Following in the footsteps of such journalistic luminaries as Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters and Mark Sweeney '05, The Dartmouth's Steven Orbuch catches up with big names and asks questions that others have too much professionalism or integrity to ask. Today, Orbuch chats with soccer sensation Panagiotis Savidis '06 because Mary-Kate Olsen was unavailable for interview.
By Steven Orbuch
The Dartmouth Staff
The Dartmouth: Much like Mark Twain, Tom Cruise and breast implants, you hail from upstate New York. What would you say are the main differences between your home and Hanover in the summertime?
Panagiotis Savidis: There is a much larger Greek community back at home. We have a Greek festival where people from all around the city come and enjoy the festivities.
There are also things to do there as opposed to the very few options that we have here in the summer besides chilling out and being ridiculously awesome.
The D: Living so close to Cooperstown, Niagara Falls and Albany, you as an upstater must pride yourself on being knowledgeable about hot summertime destination spots. Would you recommend any summertime excursions, say to Cape Cod, Mass., to your fellow '06s?
PS: Cape Cod is a great vacation spot except when hypothetically speaking -- hypothetically -- you have fathered several children in the area. Generally, I would recommend the Vineyard or the Jersey shore and travelling with a fake name. Hypothetically.
The D: As your classmates can attest, Dartmouth Dining Services force feeds students sandwiches and little else during the summer. Discuss the relative merits and drawbacks of the barbecue cheddar sandwich diet.
PS: Well back in the motherland, I never really got to eat too much, so any food is good.
The main drawback of the barbecue cheddar sandwich is that it is not a Greek barbecue feta sandwich. The main drawback of most things is that they are not a feta sandwich.
The D: Being affiliated and of Greek origin -- unlike school administrators -- what do you think of the Coed, Fraternity and Sorority system? Does the Dartmouth Greek system remind you of your country of origin, or at least moreso than the 1970s John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John film classic of the same name?
PS: "Grease" has nothing to do with Greece. Although there are less Greeks here than in the film, I think the fraternity system shows how people try hard to be Greek. I was lucky to be born and raised Greek and to not have to be hazed and pay dues in order to become Greek.
In general, though, I like the CFS system. I see a lot of Greek inventions being put into practice here -- like the game of pong -- which obviously was invented by the Greeks.
The D: As everyone knows from the primetime television spots, Greece recently defeated Portugal 1-0 en route to winning its first European championship. Is it true that Greece won the tournament because the big nations were tired from a heavy club schedule?
PS: Actually, people simply underestimated the Greeks again. Remember, our people invented philosophy, mathematics, medicine and love making.
Plus, always be wary of Greeks bearing gifts. And by Greeks bearing gifts, I simply mean that we actually have a new coach who is a great strategist -- a modern day Odysseus. Of course, my frat brothers accuse me of making love like a modern day Dionysus. But that's just jealousy toward Greeks, as usual.
The D: In the wake of Greece's Euro 2004 victory, many sports pundits have predicted that Greeks will become increasingly prominent in premier international sports arenas. Do you foresee that a Greek national will challenge Takiru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi's record of 53.5 hot dogs eaten in 12 minutes in the near future?
PS: I once knew a boy in Greece that decided to take a challenge similar to Kobayashi's. He wanted to see how many gyros he could eat.
It turns out he was able to down 13 gyros, and as a reward for his achievement an old man came up to him and said, "The Gods were with you my son, have this," and gave him two shots of ouzo -- one for each hand.
The D: As a member of the Dartmouth men's soccer squad, you are used to packed stands and crazed fans offering you favors, but in the rest of the country, soccer is primarily a minor league professional sport. If you could, how would you go about popularizing soccer in the country?
PS: What we need is the die-hard fans of every other country -- people who know they can get away with anything at the stadium, be it lighting fires and carrying weapons around. With fans like that, I'm sure the popularity of the sport would increase.
Think about football games. There are 30-minute periods where you just sit around and look for other fans to do something stupid.
Imagine if those same fans were carrying spears in phalanxes and sacrificing their youngest daughters to Apollo -- you'd definitely watch more games.
