J&L Vignettes
The Alex Adams award was established in 2007 in memory of its namesake, Jay Alexander Adams. It provides financial support to undergraduates who elect to spend two months of their summer producing an original work of art. Halcyon Person ’10 was one of the two recipients chosen last spring. What follows are excerpts from her project, for which she spent the summer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, conducting interviews with members of her father’s and grandfather’s generation who had worked at the since closed Jones & Laughlin Steel Mill.
by Halcyon Person on
On Taillights
The 1998 Lincoln Town Car Every Lincoln Town Car manufactured from 1981 to 1997 has a functionless red strip running the length just above its rear bumper. On a highway at night, this strip is dull, unreflective and visible. In … Read More
by Seymour Hersch on
White Stuff
What do Asian girls, Barack Obama, divorce, and expensive sandwiches all have in common? No, not a White House scandal waiting to happen. You wish, Hillary supporters. All of the things listed are inexplicably loved by white people and detailed on the self-explanatory blog “Stuff White People Like.”
by Sarah Williams on
Plouffing for Change
But come on, let’s be serious, here’s probably what happened. We all get it in our heads that we’d be better off missed every once in a while, contract supply to jack up the price a little, you know, like OPEC does every once in a while. Dude’s just tired of being taken for granted, tired of being somebody just by being there. So don’t be there for a few days, he says. Go west, young man. Return to the sea.
by Raymond Zhong on
Getting Handed a Q-Tip
Near the end of the whole ordeal, when she has become short of breath and the coughing is wet and yellow and particularly productive, my mother sits cross-legged in the crook of our brown couch, a wool blanket wrapped tight around her shoulders, searching madly for her last words.
by Alfred Brown IV on
I Was a Teenage Baby Sitter
Radiant, apple-cheeked Zelda Harris was a high school senior when I first met her during Pre-Frosh Weekend 2003. We were standing together awkwardly with Amy Widdowson—Zelda’s host and a friend of mine—on the gray gravel path behind Nassau Hall that … Read More
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on
A Toast Well-Browned
For one woman, perpetually disheartened by dining hall desserts, a new discovery prompts renewed enthusiasm, and, dare we say, rekindled emotion.
by Ellen Scott-Young on
The Lonely Conservative
Evan Baehr feels oppressed. This alleged marginalization has nothing to do with race; he’s white.
by Eleanor Barkhorn on
Two Poems
The Beacon Down there, by the Old Red River in the woods by the darkened elementary school, out where the painted scary people shoot up wan drugs and shiver all night, empty cans sparkle like mirrors. The moss on the … Read More
by Stephen Martis on
A Journey to Afghanistan
After completing his A.B. at Princeton in 1970, Michael Barry came back to campus in 2004 to serve as lecturer in the Near Eastern Studies Department. His signature course, NES 307: Afghanistan and the Great Powers 1747-2001, explores social and political dynamics within the country as well as…
by John Nelson on
In Search of Lost Love
To side with Anscombe, or not to side with Anscombe: in regards to the controversial chastity debate, that seems to be the question flitting around campus conversations these days. For most, the question remains a simple one. After all, the dialogue – Anscombe versus the Rest of Campus – has been marked by a noticeable backlash mentality, sprung from personal offense and strong, if biased, conviction. But, dare I ask, when it comes to the assertion that chastity is a “way to find a much more fulfilling relationship,” does the conversation go beyond the simple, “Yes, of course” and “Hell, no” responses that the argument has elicited?
by Elizabeth Winkler on
In Whose Service?
Four years ago this June, Shirley Tilghman told Princeton’s graduating class:
During your time at Princeton, many of you have been moved to speak out on issues of social and political importance, from the moral significance of a pre-emptive war, to the pros and cons of senatorial filibusters, to the needs of low-wage workers on our campus…As you prepare to leave Princeton, I trust that the social and political consciousness you have cultivated here will give you the conviction and the courage to take a stand against tyranny and injustice wherever it arises.
This sounds like a pretty standard sentiment for a university president to express at a commencement ceremony but does it accurately reflect the manner in which Princeton affords its students to build a social and political consciousness?
by Sebastian Jones on