Bradford Cox has always reminded me of Bean, that tiny, brainy kid from Orson Scott Card’s _Ender’s Game_ book series. For the non-nerds among you, Bean is the smartest, and smallest, of a group of preadolescents who are trying to … Read More
The Date “I guess I just don’t know how to deal with loss.” “No, yeah, me neither.” My date had been crying for most of dinner, and I was kind of getting sick of it. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. … Read More
“Have you had a spiritual experience? Out-of-body or near death experience? A flash of blue light or an inner sound? A sense you’ve lived before?” If you browsed through The Daily Princetonian last week, you may have noticed this advertisement … Read More
The Church of Scientology New York stands right in the center of New York’s Theatre District on West 46th Street. The building blends into the glitzy fare, as loud in its own right as its neighbors—such mainstays of the famously … Read More
Philadelphia, PA It’s the middle of the night in a packed venue in downtown Philly. With one high-heeled foot on the piano bench and another on the piano itself, Lady Gaga puts her hand on her heart and rasps into … Read More
At 10:55 p.m. on a Sunday night, I am obsessively checking my Facebook. After clearing my notification (singular notification, because it has only been about ten minutes since I last checked it. Okay, it’s been two minutes. Judge me.) and … Read More
Eminem, for all his lyrical violence—threatened and skillful (i.e. killin’ y’all fools on this lyrical shit)—is not a bully. He is the bullied, the victim. He is the wee scrawny white kid from a predominantly black part of Detroit, rescued … Read More
The drug policies of the United States are horrifically backwards. They promote the incarceration of people guilty of soft drug possession, people who likely pose no threat to themselves or others. They cost countless billions of dollars each year as … Read More
In my house there is a library. It used to be called the playroom, back when I was very small and very young and learned what _Don Quixote_ was by watching the _Wishbone_ episode. It was a library then, too, … Read More