On the first morning of living with my Ghanaian roommate, I woke up around 6 a.m. to her playing praise music (loudly). When she saw I was awake, she came and sat on the edge of my bed and asked if I’d taken my morning’s quiet time yet. Nonplussed, I was unable to respond quickly enough, so she ...
So GamerGate.That’s a thing that’s still happening.It’s amazing. Usually internet stuff lasts a few days or so before it fizzles out of the public eye, but here we are: It’s been two months, and GamerGate is still going strong.The last time I discussed GamerGate, I tried to remain as unbiased ...
Dear Tinder users,Swipety swipe, I hear you. First of all, I have to come clean and admit that I do not actually have a Tinder account. I would like to say it is because of my strong morals, will to resist joining the bandwagon and value of real human interactions. But in reality, it is because I own ...
It's a sad day when the NFL Players' Association (NFLPA), no bastion of progressive values in its own right, inadvertently takes the NFL to task for its flawed implementation of domestic violence training.The NFLPA and the NFL have long been accustomed to discord, constantly wrangling over ...
When it came to brainstorming ideas for this column, I had a bit of writer’s block. I’ve already covered my favorite weirdly organized novels and the joys of nonfiction and horror novels, so what on earth could I discuss next? In a way, I feel more and more like an official author every time I write one of these, and with consistent writing comes the inevitable loss for words. So, I took out my hefty collection of every written work of Edgar Allan Poe to get inspired and, sure enough, I was.
Last week, everyone’s favorite hashtag, #cancelRovell, popped back up on Twitter. For those who aren’t familiar with Darren Rovell, he is an ESPN sports business reporter as well as a business correspondent for ABC News. He is famous for his overaggressive focus on New Media buzzwords. The first ...
Every so often friends ask something of you, give unsolicited advice to you or tell you what they really think about your new special friend. And sometimes, every so often, they’re absolutely right.When told to listen to San Fermin, a Brooklyn-based baroque pop band, I assumed I was being advised ...
I’d like to begin this column on a self-congratulatory note: The fact that I remembered Halloween was fast approaching when I sat down to write this, and also that I remembered that it was before next Monday, just goes to show you how on top of everything I am. For example, if this had been last ...
Dear SWUG, Exams and job interviews aside, is there anything you can't show up to slightly buzzed? -- Sloshed in SomervilleDear Sloshed in Somerville, You could probably get away with being slightly buzzed at both an exam and a job interview, but from experience here are the things you definitely ...
When dealing with economic issues, countries have two approaches at their disposal: fiscal policy and monetary policy.Fiscal policy is usually what comes to mind when people think of economic policy as a whole. Balancing the budget, adjusting tax rates and income brackets and government spending -- ...
In my Intro to International Relations class, I learned that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was established in 1994 to improve trade relations between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.In my anthropology class on indigenous rights, I learned that on that same day in 1994, an armed rebellion ...
It’s about that time of year. The NBA regular season begins in a mere five days, and the storylines could not be more intriguing for a league that is coming off an eventful offseason. Be it free agency, a new TV deal, ownership changes or a gold medal in Spain, it’s time for real NBA basketball.Where ...
On a cold and lazy mid-October evening, my good pal Brennan and I decided to go geocaching. You see, long before the world of iPhones and Androids, adventurous little rebels formed a community where strangers created these “geocaches,” containers ranging from Nalgenes to fake rocks to small plastic ...
Amidst the midterm haze, the sweatpant craze, the Tisch cookies and the late night study rookies, we all are secretly searching for that something to get us through the day. Whether it’s bumping into that person you hooked up with on Saturday night, making eye contact with that Zach Galafianakis look-alike ...
Avid music bloggers and Strokes fans have been in a tizzy lately trying to figure out how Julian Casablancas actually feels about brunch after crass comments regarding the culture surrounding this union of two meals.He has finally put the controversy at bay, saying that he’s “not against the concept ...
The World Series started last night, and you might have noticed that the Boston Red Sox are not in it. If you're Ben Cherington, general manager of the Olde Towne Team, how do you re-tool to give them a shot at making next year's Fall Classic? What do you do?Because let's face it: You've ...
In the late 1980s, the 1990s, and well into the 2000s, David Stern grew the NBA into something of a colossus. Stern, with a little help from Michael Jordan and a colorful, if fractious, Celtics-Lakers rivalry, made his brand into an international household name, setting up shop in 13 countries on ...
Dear Keurig coffee brewer,Hey babe. I’d like to remind you that you are simply the best. Your love is my drug, as the young muse Ke$ha once quipped. I also now think of K-cups as a legitimate currency. But only the good K-cups, none of that Costco Kirkland brand crap. In short, your existence has ...
Your teens and twenties are a particularly existential time. How many of the conversations that you have at college revolve around what you’re doing with your life? (Most of them.) How often will you doubt your major, wonder if you’ll ever get a paying job or ask yourself if you’re doing enough, ...
Ah, Halloween. That wonderful time of year when friends gather round the TV, drink pumpkin spiced lattes and scare the ever-lovin' bejeezus out of each other with horror movies. There aren’t many holidays that I love more than Halloween. Maybe Christmas -- but I mean, come on, everlasting salvation ...
