Well, book-lovers, we’re nearing the end of our journey together. As finals season and winter break approach us, I thought I’d take the opportunity to recommend some excellent escapes, whether they be from the stress of studying or from quality family-time. Even if none of the following strikes ...
What’s something every college student wants more than an A grade come December? Besides a free education and I’ll-do-your-laundry-for-you tokens, I’d guess sleep. So in honor of sleep and as a thinly-veiled ploy to get more of it, or at least to feel productive when I succumbed to it, I pledged ...
Three and a half seconds. Knicks ball.My brother -- aka Mookie aka Mini Walt aka The Small Mailman aka “he’s way cooler than you” (I know!) -- and I stood in nervous excitement, along with the other 19,800 fans at the Garden that night. As a native New Yorker, I have suffered through years of ...
After studying at Grinnell College for a semester, my friend Berenice left school to focus on climate and social justice. She felt that what she was learning in classes was not relevant to her longtime goal: to revolutionize our corporate-controlled, classist, racist, patriarchal and environmentally ...
Lionel Messi recently broke both the La Liga and Champions League scoring records.In September, Qatar Airways received its five millionth Facebook like, making it the second most “liked” global airline.Its social media presence has increased dramatically as the five-star airline has accrued over ...
Dear SWUG,I went home for Thanksgiving break and my parents and all of my friends' parents started asking me what I’m doing after graduation. Now I’m freaking out that I haven’t figured out any plans, and I get so awkward when I try to explain that I don’t know yet. What do I say to all ...
I distinctly remember the first time I flew. It was the day before my 16th birthday. My friends and I left school on the same bus, sneaking on without the driver noticing that not all of us were paid passengers. The Greek church was hosting their annual festival. To the untrained eye the scene was rather ...
Hearing that Cher was ill struck me. I have never cared this much about a person I have never met. I can still remember the first time I heard her: I was four years old and still had my youth. I was at a bat mitzvah and heard a new song, “Believe" (1998). Although I did not understand the message, ...
Over Thanksgiving break I was reading Questlove’s book “Mo’ Meta Blues” (2013). He talks about how, as a kid, he would travel around with his musician parents and he and his sister would often play music with them when they performed. As a child he would make comments about his travels, detailing ...
Last week was unusual. For the first time in a long time, the Boston Red Sox dominated the headlines with splashy free agent signings. The last time the Sox reeled in marquee free agents, it blew up in their faces when Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez couldn't hack it in Boston. A new front office ...
I came into Tufts-in-Ghana with cookie-cutter ideas about the personal growth I would have. “I’ll see the world from a different perspective, learn to navigate cultural differences and figure out how much to change myself for a new culture.” All that has been true, for sure. I’ve learned that ...
OK, so I know that the title to this piece is VERY interesting, and a lot of you want to know what it means. That’s good! It grabbed your attention. That’s what a title is supposed to do. But before I get into the down and dirty bits, I want to tell you a little bit about my favorite movie.John ...
Dear drivers,After not riding inside of or driving a vehicle for three months at college, getting behind the wheel in good ol’ Avon, Ohio over break was quite the treat. And by treat, I mean those weird strawberry candies that everybody’s grandma has but no one dares to eat. Because this treat was ...
Not only was I unsurprised when Ray Rice won his appeal, but I was relieved. The NFL should not have been able to make amends, which it could have done only by flouting hard-fought players' rights, even after bungling virtually every stage of a labyrinthine process. Reprimanding Rice retroactively ...
On Saturday the last games of week 14 of the college football season were played, capping off the slate affectionately referred to as Rivalry Week. Needless to say, I watched a lot of college football this past Saturday. There is a certain pageantry to the college game that separates it from its professional ...
Except for that one week when I accidentally submitted my most recent diary entry as my column (now that was embarrassing!), I usually refrain from boring my fellow Jumbos with details of my terribly dull day-to-day life. But today I’m making an exception in order to regale you all with the tale of ...
I don’t think it can be refuted that most people on this planet don’t like literary theory. Most people have probably never heard of it and live in rural Asia, and those who have heard of it probably want to vomit when they read it. Then there are those who have heard of it but don’t study it. The ...
For those of you who have been reading my columns from the beginning, you’ve probably gotten a very good sense of how many books I read and have read. Since I’ve only been on this earth, and of reading age, for less than two decades, I’m often amazed myself as to how many books I’ve managed ...
Plenty of people talk about how GamerGate is about preserving “Journalistic Ethics,” but what does that really mean?To answer that, I’d like to discuss a story that’s a little more mainstream than gaming: the Rosetta mission. For those of you who haven’t been following it in the news, Rosetta ...
By the time you read this, I will have less than three weeks left in Ghana. I feel like I only just began this whole process yesterday – and when you consider that I only truly started thinking about studying in Ghana a bit over a year ago, it was a pretty fast turnaround. But the end of this five-month ...
