Talk:Bowdoin College

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Contents

[edit] M*A*S*H

there is something that doesn't look right in the part entitled "Bowdoin in literature and film" : "M*A*S*H (1968, 1970) — In both the book and film, the character Hawkeye Pierce, played by actor Alan Alda" --> Alan Alda played that part in the TV series, but it's not him who played it in the film (it's Donald Sutherland)... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 139.140.196.230 (talk • contribs).

Then go ahead and fix it. That was a recent change because it used to say Sutherland. --Rtrev 14:18, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

The info box for college rankings are now a part of the University portal. If you are going to remove it, you need to offer an explanation here prior removing it again.--Mitamarine 19:35, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, here is the info on the infobox and editing it FYI... US University Ranking template --Rtrev 04:33, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why the sun is in the seal--it's probably NOT for the speculative reason given in the text.

This is just an art-historian's guess, but the schools' motto appears to refer to the ancient (i.e., classical) bestiaries, which included fantastic descriptions of known animals as well as speculative descriptions of fantastic beasts and birds. In these catalogues of real creatures and chimerical beasts, the eagle was said to be the only bird able to fly into the sun without losing its sight. (See Emile Male's study of Gothic Art for one discussion of this.)

Such ideas, known to and used by a variety of scholars until the Enlightenment, gave very early Christian writers the medieval character for John's gospel, symbolized by the eagle, from the Revelations passage referring to the four animals (interpreted to mean the 4 gospelers) around God's throne. John's book, unlike the other three (Synoptic, more interrelated) gospels, attends to the character of Jesus (in the "I Am's,"--"I am the Bread of Life," "...the Paschal Lamb," etc., and in the attention given to conveying actions that merit the title 'the Christ'--the annointed one, in Greek). John is thus said, like the eagle, to have been able to see the dazzling light of God's Son's countenance without being blinded by it. (See the St. John page in the Book of Kells as an example of this symbolism).

Using the sun as an image to accompany the Latin words in the motto would make sense, whether the classical or the more specifically Catholic context were intended, and either is possible. By the 1820s there were stirrings of interest in medieval Catholic learning previously rejected by those engaged in North American educational and other institutional foundations, thentofore primarily protestant in nature. (These were even stronger later; the article doesn't mention when the seal and motto were actually adopted). It is also consistent with the idea of an academic community being expected to face truth forthrightly, without flinching, flying straight towards the light if need be.

It would be interesting to see what might appear were the school's archives to be searched on this topic. There may be a note somewhere in them, in a diary or elsewhere. Ihsdlrue 14:03, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Chris' front yard?

Check the first section of the article. This has to be someone screwing around.

70.231.255.248 (talk) 03:10, 31 March 2008 (UTC)