Was Bicker Worth It?

February 9, 2006

Just Cool Enough for School

Bicker is an important rite of passage for people with a creeping suspicion that they might be cool. Champagne bubbles and dreams of Ivy League grandeur saturate even the most level of heads. Some even go so far as to … Read More

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Conservative Canucks?

When Stephen Harper was elected the new Prime Minister of Canada, American liberals freaked out. I have one thing to say in response: chill out, seriously.

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Rauschenberg’s “Combines”

When asked how he maintains his creative process, the artist Robert Rauschenberg, 81, says that he trusts in his materials without relying on the comfort of sureness and certainty. “Sometimes,” he continues, “Jack Daniels helps too.” It doesn’t come as … Read More

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It Happened in New York

“Slavery was not a side-show in American History. It was the main event.” So says James Oliver Horton, history professor at George Washington University.

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Do Not Cross The Color Line

At the awkward gathering of New York area students who had been accepted to Princeton, the father of another black student approached me as I poured myself a glass of ginger ale. “You know, we have to stick together,” he … Read More

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Reminiscences of Tacky Rubbish

I drove by Red Robin the other day. It sits on the corner of La Cumbre Plaza. About everything else in the mall has changed in the ten years since I last set foot in Red Robin, filling up with … Read More

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Riding with the Boss

The thirtieth anniversary edition of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run came out a few months back. For better or worse, we have all chosen to spend four years in Springsteen country, and truth be told, he’s kind of hard to avoid

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Two Poems

BOX You’d handed me the thing because I’d asked to read your letters, made in Romania— not that you’d been there yourself, but from an aunt, you spoke, half-crazy. And because it was a puzzle, you said: Open it. You … Read More

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Read Slowly and See

In 1968 John Sinclair of the band DC5 wrote that “rock and roll music is a weapon of cultural revolution.” But this overtly political attitude – emblematic of 1960’s music, or at least of the retelling of the story of … Read More

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Verbatim

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Overheard outside of a a movie theater, just after seeing “March of the Penguins”

Jewish Woman: Oy, what those penguins had to go through!

Overheard in the bathroom of Ivy

Guy 1: My stepdad built one of those empire state buildings for his train set...(pregnant pause)....because he doesn't have a job.

Overheard at the Wa

SOPHOMORE THETA: What's a person who works at a bakery called again?
(...long silence...)
SOPHOMORE MEN'S LAX PLAYER: A baker...?
SOPHOMORE THETA: Oh yeah!
JUNIOR THETA: (shouting across store, holding muffin): Hey guysss, anyone want a bite of my muff?

Overheard in the line at U2

Cottage Girl 1: How'd your night end up?
Cottage Girl 2: Uh...I think I got raped.
Cottage Girl 1: Oh my God, what are you going to do?
Cottage Girl 2: Well, I would press charges, but the sex was really good.