Waiting ’til June: Dude, where’s my internship?
For as long as I can remember, my defense mechanism in the face of widespread disaster has been willful ignorance. I avoid any news that risks bringing me up to speed on the actual situation.
When the 9/11 attacks occurred, I avoided TV until 2002. When I finally forced myself to watch an HBO documentary showing [...]
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Senior class gift with a side of socialization
A while back, I theorized that the inbred socializing of Ivy League graduates might lead to a reliable revenue stream for top schools, once alumni hit their golden years. Now, I will examine the converse: Establishing pride among alumni for generating a revenue stream might ensure their later socialization. I will make my subject plain: [...]
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Beneath crass words, refreshing self-awareness
In an interview with Rob Tannenbaum in the February issue of Playboy, John Mayer gave everyone who loves to demonize him something to feed on when he volunteered a comment about his “hood pass.”
To quote Mayer: “I come on very strong…That’s why black people love me…Someone asked me the other day, ‘What does it [...]
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Arrest me, I doodled? Little tolerance for ‘Zero-Tolerance’
Last month, 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested by school safety officers and led out of her Queens, N.Y., middle school in handcuffs. Gonzalez was escorted to a nearby police station, where she was held in custody for several hours until finally being released to her mother, Moraima Comacho.
The 12-year-old’s offense? Gonzalez was caught by her [...]
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Go forth and prosper: from blues to blueberries
Let’s talk about trees for a second—specifically, fruit-bearing trees. There are certain trees that bear fruit in the summer, others that do so in the spring and yet another group that produces in the fall. When they are not producing or attempting to produce, generally during the winter, they lie dormant. Their leaves fall on [...]
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A launch to reshape the economy and redefine wealth
Launching this Fri., Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. from Dwight Hall to the Internet, TheGiftEconomy.org is an online economics experiment that aims to change how goods and services move within local communities. Users post what they need and what they have to give away. It then connects neighbors in need with neighbors who can help. [...]
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So much food, but so little time or community
If you want to learn about a place, watch its people eat. At Yale, the magical camaraderie said to characterize the residential college system manifests itself best in the college dining halls. At Peking University (PKU), mealtimes are no less illustrative of the quite different dynamic that underlies student life for China’s most elite students.
Consider [...]
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An ADD-style life for the ‘flash mob’ generation
On Sept. 8, 2009, to honor Oprah Winfrey at the start of her 24th season, the city of Chicago blocked one of the busiest commercial streets for an outdoor taping of her show. When Winfrey arrived onstage, there were over 21,000 cheering fans on Michigan Ave.
Then, when she introduced the Grammy-Award winning Black Eyed Peas, [...]
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