About a week after various armed groups began to move against the Syrian government’s forces in Aleppo, the conflict is spiraling into a befuddling mess of frontlines, with some rebel groups now turning their attention towards one another. It seems that the recent violence has been brought ...
As I stirred mashed potatoes over Thanksgiving break, an avid reader of “Full Court Press” (and, coincidentally, a family friend) approached me, asking my opinion on the name, image and likeness phenomenon that has taken over college sports in recent years. One week earlier, superstar high school quarterback Bryce Underwood flipped his commitment from Louisiana State University to Michigan State University in one of NIL’s wildest stories yet: one that involved billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and what even conservative estimates say will be a fat $10 million paycheck.
Almost every Sunday, I used to strip. Of course, I mean this in the comic sense — that is, I comic stripped. Clad in pajamas, bedraggled and in desperate need of orange juice, I pored over the funny pages. These were literal pages in my youth, but later were the webpages of The Washington Post. Over Thanksgiving break, I observed the remnants of this weekly routine: Tomes and volumes of comic strips still litter my room, including the complete “Calvin and Hobbes,” “The Far Side” and “Garfield.”Moreover, the catalogue of “Peanuts” holiday specials continue to hold cultural sway over many Americans, including myself, bizarrely relishing the pathetic lamentations of Charlie Brown as he mopes through every festivity. As this print medium enjoys its tragic decline, among its brethren in physical artwork, where do the comics still lie in our consciousness? Is this goodbye, Charlie Brown?
It was Sept. 29, 2022, and 57-year-old Daw Khin had just recently returned to her village in eastern Karenni State after being forced to flee due to attacks by Myanmar’s military junta, the Tatmadaw. Cleaning her now disheveled house, one of those still standing in her neighborhood, she stepped on a landmine which was placed right outside of her outdoor toilet.
Look me in my eyes. Admittedly, this may be quite an ask, given that through this newspaper column, my identity is somewhat abstract. If you could look into my eyes, maybe they really would tell the full story. Eye contact improves cognition and attention, after all. For the time being, please look me in my Is, as I elucidate that endlessly entrancing, palindromic organ: the eye.
I spent the entire past summer volunteering as a funder research assistant for a U.N. agency, where I researched over 300 Chinese corporations on their Corporate Social Responsibility indexes. From analyzing the key sectors of each company, I sought to identify those with the dual strengths of mission-driven goals and substantial social funding to support targeted initiatives.
My previous article was a call to President-elect Donald Trump to reconsider his stance on withdrawing troops from Syria. However, I do not feel as if I properly made a case for the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which I so adamantly advocated for.
I used to count the days since the start of the full-scale invasion. It seemed that such a brutal and bloody war could not last long and that the international community would soon find a solution to make Russian forces withdraw. I stopped the daily count sometime after the images from recently liberated towns around Kyiv and the news about the bombing of Mariupol Drama Theater were released in 2022. Though the world saw the atrocities of the Bucha massacre and the attack on the theater used as a shelter by civilians, including children, the war has only become more violent since then. This week marks 1000 days since the full-scale invasion, and after approximately 3900 days of the war, Russian attacks continue to intensify, increasingly targeting entire families.
Last weekend delivered two of the most talked-about fight events of 2024. The much-hyped, but unsurprisingly ultimately lackluster, showdown between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul took center stage on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, UFC legend Jon Jones made his long-awaited return to the octagon after 623 days, facing off against Stipe Miocic — widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight in MMA history.
Is life moving too fast and you don’t know if you can keep up? Stop and smell the roses with me as I review this week’s Sink-nature drink: The Blossom.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for “Red One.”What do you get when you have an evil Christmas witch kidnap Santa Claus (nicknamed ‘Red One’) on Christmas Eve so that a Santa Claus Enforcement Logistics and Fortification operative and a hacker have to save Christmas? Movie magic.
Recently, Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction of Oklahoma, announced that he had purchased over 500 copies of the Bible to be taught in high schools and sent videos of himself praying for President-elect Donald Trump to be shown to public school students. This is in addition to a previous program that sought to purchase some 55,000 Bibles to be distributed to every public school classroom in the state of Oklahoma. Not only is this a travesty and mockery of the American education system and the separation between church and state, which is enshrined in our Constitution, but it is also a slap in the face to Christianity, which should not be taught by teachers who are wildly unprepared for the job.
Hi again! It’s Grace, your favorite American in Oxford. Today, I’m going to talk about what many consider to be the main attraction of Oxford: the famous tutorial system.
As daylight hours become ever more scarce and a proper wintry chill has finally set in on campus, I find myself longing for summer sun and the impromptu trips to Mystic Lake that once characterized life in the blissful metropolis that is Medford/Somerville. According to researchers at the University of Southampton, this wave of nostalgia that has so suddenly subsumed me in fact has an evolutionary function: Nostalgia can make you feel physically warmer.
This past weekend, I attended a concert in the Crystal Ballroom of Somerville with a friend. Much to my chagrin, he elected to leave before the opener even stepped foot on stage, citing other commitments. It was then that I knew I had a topic for my column.
I spent the long Veterans Day weekend in Montréal, Québec to escape the polarized, chaotic politics of my country, the U.S. I ended up finding the same thing there but with a fascinating linguistic flavor. While walking around the city and enjoying overpriced coffee and baked goods, I kept seeing political campaign signs that read, “Elevating Educational Heights Defending English Rights.”
Well, well, well. Here we are again with another column entry this semester about ‘tough times.’
Crimson and gold cascade down the hill, forming a bristling canopy of color to envelop our campus in an inescapable autumnal energy. Mousy, dimmer leaves lay scattered across the pavement. They give way to a passing footfall in a somber crunch. They rustle listlessly on their own, intimating the passing of a squirrel or, more than likely, a gorgeous Somerville rat. The fall of the leaves is decidedly upon us.
The focus of our education system often places tangible results above all else. What letter grade can a student get? What is the average GPA? What is the graduation rate? These are the tangible factors that are discussed when implementing school policies. However, in placing so much trust in these seemingly irrefutable numbers, we are forgetting that schooling is a community effort. The environment in which students are taught will influence students as much as the grades they get on their algebra exams. The environment of our schools has increasingly drifted towards a sense of complacency and a lack of responsibility.
Before getting into my argument, I must point out that I am far from a supporter of the Sudanese Armed Forces. Despite this, recent atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces after the defection of one of their commanders have reinforced my opinion that it would be best for the country ...
