche ’98, G’03,
Brian McClintock ’05,
Courtney Queeney G’05,
Kelly Homan Rodoski ’92,
George Saunders G’88,
Jac’leen Smith G’08

  

Syracuse University Magazine (USPS 009-049, ISSN 1065-884X) Volume 25, Number 2, is an official bulletin of Syracuse University and is published four times yearly: spring, summer, fall, and winter by Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244. It is distributed free of charge to alumni, friends, faculty, and staff. Periodical postage paid at Syracuse, NY, and additional mailing offices.

WEB SITE: sumagazine.syr.edu.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS ONLY: Advancement Services, 820 Comstock Avenue, Room 009, Syracuse NY 13244-5040. Telephone: 315-443-3904. Fax: 315-443-5169.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, OTHER MAGAZINE BUSINESS: Syracuse University Magazine, 820 Comstock Avenue, Room 308, Syracuse NY 13244-5040. Telephone: 315-443-2233; Fax: 315-443-5425.
E-mail: jacox@syr.edu.

Contents © 2008 Syracuse University, except where noted. Opinions expressed in Syracuse University Magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of its editors or policies of Syracuse University.





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