Culture
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The Essence of “Essential” and “Inessential” Workers
“Farewell to the arts,- to eloquence” – Mary Shelly, “The Last Man” (1826) Weird things happen to language during a crisis. We have no way to describe what’s happening, so we invent new phrases. During the “outbreak” of the “novel coronavirus”, we comfortably added new phrases to our daily lexicon. None are more popular than…
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How eBooks Can Save Journalism
At the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), Michelle Bachmann said a lot of things that weren’t true. She said she got the information from a self-published book, Presidential Perks Gone Royal. It’s written by a Republican lobbyist. Bachmann trusted a book’s facts. Nothing wrong with that. However, with the filters for publication down, lies and…
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10 Ways to Not Get Screwed as a Liberal Arts Major
Ah, spring. Out on the quad, Frisbees are flying again. Awkward small talk about classes can happen outside, instead of in the dining hall. And, all across campus, tens of thousands of panicked seniors will be hunched over computers, scouring Craigslist for job openings. Unpaid internships may seem more appealing by the day. Likewise, living…
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Getting a Concussion from the Flu Shot
Reading Time: ~3 minutes Before I start, let’s take a look the word I instinctively chose to represent “flu shot.” I chose “THE,” not the more casual and far less menacing “A.” That’s a common choice of diction when it comes to vaccines these days, whether Michelle Bachmann is saying that she met an anonymous woman whose…
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Media, The Reality Funnel
Reading Time: ~5 minutes Did anyone else feel a kind of dull depression when the stocks first dove recently? Or an exhiliration when they seemed to rise again? Are you a stockbroker? Probably not. We’ve reached a point where the things we feel don’t have to have any impact on us whatsoever, because we instead feel…
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The Winehouse Effect: How We Kill Celebrities
Reading Time: ~3 minutes In late June, Amy Winehouse stumbled onto a stage in Serbia, where she slurred words and lost track of the song playing behind her. TMZ gleefully reported that “tickets to the show were roughly $57 — a lot considering the average monthly salary [there] is $428.” To go on: “Money… spent.” Amy Winehouse…
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Cover Letters From the Other Side
Reading Time: ~5 minutes It wasn’t a long drive to Company X’s building, but it was a complicated one that involved a dubiously legal U turn and toll booths that seemed decorative at best. I also got to tour some of West-Of-Boston’s finest pseduo-highways, resplendent in pothole magnifience. I remember the first time I felt…
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Why Major in Humanities?
Reading Time: ~3 minutes Last year, when Math majors were struggling with a series to complete their Senior Thesis, I quietly laughed and wrote another short story. But, a year later, maybe the joke was on me. Really, I can’t tell. I’ve got a job, so I’m more fortunate than most (since 56% of my class…
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