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 ...
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 ...
