Stanford Report, Apriil 21, 2004

FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF Defense WILLIAM PERRY, a Stanford professor of management science and engineering, told students at the University of Delaware April 14 that the current fighting in Iraq was predictable and the Bush administration should have been better prepared. "I think this is a failure of planning," he said. "I think it is pretty clear we have a serious insurgency fight on our hands in Iraq and will have for some time to come." The News Journal of Delaware reported that Perry, an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, supported invading Iraq on the premise that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. However, that premise "turns out not to be correct," he said. While President Bush insists the world is a better place because Saddam has been removed from power, Perry said he has "a hard time reading the papers thinking anyone is better off, considering what is going on in Iraq." Perry added that the extensive use of National Guard troops in Iraq "will play havoc with National Guard recruiting."

THE STANFORD CHAPARRAL, THE university’s humor magazine, was featured in The New Yorker magazine’s Talk of the Town on April 19. While typical Chaparral issues are glossy compendiums of cartoons, lists, photo journals and short articles, once a year the editors produce a parody of a national magazine. In its 105-year history, the student magazine has targeted publications such as Fortune, Sports Illustrated and Playboy. This year, however, seniors STEVE YELDERMAN and IAN SPIRO felt the genre was exhausted. At a weekly staff meeting, Yelderman announced they would try something different: "We’re going to be parodying an unbound pile of paper." Staffers began tossing out story ideas -- scratch-off lottery tickets, rejection letters, instructional manuals and cult solicitation pamphlets. "There’s been a lot of talk of applications, or rejection letters," Yelderman said. "Maybe a pre-rejection letter from Harvard Law School?" A couple of weeks after the first meeting, Spiro and Yelderman held a marathon writing session -- the staff worked all weekend to complete the Pile of Paper issue by the following Monday. Eventually, the presumptive Pile of Paper owner was given a name -- Ronald Rembrandt DeLa Duffy. According to the New Yorker, DeLa Duffy’s profile suggested something of a loser, as evidenced by job-rejection letters from AeroMexico and pathetic to-do lists. After working all night on deadline, a staffer asked if anyone still thought the Pile of Paper idea was still funny. "I think it’s hilarious," Spiro replied. "In some sense, we have succeeded in our rudimentary goal. I mean, this is a pile of paper."