If the verbal visionaries of Cornell’s nearly 105-year history of writing stood on each other’s shoulders; Nabokov as a base, cursing in Russian, Vonnegut next to him, muttering to himself about the absurdity of it, Pynchon above them, with a foot on each deltoid, shakily supporting Morrison, and so on — you’d have a ladder of literary giants to rival the clock tower. Even then, despite this towering tradition, the adrenaline-and-laughter inducing irreverence and innovation of Junot Díaz, MFA ’95, displayed to the delight of many in the Cornell community last week, would be enough, sure as Ithaca is cold, to make Uncle Ezra roll over in his grave and call for a pen. The Dominican-born author returned to campus Feb.

In today’s job market, many of us are probably rethinking our career goals. Prostitution may or may not have occurred to you as an option, but we’d be lying if we said it hadn’t occurred to us. These days, you can see a highly debated version of the high class prostitute lifestyle, one very different from Julia Roberts’ fairy tale, on Showtime’s series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billy Piper, which is based on the true-life confessions of Belle de Jour, a call girl-turned-writer in London. Although Belle’s actual identity is kept secret, London’s most (in)famous call girl agreed to chat with The Sun about prostitution, her university days and how she would have made Twilight differently.

Jennifer Jensen ’11, Arts & Sciences

So, what brings you to the Libe [Café] on a Friday afternoon?

Well, I am just killing time. I have to meet with a dean for academic advising to figure out my transfer credits. I just transferred from Northwestern. I started at Cornell, tried Northwestern, and then came back.

What made you come back?

Well, I just like Cornell better. I’m happier here.

Being from Chicago, what do you think about the recent inauguration, since Obama is from your home?

Amazing is the first word that comes to mind. Life-changing is another.

If he could enact any policy, your choice, what would it be?

Behind the Lens

It’s rare to find a student so passionate about his field that he started his career before coming to Cornell, but that is exactly what senior James Orlando did. Instead of coming to Cornell to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, he came to Cornell to perfect what he was already good at: photography. He also happens to have the perfect name for a photographer.

At 21, James has done photography in London, been a starving artist in New York City and been a congressional page at the White House. Oh yeah, and he teaches snowboarding on the side. Don’t worry; your life isn’t that boring.

Sun: Have you always been interested in photography?

Hadag Nachash (“Snake Fish” in Hebrew) is one of Israel’s most famous hip-hop bands — and beloved the world over, by Hebrew speakers and non-Hebrew speakers alike. Sun News Editor Jasmine Marcus ’10 called up Sha’anan Streett, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, and spoke to him about their tour, politics and why even non-Hebrew speakers can “get down to the groove”.

The Sun: How’s your tour been going so far?

Sha’anan Streett: It’s been going great. Right now we’re in Los Angeles. We were in San Francisco, D.C., Ann Arbor, Michigan, New York City and we’re going to hit Cornell tomorrow!

Sun: And what are your plans for after the tour?

S.S.: We’re gonna go back to Israel and rest a little. Then we’ll start rehearsal and writing for the new album.

What with the ghosts of Nabokov, Vonnegut and Pynchon haunting its corridors, Goldwin Smith Hall must have felt quite comfortable to former Poet Laureate Charles Simic, who stopped by Ithaca on Thursday, October 2nd as part of the Creative Writing Program’s Writers at Cornell reading series. The poet, a native of Belgrade who moved to the United States at the age of 15, has won numerous accolades for his terse and often dark poetry, including the Wallace Stevens Award, a MacArthur Fellowship and the Pultizer Prize. Decked out in a brown leather jacket and his trademark tinted glasses, the 70-year-old poet sat down with The Sun a few hours before the reading in the office of English professor J. Robert Lennon:

Let’s face it, Bill Maher ’78 is not the most loved of American comedian-cum-political-pundits on night time television. Bitingly honest, equally-oppurtune satirical and cutting to a fault, he’s alienated religious citizens, conservatives and liberals alike. And yet the one time host of the now-deceased Politically Incorrect and current host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher accepts his lot in life as the comedian who tells it straight. Here’s an excerpt of The Sun’s conversation with the infamous Cornell alumnus:

The Sun: We’ve read that you decided to start your stand-up comedy career while you were at Cornell. What inspired that?

Daniel Tosh — who will be performing at the State Theater this Saturday at 8 p.m. — is a funny guy. The comedian has risen to the rank of Comedy Central elite with his own hour-long specials, and has recently appeared as a panelist on Best Week Ever. Last wednesday, I was able to get him on the phone to talk about jobs, belligerent fans and movie cops. Check it out:

The Sun: Hey, how’s it going, Daniel?

Daniel Tosh: Good, man. How are you?

Sun: Awesome. So you did a Comedy Central special last year called Completely Serious. I watched it the other night. I enjoyed it. You’re a funny guy.

We try to avoid keeping The Sun’s content inbred; it’s often seen as both self-promotional and perhaps a conflict of interest.

That said, there are times when you have to make allowances; when a former editor is exemplary and interesting enough, that, though he or she may claim that “they majored in the Sun,” everything else he or she has done far surpasses it.

Howard Rodman ’71 is one such dude. He’d be the first to claim that he’s not quite the “Hollywood Insider,” and he may be right: much of his work, though celebrated, happens to be “unproducable or unpublishable” — a common trope of his.

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In between his travels around the United States and, indeed, around the world, former President Jeffrey S. Lehman ’77 took some time to talk to The Sun about his international workload and some of his plans for the future.