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 ...
Books are awesome. There are millions to choose from every time you feel the inclination to curl up under a blanket with a cup of coffee and read. However, not every book is a masterpiece, and not every book speaks clearly to each of its readers. One person may relate to every situation, while another ...
If there has ever been a great dichotomy among college students, it might as well be the difference between those scrupulous, frantic note takers and the cool, platonic listeners. I, for one, have long been a loyal note taker, and I credit this decision to my high school calculus teacher and his vaguely ...
If you’ve ever read "S&S" before, you’ll know that I am of course an eternal optimist, and that this column has always been a ray of unadulterated positivity brightening up your otherwise dreary Monday morning. Maybe you’ve even marveled at my endearing tendency to think the best ...
Last night, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Houston Rockets faced off in an NBA game in Mexico City. If you can remember as far back as last season, the Wolves were slated to play a game in Mexico City against the Spurs, but smoke inside Mexico City Arena prevented the game from being played. Before ...
Network neutrality is the idea that all data should be treated the same. The phrase, which was coined in a 2003 paper by Columbia professor Tim Wu, focused on “broadband discrimination” -- internet providers discriminating against certain consumers or content providers by slowing down their broadband ...
I’m skipping the advice this week cause this SWUG needs to vent. (Sorry?)Break-up season is upon us. It’s the inevitable time in senior year where people must leave behind what they love most. This decision is (usually) never mutual. It’s a heart breaking loss to realize that the things you love ...
While studying in Talloires, France last summer, I visited the United Nations headquarters in Geneva with my Environmental Economics class and listened to two representatives from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) discuss their work. They outlined a series of goals for sustainable development ...
