Last night there was an enormous raccoon prowling through the dumpsters in Wilson. The girl I was walking with recoiled, but I was sympathetic—ever since I joined the free food listserv I often feel like a nocturnal creature rummaging through … Read More
Rarely is one so revised by experience, which like a river washes away the calcified sand of the soul to describe itself there anew. Rare, too, is the ability to recognize this revision. School had just ended, its shoulder-weight just … Read More
Now that fall has arrived, FOX news is wetting itself over the official kick-off of the 2012 campaign season and the sudden flood of the media with Republican debates. While there are many outstanding candidates, and while each has something … Read More
Book of Mormon—the Broadway musical from the creators of South Park—opened to incredible reviews, won nine Tonys, and is so popular these days that its website suggests you should start looking for tickets for February 2012. Scalped tickets for shows … Read More
Over the last few months, whenever I told people where I was going to college, I would more often than not encounter an uncomfortable situation. While never unimpressed, my acquaintances would frequently feel the need to recognize the esteem of … Read More
A Haunting (Woman, Body) His death came first as an aching in her molars, then a numbness in her sinuses, then, finally, a filling up of her dreams with something warm and sharp and spit-pink. A room full of flowers, … Read More
We find imagination be the only defense against these leaves, fast cluttering my desk with pages I do not recognize— what beckons me to sleep and dream the silverfish that haunts my basement or looks the sounds of a smile? … Read More
One of my primary goals on my family trip to China just before school started this year was to get some cool art for my room. Walking down the aisles of the antique market in Beijing, I had a feeling … Read More
Saying goodbye to the dirtiest of my dirty pleasures hasn’t been easy. Especially since I am a relatively clean (and some would say highly self-disciplined) person. And so my recent farewell to Entourage, HBO’s eight-season series on the glories of … Read More
William Shakespeare once wrote, “A fart by any other name would smell as stanky.” And it does: See toot, or passed gas, or broken wind, or cut cheese. Each euphemism refers to the same thing, and that thing is the … Read More
Random, impromptu pop music blares from the sound system as the 2015 Clash of the Colleges commences: an unnamed administrator with a mic attempts to pump up a crowd of dazed freshmen; above, President Tilghman and co. look on as … Read More