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 ...
Economists be damned: Wu-Tang was right.Cash rules everything -- and not only around me. It is deleterious like no other substance on earth. What distinguishes money from cigarettes, for example, is that it masquerades, convincingly, as a net positive, and is infinite in scope. Because it is the ...
Dear party-goers,Mingling, social anxiety, speaking big-kid words, orienting your abnormal and lanky limbs, oh my! Parties are a hotspot where everyone is trying to bask in the limelight. Social climbing via get-togethers and other gatherings is certainly a specialized art. The following advice could ...
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." This is a quote from Batman in "The Dark Knight" (2008), but as we see with each passing day, “life” really does imitate “art.” To many, athletes are heroes. Day in and day out professional ...
This week I actually came close to doing what it was I planned to do every week for this column: I committed myself successfully to a single activity and explored its consequences. I was going for gold, making my editors proud, proving to the Daily that I am not always a horrible procrastinator.The ...
I know this may shock some of you, but right now I am in a spectacularly good mood. (Yes, it does happen, and no, I haven’t even had coffee yet.) Why, you may ask? Well, the simple fact that Thursday is Thanksgiving, of course -- there is absolutely nothing not to love about a holiday that celebrates, ...
My favorite place to spend time is a bookstore. Some true book snobs will tell you Barnes & Noble is not an acceptable book buying experience, but for me, just being surrounded by books is wonderful. Libraries have the same effect, but only in bookstores do I see significant damage to my wallet ...
Dear SWUG,What are birthday celebrations like in college, from freshman year to senior year?- Birthday BetchDear Birthday Betch,Ah, birthdays. The gentle annual reminder that we are getting closer and closer to getting cut off from our parents. Birthdays change drastically throughout the four years ...
Inflation is the economic concern that a dollar today will be worth less than a dollar tomorrow. As time goes on, the value of money tends to inflate. Remember when Snapple cost $1.25 and you could get a Snickers for 50 cents? Those were the good days. Now I’m dropping $3.00 on candy every week.Thanks ...
Ten years ago yesterday, one of the worst, yet most unforgettable moments in NBA history occurred in Auburn Hills, Mich. The result of the game was a 15-point Pacers win against the reigning NBA champion and division rival Pistons, but only two words are required to sum up what transpired after Ben ...
When my family comes to Tufts, I often worry that the experience will be similar to this headline from The Onion: “Man Has No Idea What To Do With Visiting Friend Between Meals.” Replace “Man” with “Female Student” and “Friend” with “Family” and you’ve got my biggest dilemma during ...
After weeks of talking about it, monitoring the tab for “Astronomy After Hours” on my web browser and even making a failed attempt to go a few weeks back, we finally made it to that damn planetarium. Well, planetarium is a rather gracious word for it, more like an observatory, but it was weirdly ...
Since my column last week regarding premature holiday merriment, I have been enjoying, albeit reluctantly, the onset of the holiday season -- even if all that means is that I’ve been listening to Joni Mitchell’s “River” (1971) over and over again, with its surprisingly heartbreaking echo of ...
I recently purchased a soothing cucumber nighttime eye gel. You may ask why, but I am well aware of the fact that it is a completely useless purchase. I have recently discovered that I have a problem -- yes, my name is Pooja Sivaraman and I am a CVS addict. At first I thought it was a harmless problem. ...
Hot stove season is underway, and the Boston Red Sox are reportedly all-in on third baseman Pablo Sandoval. He was even in town on Monday to meet with his prospective suitors. Gulp.Landing Sandoval is likely going to take a six-year commitment worth upwards of $100 million. That price tag is too high ...
Thanks to Michael Sokolove of The New York Times Magazine, we can now trace the evolution of the class action suit, initiated by the intrepid lawyer Jason Luckasevic, against the NFL on behalf of countless former players. It's a riveting read, a glimpse into power dynamics of the most lopsided ...
This last week has been pretty busy for me, being midterm season and all. I have so many assignments I’m supposed to be doing, I can barely ignore them all! Fortunately, there are plenty of scary video games to distract me.Now, for those of you who don’t follow the horror game scene, all you need ...
In American culture, generosity feels like an exceptional quality. We don’t all exhibit it all of the time; when we do, we often expect gratitude or reciprocation. I have a spatial sense of generosity as being an extension beyond the expected.In Ghana, generosity is commonplace. People will go out ...
Dear concert-goers,You get your freak on, boys and girls. In light of Tufts’s annual Cage Rage blowout, I’ve been thinking about the concerts I’ve attended in my days. I think I’m pretty familiar with that weird sweat/peculiar scent status that can be found at every musical performance. But ...
The thing about bad things is that they are, almost always, bad. But what if something was so bad that it was, in some barely explicable way, good? What if, by being so incredibly stupid, you could unlock new levels of enlightenment? Well, my faithful, beautiful readers, let me tell you a thing or ...
