|
|
In honor of Housing Day, FM takes a look at what makes Harvard Houses tick.Comprising close to 25,000 film prints, negatives, and other paracinematic materiall, the HFA’s collection is one of the largest university-based film collections in the world. HFA Director Haden Guest, described the collection as “Ali Baba’s cave of material.”Founded in 1910, the Harvard Extension School offers classes to nearly 13,000 students living in and around Boston. The school attracts a diverse class, bringing together recent high school graduates and 40-year-olds all in the same classrooms.In July 2000, Romance flooded Dunster Street. Three of the four new House Masters taught French or Italian literature at Harvard: Among them were Kirkland House’s new additions, Tom C. and Verena A. Conley.“I grew up on a farm; my father was a farmer. I could walk out into the field and pick peas and eat them off the vine.” Crista Martin, director of communications for Harvard University Dining Services, sits on a swivel office chair surrounded by piles of papers.“If you were going to an LGBT drag party, who would you dress up as?”I met Jacob over a year ago, on Christmas Eve at The Matzo Ball. Held every year, the Jewish singles event is a rite of passage of sorts for Jews in their 20s, or 30s, or (for a select few) 40s. Jacob wasn’t 40, thankfully, but he was around seven or eight years my senior. The idea of the event is that you meet your soul mate by the bar or on the dance floor, and join them for traditional Christmas Day Chinese food the morning after.Oprah is heading to Harvard Yard on May 30 to impart words of wisdom to the class of 2013. In the meantime, FM looks to Oprah’s Twitter for advice to solve our day-to-day problems.“It was a totally ordinary Tuesday night,” said John. “I was watching seasons two through five of ‘The Office’ on Netflix, and suddenly my roommates came in, all excited. They were way happier than I’ve seen them in months. It was weird.”Coolers hum audibly behind us as we talk, the countertop that separates us barely visible beneath an odd impasto of flashy energy bars, individually wrapped candies, and various official documents that Chen presents to me over the course of our interview. When I ask him how to spell his name, he thrusts his hand into a pile of papers on the counter and presents me with a business card.The first person I met upon entering the line at the Paseo Los Próceres in Caracas, Venezuela, to see the body of the country’s late president, Hugo Chávez, was a dark-skinned man named Feliz. He wore a green mesh shirt and jeans, and his wife stood next to him holding their daughter, who wore a red beret. I introduced myself, and said that I was a college student studying abroad from the United States. He smiled: “You’re a revolutionary, then?”Last night, after several weeks in isolation, Tinder passed peacefully away in its sleep with a rosy glow on his ...HoCo Chair: Dammit, no! We talked about this! Junior: Sorry, I forgot. First we get them to make out with each other!Richard Blanco was the first Latino and first openly gay poet—and the youngest—chosen to write the inaugural poem, and tasked with an impossibly daunting project of depicting today’s America. The night before he was slated to speak at Harvard , he spent a few minutes speaking with FM.“Excuse me, miss,” says Harry G. Gray, as an undergrad with a bulky backpack hurtles past him in the Quincy dining hall servery. Gray’s emphasis on etiquette might seem eccentric, but old-fashioned manners and general goodwill are routine, the man you may know as “That Nice Guy Who Swipes You in at the MAC.”On March 11, FM sat down with National Public Radio journalist and host Melissa J. Block ’83 before her lecture, ...Part of a series of ongoing coverage on Venezuela.FM sat down with Professor James H. Waldo, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, Chief Technology Officer, ...Although Allston Village may seem like a strip of stores to pass by on your way to Target, this square is worth a second look. Filled with coffee shops hardly big enough to contain the concentration of ombre-dyed twentysomethings, Allston is a mashup of food you haven’t tried yet and bands you’ve never heard of. This neighborhood is like an I-Spy game—there’s always a vintage guitar or Afghani kebab just around the corner. Next time you leave the bubble, be sure to check out these places:Long before edX began offering Harvard courses online, the Harvard Extension School has provided open-enrollment courses to those seeking an education outside of the typical undergraduate timeframe.You’ve heard it before: Student enrolls at Harvard, student develops business idea, student drops out.Harvard is currently conducting an ongoing review of its sexual assault policies across its various schools and has recently hired its first ever University-wide Title IX coordinator, who begins work this month. Still, some students feel that these efforts are not enough. They say that changes in the way administrators handle cases of sexual assault at the College level are progressing too slowly, and are not sufficiently responsive to student concerns.I don’t remember how the scars started.Students admire their professors, but professors have professors they admire, too. This week, FM wrote to Professor Daniel T. Gilbert ...George Saunders’s “Tenth of December,” his latest short story collection, was hailed as “the best thing you’ll read this year” on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. FM sat down for 15 questions with him about writing and fiction.Somewhere past the impending midterm season is the heavenly, sun-tanned mirage of Spring Break 2013. Not sure about what you’re ...By my count, the clothes that I’m currently wearing have six pockets between them. Are any of them useful? Absolutely ...“I had no access to resources and didn’t know anyone who was trans.” Charlie continues, “I felt like I would be alone for the rest of my life.”Government 1310 scandal has been treated by some administrators as the unfortunate exception, an isolated incident whose case has now been closed. But as academic integrity dances uncertainly through a campus whose gates and walls are engraved with a motto of truth, Veritas is at stake.Occasionally, faculty members ask students to draft a recommendation letter that they will then sign on. FM imagines one of ...Ever listen to a senior explain his or her thesis and think, there’s no way in hell you can write 70 pages about that? Use your sleuthing skills to guess which of these thesis titles could have won a Hoopes Prize, and which are simply FM’s comic gold.Photographers surrounded the stage, wielding cameras like semi-automatics. The occasional campus cop made rounds through the crowd. I was sandwiched between two strangers in the back of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. Trapped in my folding chair, I was an easy target. If the large and bulky-dressed man next to me had a gun, exit would be impossible.At Harvard, it can be difficult to tell history from myth. Archives, legends, and centuries-old student organizations all do their ...It’s tucked on the corner of Dunster and Winthrop Streets, bright and inviting. Plush couches surround a TV, and a re-run of Family Guy provides background noise for bantering guests. Round tables encourage dinnertime conversation, and computer carrels serve as pockets of privacy. The building is clean, spacious, and (most importantly) it welcomes them with open arms1. It’s not you. It’s me.Last Wednesday at the Cantab Lounge’s weekly poetry slam open mic, no one snapped and hardly anyone wore black.Kirkland House roommates Kathleen J. Koenigs ’15 and Nosipho D. “Dichaba” McGinty ’15 met across their freshman fire door. Their friendship is a testament to the fact that, though mostly utilized for eavesdropping, a thin fire door occasionally provides more than just fodder for resentment—it can be the key to finding a best friend.To my brother, I am no longer Rebecca. She left a handful of years ago (neither one of us remembers precisely when) to be replaced with Baxter: her slightly more eccentric, playful counterpart.Hargadon’s art is about provocation, not gratification. “I think art that tries to please all people ends up failing,” he says. “Some of them probably think it’s ridiculous, what I do, and that’s okay.”On February 20. British comedian and self identified executive transvestite Eddie Izzard spoke at Harvard’s Memorial Church to accept the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism presented by The HSS Cultural Humanism committee at Harvard. Dressed in his signature drag as he sits with me after the event, Izzard sips a glass of wine and cracks open pistachios with long fingernails painted a bright shade of red. A couple of designs on his nails stand out.Lawrence G. Wright has traveled all over the world, but he still speaks with a Texas twang. On Jan. 31, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author spoke at the Brattle Square Theatre about his latest book, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief.” Between several book talks and a trip to London, FM caught up with Wright over the phone to ask him about his career and the controversies surrounding his new book.FM returns to The Crimson’s archives to explore Memorial Hall’s history and to imagine the memories made there through the years.The start of our night could have come straight out of one of Non Sequitur’s “Famous Last Words” strips. The ones where the last phrases people utter before they find themselves six feet under are etched on gravestones over their heads for all eternity: “Let’s go on an adventure…”In 2013, the national debate regarding the equality of women in the workplace still rages.In 2013, the national debate regarding the equality of women in the workplace still rages.After Elizabeth Warren's hard-fought race for Senate, the most expensive in the nation's history, many supporters had high hopes for her early days in office. But after her dramatic win against incumbent Scott Brown, Warren has shied away from the limelight. In the early days of the new session of Congress, her presence in the national spotlight has faded, leaving some to speculate about possible reasons for her absence.“We have talked a bit about the vulva, which makes me kind of feel uncomfortable,” says Mason S. Hsieh ’15, chuckling with a mixture of boyish embarrassment and self-deprecation. “I don’t have one,” he continues, “but you know, it’s kind of theoretically fun.” Such is the ostensible plight of the male enrollee in Anthropology 1882: “The Woman and the Body,” a course title that likely evokes horrifying anatomical analysis and indignant feminist angst in the male mind.1:04 a.m.: It is so cold that I can’t feel my legs. Poor decision to choose the stone steps next to John Harvard, but he’s quiet company and so I sit.The night before Jean B. Gleason’s final exam in a competitive class, she could not sleep. The phone in her ...According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “woman” is defined as “an adult female human being. The counterpart of man.” (“Man,” on the other hand, is not defined as “the counterpart of woman.” Figures.) “Girl,” however, is usually meant to signify “young woman.” Technically, those are correct. But to some, their usage in the wrong context can range from being inappropriate to just plain offensive.L'Académie française, a branch of the French government, replaced hashtag with the word “mot-diese”. In response to this censoring, FM has compiled its own list of French things that should be #banned."Are you on the list?" a Bee girl asks, standing in the doorway. "This is a list party, the theme is lumber-jack-o'-lanterns. I don't see your pumpkin."I have always wanted a secret admirer. In high school my friend Millie had one. As we were assembling our ...I spent the summer before my senior year of high school walking past the same painting every day. A woman ...This Valentine’s Day, FM charts the course of true literary love—platonic and romantic—across Harvard’s campus and through the ages.The rise of college-oriented online dating sites, some students say, is symptomatic of a student population that is frustrated with the social options on campus.FM compares eggs benedict and Pope Benedict.Hey there, lovebirds! It’s Valentine’s Day, and you know what that means: Dozens of you will be having happy, romantic evenings around the Square tonight, while the rest of us will be stuck with whatever questionable casserole HUDS feels like serving. But it doesn’t have to be that way! FM is here to find you a restaurant that’s singles friendly.Harvard Law School alumna and author Susan Cain visited the Harvard Bookstore on Feb. 7 to promote her book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” Published in 2012, “Quiet” explores and questions contemporary views on introversion. FM sat down with Cain before she headed home to New York.“Be Mine.” “True Love.” “Cutie Pie.” “Fax Me.” For well over a century, lovers the world over have expressed their feelings on Valentine’s Day through red ink on a chalky pastel candy. Today, lovestruck sweet tooths consume 12 to 14 million pounds of the stuff each year.It was the night before the CS50 final project was due, and Nikhil L. Benesch ’16 was in high demand. In his first semester at Harvard, Benesch had already skipped CS50, the intro-level computer science class, and advanced to more challenging material. His freshmen friends had—predictably—come begging for help.But this unassuming countenance does little to suggest the small, single-screen movie house’s long influential history. In the 60 years since its opening, the Brattle has helped to transform local film culture, and its influence has extended across the country.Thinking about watching “Love Actually” because it’s Valentine’s Day? Don’t. Here to save you from Hugh Grant’s estrogen-churning narration and a blond Severus Snape, FM brings you prime celluloid flicks for every Valentine’s Day occasion.When you die, one of the first things the hospital gives your loved ones is a plastic bag with your belongings.Even families have hierarchies—I mean look at the Kardashians. My family hierarchy has always been clearly defined. My mom was the boss with the wallet, my brother just bossed me around, and I was the bottom of the bucket: the chump of the family. Then we got a dog.From Vietnam to New York City, the Navajo Nation to the mall, FM scattered across the globe this J-Term.I am _______________ (excited/enthralled/wetting my pants) to read about your recent internship opening. I would love to join the ____________(team/family/Goldman Sachs Company) which I have _________ (always wanted to work for/just googled right now).Marion. My life, my lust. Ma-ri-on: the sound of each syllable contorting everything from lips to throat to, on three, turn the mouth into a Cheerio. Ma. Rrgghrri. On.Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress” disappeared spring semester of 2013 at its home of courses.cs50.net. It is three years old.Harvard rang in the new semester last Thursday with its fourth annual “Harvard Thinks Big,” an event that featured six different Harvard professors, as well as a student, giving 10-minute speeches. FM recently acquired a list of speeches that didn’t make the cut.Harvard’s history is fraught with piles of letters, many simply addressed to “Harvard University, Harvard, USA” with questions about math problems, requests for degrees, and even suggestions for world peace.If you’re tired of spending night after night at a Grafton Group Restaurant or sick of wandering up and down Mt Auburn St searching for a party, look no further. The Sinclair, a new concert venue and restaurant located at 52 Church St., has opened to the Square.6:35 p.m. An old man sits and hums to himself in the Pit by the Harvard T-stop. Resting on his ...Woven throughout his speech, Obama referenced great prose of the American past. “My fellow Americans”: He quoted John F. Kennedy. “We the people”: He harkened back to the American Constitution. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” reminded his listeners of this country’s Declaration of Independence.It’s day 29 of being home for winter break, and I am starting to get a taste of what it’s going to take to become a real woman living in the real world. I have high hopes of eventually being employed someday. If it happens, it will be magical.Three times a week Charley M. Falletta ’16 beats the sunrise awake. Physical training at 6:30 a.m., an early-morning military science class, a weekly leadership lab: These commitments frame the rhythm of Falletta’s weeks here at Harvard.There is something both timeless and eerily beautiful about arches in Safavid architecture. The elegant ogees appear in both two ...I am the whitest kid I know. From the pale skin, to the boat shoes, to the taste for pop ...The land here in the Navajo Nation seems to stretch infinitely under a weightless sky: orange cliffs, vistas spotted under snow, and in the middle of it all, the occasional home.The place does not have the glamorous, intricate interior one might expect from a European café. Rather, it features a scuffed linoleum floor, photographs of meal combos hung along the walls, and metal-topped bars that stretch the length of the narrow eatery.The only beverage available in chemo is ginger ale, and it is diet.In the mountains behind the football stadium in Berkeley, Calif. lies a narrow dirt path that the students call Fire Trails.During my first semester of college, I constantly talked about New York. I told everyone who would listen about my favorite Indian restaurant, about the Astroturf field behind my high school where we ate lunch (even on twenty degree days), about the East Village community garden where I wiled away hot summer afternoons.Spending J Term at home in a Marriott.Vans, motorbikes and unusually large rats sped through the four-lane highway in Halong Bay.Following ancient Vietnamese culture, I spent my New Years at the Zoo in Ho Chi Min City listening to top 40 songs.The man at CVS slid a yellow cardboard envelope across the counter. “Here are your photos. That’ll be $6.51.”Many Americans probably don’t know this, but the Philippines starts celebrating Christmas in September.On December 25 at 11:56 p.m., I realize that it’s our last Christmas in this house.FM presents this year's 15 seniors to meet before graduation (or the apocalypse).Yip insists that almost all his accomplishments are “no big deal,” but his friends will tell you that it’s exactly people like him who define the Harvard community.When she arrived at Harvard, Ye was still hooked on local politics.Phillip Z. Yao ’13 has built a library that may reach over two million students.It is impossible to confine Nina M. Yancy to a single label. Perhaps this is because she came from a small community outside Dallas, Texas, and a high school class of only 21. Or, more likely, it is because Yancy does it all.The Nostalgics’ lively performances quickly made them a popular choice for House formals, and a Battle of the Bands win last year brought them to the stage at Yardfest.From the beginning, she anticipates the awkward politeness of the interview with the kind of friendliness that might come across either as youthful sincerity or self-conscious self-consciousness, depending on how cynical you are; but you can tell that when you’re talking, her attention is completely on you.“At the end of the day, when you remember that last play, you want to be able to say that you enjoyed the last down that you played,” Scales says.“The word that comes to mind when I think of Abby Sun is 'fierce,'” says Sarah A. Rankin.Even in a crowded cafe on a Friday afternoon, Mark R. Parker ’12-’13 stands out with his pea coat, perfectly coiffed red hair, and composed demeanor. This—being different—is Parker’s trademark.Like many children, Carolina I. Ragolta ’13 wanted to be an astronaut.“The whole idea is to create a generation of socially responsible citizens who always care and who are always thinking, ‘What can I do for my country?’” says Dalumuzi H. Mhlanga as he describes Lead Us Today, the non-profit he started in Zimbabwe the summer after freshman year.Adam B. Kern stands in front of a classroom of inmates at the Suffolk County House of Correction, presenting five aspects of David Hume’s argument on the existence of free will.“I’ve become this comic book character that I’ve been drawing. That’s what those photos are right behind you. That’s me in character,” says Kayla A. Escobedo ’13.When John L. Ezekowitz ’13 received a call from an area code he’d never seen during the middle of his econometrics class sophomore year, he felt it might be important, so he stepped out to take the call.During her freshman spring, Dara received a call from Sports Illustrated asking her to be their cover model and—to vocal support, especially from the Indian media—the first South Asian model ever featured in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.On a cold Wednesday afternoon, FM sat down in Harvard’s Center for the Environment with internationally renowned documentary filmmaker Ken L. Burns, who was visiting Harvard to promote his new film, “The Dust Bowl,” a historical account of the ecological disasters of the 1930s.This week, FM searched Harvard’s halls for a story from the lives of the men and women who make the university run smoothly from day to day. Fabiano, a security guard, has been employed by Securitas for 10 years. FM simply asked him to tell a story.It’s that time of year again. The Christmas lights are up, the red and green sweaters are out, and stores everywhere are throwing year-end sales. Haven’t you bought your gifts yet? No need to fret. FM’s got you covered.With both the holidays and finals approaching, FM is combining our traditional Jukebox and Drinky Drink features into a tasty Juice Box. Pour yourself a drink to help you get through your projects, papers, and predicaments while still getting into the holiday spirit—no straw required.Listen, college girl, the formal is on Saturday. The world is 50 percent men, 50 percent women. I’ll probably only meet a small portion of that number, but since you and I have a class together, we’re going to date because that’s how this world works.It’s an Australian thing, I told whoever proudly. It’s a habit that you learn from chilly beach days when you feel the wind grow chiller, and you can see the days grow shorter, and when you know, you just know, this means that Summer’s ending so you’ll all be back at school soon, and all those Summer Dreams you dreamed all year are never coming true, or not this time around at least.Aron Zingman and Jackie E. Stenson, co-tutors in Cabot House, have been dating for the last two and a half years. Last summer, they took a two and a half-week motorcycle road trip together, traversing Scandinavia’s harsh terrain.Harvard has been getting angry about food lately.3,066. That’s the number of students—85 percent of those who voted in the latest UC election—who agreed with the UC referendum asserting that Harvard should reexamine its sexual assault practices and policies.They say you always remember your first time.With another hot flick about clouds hitting the big screen this fall, FM took the opportunity to cast a critical eye on clouds featured in the new motion picture “Cloud Atlas.”It’s not easy to admit it when you’re wrong. It’s not easy to do one armed pull ups.Over a year later, members of Occupy Harvard continue to engage in activism inspired by the movement, and reflect on its legacy on campus.Alina I. Lazar's story is in some ways circular—it begins and ends with books—but spliced in between are 12 years of a path that privileged on-the-ground action over words on a page.I had my first taste of gambling when I was probably eight or nine years old, when I went to ...When I first heard about Snapchat, one thought came to mind: dick pics.The following is the story, as told to me, of how Joshua fell in love with, and ultimately proposed to, his wife Anna E. Lumelsky ’00 over a series of dates at the café.For those who fear immortalized images, Snapchat is the perfect app.It’s been a day, Mr. President, but you have yet to fulfill any of your so-called “campaign promises.”FM sends the weekend at Sigma Chi and in cages in Winthrop Dining Hall. The Harvard social scene has never felt so...classy.Dear Applicant, I sincerely regret to inform you that we cannot, at this time, offer you admittance to Stoughton Hall 211’s futon for the night preceding the Harvard-Yale football game.I no longer know what to believe in. One day, glorious winter is upon us, sheathing us in a cold white burrito wrap and masking the falseness that lies beneath in the austere perfection of thinglessness. Rarely has my heart been as thrilled as when I saw the world reduced to this.“You seem so serious all the time. We think it will be good for you,” my father said, belying the disarming earnestness that was and still is the defining trademark of my parents’ parenting style. (Years later, my father was more frank: “We thought it would be good for your social skills.”)November is the cruelest month, breeding
Yalies out of the far-flung dung, mixing
Bulldogs and good Pilgrims, stirring
False hope with the smell of ambition.Birth Me Baby One More Time: Emerging From The WombLast week, Harvard PhD candidate Viridiana Rios and the Kennedy school’s Michele Coscia, a post-doc fellow at the Center for International Development, unveiled a new program that sorts through Google news results to track the movement of drug cartels in Mexico.The first few games are uneventful; rules are learned and mistakes made. But soon things start to change.With the academic energy on campus at its second-round-of-midterms high, a stroll around the Square can be comforting—if you can avoid bumping into tour guides donning eighteenth century garb and don’t mind waiting 20 minutes to drop $6 on Starbucks drip coffee.The air was dry. Not a sticky heat, the type that made droplets of sweat spring up across your arms; this was different, worse, stagnant, exhausting. It was the sort of weather that stuck in your throat, left you grabbing and spitting at the team’s green Gatorade water bottles by half time. This was Saint Helena. Wine country.One time I knew what life was for, in Cambridge along the Charles.“My faith is not ashamed of me. The God I understand is not ashamed of me. Or the people that I work with. I don’t think that there are more gut-real stronger people than the ones you meet on the street. They sure know how to survive the un-survivable.”Both: Sometimes done with a group, Product comes from within...Mark Zuckerberg: The Game? Wait, you’re not talking about FarmVille? Oh, right. That game, Harvard-Yale.How can you tell if someone identifies as BGLTQ? You can't.Andrew Warren, Assistant Professor of English, has taught English 90we: “David Foster Wallace and Environs,” a class that plays special...Standing at the intersection of Boylston St. and Mass. Ave. I realized that I was infinitely lost. Originally, I had...“Let’s go somewhere,” said B., one of my best friends, after showing up in my room in Hollis. We were ...Between clapping hands and sing-song renditions of new vocabulary words, my teacher told us that pole meant sorry. “You’ll want to remember this one,” she advised.On a warm night in October of 1957, history professor Charles S. Maier ’60 left his dorm room to stand on Weeks Footbridge and stare at the sky.Timothy P. McCarthy ’93 has, maybe, four people he’s obsessed with at the moment. One of them is Nate Silver.Nestled under thick blankets, I can feel the cold air of our apartment on my nose. We like rules, and...Daughter: Can we leave? I feel like I’m inside a J. Crew catalogue. Why is that guy wearing a bow tie?Benjamin L. DeVore ’15 wants to donate blood. He is young, healthy, and with a recent nationwide drop in donations, his blood could save lives. There’s only one problem: He is a gay man.As I swing open the door to the Barker Center, Dale R. Riley flashes a smile of recognition and pulls out a bundle of budding yellow roses from behind his back.Cambridge has been a home since 1630. As centuries have passed, countless stories have marked the city, and its streets have come to house our (and your) secrets. Now it’s our home, and FM wandered through Cambridge’s squares, into its stores, out of its boundaries, across its river. Here we share our stories. Like those of our fellow Cantabs, our tales are ephemeral, but the living streets of Cambridge have a steady rhythm that we tried to find.FM is here to find (or construct) meaning for the conventions of these destabilizing times.With the questionable wisdom of strangers in mind, FM would like to take a moment to highlight a few of Yelp’s rising star(rer)s.Depressed about your love life? Here are 10 pictures of happy couples. Being single never felt so…Sierra.Stand up straight. Tilt your head. Smile a bit more. Pose with a fat friend. Wear sunglasses.Platonic no more. According to a recent study published in Scientific American, we’re hot for our friends.How much does a House at Harvard cost? The Hutchins Family Foundation recently donated $30 million to support the Harvard House Renewal and other academic programs.From the backseat of a cab traversing a Sandy-stricken New York City, Obie Award-winning composer and lyricist J. Michael Friedman ’97 picks up the phone to dial Fifteen Minutes.After competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Alex M. Meyer ’10 has come full circle (made a complete lap?) in his swimming career, returning to Harvard to train with and coach for the men’s swimming and diving team.I snap a fifth tongue depressor against my inside jaw, giving it a wet chew before lobbing it into the trashcan a foot and a half away.Lyndsey B. Fry ’14 and Michelle L. Picard ’15 have been playing hockey for most of their lives—and this November, they’ll be playing together for the U.S. National Women’s team at the Four Nations Cup in Finland.I took a perverse joy in making my friends’ parents uncomfortable, explaining in more detail than they wanted how my job had me cleaning up fake body fluids and fetching dildos from the storeroom whenever they asked about my “interesting” work.What do Swing States and Swingers have in common? More than you'd think.The excitement in the air was palpable: “There’s just nothing like it on this scale,” said Allston resident Bryan Monroe.FM sits down with someone who uses Google searches to predict election results."I can tell you that neither of their [economic] proposals has any hope of ever having any impact on America."“I take offense to that question,” she says. “I don’t think of it as them at our protests. I think of it as us at their protests.”My first year, he was the guy I was competing with. I was competing with him, but I was also learning a lot from him.Tired of analyzing poll after poll? Sick of combing your inbox for the latest IOP spam emails?FM firmly believes that every task, even the weighty one of exercising your citizenlyrights by voting in the presidential election, is improved with auditory accompaniment.In November 2000, Richard M.J. Maopolski ’14 watched mesmerized as candidate George W. Bush battled his way to the White House. Maolpolski was hooked. From then on, campaigns and politics fascinated him. As television clips showed the president stand amidst the rubble of the Twin Towers on September 11, Maopolski’s own politics were cemented. From 2001, he supported President Bush.David N. Damrosch, Department Chair of Comparative Literature, joined Harvard’s faculty three years ago. Soon after arriving, he purchased this home on a quiet street behind the Graduate School of Design.Dear “Dear Readers” Readers, I have a confession to make.Law School professor Charles J. Ogletree first befriended President Barack Obama while he was a student at Harvard Law School in the late eighties. Ogletree spoke with FM last week about the president’s time at Harvard, the impending election, and Harvard’s place in the presidency.Congressman Barney Frank ’61-’62 has represented Massachusetts’ Fourth Congressional District for more than 30 years. Last fall, he announced that he would not be running for re-election. Frank spoke with FM last week about Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate race, where Congress is headed, and what’s at stake on Nov. 6.Last Monday night, students across campus watched Bob Schieffer question Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on their respective foreign policy agendas.To be at the center of a movement, to work in constant collaboration with a community of people who believe in one goal, with one election in mind—it is this larger purpose of the campaign that drives these students.Ian A. Frazier ’73 has always had a knack for humor. Now a writer for The New Yorker, he has multiple publications under his belt: essay collections, humor books, nonfiction pieces. His latest novel, “The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days”, brought Frazier back to Cambridge last week for a talk at the Harvard Book Store. Fifteen Minutes sat down with him to talk about childhood pranks, finding a voice, and his time at a porn magazine.Eventually begin school work sometime after midnight. Convince yourself that you are a night owl: “This is when I get my best work done."Scared of rejection? Don’t want to spend another faculty dinner spooning stolen dhall cereal into your mouth alone in your dorm room? Don’t worry, FM’s got your back with a few foolproof proposals to guarantee your professor won’t say “no” or “who are you?”Happy Halloween, 11.5 months belated."I think the gay male population is much more visible than the lesbian community, and I don’t know why that is. It’s something I’ve always thought about, but I’m just not sure...I don’t think it’s something Harvard talks about a lot."Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (known affectionately as “Bibi”) went for a direct hit in a speech at the United Nations last month when he sternly advocated for a “red line” to be drawn on Iran’s nuclear program: a point after which the program would no longer be tolerated.Naturally, then, it came as quite a blow when I realized that I wasn’t a good driver. Okay, perhaps that’s kind. I was a terrible driver, Godawful in fact.Ah, Halloween, the magical time when every cheap creative costume idea you’ve brainstormed in the last year goes out the window and you end up as some sort of sexy baby animal. Lucky for you, FM’s here to make sure your budget’s no excuse for being the seventh person to show up to the costume party in cat ears, a tail, and not much else.Now that days of trick-or-treating have passed, a new metric for a successful Halloween is emerging: the superlative costume. In anticipation of the many nights of dressing up ahead, FM brought together six students for the ultimate Halloween costume contest.From the Belltower of Pfoho to the labyrinths of Mather, there are tons of escapades waiting for you (and a partner). When you’re ready for the big leagues, take this quiz to determine your next Harvard sex spot.“So…what exactly is going on right now?” I ask the man standing to my right, my Internet-encyclopedia knowledge of the sport having failed me. Cricket, I’ve realized, is a complicated game.In 15 years you are: trying to reclaim the soul I lost to the corporate world. Kidding. Not kidding.Don’t ask me why or how, but until I became acquainted with spell-check at the age of 16, I misspelled “very” every time.He repeats it slowly and again fumbles the first syllable, his tongue rising not quite high enough to form the right vowel: “Poo-ber-ty.”Thanks again, Nobel committee. Oh, and if you could be a doll and wire the prize money directly to Spain, that’d be great.Both encourage regular testing.It’s Friday night. You want to see your crush, but what do those winky faces and unanswered texts mean?Looks like Sex Week isn’t the only Harvard event that’s coming soon.“It’s like a paycheck-to-paycheck sort of process,” says Sasanka N. Jinadasa ’15 as she sits in Lowell dining hall.When I first see my grandfather outside of the Würzburg train station, I don’t recognize him.It all just feels a bit… I don’t know… derivative? I mean, he’s no Mark Chiusano.Rushdie, dapper in his dark grey suit, spoke about his recently published work: “Joseph Anton: A Memoir,” and the experience of living under a fatwa.Sims: They’re just like us.We were laughing so hard my parents thought we were drunk—which given that it was 6:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, would not be unheard of.Stephen Zedros picks and chooses stem after stem, sweeping extra foliage away in a brush of the hand, placing each bright flower carefully into its arrangement. Pincushion proteas, gerberas, dahlias, cherry brandy roses, and finally, thin branches of hypericon berry, seem to have grown into the vases spontaneously, beautiful.“…The mercenary process of producing and distributing obscene literature is immoral and noxious, is an offense against civilized society, is ...Steven Johnson is one of the most influential popular science thinkers of our time. The author of eight books, including “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter” and “Where Good Ideas Come From,” and co-founder of three websites, Johnson talked to FM about hunches, heroes, and the human experience in an urbanizing world.People say there’s no place like Harvard Square.As summer’s warmth is replaced by fall showers and stiff breezes, all but the most dedicated students have abandoned Harvard’s outdoor spaces in favor of hot cider and common rooms.You could call it a match made in heaven, if either of them believed in such a place. At her ...My girlfriend is writing a novel at night. It’s her thesis. It’s more than that, too, but that probably goes ...When I get outa here, first thing I wanna do is take a drive up those mountains over there so I can take a look at where I’ve been looking from.The sillies are uncontrollable. No matter the trigger, they induce tearful fits of laughter lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to over an hour.At the beginning of this academic year, every Harvard freshman received a flyer under his door inviting him to participate in the planning of this year’s “Sex Week.”“I think it’d be easy. I don’t think it’d be hard at all to lose my virginity to someone.”I’d stay home and babysit my sister while mother would go off and sweat on sad middle-aged men who weren’t my father. The sweat would bead like rain drops on a car window.As an experienced two-time high school debater (Death penalty? I think not!), I can speak on behalf of everyone when I say that arguing gets you nowhere.Like so many birds of paradise, Boston’s pretty young things and cultured grand dames flocked to the Institute of Contemporary Art for its First Fridays: Fashion Forward event.Midterms and midriffs: Wish you could switch bodies to score well.Mister Chairperson, Distinguished Time Keeper, and Members of the Opposition: Our nation—nay, our world—has been suffering from a lack of disagreement.If you haven’t been to Inman Square, you are doing yourself a disservice. It’s full of funk, ‘tude, and black truffle salt.“This is not to be construed as MIT Lite or Harvard Lite,” Reif says; whether or not these edX programs will live up to the hype, however, has yet to be seen.Inspired by San Francisco Magazine, FM set out to find some of the most stylish students on campus.Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, a former fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, has transformed the Kazakh language version of Wikipedia from a site with just four active editors and 7,000 articles to a thriving community of 250 editors monitoring 170,000 entries. Next up for Kenzhekhanuly’s Kazakhstan-based WikiBilim Foundation: Kazakh Google Translate. FM rung up Kazakhstan on Skype to talk about post-Soviet pride, Internet trolls, and whether Harvard profs ought to consider Wikipedia a ...“Gentlemen, even if one allows that he is an important writer, are we next to invite an elephant to be Professor of Zoology?”Rain was good for Oxford. The endless grassy quads were at their most verdant, and students packed the local pubs to warm their fingers around mugs of hot mulled wine. When the sun came out one mid-afternoon, the wet paving stones glistened. Perfect English weather, I thought with relish when I stepped off the train and into the damp air.Over summer I ate things I fished myself and drank water I drew up from a well. I did drawings in a sketchbook that nobody saw. I talked to a dog. I spent whole days having sex with the curtains drawn. I painted my grandmother’s toenails.This week in last week’s weather, prose about the weather from last week, read to the tune of a Radiohead song.Generations of yore could look to carpe diem and Bach for inspration, today’s youths turn to #YOLO and boybands. Continually reinventing revered traditions, One Direction and Generation Y have done it again with “Live While We’re Young.” In the music video, a troupe of artists enact the classic bildungsroman, or coming of age story, in not one, but many, directions. A cinematic masterpiece, it fills a gaping hole in the boys-at-play niche of the music video industry.Dear Undergraduate Council,Babies, Mitt Romney, and So Many TouristsIt’s that time of year again; our seasonal friend, the pumpkin, has returned in sugary form.Affliction: Last semester I overdosed on German writers.Two weeks before moving, I learned that the “inventor” of the yo-yo, Louis Marx, had lived a few blocks away from my then home.Reverend Jonathan L. Walton, Pusey Minister in Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, sits in his crimson-walled office, wearing a black suit and royal purple shirt. Walton was appointed in April 2012 to the position previously held by the late Reverend Peter J. Gomes. Tributes to his sports fanaticism decorate his office: A basketball signed by Tommy Amaker sits atop one of the bookshelves. FM munched on some peanut M&M’s with Walton, and talked about Memorial Church air ...“That Place Next To Daedalus” died August, 2012 in its home on Mt. Auburn St. It was four years old.To everything there is a season.This week in last week’s weather, we talk about the weather from last week: A real meteorologist predicted that this week’s weather would be “mostly pleasant.”For those of you whose social lives are under threat from The Man, we present a playlist featuring artists who share your pain.Zadie Smith, author of “White Teeth” and “On Beauty,” visited the Cambridge Public Library last week to read from her new book, “NW.”In honor of the iPhone 5, enjoy these drinks inspired by the company that monopolizes your technological needs.Harvard was missing something. Surrounded by peers at the annual Latino Ivy League Conference in Ithaca last November, Daniel J. Artiga ’15 came to this realization: As students active in the Latino community described the resources provided on their respective campuses, he had little to add.I am too cool for Tumblr. Even so, it’s hard to resist the impulse to collect all the awesome stuff I come across in my Internet perambulations.In order to avoid early-morning hatred for friends, blockmates, and not-so-innocent bystanders, you should first identify the type of riser with whom you are interacting and proceed to practic proper morning etiquette accordingly.This week, FM emailed professors to find out which artistic work in their field they think most shaped history.On the highway later, I looked down at the odometer: 85 m.p.h. It didn’t feel all that fast. It was the landscape’s lack of landmarks.Simpson was convinced that he was looking at the most blatant plagiarism he had ever seen.The inspirational quote? Yes, Gandhi is amazing. Yes, there is some providence in the fall of a sparrow. And yes, it is, in fact, tomorrow in Australia.In light of the recent Hasty Pudding merger, FM proposes a few future pairings.Rachel A. Brown ’10 recently released her first EP, “Building Castles.”I punched my sister in the face. I was about six years old, old enough to know better, but in my defense she was old enough to have learned to block. I promise the tooth that ended up falling out of her mouth was a baby tooth. I remember blood. I don’t think I’ve punched anyone since.And yet, we still go back to Wellington, where we leave a broken silence, our broken silence, atop the swings, our swings. |