Recently, I was challenged by a friend to defend my conviction that our friendship would last beyond college. That she should seriously question my strongly-held conviction was almost unbelievable to me, which unbelief I’m sure I conveyed in my ensuing profusion of emotional and only quasi-logical explanations. But my exasperated response was apparently insufficient for...
An ode to Ramen
When I was 7, I dreamed of becoming the next Rachel Ray. Dutifully watching the Cooking Channel every time I visited my grandmother (who had cable television), I imagined myself one day in the distant future, skillfully combining ingredients and producing swoon-worthy flavors à la Gordon Ramsay. Until then, I could make Ramen. At 7,...
‘Safe spaces’ crowd out free discourse
The primary beneficiaries of free speech are shouting it down. Students benefit most from free discourse, their education itself dependent on the reasonable exchange of ideas. Students are protesting on university campuses across the nation, shrieking about “safe spaces.” They claim a right to retreat into a place (be it physical, ideological, social) where they...
Punk rock’s poet laureate celebrates release of new memoir
Patti Smith is where literary transcendence, nineteenth century French poetry, and experimental three-chord rock intercept. In 1975, Patti Smith took her spoken word poetry and combined it with ear-shattering guitar licks and visceral performances, bringing the high arts to the lowest of venues and destroying amplifiers—screaming about Arthur Rimbaud, making allusions to William Blake, and...
Native American skull uncovered in Hillsdale County
Matt Shaffer of Hudson, Michigan said he “didn’t think much of it” when excavators on his property Nov. 19 asked him if he’d ever found bones on his land. Shaffer said he uncovered cattle remains three months ago, but as workers digging a pond on Shaffer’s land continued their job, they came across something else....