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The Theo Ellis Story
INTRODUCTION With the unfortunate rise in popularity of such publication as InTouch, Us Weekly, Star and People, many adolescents hope to become celebrities to get their names strewn across these glossy rags.
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I slept with Bob Dylan and Sid Vicious
Holden Caufield can wonder about the ducks all he wants. I wonder about where bohemia went—my bohemians went and why I can’t find them and how they survive on these streets in the winter—, and so I imagine my own funeral. Dynamite will be welded to my joists, down in the basement, where they now…
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NBC Scores a Touchdown
“Friday Night Lights” is remarkable, and my subsequent praise will not even begin to do it justice. It is quite simply not only the best thing I’ve laid eyes on in years, but maybe the best thing I’ve laid eyes on. Ever. And by all rights, it shouldn’t be. By all rights, this new series,…
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My Big Fat Fifth Life Crisis
I began insisting that my first car would be very small, very fast and very Italian. That should have been the first indication of my impending age-related crisis. There would be no minivan for my children. Oh no. Only a Ferrari or, in the worst case, a Porsche. The idea that I had factored prospective…
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Why I Love Howl
I loathe romance. I was the girl who laughed hysterically at the many public declarations of love made in Love, Actually and the tender resolution to any and all Meg Ryan movies; flowers, candlelight dinners and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate should be kept away from me lest I lose all interest in someone, no matter…
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Assault: 2, Silverman: 0
History tells us that outsiders matter, that they are our richest resource of truthfulness. Strangers are best at diagnosing the state of a given community, and it is their involvement that can best spur a sense of communal self-reflection and candidness. Think about it; those most perceptive critics and lovers of American culture have been…
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Television Declines, But Hope for Future Seasons Remains
As we sit on the heels of November sweeps, you may have noticed that the current crop of new television shows is a bit lacking. Not that there isn’t anything redeeming to be found in Freddie Prinze Jr. and 90210 alums, seven simultaneous campy alien invasions, Geena Davis’s menstrual cycle becoming a public policy consideration…
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A SILLY DAY FOR STUPIDS
Despite my repeated viewings of Sister Act (and, to be sure, Sister Act 2) in primary school, I cannot claim to be a religious scholar. I’m unable to name the apostles, though thanks to Whoopi Goldberg I know that Ringo is not one of them. I cannot explain the difference between Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu…
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Extremely Uneven and Incredibly Cloying
Five months ago, I fell in love with a nine-year-old boy. His name was Oskar Schell, and he was cheeky, and he was perceptive, and he was caring, and he wrote to Steven Hawking thinking he would get a personal response, and he was a pacifist, and he was in an incredible amount of pain.…
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The Marvels of Creative Writing
A week ago, I sat down with famed Princeton creative writing instructor Gabe Hudson. Aside from being loved by his students, he is an Editor-At-Large at McSweeney’s and the author of Dear Mr. President. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, and The Village Voice, among other national publications.
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The Fifth Annual Theatre Intime Freshmen One-Act Festival
I sat. And I waited. And waited. And waited. And, in doing so, I got concerned for the fifth annual Theatre Intime Freshman One Act Festival. The stage lighting shone too brightly and for too long on a set of clashing oranges and teals in a 1960s home. It was already well past the advertised…
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The Art of American History
It is hidden in a back corner of the Princeton University Art Museum, past the Picasso and Warhol, almost unimaginable in a university art museum. It comes in seventy-seven parts and it comes with security guards.