Welcome, Chipotle

Dear Yale, New Haven, and all lovers of Chipotle,

You’re welcome. Obviously, Chipotle’s decision to open the company’s first location in New Haven had everything to do with our column several months ago (“Yale needs Chipotle,” Feb. 22). Really, we’ll also go ahead and take credit for Shake Shack, Tomatillo and cheese polenta in Commons too. So, if you wanted to buy us each a burrito (or at least just pay for our guacamole) as a sign of your gratitude, we think that would be appropriate.

We’re genuinely excited about the new Chipotle. It will be a tasty, quick and relatively cheap dining option for both Yale students and the residents of New Haven. Along with the spacious new Shake Shack, the new Chipotle marks quite an industrious year of investment and development on the section of Chapel Street south of the Green.

On a more serious note, this bodes well for other properties in the area as well as downtown commercial and retail development. We hope the new Chipotle will serve as a common meeting place for Yalies and locals, fostering an atmosphere in which both are comfortable. Additionally, with the new location situated just a few blocks from campus, students will hopefully have more interest in exploring what else downtown New Haven has to offer.

This is not to say that we’ll turn our backs on our old favorites. Since the publication of our February column, we have become big fans of the burrito cart, but another option is always nice. Come opening day, if you want to find us, we’ll be in line.

Your faithful burrito connoisseurs,

Gordon McCambridge and Michael Wu

Sept. 20

Film at Yale

In my enthusiasm to support Patrice Bowman’s enthusiasm for students to watch more films on the big screen during their years at Yale, (“A collection of screenings for the rest of us,” Sept. 14) I gave out the wrong impression. Class screenings are not “open screenings” except when the material shown has been cleared or purchased for public performance rights or is in the public domain. I meant to indicate that I wasn’t policing the room if a student on occasion brought a visitor (or parent), just as they sometimes do, with permission, to class. In fact, the screenings of “Film and Fiction” involve short introductory lectures and post-screening discussion, making these de facto class sessions where regular auditors are permitted.

Patrice Bowman is on target overall. If you aren’t in a film studies class, you can and should still explore cinema at Yale, where you can watch movies in the best conditions. Beyond the News, consult the weekly notices sent out by The Whitney Humanities Center, which sponsors or co-sponsors a fantastic set of films, most shown in stunning 35mm. Like Bowman, I urge students to make cinema (and film-going) part of their Yale experience. It’s worth it for a lifetime.

Dudley Andrew

Sept. 16

The writer is the R. Selden Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature.