Columns

Column

The Budget Line: Thinking of buying the MBTA semester pass? Don’t bother

By Justin Hong | December 11

The last day of class is upon us and only finals remain between us and the sweet escape of winter break. We did it, Joe! Whether it was your first semester or if you’ve only got one more left, it’s an exciting but hectic time of year. It’s also time to plan out next semester. I know, it seems early, but, let’s face it, you’re probably not going to get to all those things you want to do over the break.

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Columns

Compost in the daylight: Goodbyes

By Sadie Leite | December 11

This column was supposed to be a place where I could just write 500 words and work on my storytelling. In some ways, I think my storytelling has improved. In other ways, I think there were never enough words to change it concretely. So, for this last one, I looked back on all the things I did not say.

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Columns

Munching with Max: Super suppers

By Max Druckman | December 11

For me, the most important meal of the day is dinner. Why, you ask? The generous portions, of course! And you can eat just about anything and call it ‘dinner.’ You can eat ‘breakfast’ foods like waffles or ‘lunch’ foods like sandwiches for dinner. Fun fact, a common synonym for dinner, ‘supper,’ has its roots in the word ‘super' (look it up). 

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Columns

Sports and Society: A platform for greatness

By Oliver Fox | December 11

I will be studying abroad in Germany next semester, so with the semester coming to a close, this will be the last Sports and Society column for at least a really long time and potentially ever. However, instead of writing some sappy introspective summation of all we’ve learned, I’m just going to keep things like they usually are and send the column out just like it came into this world: by overthinking relatively simple concepts.

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Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: Is there a No. 1 team in college basketball?

By Owen Short | December 7

Five weeks into the season, we’ve had three different teams at the top of the AP poll. The University of Kansas held its own for three weeks but lost handily to Marquette University in the Maui Invitational. Purdue University held the No. 1 spot for one week, losing to an unranked Northwestern University team on Dec. 1. Now, the University of Arizona sits atop the rankings. While it has only been about a month and teams are still working out their kinks, there have been no signs of a single dominant squad in the sport.

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Columns

The Power of the Pen: What did we learn?

By Odessa Gaines | December 7

We have finally come to the end of not only the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strikes of 2023, but also this column. Throughout the past few months, I aimed to give even the slightest bit of insight into what was going on ...

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Columns

The Hard Count: 2023 NFL award predictions

By Reece Christian | December 7

The 2023 NFL season has been one of the most unpredictable and volatile in years, for individual players and for entire organizations. This puts many of the NFL’s major awards up in the air, so I’d like to offer my own predictions for these awards to close out the regular season columns.

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Columns

Confessions of a Cooking Fanatic: The cookie swap

By Elizabeth Foster | December 6

It’s New York Times Cookie Week. This means seven days of seven delicious cookie recipes. In celebration of NYT Cookie Week, I would like to share with you a Midwest tradition: the cookie swap. This is one of those things I didn’t know was distinctly Midwestern, but after a week of conversational research, I have uncovered that every one of my friends with a Midwestern connection has a woman in their life who participates in a cookie swap. Around the holidays, she bakes several batches of “her” cookie. Maybe she chooses her favorite cookie of the season, but there is a chance that she chooses her second best cookie — you know it’s a good cookie swap when she brings out her best cookie.

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Columns

Attack of the B-Movies: Tread carefully once you ‘Enter the Void’

By Ethan Essner | December 6

Perhaps for this week’s column we’ll step away from the films with a B-movie outline or B-movie qualities and enter the world of art-house cinema. From a stylistic view, “experimental filmmaking” can be a product of the B-movie skeleton; hence, its presence is worth discussing here. Gaspar Noé is a director whose work oscillates between genres of experimentation, erotica and thriller. His transgressive styles tend to settle on themes of a brutalized humanity. He has an evident no-holds-barred approach to his work — some are turned off by his gruesome imagery — but when he hits a stride with genre films, there’s a beautiful synchronicity. “Enter the Void” (2009) is a flawless, harmonic flux of fear and desire and, as a result, is the ultimate avant-garde brainchild of Noé. It’s no surprise that the Argentine director has received a mix of praise and criticism, but he continues to produce taboo visions without holding back.

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Column

Ukraine at War: The unavoidable intersection of art and politics

By Mariia Kudina | December 5

There is a common assumption that culture exists independently from any “mundane” influences of life. According to this framework, art is the result of a magical creative spark that appears in a vacuum. Looking deeper, however, it becomes evident that culture is tightly interwoven with politics. ...

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Columns

Double Decker Diary: Christmas feels like home

By Alice Fang | December 5

Dear Diary, London celebrates Christmas like no other. Even someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy Christmas would pause and marvel at the glistening lights of the festivities. Almost overnight, the streets were decorated with golden lights, wreaths garnished with fake snow hung on doors and shelves of department stores were lined with Christmas cards. The absence of Thanksgiving in the U.K. lent the stage to Christmas in early November.

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Columns

Extra Innings: Biggest MLB Hall of Fame snubs

By Henry Blickenstaff | December 5

For a look at baseball history this week, these are my picks for the five biggest Hall of Fame snubs in MLB history. This does not include players who have been left out due to steroid use (like Barry Bonds) or any other illicit activity (like Pete Rose).

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Column

The Policy Perspective: Improving air travel

By Keshav Srikant | December 4

As many of us look forward to flying home for Christmas, there’s one part of the journey that we dread: hearing the announcement that our flight has been delayed or canceled. Flight delays and cancellations have become an increasingly common part of the air travel experience; in the summer of 2023, 61% of travelers had experienced a flight delay or cancellation and most of those travelers lost money due to those cancellations or delays. Flight cancellations also increased in 2022, and there have been several massive flight cancellation events, such as Southwest’s infamous meltdown during the last holiday season.

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Columns

Compost in the Daylight: Accidental blessings

By Sadie Leite | December 4

“My bat mitzvah merch was a legendary, lime-green horror.” At the end of a bar or bat mitzvah, the guests usually leave with a gift that showcases the child’s initials, service date and usually a silly symbol referencing the theme of their party. My theme was green.

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Columns

Cabinet of Curiosities: Pumpkins, underwear, the books of Rich Shapero

By Jake Ren | December 4

Although it is already December, pumpkins from Halloween continue to haunt the Tufts University campus. Remembering how these gourds were dismembered, carved, gorged and skinned to make into pie, perfume, spice and lattes in October, it is nice to see them just sitting around now. They often perch at inaccessibly high parts of buildings, upright and intact, as if giants had carefully placed them there as ritualistic protection so that “Attack On Titan” (2013–23) could conclude on a satisfying note (which was proven successful). 

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Columns

The Hard Count: AFC playoff picture

By Reece Christian | December 1

As we enter into week 13 of the NFL regular season, the playoff picture is beginning to sharpen. While there are still plenty of spots up for grabs in the National Football Conference, the cutthroat jumble of teams stuck grappling for a wild card spot in the American Football Conference warrants a more in-depth look. With that in mind, let’s jump into where the 16 teams in the conference stand in the hunt for the playoffs.

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Columns

Inside the MFA: Using the MFA for research and projects

By Claire Wood | December 1

If you’re anything like me, the thought of starting a long research paper or project is incredibly daunting. I never know how or where to compile evidence. However, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is a helpful resource for all manner of research projects. While paintings and artworks aren’t always reliable pieces of evidence for science-based projects, the MFA would probably prove helpful in research within the arts and humanities. If you happen to find yourself working on something that could use arts evidence, look no further than the MFA’s collections.

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Columns

Weekly Wellness: All about Pilates

By Katie Pflieger | December 1

With celebrities like the Kardashians and Jennifer Aniston praising its benefits and results, Pilates, a type of low-impact workout, has created a vast buzz on TikTok and other platforms, with some enthusiasts saying it’s the only workout they’re willing to partake in.

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Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: Post-Feast Week recap

By Owen Short | November 30

Every year, college basketball has countless tournaments on the week of Thanksgiving, and they never seem to disappoint. This Feast Week gave us not only great games but also lots of movement within the AP Poll. Here are the teams that either boosted their ranking or busted their resume.

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Columns

Extra Innings: The anatomy of a failed rebuild

By Henry Blickenstaff | November 30

In 2021, the Chicago White Sox were one of the best teams in baseball, cruising to an American League Central title with a record of 93–69. Tim Anderson’s epic walk-off home run against the Yankees in the Field of Dreams game was perhaps the best moment of the entire baseball season (look it up, it’ll give you chills). Years of rebuilding the farm system were paying off. Despite a disappointing exit in the division series, the future seemed bright. Heading into 2022, the White Sox were ranked No. 4 in ESPN’s preseason power rankings.

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