Can I just say: I hate posting calories in any context. I hated it when they started posting them in New York's chain restaurants and I really hate that now colleges are apparently doing it. As someone without an eating disorder, seeing the calorie counts instantly makes eating into something clinical and strips it of some of its pleasure - so I can only imagine the effect it could have on someone whose attitude towards food was already disordered. I am evangelically of the opinion that in order to eat right, we need to take the morality out of food. It's not sinful, it's not wicked, and it's not bad. Food is a pleasure and we need to treat it as such - not as an enemy.

Rant over, I get why states - and now colleges - do it. People will make "smarter," more informed choices, goes the thinking. Those who didn't know that a doughnut was bad for you - or that (as we're always told) said doughnut has fewer calories than an enormous bagel with cream cheese - might take note. But I suspect, going by my own experiences, that a lot of people will still buy that bagel - and just feel worse about it.

College students, as we know, are already vulnerable. Young women are particularly suceptible to the pressures that lead to disordered eating, and young men fall prey to the same forces. As Newsweek tells us, the issues may not be as clear-cut as in the past, but they're still very serious.

Dr. Richard Kreipe, a specialist in adolescent medicine whose research centers on eating disorders, says that while he has seen fewer cases of classic eating disorders like restrictive anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in the past several years, the number of patients with eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) has "almost doubled" nationally in the midst of America's obesity epidemic...Since 2000, the number of college students dieting, vomiting, or taking laxatives to lose weight has jumped from about 28 to 38 percent, according to the American College Health Association's annual surveys. Well-balanced caloric intake, with regular meals and physical activity-not dieting-is the best way to avoid obesity, says Kreipe, a professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center. That's why, in his view, calorie information doesn't benefit students. "Nutrition is not a simple thing that can be distilled down into a label," he says. "There's a tendency for people to overinterpret what a specific number means."

The problem, as ever, is that the focus still seems to be on "weight," rather than "health." Take the Freshman 15, which has always been treated as a hackneyed bad-uncle joke, but when weight is the scariest thing in the world, it becomes sinister. It arises, the article claims, from the "loss of structure" that college students experience; junk food, beer, anxiety, beer, dining hall portions and beer can also contribute. Living with other people can make young people self-conscious and, in some cases, fear of the fabled freshman weight gain may push vulnerable students to the other extreme.

The piece makes a very important point: this weight gain and disordered eating are by no means mutually exclusive - indeed, they're increasingly common partners.

"People are concerned about the fat kids being fat and the thin kids having anorexia...But people aren't concerned about the disordered eating among the overweight kids." For under- and overweight people alike, eating disorders can lead to a host of health issues, including electrolyte imbalances, fertility problems, impaired brain development, bone loss, and, in severe cases, death. The study also showed that disordered eating behavior leads to further weight gain over time.

Experts in the article suggest alternatives, like nutrient density scores, that would "distinguish between items like a Coke, which is high in calories but low in nutrients, and avocado, which is rich in both calories and nutrients." My question is: why do they have the Coke at all? I'm not suggesting that cafeterias need to be macrobiotic, but it's not a college's responsibility to provide junk food for students - especially when it's invariably available at vending machines and bookstores elsewhere on campus. Penn State has "healthy dining halls" and one of Yale's colleges, (her daughter's) has been taken on by Alice Waters as a bastion of mass-slow-food. But shouldn't this be the rule, rather than the exception? Not to play the ugly American card, but it's absolutely true that European dining halls don't carry the same variety of junk - and certainly don't provide calorie counts. I understand that colleges walk a constantly-shifting line between guidance and hands-off supervision, and that calorie counting probably seems like a small, harmless way to make a difference. But I'm guessing, especially in this population, the negative effects will outweigh the poisitives - and it's a trigger that can easily be avoided. And, at the end of the day, at least in my experience, anyone who loves food is going to do everything she can to avoid eating cafeteria food anyway - and that's something they should be able to fix.

Rethinking The Freshman 15 [Newsweek]

On Saturday, the body of Le, 24, was found inside a wall in the basement of the building where she worked; it was the day she was to be married. Police have classified her death as a homicide, and have said it was not "a random act," but have not released the cause of death. Several media outlets are reporting that the prime suspect is a technician in Le's lab, who has defensive wounds consistent with a struggle and failed a polygraph test. People also says that the lab tech asked for a lawyer after he stopped answering police questions. New Haven Police Department spokesman Joe Avery denied these reports, but the police have been very tight-lipped in this case — they won't officially speculate, for instance, on the owner of bloody clothes found hidden above ceiling tiles in the lab, which are not clothes Le was wearing when she disappeared. One source says they may belong to the killer.

Whether or not the lab tech is in fact a suspect, there are a limited number of people who could have committed the crime. Yale President Richard Levin said, "We know everyone that was in the basement. There were limited number of people in the basement and we passed that on to police." Professor Gary Rudnick, who had interviewed Le for admission to her graduate program, confirmed that only certain people had access to the building where she was found, and even fewer had access to the basement. A retired police officer who spoke with The Daily Beast also pointed out that the killer would have had to know the building well in order to hide Le's body and the clothes where he (or she) did.

The Yale campus is now on high alert — Prof. Rudnick says there may be a "murderer among us." Yale Daily News editor-in-chief Thomas Kaplan says, "Only Yalies had access to that basement, and that seems to point to someone in our community being involved in this. That's what is so frightening." The New York Daily News points out that although police have said no one at Yale is in danger, "the killer is still at large and had access to the secure building." Yale has apologized for sending an e-mail to students advertising a job-search workshop called "Killer Cover Letters" — although the workshop's title had apparently been used before, Yale College assistant dean Philip Jones acknowledged that this was probably not the time to be calling anything "killer."

Students held a candlelight vigil Monday night in memory of Le. According to her roommate Natalie Powers, Le "was kind, generous, sharing ... the list just goes on. Annie was also tougher then you would think by just looking at her." And Yale chaplain Sharon Kugler said, "No day, no season, will ever be the same for us now that Annie Le has left this Earth."

Yale Student's Fight For Her Life [Daily Beast]
Police Appear To Be Closing In On Yale Killer [AP]
Yale's 'Worst Fears' Come True [USA Today]
Lab Tech Eyed In Yale Murder [Daily Beast]
Yale Student's Killing Wasn't Random, Police Say [CNN]
Report: Lab Worker a Possible Suspect in Annie Le's Murder [People]
Lab Technician Eyed As Suspect In Murder Of Yale Student Annie Le [NY Daily News]

The foundation of Aliza's outfit is, naturally, built upon the shopping mecca of aspiring hipster poseurs everywhere: American Apparel. Below, the leggings, scoop-neck leotard and black hoody.

(Unisex flex fleece zip hoody, $40; cotton spandex jersey legging, $26; jersey short sleeve t-shirt leotard, $28.)

And her boots? White fringe stylings are something that could only be found at a place called the Boot Barn.

(Oak Tree Farm "Oasis" fringe boot, $89.99)

And don't forget the hair! This Beverly Johnson wig in Shade 4 ought to do the trick.

(H-214 by Beverly Johnson wig, $45.90)

But to really encapsulate Aliza-style, you've gotta rock the baggy leopard-print short. Where to go? The men's underwear section of WildFree, naturally.

(Wild Free men's lingerie silk leopard-print boxer shorts, $24)

Related: Shvarts Explains Her 'Repeated Self-Induced Miscarriages [Yale Daily News]

Shvarts stood by her project, calling the University's statement "ultimately inaccurate."...But Shvarts reiterated Thursday that she repeatedly used a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself. At the end of her menstrual cycle, she took abortifacient herbs to induce bleeding, she said. She said she does not know whether or not she was ever pregnant. "No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen," Shvarts said, "because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties."

University Calls Art Project A Fiction; Shvarts '08 Disputes Yale's Claim [Yale Daily News]

Actually, "gullible weenies" isn't the term that was used, but that's pretty much what it amounted to. Here's the full statement from Klasky:

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman's body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

Yale Press Release [Yale]

Earlier: Yale Senior Undergoes Multiple Self-Induced Miscarriages In The Name Of Art
Just How Do You Give Yourself An Herbal Abortion?

And speaking of idiot college boys making ignorant comments, at a stand-up comedy competition at New Jersey's Monmouth University, more than one entrant thought rape jokes were hilarious. "The first comic told two rape jokes," reports Scienceblogs.com. "Another said he could never be a rapist because he likes to sleep after sex. Yet another said he would call his victim the next morning because he's such a nice guy... Later one of the competitors began his act by promising the audience that he wouldn't tell any rape jokes. He broke that promise two minutes later with a one-liner about using 'ropes and formaldehyde' to solve his romantic problems." Ugh. There's such a thing as crossing the line, even when you're "joking." These college boys took that line and peed all over it.

Yale Fraternity 1/23 [Fox 61 News — Scroll Down]
ndergraduate Men and Their Oh-So-Funny Rape Jokes [Scienceblogs.com]

Earlier: Yale University "Sluts" Strike Back At Sexist Frat Boys

Not only that, it was only after they were threatened with the possibility of a lawsuit that the men in Zeta Psi managed to cough up a lame excuse for an apology. And the photo wasn't an isolated incident. From the Yale Daily News:

Former Women's Center Public Relations Coordinator Jessica Svendsen '09 said she found a group of men chanting "Dick! Dick! Dick!" in front of the Elm Street entrance to the Center, which is located in Durfee Hall, shortly before midnight last Tuesday. Frightened, she decided to take a detour through the Center's Old Campus entrance, she said.

Zeta Psi Pledges "Love Yale Sluts," Women's Center Pledges to Sue [IvyGate]
Misogyny claim leveled at frat [Yale Daily News]
Zeta Psi apologizes for its members' 'lack of judgment' [Yale Daily News]
Women's Center calls Zeta Psi's behavior 'inexcusable' [Yale Daily News]

We sat there, unsure. Then someone offered: "What if horny college kids everywhere are no longer having sex because the boys are insisting on their condoms and the girls on theirs?" In the words and spirit (sorry, guys) of Carrie Bradshaw, I got to thinking: Could a problem with rubbers bounce back and hit you in the face?

So I asked my 20-something friends to revisit their dark, dismal, skanky college days: Did they even have condom anxiety? I got a resounding, "Uh, what the fuck are you talking about?" from all the guys I talked to, all of them saying how if you're a dude and you have any opportunity to get laid, you're going for it. When I pressed one gentleman on my whole "old-condom-in-the-wallet" theory, he blew my mind in telling me that no guy actually carries condoms in his wallet. "You're either going back to her place or yours. You keep your condoms at home." One male friend shared a tale about "a guy he knew" who "used duct tape after telling a girl he was using a condom but didn't have one so he duct taped his dick and then had sex with her...He said it wasn't what you'd call a passionate session of love making, more like 100-meter dash without any clear winner. So that might have been why the girl didn't quite realize she was having sex with a guy who's dick was wrapped in duct tape."

While most the women I spoke with shared that their condom-using days were few and far between ("I asked him to get tested, he did, we never used condoms again," said one), one friend offered the following handy list of "Condoms I Do Not Trust":

Bullet shaped condoms (i.e. the long narrow ones from planned parenthood)'*; 'novelty condoms' — sounds like screwing a clown, condoms that smell like fruit see also; novelty condom; condoms that have any function asides from keeping me Not Preggers (i.e. glowing in the dark) see also; novelty condom; condoms procured from the depths of a messenger bag; faded or warm condoms pulled from pockets or wallets; condoms distributed at mass gatherings; condoms distributed by anyone with an airquoted nickname like Nick "Baby Batter" Jones, Tim "The Spermanator" Chang, Tobias "The Impregnator" Wharton.

Then I was offered this cautionary tale, from another female freind: "A threesome in Italy. This waiter and his roommate. They both pull out Italian condoms from their wallets. I said (In Italian),'"Do you have an American condom?' They laughed. So I laughed. Maybe I said something funny in Italian. 6 weeks later when I couldn't hold anything down and I missed my period I wasn't laughing. " Note to self: Always travel with Trojans.

Additionally, Horyn chose to once again champion Marc Jacobs' just-shown Spring/Summer 2008 collection, which most fashion critics hated. And what is it about Marc's work that makes Ms. Cathy's heart go pitter patter? "Shocking someone today on the runway is really hard. Marc Jacobs — being two hours late — was definitely shocking." Who knew it was that easy to please Cathy Horyn!

And so what did the Yalies conclude about their teatime with CH? "It was nice to have someone speak seriously and be taken seriously," said one student; "I think that a lot of what people said might have gone over people's heads," said another; "Yale students tend not to have much sense of how to dress ... but she also spoke about business, so it was geared towards its audience," said yet another. As for the dean who organized the whole gathering? "Only some of the names [she spoke of] rang a bell to me." Another great success on Cathy Horyn's part on translating the fashion industry to those outside of it!

Horyn Snubs Fawning Fashion Reviews [Yale Daily News]