Monthly Archives: November 2011

Why Girls Shouldn’t Need a “Gay Best Friend,” part 2

November 28, 2011
By

Author’s Note: The posts in this series are written with the straight female as the intended audience. Obviously these posts will be pretty applicable to everyone in one way or another, but when I say “you,” I’m talking to the straight ladies to whom the “gay best friend” stereotype caters. When I first heard of the growing “gay best friend” stereotype, it was shortly after I had settled into my college life and made a bunch of new friends. At that point, none of my close male friends were even gay; all were either straight or bisexual. However, the idea of a girl having, essentially, a “sexually non-threatening best friend” who she could talk to about drama struck me as surprisingly relevant. It immediately made me think of one close friend who was happily engaged, and not even remotely...

Read more »

Read more in Intersections

Victory Soup: Monday Morning Faith in Humanity Restoration

November 28, 2011
By
Victory Soup: Monday Morning Faith in Humanity Restoration

Here’s a story that ran in Saturday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer about a guy named Tom Monroe – people like this need more recognition: Army vet Tom Monroe sends books to troops because ‘It’s the right thing to do’ This guy has sent tens of thousands of books to troops overseas using his own retirement money.  Just bunches of random paperbacks that he picks up from various places.   He doesn’t do it for any reward or tax break or discernible self-interested reason, except that it’s a good thing to do, and because he never had anything to read when he served overseas. A lot of the time we assume that service has to be done through some sort of formal organization or program, and we forget that some of the most worthwhile projects out there are small, self-started, and...

Read more »

Read more in Blogs, Victory Soup: Adventures in Modern America

All I Want for Christmas is…. A Book Club?

November 27, 2011
By

Reading is something that I have always been passionate about, so it makes sense that books are always on my Christmas list. When I was in 5th grade, my mom got me Treasure Island and Little Women. Since then, I have made it through most of the “classics”– you know the books that educated and cultured individuals should read. Over the past few years, I have found myself wanting more– more culture, more diverse perspectives, more than just 19th Century England (it’s funny how we idealize certain parts of the past through literature).

Read more »

Read more in (Fresh)ence, Art Beat

Analysis: Issue 48, Sick Transit Glory, and the Great Train Debate

November 27, 2011
By
Analysis: Issue 48, Sick Transit Glory, and the Great Train Debate

In the excitement over the defeat of Issue 2 and the passage of Issue 3 there hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to some of the smaller city-and-county-level measures that were on the ballot this year – some of which were actually kind of important.  I want to focus on a particularly interesting election-day result – namely the defeat of Cincinnati’s anti-streetcar local Issue 48, which will probably leave a definite mark on the way downtown Cincinnati looks for years to come. Let’s break it down and delve a little bit into why passenger rail debates tend to be so divisive. By a 52-48 margin, Cincinnati voters defeated Issue 48, which would have put a ten-year stop on the construction of the city’s proposed streetcar system.  On top of this, Cincinnati voters also booted four Republican councilmembers (Chris...

Read more »

Read more in Blogs, Politics, Victory Soup: Adventures in Modern America

Changing the Tone of Debate in the U.S.

November 27, 2011
By
Changing the Tone of Debate in the U.S.

What are the two things that they always say not to talk about on a first date? Religion and politics, right? While I’d say this is really bad advice (generally speaking), it does raise a particular question: why is it that religion and politics are such contentious issues in our society? Why is it that, especially when talking politics, we tend to devolve into shit-flinging chimpanzees? I don’t actually have an answer to that question, other than to say that it doesn’t have to be that way. Many immigrants and foreigners with whom I have talked about this issue are simply in awe of the state of political discourse in this country.

Read more »

Read more in Politics

Katehi in Context: Demanding the UC Davis Chancellor’s Resignation

November 26, 2011
By

In the aftermath of the Nov. 18 UC Davis pepper spray incident, in which about a dozen nonviolent protesters were sprayed by police, one of the first rallying cries was a call for the campus chancellor’s resignation.

Read more »

Read more in The ___ Generation

Thanksgiving: Acknowledging Privilege

November 25, 2011
By
Thanksgiving: Acknowledging Privilege

Ever since I was a little kid, my family has always celebrated Thanksgiving with a big meal, in a warm house, with people we love.  Near the end of the meal, my mom has always asked us what we’re thankful for.  When I was younger, I always said the same sorts of things: health, happiness, family and friends. But, since I’ve entered the university and begun to gain a critical education, I’ve realized that I have much more to be thankful for.  I want to use the occasion of Thanksgiving to discuss my privilege. Have you ever noticed that plenty of folks have no trouble acknowledging how “lucky” they are? As in: “I’m really lucky to be able to attend college.”  Or, “I’m so lucky that my parents bought me a car.”  It’s important not to view our situation’s...

Read more »

Read more in Blogs, Intersections, The Daily Truth

Tunes: Pavement

November 25, 2011
By
pavement-watery

Yeah…… So Pavement are like my favorite band n’ shit.  And this EP is like, totally rad.  Also it totally has a picture of a turkey on it, and it’s like totally thanksgiving n’ shit. Pavement have sort of shaped my views about music criticism as well.  In the ’90′s critics loved them, gave them all sorts of superlatives and talked about how great they were and all that.  But, over the years, as I listened to more and more Pavement, (they have like 5 LP’s, lots of EP’s, and hundreds of B-sides) I didn’t feel like critics were able to capture the feeling of their music with the words of their sentences. I started to realize that writing music reviews sort of defeats the purpose of music in the first place.  Good music expresses something that cannot be...

Read more »

Read more in Blogs, The Daily Truth

Mic Check! Ohio State Takes Occupy Protest Tactic

November 25, 2011
By
Mic Check! Ohio State Takes Occupy Protest Tactic

Ohio State student activists took a page out of the Occupy playbook when they “mic checked” a panel discussion on shale drilling hosted by the the Subsurface Energy Research Center (SERC) at the Ohio Union on November 18th. The panel, which was made up of several industry experts, a state official and an environmental advocate, was intended to provide information on the oil and gas industry’s new, and extensive, horizontal hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) initiatives in Ohio. Approximately 10 minutes into the event, over thirty-five students from OSU and around the state interrupted state geologist Larry Wickstrom to deliver a message of their own to an audience of students, faculty, and industry professionals. Here is what they had to say (transcript below):   Around the nation, activists are hijacking public forums to spread their message.  The mic check tactic grew out...

Read more »

Read more in Earth Tones, The ___ Generation, Uncategorized

Black Friday – Clothing Raid

November 25, 2011
By
Black Friday – Clothing Raid

I have too many clothes. I mean, I am feeling guilty because I have bought into the idea that a person needs more clothes than some people will ever see in their entire lifetimes. Here is a pile of clothing I own and never wear. I donated all of it. So that was also a picture of a pile of donations. Rationally: there is no need to buy tons of clothes, to never wear (or almost never wear) a lot of those clothes, and then to hoard them for yourself anyway. But rationality does not always resonate with me, because I am a 21st century consumer. Let me put some heart into this… Here are the less cut-and-dried reasons why I donated:

Read more »

Read more in Intersections, Un-education