It's been a rough week for Bob Costas. The NBC sportscaster has been saddled with a painful eye infection that has forced him away from anchoring the network's Winter Olympics coverage. Costas had been working though the discomfort with a sense of humor, cracking jokes about the glasses he wore instead of contacts.
I never played football in high school, or ever. But this doesn't mean that when University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam announced last week that he was gay, two weeks before the NFL draft, I didn't pause and think. I did. And over the past few days I've been thinking more and more about all the things that are not being said, all the realities and circumstances that lie somewhere in the shadows away from microphones and ESPN photographers, so let's talk, shall we?
"Teen Wolf" is the paragon of guilty pleasure television. Populated by attractive supernatural teenagers who fight bad guys while aggressively cool music thumps in the background, the plotlines are convoluted and often downright ridiculous, but, despite its flaws, "Teen Wolf" is a surprisingly good show.
Upon walking into the "Creative Process in Modern Japanese Printmaking" exhibit in the Art of Asia, Oceania and Africa wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, a visitor might first be surprised at its compact size. On the walls hang only a small number of works, and the only structural element in the room is a glass case holding a set of books by renowned commercial artist and illustrator TakeiTakeo. In this single room however, lies one of the most under-appreciated exhibits in the museum. Lining the walls are modern Japanese prints, woodblock prints from the 20th century that changed the entire perspective of Japanese printmaking. Simple, elegant, surprisingly colorful and vibrant, the collection is a study of both the evolution of Japanese culture and the preservation of an ancient and brilliant art form.
Last Wednesday, Norwegian lawmakers BaardVegarSolhjell and SnorreValen nominated former CIA and National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize for his disclosures about the government spy program, according to the Guardian.
Seeing somebody take a selfie in public has become a totally normal phenomenon. But imagine how it must look to somebody who is somehow managing to exist outside of our iPhone-obsessed culture. A person (read: a teenage girl) stopping what they're doing, holding her phone out an arm's length, and putting on her best duck-face is, in reality, a pretty strange thing to see. But, nobody thinks anything of it. We all know what taking a selfie looks like. We all know that if a selfie-taker is making a particularly heinous face, that selfie is definitely a Snapchat.
"Constitutional Law," a political science course focusing on court decisions, civil liberties and the U.S. Supreme Court, has only been offered to Tufts students three times in the past eight years. The rare class, currently offered this semester, has remained popular and highly sought after by students. The class poses a larger question about general course selection at Tufts - why are some courses neglected, while others are offered every semester?
David Ortiz has no problem speaking his mind, especially when he's not happy about his contract status. Right now, he's not happy.
One of the most widely recognized and well-respected saxophone players around right now, Kenny Garrett, has produced numerous albums. He has worked with several key players in the contemporary jazz scene (most famously Miles Davis) and has received numerous awards and accolades (including four Grammy nominations). As a well-established musician who has already done so much to merit his reputation, Garrett doesn't really have anything left to prove.
A Transportation Working Group was formed at Tufts last semester to assess and ensure the efficiency of transportation on the university's three campuses.
I chose to sit at home last week and watch the "debate" over evolution between scientist Bill Nye and creationist Ken Ham. It was particularly illuminating the way that Ham, by the end of the debate, essentially just admits that his Young Earth Creationist beliefs are not based on traditional scientific observations.
The Tufts Transit Coalition (TTC), a student group dedicated to improving student transportation options, is advocating for the T to provide a university pass (U-Pass) that would provide college students in Boston with unlimited, free access to the MBTA.
After failing to win a game at the NESCAC tournament the weekend of Jan. 31, the men's squash team had a chance to get back on track against Northeastern before its top-three players competed in the College Squash Association Individual Championships.
On Monday, Feb. 3, 2014, Alexa Horwitz reported in "Sorority Recruitment Breaks Records" that 308 Tufts students participated in sorority recruitment this spring in comparison to the 185 that took part in 2013, and 172 in 2012. These numbers illustrate the growth and rising interest Greek life has seen over recent years at Tufts.
The 2014 Super Bowl may be the most watched American sporting - no, television - event ever, but if we're talking about sustained interest and anticipation of non-stop action, there is no place else to look but the 66-team field that is March Madness. Lucky for us, the NCAA Tournament is barely over a month away.
The last guy I dated was very... nice. Extremely nice. He wanted to help everyone. To the point where he'd actually start crying if he couldn't.
If rappers are the face of hip-hop, producers are the backbone. One of the classic four elements of hip-hop, DJing can make or break a song. Great production can send a track skyrocketing to mainstream and critical success; lesser instrumentals can leave even the greatest rappers sounding whack. Yet for such a crucial component of the music, producers consistently go underappreciated. Of course, it's easy to see why: after all, it's the rapper's name on the album cover, and you can't well sing along to an instrumental. Indeed, purely instrumental albums are a rare commodity, let alone one that receives any sort of popular or critical attention. However, there is at least one such album that made clear to the world that rapping is only half the equation: J Dilla's "Donuts" (2006).
What does vegetarian even mean, really? What's a little piece of meat, though? Who doesn't like jam??n?
As the small Russian coastal town of Sochi begins to receive the world for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, plans to bring the summer games to Boston in 2024 are already in motion. In November of last year, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick approved an exploratory committee to look into the feasibility of Boston hosting the games. While many obstacles stand in the way of Boston's bid being chosen, including possible bids from Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco to win the favor of the U.S Olympic Committee, the most important are not competition from other U.S. cities. Boston will have to solve a myriad of issues, including transportation, housing and cost to citizens before placing a bid in 2015 for the 2024 Summer Games, which will be selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2017. As the committee proceeds with constructing a bid, it should move with all due caution and consideration, and examine the proposal from every possible angle.
Reading the op-ed, "CSL changes 'justified departure' policy" by Professor Alva Couch and senior Haydn Forrest and the accompanying Daily editorial, "CSL policy changes are important step" we were elated and even a bit teary. The Committee on Student Life's (CSL) December 2012 creation of a policy that threw out everything we knew to be true about Tufts as a whole, and the religious and philosophical community, marred the winter of our senior years at Tufts. We were tortured with the knowledge that we were leaving Tufts a worse place than when we had entered.
