COMMUNITYYALE DAILY NEWS · WEEK OF AUGUST 22–26, 2016 · yaledailynews.com PAGE 7

BY CHARLIE GOSNELL

Annette Walton, more commonly known as the “Flower Lady,” has sold flowers at the corner of Broadway and York for almost three decades, bright-ening many Yalies’ day and achieving celebrity status along the way.

Walton’s story on the streets of New Haven begins when she found herself homeless in 1989, and had to resort to panhandling after losing her job. After panhandling for a little while, she wanted to give people something in return for their spare change. She saw flower beds around Yale, and the rest is history.

Once after Walton was given a twenty-dollar bill, she grabbed a dan-delion and gave it to the good samari-tan. The two hugged and Walton said she realized then that people love these flowers.

When first approached for an inter-view, Annette was greeted by one of her friends, a Yale graduate student. The student came to tell Walton big news about her work getting pub-lished. Walton repeatedly congratu-lated the student and gave her a hug.

She then went to yards in New Haven picking flowers and to trash bins to search for clean newspapers to wrap the flowers with.

She also noted that at first it seemed a little unconventional of a method.

“Who would’ve thought I’d be sell-ing flowers like this?” she said. “[After that] people just started buying them.”

In the summer of 2000, Wal-ton found herself in a tough situation with the law. When New Haven Police thought she was bothering Yale stu-dents and arrested her, the recently-moved in students were outraged. A Yale Law student got wind of what was going on and managed to review Wal-ton’s case and hire her a lawyer, Mr. Patterson, a then-recent graduate of Harvard Law, who agreed to work for free since he was just starting up in New Haven.

“He said all I have to pay him if he wins...was a dozen roses,” she said.

Walton also remembered a time when Yale students and faculty had a fundraiser at Rudy’s, a local bar. They raised enough money to pay for her vending permit so she could legally sell flowers, and a wagon to transport

them. “Everybody who went to Yale and

everybody who worked at Yale bought a flower. Everybody walking down the street,” Walton said.

Today, a big problem Walton faces is her struggle to find employment. She finds it extremely difficult to put together any type of resume, especially since she hasn’t worked in over twenty years. The current job market makes it nearly impossible for someone, even as capable as Walton, to be employed. She is now forced to resort to panhan-dling. However, she isn’t going to halt her efforts.

“When I first came out here I was all messed up. Now I’m going to straighten up and I’m trying to do bet-ter,” Walton said.

Her diligence and longstanding per-sistence has never gone unnoticed.

The privileged population of New Haven County and nearby Fairfield County has a lot to learn from Walton and her business. The pride and joy she finds in her practice demonstrates the need for an appreciation of the “little things” in life, even things as small as a flower.

Walton warms streets Voynich Manuscript raises questions

BY NITI BIDJA

From the earliest man, mystery of the unknown has driven him in nearly every action,. Within the intricate architec-ture of the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, a codex of history has become the next unknown to many historians around the world.

Academics have proposed theories about practically every little detail of the Voynich Manuscript, including its language, its history, and most impor-tantly, its meaning. But the contradic-tory information published makes it difficult to definitively answer many questions.

What everyone agrees on, however, is the physical description of the codex: It is written in an elegant script and almost all of its pages contain illustra-tions of planets, animals, and herbs, in vibrant shades of green, brown, yellow, blue, and red.

Called the “most mysterious man-uscript in the world” by Voynich researcher Stephen Bax, scholars have wrapped their lives around the Voynich Manuscript, a seemingly unsolvable 200-page codex, creating more and more theories. Yet one fundamental contradictory area yet remains: The possibility of a hoax.

Dr. René Zandbergen is a Navigation Engineer at the European Space Agency and has been studying the famous Voynich Manuscript since 1993. He currently runs a website that provides information about the manuscript.

Zandbergen said he believes there is only one author, unlike others who pro-pose there are two. He also said that as of now, he has not come up with a sup-ported solution to the text.

However, he refuted the notation that the manuscript itself is a hoax.

“[The Voynich Manuscript] certainly is a real product of the 15th Century, that had a real purpose… It is made of materials that were not very cheap, and it must have taken a long time to pro-duce,” he said.

Zandbergen pointed to the physi-cal materials as evidence that instead of just a false document, “it could still be a hoax, but a hoax with a purpose.” In other words, the author or authors had purposely created the Voynich to fool others — a deceiving act of history.

But not every researcher of the Voynich agrees with Zandbergen. Dr. Gordon Rugg is Senior Lecturer in Computing at Keele University in Eng-land and has been working with the Voynich Manuscript since 2002. While others were sleeping, Rugg would spend his long nights on his kitchen table with the codex laid in front of him.

Rather than proposing a solution to the text, Rugg has published an even bolder claim: the Voynich is a “mean-ingless hoax”. In support, Rugg devel-oped a method of how one would hoax a document like the Voynich using sim-ple materials. In his article he said that the Voynich could have forged in just a few weeks.

Rugg claims that the vellum, the material on which the test was written, dates back to the early 1400s, whereas the manuscript itself was written much later.

“It’s been argued that the manuscript in the Beinecke Library is a copy of an earlier document, though not many people believe that,” Rugg said.“If it did turn out to be a code, that would be very surprising, and it might generate new ways of producing codes for modern security.”

Marcelo A. Montemurro, a lecturer at the University of Manchester in Eng-land has an even different take than Rugg and Zandbergen. His research article suggests that statistical features show that the Voynich may in fact con-tain a meaning.

It is still unclear whether the Voynich is a hoax or not. But meanwhile, a Spanish publishing company Siloe has released 898 copies of the codex and the Beinecke still remains the Voynich home, waiting for the next eyes to take upon the Voynich challenge.

Elm City cyclist competes in Paralympics

News remains staple

BY KAYLA ZHANG

Elm City cyclist Ryan Boyle will be competing on the roads in Rio de Janeiro this September — with part of his brain gone.

Born in New Haven, 22-year old Boyle, who lost part of the back of his brain in pick-up truck accident when he was 9, has big plans for this year’s Paralympics in Rio. He is one of 17 other American cyclists competing for gold in the Para-cycling events.

The opportunity is a dream-come-true for Boyle, who aspired to be a world class cyclist before his acci-dent. After his collision with a truck in 2003, which led to a coma and the loss of parts of his brain that controlled coordination, he continued working toward his goal.

“I dreamt of being a professional cyclist and traveling the world as a child and now I am actually doing it, so if you could live a dream wouldn’t you hold on to it forever,” Boyle said.

His journey to Rio de Janeiro’s para-cycling track began when he was 16. At a race in Anderson, South Caro-lina, a coach offered help him pur-sue the sport. Two years later, he was competing in international races with Team USA, eventually moving to the

Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Heading into his September race, previous international results give him confidence. In 2014, he won the 2014 World Cup Championship in Italy — an accomplishment he recounts with joy.

“I led that race for a while with cameras in my face and that was a major feeling of accomplishment,” he said.

Though he’s proud to have made the Paralympics, he does believe, like many others who are disabled, that the events there should be integrated into the regular Olympics.

“We train just as much, we are just as much of athletes as [the regular Olympic athletes],” Boyle said.

A poll conducted by Comres on behalf of the charity Scope in 2011 showed that the majority of disabled people and their families also sup-ported the idea of having the Para-lympics combine with the Olympics. Separating the Paralympics and the Olympics only makes it harder for society to take disabled athletes seri-ously and to eliminate the stigma of disability, say many on the survey.

The first Paralympics were held in 1960. This year, they begin Sept. 7.

BY ZACH MARIANI

At 6 p.m. on 202 York Street, 40 Yale students enter the Yale Daily News building ready to start their day. They will work through the night until their 2 a.m. deadline. Most of the paper’s staff began their careers here their freshman year, in a hazing of sort referred to as “heeling”. Some will work forty unpaid hours a week on top of their course load with hopes of becoming an editor their junior year.

Founded in 1878, the News has been a training ground for hundreds of alumni who have gone on to great success in jour-nalism. At its core, the News values journalistic integrity above all else. Three Yale Daily News alumni share their stories:

NITI BIDJA

The Voynich Manuscript is currently housed in Yale’s Beinecke Library, though it will soon be duplicated and disseminated.

CHARLIE GOSNELL

New Haven resident and flower vendor Annette Walton is a beloved fixture at the intersection of Wall and York.

R. THOMAS HERMAN ‘68

R. Thomas Herman ‘68 initially planned a career in law. He joined the News his freshman year pursuing a decade-long interest in journalism.

During his time at the News, he wrote profiles of then-Senator George H.W. Bush ‘48 of Texas and covered the turbulent atmosphere of the late 60s.

Yale was going to become co-ed, the Vietnam war and the watergate scandal led to widespread scepticism of officials, and Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Herman recalled.

“It was a time of big change,” Her-man said.

Through this period of turbulence, Herman said the News taught him the importance of, “ACCURACY, ACCU-RACY, ACCURACY”, one of the jour-nalistic values at the core of the News.

Herman left Yale for the Wall Street Journal, taking with him experience beyond his years “owe[ing] every-thing to the YDN,” he said. He cur-rently teaches a fall class at Yale about business journalism.

ZACK O’MALLEY GREENBURG ‘07

Zack O’Malley Greenburg ‘07 par-ticipated every year at the News in some capacity. During his sophomore year at Yale, Greenburg wrote a feature cover story on Yale baseball star and car crash survivor Zac Bradley. Green-burg called it “definitely one of the sto-ries I am most proud of not only during my time at Yale, but ever.” Although he was not an editor his junior year, Greenburg made the most of his time at the News by devoting his energy to collecting quotes and writing stories.

Almost 40 year after Herman, Green-burg similarly said the News showed him the importance of accurately portray-ing all sides of the story and not taking shortcuts. Greenburg is not concerned for the future of the News.

“I think I was there at the end of the print first era … but those ethics and values translate over really well,” he said, adding that he was well prepared for the ‘real world’. He is now employed as a senior editor at Forbes and has authored two books, with another set to be released next year.

MICHELLE HACKMAN ‘15

Michelle Hackman ‘15 was a beat reporter for Connecticut politics, working at the News for as long as she could.

Hackman’s beat permitted her to cover serious state political issues, such as the 2014 Newtown, Connecti-cut shooting and its aftermath, includ-ing student lobbying for gun control and mental health legislation reform. During her tenure as City Editor, the editorial board began to increase the paper’s digital impact.

Still, Hackman said, she and her team were careful not to abandon the paper’s core mission or values. She saw the News as a training ground for young journalists and although “the inter-net pushes people to do less reporting to put more stuff up quicker,” the News was able to teach aspiring journalists the importance of accuracy and being charitable to both sides of any story.

“I feel weirdly traditional for some-one who just graduated,” Hackman, who currently works at the Wall Street Journal, said.

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