Columns

Jordan Teicher | The Independent

And, with one of the strangest titles you will ever read, I begin my last column of the semester. This week, we have a film critic controversy. The New Yorker disobeyed an embargo imposed by Sony Pictures that prevented all film reviews for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" from being published until Dec. 13. The New Yorker film critic David Denby's review of the movie ran in the magazine's Dec. 5 issue, and the topic has since generated some Internet buzz after emails were leaked between Denby and Scott Rudin, one of the film's producers. In the emails, Rudin characterizes The New Yorker's decision to defy the embargo as "lousy and immoral." Rudin also prohibits Denby from attending future screenings of his films.

Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville

Chelsea Stevens | Loud Noises

Flashback to April 2010: April Open House. For most of the day, overly exuberant students raved about the Bridge Program and the Leonard Carmichael Society in order to hoodwink prospective students like myself into believing that we could feel at home at Tufts by puttering around for an afternoon at an event that is really a total sham.

Ben Kochman | The Wackness

Suck it, Middlebury.

Tai Frater | Chewing the Fat

The season of good will is upon us. And, rather delightfully, you U.S. folk have decided to slot in another holiday just before Christmas. Although my love of the TV series "Friends" (1994−2004) means I was aware of Thanksgiving, my knowledge of the holiday was somewhat limited. Unsurprising, really, since the very same TV show once led me to believe that "Chrismukkah" was a genuine holiday. Anyway, I did know that this holiday positively encourages the sin of gluttony, and I was enthusiastic about this new addition to my culinary calendar.

Amanda Johnson | Senior Moments

Since the smoldering hues of October's leaves grayed into the monotony of November, I've been craving Thanksgiving break. It's not so much about the very brief pause in classes (but really, why can't we just have a week?).

Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

My Thanksgiving consisted of the typical American plate of food, family and football. But this year, I may have gone overboard on the football part. Thursday was NFL games from when I stumbled out of bed to when I stumbled back in, much more tired and much fuller. Friday was built around LSU vs. Arkansas and the weirdness of the Big East race, Saturday was college football all day, and soon I was watching the NFL again back in Boston.

Alison Williams and Sarah Gottlieb | Generation Sex

So you're about to get raunchy. Doing your sexy dance and strippin' off your sexy pants, and then it hits you: My junk isn't pretty enough. I must make my junk pretty.

Hit Li(S)t

It's not often that you are completely pulled into a piece of literature and left wishing there were more pages to lose yourself in. This novel I'm writing about today does just that with its terse sentences and poignant voice. In fact, TIME included it on its list, "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923-2005."

Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville

Every friend I have on Facebook was talking about Christmas this weekend. Roughly 18 percent were inundated with the holiday spirit, presumably catalyzed by a tryptophan−induced food coma, and wrote about how excited they were to move from Thanksgiving to our glorious Christian nation's next major holiday.

Zach Drucker | The Loser

Let us have a moment of silence for the 2011 NBA Lockout. After 149 days, countless failed negotiation meetings and overhypedstreetball tournaments, fans will finally be rewarded with basketball. The proposed 66−game season — 16 games shorter than normal — will begin on Christmas Day with a showdown between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks. Fans couldn't be happier.

Alexandria Chu | Hit Li(s)t

Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

It's time for a column that I have been putting off for a year now. Some will scoff, others will laugh, but all the pieces are in place, so it's time to come out and say it: Quidditch is a real sport.

Jordan Teicher | The Independent

My pops is old school. Each week, he sends me movie articles cut out from The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. While the rest of the world depends on iPads and Twitter, my father still gets the tips of his fingers dirty from newspaper print. His colleagues are developing bionic thumb muscles due to overactive BlackBerry scrolling, and he is single−handedly keeping snail mail in business. Sure, it would be easier for him to send me a link in an email, but there is something refreshing about opening up an envelope and reading a clipped news article.

Zach Drucker | The Loser

Last semester, I took some time away from the Hill and spent five months abroad in Seville, Spain. Immediately, I found the people of Seville to be partitioned into two factions: supporters of Sevilla FC and "los béticos," supporters or Real BetisBalompié. The rivalry between the two Sevillian soccer clubs resembles the mutual antagonism between the Yankees and the Mets or the Lakers and the Clippers, since one team is perennially top-notch and the other team is laughably bad.

Empathy + assimilation = fail!

In her Nov. 8 op−ed "Confronting integration with education, empathy," Sarah Tralins, yet another student who has claimed to empathize with the minority populace, has said, "I am a student who has actively advocated for racial equality and assimilation at Tufts." Her flawed, somewhat ignorant ignorance of racial inequalities is perhaps her greatest downfall in her attempts to advocate on the behalf of individuals she does not understand. Closer reading and analysis of my Nov. 1 op−ed entitled "What happens when assimilation and integration fails?" would have revealed my message that minorities at Tufts are tired of being told to assimilate. By minorities, I am referring to non−white Tufts students on campus: This includes countless Asian and Asian−American students, students of African descent, students of Hispanic descent, Native American students and all other ethnically identifying groups. Instead of being told to assimilate, we would like to be accepted and embraced for who we are as human beings, despite our cultural and socioeconomic differences.

Chris Poldoian | Extra Butter

Like many of you, I felt as though my childhood finally ended on Friday. No, I didn't lose my virginity, learn how to ride a bike or drink my first Jägerbomb. The last vestige of my youth took the form of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" (2011). Forking over 15 bucks for that eighth DVD was like shoving a basilisk fang right into the final Horcrux of my childhood. Bummer. Now all I have to look forward to is adulthood — 401Ks, jury duty and colonoscopies.

Angad Bagai | A Whole New World

In the Western world, the concept of getting married is rather simple. There's a boy and a girl (or a boy and a boy or a girl and a girl, but you get what I mean). They love each other. They get married. There may be some issues here and there with parents not being totally accepting, but the situation is far from that in India. To quote novelist ChetanBhagat in his novel "2 States: The Story of My Marriage" (2009): "[T]here are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love Girl's family." If after all of this, the girl and the boy still happen to love each other, then they can get married.

Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

Disclaimer: This column is not about Joe Paterno and Penn State. For more information on that topic, check out any other sports columnist on any other website.

Jordan Teicher | The Independent

There is this obscure faction called "mumblecore" floating around somewhere under the realm of independent film. Mumblecore films are extremely naturalistic and often focus on young, white intellectuals — two cinematic characteristics that should make the genre accessible and appealing to an English major like myself.