NEW YORK -- During February, Cornellians in New York City participated in the Westminster Kennel Club (WKC) Dog Show, celebrated the Lunar Year of the Dog and learned about the incomes of the super rich.

Veterinary College plays the Garden

During a record-breaking snowfall in New York City, faculty, students and alumni from Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine plowed their way to Madison Square Garden for the 130th WKC on Feb. 13 and 14. From pre-parties to the Garden's center ring to the post-party at Sardi's, Cornell's Vet College was all over the Westminster. Rodney Page, the Alexander de Lahunta Chair of Clinical Sciences and co-director of the Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research, gave a lecture on the Vet College's enhanced clinical sciences department http://www.vet.cornell.edu/clinsci/; he also marked 50 years of partnership between Cornell's Vet College and the Morris Animal Foundation with a press conference detailing their current and most outstanding research projects (see http://www.vet.cornell.edu/news/articles/westminster06.htm). Thomas Kern, a Cornell veterinary ophthalmologist and a dog show expert, spoke about inherited eye diseases in dogs and the efficacy of genetic testing and eye screening.

Cornellians seemed omnipresent at the Garden: Behind the scenes, Harold Zweighaft, DVM '56, staffed the WKC "sick room"; in the center ring, Lauren Marini, DVM '06, was awarded a scholarship from Westminster Kennel Foundation; faculty and alumni were backstage in the grooming and benching area, being sniffed and snapping pictures; and alumni were ringside to witness the prancing, primping, posing and probing.

The Year of the Dog

Over 200 Cornellians celebrated the Lunar Year of the Dog 4704 and honored Jane Hyun '90, author of "Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling," Feb. 4 at the Peking Park Restaurant. Two immense "lions" stormed the dining room and charged the tables to be fed their gifts to ensure good luck and fortune for the new year. Trustees, including Jeffrey Berg '79, Martha Coultrap '71, Marcus Loo '77, M.D. '81, Elizabeth Moore '75, Carolyn Chauncey Neuman '64 and Sheryl WuDunn '81, and alumni stuffed envelopes of dollars into the mouths of the boisterous lions in hopes of a prosperous new year. As the lions retreated to a crescendo of drumming, the waiters proceeded to serve a 10-course banquet. The Cornell Asian Alumni Association Pan Asian Banquet was co-chaired by Ruth Hsu '89 and Christine Hum '04.

The super rich don't count

A multifarious audience came together to hear Michael Parenti, an internationally known progressive political analyst and award-winning writer, at the Jan. 27 Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations' (ILR) labor breakfast forum. Frayed blazers stuffed with leaflets brushed up against coveralls and work boots as over 75 union members, activists and faculty and ILR's Union Leadership Institute (ULI) alumni came to 16 E. 34th St. for coffee and critique. Parenti, speaking on "Wealth, Labor and Democracy in the Age of Globalization," drew a full house during the three-day New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell ULI training. Parenti said that the super rich (the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion's share of the nation's wealth) go uncounted in most income distribution reports. The result is that the purported 13 to 1 difference in income between the top and the bottom of the United States' wealth is a gross understatement, he claimed, when it is, in fact, a difference of over 61,000 to 1. The labor breakfast forums take place five or six times each year. For more information contact Gene Carroll at (212) 340-2853.

21 is a natural at Cornell Club

The late George Boiardi '04 and Dick Schaap '55 were celebrated at the Cornell Club on Jan. 27 for the first 21 Dinner in honor of the shared jersey number worn by both Cornell lacrosse players. For more details, see http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan06/21_dinner.bpf.html.

Brenda Tobias '97 is director of Cornell-New York City relations. The CU in the City column appears monthly. To suggest an item for coverage, e-mail Tobias at NYC@cornell.edu.