Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:

"For women, marriage often entails hanging up the briefcase at the door. Their housework goes up, and if there are children, the woman tends to become the primary caretaker. ... Cohabitating couples are usually more egalitarian."

--Marin Clarkberg, assistant professor of sociology, discussing her study on cohabitation, in Psychology Today, Oct-Nov. '99.

"Birds aren't stupid. If the same object doesn't move for weeks, they'll eventually figure out that it's not dangerous."

--Research associate Kevin J. McGowan, curator of the Cornell Bird and Mammal Collections, answering the question "Do scarecrows really work?" in the October issue of Outside Magazine.

"The real strength of our Mars program is that it is robust to failure. It's a big loss, but I think it's one that we can sustain."

--Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy and head NASA's long-range Martian mission planning committee, responding to the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 24 .

"I've never been someone wanting to ... retire somewhere where the sun shines all the time and what you do is play golf. I wanted the lively intellectual and cultural life that a university provides."

--President emeritus Dale Corson, explaining why he helped to found and now resides at the Kendal at Ithaca community, quoted in a Sept. 21 Christian Science Monitor article about retirement communities associated with universities.

"Some trees are holding their own, but even those leaves aren't photosynthesizing at the rate they normally would."

--Robert J. Kohut, a plant pathologist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell, predicting that fall colors this year will be "muddy," in a New York Times News Service story, Sept. 12.

"They [women in other cultures] literally get paraded through the village when they come out of the fattening hut, and everyone says how beautiful they are. Here we use 'thinning huts' -- Weight Watchers, most major spas, summer camps for overweight children. I think culturally they are a functional equivalent."

--Jeffery Sobal, professor of nutritional sciences, discussing the cultural aspects of fat, in the Dallas Morning News, Aug. 29.

"Parents have had 17 years to influence the values and behavior of their children. No matter how successful they have been, they must understand that their influence will diminish. ... Send love and money ... but not advice about academic or interpersonal matters."

--Glenn Altschuler, dean of continuing education and summer sessions and professor of American studies, in an advice column to parents of incoming freshman in The New York Times "Education Life" section, Aug. 1.

"Everything is natural. Somehow there is the idea that if you use a plant directly or extract a tea it will be more effective and have less side effects than approved drugs and that's not true."

--David Levitsky, >professor of nutritional sciences, discussing food supplements, in the Boston Globe, July 5.